Managing Food Consumption in Elder Scrolls Castles: Tips and Strategies

If you’re experiencing problems with overpopulation in your Elder Scrolls: Castles after breeding too many subjects since its release on September 10, 2024, you are certainly not alone.

How to Increase Food Production in The Elder Scrolls: Castles

It’s important to note that high food consumption in your castle stems from having too many subjects that your Kitchen cannot adequately support. If you only manage a single Kitchen, it’s advisable to limit your adult subjects to around 50. As children mature, they will contribute to food consumption, necessitating proactive measures for your castle’s food supply.

A level 10 Kitchen produces 675 units of food per cycle. The duration of each cycle varies based on the decorations in your castle, but it generally lasts just under four minutes without decoration impact. With 50 adults, food consumption sits at 258 per minute, assuming no decorative bonuses.

Green Banner in The Elder Scrolls: Castles. — Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

This means a level 10 Kitchen can adequately feed all 50 adult subjects without running out of food before the cycle completes. However, if you plan to add more adults or have children nearing adulthood, you will need to enhance your food production capabilities.

Here are the most effective strategies to boost food production in The Elder Scrolls: Castles:

Upgrade Your Kitchen. Each upgrade adds an additional 75 food per cycle to your existing production.
Construct Additional Kitchens. This route may not be feasible for free-to-play users unless they invest considerable effort since Kitchens need quartz (acquired only through high-level quests). I personally have not encountered quartz at level 70. Instead, you can purchase the Imperial Kitchen from the in-game shop for 1000 Gems.
Utilize a Blessing of Production. These special items reduce the production timers of workstations by 50% for a 15-minute timeframe.
Install Green Banners. Green Banners provide a 2% increase to your castle’s Blessing of Production.
Employ Special Tools. Some tools in the game offer enhanced production benefits but aren’t available for purchase; they may occasionally drop as quest rewards. For instance, there’s a level 3 Steel Spoon that can be extremely helpful.
Assign a Leader in the Kitchen. Leaders possess the unique ability to occasionally expedite the current cycle of any workstation they inhabit. Although it’s a random occurrence, having at least one Leader in the Kitchen should be your goal.

How to Lower Food Consumption in The Elder Scrolls: Castles

Golden Garden in The Elder Scrolls: Castles. — Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

If the methods outlined previously are not sufficiently improving your situation, there are additional strategies to reduce food consumption in your castle.

Acquire a Golden Garden. Golden Gardens decrease food consumption by 2% for all nobles in your castle and become available at Dynasty Level 64.
Purchase a Garden Nook. Garden Nooks reduce food consumption by 2% among all commoners and become available at Dynasty Level 134.
Limit the Number of Children. While it’s enjoyable to explore various traits in The Elder Scrolls: Castles, an excess of children will lead to increased food consumption as they reach adulthood at age 16.
Banish Subjects with Negative Traits. Certain traits can be quite troublesome, and while some may offer benefits, maintaining a multitude of subjects with such traits isn’t necessary.

Selecting Subjects to Banish

Banishing a subject in The Elder Scrolls: Castles. — Screenshot by Pro Game Guides

Numerous negative traits exist in The Elder Scrolls: Castles that you should consider eliminating. For instance, the Headstrong trait often leads to frequent arguments among castle subjects. When placed together on a work station, headstrong subjects will typically come to you with disputes regarding their tensions.

Below, I’ve compiled a list of undesirable traits found in Castles and reasons for their banishment:

Trait	Description	Reasons for Banishment
Bossy	Commands coworkers, enhancing efficiency but decreasing morale.	There are better methods to promote efficiency without lowering happiness levels. Equip subjects with fitting clothing and tools, and enlist a Leader to boost productivity instead.
Devious	Tends to engage in assassination. Highly adept with daggers.	While a couple of Devious subjects can be valuable for combat, maintaining multiple can lead to trouble. Better to banish Devious subjects to minimize assassination risks.
Envious	Resents coworkers’ higher productivity.	There is no advantage to keeping Envious subjects, as they only serve to reduce your food supplies.
Headstrong	Excels at the Furnace and Workshop. Proficient with shields.	Having Headstrong subjects can result in frequent arguments, leading to costly complaints. If placed on Furnace or Workshop stations, prepare to spend gold to quell disputes.
Heartless	Difficult to collaborate with. Skilled with Frost.	Retain a few Heartless subjects for their combat abilities but keep them unemployed until needed to prevent discord.
Pyromaniac	Best suited for the Kitchen, Furnace, and Smithy. Exhibits fiery tendencies.	While I haven’t seen a Pyromaniac cause fires, they often attract complaints. Retain one or two per workstation but consider banishing the rest.
Volatile	Driven by anger. Skilled with Shock.	Similar to Heartless subjects, keep a few Volatile ones for combat while keeping them unemployed to avoid conflicts.