Each day ends when you ring the bell. The dragon takes every sword in the tribute window and adds up their value; if the total reaches the day's quota, the tribute is paid. The quota starts at 1,800 G on April 15 and climbs to 232,000 G on May 5, the last day of the contract.
The tribute calendar has every day.
What counts
Only value counts, never the number of swords: a single +12 blade, worth 41,519 G, pays any day's quota up to day 13 on its own. Broken swords count only if Undertaker's Chalice left scrap in the window. Whatever you hand over comes back to you as gold, paid or not, and that gold is what the ghost merchant and the relic shop's rerolls cost.
Falling short
A short tribute raises the dragon's anger by one stage, and the next morning's swords are thrown into the room instead of handed over. There are three stages and the third failure kills the smith. Two things can step anger back down:
- Incense of Oblivion
- Takes one stage off when you buy it, once per run. The ghost merchant only stocks it while you have a failed tribute.
- Dragon's Pardon
- Catches the third failure: the relic vanishes and anger drops back to two.
Paying in full at the last stage, with two failures already behind you, earns the One Last Chance achievement, which unlocks Dragon's Pardon itself.
Making the quota smaller
- Sealed Rebate
- Cuts every quota by 10%.
- Royal Change
- Carries 30% of any overpayment into the next day's quota, up to 30% of it.
The "Tomorrow's tribute" figure shown at the bell has a quirk worth knowing: it applies the rebate as 5% and leaves out the Royal Change credit, so the real requirement is lower than the one shown whenever either relic is on the shelf.
More swords, better swords
Three swords arrive each morning. These relics add to the delivery or start it higher:
- Supply Permit
- One more sword every morning, for good.
- Ghost Delivery Note
- Two more swords in the next delivery.
- Undertaker's Ledger
- One more for each +7 or higher sword that broke the day before, two at most.
- Journeyman Badge
- After a paid tribute, the whole delivery starts at +2.
- Smith's Testament
- The first sword starts at 30% of your best delivered grade, if that was +10 or higher.
- Lifetime Contract
- Every sword starts at +7.
May 5 and after
The contract is cleared at the end of day 21 as long as you haven't failed three times, even if that last tribute itself fell short. From there you can stop, or keep forging past the contract. Extended days have no deadline; the quota grows by 20% a day from 232,000 G, and three full payments in that stretch earn A Job for Life and its relic, Lifetime Contract.