OC2/AYCE Tech v1.0

This guide is intended for players with a moderate amount of experience covering the basics of the technical side of OC2/AYCE gameplay.

Intro

***I was going to have this guide posted for OC2 and AYCE, but there's no easy way to update them both at the same time. Leaving this one as-is and only updating the one found under AYCE, as it probably reaches a larger audience that would use these guides. If you like what you see and want to see a more current version: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2456165919

This guide is intended for players with a moderate amount of experience covering the basics of the technical side of OC2/AYCE gameplay (if something doesn’t seem clear, or you serve anything servable in arcade lobbys, I would recommend checking out nablet’s guide: here). I’m working on a longer guide detailing more advanced topics but it’s proving to be a nightmare to edit, in the meantime I hope this is helpful to some.

Controls will be listed from a Nintendo Switch perspective and physical layout:
A - Pickup/Drop
B - Dash
X - Chop/Throw
I would highly recommend this configuration or this with dash set to left trigger/left bumper (thumb less busy) as they both allow rolling A and X inputs and plate throwing. The “Xbox” layout where A and B swapped does not allow rolling A and X inputs, but to each their own.

Dashing

• Dashing has a cooldown
  
• Cooldown seems slightly shorter in multiplayer than solo (can dash faster)
  
• It is much more worthwhile to aim to dash just after the cooldown ends, rather than spam as the game doesn’t allow buffered dash input (for those familiar: similar to semi autos in FPSs not performing their best when spammed)
  
• Want to face the direction before dashing, if you don’t, you fishtail and costs time/fall/bump things, it’s worth the couple frames lost to turn -> then dashing

Chopping

• 7s in solo, 6 audible clicks in multiplayer
  
• You don’t have to repress X to chop a new ingredient, you can walk up to an ingredient on a chopping board holding chop, and will start chopping
  
• Worthwhile to learn how to roll thumb across A and X (rolling AX is also beneficial for quickly picking up and throwing)
  
• This is used when holding an ingredient at a chopping board, placing, and chopping instantly
  
• Much faster than raising the thumb between the two buttons individually
  
• The AX order doesn’t actually matter, as long you don’t let go of X (throw) before pressing A… but it’s easiest/better to roll thumb over AX
  
• Would highly recommend the “Nintendo switch” layout rather than the “Xbox”, or some layout conducive to pressing A and then X easily in succession
  
• Double chopping: Mostly applies to solo, as the chop time is longer. Helps as you would expect it to, can benefit in scenarios where you want to throw on ingredients asap

Throwing

• About 7 tiles
  
• Only ingredients can be thrown with X, see below* for info on other objects
  
• If you accidentally press and hold X, then realize you don’t want to throw the object, pressing A will drop the object
  
• To throw without moving in that direction: hold X, aim (and do not change direction, even slightly) let go of X
  
• This can be helpful when you don’t want to move in that direction after throwing (e.g. Carnival 3-2)
  
• Also, helpful when you want to throw multiple ingredients from a spawn:
  
• Take ingredient, hold X, aim (don’t change angle from here onward), let go of X to throw, then continue alternating A and X to throw more without moving (more efficient than multiple trips back and forth moving them by hand)
  
• Note, you cannot spam AX fully, you have to space the A inputs (see why in “Pick-up/Drop section)
  
• Can be annoying when you DO want to move in that direction after throwing and appear to be stuck
  
• Briefly changing direction after throwing allows movement again
  
• Plate throwing
  
• Every holdable object can be “thrown” with a technique called plate throwing
  
• Less distance (5~ tiles max, but heavily depends on when you plate throw, and how simultaneous the AB press is)
  
• Relatively small time-save and complex compared to the rest of this guide – Don’t stress it much
  
• Many detailed guides out there (I would recommend aychaplin’s videos on youtube) but the basics:
  
• Walk in the direction you want to plate throw
  
• Simultaneously press A and B with your thumb across both buttons (or remap dash to something like L), [and continue to walk in that direction for a moment]
  
• [Bracketed] step is not fully essential, allows for slightly more distance
  
• Be careful that your dash is not on a cooldown
  
• If trying to throw across a gap and not die, pulling away too early can result in not enough distance
  
• To make it easier to throw across gaps, can align where you want to throw to with the Dpad to set up an exact perpendicular angle
  
• Bit of a crutch as it takes a moment extra (but always worthwhile if say it’s the last order across a gap), worth eventually transitioning to sticking to the control stick but I think using the Dpad when learning plate throwing initially allows you to learn how to press A+B simultaneously, and when comfortable, transition to using the control stick
  
• Essentially using momentum from your dash to push the object
  
• Once an object like a plate, pan, filled tortilla etc is thrown like this, it was never intended to be caught, so the recipient must press A to grab it as it won’t auto catch
  
• You can pick up anything as long as you are equal or higher than it, a sloppy plate throw across a gap that causes the plate to fall can be saved sometimes by grabbing it as it gets near, even if it is far below your height

Catching

• If you are facing a thrown ingredient, your chef will automatically catch it
  
• In solo, as long as a chef isn’t busy with another action (e.g., chopping, washing dishes) they will also automatically turn to face the thrown ingredient (and catch it)
  
• Catching sometimes causes a ton of knock-back similar to getting hit without catching it, just a bug with no fix afaik

Pick up/Drop

• Pick-up delay:
  
  • After picking up something, {Test drop, pick-up, drop. Is there a delay there too?} a short timer starts (0.5s~)
    
  • Your next action such as dropping the object will work fine
    
  • But the next action (picking up the/another object won’t work if you haven’t waited out that timer
    
  • If you notice you’re about to do two or more actions immediately after picking up something, delay the third
    
  • These situations can be avoided at times with clever pathing (e.g. story 1-3, after serving, if the next order is cucumber-rice-nori, bring a nori with you on the way to the chopping board and place it on the counter to the right. The other player can place the plated rice on that tile, you add cucumber and serve. This saves one of these delaying situations as you’ve spaced out the A presses and passing the plate has also partially assembled the order) see 0:24 youtube time here
• When bringing an object to a destination to process (ingredient->chopping board, bowl->mixer) you can press A to place it slightly earlier than you’d expect (if walking with no dash, approx. 1 tile away), as your chef will nudge the object onto that tile (essentially a tiny plate throw) – Small time save instead of walking into counters then pressing A

Misc.

• If multiple objects are stacked on a tile (counter, chopping board etc) your chef will* interact with the one at the bottom (*it is possible to pick up the top object, but requires some precise positioning, while pressing X to chop always results in the bottom ingredient being chopped)
  
• In solo, 90% of stages will have the same orders for the first 3 to 6. If you want to get a certain score for solo, it’s worth choreographing the optimal route for these orders instead of improvising it each time
  
• How the game handles order determination is a bit beyond this guide, but for 95% of cases, a good rule of thumb is that you can expect to serve some combination of two “sets” of the level’s possible orders, then repeat. For example, if a stage has 3 possible orders, A B C, then you could spawn: ACBCBA, AABCBC, CACBBA etc. If playing solo, the game will ignore the static starting orders mentioned above, then follow this pattern
  
• You can serve anything on the menu as the last order and not lose any potential tips, as the order that breaks the tip streak still receives the tip streak. This can be beneficial as orders far right on the menu usually have a larger tip, and it grants options of what to make for that last order (e.g. very easy to make a plain pancake, complexity of a chocolate cake may not be servable)
  
• Losing the tip streak midround and rebuilding it will cost you 72 points at maximum (don't do this, but just FYI if you wrap up the round and wonder what could've been possible)
  
• If something hasn’t started mixing by 0:30~, it likely won’t ultimately be servable (12s minimum to mix from nothing, 10s or 12s to cook, few seconds travel time), so focus elsewhere on what you can serve
  
• Many stages that feature cycles (e.g. Fires under woks changing spots) will shake + earthquake audio cue a couple of seconds before the change, and also occur at the same point in the stage’s music. These will always occur at the same points in the stage’s music, as long as you don’t pause the game

I'll probably add to this over time, more than happy to answer questions here as well

[xlaserx7]

Great guide. I leveled up after reading your guide. Thank you!

[我能扛五秒]

thank you

[oEstartek]

Nice Guide

[Cornetto]

Nice guide! Thank you 👍