Panic Restaurant - Beginner's Guide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOmnhBo-RNU

This is a super basic guide for the game. Not a whole lot of information, just a screen by screen guide of how to get through the game safely without taking too much damage and dying.

One thing I forgot to mention in the video that might be useful:

Every time you go through a door, you activate a checkpoint. This is where you will be returned to when you die. So if you enter a screen and only have 1 HP left, it might be advantageous to take a quick death right at the beginning of a screen so that you can proceed with full health. You'll lose about 10s, but it's better than wasting 45s by taking a death later in the screen and being returned to the checkpoint.

Use this at your own discretion. I've personally never done it this way, but it's a pretty simple and safe way to get through the game while you're still learning it.

Panic Restaurant - Intermediate/Advanced Tutorial Video + Explanation of Stage Cycles

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/185900576
[Twitch VOD](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/185900576)

Simple Movement Tech - 00:01:30
Screen Transitions - 00:09:25
Down Ladders - 00:33:25
Up Ladders - 1:08:10

Stage 1 & Lag Reduction Talk - 00:03:15
Stage 1 Boss - 00:06:25

Stage 2 - 00:11:25
- Lift 1 - 00:11:25
- Lift 2 - 00:15:40
- Lightning Room - 00:24:50
- Onion Room - 00:34:35
- Pot Room - 00:37:40
- Last Room - 00:40:13
- Boss - 00:43:00

Stage 3 - 00:45:40
- First Room - 00:45:40
- Bubble Room 1 - 00:46:40
- Lift 2/Toaster Elevator (Lollipop Strat) - 00:50:25
- Bubble Room 2 - 00:55:14
- Lift 2/Toaster Elevator (No Lollipop Strat) - 00:59:25
- Boss - 1:03:30

Stage 4 - 1:06:38
- First Room - 1:06:38
- Turkey Skip 1 - 1:09:00
- Second Room - 1:10:56
- Third Room/Turkey Skip 2 - 1:13:00
- Fourth Room - 1:15:10
- Turkey Skip 3 - 1:16:23
- Boss - 1:18:45

Stage 5 Explanation of TAS Cycle/Normal Cycle - 1:25:10

Stage 5 Normal Cycle - 1:26:23
- First Room/Fork Skip Explanation - 1:26:23
- Second Room - 1:33:10
- Second Room Despawns - 1:36:25
- Third Room - 1:37:55
- Fourth Room - 1:43:15
- Boss - 1:46:05

Stage 5 TAS Cycle (Watch Normal Cycle First) - 1:49:15
- First Room - 1:49:15
- First Room Freezer Section - 1:50:00
- Second Room Popsicle Skip - 1:51:45
- Rest of the Stage - 1:55:35

Stage 6 - 2:00:25
- First Room - 2:00:25
- Pot Room/Despawn - 2:03:38
- Second Room/Ceiling Bonks - 2:07:00
- Third Room/Pumpkin Kills & Despawns - 2:12:40
- Fourth Room/Risky Jump - 2:16:35
- Fourth Room/Last Part - 2:19:45
- Boss - 2:27:00
	
	
Notes About Cycles

There are 3 Stages in this game that have portions of the stage determined by a Stage Timer. All timers start the moment that you start the level, so your movement and mistakes will determine whether you make it to the next cycle in time or not. These timers will always be the same if you proceed through the levels the same way, but each small mistake will determine if you can make the next cycle or not. Thankfully, the stages with Cycles in them are usually broken up into sections. Once you have made the 1st of the Cycles (for example, the first Lift in Stage 2), the timer for the 2nd Cycle will start. Since you are always limited to the Stage Timer of the 1st Cycle (if you are too fast getting to that Cycle you will have to stand and wait anyway), you can view everything as being limited to discrete Sections of the level.

For example, Section 1 ends when you have made the first Lift Cycle in Stage 2. Once you are on that lift, it doesn't matter how fast or slow you got there, the timer for Section 2 (the 2nd Lift Cycle), will always be the same and require the same movement to get to the next section on time. If you get to Lift 1 too fast, you will have to stand and wait for the Lift to carry you up anyway. If you get to Lift 1 too slow and miss it, you will have to stand and wait for the Lift to come back down, but the 2nd Lift is also moving in the background and will be in the exact same spot when you get there, regardless of whether you made Lift 1 or not. Missing a cycle costs a lot of time, but it doesn't mess up later sections of the level, since they are all on the same timers. If that makes sense.

Stage 2 - There are 2 cycles that you are trying to make in Stage 2. The first starts as soon as the level loads, when you are trying to make the first elevator/lift. This one has a pretty generous window, and gives you time to kill one enemy to reduce lag and make a couple of small mistakes for safety with killing enemies -- you have time to kill the second Gelato enemy in the level and make one standing slash later and still make the lift cycle. You should kill the 2nd Gelato enemy for lag reduction, then go through the rest of the first area as fast as possible killing enemies along the way. This isn't that hard, the enemies line up really well to be killed quickly and keep moving forward. Practice and you'll get this 100% of the time.

The 2nd lift cycle is a lot harder, and starts the moment that you are on the 1st lift. Jumping off the lift before it reaches the top, climbing the ladder as early as possible, and not stopping movement for anything is necessary to make the 2nd lift cycle regardless of which path you choose under the apples -- top route and avoiding the Lollipop Health Upgrade is the easier path and will pretty much guarantee that you make the lift cycle (it gives you a very generous window), while the bottom path is a lot harder but gives you an extra health early, which means you can skip one in Level 3 to make that cycle easier. This one will depend on your confidence and skill level. The WR route goes bottom path to grab the health upgrade so that we can skip the Lollipop after the Toaster Damage Boost in Level 3.

Stage 3 - There are 4 cycles that you are trying to make in this level - Lift/Pot Cycles, Bubble Cycles, and Torch Cycles. The lifts at the end of the 2nd and 3rd rooms are the big ones, missing one of those costs almost 7s. As well, the disappearing Bubbles over the boiling pots are on their own timer, and missing a cycle here costs about 1.5 - 2s, but getting there at a bad time on the cycle could mean that you miss it and fall into the boiling water, which will kill you instantly. 

The 1st lift cycle starts the moment that you start the level, and ends halfway through the 2nd room. This is the big one that you're trying to make, and again has a very generous window. You want to go through the first room as fast as possible, getting good ladder drops and killing enemies as fast as possible -- you should only have to stop moving to kill the 2nd Egg after dropping down the ladder, never stop moving to kill any other enemy. If you get through the 1st room properly and don't miss any jumps getting up to the first boiling pot in the 2nd room, you will always be on a good Bubble Cycle and can instantly go. After this comes down to personal preference -- in the tutorial video I show how to strategically kill enemies to reduce lag, since you can't beat the Torch Cycles in this room and will always have to wait at them, so you want to reduce as much lag as possible while getting through the Torches at the same time. You can opt to go the Laggy Route (not killing the Turtle at the start of the Conveyor section in the 2nd room, or just kill him, grab his coin, and look back around and down to the lift), but this will still introduce a decent amount of lag when you get to the torches. The lag here can cost up to 3s depending on which option you go for, but the important part is making the first Lift Cycle, since you will lose 7s if you miss it.

The 2nd Lift Cycle is very very easy to make, and starts the moment that you get to the top of the 1st Lift. There is a huge window here, you can even take a hit and still make it. If you need health, grab the health right before the 2nd Lift, you should have lots of time to grab it.

The 3rd Cycle that you're trying to make starts the moment you are on the 2nd Lift. You're trying to get on a good Bubble Cycle in the next room, and the difficulty of making that cycle is determined by whether you grab the Lollipop Health Upgrade after doing the Toaster Damage Boost. If you grab the Lollipop, the window for the earliest cycle will be very small -- you have to move very fast to make it. You can get the Bubbles and wait if you are more comfortable, but this will waste about 2s. If you skip the Lollipop Health Upgrade, you have a much larger window to make the Bubble Cycle, but it will change how you kill the two toasters at the top of the ladder -- once you are on the platform after the Toaster Damage Boost, the two toasters above you will be spawned and shooting toast, so you will have to adjust how you deal with them based on which method you are going to use. Either way, you moment you are off the 2nd Lift, the timer for the Bubble Cycle starts and you need to go fast. NOTE: I personally find it easier to skip the Lollipop Health Upgrade after the Toaster Damage Boost so that you have a greater chance of making the Bubble Cycle. You can always grab the Lollipop Health Upgrade before the Boss Room Door so that you are entering Wok Boss with full health -- this will waste about 1s, but makes it more likely to defeat the Boss and his infamously awful Shrimp Patterns. I recommend using that method (Skip Lollipop after Toaster Damage Boost, make the good Bubble Cycle, grab Lollipop before the Boss Room Door), UNLESS you are trying to get a sub-13:30 time. It's really only worth skipping the Lollipop if you are trying for a crazy optimized time, like competing with World Record.

Stage 5 - This is the grand daddy of Stage Cycles. You are competing against 3 Cycles here -- Freezer Cycles in the 1st Room, Lift Cycles in the 2nd room and Lift Cycles in the last room. The Freezer cycles at the end of the 1st room are the easiest to deal with, depending on which Stage 5 you are going for (Normal or TAS Cycle). If you are going for Normal Cycle, you don't really have to worry about these Freezer Cycles at all and can go through the stage fairly normally, waiting for a good window to walk down after each Freezer Blast. However, if you are going for TAS Cycle, you need to get to the Freezer Cycle without stopping at all and go down the Freezer in a certain way in order to make it out of this room with a very high 90s on the in-game timer (the timer should change from 91 to 90 the moment you touch the door to exit the room).

The next 2 Lift Cycles are pretty easy to hit. If you are going for TAS Cycle, you have to do the Popsicle Skip (a 1-frame jump over the 2nd Popsicle in this room), then proceed through the level normally without taking damage or making any other serious mistakes. If you do the 1st section flawlessly, make the Popsicle Skip, get on the bottom lift of the first Lift Section, and get through the rest of the level normally without slowing down or taking damage, you will make a slightly earlier cycle in Lift 2 (the room before the boss), which saves about 3.5s. I would personally only recommend Stage 5 TAS Cycle for people who are trying to get a time of 13:35 or better -- I personally didn't start trying TAS Cycle until the World Record was 13:31 (held by hirexen at the time), where beating that time would have been nearly impossible without TAS Cycle and would have required a perfect rest of the game to do so.

If you are not going for TAS Cycle, then doing the Normal Cycle through this stage is much easier and perfectly fine, in which case the Freezer Cycle and 1st Lift Cycle don't really matter. If you go through the stage without stopping or taking damage, you will always make the 1st and 2nd Lift Cycles at roughly the same spot and can't really gain time there. The important part is remembering that those Lifts are operating in the background even though you're 2 rooms away at times -- keep moving forward, don't stop for anything that you don't need to, and you'll always make the same cycles and enter the Boss at roughly the same time. The only time you can save here is through lag reduction and faster Boss kills. Without enough practice, you will start to recognize where on the Lift Cycles you are based off what they are doing when you show up and what the time on the in-game timer is, and can adjust your route accordingly. This will only come with practice and realizing that everything is on a timer and was determined by how fast you got there. Again, with enough practice, you will start to recognize how to proceed based off your gameplay leading up to those sections, whether you need to stop reducing lag to go faster or if you have enough time to do another trick here or there.

Stage Maps

Appetizer: http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/PanicRestaurant-Appetizer.png

Soup: http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/PanicRestaurant-Soup.png

Salad: http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/PanicRestaurant-Salad.png

Fish: http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/PanicRestaurant-Fish.png

Meat: http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/PanicRestaurant-Meat.png

Dessert: http://www.vgmaps.com/Atlas/NES/PanicRestaurant-Dessert.png

Name	Author
Panic Restaurant - Beginner's Guide	Sidetrakkd 6 years ago
Panic Restaurant - Intermediate/Advanced Tutorial Video + Explanation of Stage Cycles	Sidetrakkd 6 years ago
Stage Maps	Deleted 7 years ago