Everything the game doesn't tell you. Tables on this page are read straight from the game's data, so the numbers are always current.
Click the big steak to earn steaks, the game's currency. Spend them on kitchen equipment (the shop on the right). Equipment cooks steaks for you every second, even while the game is closed (at half speed for up to 2 hours, unless you buy Chef's Secrets that extend it).
You move up a stage when your lifetime steaks reach the target. Stages are never lost, not even after a Cook-off.
Rough times for a first playthrough with steady clicking. Your times will differ.
| Feature | Unlocks at | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Chef Skills | Dishwasher stage | ~2 min |
| Service styles | Delivery Runner stage | ~6 min |
| Kitchen Demon | Prep Cook stage | ~12 min |
| Seasons | Knife Guy stage | ~35 min |
| Pests & Critics | 200M lifetime steaks or Recipe Blogger | ~50 min |
| Cook-off (Stars) | Recipe Blogger stage | ~1 h |
| Sourdough | 1B lifetime steaks | ~1 h |
| Hellfire | 10 Line Cooks and Recipe Blogger | ~1.5 h |
| Herb Garden | A Grill Station and Head of Accounting | ~2 h |
| Exchange | Own a Walk-in Freezer | later |
| Hot Sauce | Own a Hot Sauce Lab | later |
| Shrine | Own a Diner | later |
| Cookbook | Own a Molecular Kitchen | later |
| Hell Shifts | Head Chef stage, or after your first Cook-off | later |
| Signatures & Inferno ranks | Reach Kitchen Overlord (the last stage) | endgame |
Base price and base steaks per second for each building. Upgrades multiply the base output.
Every 2 to 6 minutes a golden dumpling floats onto the screen for about 12 seconds. Click it before it disappears. It's the single biggest boost in the game.
| Result | Chance | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Tip Jar | ~37% | Instant steaks: 12% of your bank, capped at 12 minutes of production. |
| Dinner Rush | ~37% | Steaks per second ×6 for 70 seconds. |
| Overbooked | ~9% | One building you own 10+ of boosts production (+8% per building owned, up to 120) for 35 s. |
| Adrenaline | ~6% | Clicks ×80 for 12 seconds. Click as fast as you can. |
| Second Helping | 8% | A chain: dumplings come back quickly, each paying more, up to 7 in a row. |
| Sourdough loaf | ~3% | A free Sourdough loaf (after Sourdough unlocks). |
| Dumpling Rain | 1.2% | A swarm of dumplings for 12 seconds. Grab them all. |
Bought with steaks, up to level . They reset after a Cook-off (Family Notebook keeps a quarter).
Pick one focus for the run in the Chef Skills tab. You can switch every 5 minutes.
Every achievement gives +2% Reputation (the Rep chip at the top). Reputation does nothing alone. Hospitality upgrades (Clean Towels, Soft Music, Candlelit Tables…) turn it into steaks per second, each one adding a share of your Reputation. More achievements make every Hospitality upgrade stronger, so collecting them pays off.
Shadow achievements (secret, weird challenges) don't count toward Reputation. They're there for bragging rights.
The Cook-off is the prestige reset. You give up your steaks, equipment, upgrades and Chef Skills for the run, and earn Stars.
The permanent upgrade tree, bought with Stars in the Cook-off tab. Start with Kitchen Pass, it opens everything else.
After 1 billion lifetime steaks you get one Sourdough loaf every 2 real hours (offline too, up to 12 waiting) and sometimes from golden dumplings. Spend loaves in the shop to level up a building: +1% output per level, forever. A level costs its number in loaves (level 5 costs 5). Spread levels on your strongest building.
Each one has its own tab once unlocked. None of them is required, but each one adds a lot once you learn it.
Unlocks at the Prep Cook stage.
A little demon in your oven. Feed it steaks or hit equipment milestones to level it up. Higher levels unlock Pacts: auras you equip for a permanent bonus. The demon also makes short timed Demands ("buy 10 of X in 60 seconds"). Complete them for a reward.
Keep it fed. Equip the Pact that matches how you play (clicking or idle).
Unlocks at the Knife Guy stage.
Real-calendar events: New Year Banquet (January), Spring Market (March to April), Summer BBQ (June to August), Hell Night (October), Feast of Lights (December). Each gives a passive bonus while it lasts, and seasonal dishes drop from golden dumplings and cooking. Dishes are kept forever (+1% steaks per second or +2% cooking each). The last dish of every season only drops from cooking.
The Menu Swap Pass upgrade lets a run pick any season, so you can collect them all year.
Unlocks at 200M lifetime steaks or the Recipe Blogger stage.
Cockroaches scurry over your steak. Each one steals 5% of production while it's there. Click one several times to squash it: it pays back everything it stole with interest (+15%, or +30% for golden ones). Sometimes a food critic challenges you to a timed duel.
Letting roaches build up for a while and then squashing them all gives a bigger payout than squashing each one right away.
Unlocks with 10 Line Cooks at the Recipe Blogger stage.
A ladder of infernal clauses you sign with steaks. Each clause makes Line Cooks and the whole kitchen stronger, but raises Damnation (0 to 3). Higher Damnation means golden dumplings sometimes come out Charred, with a risky outcome. Exorcism pauses Damnation for 30 real minutes. The Truce ends it for the run, at a price.
Sign the first clauses early. They're cheap and Damnation stays low.
Unlocks with a Grill Station at the Head of Accounting stage.
Plant herbs that grow in real time (one tick per minute, also while closed). Ripe plants give small passive bonuses. Harvesting pays steaks or a buff. An empty plot next to two ripe parents can sprout a crossbreed, which is how you discover rarer plants.
Leave gaps between ripe plants to get crossbreeds. Harvest just before a plant dies.
Unlocks when you own a Walk-in Freezer.
A trading minigame. Ingredients from Rice Sacks to Black Truffles have prices that drift up and down. Buy low, sell high. Prices are measured in seconds of your production, so the game stays useful at any size.
Every ingredient swings around its normal price. Buy when it's far below and wait.
Unlocks when you own a Hot Sauce Lab.
Splash sauces into a few rack slots. Each lasts 10 real minutes and gives a bonus (clicks, production, dumpling rate, cheaper equipment…). Some pairs make a combo. Every splash builds spice tolerance, which weakens all effects, and too much triggers a Meltdown.
Don't splash nonstop. Let tolerance cool down and use sauces before a big dumpling combo.
Unlocks when you own a Diner.
Three niches, Gold, Copper and Tin, hold saints at 100%, 50% and 25% strength. Each saint has a blessing and a curse, and both scale with the niche. Moving saints costs Devotion (max 3, +1 per real hour). Saints stay through Cook-offs, and each Cook-off gives one free placement.
Put the saint whose curse you don't care about in Gold.
Unlocks when you own a Molecular Kitchen.
Cast recipe-spells with Ink, which refills over real time (slower when the book is nearly dry). Spells range from instant steaks to summoning a golden dumpling or making your equipment haunted. Every spell can misfire, and it's more likely when the book is dry or you cast too often.
Keep the book mostly full. Golden Dumpling Invocation during a Dinner Rush is the classic combo.
Unlocks at the Head Chef stage, or after your first Cook-off.
Handicapped runs (Power Outage, Health Inspection, Burnt Hand, Broken Supplier, Dumpling Drought, Gas Leak). Start one with a Cook-off and reach the target to earn a permanent +4% bonus. The Simmer switch is also here.
Do them once you have a solid set of Chef's Secrets. They're much easier with Stars behind you.
Reach the last stage, Kitchen Overlord, to open the endless phase.