You progress in Love & Pies by making food, drinks and other goods, and serving them to customers.

Start by tapping generators to create items.
Once created, the basic food and drink items can be merged into higher level items.
When part of a customer's order is prepared it will highlight dark green, and then will highlight a light green once the full order is ready. Once served, customers will reward you with coins and they will be replaced by new customers.

Once you have gathered enough coins, you can complete the next story task.

Completing tasks will automatically progress the story forward, unveiling more of the mystery of the cafe and also unlocking new characters and events in the game.
You will gain experience points when completing tasks, this will increase your player level. Each time you level up you will receive rewards, the most important being item chests. Item chests are very important, as they contain generator pieces, coins, diamonds and other useful items that will help you progress in the game.
The cafe will also get repaired, cleaned-up and decorated as you progress through the story and tasks. You will usually get three decoration choices for larger cafe upgrades, but you will also unlock smaller upgrades as you uncover the story and meet more characters.

Occasionally you will encounter special customers who will ask for something unique - serve them to unlock secret rewards and learn more about the characters you love!

Keep merging, serve customers, complete tasks and decorate the cafe while solving mysteries!