Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (2024)

Highlights

  • Cookie Clicker is a deceptively simple game with new mechanics and a progression system that keeps players engaged.
  • Permanent Upgrade Slots in Cookie Clicker allow players to keep the benefits of upgrades through multiple playthroughs.
  • Synergistic upgrades in the game offer significant boosts to cookie production by combining different cookie generators.

Cookie Clicker is a deceptively simple game. On the surface, it's nothing but a mindless idle game, but it's actually much more complex thanks to new mechanics added over the years and a near-endless progression system that continues to feel rewarding. It's a lot more than watching numbers go up – and the new version of the game on Steam adds even more.

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The upgrading system present in the game is based on the number of a certain cookie generator that the player owns. For example, the Prune Juice upgrade for Grandmas requires that players own 50 Grandmas. While some upgrades might take a while to build up to, they tend to be very worthwhile for the patient (or AFK) Cookie Clicker player.

Updated January 11, 2024 by Erik Petrovich: In Cookie Clicker, deciding which upgrades to get is tough, especially in the later stages when just comprehending the numbers of Cookies being produced is difficult, let alone strategizing to maximize production. But one thing that can be incredibly useful in the long run is Permanent Upgrade Slots. These upgrades are some of the best upgrades Cookie Clicker players can get, but not all Upgrades are candidates for being made permanent. This guide has been updated with some specific recommendations for the best Permanent Upgrade slots choices, as well as how to unlock them. Additionally, look for new tables that concisely present information about each of these best Cookie Clicker upgrades.

10 Permanent Upgrade Slots

Why Let Prestige Get Rid Of Your Upgrades?

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (2)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

  • 100 Heavenly Chips (slot 1)
  • 20,000 Heavenly Chips (slot 2)
  • 3 Million Heavenly Chips (slot 3)
  • 400 Million Heavenly Chips (slot 4)

"Legacy" perk purchased, which allows Ascension

Maintains one upgrade's benefits throughout multiple playthroughs

Cookie Clicker Permanent Upgrade Slots are powerful upgrades that let players keep the benefits of an upgrade through multiple playthroughs (and multiple Prestige levels). The first Permanent Upgrade Slot costs a paltry 100 Heavenly Chips in the Ascension screen, but the cost escalates quickly to 20,000 for the second Upgrade Slot, three million for the third, 400 million for the fourth, and 50 billion for the fifth. These Upgrade Slots can be slotted with any normal Upgrade purchased in Cookie Clicker.

Best Cookie Clicker Permanent Upgrades

The Cookie Clicker best permanent upgrades to slot are those that give the largest boost to production through a playthrough, like Trillion Fingers which increases Cursor production massively even from the very beginning of a new Prestige playthrough. As time goes on and players unlock the other three slots, consider adding one upgrade to boost Kitten Cookie production, one that increases the chance for Golden Cookies to spawn, and one that increases the CPS for specific buildings.

All of these Upgrade Slots should be filled with the highest-ranking version of these upgrades possible – don't put in Thousand Fingers instead of Trillion Fingers, for example, or Kitten Helpers instead of Kitten Strategists.

9 Persistent Memory

Significant Increase to Research

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (3)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

500 Heavenly Chips

"Legacy" perk purchased, which allows Ascension

Multiples research rate by 10 times in future playthroughs

The Persistent Memory upgrade is a Prestige option that players can earn relatively early into a long-term Cookie Clicker playthrough. For 500 Heavenly Chips the Persistent Memory upgrade makes all research in all future playthroughs 10 times faster.

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This rapidly increases the rate players are able to purchase new Cookie generators not normally available from the outset of the game. It might seem like a useless investment of valuable Heavenly Chips, but the benefits last a long time, and can be felt as soon as players re-start.

To upgrade Persistent Memory players have to have Legacy purchased. This occurs the first time the player Ascends and spends their first Heavenly Chip, so it's not so much a pre-requisite as it is a normal part of Ascension.

8 Thousand Fingers

Plus Million Fingers, Billion Fingers, Trillion Fingers, etc

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (5)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

100,000 Cookies

Must have purchased at least 25 Cursors in one playthrough

Adds 0.1 Cookies for each Auto-Clicker for each non-Cursor object

There are several Cookie Clicker upgrades pertaining to Auto-Clickers that might not seem powerful at first glance. The Auto-Clicker is, of course, the weakest cookie generator in Cookie Clicker, but it's also the cheapest and players tend to amass them faster than other generators.

Thousand Fingers adds 0.1 cookies generated by Auto-Clickersfor each non-cursor object owned. There are a variety of upgrades between Thousand Fingers and Trillion Fingers that increase this number, but Trillion Fingers offers the largest jump in power with a 20 times multiplier added to Thousand Fingers. Despite being one of the lowest-performing cookie generators in Cookie Clicker, Auto-Clickers are a huge deal towards the beginning of the game, especially if you can nab one of these upgrades early on.

7 Forwards From Grandma

Double Granny Cookie Production

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (6)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

1000 Cookies

Just One Grandma must be purchased to begin upgrade path

Makes Grandmas twice as efficient

Grandmas are the second-cheapest cookie generator in the game and one that players tend to build lots of at the start. They lose their luster over time, but with certain upgrades, they become powerhouses in their own right.

The upgrades that make Grandmas twice as efficient are all unlocked at certain milestones. Forwards from Grandma requires one owned Grandma, while Double-Thick Glasses requires the player to own 100 Grandmas. This adds up significantly over time, and Grandmas have the potential to be game-breakingly good when used to their maximum potential – and when synergies are used between Grandmas and other Cookie generators.

6 Farmer Grandmas

Not Too Old To Work The Fields

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (7)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

55,000 Cookies

Must have purchased 15 Farms and one Grandma in a playthrough

Doubles Grandma's efficiency, and adds 1 CPS for Farms (or later, other associated items)

Several Cookie Clicker upgrades to the Grandmas are only unlocked when the player has at least 15 of another type of generator. As a few examples, Farmer Grandmas require 15 Farms, Worker Grandmas require 15 Factories, and AntiGrandmas require 15 Antimatter Condensers.

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Each of these upgrades is twofold. Grandmas become twice as efficient and the associated other item gains +1 Cookies Per Second (CPS) for a certain number of Grandmas. Farmer Grandmas increase Farm CpS by 1% for every Grandma owned, while AntiGrandmas increase Antimatter Machine CpS by 1% for every 11 Grandmas owned.

The Farm Grandmas upgrade is just the first one that players can unlock, and these later synergistic upgrades can do much to give players a noticeable power boost, even if it does require a ton of cookies to buy the pre-requisite generators.

5 Kitten Helpers

Small, But Long-Term, CPS Boosts

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (9)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

9 Million Cookies

Player must have 13 Achievements, or 52% Milk

Increases CPS based on current Milk (0.1% of total Milk)

The Kitten Helpers upgrade is unlocked once the player has earned at least 13 total achievements in Cookie Clicker. It unlocks the ability to increase CpS across the board depending on how much Milk a player has. Milk is earned every time the player has earned an achievement at a 4% increase each.

The Kitten Helpers upgrade only increases CpS by 0.1% of the total Milk, but as Milk increases so too does cookie production for every single owned object (and, of course, for every click). Players have to unlock specific Prestige-related upgrades to fully unlock the potential of their Milk bonuses.

The achievements will flow in at first, but as players get to the really, really long-game, they're much more sparse, so it's not a bad idea to get this one sooner than later to ramp up cookie generation more quickly.

4 Heavenly Chip Secret

Prestige Now Grants CPS

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (10)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

11 Cookies

"Legacy" perk purchased, which allows Ascension

Increases CPS based on current Prestige level

When a player goes into Ascension and gains Prestige ranks, the game restarts. However, their Prestige stays the same between playthroughs and so do the permanent upgrades unlocked through the game's skill tree. When restarting, the player gains CpS based on their current Prestige – but it's not available at first.

Players have to buy special upgrades like the Heavenly Chip Secret to unlock a certain amount of their Prestige levels. If a player is at Prestige 100, for example, they will only have a 5% increase to CpS with the Heavenly Chip Secret unlock.

As more of these upgrades are unlocked, such as Heavenly Cookie Stand and Heavenly Bakery, the full Prestige potential is given to the player. These upgrades are relatively small, compared to some of the bigger power spikes available in Cookie Clicker. But over time, they're worth picking up for the flat, unrestricted bonus, even if it is marginal.

3 Lucky Day (and Serendipity/Get Lucky)

We're Up All Night To Get Lucky

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (11)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

777,777 Cookies

Player must have collected a total of 7 Golden Cookies, increases with higher ranks

Golden Cookies appear faster and last longer

There are three Golden Cookie-related Cookie Clicker upgrades – Lucky Day, Serendipity, and Get Lucky. Each upgrade makes Golden Cookies appear twice as often and stick around for double the time. At the start of the game, Golden Cookies only stay for a few seconds, but with these upgrades, the benefits and buffs can last for minutes.

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Each one requires the player to have clicked a certain number of cookies. Lucky Day requires 7 to have been clicked and costs 777 Million cookies, Serendipity requires 27 and costs 77 Billion cookies, and Get Lucky requires 77 Golden Cookies clicked and costs 77 Trillion cookies. Make sure to detour off your desired path for these, because the bonuses granted by Golden Cookies can make it easier to purchase the best upgrades Cookie Clicker has to offer in just a few minutes.

2 How To Bake Your Dragon

Just Don't Try To Eat It Afterward

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (12)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

9 Heavenly Chips

"Legacy" perk purchased, which allows Ascension

Adds a Dragon Whelp players must take care of, which offers rewards consistently

A Crumbly Egg is an upgrade that first requires players to purchase the Prestige level 9 Ascension upgrade titled "How To Bake Your Dragon". Once A Crumbly Egg is unlocked for 25 cookies, a Dragon Egg will appear on screen, giving players a side objective to complete: taking care of the young whelpling.

As the player earns more cookies the dragon egg hatches and turns into Krumblor, a Cookie Dragon. Krumblor will give the player new upgrades and unique gameplay changes, like reduced upgrade cost, increased Golden Cookie chance, and even the game-wide cookie multiplier.

1 Synergistic Cookie Clicker Upgrades, In General

Synergies Are The Key To Ramping Up Cookie Production

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (13)

Chip/Cookie Cost

Upgrade Prerequisites

Upgrade Effect

Anywhere from 66 trillion Cookies to 2.4 decillion Cookies

"Synergies" Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 Upgrades purchased, must own a certain amount of each Cookie Producer

Varies

There are several Synergy upgrades in Cookie Clicker that only unlock when two conditions are met. The first is that the "Synergies Vol. 1" or "Synergies Vol. 2" upgrades must be unlocked. The second is that the player must own a certain number of each of the two associated objects for each synergy upgrade.

Seismic Magic, for example, requires "Synergies Vol. 1" unlocked as well as 15 Mines and 15 Wizard Towers purchased. For this, Mines gain 5% CpS for every Wizard Tower, while Wizard Towers gain 0.1% CpS for every Mine. The Synergy upgrades are often Cookie Clicker's best upgrades for players who only plan to focus on a select few cookie producers.

Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (14)
Cookie Clicker
Platform(s)
Android , PC

Released
August 8, 2013

Developer
DashNet, Playsaurus

Genre(s)
Idle Games
Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize (2024)

FAQs

Which upgrades to prioritize Cookie Clicker? ›

Best Cookie Clicker Permanent Upgrades

The Cookie Clicker best permanent upgrades to slot are those that give the largest boost to production through a playthrough, like Trillion Fingers which increases Cursor production massively even from the very beginning of a new Prestige playthrough.

How to get 999999 cookies in Cookie Clicker? ›

Type Game. Earn(number) into the console, making sure to replace number with the number of cookies that you want to generate. For example, if you want to generate virtually infinite cookies, you might type Game. Earn(999999999999999999999999999999) here.

How to get 777777 Cookie Clicker? ›

You need prestige level ends with 7, 777, 777777. You can check it if you change "Short numbers" to "off". Note, that's Prestige, not Heavenly Chips. Don't be like me and mix them up and then wonder why you aren't seeing the upgrades when you finally ascend.

What is the 12 sextillion thing in Cookie Clicker? ›

Introduction. The Idleverse is a building added in the alternate reality update. It is the eighteenth building in the game, costs 12 sextillion cookies and produces 8.3 trillion CpS by hijacking production from other idle universes.

What is the best cheat in Cookie Clicker? ›

Other Fun Cheat Codes For Everyone To Try Out
CommandDescription
Game.RuinTheFun(1);Unlock everything and ruin the fun!
Game.santaLevel=;Set the Santa level
Game.SetAllAchievs(1);Unlock all achievements
Game.SetAllUpgrade(1);Unlock all upgrades
8 more rows
Apr 8, 2024

What upgrade starts the Grandmapocalypse? ›

It is triggered after buying the "One mind" upgrade from the Research Facility, and is furthered by buying "Communal brainsweep" and finally "Elder Pact".

What is the cheat key for Cookie Clicker? ›

With Google Chrome on a Windows PC, you access the Cookie Clicker cheat menu by pressing Control, Shift and J. You can also simply press F12. For the MacOS version of Google Chrome, press Command, Option and J to bring up the Cookie Clicker hacking area.

What is the OP name for Cookie Clicker? ›

Open Sesame is the control panel for Cookie Clicker.

How do you spell saysopensesame? ›

On the web version of the game, you can instead add 'saysopensesame' to the end of your bakery's name. For example, "Rachel's Bakery" becomes "Rachel saysopensesame's Bakery", or "Rachelsaysopensesame's Bakery".

What is the infinite Cookie Clicker code? ›

To actually obtain Infinity cookies, use: Game.cookies = Infinity; Beware: The number of cookies displayed above the big cookie will not change from infinity if you reset the game and/or change the number of cookies in your bank.

Is there a secret in Cookie Clicker? ›

There are many hidden references and Easter eggs sprinkled throughout Cookie Clicker. Many are hidden in achievements and upgrades. They are in the title of the achievement/upgrade, or the description.

What is the highest thing to buy in Cookie Clicker? ›

The time machine costs 123,456,789 cookies, and is the most expensive of all the items, at their base levels.

Is the Grandmapocalypse good? ›

However, that's the only bad effect, and there are useful parts of the Grandmapocalypse. If you're going for the Frenzy+Click Frenzy then don't use it but if you're going to leave it idle but open, they can add a nice bit of income, since you won't be clicking cookies, why not.

What is the OG Cookie Clicker? ›

Cookie Clicker Classic was the original version of Cookie Clicker, before the 1.0 Update (sometimes referred to by its originally planned version number, 1.3). It remains playable here and is linked from the current Cookie Clicker page in the top right corner.

Can you avoid the Grandmapocalypse in Cookie Clicker? ›

As soon as the last upgrade gets purchased, youre able to use "Elder Pledge", which stops the Grandmapocalypse for half an hour. It can be extended up to an hour with heavenly upgrades. You could also use "Elder Covenant", which will permanently stop the Grandmapocalypse at a cost of 5% of your total CPS.

What should I focus on buying in Cookie Clicker? ›

Cookies are the foremost thing in Cookie Clicker and the primary currency used to progress in the game. Once you get more experience, you should buy different cookie buildings to get them passively. Even though you can upgrade old buildings, they get a significant increase in prices every time you invest.

What should I upgrade first with sugar lumps Cookie Clicker? ›

What to do with sugar lumps:
  1. Spend 1 lump on wizard towers to unlock the grimoire.
  2. Spend 1 lump on temples to unlock the pantheon.
  3. Spend 1 lump on farms to unlock the garden.
  4. Spend 1 lump on banks to unlock the stock market.
  5. Spend the next 44 lumps to get farms to level 9, unlocking the maximum size of the garden.

What is the best number to ascend in Cookie Clicker? ›

The general rule of thumb is to wait until you have passed 440 prestige levels before ascension, which equates to 85.184 quintillion cookies. While this sounds a lot – and it is – the benefits you reap from waiting until then are worth it.

What is the most efficient way to get cookies in Cookie Clicker? ›

If you're stuck and far in the game, and don't want to ascend, here a good way to get money fast. If you have maxed out level farms, put golden clovers in every plot and switch to clay. make sure it's all in the same tick when you plant these. As these grow, your golden cookie frequency will increase by a lot.

References

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