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Poppy

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Player wiki noticeThis community-maintained page may contain gameplay, story, and mature-content spoilers.

Overview

Poppy is the cheerful halfling cook with red hair and freckles who runs the Rose & Thorn Kitchen. Her current route includes recruitment, three personal automatic encounters, two H2Hs, Kitchen Secrets, the Master Chef lesson, daily ingredient gifts, five shared kitchen encounters and a repeatable bar-performance reaction.
The Kitchen also offers daily batch cooking, ingredient upgrades and Cook a Hearty Feast. These management services have different rewards and counters from ordinary Poppy affection.

Quick Stats

Attribute Value
Era / alignment Medieval / Neutral
Recruitment Rose & Thorn reputation 4; return to the establishment entrance
Home location / hours Kitchen; all hours, every day
Favorite relationship stats Cooking 65; Perception 60; Charm 50
Special relationship skill Fry Fish; not taught by this menu
Talk 15 minutes; 1 base affection; eight positive talks daily
Rare Ingredient gift Known; 10 minutes; one Rare Ingredient; 5 base; ten daily
Epic Ingredient gift Known; 10 minutes; one Epic Ingredient; 10 base; ten daily
Kitchen Secrets Known; Communication 45; 30 minutes; Cooking +1 and 8 direct affection; once
Master Chef lesson Friend; Cooking 50; 200 minutes; Energy −70; Calm −40; no cash cost; once
Poppy's current character definition does not give a numerical age. She is a kitchen relationship NPC, rather than a numbered worker with eight worker-training levels or an assignable worker shift.
Listed relationship rewards are base values. Favorite stats add bonuses when their thresholds are met, and the special relationship skill doubles the adjusted base before the shared random roll. Equipment, buffs and alignment can further change the final reward. Raising affection does not replace quest flags or earlier heart-to-hearts.

Recruiting Poppy and Opening the Kitchen

  1. Raise the Rose & Thorn's reputation to 4.
  2. Return to the establishment entrance in King's Demesne for A Cheerful Cook Arrives. The recruitment scene occurs once and has no configured time-of-day restriction.
  3. Completion recruits Poppy, opens the Kitchen at level 1, gives 10 base affection to Poppy and 5 base to Elara, and hands over all of your carried cooking ingredients. Your Common, Rare and Epic Ingredient stocks are all cleared; this is not a one-Rare-Ingredient recruitment fee. Materials, Fabrics and other inventory categories are not cleared by that handler.
  4. From West Hall, use To Kitchen, a zero-minute travel action requiring establishment reputation 4.
  5. Your first eligible Kitchen visit after arrival triggers First Taste. Choose Caring or Flirty for 7 fixed + 4 choice = 11 best base affection.
The arrival's ordinary affection reward is applied by its completion handler, although the plot registry itself has no fixed relationship-reward entry. Kitchen level, recruitment and ordinary affection are separate values.
  1. Recruit Poppy and complete First Taste. Use Talk, available from Stranger, to raise ordinary affection.
  2. At Known, return for Private Recipe, with Flirty giving 13 best base. Rare/Epic ingredient gifts now become available.
  3. At Known and Communication 45, claim Kitchen Secrets for Cooking +1 and 8 direct ordinary affection.
  4. At Acquaintance, after Private Recipe, revisit for Feeding Everyone. Choose Caring for 13 best base.
  5. At Acquaintance, with First Taste complete, use The Warmest Kitchen H2H at any hour. Feeding Everyone is not an added requirement for this H2H.
  6. At Friend and Cooking 50, complete the Master Chef lesson. The best scene reward is 35 base, and completion teaches Master Chef.
  7. At Close Friend, with the lesson and The Warmest Kitchen complete, start After the Last Plate, 6 PM–midnight.
  8. Continue the independent shared Kitchen scenes, optional bar-performance reaction and daily Kitchen management services.
The first three personal automatic encounters total 37 best base affection. They form First Taste → Private Recipe → Feeding Everyone, but the lesson and first H2H use their own prerequisites. There is no additional personal date or movie action to search for after the second H2H.

Daily Talk and Ingredient Gifts

All start from Poppy's present Kitchen portrait, any hour:
Action Gate Cost Reward / positive allowance
Talk Stranger 15 minutes 1 base; eight talks daily
Give Rare Ingredient Known 10 minutes; one Rare Ingredient 5 base; ten gifts daily
Give Epic Ingredient Known 10 minutes; one Epic Ingredient 10 base; ten gifts daily
These are three separate daily counters. Using all positive allowances takes 320 minutes, consumes ten Rare and ten Epic Ingredients, and gives 158 base affection before shared bonuses. Eight Talks alone take 120 minutes for 8 base.
The gifts consume the Rare / Epic cooking-ingredient stocks, rather than an ordinary gift named Rare Ingredient or Epic Ingredient. The shared annoyance penalty can escalate to −5 affection after a positive allowance is exhausted; a spent ingredient is not refunded by an annoyed response.
Learned Fry Fish improves her ordinary relationship calculation. Her lesson instead teaches Master Chef; neither skill's name makes them interchangeable.

Kitchen Secrets and Master Chef

Kitchen Secrets

At Known and Communication 45, select Kitchen Secrets from Poppy's portrait. It takes 30 minutes, completes once, grants Cooking +1, and adds 8 direct ordinary affection. There is no configured cash, Energy, Calm or ingredient charge.
Its eight affection points are direct, rather than another base reward multiplied by her favorite stats and Fry Fish. It does not teach Master Chef or write the Master Chef lesson's plot flag.

Master Chef lesson

Select Master Chef at Friend and Cooking 50. The lesson costs 200 minutes, 70 Energy and 40 Calm, with no money or ingredient cost.
It plays The Master Chef's Lesson once. Caring or Flirty adds 5 choice base to 30 fixed, giving 35 best base affection. Completion teaches Master Chef and records the lesson as complete. No player Erotic XP or NPC intimacy XP is configured.
The lesson's availability is blocked by its completed plot, rather than by simply already knowing the skill. If you learned Master Chef through another route, Poppy's authored lesson can still be completed for its scene and prerequisite flag; learning an already-owned skill does not stack another copy.
For After the Last Plate, you need Poppy's actual lesson completed. Owning Master Chef from another NPC does not satisfy that plot requirement by itself. The separate Hearty Feast service requires the learned skill and Cooking 50, with no added Poppy romance-stage or lesson-plot condition.

Two Personal Heart-to-Hearts

Both start from her Kitchen portrait and complete once:
H2H Requirements / starting hours Cost and restoration Best ordinary base
The Warmest Kitchen Acquaintance; First Taste complete; any hour 60 minutes; Energy −10; Calm +15 45
After the Last Plate Close Friend; Master Chef lesson and The Warmest Kitchen complete; 6 PM–midnight 90 minutes; Energy −20; Calm +20 71
Neither entry adds money or ingredient costs. The Calm entries are restoration, capped by the player's maximum, rather than additional costs. Their starting windows do not require completing every dialogue round before the window closes.
Learned Romantic adds 25 final affection at completion, separately from the conversation's base reply points and from the Romantic ordinary-affection stage. Neither H2H configures player Erotic XP or NPC intimacy XP; the kissing dialogue itself does not create a separate experience reward.

Best ordinary H2H replies

The Warmest Kitchen

Round Highest base-point choice Base points
1 I keep finding excuses to be wherever you are. 8
2 What have you noticed about me? 8
3 You are becoming someone I look forward to every day. 9
4 If this is how you flirt, it is extremely effective. 9
5 Good. I want you getting used to being wanted by me. 11


After the Last Plate

Round Highest base-point choice Base points
1 A private dessert with you sounds dangerous in the best way. 10
2 You are the reason I keep losing track of time in here. 11
3 Then let me be the person you stop hiding from. 12
4 I will meet you halfway, and then a little more. 13
5 Close the distance and show her she was not reading this wrong. 15
6 For research, then. Very serious research. 10


Heart-to-heart choice points accumulate and use the shared relationship calculation at completion. The listed points are base values, not guaranteed final affection gains.
In After the Last Plate, round 6, “Sit down first. I want you steady enough to enjoy the second one.” also gives 10 base, tying the listed reply.

Optional special replies

H2H / round Requirement Special base Gain over best ordinary
The Warmest Kitchen / 1 Learned Empathy 10 +2
The Warmest Kitchen / 3 Communication 45 11 +2
The Warmest Kitchen / 5 Learned Romantic 13 +2
After the Last Plate / 2 Learned Empathy 13 +2
After the Last Plate / 4 Learned Romantic 15 +2
After the Last Plate / 5 Learned Romantic 17 +2
Using all available special replies raises the respective totals to 51 / 77 base. These special replies do not unlock alternate scene variants. The reply bonuses are additional base points; learned Romantic's 25 final completion bonus is separate.

Daily Kitchen Services

These are Kitchen location actions, with their own requirements and counters. They do not consume one of Poppy's Talk or gift allowances.

Cook for Rose & Thorn

Use Cook for Rose & Thorn once per game day. It takes 60 minutes and 20 Energy, consuming five Common Ingredients and one Rare Ingredient.
It adds stored Food using:
Food = 5 + floor(raw Cooking / 10) + 3 × Kitchen apprentice count.
For example, Cooking 50 and two Kitchen apprentices give 16 Food. The calculation uses the player's raw Cooking value, rather than a temporary modified Cooking value. It produces management Food stock, with no extra ordinary Poppy-affection, player Erotic XP or NPC intimacy XP award.

Cook a Hearty Feast

At the Kitchen, with learned Master Chef, modified Cooking 50+, at least one eligible recruited worker, and this service unused today, select Cook a Hearty Feast.
It takes 60 minutes and consumes one Epic Ingredient per eligible recruited worker. It has no configured separate money, Energy or Calm charge. The required ingredient total is based on the current roster, not a fixed recipe of one Epic Ingredient for the entire household.
The feast serves all recruited living workers, including inactive, resting and vacationing workers. Each served worker gains up to 1 Loyalty while below 100, capped at 100, and loses up to 5 Stress, down to 0. Ordinary worker loyalty decay is processed before the feast's gain. It does not give a bonus to unrecruited worker slots.
This is a separate daily use from batch cooking. There is no extra Poppy affection-stage condition, and it does not add Food stock or ordinary affection. Carry the full current Epic Ingredient cost before starting; having Master Chef alone is not enough.

Upgrade ingredients in the Kitchen

Trade Base cost Base output Time
Common → Rare Ingredients 25 Common 1 Rare 10 minutes
Rare → Epic Ingredients 25 Rare 1 Epic 15 minutes
Learned Deception adds one extra output, so each produces two of its target ingredient. Learned Negotiation reduces the input cost from 25 to 20. These trades are not ordinary ingredient gifts, and do not give Poppy affection or spend her daily gift counters.

Five Shared Kitchen Encounters

Each completes once, separately from the personal chain:
Automatic scene Location Requirements Base reward
The Midnight Snack Committee Kitchen Poppy: Known+; Blinky: Known+; Sherry: Acknowledged+; A Cheerful Cook Arrives completed; A Confused Arrival completed; The New Bar Manager completed; 8 PM–midnight / midnight–4 AM 5
The Spice Incident Kitchen Poppy: Known+; Pepper: Known+; Brandy: Known+; A Cheerful Cook Arrives completed; Active brothel worker: Brandy, Pepper; Not away on vacation: Brandy, Pepper; noon–6 PM 5
Cooking Lessons Kitchen Pepper: Known+; Active brothel worker: Pepper; Not away on vacation: Pepper 5
A Strange Scent in the Kitchen Kitchen Poppy: Friend+; Active brothel worker: Foxy 3
The Supper Nobody Ordered Kitchen Active brothel worker: Ryia; Not away on vacation: Ryia; Poppy present in the Kitchen 8


Encounter Best Poppy choice style(s) Best Poppy base total
The Midnight Snack Committee Flirty 5 fixed + 5 = 10
The Spice Incident Caring or Flirty 5 fixed + 5 = 10
Cooking Lessons Funny 5 fixed + 4 = 9
A Strange Scent in the Kitchen Flirty 3 fixed + 3 = 6
The Supper Nobody Ordered Caring → Flirty 8 fixed + 3 + 3 = 14
The Midnight Snack Committee starts 8 PM–4 AM, covering 8 PM–midnight or midnight–4 AM. It needs Poppy's arrival, Blinky's arrival and Sherry's introduction, plus Known with Poppy and Blinky / Acknowledged with Sherry.
The Spice Incident starts noon–6 PM, with Brandy and Pepper active and home from vacation, Known with all three, and Poppy's arrival complete. Cooking Lessons instead requires active, home Pepper and Known with Pepper; it does not add a Poppy stage gate.
A Strange Scent in the Kitchen needs active Foxy, worker 9, and Friend with Poppy. The Supper Nobody Ordered needs active, home Ryia, worker 30, with Poppy actually present in the Kitchen; it adds no affection-stage requirement or previous Ryia-history-scene flag. Its historical story details are left to the game.
The listed styles maximize Poppy's reward; companions receive different choice bonuses. These scenes are not a required linear sequence or extra conditions for either personal H2H.

Bar Performance Reaction

At the Rose & Thorn Bar, use Perform Song with at least one composed song, 60 minutes and 30 Energy, once per game day for that venue.
A successful performance has a 25% base chance of a reaction scene, with +5 percentage points each for Master Performer, Stage Presence, Musical Virtuosity and Storytelling, plus +5 for owning a Lute, capped at 50%. This is the chance of any bar reaction, not the chance of Poppy specifically; the bar then picks from seven registered reactions.
If Performance Reaction – Poppy is chosen, Funny adds 4 choice base to 8 fixed, for 12 best base affection. Her reaction is marked repeatable and does not use a completed personal-scene flag to prevent later appearances. You do not need to find her regular portrait in the Bar to get that reaction.
Performance gold, Valuables and Bards Guild clout are separate shared performance rewards. A performance does not guarantee Poppy's reaction on every visit.

Personal Automatic Scene Reference

Automatic scene Location Requirements Base reward
First Taste Kitchen A Cheerful Cook Arrives completed 7
Private Recipe Kitchen Poppy: Known+; First Taste completed 8
Feeding Everyone Kitchen Poppy: Acquaintance+; Private Recipe completed 8


Completion and Troubleshooting

  • Arrival missing: reach establishment reputation 4, then revisit the entrance. Recruitment clears all carried ingredient tiers and opens the Kitchen.
  • Kitchen entrance missing: use West Hall → To Kitchen and check the reputation gate.
  • Gift missing: reach Known and carry the exact Rare / Epic cooking-ingredient stock.
  • Kitchen Secrets missing: check Known, Communication 45 and the one-time reward completion. It does not need Cooking 45.
  • First H2H missing: finish First Taste, reach Acquaintance and use Poppy's Kitchen portrait.
  • Lesson missing: check Friend, Cooking 50, Energy/Calm and the lesson not already complete.
  • Second H2H missing: complete Poppy's Master Chef lesson and The Warmest Kitchen, reach Close Friend, then start 6 PM–midnight.
  • Hearty Feast missing: check learned Master Chef, modified Cooking 50, a recruited eligible roster and today's separate feast use. Carry one Epic Ingredient for every current recipient.
  • Shared scene missing: check every participant's individual stage, recruitment/vacation state and the scene's own hours.
  • Bar reaction missing: the reaction is random after a performance; the shared roll can also choose another NPC.
Poppy's current route does not add an ordinary apartment invitation, separate personal date or movie, pregnancy continuation, Kupie album, venue-invite minigame, numbered worker training, resort vacation or personal Christmas scene. The kitchen relationship route and management services above are the authored content covered here.

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Text adapted from the community-maintained Chronoromancer Wiki under CC BY-SA 4.0.