A parts probe

I'm embarrassed to say that it has now been 10 months since I last gave an overview of the most regularly utilised parts for building appliances. But that means there's lots of data to play with, so let's get straight into it!

Since that previous update there are 33 new appliances have been introduced to the game, with each and every one launched as part of a goal set. All but two of these cookers have called for a part not seen previously, with the exceptions being the Marquee Oven and La Mar Oven which needed only existing parts.

So that means a heck of a lot of information to piece together. To make things easier, I'm going to cast aside any part which has not been needed more than once in the past 10 months. Doing so leaves us with 13 parts to consider. That's still a fair few, but here's a neat table which hopefully gives us a feel for the parts landscape:

Any particular part?

It's that time again when I attempt to answer the age-old question by having a look back at the variety of parts which have been utilised in recent months for building new appliances. This has become something of a biannual tradition, and you can read my previous breakdowns here.

Parts usage is something which does change over time, and that's why I like to periodically review the situation so as to gain some insight into which parts are perhaps the best choices to gift.

The last set of analysis was in October and covered 19 appliances. Since then we've had 18 more new cookers introduced, and they have all been considered within this post. It's worth noting that any appliances which have been re-released as part of a special sale - such as the Shamrock Oven brought back in the St Patrick's Day sale this week - have been excluded from the investigation.

Of those 18 new appliances, 12 have required construction. Of the remaining six, there have been five goal cookers which mercifully could be built without the need for any frantic part requests, and one appliance added for gems - the Founders' Oven - that rather wisely did not require parts either.

The art of parts

I'm overdue a breakdown of the appliance parts which are in and out of fashion, so here's a bonus post addressing that!

First up a brief summary of the findings when I last poured over the numbers in February. That occasion was the first in which a new part with every cooker was the norm, and it meant only a small pool of parts featured more than once. However they did so heavily, with the Mallet popping up on more than half of all new appliances. The Iron Press and Brass Diverter were also in high demand, making these three the unofficially most useful part to gift.

But that was then, and this is now. The following analysis takes in every new appliance introduced since the start of March this year, and so accounts for over seven months of data. Note that any re-released appliances (such as those included as part of the Halloween goals re-release recently) are not included - we're looking purely at completely new appliances.

The latest parts perusal

It's been over six months since my last scrutiny of the various appliance parts in the game, so I thought I'd conjure up a bonus post with the latest news on this front, which will hopefully help you in choosing which parts to gift your neighbours.

At the last cross-examination the Mallet was still relatively new but was already making an impact having been involved in the construction of most cookers since its release. The Golden Stake was also commonplace, while the Spring and Screw were the most regularly required of the traditional 'basic' parts (everything from the Fuse through to the Wiring). Meanwhile the pattern of a new part with every appliance was well established.

So has the parts outlook remained the same since then, or has there been a seismic shift? Well, since that last report in August 2015 there have been 27 new appliances introduced, with 14 of these being components of a goal set and the other 13 included in regular updates.

Picking apart the parts

I had anticipated that this weekend would be all about polishing off the latest set of goals and drawing up a content report. But with the August quest still pending I thought it would be nice to review the current situation with regards to parts.

The last audit was back in January, when the Metal Sheet and Screw were endorsed as the most common parts needed to put together constructible appliances. But even then there was a clear indication that the so-called 'basic' parts were becoming less prevalent, with newer generic parts such as the Sturdy Wood and Purple Knob being commonplace.

I'm sure long time players won't have have missed the fact that not only have the basic parts continued to be less frequently occurring, but brand new parts are on the rise. They seem to come every month, sometimes being used only for a single goal set and rarely again.

Another parts lowdown

Constructible parts are an important aspect of Restaurant Story. Without them you cannot build any of the appliances included in the goal updates, and thus cannot complete the goals to unlock some exclusive decorations.

As a result a lot of players ('parts players' if you will) like to accumulate a stock of parts via gifting for when the goals roll around so that they are in the best position possible to get the goals done in a reasonable amount of time.

But with 48 parts currently available to gift, which ones are the best bets? I've answered this question twice before, but that's the magic of the game - things are always evolving and changing - so there's no guarantee that conclusions drawn many months ago are still accurate.

So now we shall delve into the archives and observe any changes to the general trend of parts required for constructing new appliances. Since the last such analysis took into account appliances added between October 2013 and April 2014, it makes sense for me to count all the cookers introduced in the time since.

The changing parts landscape

Back in September last year, I provided some gifting advice on the basic parts. But since then, the parts landscape has been changing, so now is as good a time as any to investigate exactly how...

Parts are of course necessary to build the constructible appliances, and by sending and receiving gifts of them to and from neighbours, you can stock up in anticipation of the next set of goals.

In that previous study, I restricted my analysis to the traditional basic parts (the first 10 in the gift list after the food), but you'll have probably have noticed that of late some other parts have been becoming more common in being requirements for appliance building.

So now let's take into account the other components too. I'm still going to exclude those parts which are clearly seasonal such as Santa Hats and Romance Ribbons, but any parts which are 'generic' are included. Here's the result when we count from the Halloween appliances onward:

Gifting advice (part 2)

Gifting your neighbours is a significant part of Restaurant Story. The only piece of advice that I believe all players should take on board is that they should whenever possible try to gift a neighbour the same item that they've received a request for from said neighbour if they've made one. Otherwise, what is the best thing to do regarding gifts?

There are two main categories of gift items - food and parts. I covered food gifts in part 1. Here I concentrate on part gifts.

The ten main parts in Restaurant Story