Some people say that the environment is more important than the food.
Have you ever thought about running your own restaurant? In PlateUp!, you’ll be in charge of making sure that all of your customers have a good time. PlateUp! can be played by yourself, or you can bring up to three friends with you on your cooking journey for a fun cooperative task.
You can choose between two Theme cards on the sixth day of a game. Themes have three levels, and each level gives your restaurant a new benefit. You can move up in Tiers by putting up Decorations that give your business Theme points. You can’t change your restaurant’s theme for the rest of the run, even if you franchise it.
The great thing about PlateUp! is that any theme can work well when the time is right. Don’t let these scores be your only guide: think about which Theme will help your run the most.
Formal: Keep The Floor Clean
When people eat, they make messes, and tools like Hobs can also make messes when cooking food. If you let messes build up, it will take a long time to clean them up. In PlateUp!, where you are racing against the clock, this is very bad. If food is all over your workspace and slowing you down, Formal could be the right Theme for you.
Formal’s Bonuses
- Tier 1 (3 points) : Customers and food appliances, like stoves, make less of a mess.
- Tier 2 (6 points) : Every time a piece of food is brought to the table, the customer’s patience with delivery goes up by 500%.
- Tier 3 (9 points) : The buyers don’t make any mess.
Tier 1 and Tier 3 of Formal are both about making less mess, with Tier 3 completely getting rid of the mess people make. Customers also make more mistakes when they are near things like trash cans and sinks. So, Formal can be a huge help when you don’t have much room and have to put Dining Tables next to these items.
The Formal Tier 2 bonus can be helpful if your kitchen is far from where you eat. You’ll have more time to handle the Delivery phase, which is great if you make a mistake like mixing up a customer’s order during the Delivery phase.
In addition to the benefits of Formal, PlateUp! has things like Kitchen Floor Protectors that can help prevent or clean up messes. Tier 2 of Formal helps during the Delivery part, but it doesn’t give any bonuses for getting customers in and out of your restaurant, which becomes more and more important as a run goes on. All in all, Formal is a casual pick. It’s useful, but it’s not anything that will blow your mind.
Exclusive: You’ll Wait Outside, And You’ll Like It
When all of the tables in your restaurant are taken, people will form a queue outside and start to lose patience. This behaviour is encouraged by the Exclusive Theme, which gives you more time to clear tables when your restaurant is busy.
Exclusive’s Bonuses
- Tier 1 (3 points) : Increases Queue patience by 33 percent. Queue patience is how long people will wait in queue outside the restaurant.
- Tier 2 (6 points) : Every time an item is brought, you get one extra coin.
- Tier 3 (9 points) : While customers are in the Queue outside the restaurant, table patience does not reduce. This includes customers who are patiently waiting at coffee tables while they are being seated.
Exclusive’s Tier 1’s bonus gives you a fair bonus to queue patience. When you add the Tier 3 extra to it, you won’t have to worry about any of the Patience metres inside your restaurant as long as people are waiting outside. Even so, you’ll still want to help your customers as fast as you can. Even with the bonus Queue patience, you’ll still be racing against the clock.
Tier 2 gives you a simple gain that has no drawbacks. Since you’ll get an extra coin every time you bring something to a table, this bonus works well with bonus foods like Starters, Sides, and Desserts at your restaurant. One gold per item adds up quickly, so this bonus will help you buy more things than on other runs.
Affordable: A Quick Pit Stop Is All I Need
The word “Affordable” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Exclusive” or “Formal,” but this Theme works hard and gives you a lot for your money. More than anything else, being cheap is what makes a restaurant successful.
Affordable’s Bonuses
- Tier 1 (3 points) : The lengths of the Eating and Thinking stages are cut in half.
- Tier 2 (6 points) : When a customer leaves, there is a 50% chance that Table Consumables will still be there.
- Tier 3 (9 points) : The waiting time for food is cut in half, and the Delivery part is added to the waiting time for food.
The best thing about Affordable is its Tier 1 bonus. The Eating and Thinking steps always slow down the service at a table, so shortening them lets people leave faster. Table Consumables like the Specials Menu and Candle Box are, at best, situational choices for your business. This makes Tier 2 almost always useless. When playing with other people, you might have time to place these things, but when you’re playing alone, it’s pretty much impossible.
The main benefit of Tier 3 of Affordable is that it combines the Delivery and Waiting For Food phases into one. Even though delivering food to a table will reduce the total patience for this part by 50%, you won’t lose a lot of patience very quickly.
The best buff from Affordable is on Tier 1, so you only need three points worth of Decorations to get it. This makes Affordable a good choice for most places, even if you don’t manage to unlock its second and third tiers.
Charming: Don’t Mind The Dirty Plates
Charming’s Bonuses
Customers will give you a lot more freedom if you serve them with a smile and a friendly attitude. Even the pile of dirty dishes on their table won’t bother them.
- Tier 1 (3 points) : Bonus 50 percent Service patience.
- Tier 2 (6 points) : When a person is close to a table, the table’s Patience gets a 50% bonus. This is also true for people who are waiting at Coffee Tables.
- Tier 3 (9 points) : Customers won’t wait until a table is empty before sitting down.
Charming’s Tier 1 affects Service patience, which starts when a customer sits down and stops when you take their order. This gives you a lot more time to clean tables in an organised way.
Charming’s Tier 2 effect is useful for both solo and co-op runs. In Backrooms game, you’ll want to set up tables across from the kitchen counter. So, you’ll be close to your customers while you cook, which will make them more patient. In co-op, assign one or two players to the eating room so that this buff is almost always on.
When you get to Tier 3 of Charming, magic starts to happen. Most people won’t come into a diner and sit down until all of the tables are empty. When there are more people, this can be hard to do. Customers are happy to sit down at any open table, no matter what is on it, because of Charming.
The main problem with Charming is that its best bonus is only at Tier 3. You’ll have to spend a lot of money to get the minimum number of theme points, but the payoff is well worth it.