How to Play Overcooked: The Ultimate Guide

We’ve played Overcooked for over 110 hours according to our Nintendo Switch. I’m sure there are many people who have played more. However, there are many people who are just getting started all the time.

If you just got Overcooked or have been playing a while, then this guide can help you get all the stars in Overcooked. The first time through the game 3 stars per level is the most you can earn. After completing the game you can go back and earn 4 stars.

Playing Overcooked is primarily about efficiency. As a chef, your job is to be as efficient as possible. What that looks like in the game can vary.

When we first started, we made the mistake of thinking everyone would do their own thing and as long as we kept busy we’d do Ok. While this works to get 1 or 2 stars it isn’t sustainable.

You need to consistently get 2 or 3 stars to finish the game. Then you can go back and work on getting 4 stars. When working on getting 4 stars you’ll be amazed how much you have improved.

Overcooked has a steep learning curve, but we enjoyed it as beginners, intermediate players, and still enjoy it as pro’s. Not many games have that appeal.

The training level is just 2 ingredients, tomatoes and lettuce. it teaches you to just chop up as many items as you can. Which is fine. However, if you spend every level just chopping as many ingredients as possible. It leads to chaos and inefficiency.

We found when the workload on one player is too light another player has too much of a workload. The ideal team of chefs balances the workload but in an organized fashion. Designate these tasks to each chef:

• Chopping chef
• Preparing/cooking chef
• Dish washing chef
• Serving chef

If you only have two players, you’ll have to assign two jobs to each chef. Distributing the jobs isn’t a hard rule. Any chef can jump in and help if necessary.

We discovered it’s best to focus on one order at a time when there are 2 players. With 4 players you can focus on 2 orders at a time. For 3 players, we usually focus on 1 order at a time but anticipate the 2nd order much more.

As for solo, we just don’t. Overcooked is the best multiplayer game ever (I like Out of Space better). For solo play it actually sucks in my experience, I don’t recommend it. But Overcooked is awesome for multiple players.

When a level starts there are two orders in the queue. At least for those first two orders everyone should grab the ingredients and do the chopping. Once the cooking starts, then break off into your designated roles.

We mostly play 4 players, so we dedicate 2 chefs responsible for managing the orders. While the other 2 chefs are responsible for managing the routine jobs.

The 2 cooking chefs primarily keep the cooking going. They get or call out the ingredients to the chopper. They make sure the correct ingredients get mixed, cooked, and put on a plate.

The 2 chopping chefs primarily keep the chopping going. They make sure there’s no shortage of dishes, or ingredients. Serving mostly depends on the level in my experience.

For two players we’ve tried two strategies. Strategy A has one chef responsible for managing the orders, while the other does all the mindless tasks such as chopping, washing, and serving.

Strategy B has each chef managing an order from beginning to end. Each chef gathers their own ingredients, chops, cooks, serves, and washes their own dishes.

It really depends on the level which strategy makes the most sense. Some levels don’t give every chef access to the choppers or serving area. So you have to choose between these two strategies depending on the level.

In our experience, these are the two strategies that work the best. If everyone has to think about an order it gets confusing. Because one chef winds up chopping up ingredients for an order that’s being served.

Those ingredients rarely go to waste, but having 1 chef manage 1 order keeps the confusion to a minimum. Calling out what ingredients you’re getting or what order you’re working on is important.

Prepping a meal usually involves chopping or prepping plates. In my experience there are usually a few standard items plus a few specific items.

For example, all pizza requires dough, tomatoes, and cheese. All burritos require a soft shell and rice on a plate. Hamburgers and hot dogs all need a bun. Many levels require flour or eggs.

Look for the patterns in the orders and prepare the plates, mixers, or pots accordingly. When one chef focuses on preparing the standard items of every order, while the other focuses on preparing the order specific items. Then our kitchen functions very efficiently.

It takes the burden off the chef managing the orders if they don’t have to serve, but serving is basically everyone’s job. Except when the level blocks access to the serving area.

Washing dishes is best if it’s one chefs responsibility. It’s an important job to keep the kitchen flowing. Everything grinds to a halt when there aren’t any clean dishes in my experience.

It’s extremely rare to see two sinks. So dishwashing is a bottleneck. There’s usually two or more choppers, ovens, or stoves so you don’t have to wait. But from what I’ve seen, one sink creates the potential to really slow things down.

One thing common to every level in the windup at the beginning, the assembly line in full swing, and the winding down in the last 30 seconds. How you handle these stages and the transitions has a big impact on getting 4 stars in my experience.

Our first time through the game the focus was on delegating tasks to each chef. Letting one chef manage individual orders while the others work at the chopping, washing, and serving is enough to get through the game.

When we went through it the second time, we were ready for the meta strategy. This involves getting the assembly line going as quickly as possible. Maintaining the assembly line through the bulk of the level. And most importantly, winding down at the end so you don’t waste time.

I mentioned it earlier when I said everyone should start the level by grabbing ingredients. Then when the cooking starts split up.

But we didn’t make this transition abruptly. We took time in the first 15 seconds of the round to setup our assembly line. We move plates next to ovens or stoves. If we have limited access to ingredients, we make a pile of them on the floor. We also double up on chopping an extra ingredient before moving to our primary tasks.

After the first 15 seconds our workflow is setup and the first order nearing completion. For the majority of the round we just keep the assembly line going as smoothly as possible. We look for any bottlenecks before they cause problems.

Glancing at the clock is important too. Overcooked warns you for the last 20 seconds but we found this isn’t early enough. When we see the timer hit 60 seconds the chefs managing the orders can estimate how many orders we can get done.

They call out things like we don’t need anymore rice cooking or potatoes chopped. Or say we’ll need 3 more plates, 2 more hamburgers, etc.

When the timer gets to 30 seconds we only chop any crucial items. In my experience the last 30 seconds is like the first 15 seconds where everyone jumps in to complete the last 2 or 3 orders.

We double up chopping those last few ingredients, help load the mixers, double up washing dishes or get plates to the cookers. Anything to push those last 2 or 3 orders out before time runs out.

A good sign of efficiency is you won’t have many leftover ingredients or things cooking when the round ends.

When learning how to play Overcooked, don’t worry about being fast. I’ve found just keeping busy isn’t enough to get 3 stars. In my experience speed comes with practice.

Instead, focus on filling one order at a time. Learn how to fill orders, not how to cook up a ton of hamburgers, or chop up a ton of ingredients. Once we grasped a process that worked for us, then we got faster.

There is a learning curve so don’t sweat it if you don’t get 3 stars on every level. Most levels we experimented during the first attempt. Through trial and error we figured out an assembly line that worked for us. Then by the second or third attempt we were able to get 2 or 3 stars.

It took some time. However, we enjoyed learning to play Overcooked and eventually completing the game.

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