Cafe is game that allows you to build and maintain your own virtual cafe. Some players like to focus on increasing their level and unlocking new features. Others prefer to treat their cafe like a garden, and like to decorate, tend, and customize their cafe. And some focus on the Rankings and enjoy competition with other players. The best thing is you get to choose your own path to Cafe greatness! To get you started, here's some basic game concepts:

• XP and Leveling - XP stands for 'experience' and is a common concept in many games. Every player starts as a beginner at Level 1. As you play the game, you gain XP from various tasks within the game. The primary way to gain XP is by serving food. When players achieve enough XP, they are automatically promoted to the next level. But, keep in mind that each level requires more XP than the previous. Your XP and Level are displayed prominently at the top of the game.

• Chips - Chips are the currency in Cafe. You earn chips by cooking and serving food. You use chips to purchase items and expand your cafe. If at any time you run out of chips, you can quickly earn more by visiting other players' cafes. Go to the Rankings page and find a player that you want to visit.
  You can also convert Tagged Gold into Cafe chips.

• Instant Cooks - Instant Cooks allow you to ready your food instantly! You can earn free Instant Cooks by collecting your Daily Bonus for a number of days, completing certain goals and for taking the first snapshot of your Cafe as a widget on your wall. Alternatively, you can use Gold to buy an Instant Cook. The amount of Gold used when buying an Instant Cook depends on what and how many dishes you are cooking.

• Unspoils - Unspoils allow to you serve food to customers that has already spoiled. It's like going back in time! You can earn Unspoils by collecting your Daily Bonus and as a reward for completing certain goals. You can also use Gold to to buy an Unspoil. The amount of Gold used to Unspoil your food depends on what and how many dishes you are spoiled. After using an Unspoil, simply serve your food as you normally would.
  
  Why do dishes spoil? Dishes spoil because they're food! By having foods spoil, you are required to utilize a strategy and think carefully about the dishes you choose to cook. Once a dish is cooked (and ready to be served), it has a limited amount of time before it spoils. For example, Buttermilk Chocolate Chip Pancakes spoils after it sits on the cooker (ready to be served) for three minutes. The dish takes three minutes to cook, so it takes three minutes to spoil. Similarly, Reindeer on Potato takes two days to cook. This means that Reindeer on Potato will spoil after it has been ready to be served for two days.
  
  

• Rating - Every happy customer that leaves your cafe increases your rating a little, and every unhappy customer lowers your rating (more than a little). It's important to understand that your rating is constantly changing and does not measure your overall success, but rather how well the cafe is doing at the moment.
  

  After making sure you have enough tables and chairs to accomodate your customers, the most important factor is to have food on your serving tables at all times. Another important factor is making sure that you have enough doors where your customers can enter. You don't want customers ever waiting for a table. Similarly, the layout of your cafe has a big impact, so make sure that you are aware of where you put your serving tables and cookers. You will want your cafe operation to run smoothly.

• Waiters - Each player can hire other users as waiters in their Cafe. The higher your Cafe level, the more waiters you can hire at one time. Each waiter can collect tips everyday that earns the waiter and the employer money. Regularly collecting tips will earn you more money. Additionally, the more your employer cooks, the more you earn for working in their cafe. Having an active employer will allow you to earn as many tips as possible

• Tips - You earn tips both by being a waiter and by being an employer. When you earn tips as a waiter, your tips are based off of the percentage of Chips that your employer has earned from cooking and serving dishes as well as your level. Waiters can collect tips once a day. Press the 'Collect' button to get paid. When you collect tips, your employer will earn the same amount.
  

  When you earn tips as an employer, you receive the entire amount of Chips that your cafe earned in that time period. If you want to maximize the amount of tips your waiters are earning you, you should look for waiters with higher levels. The higher the level, the more the waiter earns for you. It's also important to consider whether your employee (waiter) is active. Having waiters that collect their tips every day will earn you more Chips.

Now that you've got the basics down, go decorate, cook, and have fun!