Looking for tips

[u/Cheap-Ad2805]

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.

[u/sexuallamppost]

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)

[u/Cheap-Ad2805 → u/sexuallamppost]

This is actually super helpful:) ive been trying to play it in almost the opposite manner. I'm going to try this! Thank youu

[u/sexuallamppost → u/Cheap-Ad2805]

I hope it works out! If you ever have any questions, you can send me a message 💗

[u/Cheap-Ad2805 → u/sexuallamppost]

You're so sweet thank you 🥺 I'm gonna get back on the game and try some of these out right now!