Pizza Chef looks like a speed game, but the engine runs it as an accounting system. Each serve grades your pizza with fixed rates, and two of those rates differ by exactly 10 points. Play the rates instead of the clock and the game becomes a checklist.
The order generator schedule
Three numbers grow on round counts, all clamped. The ingredient pool starts at 3 entries and adds one every 3 rounds, reaching all 8 at round 16. The order size starts at 1 topping and grows one every 2 rounds, capping at 4 from round 7. The timer starts at 20 seconds and loses 1 second per round, flooring at 8 seconds from round 13.
The pool fill rule draws without replacement, and order size never exceeds pool size, so an order never asks for the same ingredient twice. The icons also sort alphabetically in the order bar, which makes left to right scanning reliable.
What a serve actually pays
The grading loop pairs each placed topping with at most one unfilled order slot using matched flags. A topping that finds no slot counts as wrong. An order slot that receives nothing counts as missing. The formula is correct count times 100, plus the speed bonus, plus wrong count times -30, plus missing count times -20, plus 50 when both wrong and missing are zero, floored at zero.
The speed bonus is the floor of 50 times the remaining timer ratio, so it pays between 0 and 50. A perfect four topping order served instantly scores 400 plus 50 plus 50, which is the 500 point round maximum.
The bonus decays with the round clock. During a 20 second round each remaining second is worth 2.5 points. During an 8 second round each remaining second is worth 6.25. Late rounds therefore punish hesitation about three times harder than early ones.
The asymmetry rule that decides close calls
A wrong topping costs 30 points. A missing topping costs 20 points. Both destroy the 50 point perfect bonus, but the direct penalties differ by 10.
When you cannot recall whether the order wants an ingredient, leave it off. The omission is always the cheaper error. Adding the wrong one costs 10 more and still forfeits the bonus.
Never place an ingredient twice. The second copy always counts as wrong, because the first copy already consumed the only matching slot. One press per icon is the complete play.
Two ways to die, both avoidable
The first is the empty pizza timeout. When the timer hits zero with nothing on the pizza, the engine ends the game at any total score. The fix is unconditional. Place at least one topping within your first second of every round.
The second is bankruptcy. After every serve from round 2 onward, the engine checks whether your total score sits at or below zero and ends the run if so. Round scores floor at zero, so a disastrous opening serve that scores nothing leaves you at zero, and the next serve ends the game. Bank a positive round 1, which any single correct topping guarantees at 100 points minimum, and this rule never touches you again.
Timeout with toppings on the pizza is survivable. The engine auto serves what you placed and grades it normally, so the penalty is the missing and wrong counts, never the run.
The deterministic order flow
1. Read the order bar at the start of the round, up to 4 sorted icons.
2. Press the number keys 1 through 8 for ingredients instead of the 56 pixel buttons. The digits map to the button layout order, so key 1 is always the first button shown.
3. Press once per icon. Watch each icon dim to faint and draw its green check before moving on.
4. Serve with space or enter the moment every icon checks off.
5. If an icon is unclear at the two second mark, skip it and serve. Omission costs 20, the wrong guess costs 30.
6. Confirm the result card shows Perfect before tapping for the next customer.
Where this implementation hurts you
There is no undo. No input removes a placed topping, so a wrong press locks in a 30 point penalty plus the lost perfect bonus. The button grid rewards keyboard play for the same reason.
The auto serve at timeout grades identically to a manual serve, so a panic placement in the final second hurts exactly as much as a confident wrong press.
The visual timer changes color at 50 percent and 25 percent remaining, and steam rises below 5 seconds. By the time steam appears in an 8 second round you have 6.25 points per second bleeding out, so grade your readiness against the schedule above rather than the graphics.
Your best score persists under the localStorage key pizzaChef_best. Clearing site data for the domain erases it.
Pre serve checklist
- [ ] Every order icon checked off with exactly one placement each.
- [ ] No ingredient pressed twice in the round.
- [ ] At least one topping placed inside the first second.
- [ ] Round 1 banked with a positive score before round 2 begins.
- [ ] Uncertain icons skipped rather than guessed.
- [ ] Serve pressed before the timer bar drops below the 25 percent color change.
Play [Pizza Chef](/en/pizza-chef) and score one round by hand with the formula above, then compare it to the result card. If your arithmetic disagrees with the card, or you hit a game over the two death rules do not explain, send the round number, the order icons, and what you placed. Discrepancy reports are the fastest way to tighten this page.
