Idle game guides
How idle games work, and how to play ours well.
Everything on this page is written by the developer of the games and checked against the games' own data. Start with the general guides if you are new to the genre. Use the per-game pages when you want exact numbers for a decision.
Idle game basics
What Are Idle Games? Incremental and Clicker Games Explained
What idle, incremental and clicker games are, where the genre came from, and how active, idle and offline play differ, with examples from our games.
How Idle Game Math Works: Costs, Milestones and Multipliers
Cost curves, bulk buying, milestones, stacking multipliers, half-life decay and prestige square roots, with worked examples from real idle games.
When to Prestige: Resets in Idle Games Explained
How prestige resets work and when to take them, with the real rules of Extinction in Primordial Tap, Studio Legacy in IdleCenter and Realm Forge exile.
IdleCenter
Run your own idle game studio. Ship games, grow a catalog that pays you while you play, hire a team and research your way to a legendary studio.
- Play IdleCenter, free in your browser
- IdleCenter strategy guide
- Research tree: The full IdleCenter research tree: every node with its Research Point cost, prerequisites and whether it survives a Studio Legacy reset.
- Staff and market: IdleCenter staff costs and milestones, all topics and genres, release fading, trends, crowding and Reputation, read from the game data.
Primordial Tap
Guide life from a single cell to planetary dominance. Unlock genetic milestones and survive mass extinction.
- Play Primordial Tap, free in your browser
- Primordial Tap strategy guide
- All 18 stages: Every Primordial Tap evolution stage with its energy threshold, trivia auto-tap reward and lore, from Primordial Ooze to Extinction.
- Upgrade list: All Primordial Tap upgrades by era with base cost, output and cap, plus milestone multipliers and every Genetic Memory prestige upgrade.
Realm Forge
Rise from blacksmith to emperor. Build a market economy, hire workers, and forge a kingdom of steel.
- Play Realm Forge, free in your browser
- Realm Forge strategy guide
- All decrees: Every Realm Forge royal decree by category with its cost and effect, plus which currencies decrees use and how to prioritise them.
- Economy numbers: Realm Forge by the numbers: worker costs, market rules, Renown milestones, Kingdom buildings, legions and achievements, from the game data.