Cookie Clicker: 10 Best Upgrades To Prioritize

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.

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 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

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.

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

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-Clickers for 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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.