How to Get More Artisan Dragons When Your Hand Is Empty

Your Artisan hand is empty, and the shop slots look ready for a rush of customers. The good news: you may be able to hire a dragon this turn. Artisan Dragons are the workers you place in shop slots. Their goods icon must match the slot, unless the slot has a wild icon. Fancy Dragons have goals that can earn reputation, but they cannot fill Artisan slots.

Find a dragon reward

Look for the Artisan Dragon reward icon on shops, open slots, and face-up enchantments. If it sits at the top left of a shop, Gather there to take an Artisan before the placement step. When a reward says to draw an Artisan, choose a face-up dragon from the Park or draw the top card of the deck. Check the rewards in your town; shops and cards appear in a different order each game.

A Bread Dragon working at a shop gives you another route. Its Fire Up ability, shown by the flame icon, draws one Artisan. If Drake of Cakes is in town, you can Gather there and use its shop ability to pay two Bread for up to two Artisans from the Park. That shop ability comes after the placement step, so save those dragons for a later visit.

Empty hand to new dragon: a short turn

1. Visit a shop with a Bread Dragon. It must be different from the shop you visited last turn. Choose Gather.
2. Take the shop’s Gather rewards. If none gives you an Artisan, skip the optional placement step; your Artisan hand is still empty.
3. At the Fire Up step, select the Bread Dragon’s flame ability. Take a face-up Artisan from the Park whose goods icon fits an open slot you plan to use, or draw from the deck.
4. On a later turn, Gather at a shop with a matching open slot. Place your new Artisan and take that slot’s printed reward.

There is a faster path when the shop itself gives an Artisan as you Gather: you receive that dragon before placement and may place it in a matching open slot at the same shop. A dragon gained from Bread Dragon’s Fire Up arrives after placement, so it waits in your hand.

No dragon reward within reach this turn? Gather goods toward a face-up enchantment. Or, if you can pay for an enchantment that matches your shop, Enchant, take its printed reward, and Fire Up any Artisans working there. The little bakery can wait while you set up your next turn.