Do opponent chefs mean anything??

[Monochrome]

I mean, I welcome it, fighting, idk, Thrash over and over would be boring as heck but is there any gameplay effect tied to who you are fightning?? Does the difficulty, judges or theme change?? Is it only relevant for their defeat reward????

[TrinketTom]

The difficulty, judges, theme ingredient, and biome change in each battle. Perhaps you're talking about the Daily Cook-Off? That changes each day, at least :)

[Monochrome]

No, what I mean is does the character that you are competing against effect the fight??
Like, is a fight against Thrash different than against Ziggy, gameplay wise??

[TrinketTom]

Ah, no. We prototyped some spells for them to cast on the player, but it was too much for players to handle since we already have so many mechanics. We'd like to bring those back eventually, though :)

[Ouroboros]

Hmm... maybe not a modifier for combat, but instead one for the cooking?

So, you battle Ziggy. You get to choose one of the criteria, and Ziggy chooses that the dish has to be 'greasy', or that you'll be using greasy/fatty ingredients, or whatever. And then if you beat him, you unlock that as one of the criteria you can choose against other chefs.

Some random ideas...

Thrash: Thrash likes firey, spicy food. If it's not spicy enough? THROW IT OUT! Blue and Green gems are destroyed if they hit the bottom row (except on a cutting board).

Ziggy: Ziggy specializes in fast food! The timer is reduced by 30 seconds per judge. But on the bright side, cooking times are cut in half.

Mina: Mina's starting specialty is experimental quisine. Monsters from other biomes have a chance to spawn, and using a part from one grants bonus points.

(Past this point I start blanking on character names)

Shiv(?): Hey, who says poison can't be seasoning? All ingredients are poisonous. Poison gems take one more move before bursting.

Dwarf guy: Not a fancy chef, but a good one. Who needs 100 ingredients when 3 will do? Whichever dish has fewer ingredients will get a bonus for simplicity.

Aaaaand, some that don't go with any specific character off the top of my head:

Tier 3 gems can't be moved
Making a match destroys all lower-tier gems of the same color
The judges each want 4 small (2x2 maximum) courses instead of one big one

[Ferric Phoenix]

Ouroboros, I don't say this lightly, but that is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GENIUS. I *LOVE* that idea!!