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Automation Guide
By Elsee
Version 1.1
Preface
This guide has been compiled over the course of ~100 hours of designing, testing, writing, refining, redesigning, crying, designing again, and cursing at Potato Salad, Crab Cakes, Stir Fry, and especially Breakfast Beans. Please use this guide as you see fit, either in its entirety or refer to specific sections as needed.
Feedback is appreciated and encouraged, despite my many hours both in and out of the game; I know there is always room for improvement. I can be contacted on Twitch (Twitch.tv/Elsee), Discord (ElseeDiem), or Twitter (twitter.com/ElseeDiem).
This document is never finalized, and will continuously be updated with new and improved designs. Future versions will include designs for automated serving, dish washing, table consumables, and modded recipes. Stay tuned, keep Plating, and happy automating! Xx
Roadmap
- Bakery Foods
- Modded Food Automation Guide (in progress)
- Icons on Smart Grabbers
- Automated Dishwashing
- Auto Bussing Tables (removing plates)
- Auto serving dishes
- Automated Ice Cream (yes, really)
Alternate Versions
Catalog (just the pictures) Automation Catalog
Legacy Version 1.0 LEGACY Automation Guide 1.0
Modded Automation Guide
In Progress Guide 2.0 Automation Guide 2
Contents
Chips & Roast/Jacket Potato 21
Starters & Soups
All 5 soups have a common step of first making broth and leaving empty broth when all soup portions are removed. The empty broth cooks much faster, so it is recommended to store soups in a freezer. This also gives you more pots each day, as the pot stack is refilled to 3 pots while keeping the frozen pot. This also removes the need to add new onion each time.
Designs shown here assume that a freezer already contains a pot of soup.
*Remove mixers if no chopping desired*
Most soups can cook faster by chopping the ingredients. The chop time and reduced cook time are:
Soup | No chop (s) | Chop (s) | With chop (s) |
Broc Cheese | 6 | N/A | N/A |
Carrot | 10 | 1.3 | 8 |
Meat | 12 | 2.7 | 6 |
Pumpkin | N/A | 3 | 6 |
Tomato | 8 | 0.7 | 4 |
*Broccoli and Cheese cannot be pre-chopped to speed up soup cooking*
*pumpkin must be chopped without speeding up cooking time like other soups.*
Broccoli Cheese Soup
3 grabber, 2 rotating, 1 smart, 1 danger, 3 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 sink, 1 frep, 1 freezer
Theoretically, this should be able to compress into a 4x4 design but the math ain’t mathing.
Carrot & Meat Soup
2 grabber, 2 rotating, 1 smart, 1 conmixer, 1 danger, 2 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 sink, 1 frep, 1 freezer
Carrot Soup and Meat Soup use the same design, so they have been combined for simplicity. You just chop meat instead of carrot. Obviously. Also the meat takes a little longer to chop.
Pumpkin Soup
2 grabber, 3 rotating, 1 smart, 1 conmixer, 1 danger, 2 combiner, 2 portioner, 1 sink, 1 bin, 1 frep, 1 freezer
Pumpkin Soup takes up more space compared to most soup due to disposing of the pumpkin seeds. The seeds can be repurposed for Pumpkin Seeds starter but far slower due to the 1:3 ratio of pumpkin need for soup and seeds
Tomato Soup
2 grabber, 3 rotating, 1 smart, 1 conmixer, 1 danger, 3 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 sink, 1 frep, 1 freezer
The time saved for using tomato slices isn’t worth the effort required for automating the chopping of them, needing a bin and smart grabber.
Bread Board
3 grabber, 2 rotating, 1 safety, 2 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 sink, 1 freezer, boards
There are 2 designs for bread boards. The first design uses a freezer to store bread. While not entirely necessary, it's highly recommended to get the starter out faster.
The second design ditches the freezer in favor of a danger hob. Despite the name, I promise that it’s safe; the bin empties faster than bread burns.
A danger hob AND a freezer could both be used if you want a lot of bread! (or if it’s your only starter)
2 grabber, 3 rotating, 1 danger, 2 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 sink, 1 conveyor, 1 compactor, boards
Mandarin Slices
2 grabber, 2 smart, 1 portioner, 1 compactor
They said mandarin slices couldn’t be automated. I automated them within 2 hours of getting the card. Set the top smart grabber to slices, bottom smart grabber to 2 slices. The extra grabber for 2 slice mandarin means the next mandarin can start portioning 4 slice mandarin. The compactor bin keeps the system moving to make more 2 slice mandarin
Pumpkin Seed
2 grabber, 1 rotating, 1 portioner, 1 compactor, 1 safety, 1 frep
If this system is too slow, just stick an extra compactor bin+grabber above the existing one. The hollowed out pumpkin can also be used for Pumpkin Soup or Pumpkin Pie if you want to be environmentally friendly.
Christmas Crackers
Nothing. What were you expecting here?
I know someone is going to be sassy and heckle me about the lack of Christmas Crackers automation, so here you are! The below design is to automate serving them as well. Now you have nothing to pester me about.
1 rotating grabber. I guess? This is already too many steps for Christmas Crackers.
Mains
Steak
3 grabbers, 2 rotating, 5 smart, 3 safety, 3 frep, 2 compactor
This setup works for all 4 kinds of steak. Obviously just change which meat you use.
The second design does thick cut steaks faster without burning. Unless you consider well-done as “burnt”. Which they are.
4 grabbers, 5 smart, 2 rotating, 1 conveyor, 3 danger 3 teleporter (sets), 3 compactor
Steak Sauces
3 grabbers, 2 rotating, 2 smart, 3 combiners, 1 sink, 1 danger, 1 freezer, 1 conmixer
These designs work for Wine Jus as well, just don’t put the wine in the mixer. It should stirred, not shaken, James Bond.
The design above is larger but fully automatic; whereas the design below is smaller, simpler, but a lot more fun because the pot keeps going around in circles! Also it needs a pot at the start of the day.
2 grabbers, 3 rotating, 2 combiners, 1 conmixer, 1 sink, 1 danger
Steak Toppings
1 rotating, 2 smart, 2 conmixer, 1 compactor, 2 frep
This design is much simpler and nicer than either sauce, and makes both toppings! What more could you want? The answer lies below
Complete Steak Setup
12 grabbers, 10 rotating, 20 smart, 12 safety, 14 frep, 8 compactor, 2 conmixers, 2 freezers, 1 sink, 1 danger
Don’t. Just don’t. This is so unnecessary. Why?!
This design is massive, excessive, impractical, won’t fit in most vanilla kitchens, but was fun to make. Tomato topping will need to be semi-automatic, and sauce can be refilled at the back of the kitchen and frozen overnight. I suppose you could fit in the fully automated sauce + toppings, but don’t you need somewhere to put tables??
Dumplings
3 grabbers, 1 rotating, 1 smart, 1 rapid, 1 conmixer, 2 combiners, 1 frep
Dumplings can alternatively be made with a rapid mixer and safety hob, but it doesn’t significantly improve the production rate. It’s better to just make a replica system.
Seaweed
1 grabber, 1 rotating, 1 safety, 1 frep
Soy Sauce
1 grabber
Sauces can be auto served by placing it on a conveyor next to a table. Customers will use the ketchup/mustard bottle without it moving from the conveyor. Conveyor for manual placement
Turkey
1 grabber, 2 rotating, 1 safety, 1 portioner, 1 compactor, 1 frep
Just like cars, Turkey has a classic design or fast design. The latter was made famous in the automation comp. Turkey carcass goes into the bin ONLY when the portioning stops (the grabber will wait its turn). Portion off the grabber instead of the hob so a second turkey cooks while the first one portions.
In the fast design: the first compactor bin empties faster than turkey burns, and the second compactor bin disposes of the carcass
3 grabbers, 1 rotating, 1 danger, 1 portioner, 2 compactor, 1 conveyor, 1 frep
Cranberry Sauce
2 grabbers, 1 combiner, 1 conmixer, 1 frep
Turkey Stuffing
2 grabbers, 3 rotating, 1 smart, 2 combiners, 1 portioner, 1 conmixer, 1 heated, 1 safety, 1 sink, 1 frep
The best way to automate Stuffing is to just avoid taking the recipe. This is the second best way.
Portion off the grabber instead of the hob so a second bread cooks while the first one portions. This also stops a slice toasting into toast which won't be portioned.
Gravy
3 grabber, 4 grabber, 2 smart, 1 conveyor,
Just do gravy manually every few days. Please. Gravy has as many portions as Mash, but will last much longer because it’s a topping.
Set the bottom smart grabber to a full gravy, and the right smart grabber to an empty broth.
Salad
3 grabber, 1 smart, 3 conmixers, 1 compactor, 3 frep
Salad has like 8 variations so please don’t ask me to automate each variation. Just grab all the ingredients and throw on a plate
Apple/Potato Combo
6 grabbers, 2 rotating, 1 smart, 5 conmixers, 3 combiners, 1 sink, 1 danger, 1 freezer, 4 frep
Apple and Potato salad automation are thicc bois, so use this combo for something smol. Apple Salad ingredients are in the left box. Potato salad in the right box. I don’t know what colour the boxes are, because I’m colourblind AF
Apple Salad
2 grabbers, 3 rotating, 3 conmixers, 4 combiners, 1 autoplater, 1 freezer
This is as compact as I can make apple salad, it still works when plates run out as soon as you refill them
Potato Salad
5 grabbers, 3 rotating, 3 conmixers, 4 combiners, 1 sink, 1 danger, 1 freezer, 1 autoplater
I’m not sure potato salad can be any smaller and still automated. Literally half of this is just potato wedges. If you want easier potato salad, just automate the potato and you’ll be happier taking it in the future.
Or just avoid potato salad like the plague COVID. I know how much you all hate potato salad. But sometimes it gets sad and lonely.
Pizzas
1 grabber, 3 rotating, 1 smart, 2 conmixers, 3 combiners, 1 safety, 1 sink
“Soggy crust” is a technique to instantly make a crust by putting oil in a sink and using flour on it. The oil isn’t in the sink here, but it’s the same idea. Set the smart grabber to pizza crust so you don’t make accidental bread.
Mushroom/Onion Pizza
5 rotating, 1 smart, 3 conmixers, 4 combiners, 1 safety, 1 sink
Mushroom and Onion Pizza are identical. Just change mushroom to onion.
Complete Pizza Setup
6 grabber, 5 rotating, 2 smart, 4 conmixer, 5 combiner, 3 safety, 3 portioner, 1 sink, 1 freezer, 3 frep
Expansive? Yes. 3 mains fully automated? Also yes. This does expand off the previous cheese pizza design, so expand as needed.
The first design is more symmetrical, the second design has empty spaces in more useful spots. You may be asking why the base pizza automation looks different in each design. I’m also asking myself the same question.
Bonus Pizza Design
Here’s a neat trick to refill all 3 pizza types with one safety hob, that works great for slower prep. The rotating grabber can be changed during the day to point at whichever frozen prep station needs refilling. Just keep a different pizza in each prep station, and throw out extras as the system backs up.
Burgers
2 grabbers, 1 smart, 1 combiner, 1 danger, 1 frep
Burgers have the largest customer increase (+30%), tied with hot dogs; so there is “gotta go fast” Sonic The Hedgehog designs to keep up with the hungry crowds.
Combine the burger bun onto the danger hob, and it magically stops burning. Just make sure to set the smart grabber to a burger in a bun.
Cheeseburgers + Extras
2 grabbers, 1 rotating, 1 smart, 3 conmixers, 1 compactor, 3 frep
Cheeseburgers and Burger Extras have all been included in one handy design. The design is small enough to include both cards.
This also shows off the “tomato slice trick” of pushing tomato sauce/paste into the bin when it over chops the tomato to continue making tomato slices.
Fresh Patties
3 grabbers, 2 rotating, 2 rapid, 1 conmixer, 1 combiner, 1 frep
Fresh patties is a tough card: Burgers are usually fast, while fresh patties are slow. These fast designs make patties as fast as they cook!
The second design is slower, but simpler, but we love it all the same.
1 grabber, 2 rotating, 1 rapid, 1 conmixer, 1 combiner, 1 frep
Complete Burger Setup
7 grabbers, 4 rotating, 2 smart, 1 danger, 3 conmixers, 2 rapid, 1 mixer, 2 combiner, 2 compactors, 4 frep
Now let’s put all the steps of this dance together and see how it looks: complex, but could be worse.
The left half makes fresh patty burgers as fast as the danger hob can cook; The right half makes all toppings, with tomato slices automation speed turned up to 11!
You can move the left half down 1 tile so all the freps line up, dealer/reader’s choice.
Hot Dog
2 grabbers, 1 smart, 1 combiner, 1 danger, 1 frep
Most new mains have been getting a new page each, but Hot Dogs are just thrown on the end of burgers here, because they’re essentially the same. Except long instead of round. Also they have sauce.
Combine the hot dog bun onto the danger hob, and it magically stops burning. Just make sure to set the smart grabber to a hot dog in a bun.
Ketchup + Mustard
1 grabbers, did you really need a shopping list here?
Handy trick: Customers will take food off of conveyors, grabbers, and teleporters that are next to the table (not diagonally). This also works for ketchup, mustard, and soy sauce without moving them from the conveyor/grabber/teleporter..
Pies
2 grabbers, 2 rotating, 1 conveyor, 1 rapid, 1 danger, 1 compactor, 1 frep
Pie Crusts need to be cooked for Apple Pie and Cherry Pie. Cooked pie crusts can still be used for Meat, Mushroom, Vegetable, and Pumpkin Pie to make them cook faster. The total cooking time is shorter if they are just cooked once, but this versatile system can quickly make pie crusts for all the pie variations
The compactor bin will empty faster than the pie crusts burn to make them faster than a safety hob.
Vegetable Pie
3 grabbers, 3 rotating, 1 conveyor, 1 rapid, 1 danger, 2 combiners, 1 compactor, 1 frep
Vegetable Pie takes up a bit more space due to having 2 ingredients instead of 1, but is otherwise the same setup as the other main pies.
Set the smart grabber to cooked vegetable pie otherwise the grabber will pull cooked crusts without filling.
Meat + Mushroom Pie
3 grabbers, 2 rotating, 1 conveyor, 1 rapid, 1 danger, 1 combiner, 1 compactor, 1 frep
Two designs are included here, both designs work for meat and mushroom pie as they are identical except for changing out the meat for mushroom.
Set the smart grabber to cooked meat/mushroom pie otherwise the grabber will pull cooked crusts without filling.
Fish
Fish automation is almost identical for 4 out of 6 fish. Spiny fish makes things a little trickier, but then crab cakes mess up everything. There’s designs for players who just avoid crab cakes, because I know how much everyone hates Crab Cakes.
Without Crab Cakes
2 grabbers, 1 rotating, 1 safety, 1 conmixer, 1 portioner, 1 compactor, 1 prep
Don’t like crab cakes? Here are the designs for you! Fish can be very compact shown above, but blue fish are often cooked too slowly. If you have the Need for Speed (and the space), try the design below
4 grabbers, 2 rotating, 2 safety, 1 portioner, 1 rapid, 1 compactor, 1 prep
If You Hate Crab Cakes
If you really hate crab cakes, just use smart grabbers and teleport them. Maybe to the bin.
With Crab Cakes
5 grabbers, 3 rotating, 1 conveyor, 2 safety, 2 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 conmixer, 1 rapid, 1 prep
This design works for all 6 fish (yes, even crabby cakes). Don’t go trying to change the conveyor to a grabber otherwise the combiners won’t work. Trust me, I’m an engineer; grabber priority is weird.
Complete Fish Setup
This massive setup is designed for all fish cards, including all 6 kinds of fish, and both Fish Selection cards (4 Fish Providers). The setup is massive and not practical on most vanilla maps.
Breakfast
1 grabber
Always portion off a grabber instead of a hob, otherwise the last slice will be toast; it won’t portion, burn everything down and set customers on fire. Okay maybe not that dramatic, but I’m warning you!
The big difference in the 2 designs is cooking speed of bread: 27s on a safety hob, or 10s on a problem hoblem. 10s cook time also happens to be the compactor bin time. So there’s no risk of fire as extra bread is trashed at the same time it cooks.
6 rotating, 1 conveyor, 1 danger, 1 safety, 1 sink, 1 portioner, 1 combiner, 1 compactor, 1 frep
Breakfast Beans
Fuck Breakfast Beans. Nevermind, you can automate them now. Beans are round and they go around unless you set the smart grabber to an empty pot.
2 rotating, 1 smart, 1 portioner, 1 danger, 1 freezer
The Turbo Update included a change to portioners that now allows for beans automation. Placing a pot on a portioner as shown above will fill the pot with beans. (You can also portioner water out of a sink like this, but I haven’t found a practical use other than replacing a combiner with a portioner)
Breakfast Eggs + Extras
2 grabbers, 1 smart, 2 rotating, 2 conmixers, 1 heated, 3 frep
Breakfast Eggs and Breakfast Extras are both crammed together, because they’re almost identical, and they all fit in a small area.
Stir Fry
Stir Fry is possible to fully automate but the full setup is excessive, even for the largest modded maps. Several designs are included for increasing the automation in steps.
Most of these designs involve a “criss-cross” method of manually adding the second ingredient into 1 ingredient stir fry as needed. All designs also require manually placing woks, just once at the start of each day.
These designs can also be modified for mushroom and meat stir fry cards. A rapid mixer is recommended for meat with its longer chop time, if space allows. Bamboo requires slightly more work, but can be cooked at the same time as the rice in the wok.
Several designs don’t show woks, as these can be placed farther away from the automation and added only at the start of the day.
The first design automatically chops broccoli and carrot into prep stations while automating rice into woks. This setup allows for multiple broccoli or carrot stir fry orders, but 2 ingredient orders will need 2 cooking times
The second setup automatically adds rice and chopped ingredients into the woks. Single ingredient orders are fully automated, and 2 ingredient orders will only need 1 cooking time.
The third setup automatically chops and prepares all ingredients in a neat line across from hobs. The rice and woks are still manual, but rice can be automated as shown below if access isn’t needed from the other side.
Complete Stir Fry Setup
The final setup shown is designed to show automation for all ingredients into woks. Add woks are still manual, but preparation of all ingredients, including bamboo is included.
Chopping meat uses a rapid mixer instead of a conveyor mixer to use the faster speed for longer chopping time than other ingredients. Extra space is not needed because of the empty space usually next to rice.
Extra woks are needed for this setup, as a wok stack only holds 4 woks, and 5 are needed here.
It is also recommended to include plates nearby, and teleporters for serving on instead of the long running distance.
Safety hobs are paramount to all of these designs. Unlike pots, woks can burn the ingredients in them. Woks need to be washed if they burn, taking about 3x longer to wash than a dish. They can’t be washed in a wash basin or dishwasher either.
Soy Sauce
1 grabber
Sauces can be auto served by placing it on a conveyor next to a table. Customers will use the ketchup/mustard bottle without it moving from the conveyor. Conveyor for manual placement
Coffee Shop
The PlateUp Unofficial Automation Planner hasn’t yet been updated to include the new appliances in the Coffee Shop update, but I made a compact design in-game for all the new mains
Interestingly, I believe this is the only automation that requires a counter (for steeping the tea).
2 grabber, 4 rotating, 5 smart, 3 frep, 2 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 sink, 1 counter
Not included yet are the 3 table top items: Milk, Cupcakes, and Sugar. All 3 are easily within reach to place on the table as needed.
Milk, Cupcakes, and Sugar can all be automated like Ketchup, Mustard, and Soy Sauce.
Sides
Chips & Roast/Jacket Potato
3 grabber, 1 rotating, 1 heated mixer, 1 safety, 2 frep
Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. There are 2 recipes automated in the same design. Potatoes are just so versatile. Jacket Potato at the top, Chips on the bottom. Heated mixers chip machines
Corn
3-4 grabbers, 1 safety, 1 portioner, 1-2 compactor
Corn cooks a lot faster than bins empty. If you want corn fast, you can include the second bin, but its not necessary here
Some quick maths if you like maths:
1 bin design will start to backup after 6 corn are cooked, 2 bin design will empty bins every 5 seconds, and make a corn every 5.3 so it won’t really back up.
I couldn’t think of a corny joke to put in here. Oh wait…
Mashed Potato
Please don’t automate Mash. It has like 20 serves. Just make it every week or so and stick it in a freezer. If you insist on automating it, here are some unnecessary designs:
2 grabbers, 1 smart, 2 rotating, 1 freezer, 1 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 heated, 1 sink
It takes about 1 full minute to make a new pot of mash. So as long as you’re willing to wait for the slow af heated mixer, the first design will have a full mash every morning.
If you’re impatient and want SPEED, the second design will make a new mash in about 20s, but the first pot has to be completely empty
2 grabbers, 1 smart, 2 rotating, 1 freezer, 1 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 danger, 1 conmixer, 1 sink
Bamboo & Broccoli
4 rotating, 1 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 danger, 1 sink 1 frep
You may be wondering where the broccoli designs are when you only see bamboo. Guess what? They’re the same thing. The food is different, but cooked the same. The only difference is Bamboo has 3 portions, Broc has 5.
The first design is smaller and needs a pot in the morning. If you’re lazy like me, the second design will freeze the pot.
1 grabber, 3 rotating, 1 smart, 1 combiner, 1 portioner, 1 danger, 1 sink 1 frep, 1freezer
Onion Rings
2 grabbers, 1 smart, 1 heated, 1 combiner, 1 frep
Onion Rings are cooked just like Corn except you add something instead of removing something. Onion Rings are not like Corn because they taste better but don’t have the juice (it has the juice).
Set the smart grabber to cooked Onion Rings.
Desserts
Coffee & Affogato
Coffee and Affogato are combined here, because affogato requires coffee without taking much space for the ice-cream.
The second design is semi-automatic, preparing full coffee mugs, using those for black coffee and affogato.
The last design is fully automatic for both black coffee and affogato, and is useful for auto serving as well.
Cheese Board
The first design shown is semi-automatic, and will give you a Cheese Board instantly when placing a board.
The second design is fully automatic, and is more suitable for auto serving, or preparing multiple at once. A teleporter or series of conveyors can replace the freezer.
Dessert Pies
Pie Crusts
Pie Crusts need to be pre-cooked for Apple Pie and Cherry Pie. Cooked pie crusts can also be used for Pumpkin Pie to make them cook faster. The total cooking time is shorter if they are just cooked once.
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin Pie only needs cooking once but requires a bin. Due to the faster cooking, this system is as fast as Apple/Cherry Pies using a danger hob
Neither design needs a smart grabber but can still be used instead of a grabber/rotating grabber. Pumpkin chops faster than pie crusts, and so moves onto the combiner before the pie crust finishes cooking; removing the need for a smart grabber.
Apple & Cherry Pie
Apple Pie and Cherry Pie are combined here due to similarity in automation, the key differences being apple requires chopping first, and cherry pie burns much faster.
Three designs are included here, the first is the classic design using a safety hob, usable for both Apple Pie and Cherry Pie. Remove the bottom conveyor mixer for cherry pie.
The second design uses a danger hob to cook faster. Due to the short burn time for Cherry Pie, 2 compactor bins are needed to empty pies before burning, whereas Apple Pie only needs 1 compactor bin.
