Team 17’s latest title, Automachef is a resource management puzzler. It requires you to build a fully automated kitchen, which can deliver a range of recipes to hungry customers. As you play through the levels you’ll unlock different machines, new recipes and more complex levels.
My first guide covered the basic machines, including order readers. It also tells you how to save space by using clustered layouts, conserve power using machine settings, and save time by utilizing blueprints. In this more advanced guide we’ll look at more complex machines, the introduction of risks, how to use storage units and other ways to save energy.
Understanding More Complex Machines
Once you’ve got past the first few levels, the machines will get more complex. One of the first you will see is the splitter. This sends ingredients alternatively to two different conveyors. There’s also a long robotic arm.
The splitter can be useful but it will just divide ingredients directly in half, meaning that unless the orders are reasonably equal there are often better ways of sending ingredients to two places.
The long robotic arm on the other hand is incredibly useful. It will pick up and put down items up to 2 tiles away. It’s also faster than the normal arms, while also being configurable, like a smart arm. This is best used to help move ingredients from areas where they stack up, for instance when you are dispensing multiple ingredients into one food processor.
Risks
As the machines get more complex they also introduce risks. The first risk you’ll encounter is fire. If ingredients are left in fryers or on grills for too long then they can catch fire. This risk can be managed by either working to prevent the risk or adding in counter measures to put out any fires.
To manage the risks, ensure that your production line is running smoothly. Robot arms need to be configured properly so that cooked food is quickly removed from fryers or grills, especially conveyor grills or convection fryers. These advanced machines cook much faster but are also a huge fire risk.
There are two types of fire prevention device. The first is the sprinkler. This is inexpensive and will spray water in the immediate area. It works well but will also soak and spoil nearby ingredients.
The robotic fire arm will spray only the fire but is more expensive and takes time to recharge. It also consumes more power.
Advanced Energy Saving
Power consumption becomes more important as the levels progress. While one of the quickest ways to save power is by changing the settings on machines, this will slow down production. As you get further through the campaign, this option won’t always be viable, so you need to consider other solutions.
The main alternatives are using fewer high energy machines, utilizing storage units and configuring extra order readers to control high power machines.
Two Recipes One Grill
While fryers can only cook one item at once, a grill can cook up to four. This means that some simpler recipes can be managed using only one grill. For very basic recipes you can even use one grill for two different recipes.
The main thing to check is the configuration of the robot arms. In the example above one smart arm will only pick up cooked hot dogs and the other will only pick up cooked patties. This means that the correct ingredients are going into the correct assembler.
You can also see that not only does this system only use one grill but it also eliminates a number of extra robot arms and conveyor belts by using one dumb arm to feed two lots of ingredients onto the grill.
Storage Units
Storage units will keep food from going off and they are best used when starting to make combo meals. A combo meal requires a standard dish, such as a burger, and some fries. These are then packaged together. In certain levels fries can also be ordered on their own. This is where storage units come into use.
First set up a production line to make fries. At the end of the line add a dumb robot arm, followed by a storage unit. This robot arm will then put all the fries into the unit.
In order to dispense them to the correct place you will need smart arms and order readers. I used three to make the set up shown above.
The first one controls the Dopamine meal production. It’s configured to dispense a patty, burger bun, and turn on the burger assembler. I then used the fourth slot to configure one of the smart arms to do one action when an order comes in. The smart arm’s action is to pick up the fries so when a dopamine order comes in it will put them on the conveyor, ready to be packaged.
The second order machine is configured to make the fries. It dispenses a potato when an order for either fries or a dopamine meal comes in. It also turns on the food processor, fryer and packager.
The final machine controls the fries orders. It is just linked to the other smart arm and will perform one action only when a fries order comes in, adding one portion of fries to a conveyor which goes straight to the restaurant.
Progression
As previously mentioned, the best way to ensure your kitchen is functioning is to test the recipes. Click on a recipe and hit simulate order. This will produce one order, giving you a good idea of if your set up is correctly configured.
Automachef gets incredibly complex as you progress but these tips should help you to solve more levels and make more dishes. Just watch out for your helper, I’m not entirely sure he’s on the level.
