How Many Slots?

[mcmug17]

I don't know things cost in the 40s. Right now I'm sitting on a pile of coins that I don't have anything to spend on. I guesstimate I make around 150k coins a day. The only thing I could have bought right now is the second salad bar, but it's kinda pointless for me right now. If only I have 3 more planks I can go for expansion 10...

I don't know... The street market is more like an "optional" upgrade. Unlike expansions, you have to have upgraded to a certain level before recipes become unlocked. So I always feel that I should upgrade the "essentials" first. I still feel that I can't depend on the street market as my source of ingredients. I haven't seen a single onion for the past 2 days! Usually I have my day's recipes planned out to make the most use out of counter space and stoves and spices and coins, so having a "schedule" has helped a lot.

[nmishii]

My Street Market is at 9. I didn't care for it at first because it rarely gave me anything I needed and then I was turned off by the inundation of cucumber and mayo. I did a couple of upgrades to clean out my toolbox. Now I am getting better ingredients, but the mushrooms, onions, and peppers don't come as often as I'd like.

I chose to expand my stores instead and have been at 4 for all except 2 for the fruit stand. I never really had a big cash flow problem but I am either running out of food or have all counters filled for a few hours and be limited to cooking what I have on the fuller counters. Now that my pantry is at max I can upgrade my street market to get more of the rare items.

I also need to expand my restaurant to unlock 3 recipes. I only expanded when I could buy more tables and counters and it wouldn't fit, and now i am way short of being able to get those recipes.

[tiggerhobbes]

I think the coin shortage kicks in around the time you unlock fruit market. Buying drinks machine costs a lot, unlocking drinks recipe is exorbitant (160k to unlock one recipe), fruit market itself was expensive to unlock, you also have to pay for expansion to unlock the market itself, and then each ingredient costs some to unlock, on top of that, upgrading the fruit market is far pricier than all the other suppliers.

I also blame my coin shortage on street market strategy, basically I need to be able to cook anything the market throws at me, meaning I need to cook many different dishes, forcing me to invest in 20 counters -- the last couple of counters were also extremely expensive (over 100k).

I agree street market isn't reliable, and the only way to make it work is to also expand pantry and hoard whenever you see something good. Sometimes I leave my street market open on my desk and I will glance over to see if there anything worth collecting, and grab whatever valuable things to use later when I have time to play. You can't just open up the street market and count on it to offer anything with certainty. I mean, I can't even count on it to give me cucumber. When I need it the market withholds it.

[nmishii]

I snatch up onions, peppers, and mushrooms immediately without looking at the price, but only get 2-3 of each a day. I get tons of lobsters and only buy them if cheap. Same with butter. I also snatch potatoes. In general, I try to use the ingredients I have and if I'm short on one I might go to the street market and it might have what I need. The only time I have to make a specific dish is when my counters are full.

I had over 800k coins when the fruit stand and drink machine unlocked, so that was not a problem. I held off on the vanilla milkshake because I had to unlock milk, and didn't want my street market to have a bunch of milk when I only had one recipe. Plus it was 220k to unlock the recipe and milk. I unlocked it recently. I now have over 700k coins and am waiting for my next level and 3 recipes, and to get more hammers and nails to expand.

[tiggerhobbes]

I've eventually decided most lobster and potato recipes aren't really worth doing.

Just poped into my game, Im going to grab from street market:

Mushroom, flour, orange, pepper, chicken, seaweed, flour, apple, beef.

Letting go eggs, mayo, cheese, salmon, pea.

I do have 18 slots so I've grown used to almost always finding something rare on every refresh. It looks like I will have excess mushrooms and peppers today but not enough onions. That has become a bit of a pattern, the market tends to keep giving me two out of those three.

I basically use my suppliers like backup these days, I grab what I cook from the street market, only when I can't find them in the market do I go to the store. That way I will always have something to fall back on and won't leave a stove idle.

Until I deleted a lot of dishes last week, I almost persistently have my counters full so I could only keep cooking the same dishes. After I deleted most of this dishes last week, I now deliberately reserve a few throw away counters for dishes that I don't plan on making long term but only use for mastering recipes.

[nmishii]

My market just gave me orangex2, chickenx2, mayox2, egg, broccoli, bread. Didn't buy anything, which is the norm. Which is why I go to stores first then street market. I'd give anything for your street market.

[rosewaterlily]

I wasn't a fan of upgrading the street market very much in the mid levels (25 or so) since it was generally flooded with cucumbers and mayo. But as you need hundreds of thousands coins to learn recipes and expand restaurant in the upper levels, I had to upgrade the street market several times just to clear out my toolbox without also using coins. Presently I have 11 slots, which are reasonably useful after you get past the flood of new ingredients whenever they are unlocked. I also have four slots in veggie/general/butcher shops, 3 slots in seafood and fruit, expansion 13 completed, and 115 pantry at level 46. Right now, I'm focused upgrading pantry to the max while spending all my coins on learning recipes.

[mcmug17]

(omg I just got 3 planks in a row. I think it's a sign)

I'm more than 2.5 levels away from drink maker. I probably will be fine by then.

[tiggerhobbes]

Whew so glad I'm not the only one with coins shortage at upper levels!

Apparently I spoke too soon, market just refreshed and gave me one pepper and two onions. I will also grab rice, the rest I will let go. So far things look even, which is great for making veggie pizza.

The scary thing about my game is that I already upgraded my street market to 10 slots or so before I unlocked Cucumber, and that was way back in the days before people even knew anything about the cucumber curse. Anyway, because my market was already sufficiently large, while I did get cucumber every time, the market was still useful and diverse for me even back then, and I didn't see it as a problem.

I'll be honest, I mostly got addicted to this game because street market. Even if there's no coin shortage, I just love that random raffle experience so much, that's basically what makes this game fun for me, so I can't say I really singled out the street market for rational strategic reasons, I just really, really, really like that sort of "gamble" like game play,

[orleansparish]

I buy everything at the market, except cucumbers (they're the devil), mayo, lettuce and seaweed. Everything else can and will come in handy. I get giddy when I see lobster and the rare salmon. I make everything if I can. I tried storing my regular stoges but it drove me nuts when my cheese, pasta and tomato supply grew so I brought them back to make pasta. I don't care about the costs of the items. I now have nine slots. I just unlocked Apple cider and it's a good money maker for me. Especially since I don't get many chance to make apple pie or the veggie juice.

I make coins easily enough, but still haven't unlocked vanilla milkshake because I don't know if it's worth it yet. The fruit stand is way too darn expensive! I have two slots unlovked. I love making stew but don't usually have free steaks, potatoes and carrots at the Same time. I just made two potato soups but didn't have meat, because Id put two bittenballs or whatever it's called on.

I wish I could upgrade my veggie stand again. Because mushrooms and onions are always at short supply. But it costs way too much, so unless I save mega coins and gem it the rest of the way, my shops won't see the 5th slot ever opening. And I don't care how much money I save, I'll never throw coins at getting a third fruit slot. I cringe to think how much strawberry will cost to unlock. I'm prepared for a shock with that one.

For me, right now, the game is about saving, collecting parts to expand and have a ball Decorating. When I get bored I go tip around the block and love seeing the different styles. With max shops in fashion, bakery and RS, I want to have one here too. And I like the look of some recipes.

So my goal is expand and buy a second salad shop. I got my first with gems, same with drink machine I think and one of my sandwich makers. I'm out of gems and won't buy anytime soon again.