Old School and the two different 1,000-potato milestones

Choose the counter you actually want

Steam tracks separate internal records for 1,000 and 10,000 general peels, plus 500 and 1,000 manual peels. Old School marks the first hand milestone. These Hands Were Made for Peeling marks the second. If the 10,000 total appears while Old School is still locked, refocus on the workbench instead of adding more automated throughput.

The finished-shift report offers an independent cross-check. One player’s results show 62,250 potatoes overall, split into 411 by hand and 61,839 by machine. In a run with that split, clearing the quota still leaves 89 manual peels before the first hand milestone. Use your own subtotals for the calculation. The screenshot is one run, so these numbers are an example rather than a target.

What to do at the bench

Start with a potato you personally peel, turn it to expose remaining skin, finish the peel and deliver it to the water as the developer describes in the store instructions. Use that whole sequence when working toward a manual goal. Each finished potato matters more than how many individual knife strokes you made. The player achievement guide reports that Muscle Memory can be used for these milestones.

Place raw potatoes in the bin beside the board. At the station, hold the primary mouse button during a shallow cut, release to reposition, then hold the secondary button to rotate the potato. Turning the back into view exposes the brown strip a front-only pass leaves behind. At the bench, the secondary button rotates; out of the station it throws. Leave the station before trying to throw the peeled batch into the channel.

When an assisted potato looks almost done

Hotfix 1.0.2 clarified the skill description because residual patches can still need hand work. Inspect and finish the last spots rather than putting a partly worked potato aside and assuming it counted. For a mixed-production run, use the 500-hand unlock as a checkpoint, then keep deliberate bench sessions for the remaining manual goal.

If you have just bought an assist, try it on a single potato. Watch the point where the automated motion stops, rotate the potato once, and remove visible skin before feeding another one. A cropped or deeply gouged potato can look pale while still carrying a strip on the far side. The photographed workbench demonstrates how different the surface looks after a turn; it does not identify the player’s equipped skill.

Related field notes

• A first-shift roadmap for the 20 Steam achievements
• Crank Peel Machine, Auto Peel Machine or Overclock?