The Barista Challenge is a special weekly event available for players Level 13 or higher. You do not need to be in a township to compete as this is an individual competition. Your placement on the leaderboard is determined by the total amount of coins you can collect during the event by serving customers manually without the help of your staff.
Schedule[]
The current schedule for the Barista Challenge has it occurring separately from the weekend festivals.
The schedule listed below is tentative and subject to change every day during festivals
| Start Time | End Time |
|---|---|
| Wed. 10:00 UTC | Thurs. 16:00 UTC |
How to play[]
All coins you collect from serving customers manually inside your café count towards your progress in the Barista Challenge. This includes coins you receive from regular and special orders from customers and temporary guests that appear during special events.
Additionally, there are a couple ways in which you can increase the amount of coins you receive:
- Activating the Tea or Coffee Grinder, as they increase coins received from orders containing tea and coffee drinks
- Increasing your tips percentage
Restrictions[]
The following does not count towards your progress in the Barista Challenge:
- Coins collected from customers served by staff
- Coins from Liam's orders, as he is outside the coffee shop
- Coins from township and telephone orders
- Coins from special event orders
- Coins from gifts and the Daily Bonus
Blitz mode[]
The Blitz is an additional mode within the Barista Challenge where customers only request special Blitz recipes (i.e., special orders), which you will need to complete manually within the given time (3 minutes). The number of Blitz recipes is unlimited until the time runs out and players will be rewarded x2 coins for the orders they complete.
Blitz mode allows players to earn a lot of coins in a short amount of time and boost their progress in the Barista Challenge. You can use up to 15 Blitz attempts within a single Barista Challenge event and you are free to choose when and if to launch the mode. The first 3 attempts are free while additional Blitzes will cost diamonds. Also, attempts close to the ending of the event (within the last 5-10 minutes) will also cost you diamonds.
During the Blitz, your staff will stop serving customers. All dialogues, stories, tutorials, and special offers are also paused.
Change attempts can be used to change special orders and ask customers to pick a recipe with a different spice.
Each spice used in orders will add additional time to the countdown, giving you more time to complete orders until the Blitz is over.
| Image | Spice | Time Bonus (seconds) |
|---|---|---|
|
Rose Petals | +4 |
|
Anise | +4 |
|
Star Anise | +5 |
|
Nutmeg | +5 |
|
Ginseng | +6 |
|
Galangal | +6 |
|
Cardamom | +8 |
|
Tapioca | +8 |
|
Guarana | +8 |
|
Saffron | +8 |
|
Gold | +10 |
Matchmaking[]
The maximum number of players chosen to compete against each other in the Barista Challenge is 50 players. Each grouping consists of players of the same level, which is determined at the beginning of the event. Players are also filtered based on time zone so that their schedules are similar. This means that even if someone proceeds to the next level after the event starts, they will stay in the same group.
Players are matched by the number of coins they have earned in previous Barista Challenges, allowing players to be matched by their skill. Even if someone has more tips and activates the Tea or Coffee Grinder, they will eventually be matched with stronger players. However, sometimes stronger players are placed to motivate other players into getting higher results and to also allow stronger players a reprieve from more intense competition.
Leagues[]
There are a total of 5 leagues in the Barista Challenge mode:
- Rose League
- Anise League
- Star Anise League
- Saffron League
- Gold League
Similar to festivals, depending on your final place in each league in the Barista Challenge, you will either advance to a higher league, stay in the same one, or fall to a lower league:
- 1st-15th place advances up a league
- 16th-35th place stays in the same league
- 36th-50th place drops down a league
If two or more players have the same amount of coins at the end, their placement will be determined by the time in which they reached their score.
Rewards[]
Rewards are based on your player level. The higher your level, the bigger the prizes.
The prizes below are based on level 40.
| Place | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th-15th | 16th-35th | 36th-50th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 2 1 155
|
1 1 78
|
1 26
|
 1 7
|
1
|
- |
 |
3 2 1 165
|
2 1 1 83
|
2 1 28
|
1 7
|
1
|
- |
 |
3 2 1 1 180
|
2 1 1 1 90
|
2 1 1 30
|
1 1 8
|
1
|
- |
 |
3 3 2 1 200
|
3 2 1 1 100
|
2 1 1 1 33
|
1 1 8
|
1
|
- |
 |
4 3 2 3 230
|
3 2 2 2 115
|
2 2 1 1 38
|
1 1 1 10
|
1
|
- |