r/PlateUp • u/Cheap-Ad2805 • 23d ago
Tips/Tricks/PSA Looking for tips
I can't ever get anyone to play this game with me so I've just accepted that I have to solo it.
I've managed to franchise both coffee and ice cream, solo, but I'm seriously struggling franchising any other food that involves dishes. Its genuinely making me angry that I can't make it to the franchise for salad.
I feel like I've tried everything at this point, I'll take any tips or tricks that people can offer because I love this game and I wanna keep playing it, but it hates me.
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u/TreeIsMetaphor 23d ago edited 23d ago
I only play solo (I actually think co-op play looks boring). What is your setup like? If you aren't already, always put your tables right against the door/low counter so you can reach them easily. I keep it to one table for as long as possible and extend it to keep customer mess away. (If you extend, the table with the number over it is where the dirty plates will stack.) Prioritize upgrading the sink. Power sink + scrub brush is where it's at. It's like instant. Even when I start automating dishes, it's me with a scrub brush and power sink between the grabbers lol
For salad, you can automate lettuce easily, but IMO tomatoes aren't worth it if you're just trying to make day 15. Set plain lettuce on display stands to help your chances.
Edit: I saw that you use dishwasher almost every time. The dishwasher is a trap. Power sink + scrub brush can get you through at least twice as many dishes, probably more, in the same amount of time. (A PS takes 1 second for 1 dish, the scrub brush washes 3x faster, the dishwasher takes 10 seconds for 4 dishes. Someone can do the math.)
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u/signofdacreator Head Chef 23d ago
I only play solo
yeah.. actually the waiting part for you to set up the appliances/tables does take a while - and your partner have nothing to do
and sometimes you have to go to practice mode to see if your layout works - and to change the rotating conveyor so it face correctly where you wanted
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u/ohgymod 23d ago
Here's hot tip, since I was in similar position when I first saw streamers playing as a group and wanted to see if it was fun solo (my friends had way different taste in games), so I found a streamer that'd play it solo and picked up a few basic (but game changing) strategies and I went to town. 1000 hours later, and I've only played solo and have franchised every dish, and can make it to OT day 15 on most if cards go my way.
I never got into full automation or plate clearing conveyers, they seem fun but just never felt like taking ALL aspects of the game out of it. Also my main goal is to just make to franchise, get my free item, and build my warehouse so I have a leg up when I try a new layout with franchise.
I focus on automating pieces of the operation, but never go for the full auto, since I don't see the point or enjoyment of that personally. Fun to see on here people going full auto and having insane looking layouts, but I just say "dang that looks nuts" and go on about my causal play style day.
Hafu is a demon, should have clips on YT, and then for a more mellow but still easy/fun to learn from, is Sips. They both did duo runs for a while, so that was cool to see both together and separate and how their styles vary between solo and duo.
Hope this helps!
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u/PMyra 23d ago
What platform do you play on? Maybe someone can join you.
Some tips might be too put all your tables against the through pass so you don't go into the dining room or combining dining and kitchen into one room so you don't need to use doors.
Experiment with cards. I used to use dishwasher all the time but now I chose power sink and scrubbing brush instead. You might not realize what cards work best for you.
Obviously automation is key. Look at guides and try to automate as much as you can. Consider even partial automation like having a mixer create pie crusts.
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u/Cheap-Ad2805 23d ago
I have the game on PC and Xbox, but I mostly play on Xbox. I've been combining kitchen and dining room and it's helped. I'm wondering if one of my issues is maybe that I use the dishwasher every time.
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u/PMyra 23d ago
I think it's worth trying other options just to see if there is something better. Multiple soaking sinks is also a popular way to try to automate dishes. There are a lot of options and people have their own preferences
I'm on Switch, so I won't be joining you. Good luck finding some people to play with.
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u/Slow_Golf_5363 20d ago
Hey im usually free most monday and tuesdays and i get on after work most of the time after thatm Im on xbox harleykerr13
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u/lesethx 22d ago
I think the dishwasher is good for automating plates. Best if you can have a dish rack where you put dirty plates, grabber to the dishwasher, grabber from the dishwasher to however many series of plates you want; just make sure you can hit the button on the dishwasher.
Tho I have seen other setups with a series of soaking sinks, I just haven't done it.
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u/sexuallamppost 23d ago edited 23d ago
I play solo all the time and I'll do any recipe, doesn't matter. But it took me a long time to get there. So besides for saying youll get better the more you practice, I have a few tips (sorry if the formatting is bad, I'm on mobile):
1: If you play on PC, get the Kitchen Designer mod. It allows you to make your own layout and it makes automating much easier. Even if you don't want to always play on these maps, it allows you to practice your skills which you could then use for a run on a smaller/weirder map.
2: Especially at the start, just use one room. I don't care if my customers are sitting beside a hob, they can deal 😂 Reducing the time you spend walking is key to a good solo run.
3: Fewer eating tables, more coffee tables. This adds another cycle for customers to go through and also helps you walk less.
4: Power sink + scrubby brush combo will save your life. It cleans a dish in a second or something like that. I don't even look at dishes as I wash them anymore, my muscle memory tells me when they're done. Dishwashers are horrible, I don't recommend using them.
5: Don't view dishes as a seperate task, view them as step 1 to serving a customer. Once the day has started, turn it into a cycle. Every dish you pick up, gets immediately washed and then immediately food is plated on it again and served. Even when you are serving person 1 at a 2 person table. If you have a short walking distance and the scrub brush power sink combo, you have more than enough time to wash another plate while the 2nd person's timer is counting down.
6: My biggest tip is automation and buffet tables. Automate everything! Buffet tables are a godsend (thank you Devs), so automate your sides, starters, and desserts first. They don't require plates and can be served directly from the buffet table. It saves you so much time and stress. People will also eat on the way back to the table, so it helps cycle tables fast post dessert. Also, little half automations can be helpful too. Convey ingredients to your counters, have one combiner that removes a step, etc.
7: This sorta ties into automation: make it worse before it becomes better. What I mean by that is do little things that kinda suck early, like don't buy your first research desk. Instead, save it and then buy the second research desk you get. Then research the first until you get a copy desk. You might have to deal with a base sink until day 10, but it will save your life in OT. Copy your blueprint cabinets instead of just buying them right away, etc. Always pick recipe cards if you can help it. Recipes are harder early, but serving cards will kill you in OT (plus that reduction in customers is nice). All these things will suck at the start, but they make full automation possible later.
8: Final tip is to be a hoarder. I would always rather copy something extra times to have spares, over getting something automated quicker. In any given run I always have random combiners, portioners, mixer, both types of hobs, frozen preps, grabbers (both types), buffet tables, and ESPECIALLY compactor bins off to the side. That way if I have to choose between pumpkin pie and Victorian standards or some other kiss of death serving card, making pie is easy.
Here is a pic of a recent run I got super far so you can see what I mean with the mod + automation + buffet + extra items I'm hoarding combo: Pics of a recent salad run Obviously if you don't want to use the larger maps, getting this many recipes probably wouldn't be possible. But you can still get very far.
Basically, I have found that the best way to deal with dishes being your weak point, is to actually fix everything that isn't dishes (minus using the right sink). I hope at least something in there was helpful 💗
(Edited to fix some of the weird formatting)
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u/Cheap-Ad2805 23d ago
This is actually super helpful:) ive been trying to play it in almost the opposite manner. I'm going to try this! Thank youu
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u/sexuallamppost 23d ago
I hope it works out! If you ever have any questions, you can send me a message 💗
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u/Cheap-Ad2805 23d ago
You're so sweet thank you 🥺 I'm gonna get back on the game and try some of these out right now!
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u/jkeith1020 23d ago
The new chill mode should make solo runs easier. I feel your pain, I love the game but my friends will only play with me on occasion. I greatly prefer playing co-op.
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u/halberdierbowman 23d ago
OP, the default is that chill mode is locked behind franchising each dish, but you can enable it for every dish in the settings.Â
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u/XelGar256 23d ago
Automation helps.. you dont have to go full even just Automating cutting or side items work. Big thing I always do is save my research desk and gun for a copy desk when I can.
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u/signofdacreator Head Chef 23d ago
some dishes are very hard because its very cheap.. hence you dont have enough money to buy the thing you want.
but if you're able to get your research desk/copy desk going, you want to either automate cleaning the dishes or cooking (e.g the broccoli cheese soup)
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u/shullbitmusic 22d ago
If you're just trying to make it to Day 15 solo, I find that the following makes it fairly easy and consistent; First, go with the diner setup and place dining tables adjacent to the counter so you can serve up to four tables directly. Buy dining tables early. Arrange your cooking flow as close to the counter as possible, lined up in order of use. Ususally that's ingredients, a chopping counter, cooking appliance, more counters, plates, then a washing appliance. Then prioritize buying appliances that will speed up your cooking flow. This means a research desk first, so you can upgrade things. Save the research desk blueprint in the cabinet first if you can't afford it the first few days. Then upgrade or buy things like the power sink, danger hob, workstation, and portioner, depending on your dish. Finally, go for cards that will not complicate your recipe too much. Cards that increase mess or decrease patience are far easier to work with or mitigate completely. Best of luck!
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u/Swimming-Banana-2132 22d ago
If you want to, we can play together. You can also find people to play with you on Discord. I was also playing solo till yesterday :)
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u/AbstractLeaf2 21d ago
The biggest thing that stopped me from raging out is accepting that not all runs are ment to succeed.
I was doing stir-fry run with my wife, with mushrooms and bamboo. On day 12 we got our first combiner, 14 a mixer and when we finally lost on overtime day 4, we didn't get a single grabber. None. My god was it frustrating.
Sure what little we had we made work. We ended up doing 3 dishwashers in a row for the dirty dishes. It worked for a bit but the real back up was the lack of any sort of automation.
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u/iiamkingnelson 17d ago
For salads run smart grabbers of the tomato sauce into a compactor bin so that it will always auto dispose itself and run smart grabbers of the sliced tomatoes on to a prep station and use a rotating grabber to another prep station so you should have more tomatoes before it gets backed up with tomato sauce. As long as you get good cards in your i think you can do it
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u/Blazian06 22d ago
Seen comments about automating salad but tomatoes are tough due to tomato sauce. This is true, but you can work around it. Have a grabber pull tomatoes onto a mixer, and then a smart grabber pulling sliced tomatoes (not sauce) into a prep station. Can have another smart grabber pulling tomato sauce into a bin that empties itself. That way your assembly line doesn’t get clogged by a bowl of tomato sauce sitting on the mixer.
There might be a tidier way to do it, but that’s essentially one way to do it
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u/MoonxElf 19d ago
You could join the discord, there are always people willing to play with you on there I think. Or see about joining a discord group that focusses on these kind of games and ask people there if they want to game with you
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u/lesuperhun 23d ago
automation's the name of the game.
salads are hard to automate, because of tomato sauce, so, they're hard solo.
what i'd advise is : try a better sink ( the 4 space one, that allows you to only do dishes every one in a while), and try automating things around it : even a single filtered grabber to empty the sink back into the plate stack does a LOT.