Version 1.10.2 Discussion: Chef duels' bizarre reshuffle, Rush Hour, Chef Challenges

So, here we are, a new venue, new prep dish and this time, a huge reshuffle on chef duels, and the introduction of chef challenges.

Gastroyacht Pacifica
The new venue. I am far from reaching XP level 24 so I can't say much about the new venue! It looks cool though! Those who have played the venue, please share your views here!

The Rush Hour Halwa
Ingredients to prep: 2 carrots and 1 cream cheese
Time to prep: 3 hr
Boost: Sits the next customer as soon as the previous one leaves

Expensive and time-consuming! Slightly discouraging to be honest. I used it once today on a chef duel, and it was so stressful. No time gap in between customers means that a blink is going to cost you!

Chef Duels
First thing I noticed was the new emblems. Still prefer the old ones though, the new ones all look the same, especially on a small phone screen...

With the introduction of the Rush Hour boost and better 'match-making' means duels become fairer. I realised I was matched with opponents with upgrade stats closer to mine as opposed to last time. Along with the new boost, this put both players on pretty similar platform to start with and it is really down to our skills in the end (provided both players used the Rush Hour boost). The difference this new boost makes is so astounding that if we don't use it, we are very likely to lose to an opponent who does. This means that if we want to stand a chance to win, we have to use the boost every single time! Ouch!

Another thing I noticed is the reshuffling among the top players. The girl, Len, who used to be the Chef Master has been bumped down and out of top ten and she's suddenly only an 'Executive Chef'? which means she only has 7 venues unlocked! If this is the case, how did she become a Chef Master in previous patches?! Besides, plenty of new faces there as well, even players like irondrummer with 5 venues unlocked! Weird thing is, I have beaten irondrummer once, and he was just a Junior Cook (1133) at that time. With Carry Four, Cook Safe and Fast Feet in BBB, he only managed to score 585. Now he's suddenly at ~1900? This seems absurd to me... Perhaps a different person is playing that account. Also the best duel scores have really soared haven't they? This is my first time seeing scores go beyond 2000! 2092 is the highest score at point of writing and it's a Saturday.



Anyway, I initiated four random duel challenges today to earn one gold from one of the daily goals. Unusually, I did not get challenged back! What's going on? Any of you experiencing the same?


Chef Challenges
Apparently this came with the latest update as well but it is not appearing on mine, at all. From the screen shots by other players, it looks cool and I really look forward to doing it! Players who have done this please share!

Another good thing that came with the latest patch: the cute little 'x' at the top-right-hand corner of prep recipe slots. It's brilliant but it's so small and thus hard to tap on on small phone screens. Not whinging! :o

Comments

  • kimmieann43113kimmieann43113 Registered Users 53 Posts
    You are right. They are computer generated. Hate them. Not even going to play chef duels anymore.
  • jt4703jt4703 Registered Users 40 Posts
    So far this update stinks for duels. I go in with 70% max on upgrades and I still am matched with players 100% in all categories. At least losing 10 points is easier to swallow than 22 however this isn't improved matching at all. I'm also not getting challenged by other users and have to start every duel. Usually before while I would play 2 or 3 matches I'd get challenged by a couple of people to play after the tokens regenerated. I've used up the free 10 tokens and my tokens have regenerated at least 3x today and ZERO challenges made by other people. I do appreciate the little x's on the prep slots to easily turn them off but it would simply be better if they were not auto populated to begin with. The thing puts your most plentiful prep item and it doesn't matter what the venue uses. I get the seasoning one on BBB all the time since that's the one I use the least and there is NOTHING to season in BBB. Useless.
  • fudgedufffudgeduff Registered Users 25 Posts
    The new chef duel's is now all about constant grinding. You are matched up with computer opponents as opposed to real life humans and you are constantly grinding to get to the top of the leaderboard. The computer opponents are fairly predictable and you don't have to post a ridiculously high score to win the duel. So far I have only gotten two challenges so far - our dear friend Len. Must be tough grinding it out on an old patch with no advantage to exploit now!

    EgDiF
  • BGen_TanBGen_Tan Registered Users 65 Posts
    Deconstructed halwa
    Pros: Pretty much replaced extra time as a new favourite dish for duel. Very effective in BBB, DnC (for the first time ever, I also soared to 2000+ with this on DnC). Fairly good at PP and PT. Because even with extra time, you'll still get empty restaurants at times, and it takes time for them to prepare their order if you're fast enough, forming ironically a bottleneck in itself. Most importantly, you're almost always guaranteed a full seat frenzy, so now the problem is just when (which set of 3 food orders) to use it best. I'd recommended when you brain-farted (stunned) at the order for a second, or when you notice that the food orders will slow you down because they make you keep going through the very same set of appliances.
    Cons: Not much use in Ultime. Puts me in dilemma for LL: usually I use fast feet, tasting spoon and food thermometer. Nobody knows if the food order is going to consists of more food going only through the glazing, mushroom and cheese more than the seasoning station itself. That could be more favourable for rush hour. There is a small chance that LL may soon no longer be the place where I have the most victories (and may start to be liked by more people) alongside PP.
    (Other restaurant not mentioned are those I have yet to unlock, or I feel not battle ready for duel. Tip: while I try my best to catch up to qualify for chef tyc.o.o.n (somehow censored as foul language), I am not willing to spend to much real money on this so I unlock a restaurant only when i can immediately upgrade all the eating speed and tip decor, and enough food price and some percentage of appliances to finish all seasons. This is to prevent a restaurant from being introduced prematurely to a duel (they are introduced from s2e5 onwards))

    Chef Duels
    Yes the new chef duels rank logo... they could have make it a bit more dramatically different. Yeah I noticed she has become the only executive chef in the list (like I usually do when I am not battered badly like last week). On the other hand, it's good to see new faces in the top 25, giving new players a chance for 100 gold. You know, if you started playing this game from about June-August last year, you will probably still have a list of very same players you defeated, that you can rematch with, that may no longer be playing this game ... if you know what I mean. ;)


    And nope, I still don't have chef challenges.

    Game ID: BGENTAN
  • LockisbettaLockisbetta Registered Users 74 Posts
    Thanks for the summary. Chef Duels are fairer but they're computer opponents as fudge mentioned. I confirmed it by looking one up and found they both had different stats and appearances.


    Fast Feet + Rush Hour is so hectic and fun!
  • BGen_TanBGen_Tan Registered Users 65 Posts
    You know the moments in Kitchen Nightmares where Ramsay is like "OMG...Jesus Christ Almighty..."?

    This is how I feel looking at these:

    n0MVaz9.jpg


    WtA5nut.jpg

    An apprentice ranked 7th, a chef de partie ranked 10th. Just how much did these players spend?
    The new Chef Master Abuelito, while I fought him before and is quite certain of his stats, wow, near 3000+ stat points.
    Assuming I start from monday as a Chef de partie, 1300, to reach that (assume 2750), on average, I need (2750 - 1300 = 1450) / 7 = approx 210 duel points per day
    assuming I keep fighting people of same rank (not higher rank nor lower, faster raise if higher obviously), never ever loses, each win is about +12 to +15. I need to win 14 matches per day.
    And that's assuming all the same rank people are noobs who forget to use any VIP meals.
    So, assuming that in every match I need to win with all 3 dishes, 3 hours per wait for 3 dishes to be prepared, minus my sleep for 8 hours, I only have 5 matches to win. (That's assuming nobody forfeits my match)
    The rest of the duel coins not used for these 5 matches, either you are lucky to find a weaker player, or you use that on chef bosses, or you waste that on a player stronger than you that you backed out from the upgrades screen before duel with the back button on Android.
    So by my pace, I can reach 1300 + (15*5*7) = 1825 (give or take, assuming zero losses). That's the score most top 10s could reach before the latest patch. (Oh and, back then reaching around 1620 is ranked around 20th for me, now it's about 80th and later)
    They surely have spent a lot of real cash on coins, and getting dishes ready.
  • dcesq06dcesq06 Registered Users 29 Posts
    BGen_Tan wrote: »
    You know the moments in Kitchen Nightmares where Ramsay is like "OMG...Jesus Christ Almighty..."?

    This is how I feel looking at these:

    n0MVaz9.jpg


    WtA5nut.jpg

    An apprentice ranked 7th, a chef de partie ranked 10th. Just how much did these players spend?
    The new Chef Master Abuelito, while I fought him before and is quite certain of his stats, wow, near 3000+ stat points.
    Assuming I start from monday as a Chef de partie, 1300, to reach that (assume 2750), on average, I need (2750 - 1300 = 1450) / 7 = approx 210 duel points per day
    assuming I keep fighting people of same rank (not higher rank nor lower, faster raise if higher obviously), never ever loses, each win is about +12 to +15. I need to win 14 matches per day.
    And that's assuming all the same rank people are noobs who forget to use any VIP meals.
    So, assuming that in every match I need to win with all 3 dishes, 3 hours per wait for 3 dishes to be prepared, minus my sleep for 8 hours, I only have 5 matches to win. (That's assuming nobody forfeits my match)
    The rest of the duel coins not used for these 5 matches, either you are lucky to find a weaker player, or you use that on chef bosses, or you waste that on a player stronger than you that you backed out from the upgrades screen before duel with the back button on Android.
    So by my pace, I can reach 1300 + (15*5*7) = 1825 (give or take, assuming zero losses). That's the score most top 10s could reach before the latest patch. (Oh and, back then reaching around 1620 is ranked around 20th for me, now it's about 80th and later)
    They surely have spent a lot of real cash on coins, and getting dishes ready.


    Or, what's more likely, some of the chefs aren't real people (just like some of the sellers in the market).

    Developer sets great weekly rewards in Chef Duels to encourage usage (and the spending of $$$); however, by populating the top 20 with chefs who aren't real, the developer limits the number of times that those rewards are actually paid out.

    Unless the chef's aren't real OR there is wide-scale cheating (most likely both), a number of the top 100 chefs are fake.
  • LockisbettaLockisbetta Registered Users 74 Posts
    dcesq06 wrote: »
    Unless the chef's aren't real OR there is wide-scale cheating (most likely both), a number of the top 100 chefs are fake.
    I was curious about this after seeing some suspicious players and also wanted to know how many autochef boxes it would take to get the autochef. To my surprise, it's extremely easy to obtain a version with unlimited gold/coins/supplies.

    I did my autochef testing for BBB and gave up after 50 boxes in, no autochef, -222 net gold and various numbers of the other items in the box. After the test I wondered if it would stop me from doing other actions but no, I could use the market and duel other players (!!!) just fine.

    I'd still prefer to play legitimately though, there's no sense of achievement from playing a version with unlimited everything.
  • fudgedufffudgeduff Registered Users 25 Posts
    Not really - most of the people at the top of the leaderboard are players i regularly duel with in the previous patch with consistently high duel scores. As i mentioned, the new duels system pitches you against a computer generated duel which is fairly easy to beat as long as you hit a benchmark score. As the points you win (or lose) are now consistent (i.e. +10 or -10) it is a matter of grinding duels whenever you have tokens available. Just look at the players at the top of the leaderboard and you will see that they have been playing 100+ duels this week.
  • SansaSansa Registered Users 78 Posts
    fudgeduff, you are right. I just randomly duelled a player. The stats are so fake (never have I seen a player's stats so similar to mine) and the response time was unrealistic. Definitely computerised. However, we could still duel an actual player if we go by the 'Rivals' board.

    The computerised players have definitely taken the fun out of chef duels. But on the bright side, we could go up the ranks quicker, get better weekly rewards, get more tickets and save some prep dishes - the computerised threshold is pretty easy to beat even without boosts.

    By the way, how can one look up a player in this game?
  • BGen_TanBGen_Tan Registered Users 65 Posts
    "By the way, how can one look up a player in this game?"

    At this point, only by rival screen, And even the rival screen has its caveats: There are actually far more people than you think sharing the similar scoring among that list, they just cherry-pick those commonly-fought-with-players for you. And once in a while insert never seen before players into the list.

    Try doing a test? Quit the game. Leave it for at least 10 minutes. Come back, you will see some new names.
  • broilmebkbroilmebk Registered Users 132 Posts
    Sansa wrote: »
    The difference this new boost makes is so astounding that if we don't use it, we are very likely to lose to an opponent who does. This means that if we want to stand a chance to win, we have to use the boost every single time! Ouch!

    I spent the other day losing to so many duels because of the new boost. Did they make customers come slower if you don't use it??? It really does seem true that if you don't use the new boost, you're more than likely going to lose. They need to even things out better
  • SansaSansa Registered Users 78 Posts
    broilmebk wrote: »
    I spent the other day losing to so many duels because of the new boost. Did they make customers come slower if you don't use it??? It really does seem true that if you don't use the new boost, you're more than likely going to lose. They need to even things out better

    I don't believe not using Rush Hour slows down the customer flow. It's just that, without it, you get them at the default pace, i.e. you are at the mercy of the game. But with Rush Hour you get them as fast as you clear them, so the control is in your own hands and it's down to your skills. No more 'I lost the duel because customers coming in slow'. Haha!
  • ashleybuttermarkashleybuttermark Registered Users 1 Posts
    one thing i've noticed on mine.. the chef duels are acting as though i don't have all the upgrades and episodes beat. it's giving me half the recipes making me score no points and losing all my battles. is this happening to anybody else?
  • broilmebkbroilmebk Registered Users 132 Posts
    one thing i've noticed on mine.. the chef duels are acting as though i don't have all the upgrades and episodes beat. it's giving me half the recipes making me score no points and losing all my battles. is this happening to anybody else?

    This is because your opponent doesn't have them unlocked.
  • kimmieann43113kimmieann43113 Registered Users 53 Posts
    How do players play over 100 duels in only 3 days after the reset? I have noticed this among the top players. That's more then 30 chef duels on a daily basis. Is that even possible?
  • dcesq06dcesq06 Registered Users 29 Posts
    How do players play over 100 duels in only 3 days after the reset? I have noticed this among the top players. That's more then 30 chef duels on a daily basis. Is that even possible?

    It is technically possible as you get 48 duels per 24 hours. However, in most instances, it would be unlikely when you factor in eating, sleeping, school/work, etc.

    You can play more frequently by buying 3 coins three times in the store. You can also refill for 15 gold. However, it would also take spending a lot of gold on key VIP recipes as well because they take so long to prepare.

    In my opinion, most (NOT all) of the people in the top 10 or 20 are playing a hacked version that gives them unlimited coins, gold, etc.
  • jt4703jt4703 Registered Users 40 Posts
    broilmebk wrote: »
    This is because your opponent doesn't have them unlocked.
    I can't believe this is true when I am dueling against opponents who are 100% in every category. It's rather infuriating because in the venue that this has happened (half the recipes and very slow diners) I have 80% in food and 70% in decor and appliances. I shouldn't be getting paired with anyone maxed 100% across the board! This is not what I consider fair. The only positive to the change is the even scoring. I'm much more willing to take a chance if I can win or lose 8-12 instead of losing 25 or maybe winning 7.
  • SansaSansa Registered Users 78 Posts
    one thing i've noticed on mine.. the chef duels are acting as though i don't have all the upgrades and episodes beat. it's giving me half the recipes making me score no points and losing all my battles. is this happening to anybody else?

    You are not alone. I am getting simplified orders as well. Need to make use of boosts to win.
    How do players play over 100 duels in only 3 days after the reset? I have noticed this among the top players. That's more then 30 chef duels on a daily basis. Is that even possible?

    Plenty of gold (and time) I guess.

    R3Sr2Uw.png

    As for the new ranked no.1 player ddzheng, I can't help but raising questions looking at her duel stats. Her all time stats at point of writing is 178-4-0 and this week's is 144-2-0. That means her stats for last week / previous weeks was 34-2-0. At XP level 42, it's hard to believe that she has only played 36 duels prior to this week. Did Glu create this fellow just so no real players can get to the top spot?
  • kimmieann43113kimmieann43113 Registered Users 53 Posts
    I was wondering the same ! A sous chef with so little experience being in the top spot. How do people play with a hacked version? I'm not a computer science person so I wouldn't even know how to cheat.
  • BGen_TanBGen_Tan Registered Users 65 Posts
    Was there a coin-free weekend during those two weeks, Sansa?
  • SansaSansa Registered Users 78 Posts
    BGen_Tan wrote: »
    Was there a coin-free weekend during those two weeks, Sansa?



    No BGen, the last free duel event was on the 5th Feb, long before the latest update.
  • kimmieann43113kimmieann43113 Registered Users 53 Posts
    Who absolutely loves the new boost, deconstructed halwa?!. Wow...this boost is so fun and really shoots up your points in chef duels.
  • LockisbettaLockisbetta Registered Users 74 Posts
    Who absolutely loves the new boost, deconstructed halwa?!. Wow...this boost is so fun and really shoots up your points in chef duels.
    It's the best, chef arena is so easy to complete when using it. It's also great for serving all customers on early levels if you've upgraded decor too far.
  • BGen_TanBGen_Tan Registered Users 65 Posts
    Today I finally have the courage, for Ultime and LL, to give up using the Fast Feet + Tasting Spoon + Food Thermometer and replace the spoon with Rush Hour. (And also after losing 2 duels with that previous combination).

    It pays off better. Each RH pays 60 while each TS pays 55, but because of RH's nature it compounds a lot when you use frenzy.

    This is true whether you will have more orders going through both types of gauges or more food going through just the searing gauge appliance.

    So now I only use tasting spoon at pizza paisan and prato toscano.

    In addition, you are able to serve customers without seasoning station and swipe them away to get customers quickly as you wait for those with seasoning station, when you are at the end of the game and used all frenzies. And if you are about to fill up the frenzy last 5 seconds, simply just anyhow cook anything you see at the boiling station and grilling station and serve any drinks quickly.

    See also:
    https://m.facebook.com/notes/gordon-ramsay-dash-fan-group/gordon-ramsay-dash-faq/354606501572979/
  • LockisbettaLockisbetta Registered Users 74 Posts
    IMO you don't need tasting spoon in Ultime or PP since the seasoning meter is almost all green when upgraded, wait longer than a spam tap and it'll be in the green zone unless you're going for coins. LL on the other hand has a ton of red zone even when upgraded and PT was built to use tasting spoon (upgrade 3 separate seasoning stations? Screw that lol)
    BGen_Tan wrote: »
    Wow, there's some REALLY dedicated players on there, even has a list for which episodes to do for food dailies and other useful information.

    Somewhat unrelated but I did PP S6E10 before and found the Shakes McGee (they have names you know!) that actually ordered food rather than just a drink near the end of the episode was removed.
  • BGen_TanBGen_Tan Registered Users 65 Posts
    IMO you don't need tasting spoon in Ultime or PP since the seasoning meter is almost all green when upgraded, wait longer than a spam tap and it'll be in the green zone unless you're going for coins. LL on the other hand has a ton of red zone even when upgraded and PT was built to use tasting spoon (upgrade 3 separate seasoning stations? Screw that lol)


    Wow, there's some REALLY dedicated players on there, even has a list for which episodes to do for food dailies and other useful information.

    Somewhat unrelated but I did PP S6E10 before and found the Shakes McGee (they have names you know!) that actually ordered food rather than just a drink near the end of the episode was removed.

    That FAQ led me to a the game's Facebook Fan Page. It is prepared by a page admin, Nadia.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/263706803996283/
  • kimmieann43113kimmieann43113 Registered Users 53 Posts
    Well there you go. As stated no free gold ads on kindle devices. SMH. I wonder why not? Thanks for posting that link Bgentan.
  • spitfire6251spitfire6251 Registered Users, Member 2 Posts
    I truly believe that a lot of this is computer generated or geared toward making players spend money on upgrades and such. I have been playing/following for 3 years and have seen a lot of this impossible "stuff" happen!
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