The original cookie clicker was published in 2013 by the french developer Orteil. The game introduced the basic principles of a clicker type game. You click on a big cookie to earn cookies which can be used to buy upgrades and buildings.

Game appearence

The game in a cartoonish but very detailed pixel art style. While playing the game you can enjoy some relaxing music in the background. Clicking on the cookie also produces a sound effect but this gets quite annoying after some time. The different building minigames also have some nice sound effects.

Gameplay

At the beginning you can make cookies by clicking on the big cookie on the left of your screen. After you earned a certain amount you can purchase a Cursor that clicks the cookie for you, earning 1 cookie each 10 seconds. Keep on clicking and you can purchase a Grandma that produces 1 cookie each second. You get the idea: Get more money, buy better buildings, get more automated cookies per second (CPS) and use that money to buy more buildings, earning you more and more cookies.

In addition to the building purchases you can also buy upgrades in the store to improve the efficiency of buildings or the amount of cookies you get for each manual click and much more. Upgrades rise in prize the more you progress and sometimes even profit multiple buildings.

Some buildings unlock a minigame if you upgrade them with sugar lumps, an item that automatically gets harvested after a certain amount (1 irl day in my case). Minigames add another level of complexity to the game as you can get big benefits from the mechanics but also debuffs like getting your cookie production halved for 15 minutes. My favourite minigame at the moment is the Grimoire, a selection of spells that can help boost your production efficiency enormously.

Sometimes you find pulsating golden cookies on your screen. These give you random buffs, helping your cookie production but you need to click them fast as they disappear after around 15 seconds if you don’t click on them.

Grind

At the moment there are 637 steam achievements to earn in the game. Unlocking some specials ones grants you the ability to purchase the next kitten upgrade, an upgrade which boosts your cps. The amount of achievements you have also influences the color of the milk.

To unlock permanent upgrades you can start from the beginning using the Legacy button in the top right corner. Doing so will give you access to a skill tree and lots of upgrades to purchase. The more cookies you earn before “resetting”, the more heavenly chips and prestige levels you’ll get. These can be used to purchase said permanent upgrades.

There are also some seasonal events like the Christmas season that unlock new upgrades and achievements. If you progress in the game you’ll be able to unlock the Grandmapocalypse, an event that effects the game appearance but also causes the spawn of evil creatures. As I don’t want to spoil too much of the game’s story, you’ll have to find out about it yourself which should be more fun.

Conclusion

Get Cookie Clicker here

If you don’t like cookie clicker type games check out our article about 5 free browser games.

The starting point – Orteil’s cookie clicker

The original cookie clicker was published in 2013 by the french developer Orteil. The game introduced the basic principles of a clicker type game. You click on a big cookie to earn cookies which can be used to buy upgrades and buildings. Buildings generate cookies for you, the higher the price the more they make. Buying new upgrades helps your cookie generation and improves the efficiency or your buildings. This gives you an more or less infinite gaming experience. There is also a fandom wiki about the cookie clicker if you are interested in the history of the game or how for example prices are calculated.

Growing potatoes – AdVenture communist

AdVenture communist was published on steam 2016 as an early access version and is a spin-off to the clicker game AdVenture Capitalist. Both games are developed by Hyper Hippo Productions. The finished game can be found on mobile. Its free to play on all devices but you can purchase upgrade currency through real money.

The gameplay follows the basic principles mentioned above: You click a button to get potatoes. Get a certain amount to buy a farmer. Farmers generate more potatoes which can be used to buy more of them or to purchase buildings which generate farmers. This goes on and on and the prices just go up. There are 5 materials in total that can be collected following the same basic ideas. You get scientists that can be used to purchase upgrades and there is also an “achievement system” through medals. Note that that the game on steam doesn’t have any achievements and is lacking a lot of content compared to the mobile version.

For the mobile version the gameplay feels a bit different. You also start out farming potatoes by clicking and need to earn scientists, the upgrade currency to automatize the progress. You can earn the upgrade currency through chests earned by completing quests. There is only a certain amount of quests you can complete for each rank. If you want to upgrade your rank you loose all your progress except for your scientists. There are 5 categories you need to farm similar to the steam version.

Minecraft but it hurts your hands – Pickcrafter

Pickcrafter is a clicker game with graphics comparable to Minecraft. You click yourself through different bioms with different materials. Materials can be used to purchase pickaxes with higher power or gear that generates a certain amount of picks per seconds. You can find chests and bosses after breaking some materials. There are abilities that help you earn more points in different ways. Each month there are new events which reward powerful items. There are also 99 steam achievements to earn in Pickcrafter. Similar to AdVenture Communist there is also an shop to purchase items with real money.

Tips and tricks

• If you don’t want to hurt your fingers and your mouse you could (in theory) maybe just use an auto clicker
• Leaving the game running in the background can generate more than closing it and earning the offline amount (not all games have this feature)
• Rather purchase long time upgrades than upgrades which generate a lot of currency in a short amount of time if you plan on playing the game for a longer time span