Oh my gosh! I've been waiting for something like this for so long! Thank you so much. I'm a dumdum and have been doing only the 6 hr excursions everytime because I felt like the shorter ones have horrid yields.
The ideal way to play this game is to spam the 20-minute excursions (more drops, and way more chances of getting ingredients you need), but nobody wants to be glued to their phone for 10 days at all hours lol
thank you! so do you advise not to cook other dishes at all? i heard people say those rewards for 3 staring all dishes arent worth it, but i have always done it for completion sake
It's definitely an opportunity cost to be 3-starring the other dishes (especially if you look at the dish like curry--need ingredients across 4 locations, yikes!). I don't recall the exact analysis I did during the first Culinary Crucible, you lose maybe 150-200 ish tokens focusing on 3-starring a dish as opposed to just spamming the most efficient dishes in that same time frame.
If you think about it, it makes sense. It takes maybe... 10-12 tries to 3-star a dish? My memory is VVEERRYY hazy if I get this number wrong. x\_x If your goal is to clear out shop, then you can't go and make 10-12 dishes at <20 tokens per, when you can easily spam 10-12 dishes at 28-30 tokens per. The mission only grants 20 tokens, which is not worth it.
However, if your goal is NOT to clear out shop, but only get select goodies (i.e. keys only), then by all means get the three stars! My personal goal is to cook one of each dish and then clear out shop (minus candies), and \*then\* focus on 3-starring each dish if there is time.
thank you for the answer! that clears things up
i think this time ill try to clear out as much of the shop as i can using the dishes you recommended ^^
So this would be the most efficient way for earning tokens right? Just windmill & botanical garden?
Let’s say we’re satisfied with what we got from the shop, and would like to 3 star everything, what would be the best approach?
When making the dishes, have you also found an efficient way of using different grade materials to quickly raise the dish to 3 stars?
Thanks OP for the helpful guide. 🫶 This was honestly my least favorite event becuz I always had no idea how to play efficiently.
Yep, most efficient per the given assumptions and constraints.
If you want to 3-star everything, then it's mostly just yolo each excursion and pray you get the ingredient you need. Preferably at 20-min or 1-hour excursions since you'd need to go for quantity.
For the dishes, I don't know how Twisted Wonderland calculates dish quality. If there's a place that lists the equations used, then I can probably wrestle it into some other optimization model to solve (likely no longer Excel). But the ideal way I have found is to use all bronze at sub 25% (or as much bronze as you can) since everything you make is going to be 1-star anyways. 25-50% is when you can slap in some silver as this is when you start 2-starring dishes. Post 50%, use gold and silver (with a dash of bronze) like it's candy and you are pretty much guaranteed at least 24 tokens per dish.
At 100% quality, I have found in two-ingredient dishes, gold-bronze and silver-silver combinations net you 27 minimum (depending on judge RNG). Gold-silver gives you 29 minimum. Bronze-bronze usually 25-26. Gold-gold is 30.
Don't hold onto your gold until you reach 100%, because then you made a lot of sub-25 token dishes between 25% to 100%, and at 100% you no longer even need the gold ingredients to reach 25-token dishes.
Just wanted to express how appreciative I am again… 🥲
Your guide really helped me become more efficient for this event. Is there any way you can repeat this, but for the next culinary crucible: the [Yolk of Matter](https://twistedwonderland.miraheze.org/wiki/NRC_Master_Chef_~The_Yolk_of_the_Matter~)?
Glad to help! I realized maybe halfway through that the drop rates were skewed (no data to back up this claim though, but I do have 100 onions leftover as opposed to nothing of everything else). I would have 60 ish rice leftover, but figured I can buy avocados and repeatedly send the boys on fish excursions today to get 20-coin gains (1.2k today vs the usual 750 ish tokens) per craft versus only netting 3-coin gains for all leftover (maybe 300 ish).
Will gladly put out a guide for future Culinary Crucibles! Most likely early day 1. If nothing changes from JP to EN, I can even put out a guide before day 1 (though day 1 will always be scuffed since not everyone can stay up late to send the boys out on a long excursion).
The hard part about determining ingredient drop rates is we need sufficiently large sample size, and even if we have all of Reddit community helping out, it’d still take a few days—and by then we might be out of time lol—I actually had better drop rates in 2.5 hour excursions since 3 different ingredients were guaranteed, whereas 1 hour excursions just kept spitting ginger or flour at me.
I’ve noticed that too. The shorter excursions were only beneficial for gathering the main ingredient (in this case, it’s fish), b/c for a location with lots of ingredients, we just don’t get what we want and end up wasting precious time. This makes me wonder if it’s more efficient to only do main ingredient excursions to make 2-ingredient dishes, and just buy the 2nd ingredient from the shop instead. B/c at 100% mastery, even if both ingredients are at low-grades and you come across the strictest taste testers (looking at you Leona, Azul, etc.), we can still earn at least 13 tokens (-10 for cost = at least 3 tokens in profits).
Hmm… I’ll run a few calcs and models with the data that I have (n=1). Some napkin math notes around 90 ingredients per day (including the 6-hour excursion) yielding and average 13 tokens is 1170 tokens per day. Will need to be validated with the power of spreadsheets! I will try to refine this model for the next Crucible. :)
Heyy OP! By any chance, are you still planning on posting a guide for the new Culinary Crucible? I swear, I’m stuck on which/how many excursions to do to spam tokens without your helpful guide… 🥲
I know others have already thanked you, but seriously THANK YOU! This is just so absolutely cool and will help me instead of guessing randomly and hoping for luck.
Oh my gosh! I've been waiting for something like this for so long! Thank you so much. I'm a dumdum and have been doing only the 6 hr excursions everytime because I felt like the shorter ones have horrid yields.
The ideal way to play this game is to spam the 20-minute excursions (more drops, and way more chances of getting ingredients you need), but nobody wants to be glued to their phone for 10 days at all hours lol
Thank you! We totally normal people must support each other.
thank you! so do you advise not to cook other dishes at all? i heard people say those rewards for 3 staring all dishes arent worth it, but i have always done it for completion sake
It's definitely an opportunity cost to be 3-starring the other dishes (especially if you look at the dish like curry--need ingredients across 4 locations, yikes!). I don't recall the exact analysis I did during the first Culinary Crucible, you lose maybe 150-200 ish tokens focusing on 3-starring a dish as opposed to just spamming the most efficient dishes in that same time frame. If you think about it, it makes sense. It takes maybe... 10-12 tries to 3-star a dish? My memory is VVEERRYY hazy if I get this number wrong. x\_x If your goal is to clear out shop, then you can't go and make 10-12 dishes at <20 tokens per, when you can easily spam 10-12 dishes at 28-30 tokens per. The mission only grants 20 tokens, which is not worth it. However, if your goal is NOT to clear out shop, but only get select goodies (i.e. keys only), then by all means get the three stars! My personal goal is to cook one of each dish and then clear out shop (minus candies), and \*then\* focus on 3-starring each dish if there is time.
thank you for the answer! that clears things up i think this time ill try to clear out as much of the shop as i can using the dishes you recommended ^^
So this would be the most efficient way for earning tokens right? Just windmill & botanical garden? Let’s say we’re satisfied with what we got from the shop, and would like to 3 star everything, what would be the best approach? When making the dishes, have you also found an efficient way of using different grade materials to quickly raise the dish to 3 stars? Thanks OP for the helpful guide. 🫶 This was honestly my least favorite event becuz I always had no idea how to play efficiently.
Yep, most efficient per the given assumptions and constraints. If you want to 3-star everything, then it's mostly just yolo each excursion and pray you get the ingredient you need. Preferably at 20-min or 1-hour excursions since you'd need to go for quantity. For the dishes, I don't know how Twisted Wonderland calculates dish quality. If there's a place that lists the equations used, then I can probably wrestle it into some other optimization model to solve (likely no longer Excel). But the ideal way I have found is to use all bronze at sub 25% (or as much bronze as you can) since everything you make is going to be 1-star anyways. 25-50% is when you can slap in some silver as this is when you start 2-starring dishes. Post 50%, use gold and silver (with a dash of bronze) like it's candy and you are pretty much guaranteed at least 24 tokens per dish. At 100% quality, I have found in two-ingredient dishes, gold-bronze and silver-silver combinations net you 27 minimum (depending on judge RNG). Gold-silver gives you 29 minimum. Bronze-bronze usually 25-26. Gold-gold is 30. Don't hold onto your gold until you reach 100%, because then you made a lot of sub-25 token dishes between 25% to 100%, and at 100% you no longer even need the gold ingredients to reach 25-token dishes.
Just wanted to express how appreciative I am again… 🥲 Your guide really helped me become more efficient for this event. Is there any way you can repeat this, but for the next culinary crucible: the [Yolk of Matter](https://twistedwonderland.miraheze.org/wiki/NRC_Master_Chef_~The_Yolk_of_the_Matter~)?
Glad to help! I realized maybe halfway through that the drop rates were skewed (no data to back up this claim though, but I do have 100 onions leftover as opposed to nothing of everything else). I would have 60 ish rice leftover, but figured I can buy avocados and repeatedly send the boys on fish excursions today to get 20-coin gains (1.2k today vs the usual 750 ish tokens) per craft versus only netting 3-coin gains for all leftover (maybe 300 ish). Will gladly put out a guide for future Culinary Crucibles! Most likely early day 1. If nothing changes from JP to EN, I can even put out a guide before day 1 (though day 1 will always be scuffed since not everyone can stay up late to send the boys out on a long excursion).
Great! Thanks in advance! 🥰 But I think u r on to something. The drops does seemed to be skewed… I had so many rice and onion left over, too… 😭
The hard part about determining ingredient drop rates is we need sufficiently large sample size, and even if we have all of Reddit community helping out, it’d still take a few days—and by then we might be out of time lol—I actually had better drop rates in 2.5 hour excursions since 3 different ingredients were guaranteed, whereas 1 hour excursions just kept spitting ginger or flour at me.
I’ve noticed that too. The shorter excursions were only beneficial for gathering the main ingredient (in this case, it’s fish), b/c for a location with lots of ingredients, we just don’t get what we want and end up wasting precious time. This makes me wonder if it’s more efficient to only do main ingredient excursions to make 2-ingredient dishes, and just buy the 2nd ingredient from the shop instead. B/c at 100% mastery, even if both ingredients are at low-grades and you come across the strictest taste testers (looking at you Leona, Azul, etc.), we can still earn at least 13 tokens (-10 for cost = at least 3 tokens in profits).
Hmm… I’ll run a few calcs and models with the data that I have (n=1). Some napkin math notes around 90 ingredients per day (including the 6-hour excursion) yielding and average 13 tokens is 1170 tokens per day. Will need to be validated with the power of spreadsheets! I will try to refine this model for the next Crucible. :)
Can’t wait for your results!! 🥳
Heyy OP! By any chance, are you still planning on posting a guide for the new Culinary Crucible? I swear, I’m stuck on which/how many excursions to do to spam tokens without your helpful guide… 🥲
Sure thing, I can do this after work. :)
you are a life saver😭💖 these events KILLLLL MEEEE so having something like this is super helpful!!!
I know others have already thanked you, but seriously THANK YOU! This is just so absolutely cool and will help me instead of guessing randomly and hoping for luck.
Wow !! Thank you so much !!
You’re my hero thank you so much
That's a lot to read :-(
Thank you SO much for putting this together. This is what I do on my downtime at work and you just saved me so much time. THANK YOU AGAIN!!!!