Mid-Game Strategy

You have survived the early days. Your food truck is profitable, your staff are trained, and you have cash in the bank. Now it is time to scale, specialise, and build a business that dominates your market.

When You Are Ready to Scale

Not every player reaches the mid-game at the same time. Before you start expanding, make sure you have hit these milestones:

Milestone	Target	Why It Matters
Consistent daily profit	5+ profitable days in a row	Proves your model works, not just lucky days
Staff training	Level 3 (Competent) or higher	Quality floor for premium segments
Cash reserves	Enough for upgrade + 5 days operating costs	Never upgrade with your last dollar
COGS %	Stable at 30-40%	Confirms your recipes and pricing are sound
Customer satisfaction	Above 70%	Shows you are meeting segment expectations

The Scaling Trap

The most common mid-game mistake is scaling too early. If your current operation is not consistently profitable, adding a bigger truck or new location just multiplies your problems. Fix the foundation before you build upward.

Upgrading Your Truck

Your starting Startup Burger Bike has limited storage and only serves basic segments. Upgrading unlocks new customer segments and increases your capacity.

Business Unit	Employees	Key Benefit	Unlocks
Startup Burger Bike	1	Cheapest to operate	Students, Parents, Staffs, Fit Ones (base segments)
Maxi Burger Wagon	1	Electric/eco-friendly	Influencers, Environmentalists
Mini Burger Trailer	1	Quality kitchen setup	Foodies
Burger Master	1	Balanced upgrade	All previously unlocked segments
Happy Big Burger	2	Larger capacity, two staff	Higher throughput
Giant Burger	2	Maximum storage (64 units)	Highest volume potential

Which upgrade should you pick first?

Go Maxi Burger Wagon if you are in the Shopping Centre or Residential Area. It unlocks Influencers (trendy, social-media-driven) and Environmentalists (eco-conscious, moderate spenders). These segments have low price sensitivity, meaning you can charge more.

Go Mini Burger Trailer if you are targeting the Tourist Zone or want to serve Foodies. Foodies demand premium recipes and will pay for them, but they also expect high food quality — make sure your staff are at least Level 3 before chasing this segment.

Go bigger (Happy Big Burger or Giant Burger) when throughput is your bottleneck. If you are selling out every day and turning customers away, you need more storage and a second employee to serve faster.

Upgrade ROI Calculation

Before spending on a truck upgrade, estimate the payback period. If the upgrade costs $10,000 and you expect it to generate $500/day in additional profit, the payback period is 20 days. Any upgrade with a payback period under 30 days is generally worth doing.

Location Strategy

Your starting district got you this far, but the mid-game is about matching your capabilities to the most profitable segments. See Location for detailed district analysis.

When to move districts:

When you have unlocked segments that do not exist in your current district (e.g., you upgraded to Maxi but there are no Influencers in the University Area)
When your current district is saturated with competitors
When a higher-value district matches your quality level

District-segment matching:

District	Primary Segments	Quality Needed	Best Truck Types
Business District	Staffs, Managers	High (Level 4+)	Burger Master, Happy Big Burger
University Area	Students, Fit Ones	Low-Medium	Any (volume play)
Shopping Centre	Parents, Tourists, Influencers	Medium-High	Maxi Burger Wagon+
Residential Area	Parents, Environmentalists	Medium	Maxi Burger Wagon
Tourist Zone	Tourists, Foodies, Influencers	High (Level 4+)	Mini Burger Trailer+

Multi-Location Play

As your cash flow grows, consider running multiple food trucks in different districts. This diversifies your revenue streams and protects you from district-specific downturns. A University Area truck for volume + a Tourist Zone truck for premium margins is a powerful combination.

Targeting Premium Segments

The mid-game is when you graduate from serving Students to serving Foodies, Managers, and Influencers. These segments pay significantly more, but they are demanding.

What premium segments require:

Foodies — Premium recipes with high-quality ingredients, staff at Level 4+ for the food quality ceiling, Mini Burger Trailer or better
Managers — Top-tier everything. They have very low price sensitivity (will pay a lot) but expect the best food quality, service speed, and stand appearance
Influencers — Trendy, photogenic food. Maxi Burger Wagon+ required. They care about stand appearance and recipe uniqueness

The Quality Trifecta: Premium customers evaluate you on three dimensions simultaneously:

Food Quality = ingredient quality + recipe complexity + staff training level (the ceiling)
Service Quality = staff speed + friendliness (training + morale)
Stand Quality = truck appearance + equipment upgrades

You must perform well on all three. Excelling at food quality but having poor service will still lose you premium customers. See Customer_Segmentation for detailed segment expectations.

Taking Strategic Loans

Mid-game expansion often requires capital you do not have on hand. Loans can accelerate your growth — if used wisely.

When a loan makes sense:

To fund a truck upgrade with a clear ROI (payback under 30 days)
To open a second location when your first is maxed out
To bridge a temporary cash gap during an economic downturn

When a loan is dangerous:

To cover ongoing operating losses (you are papering over a broken business model)
When your debt-to-equity ratio is already high (interest rates increase)
When you have no clear plan for how the borrowed money generates returns

Loan mechanics reminder: All loans are 5-year terms with a 5% processing fee. Interest rates depend on your debt-to-equity ratio — the more debt you carry relative to your equity, the higher the rate. Keep your debt-to-equity ratio low by building equity through retained profits.

The Golden Rule of Debt

Only borrow money to fund investments that will generate more revenue than the total cost of the loan (principal + processing fee + interest). If you cannot articulate exactly how the loan will pay for itself, do not take it.

Menu Diversification

A single recipe limits your customer base. By the mid-game, you should be running at least two recipes simultaneously.

The two-recipe strategy:

A budget option — Low ingredient cost, high volume, targeted at price-sensitive segments (Students, Staffs). This is your bread and butter.
A premium option — Higher ingredient cost, lower volume, targeted at quality-focused segments (Foodies, Managers, Tourists). This is your profit driver.

Tips for menu management:

Match recipes to the segments in your current district
Keep COGS at 30-40% for each recipe individually
Rotate recipes occasionally to keep repeat customers interested
Consider the storage implications — more recipes means more ingredient types, which strains your limited storage capacity

Staff Development

Your staff are your most valuable asset. In the mid-game, you need to think strategically about who to train, how far, and when to hire.

Training priorities:

Push your primary cook to Level 4 (Proficient, 80 points) or Level 5 (Advanced, 90 points). This unlocks premium recipe quality.
Check each employee's talent ceiling before investing heavily. Not everyone can reach Michelin Maestro (Level 6). Invest in staff with high ceilings.
Train during off-peak hours to minimise lost service time.

Hiring strategy:

When upgrading to a two-employee truck (Happy Big Burger or Giant Burger), hire candidates with high training ceilings even if they start at Level 0. Long-term potential matters more than starting skill.
Fair wages retain trained staff. Losing a Level 4 employee because you underpaid them means starting over from scratch with a new hire. See Motivation_and_Rewards for wage strategy.

The training-morale link: Even a Level 5 employee performs poorly with low morale. Keep morale high through fair wages, reasonable hours, and good working conditions. A happy Level 4 employee outperforms a miserable Level 5.

The Retention Equation

Training a staff member to Level 5 costs significant time and money. If they leave because of low pay or poor morale, you lose that entire investment. It is almost always cheaper to pay fairly than to retrain a replacement.

Competitive Positioning

By the mid-game, you will have competitors in your district. See Competitive_Positioning for a full guide on how to handle competition.

The short version: differentiate rather than compete on price. If a competitor is serving the same segment as you, either target a different segment in the same district or move to a less crowded district. Price wars destroy margins for everyone.