Coffee Rush: Piece of Cake — How to Play

Objective of the Game

In Coffee Rush: Piece of Cake, players run a bustling café that now serves cakes alongside drinks. Your goal is to efficiently complete drink and cake orders by managing ingredients, upgrading your skills, and using staff abilities. The game ends when the Order Card deck runs out, and the player with the most completed orders wins.

Preparation (Setup)

1. Remove Order Cards from the base game based on player count (30 for 2 players, 20 for 3 players, 10 for 4 players). Shuffle the remaining base game cards with the Expansion Order Cards and place the deck face down.
2. Shuffle the Cake Cards and place them face down next to the Order Card deck. Place all Ingredients in the Ingredient Tray and set Cakes nearby.
3. Each player chooses a color and takes:
   • 1 Expansion Player Board (replacing the base game board)
   • 1 Meeple
   • 7 Upgrade Tiles of their color
   • 3 Cups
   Draw 1 Cake Card to keep hidden.
4. As a group, choose the front (4 upgrades) or back (5 upgrades) of the Player Board. The starting player randomly places 1 Upgrade Tile face down on each upgrade space; others copy this setup.

Game Flow

Follow the base game rules unless modified by the expansion. Key phases include:

1. Play Cake Card (Optional): Before Process Order, play any number of Cake Cards for effects or discard 2 to gain 1 Rush Token.
2. Activate Upgrades: Use upgrades (costs may change due to Cake Card effects).
3. Pour Ingredients: With the Storage upgrade, store up to 2 ingredients or move them to cups.
4. Turn End: Discard excess Cake Cards (keep only 3). If 0-1 orders were completed, draw 1 Cake Card.

Actions and How to Play

Taking a Cake Order

When drawing an Order Card, if the next card shows a cake, take 1 Cake from the supply and place it on your order. The Cake stays with the order until completed.

Completing a Cake Order

When finishing an order with a Cake, draw 1 Cake Card and return the Cake to the supply.

Cake Card Abilities

• Cake Time: Discard 2 completed orders and 3 Cake Cards to activate an upgrade.
• Rush Time: Discard 2 completed orders, 1 Rush Token, and this card (or 3 tokens + 3 cards) to activate an upgrade.
• Helping Hand (2-player only): Take 1 ingredient from a cell where your Meeple didn’t move.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends when the Order Card deck is exhausted. Players count completed orders (including cake orders) to determine the winner. Consult the manual for tiebreakers.

Tips to Win

• Use Cake Cards strategically—some stack with upgrades for massive ingredient gains (e.g., Double Destination + Double Corner).
• Prioritize the Storage upgrade to hoard ingredients for future turns.
• In 2-player games, leverage Helping Hand to gather extra ingredients without moving.