The roguelike deckbuilder genre has seen countless iterations since Slay the Spire established the modern blueprint, but very few have attempted to marinate that high-stakes formula in the cozy, low-stress warmth of a culinary simulator. Enter Beastro, the highly anticipated 2026 release from Timberline Studio and Kepler Ghost. It successfully answers a bizarre but brilliant design question: what if your combat deck was entirely determined by what you ate for dinner? By replacing traditional loot drops with farmable vegetables and replacing blacksmiths with a sizzling frying pan, Beastro carves out a wildly original niche in a crowded market.
Set in the idyllic, beautifully animated artisan village of Palo Pori, Beastro casts you as Panko. Panko is a young, exceptionally talented chef who is suddenly thrust into the daunting role of head chef after their master mysteriously vanishes without a trace. With the protective walls of the village increasingly threatened by ravenous, shadowy monsters, the fate of the world literally rests on your cutting board. Aided by Flambe, a magical fire spirit who casually lounges in your oven to provide magical heat, you must manage the local eatery, farm your own resources, and most importantly, feed the Caretakers. These Caretakers are brave, eccentric adventurers sent out into the wilds to save the world. It is a game where swords are traded for spoons, and preserving global peace requires mastering trick-taking card mechanics.
Beastro Walkthrough: Mastering the Daily Loop
To survive the escalating threats beyond Palo Pori, you need to master Beastro's unique three-phase daily loop. The game borrows heavily from the Dave the Diver school of pacing, neatly dividing your responsibilities between daytime gathering, afternoon service, and nighttime combat.
Morning: Town-to-Table Gathering Every successful run in Beastro begins in the dirt. Your morning phase is dedicated to meticulous resource management and agricultural planning. You will explore the lush village outskirts to forage for wild herbs, care for your quirky livestock to secure daily yields of milk and eggs, and harvest crops from your ever-expanding garden plots. Efficiency here is paramount; time is a resource you cannot afford to waste. You must also spend time exploring the town center to interact with local merchants. Visiting characters like Thea is essential, as she offers vital upgrades for your garden capacity, watering efficiency, and restaurant decor. The more you invest in your town-to-table infrastructure early on, the wider your culinary options become when the sun goes down.
Afternoon: Restaurant Service Once your inventory is fully stocked, the crisp white apron goes on. The afternoon phase tests your reflexes and time-management skills through a series of mouthwatering, fast-paced cooking minigames. You will chop, flip, and sizzle your way through rapid-fire orders to feed townsfolk for cash, earning the primary currency needed to buy rare seeds and progress through Panko’s intricate skill tree. Feeding the local community isn't just for show. Tailoring your restaurant's menu to the specific seasonal tastes of the community increases your establishment's overall appeal rating, drawing in larger crowds, generating more revenue, and ultimately funding your war effort against the encroaching darkness.
Nighttime: Delicious Deck Building & Combat When the sun sets, the cozy facade drops and the real roguelite mechanics emerge. The Caretakers arrive at your restaurant hungry, battered, and looking for sustenance. This is where taste meets tactical theorycrafting. The meals you serve directly build your Caretaker’s deck—each specific ingredient unlocks a corresponding combat card. Once fed, the Caretakers venture out into the treacherous wilds. You watch their battles unfold through a beautifully animated puppet theater trick-taking combat sequence. The combat itself is a turn-based deckbuilder heavily inspired by traditional trick-taking card games like Hearts or Spades. You must outplay the monsters by matching their flavor magic suit or neutralizing it with a balancing trump card. Win, and the Caretakers return with ultra-rare monstrous ingredients; lose, and the darkness creeps ever closer to the walls of Palo Pori.
Beastro Caretakers Guide: Flavor Profiles & Deckbuilding
You cannot swing a sword yourself in Beastro, so your Caretakers act as your proxies on the battlefield. Understanding how to properly fuel them is the single most critical skill in the game. Each Caretaker—like the standout fan-favorite warrior Oyshi—hails from a specific regional background, which dictates their mechanical identity, starting health, and tactical preferences.
The three primary flavor regions governing the game's logic are the Sweet Region, Bitter Region, and Savory Region. A Caretaker from the Sweet Region might specialize in restorative healing and deck manipulation, allowing them to cycle through cards quickly. A Savory champion focuses on raw, enhancing attack power to burst down enemies before they can strike. Bitter Caretakers, meanwhile, excel at board control, specializing in neutralizing enemy magic and stalling out the trick-taking phase.
However, you cannot simply feed them the same optimized, mathematically perfect meal every single night. Caretakers are organic characters who develop daily, shifting cravings. Crafting thoughtful meals that balance their inherent flavor profiles with their specific craving of the day will massively boost their morale, sharpen their combat skills, and unlock devastating new ultimate abilities. If Oyshi is craving something bitter, or Flambe suggests a spicy additive to counter a specific boss, you must engineer a dish that bridges that gap. Matching cravings unlocks new abilities. If you ignore their desires and feed them a generic meal, you will find your Caretakers drawing dead hands and suffering heavy damage against late-game bosses.
Beastro All Ingredients List
Your recipe book is effectively your armory. Beastro features dozens of unique ingredients, split evenly between standard farmables, foraged woodland goods, and rare monstrous ingredients brought back from successful nighttime hunts. Because each ingredient correlates to a specific card effect, memorizing their flavor profiles is essential for high-level deckbuilding.
Raw ingredients are gathered from the garden or monsters. Flavor profiles determine the base magic type. Cooking the ingredient unlocks its specific card effect. Monstrous ingredients inflict sleep or blow away enemy cards.
Below is a comprehensive list of the core ingredients you will rely on to build your trick-taking decks.
| Ingredient Name | Source | Flavor Profile | Card Effect in Combat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Palo Herb | Forage | Neutral | Draws 1 additional card; neutralizes minor magic. |
| Fire Pepper | Farm | Savory | Applies a Burn effect for 2 turns; enhances attack power. |
| Wind Radish | Farm | Sweet | Blow away enemy cards from the current trick. |
| Dream Spores | Monster Drop | Bitter | Put enemies to sleep, skipping their next attack phase. |
| Void Flank | Monster Drop | Bitter | Completely neutralizes enemy flavor magic for the round. |
| Honeybulb | Farm | Sweet | Restores Caretaker health and boosts spirits. |
| Iron Truffle | Forage | Savory | Grants a temporary shield against physical monster damage. |
| Brimstone Egg | Livestock | Savory | Enhancing card; doubles the value of the next played card. |
As you progress, you will unlock the ability to cross-pollinate seeds, yielding hybrid ingredients that carry dual flavor profiles. But the most powerful cards always come from the monsters themselves. Utilizing the unique effects of monstrous ingredients is the only way to survive the late-game encounters. Just watch out; if you aren't paying attention to the trick-taking suit, you might get burned by your own enhancing cards.
Beastro Recipe Book: Best Meals for Combat
Cooking in Beastro is an exercise in strategic synergy. You aren't just throwing random vegetables into a boiling pot; you are actively sequencing a combat deck. A complete meal requires a base, a protein, and a garnish, meaning every dish results in a multi-card combo when the Caretaker enters combat.
Here are some of the most effective recipe combinations to carry you through the mid-to-late game:
| Recipe Name | Required Ingredients | Target Caretaker Profile | Deck Synergy Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spicy Herb Broth | Fire Pepper, Palo Herb, Iron Truffle | Savory | Aggressive trick-taking. High burst damage with a baseline physical shield for safety. |
| Sweet Slumber Tart | Wind Radish, Dream Spores, Honeybulb | Sweet / Bitter | Ultimate control deck. Puts enemies to sleep while healing the Caretaker and blowing away dangerous monster hands. |
| Balanced Void Skewer | Void Flank, Brimstone Egg, Palo Herb | Bitter / Savory | Defensive counter-magic. Neutralizes enemy magic while doubling the value of your counterattacks. |
| Brimstone Pepper Steak | Fire Pepper, Brimstone Egg, Void Flank | Savory | High-risk, high-reward. Massive burn damage that strips enemy defenses, ideal for boss encounters. |
When a craving is fulfilled, it triggers a unique, triumphant animation at the dining table, and the resulting deck of glowing cards will heavily favor your chosen strategy. Once the Trick-Taking Combat begins, your carefully planned Sweet Slumber Tart will systematically dismantle the enemy's offensive capabilities, proving that the pen—or rather, the spatula—is mightier than the sword.
Final Thoughts
Beastro is a masterclass in genre fusion. By linking the tactile, cozy satisfaction of a cooking simulator directly to the crunchy, tactical depth of a roguelike deckbuilder, Timberline Studio has created something wholly unique. It forces you to think about card theorycrafting while watering your tomatoes, and turns the simple act of feeding a hungry adventurer into a life-or-death strategic decision. In this food-based fantasy adventure, preserving global peace really does start with a good meal.
Sources
- Timberline Studio Official Steam Page Updates
- Xbox Wire: "How Beastro is Cooking Up a Stew of Your Favorite Cozy and Card Games"
- AIPT Gaming Reviews: "Beastro review: Charms its way to your heart and stomach"
- Casual Game Guides: "Beastro Walkthrough and Wiki"
- Into Indie Games: "Beastro: The Best Early Game Tips And Tricks"