Chocolatier 2: Secret Ingredients is essentially the same as the first game, Chocolatier. It’s a trading game, and while the game combines arcade elements to make chocolates, there is no actual time limit. You’re free to explore as long as there is enough $ to travel about. So rule #1: don’t stress.

  • Check every building every time you’re in any town when you’re NOT on a mission. If you’re on a mission, they’ll just tell you to come back later (and sometimes they’ll say so even if they have no mission for you when you’re back) so why waste your time?
  • Don’t buy stuff you don’t need. Chances are that they’ll just rot.
  • Keep a list of ingredients available in each town on a sheet of paper.
  • The game does a really good job of keeping track of which factory makes what. When in doubt, just check your recipe book. Before flying off to an unknown factory and start making random chocolates, see if you’ve already got production in place in an existing one. It’s in your recipe book.
  • Keep your inventory rotating. That means no stocking up anything other than basic cacao, sugar, and later on truffle powder.
  • Don’t let anyone “inspect” or “tour” your factories. Ever.
  • When you’re in your lab, trust your lab tech. He’ll give you hints on combining ingredients. There’s no penalty for trying out crazy combinations (it’s not Mastermind) so go right ahead and combine plantains with fire ants in an exotic.
  • You don’t have to wait out a specific time period before going back to your lab. Just travel out and travel back to play some more.
  • Your chocolates will also deteriorate in storage, not just your ingredients.
  • When you’re ever stuck in the game, just revisit every port and talk to everyone.
  • Some backwater towns don’t have chocolate shops to sell your wares in, so be careful not to get stuck with no money in a town. This becomes a moot point after you’re able to fly.

If there’s enough request for it, I’ll post an ingredients and shop list, but there’s really no need for one. Keeping track on your own is part of the fun!

Here’s my end save file – a bit messy but it’ll open up free play completely. You want to put it in your:
c:\documents and settings\your_user_name\application data\PlayFirst\
directory. Don’t forget to back up your own first!