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View Full Version : Which is the best upgrade?



kimmysue123
02-12-15, 06:42 AM
I have the items to upgrade EITHER my own pantry or to upgrade the number of ingredients at the grocery, butcher, or vegetable stand.

Which is the best upgrade to choose and why?

queentina3
02-12-15, 07:21 AM
If your pantry is getting full already then you may want to upgrade that before upgrading any of the stores. If it isn't or you can handle upgrading a store, then you may want to start with the vegetable stand considering the turn-around rate for onions, peppers, broccoli, and potatoes. I currently have those three areas upgraded to allow 3 items at a time and I'm still struggling with those 4 veggies. I'm constantly scouring my street market and if any show up, I nab them right away.

PraxisOfGood
02-12-15, 07:34 AM
A lot depends on what level you are. For instance, if you are one level away from opening the fish market, then the best idea is to get your store up to expansion 5 and otherwise saving up to have a fish market that can give three ingredients right away. But if everything is stable and you're getting along with your current pantry size, the. I agree that veggie stand first, then grocery, then butcher.

You don't mention your street market. If you haven't invested anything in it, I recommend it highly.

kimmysue123
02-12-15, 10:48 AM
No, I haven't done the street market yet. I need to look into that. I am level 21.

mcmug17
02-17-15, 10:54 AM
I remember having Veggiex4 very early on. Definitely by level 23.
http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?77559-What-Would-You-Do&p=1039124&viewfull=1#post1039124

That gave me enough vegetables (onions) to make high grossing items. It was probably one of the best moves ever for me.

When I first got my fish market, I had enough of everything to bump it up to x3 immediately. I just turned 35 and unlocked lobster right away. Then immediately upgraded it to x4 and got another 4 lobsters :).

travelingcircus
02-17-15, 02:51 PM
18467I am at level 41 and have 240,000 coins right now and will be maxing out my toolbox soon. I know I have some expensive appliances and recipes coming up and am not sure if I should expand my restaurant or one of my markets. My markets and street market have all been treating me well, so I'm not really struggling there. I have GS-3 slots, Butcher 3, veggie- 3, seafood 3, fruit 2, and street market 9.

My toolbox and pantry are both at 80 capacity.

Not sure what up ahead I will be encountering first.

Thanks for any input!

tiggerhobbes
02-18-15, 12:40 AM
18467I am at level 41 and have 240,000 coins right now and will be maxing out my toolbox soon. I know I have some expensive appliances and recipes coming up and am not sure if I should expand my restaurant or one of my markets. My markets and street market have all been treating me well, so I'm not really struggling there. I have GS-3 slots, Butcher 3, veggie- 3, seafood 3, fruit 2, and street market 9.

My toolbox and pantry are both at 80 capacity.

Not sure what up ahead I will be encountering first.

Thanks for any input!

If I were you I would absolutely go with pantry upgrade. Maybe it's just individual gameplay style, but every single pantry upgrade has improved my gaming experience. There's less pressure to get rid of tools, more room to hoard especially valuable ingredients that come up in any of the markets esp the street markets, wait out the random imbalance of the herbs garden, and it cost no coins.

As I'm sure you already know, coins requirement (like everything else) increase exponentially as you move forward, the chateau oven is ridiculously expensive, some of the drinks recipes are crazy-expensive to unlock as well.

Lastly, as you upgrade, the NUMBER of specific items increase exponentially as well, especially nails and seeds. I have expanded my pantry/ tool box to 130 and I am still forced to delete tools/ shovels as a collection approach complete. My next garden expansion requires 11 shovels and 30 seeds, my next street market expansion requires 29 nails and 14 boards and 7 hammers. Imagine the pressure to buy the last item with gems if you are stuck with 29 seeds for a full week and Lilly will not drop you any more, while all that seeds and shovels take up space in your tool box.

queentina3
02-18-15, 10:41 AM
I remember having Veggiex4 very early on. Definitely by level 23.
http://forums.storm8.com/showthread.php?77559-What-Would-You-Do&p=1039124&viewfull=1#post1039124

That gave me enough vegetables (onions) to make high grossing items. It was probably one of the best moves ever for me.

When I first got my fish market, I had enough of everything to bump it up to x3 immediately. I just turned 35 and unlocked lobster right away. Then immediately upgraded it to x4 and got another 4 lobsters :).

I'm sorely tempted to up my veggie to x4 as I'm always in need of them and I don't get them often enough in the street market. Right now I have all 4 places at x3 and I just upgraded my pantry to 75 items. I was going to go for expanding my restaurant then the street market but you may have just changed my mind. I'll have to consider this as I get closer to the necessary requirements and then decide, but I'm seriously considering this now. Onions, Potatoes, and Peppers take way too long to replenish IMO.

WinnyWoos
02-18-15, 10:51 AM
18467I am at level 41 and have 240,000 coins right now and will be maxing out my toolbox soon. I know I have some expensive appliances and recipes coming up and am not sure if I should expand my restaurant or one of my markets. My markets and street market have all been treating me well, so I'm not really struggling there. I have GS-3 slots, Butcher 3, veggie- 3, seafood 3, fruit 2, and street market 9.

My toolbox and pantry are both at 80 capacity.

Not sure what up ahead I will be encountering first.

Thanks for any input!

I was in the same boat a couple days ago! Even deleted several precious seeds trying to wait it out but finally had to decide cause I couldn't receive the last 3 vday cards needed to finish the goal. I could either expand, upgrade the fruit stand or upgrade pantry. Because I was about to be level 42 and the drink maker alone was $320k, I figured I'd need the money so I did pantry. When I hit lv 42 I had over $500k saved but after buying the drink maker, unlocking just 1 of 2 fruits and learning only 1 recipe, I was close to being under $100k. Wanted to cry!!! Lol! I would save your coins and go with pantry:)

queentina3
02-18-15, 11:00 AM
I was in the same boat a couple days ago! Even deleted several precious seeds trying to wait it out but finally had to decide cause I couldn't receive the last 3 vday cards needed to finish the goal. I could either expand, upgrade the fruit stand or upgrade pantry. Because I was about to be level 42 and the drink maker alone was $320k, I figured I'd need the money so I did pantry. When I hit lv 42 I had over $500k saved but after buying the drink maker, unlocking just 1 of 2 fruits and learning only 1 recipe, I was close to being under $100k. Wanted to cry!!! Lol! I would save your coins and go with pantry:)

Was this around the same time that you lost 90,000k due to upgrading your general store in your sleep? ;)

mcmug17
02-18-15, 11:18 AM
I'm sorely tempted to up my veggie to x4 as I'm always in need of them and I don't get them often enough in the street market. Right now I have all 4 places at x3 and I just upgraded my pantry to 75 items. I was going to go for expanding my restaurant then the street market but you may have just changed my mind. I'll have to consider this as I get closer to the necessary requirements and then decide, but I'm seriously considering this now. Onions, Potatoes, and Peppers take way too long to replenish IMO.

I must say VM upgrade is the biggest bang for the buck. Unlike the other markets, you're getting FIVE important ingredients upgraded at the same time (don't know about celery yet)!

PraxisOfGood
02-18-15, 11:26 AM
I agree with mcmug. Everyone's playstyle is different, and if you find that you're filling a large pantry and not regretting having an extra mushroom, onion, and pepper every refresh, then I suppose we're different. But for myself, I couldn't imagine the income hit from losing VM4 and GS4, even if it meant putting off the drinks for a little while.

queentina3
02-18-15, 11:38 AM
I must say VM upgrade is the biggest bang for the buck. Unlike the other markets, you're getting FIVE important ingredients upgraded at the same time (don't know about celery yet)!

I take it the 5th ingredient is the mushrooms, right? Isn't that on an insane turn-around as well, something like 16 hours????

It will be awhile for me as I need 10 nails, 2 hammers, and 1 board to upgrade it. Right now I have the coins (160,000k to upgrade) but usually when I'm down to only one item, like the boards, Cid takes forever to drop it to me. LOL

You do make a good point in the amount of items getting the upgrade and that has decided it for me. I can handle having my place stay small for the moment as long as I can get the ingredients needed to gain money. I've also gotten pretty used to a crummy street market, so a few more weeks with it isn't going to **** me. :)

PraxisOfGood
02-18-15, 12:58 PM
Yes, mushrooms are on a 16 hour timer. My top five veggies are peppers, onions, mushrooms, peas, and broccoli. To highlight one of them, getting four broccoli every two hours means that I can make two omelettes or one omelette and one baked potato every two hours with no fuss.

deucedeuce22
02-18-15, 01:19 PM
It really depends on how often you check your street market. There is never a point where having a 4th vegetable in stock is worth the expense to me, and I have enough peppers and onions in my street market that it is never an issue. You can only cook so much at one time. I prefer to save my money and expansion material for later levels.


I have no problem keeping my appliances busy, and I'll have no problem buying things when I level.

travelingcircus
02-18-15, 02:26 PM
Thanks for your insight. So many different suggestions. What appliance or food item need a certain level of expansion? I am at 10 and would like to know when I need to worry about that (is it drink maker or something else)?

PraxisOfGood
02-18-15, 07:57 PM
All of the appliances that I know of are unlocked by level, and you can see what's upcoming by checking out the shop. The only recipes I know of that are unlocked by expansion are most of the lobster recipes, which are not unlocked at level 7 for personal experience. (I hope it's 8, but nobody has confirmed that for me yet....)

Unlocking new shops do require expansion. I remember the veggie shop needing expansion 3 and the fish shop needing 5. The street market may have needed 4, but I don't recall. My understanding is that the fruit shop needs 8. The game guide thread probably mentions the toolbox costs for unlocking new stores, which is another thing you'd want to be on top of as you close in on the target level.

tiggerhobbes
02-18-15, 09:47 PM
The only recipes requring higher expansion than expansion 8 are:

Coqau Vin
Ratatouille
Baked Onion Soup

Source: Lvl 49 and no coins to expand beyond 8.

WinnyWoos
02-19-15, 02:19 PM
Was this around the same time that you lost 90,000k due to upgrading your general store in your sleep? ;)

LOL!!!! It was sure close!!! Haha!! I could def use those coins atm though :/ DOH! *palm to the forehead*:rolleyes:

queentina3
03-16-15, 06:30 AM
So I took the earlier advice as well as some I read from somebody about not deleting tools but using them to expand an area you normally wouldn't just yet, or at all. Because of that I did finally upgrade my veggie to x4 and my meat market to x4 (not really necessary per se but I had the tools and coin and was running out of meat too quickly). I'm still putting off expanding my street market because it still isn't all that great for me but it may be my next purchase as hopefully will more slots, better options will happen. 9 slots obviously isn't enough to get the diversity or away from constant bread and tomatoes. LOL!!

I have expanded to 9 and 10 is waiting on hammers (typical) and my pantry is at 130. I may go with expanding the fish market at some point but for now I'm ok with how it is at x3 since I get lobsters at least once or twice a day in my street market.

I could open the fruit stand if I could get the hammers but at level 38 there's really no point as I only have apple pie open to me and the rest, including the drink machine, isn't for a levels yet. No point in wasting the tools. *shrugs*

ETA: I just changed my mind. My next upgrade is going to be to the general store for x4. I have all I need and I'm getting annoyed waiting for Rice and Sugar when I need it, not to mention that pesky 5 minutes in between waiting for Pasta refresh makes my finger itch over the gem button. LMAO!!!

tiggerhobbes
03-16-15, 06:56 AM
General store turns out to be a pretty good upgrade as its relatively coins cheap, and as you level up (plus the recent changes in the spice station) you will need sugar for all the upper level cooking stations anyway.

I should have enough coins to upgrade my GS by tomorrow (1,260,000) but I think I'm going to wait for the fruit market (1,680,000). Which means I technically have some times to go before upgrading anything, which gives me itchy fingers to potentially maybe upgrade my street market to 20th slot o.O (which I already have all the parts.)

It all depends if the herbs lady rains seeds on me again. She comes, she goes. When it rains it pours, my tool box is entirely at her mercy.

queentina3
03-16-15, 07:37 AM
It all depends if the herbs lady rains seeds on me again. She comes, she goes. When it rains it pours, my tool box is entirely at her mercy.

You know it is funny you say that about Lilly as I've noticed the same thing with her and the garden in general. I have 6 plots open and the other day was inundated with vanilla with a garlic, basil, ginger being a rarity. That worked out well for me as I was able to make a ton of the Mastery Spice and flew threw the rest of the Irish Goals, but, now I can't get vanilla at all and am inundated with basil to the point that I'm having to make the dishes that require it just to get rid of it. I don't want to delete it like I do when I get the over-abundance of ginger (which I can't use in any dish yet).

Yesterday Lilly dropped me seeds almost every time I saw her, yet the day before I was lucky to get anything other than basil from her. So far today she's dropped garlic and a seed and my garden is constantly being re-plotted with garlic and basil, no ginger or vanilla dropping thus far.

It is like things are on a schedule - one day you get a ton of one thing and then the next, none of it but a ton of another.

tiggerhobbes
03-16-15, 08:24 AM
I have the same feelings about "scheduled drops.". But not just with Lilly (that her name?). CID is like that too, there are days I'll be screaming at him to stop dropping hammers on my new tile floor. On hammers day (almost) all he drops is hammers. On blueprints day all he drops is blueprints.

And I tend to get a lot of the same valuable ingredients in the street market in one day. Some days I get a lot of mushrooms, someways I get a lot of sugar, some days I get a lot of onions, but it's seldom an even mix.

PraxisOfGood
03-16-15, 08:32 AM
I seem to be going through spices fairly evenly now. My garlic is going to prime rib, split pea soup, and dough with what's left over, (I bought a second chateau stove with gems because I like those recipes so much) my basil is going to enough tomato sauce to keep making pizza marinara when I can and bruschetta with what's left, and my ginger is going to ginger tea and apple ginger chicken when the chateau stove is empty. The vanilla is coming rarely enough that I haven't unlocked any recipes for it yet, but I'm happy making mastery spice at least until I'm done with the triple decker sandwich challenge.

I seem to be stockpiling cash right now, because I don't really have anything that I need. Pushing my fruit market to 3 wouldn't really let me make drinks any faster than I'm getting at 2. I'm gathering blueprints for expansion 11, and going back and forth between expanding my street market and pantry when my toolbox gets full of nails.

queentina3
03-16-15, 08:39 AM
I have yet to learn Prime Rib and Bruschetta just opened up for me to learn, just haven't done it yet. I was going to wait until I could get the second chateau stove before tackling Prime Rib as it takes 2 days to learn and I've been making pea soup with the only one I have. Bruschetta is one I haven't checked yet but I'm using the two Deli's to master cucumber sandwiches while switching with tuna to use up mayo. Then I'll have the BLT to master as I want to open the Triple Decker. Depending on the length of time it takes to learn, and cost, I may hold off a bit longer on Bruschetta as well, though it is tempting to learn it if it uses spice as that is a nice dump-off for overflow. Hmmm........

tiggerhobbes
03-16-15, 08:49 AM
Just a thought, bruschetta is a 6 coins recipe, the more 6 coins recipes you have on your counters, the faster you will earn coins.

I know that my rate of income definitely jumped after I deleted older 3 coins recipes and replaced them with 5 to 6 ( and now 10) coins dishes. Especially when you need coins badly right now, bruschetta, apple pies, veggie pizza, marg pizza, veg sushi, mushroom risottos are excellent dishes to sell.

In fact I like these dishes so much I'm still making them even after I've mastered them.

queentina3
03-16-15, 09:05 AM
Ok, I've checked and it is 48,000 and 3.5 hours to learn so next time my deli is open I'll put it on. I'm always selling out all my food so the more coin I get while I have food on the counters the better off I'll be. I just lost a ton by upgrading the grocer. I messed up that upgrade too as I did it before I collected from the items, losing the chance at additional amounts. I'm so stupid. :(

tiggerhobbes
03-16-15, 09:15 AM
Aww don't beat yourself up over something like that, it just a little blip over the long run, the sooner you've got the grocer going the more advantages you will have over time anyway :-)

Simdiva
03-16-15, 03:55 PM
I have been playing for eight days and am now at level 21 with a pantry of 50? Street is at six, and restaurant at level seven. I have my pizza oven and mixer as well. Im debating what to do next, whether I should work on more upgrades to shops or go with getting the deli. Im also wondering just how far i should e oand out the restaurant prior yo getting the seafood as it almost seems wasteful. Any thoughts here? I am happy to see cash accumulates quickly if you are dedicated and cook the right stuff!

queentina3
03-16-15, 04:06 PM
I have been playing for eight days and am now at level 21 with a pantry of 50? Street is at six, and restaurant at level seven. I have my pizza oven and mixer as well. Im debating what to do next, whether I should work on more upgrades to shops or go with getting the deli. Im also wondering just how far i should e oand out the restaurant prior yo getting the seafood as it almost seems wasteful. Any thoughts here? I am happy to see cash accumulates quickly if you are dedicated and cook the right stuff!

I think many of us can give you better answers later or even tomorrow once all the changes TL is currently making to recipe ingredients, timing on recipes cooking and ingredients refreshing, as well as any cost changes (recipes, ingredients, street market) have fully sunk in. Things we would have told you earlier today most likely no longer apply.

For instance, I would have said go for the Deli but now, with some changes to recipes, that may not still be the case to get the most bang for your buck.

Simdiva
03-16-15, 04:26 PM
Great thanks I will hold off, just upgraded pantry for now

queentina3
03-16-15, 04:28 PM
Great thanks I will hold off, just upgraded pantry for now

There you go as you can always use more space and that only costs you tools, not coins. Great job! :D

ShirleysFantasy
03-16-15, 05:04 PM
Do not bother with upgrading your street market. It's worthless now with the horrible changes they made. Boy I wanted to put an adjective in there. Save your parts for upgrading the stores and your restaurant.

ellyse99
03-16-15, 05:34 PM
Always upgrade pantry capacity first, what good are all the ingredients out there if you can't stockpile?
Then I'd say upgrade street market, but now with the street market prices gone crazy, don't bother with it.
Assuming you have enough space to put the max number of tables and chairs, upgrade restaurant size as necessary for you to open stores eg seafood shop.
Other than that, I find it best to upgrade veggie store (as much as possible), then seafood store, then either general store or butcher, and lastly fruit store.
Mine is at 3 for general store (just upgraded few mins ago in response to crazy street market prices), 3 for butcher, 4 for veggie store, 3 for seafood store, and 1 for fruit store. I'll be looking to upgrade to 5 for veggie as soon as I get enough resources.

cathycathy1
03-18-15, 06:14 AM
Don't upgrade the street market, it is worthless due to the crazy high prices.