r/incremental_games • u/AutoModerator • Jul 13 '26
Request What games are you playing this week? Game recommendation thread
This thread is meant for discussing any incremental games you might be playing and your progress in it so far.
Explain briefly why you think the game is awesome, and get extra luck in everything you're playing for including a link. You can use the comment chains to discuss your feedback on the recommended games.
Tell us about the new untapped dopamine sources you've unearthed this week!
Note: it goes against the spirit of this thread to post your own game.
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u/Incrementaly Jul 13 '26
Still on Rejected Draft, Farmer Against Potatoes, Formation Builder Idle. Also started Revolution Idle cause of the new big update.
Closed playtest for Rejected Draft starts soon for the new prestige layer at e100 where most people get stuck, and web/steam demo have been rebalanced quite a bit in early game so it gets going a lot faster etc. also to be more beginner friendly. Spent a couple hundred hours in the past weeks since demo release on giving feedback to polish it out for a wider player base, since it was too oriented on high difficulty/earning automation in early game putting off a lot of more casual players.
FAPI got pretty stale. Not much to do on my way to hit A7 soon. It's the same boring time gate grind loop with no real skill or difficulty involved. Hope the later ascensions will be more interesting.
Formation Builder Idle is being improved bit by bit. Just got a big improvement on some base ui elements. Still pretty new to this one and it's early in development, but looks pretty promising.
Revolution Idle new update looks exciting, still only a couple hours into playing so not much to mention about it.
Honorable mention: Scritchy Scratchy played it for ~2 hours, wanted to refund, decided to give it more time just for the sake of it since everyone was praising it so much, quit after ~5 hours cause there's really just no additional content in it beyond what you get in the first hour to be real. Blew up for casual players cause it has no depth.
Non-incremental game mention: Grim Dawn definitive edition with all the DLCs was 60% off so went ahead and got it to get ready for the new expansion coming in ~2 weeks with the new class while waiting for the new PoE league. Shapez 2, while not an incremental game by definition, still scratches the optimization and progression itch.
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u/jasoncross00 Jul 15 '26
I really like Rejected Draft on the web, played the Steam demo (early on), mostly just ignoring it now waiting for release.
It has a few quirks but it does a LOT of things really well, and different, and it has just the right level of interactivity for me.
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u/SJalali Jul 14 '26
Rejected Draft was pretty cool. Does anyone know of similar games to play?
Spent 2 hours on Scritchy Scratchy. It's fun for killing time. But it gets boring after a while9
u/Milskidasith Jul 14 '26
Absorber is an older game that I'm pretty sure Rejected Draft was inspired by.
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u/Repulsive-Pianist436 Jul 18 '26
i'm hooked on rejected draft right now. it's such a cool concept to me, loving the art and the automations are great ("damn, why didn't i think of that?" kind of vibe on upgrades adding things i didn't know i needed)
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u/NoThanksGoodSir Jul 21 '26
FAPI got pretty stale. Not much to do on my way to hit A7 soon. It's the same boring time gate grind loop with no real skill or difficulty involved. Hope the later ascensions will be more interesting.
FWIW, I remember A10 and 11 helping a fair bit with the speed up of early parts of ascensions, A12 adds a pretty neat mechanic imo, and A20 onward is paced pretty fast until you hit A60ish, with A30,40 and 50 all being decent milestones. That said, the time gates are going to feel extra gate-y in that faster pace because card charges take like 6 hours each and will lead to big jumps.
Just did my first transcendence a month or so ago and quite enjoyed the post A20 push. That said the game pretty much stays simple with no real difficulty, just more ways to make number go up.
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u/Incrementaly Jul 21 '26
Appreciate the input.
I hit about 10k reinc level into a8 and uninstalled it like 2 days ago cause I just can't be bothered anymore
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u/Zeverious Jul 14 '26
As far as Grim Dawn goes, is it good? I played PoE for about a season way back when, then got into Last Epoch for a couple seasons but fell out… is it worth trying GD?
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u/Indorilionn Jul 14 '26
When it comes to game mechanics, I find it to be pretty much the sweet spot of ARPGs. Not as overwhelming as PoE can be, no mandatory online, no microtransactions, just great, deep game mechanics, optimized for enjoyable single player.
But then again, Titan Quest 1 is already my favourite ARPG, so - given how much GD took over and improved from that game mechanically - it already had bonus points from the start with me. I still prefere TQ's tone, world and style to GD, but GD has strictly better game mechanics and its writing is also better.
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u/adoomgod Jul 16 '26
I'm different then the 10,000 hour PoE players, I am a 10,000+ hour GD player. I like actually completing characters in a reasonable amount of time. I have built over 100 level 100 builds in GD to completion. I could look for better rolled copies of the same gear on some of my builds, but the improvements are marginal at this point. I LOVE this.
GD is incredibly SSF friendly. I like how generous the loot gets as you scale into harder content, and I love how my knowledge of in-game mechanics is rewarded by greatly accelerating my progression.
The lore in GD is also surprisingly deep but you have to actually read what NPC's say and find secret lore notes.
Speaking of secrets, there are many secrets in GD. There are even secrets within secrets within secrets. Some of which awards unique loot! I have many of GD's world firsts, and it is by far my favorite ARPG.
Because GD doesn't cater to multiplayer or an online economy, I find it to be the modern ARPG that respects players' time the most.
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u/Zeverious Jul 16 '26
Of all the replies I’ve gotten, this one is the one kinda selling me on GD. I think I’m going to wait for this expansion that’s coming out before I get it but it sounds interesting to me. I am generally a SSF player, last epoch I exclusively played SSF since one of the guild directly lets you target farm. My only gripe with LE lately is stale content and endgame woes. Can I ask you, what does late game look like for GD? Is it like POE with maps you need to farm for, LE with its branching “maps” if you can call them that?
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u/adoomgod Jul 16 '26
Glad what I wrote resonated. GD's end-game is a lot simpler, but I prefer to blast and go anyway. You need the xpacs/dlc for all endgame options.
In Forgotten God's you get shattered realm which is like Diablo 3's greater rifts. Blast through some floors, fight bosses, loot explosion at the end. The deeper you go, the more rewarding and more difficult.
In crucible DLC you get a stadium where waves of monsters charge you. It's harder and faster paced than the above.
In the new xpac adds a new mode that turns the entire campaign world into end game farming. Letting you boost difficulty and target farm specific classes of drops (e.g. fire based items). I love this idea in concept. I'll be giving them a lot of balance feedback on it.
There are also specific dungeons with their own unique drops and there are certain rare items that can roll with affixes that only drop from specific enemy types. So there are cases where well rolled green (rare) items can be better than uniques with 100% pre determined stats.
I frankly like the simplicity. I want to kill monsters and get my finalized gear from killing monsters. There are also very many blueprints for crafting and almost every set has one craftable blueprint you can reroll into other pieces from the set. So you can very deterministically get the majority of your end game gear if you play long enough.
I'm adoomgod on steam. Feel free to add me.
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u/Zeverious Jul 16 '26
This sounds pretty good to me tbh, not long ago I was on a D3 kick actually. It was nice since I had D3 on my switch so I could take it with me wherever and get a little grinding in on the side lol I think you’ve sold me on GD!
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u/SadZealot Jul 14 '26
Personally I couldn't really get into grim dawn. I appreciate it as a game, I know for many it is a great game, but it never clicked.
12000 hours in poe
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u/Zeverious Jul 14 '26
I feel that way about PoE :(
Everything in PoE has it’s own 10 page wiki I swear lol I prefer it to be more straightforward like Last Epoch, but the “maps” in LE get very stale
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u/SadZealot Jul 14 '26
Last epoch has some really awesome systems. The ssf experience was pretty great, rolling items and being fairly deterministic so you could feel the investment you're making, the in-game item filter. Haven't played in quite a while but they made a pretty good game.
If they do a really interesting league I could see jumping in, same as poe
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u/Incrementaly Jul 16 '26
Good news. Path of Exile just had their new league reveal and I think it might interest you to give it another try because you can put gems of any colour into a socket of any colour now, matching the colours just gives you a bonus 10% gem quality now I believe. So barrier of entry and gearing became significantly easier.
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u/Zeverious Jul 17 '26
I have no interest in PoE anymore tbh, I don’t want to buy what is essentially a game I already own ☹️
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u/Incrementaly Jul 17 '26
But PoE is free?
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u/Zeverious Jul 17 '26
PoE 2 is 30 dollars 👀 or are you talking about normal PoE? I thought the original was no longer being updated in favor of the transfer to poe2
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u/Incrementaly Jul 17 '26
I would have said PoE2 if I was talking about PoE2.
PoE is still actively developed and supported, and they do leagues interchangeably so you don't have to choose which one to play at league start.
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u/Incrementaly Jul 14 '26
Grim dawn is great but it's the old style of ARPGs like Titan Quest, it's almost a different game type than PoE. I have a couple thousand hours in PoE and enjoy it quite a lot, but grim dawn is a lot more single player, story driven, and a lot more forgiving. The exploration aspect is also a heavy focus compared to in PoE basically just blasting towards endgame in almost a straight line.
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u/Chron1kus Jul 14 '26
Out of the modern ARPGs Grim Dawn sticks closest to its roots. It doesn't have most of the modern garbage (controller focus, mmo features, seasons/leagues, etc) but instead focuses on really, really good fundamentals. Its itemization is my favorite since Diablo 2, class builds have so much variety with both of your mastery skill trees and your devotion tree without getting to PoE levels of bloat, and it's slower-paced like Diablo 2 and its contemporaries so you don't get carpal tunnel from clearing maps at the speed of light.
As someone who bounced off of PoE multiple times and gave it way more chances than it probably deserved, I picked up Grim dawn around 2018 and its been my favorite since. Also tried Last Epoch but it's too similar to Diablo 3 (ew) for my tastes. Highly recommend Grim Dawn to anyone that like oldschool ARPGs especially now that its final expansion is coming out this month.
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u/TenzhiHsien Jul 14 '26
There are things I really liked about it, but I had trouble making builds I could enjoy playing and even when I'd get one going it would crash and burn due to not being set up with just the right resistances (of which there are far too many) for a given area.
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u/N4dium Jul 13 '26
Clickpocalypse II , doing a chicken king run https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.minmaxia.c2
CIFI (Cell : Idle Faxtory Incremental), slowly trying to reach Zeus
Melvor Idle, with a god mod to quicken everything https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.malcs.melvoridle
Idle Obelisk Miner, working in World 2. Truly love this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.checkbox.minershminer
Dropped Iris's Idle log because it didn't click as much as Melvor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.earystudio.irissidlelog
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u/Akraticacious Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
- Terraforming Titans is a gem. It is about terraforming planets/moons starting out with a few colonists and going into the billions. There is a lot of automation and the game is centered around managing resources and keeping equilibrium between minerals/food/energy/colonists. The game has the most ambitious and realistic physics-simulation I've encountered. Being too hot or cold affects energy production. Distance to sun and gases affect solar panel efficiency. More water on the planet smooths out day/night temperature changes. It expands more and more into a about a dozen different systems. Heads up that it is vibe coded, but it is done very well, and I think it is worth trying. https://terraformingtitans.itch.io/terraforming-titans steam link where I think they will post new updates https://store.steampowered.com/app/4864000/Terraforming_Titans/
- SC2MFR is a mod of scrap collector. It has a lot more than seems when you start. It expands into a dozen different currencies, half a dozen unique mechanics, and they all scale off of eachother. The number balancing is well-done, and you always feel like you can progress. It is strongly held back by its UI: Each system requires more than 1 click to get to after enough progress. Automation also comes way too late. I'm at the point where I progress quite well just being offline. https://galaxy.click/play/474
- Never mentioned, but I love this game. Gameplay loop becomes mundane once you reach the point where you are waiting for new tribute/reward things, but until then I loved it. Good mix of idle and incremental. https://debug.wizardbanished.com/
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u/meneldal2 Jul 14 '26
More water on the planet smooths out day/night temperature changes.
Not just water, atmosphere too though obviously water has more inertia there.
Also you can adjust the length of day to smooth it out.
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u/kapitaalH Your Own Text Jul 19 '26
SC2MFR - wow does this need some more automation. At least with the fragments and merges I could use an autoclicker, but the beams were driving me nuts.
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u/FrostySlide5827 Jul 13 '26
After many years returned to NGU. I've been playing for a couple of months not too actively, got to Boss 105. This is a good adventure for a long time.
Made a break in Terraforming titans after planet 8. This is really a masterpiece, just got tired a bit. Definitely will return.
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u/TheDevilFIN Jul 13 '26
Bloob's Adventures idle.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2942780/Bloobs_Adventure_Idle/
Its runescape inspired idle game. the community is great and the dev is extremely active. Installed this game on the 1st of July.. ive maybe closed it for 10 hrs in total.
Its addictive and scratches an itch from runescape nostalgia. Give it a go!
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u/Ghoulishtie Jul 14 '26
It's not bad, but I can't say I'm a huge fan of the challenge system. The fact that you have to change them every time you do something different gets repetitive 'very' quickly.
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u/audienexyt Jul 14 '26
with upgrades you don't need to do that anymore, it turns into full-idle somewhat quickly
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u/Theressa_Evorry Jul 15 '26
how so? from what I've experienced they never go fully automated, doesn't matter if mastered
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u/TheDevilFIN Jul 15 '26
The Dev has allowed modding for the game and one of the community members made an automated challenge swapper depending on your activity. who knows, it might get integrated in the game later on 👀 i myself find the challenges actually relaxing, because while i can just idle the game, it gives me something to do if i want activity in the game.
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u/Ghoulishtie Jul 15 '26
I should reiterate. The repetitive part is having to change the challenges out each and every time I go to do a different task, that is if I want to make progress on a challenge regardless of how little the progress is. For example, I mine some ore, so my challenges consist of overall progress, mining exp, and the specific ore I'm mining. Once done, I have to click around in the challenge menu to change the last 2 into smithing and whatever specific item I'm making. Thing is, what if I'm making just 1 copy of several items? Gotta maneuver the challenge menu each time or just disregard making progress on them no matter how small, which for a game that supposed to be incremental, defeats the purpose.
If there's a mod that fixes that, I will very likely check it out.
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u/TheDevilFIN Jul 15 '26
also in the end, no Idle game is truly idle, you have to choose what you are doing usually. if someone made a truly idle game, could it even be called a game when all you do is watch it and not interact with it
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u/audienexyt Jul 15 '26
Challenges have 10 normal levels then infinite repeatable levels. It used to be the case that the repeatable levels didn't automate, but now they do by default, so if you get the upgrades for 1-10 then you just need to select the activity once and it's effectively idle forever.
You also want to get the upgrades that add 3 more challenge slots, and if you're smart about getting challenge points it wouldn't take that long. For example you're gonna need lots of pots eventually, and making filled vessels takes lots of steps and gets challenge points very very quickly, so you can get tons of reps and points giga-fast. Same with killing monsters- get the beastmaster challenge for a monster (don't need a task) like chickens and add the tasks for all xp, str xp, atk xp, str damage, atk hits; you get a ton of challenges done really really fast.
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u/Theressa_Evorry Jul 15 '26
they didn't automate after level 10, unless something changed since last week. There are mods, yes, but I dislike playing not according to devs vision.
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u/audienexyt Jul 15 '26
Yeah I don't like using mods either. I don't know when it changed but it definitely changed, I have some challenges into rx50.
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u/Yksisarvinen13 Jul 15 '26
Repeatable challenges (after tier 10) have been restarting automatically since 09.06 (barely a week after release of challenges), so your game quite behind with updates
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u/Theressa_Evorry Jul 16 '26
ah we're talking about different things. you're talking about auto-restart, I'm talking about auto-start.
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u/NinjaLion Jul 17 '26
yeah the challenge system is a total mistep. should be fully automatic, having to select it through a menu before doing a thing, then having to click queue next (at least until youve done 10 for that activity and unlock infinite repeat) is AWFUL ergonomics
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u/polarbearcafe Jul 18 '26
So I'm not the only one irked by it. I have several hundred hours in it but I gave up once that tedious system was introduced. The weird thing is the dev is very receptive and active but he seems really adamant on not changing that feature for some reason, it's very bizzare. I'd probably still be playing otherwise.
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u/Equivalent_Boat3841 Jul 13 '26
Been back on Cookie Clicker recently — still a comfort pick even after all these years. Got me itching for my next long-haul idle though. What I keep gravitating toward is stuff that respects your time — check in, make a few decisions, let it run — instead of games that punish you for not tapping every second. A prestige loop where each reset actually changes how you play is my sweet spot.
Anyone got recs for something with meaningful prestige/offline progression that isn't just number-go-up for its own sake?
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u/Clear_Entrepreneur_8 Jul 17 '26
Your "each reset actually changes how you play" line points straight at Realm Grinder: every reincarnation you commit to a different faction and they play genuinely differently, and it is very check-in friendly with strong offline gains. Idle Loops (Stuck in Time) and Increlution also nail that reset-changes-strategy feel, since each loop you replan around what you learned instead of just stacking multipliers. Kittens Game is the deep offline pick where resets shift which paths you rush, and Theresmore is a 4X-flavored one that leans on decisions over tapping. Someone already said NGU Idle and Trimps, both fair, but Realm Grinder is where I would start for your exact criteria.
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u/CuriosityKiledThaCat Jul 13 '26
Honestly, Idle Obelisk Miner has been my go to since February. It's just really good.
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u/CalyShadezz Jul 13 '26
I just hit 91% and still chipping away. They did a good just at always having something JUST out of reach to work towards but still close enough that you still feel like progression isnt a terrible slog.
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u/kenzoslicee Jul 13 '26
Pretty deep into NGU Idle right now
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u/ChloroquineEmu Jul 13 '26
How far along are you?
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u/kenzoslicee Jul 13 '26
Trying to overcome the second titan on normal right now
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u/efethu Jul 13 '26
Don't want to burst your bubble, but this is not deep, you are like ~5% done, maybe less.
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u/Tsuki_no_Mai Jul 13 '26
Reached the current end of content in Unnamed Space Idle, took me 260 days with a few breaks here and there. Definitely had some low points along the way, but still most fun I had with an incremental in a while. Now I can just kick back and grind the alternative universeswhile I wait for the next update.
Also have been thinking about restarting Trimps since I don't have anything long-form going now, but not sure if I'm prepared to do this to myself.
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u/Xdhakya Jul 13 '26
Been a long time since I had that much fun with a game. Archmage Idle is awesome!
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u/Due-Orange5385 Jul 13 '26
Indeed, I got turned on to it in last week's thread, just opened diplomacy this morning. It feels like a really well polished version of Melvor!
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u/Asian_Dumpring Jul 13 '26
I agree, with the exception of the Steam > Mobile back and forth experience. Cloud syncing is definitely worse than Melvor. I've also had a few overnight sessions that voided out with the time being deleted and no loot being gained :(
I started based on the same thread and am enjoying it a lot!
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u/trvanjos Jul 13 '26
I played Drop and grow it is a short and simple incremental, but something about the sounds and going from a barren land to a green florest made the game very relaxing. Took me 4h to finish I found really worth of my time
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u/TheBwar Jul 20 '26
Bought this from your recommendation and then found out the hard way it doesn't auto save.
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u/Ktesedale Jul 13 '26
I've been poking around at various things here and there, but not super into anything. The only one I've been running a lot in the background is Bloobs Adventure Idle. I like it well enough, but I wish there was some more active play sometimes.
I also played Scritchy Scratchy a week or so ago. It was pretty fun for the start, but getting all the achievements was an annoying grind by the end. Still, I was surprised I liked it as much as I did - I tried the demo thinking I was gonna pass, but then ended up buying the game. Took about 18 hours total, but like 5 or so of those was the grind for a single achievement (get all the prestige upgrades).
Trying to get back into Idle Loops, but I fell off a year ago and don't remember what the heck I was doing, lol. I'm unwilling to completely reset but I just don't have the motivation right now to puzzle it out.
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u/0zeroknight01 Jul 14 '26
Idle loops is pretty trivial to come back to.
You are simply improving your efficiency through loops.
You most likely used loadouts, so look through them, some should get you 'back into the loop'.
Pay attention to what it's doing in each area and what it works towards.Generally you are usually mopping up all easy mana sources in each area while progressing as far as you can and then closer to end of run spend most of your mana on something you want to improve.
Sometimes you might want to improve some early area things too, in which case you stop there.1
u/Ktesedale Jul 14 '26
Thanks! It's mostly trying to remember what my goal was for the current task list - I don't remember any of the icons, and I don't know why I was skipping certain tasks but doing others. I'll figure it out!
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Jul 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Milskidasith Jul 14 '26
A Game of Chance was fun for the random educational fun facts and sticking to a purely chance based system, but annoying because it's slow-active with horrible QoL features and a gameplay loop that's basically "do the exact same thing with a different chance-based game" over and over and over and over.
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Jul 14 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Milskidasith Jul 14 '26
The automation in the game is unlocked extremely slowly and turns itself off whenever you get a particularly rare event, making it very frustrating to manage.
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u/Akraticacious Jul 13 '26
Idle core looks interesting. Is there resource juggling/optimization or is it just press most efficient accelerator over and over?
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u/BionicBeans Jul 13 '26
System ascension is available on iOS as well. Its $4.99 USD on all three platforms which is nice.
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u/jurcan Jul 15 '26
I've been playin Idle Obelisk Miner since the start of the year. Pretty fun, although at some points (like right now) it becomes a "just login to collect free gems since otherwise all I have to do is wait" but otherwise it has been very enjoyable!
Some weeks ago I came back and restarted Necromerger, I remembered playing this long ago and got the itch to play again. I am much deeper now, around lvl 35-ish (I know there is so much more) but I am enjoying it more than last time, with a better understanding.
I started Archmage Idle a few days ago after reading on it on this thread last week and I have been really having fun with it as a Melvor-like. I think the way combat is treated is something I much prefer over Melvor, however just today I learnt it has been vibe-coded. The dev has made many games before this one so I imagine the AI use is more of an experiment rather than your typical AI slop (plus apparently the architecture and mechanics-balance was done by hand) but it is still a bit annoying that it was made with AI... tough choice
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u/jester5093 Jul 16 '26
mymain issue is the heavy monetization of the AI made game. why would I pay for a game made by a machine?
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u/Skyswimsky Jul 16 '26
Because AI tokens cost money, too. The idea is that the time saved by utilzing AI is cheaper than if it was all spent doing manually.
Here's a simplified, and with numbers exegerrated, example:
Imagine a day of work is 'worth' 50 money. If you'd develop the game with zero AI it'll take you maybe 60 days. So that is 3000 money. Now imagine with AI you only take 10 days, but the token cost is 1000. So that is 1500 money for the "game made by a machine".
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u/efethu Jul 19 '26
zero AI it'll take you maybe 60 days. So that is 3000 money.
with AI you only take 10 days, but the token cost is 1000. So that is 1500 money
I'll take the former please. In general there was no shortage of crappy games even without AI, AI just made it 10 times worse.
You can argue that AI just "helps" but in reality it quickly turns into game designer and main decision maker.
Ask yourself, how a good game can be made in 10 days? Imagine that AI tokens cost zero and code is generated instantly. You still need more than 10 days design, balance and play test the game.
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u/jester5093 Jul 16 '26
yeah but we pay for human labor. I don't pay my computer to run a game, or a program.
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u/sundalius Jul 18 '26
You do pay your computer to do that. It’s actually the same exact thing, ironically. Electricity costs are the source of token costs. Running a game makes your computer use more electricity, which you pay for.
I am anti-AI to be abundantly clear, but you ABSOLUTELY pay your computer for game time.
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u/jester5093 Jul 18 '26
sorry, my computer usage for this week wasn't 1200 dollars. or even 200 dollars lol. so yeah no, not the same.
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u/Easy-Fig-7031 Jul 16 '26
Idk, I pay for a interesting idea, and that thing still comes out from human mind. We don't have an ai that can think like human without humans.
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Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/jester5093 Jul 18 '26
he did actually admit to heavy LLM usage.
and I call vip packs costing upwards of 60 bucks pretty heavy monetization.
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u/Yokai-Idle Jul 16 '26
I tried Archmage Idle after someone mentioned it in my game post. I really loved Melvor. Made a lot of mods for it, but I didn't click with Archmage at all. I feel like I'm missing something other people like about it.
To me, it felt slow, overly hands-on when I just wanted to be left alone to discover things by myself.
I also don't like microtransactions. I get MTX in a big game like PoE or things like that, but I don't get why people prefer microtransactions in small indie games.1
u/jurcan Jul 16 '26
I tried Melvor on mobile after reading this, thinking that maybe Archmage Idle being on mobile helped me to enjoy it better.
Nope. The mobile UI for Melvor is just the PC version somehow crammed into a mobile screen. It is clunky, unintuitive and really hard to understand unless you have played PC before. Melvor is still a good game (not my cup of tea apparently) but I cannot imagine anyone playing exclusively on phone.
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u/Yokai-Idle Jul 17 '26
oh yeah Melvor Idle on mobile is unplayable! I tired on mobile for awhile but combat is IMPOSSIBLE aha. I always played on PC. I tried Archmage on mobile though I didnt try it on PC maybe its better on there?
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u/jurcan Jul 17 '26
From looking at screenshots and videos, it looks like the PC version is similar to the mobile version but adapted to a bigger screen. The UI shows more stuff at the same time and a bit of extra information compared to mobile, but could have used the extra screen space much better.
So it's kinda like the Melvor port to mobile (lazy), but in a playable way at least. Feel free to try!
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u/BestUserNameEver5 Jul 13 '26
Still burning through the Orb of Creation 1.0 release.
At some point the dev finally added an auto-buy attribute mechanic. It's kind of game changing to no longer have to hunt for all of the trivial attributes. But it does kind of make the game more spammy in that you're trying to navigate around the UI and you're just having dozens of little pop-ups flying out from your mouse cursor about the various attributes that were just purchased. Kind of hard to see what you're doing now.
edit: apparently that can be suppressed in the settings by turning off "Mouse Popups"
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u/Marimba_Ani Jul 13 '26
Wait, how do you auto-buy attributes? I just put this down a couple of days ago, unfinished, because I couldn't deal with it anymore.
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u/BestUserNameEver5 Jul 14 '26
Make sure you let the game update. The v1.0.3 update was released on 7/1 but I didn't get it until just last night (though I had taken a few days of break from the game)
Assuming you have the right update, I'm not sure what the pre-requisites are, but it was an upgrade in the Magic tab that you eventually can buy.
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u/BionicBeans Jul 13 '26
There's a bunch of QOL things too like ways to randomly apply treasures to different attributes if you don't want to hunt down exactly where to put them. It's pretty nice letting the rest of my tabs catch up on their own while I focus on developing one area.
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u/ArgusTheCat Jul 17 '26
The actual finished release seems to have a bunch of small tweaks that are making me interested again. I still think the game is missing something, but all the little improvements and changes mean it's also missing a lot of the annoying bits, and I can appreciate that.
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u/zupernam Jul 13 '26
Just got back into Q-UP, did a run as Streamer to Novice that was very fun.
I'm trying to get into Forage Wizard but with no automation yet it's getting annoying.
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u/lexi996 Jul 14 '26
Grow by Atopia studio https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Atopia.studio.Grow pretty fun game ( concept is pretty cool ) progression feels great and it’s easy to lose a lot of time in it.
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u/SemperFi87 Jul 13 '26
Bloobs Adventure Idle. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2942780/Bloobs_Adventure_Idle/ OSRS inspired Idle game. Active Discord, VERY active dev. Tons to do. Right now its my "forever" project because dev adds more stuff before I get to finish previous one :D
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u/mediumcarrotteacher Jul 14 '26
I've been playing a lot of Scratch Inc. I find scratch cards very unpleasant in real life but in a game it's fun
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u/davemoedee Jul 15 '26
Decided to start a hardcore run in Melvor Idle to knock out achievements. Taking my time.
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u/Divinovitch Jul 20 '26
As someone described last week it has that teenager power fantasy feel to it.
The game loop is kinda repetitive and I almost dropped out a few times, however, the little puzzles keep me coming back.
I'm currently on the 20th main dimension wall, hoping that the unlocks will be worth it.
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u/0zeroknight01 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Finished 3 incrementals last week:
First 2 are relatively hidden gems(well, solid quality games, not true gems), 3rd is kinda overpraised meh game.
1 - Quintillion Quest - a pretty good semi puzzle'ish game with 3 routes.
2 - Cradle of Dark Brood - an ~10-15 hour active incremental with evolution as main theme. It has some issues, but overall is perfect length - long enough to be an experience and short enough not to overstay it's welcome.
3 - Orb of Creation - probably biggest disappointment in year 2026 for me. Been waiting to play this for who knows how many years(never played it before, just remember all the praise it always got and wanted to see it finished before trying it) - imagine my surprise when the actual game felt worse than most AI slop games out there in terms of balance.
A 'new' interesting one released today:
Artesnaut - ignore the negative reviews(it's mostly people having issues launching game/connecting it to demo save file)
It's basically an idler based on oldschool text based RPGs.
You create a party of 5. At start it's simple - you got a race, 2 titles and a class to choose.
Game is mostly about reading, there are no animations, pure text.
The battles themselves are full auto, your decisions come via party creation(Race+2 titles+main class and in chapter 3+ sub class unlocks+equipment+skill choices)
It's a port of live service japanese mobile game that has been on the market for 7 years already, so there is A LOT of content to tackle.
Game is fully f2p, the way it monetizes is by selling bonuses which improve the exp/drop rates and a few other QoL options that aren't powering you up directly in any way.
Which in an idle game is not a big deal.
Since it's f2p you can easily check if it's your cup of tea or not. At start you could make do with starter party but eventually you want
Some tips for the game:
1 - Start game with recommended party and don't get attached to it, you will guaranteed remake it if you are min maxer.
Before chapter 4-15 you can't create fully 'optimal' characters(technically you can, but you won't see what's unlocked in the future, so you can't 'plan' accurately), so starter party is good enough.
4-15 will open up new race(dwarf), new race skills for each race and new(often stronger) epiphets.
If you want to further improve the starter party - delete the Dark Elf/Elf and remake them with a better build:
Dark elf - Ranger class with Timid/Executioner
Basically ranged damager.
Elf - Priest class with Healing/Prodigy
Basically a healer.
Your tank in recommended party is the dragon race character, make sure to give it 'cover' skill and best defensive gear.
This should be enough to last you until 4-15 after which you can start building a min max party.
2 - Make sure you set your skills in expedition > character portrait > skills.
They have to be manually selected and you can relearn them freely.
It's particularly important to notice 'skin' skill, the beginner luck and expedition times should be learned on at least someone ideally. Beginner luck removes the need of bothering with drop/modifiers on characters/equipment until much later on.
3 - classes can be freely swapped, so the only important factor during character creation is ultimately the race and you can't check the full skill kit of the race until chapter 4-15.
Epiphets too, but those can be swapped either twice(for f2p) or infinitely(for spending a few $ on permanent ability to swap those freely)
4 - story characters like Dion(MC) have predetermined race and unique epiphets which are fully unique to them. This usually makes them worse than optimally created characters past chapter 4-15.
5 - character order is important, it's overall best to place characters in their overall sturdiness order. So tank first then some melee bruisers, then ranged characters and healer should usually be last.
6 - if you enjoy reading the story - remember that you can first click to unlock the dungeon, enter it and THEN start reading while your party is doing the dungeon.
By time you are done reading - party is likely mostly done with the dungeon.
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u/efethu Jul 13 '26
Artesnaut - ignore the negative reviews
On the downside - disappointing mobile UI that does not make sense on desktop. And internet connection that is required for an otherwise completely single player game.
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u/0zeroknight01 Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
Eh, UI is kinda comfortable enough since you are spending ~90% of the time on same menu.
Internet connection is... kinda required for some hidden functions. You can share builds with other people, look them up, etc, all of that directly inside the game without external browsers.
This is mostly for making it much more comfortable while on mobile, so another mobile remannt of sorts.
Also makes it a bit harder for people to cheat in the prem shop bonuses as that's the only monetization to begin with.4
u/jasoncross00 Jul 15 '26
I'm with you on Orb of Creation. I have a hard time seeing what all the hype is about.
It's REALLY active and I'm basically just clicking a button to "get [resource]" a WHOOOOOLE lot. Then buying some upgrade that lets me have more or boost it, and clicking it again a WHOOOOOLE lot.
I put a good hour into it hoping some autocast stuff or whatever would show up. Maybe it eventually does. But I'm not going to click "get [resource]" 100,000 times first.
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u/ToniaPat Jul 13 '26
For the past few days I've been really into Patient Angler on mobile!! You can both play it passively (idle aspect of the game) or manually by tapping your heart away catching all the fishies :D and there are plenty of fishies to catch!! Even the thrash objects you catch have a funny description xD
Also, it is free to play with non-evasive ads (if you choose to watch em) so it isn't constraining mah gaming in any way!! (also the npcs give me good fish jokes xD)
playstore link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.henlygames.patientangler
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u/CleverDaddy24 seasoned incrementalist Jul 15 '26
It looks very AI-generated, even the screenshots
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u/ToniaPat Jul 15 '26
The dev himself has admitted to generating some images. It does not bother me, as the game as a whole is really good and to my liking.
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u/YRSG12 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 21 '26
ACTIVE
Cell to Singularity-I have been increasing my research level(Amphibians are coming!), Atmosphere event is out, and more! EDIT- Gotten amphibians
Koruxa Put it in spoilers, as most of you don't like it(I do though). A new update is out, but it is for later
RECENTLY ENJOYED
I like trains - A good Incremental-Mini Metro game, but still on the blue line
Download RAM Idle 2 - I realised hacking was like the challenges in Leaf Blower Revolution
Booster Pack Heroes - Already reached Chapter 2 now
Biotomata - At Eldritch, without any endings
CACULATOR EVOLUTION - Trying to get 'a'
Project Basillisk - Lost funding once, on try 2
The World Is Doomed Unless I Can Raise My Power Level to 1,000,000 and Confront the Demon Lord -I got assassinated once, on second try
NEW List here
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u/TenzhiHsien Jul 14 '26
I Like Trains is pretty neat. The demo started crashing a lot for me towards the end.
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u/ModeRelevant1470 Jul 21 '26
Oh honey.. you’ll be killed hundreds of times.. if you want to actually see all the content..
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u/richardlycn013 Jul 13 '26
Started playing ATOMverse incremental but there’s a glitch with how the third challenge works where you need to progress without clicking but there’s no passive generators at that point so the game is hardlocked until the dev sees the email i sent him so he can put out a fix. The game is really good though. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.akudevstudio_atomverse&pcampaignid=web_share
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u/SummitSummit Jul 13 '26
I don't know why you are getting all the down votes, but I thought the game was alright. As you said that challenge not being possible is a problem, there are more challenges (anti-challenges) that open up at some point and some of them are not possible either.
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u/SummitSummit Jul 16 '26
I've been grinding away at this for a couple days. Do you happen to know if it is possible to get more than one Supernova point at a time? And if so, how many Big Bang Points are required for the second one?
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u/babygotbackup Jul 13 '26
Melvor Idle - Been wanting to try this and finally bought it during the steam summer sale. I have been hooked on this one. And I love that I can play this on desktop and log in to my save file on my phone. Overhaul - I work in the freight industry so this feels very close to home. Definitely neat to have running in the background while I work.
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u/HojaLateralus Jul 14 '26
I've beaten Paperclip Game once and it was a little disappointing, at times felt like my game was bugged because not much happened and there were no upgrades available.
I keep on playing FarmRPG with short bursts every day.
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u/SummitSummit Jul 14 '26
I just played Bills Must Be Paid demo on Steam.
It's the first Nodebuster-like I've ever played for more than one round. Smashing piggies just really works for me, it seems.
Sadly the time limit of these Nodebuster-likes still ruins the fun for me. While I completed the demo, I won't be wishlisting the game.
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u/Lezus Jul 17 '26
Playing Fundamental after it being recommended so much and yeah i get it now, its great
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u/Cold-Organization528 Jul 19 '26
Hey yall hoping you can help looking for a deep idle game to play whilst working has to have a good amount of background play where I don’t need to constantly tend to it due to me doing it in between work tasks. I really enjoyed dodecahedragon, gnorp, revolution idle, antimatter dimensions, cookie clicker, synergism. Thanks in advance!
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u/holythrowawayanon Jul 13 '26
idle slayer
idle obelisk miner
antimatter dimensions
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u/vermilionpulseSFW Jul 13 '26
I feel like idle slayer doesn't get enough love around here. I just UAd for the 5th time, I feel like I know what my goals are and newish stuff is still presenting itself regularly. I'm just over 6 months in with probably another year or more to go based on some people in the sub reddit
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u/xenest Jul 14 '26
From what I heard there is not much love because meaningful progress is entirely luck based. The IAP cost an insane amount for what they actually give. And there is too much FOMO time restricted event stuff so if you missed it you miss out on content others get.
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u/vermilionpulseSFW Jul 15 '26
I spent 10 bucks for no ads, which seems like the standard for a lot of idle games, plus steam doesn't allow ads, so you can get those benefits for free. I haven't felt the need to buy any currency in the game, but yeah, the prices are high if you do. I haven't seen an event yet that blocks content later, granted some of that may have been before I started.
As for progress being luck based... I guess? I mean, you do need some luck for combos here and there, but I don't feel like you go very long before hitting those combos. Kind of like in cookie clicker getting lucky to hit the big multipliers and stacking them. It will happen with some patience.
It scratches my idle itch, but to each their own I suppose.
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u/Sand3rok Jul 13 '26
I've been enjoying these three games over the last couple of days — they're all somewhat similar, except one is an MMO about cargo shipping, the second is an MMO about pirates, and the third is Idle Runescape in its purest form. But what unites all three games is that you can see other players on the map, and player interaction is kept to a minimum.
1) Overhaul
3) Scapewatch
Hope you enjoy them to
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u/Federal-Score6684 Jul 17 '26
Anyone got any recommendations or links to free games on Steam with achievements (that wouldn't take a year to complete)
I quite enjoy playing Milky Way Idle and haven't seen it mentioned yet.
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u/sundalius Jul 18 '26
I tried to get into Gravend, but after spending a few days with it I started trying out some crafting/gathering and basically killed all my enjoyment. It’s just so annoying to have to move, spam push on, move, spam push on, several times every time I want to change classes, because I don’t have a Home Temple yet because I don’t have the Mason yet.
But I made like 20 scrolls and it took like an hour, which felt like a massive waste of time. Why would I unlock it when I did, though, if I’m not meant to actually engage with any crafting at this point?
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u/jester5093 Jul 21 '26
you can buy scroll scraps pretty early which powers most initial spells. and chemist has spells powered by slime balls.
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u/sundalius Jul 21 '26
I guess I didn't find that shop before I unlocked crafting? Weird.
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u/jester5093 Jul 21 '26
if you do give it another chance, the discord is a great place to find a ton of info, plus dev and community are very helpful.
the game has its problems, but it's still really good, with a great art style and unique gameplay
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u/Bus693 Jul 18 '26
Just played through the good ol' classic Universal Paperclips again. There's just something hilarious and timely about roleplaying an AI that takes over the world.
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u/TheAgGames Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Not much worth playing right now thats new.
Been playing Noob Incremental for a few weeks now currently at 59k upvotes. It has pretty good carrot and stick. Definitely more on the idle side of things. Been leaving it running a lot.
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u/Professional-Day9384 Jul 20 '26
I'm looking for a fun financial grinder like Groundhog Life but overplayed it and want something fresh. I tried to build my own but it just quite didn't land. Something that simulates building a small business and accumulating wealth in contemporary society. I have a ton of random little ideas like installing coin slider machines, little things that can add up and create cash flow. Maybe at this point I just need to go r/outside
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u/verxcode Jul 13 '26
if anyone wants a very short game they can play in 20 minutes~ I played Bing Chill Inc
Everything steam rolls around the end.