The optimum neighbour number

Neighbours are an integral part of Restaurant Story. When you start out, Stormie's Store is your only pal, but you can add up to as many as 2,000 neighbours (including invites) if you so wish.

Now that maximum number is a bit bonkers, but what is the optimum number of neighbours to have?

Well those who like to tip their neighbours every day will need to ensure they don't take on too much of a workload.

Tips on tables in The Garlic Tree

At the end of the day tipping doesn't achieve much really, so it's probably for the best if you don't spend an hour working through your neighbour list.

Then there's part requests. The more neighbours you can send a request for a part out to in order to build an appliance, then the more quickly you'll gather what you need.

A part request for a Knob

This is especially relevant for goals, where time can be of the essence (particularly for lower level players with few appliances).

On the other hand, it's all fair and well to send out part requests to 200 neighbours, but you can only get 20 accepted per day. The others are carried over to the next day. This means you could well clog up your system.

Another consideration is expansions. I suspect all players are interested in growing the size of their diner as they level up and buy up more items.

Expansion to 21x24

But with every expansion comes a requirement for the number of neighbours before you can expand. This climaxes with the final expansion calling for 60 neighbours.

So what is the ideal solution? I'm among those who try to tip my neighbours daily, so have never had too many folks on my list. However having reached the third-to-last expansion, do need to have plenty of neighbours.

Some of the neighbours I have are superb at responding to my requests promptly, with some even gifting me my requests too. So I don't consider having hundreds of friends to give me what I need.

Therefore my method is to add neighbours steadily (on average one a week) to ensure I have active neighbours and the capability to expand. Then after an expansion I clear out - those who I deduce to have quit the game after a lengthy period of inactivity without prior notice are deleted, thus keeping my neighbour count humane for tipping.

At present I need 40 neighbours for expansion to 21x24 but have 62. That expansion will take place over the next week or two, and then I'll be removing up to 15 who have clearly left the game. This will stand me in good stead ahead of the long haul of saving for the expansion to 22x25 which requires 55 neighbours.

As for after I've done all my expansions? Well I'll look to settle down to 20-25 neighbours who are reliable and can be tipped within 15 minutes. This will fulfil all my needs, and so the optimum number of neighbours for me is around 25.

Special thanks to Creme for providing correct info regarding neighbors required for certain expansions.