Heat and charcoal: how not to burn suya
The fire has three settings: low, medium and high. Hotter cooks faster but gives you less time; a skewer left on the grill too long burns, smokes and scares customers away.
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How does the heat work?
Tap one of the three flames beside the grill to set the fire. Each night opens on medium, and the fire stays where you set it. Each setting cooks at its own speed:
| Heat | Cooking speed | Flip window |
|---|---|---|
| Low | ×0.6 | 6.7 s |
| Medium | ×1 | 4 s |
| High | ×1.4 | 2.9 s |
Each phase of a skewer lasts its time on medium × the meat’s cook time ÷ the cooking speed. The flip window follows the same rule: on high a beef skewer’s window shrinks to 2.9 s, so high heat is fast but unforgiving.
How to not burn suya in the game
A beef skewer on medium heat, phase by phase. Other meats scale with their cook time (see the menu).
| Phase | Beef on medium | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Side 1 | 6 s | Wait. A tap in its second half flips early, and the second side then takes longer. |
| Flip! | 4 s | Tap it: a neat flip, 10% on the price and +0.5 stars. Miss it and the skewer goes straight to “Overdone”, its second side skipped. |
| Side 2 | 6 s | Get the customer ready. |
| Ready | 4 s | Tap it onto the plate: it stops cooking there, at the full price. |
| Overdone | 4 s | Still goes onto the plate and sells, at 50% of the price and −1 star. |
| Burnt | — | Tap it to throw it away; its meat is lost. |
- Put on only what the queue has asked for, plus one or two of the commonest meat.
- Keep the fire on medium until you can flip without looking.
- Take every ready skewer onto the plate at once: on the plate it can’t overcook or burn.
- The plate holds 40. A skewer nobody in the queue wants: tap it on the plate to throw it away and make room.
Suya game charcoal: how long does a bag last?
One bag burns for 180 game minutes and costs ₦300; a night is 360 game minutes. On high the coals burn ×1.5 as fast, so a night on high needs more bags. You can hold up to 6.
When the charcoal is nearly gone the game says “Charcoal is finishing”. With none left the coals cook as low (×0.6) whatever you set: the stall stays open, but everything cooks slowly.
What does the charcoal stove upgrade do?
It makes every heat setting cook faster: 25% faster at level 5. Medium with a good stove cooks nearly as fast as high, with a longer flip window.
What does rain do to the coals?
On a rainy night the rain on the coals makes everything cook 15% slower, so you may want the fire a step higher. From level 3 the light upgrade adds a rain cover that takes 50% off that.
What happens when a skewer burns?
Black smoke rises for 5 seconds, and each burnt skewer scares one arriving customer away. Tap the burnt skewer to clear the slot; its meat counts as waste in the summary.
In Ikeja customers want it clean: a burn upsets everyone already waiting.