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Depending on which stage of the [[Grandmapocalypse]] the player is on, a red [[Wrath Cookie]] may be spawned instead of a Golden Cookie. During the "angered" stage of the Grandmapocalypse, or if Skruuia is selected in the [[Pantheon]], all naturally spawning Golden Cookies will be replaced with Wrath Cookies.
 
Depending on which stage of the [[Grandmapocalypse]] the player is on, a red [[Wrath Cookie]] may be spawned instead of a Golden Cookie. During the "angered" stage of the Grandmapocalypse, or if Skruuia is selected in the [[Pantheon]], all naturally spawning Golden Cookies will be replaced with Wrath Cookies.
==Related Achievements/Upgrades==
 
===Upgrades===
 
{{tabletop|upgrades|Golden Cookie upgrades}}
 
{{Golden Cookie upgrades||insert}}
 
{{Easter Egg upgrades|golden|insert}}
 
{{Cookie upgrades|digestives|insert}}
 
{{!}}}
 
<references group="note"/>
 
 
===Achievements===
 
{{tabletop|achievements|Golden Cookie achievements}}
 
{{Golden Cookie achievements||insert}}
 
{{Shadow achievements|fourleaf|insert}}
 
{{!}}}
 
 
 
==Golden Cookie Timing==
 
==Golden Cookie Timing==
 
There are three crucial timings for Golden Cookies:
 
There are three crucial timings for Golden Cookies:

Revision as of 16:42, 23 July 2020

GoldCookie

A golden cookie.

The Golden Cookie is a recurring object that shows up on the screen in a random position during normal gameplay. When spawned, a Golden Cookie will gradually grow and pulsate on the screen, remaining on-screen for 13 seconds before slowly fading into nothing. If it is clicked before it disappears entirely, it will grant the player one of five semi-random outcomes. The duration of on-screen Golden Cookies can be increased via certain Upgrades.

The player can see how many Golden Cookies you have clicked in the Stats menu. The menu previously listed how many Golden Cookies have been missed, but Orteil removed that feature because of many players complaining that it was "messing with their OCD". However, the number of missed clicks can still be found by typing Game.missedGoldenClicks into the console.

Depending on which stage of the Grandmapocalypse the player is on, a red Wrath Cookie may be spawned instead of a Golden Cookie. During the "angered" stage of the Grandmapocalypse, or if Skruuia is selected in the Pantheon, all naturally spawning Golden Cookies will be replaced with Wrath Cookies.

Golden Cookie Timing

There are three crucial timings for Golden Cookies:

  • Spawn time: how long it takes for Golden Cookies to be generated.
  • Duration: how long Golden Cookies will stay on the screen.
  • Effect duration: how long the effect will last.

Spawn Time

The Golden Cookie follows Spawning mechanism, and can be approximated by the following functions:

Where p, P and P-1 are probability density function, cumulative density function and inverse cumulative density function, respectively. T=Tmax-Tmin, measured in seconds. For Golden Cookies, Tmin=300 seconds and Tmax=900 seconds initially. However, there are many factors which can alter Tmin and Tmax.

Factors

Type Name Factors
Upgrade Lucky Day 0.5
Upgrade Serendipity 0.5
Upgrade Golden goose egg 0.95
Heavenly upgrade Heavenly luck 0.95
Dragon aura Arcane aura 0.95
Golden Sugar Lump Buff Sugar blessing 0.9
Heavenly upgrade Starspawn (during Easter season) 0.98
Heavenly upgrade Starterror (during Halloween season) 0.98
Heavenly upgrade Starlove (during Valentine's Day season) 0.98
Heavenly upgrade Startrade (during Business Day season) 0.95
Pantheon god Jeremy, Spirit of Industry 1.1/1.06/1.03
Pantheon god Mokalsium, Mother Spirit 1.15/1.1/1.05
Pantheon god Selebrak, Spirit of Festivities (Business Day season) 0.955/0.97/0.985
Pantheon god Selebrak, Spirit of Festivities (any other season) 0.97/0.98/0.99
Garden plants[note 1] Ordinary Clover +0.01
Garden plants[note 1] Golden Clover +0.03
Garden plants[note 1] Shimmerlily +0.01
Garden plants[note 1] Fool's Bolete +0.02
Garden plants[note 1] Green Rot +0.01
Garden plants[note 1] Drowsyfern *0.9

These factors stack multiplicatively. For example, if you have Lucky Day, Serendipity and the Sugar Blessing buff, then Tmax=900*0.5*0.5*0.9=202.5 seconds, Tmin=300*0.5*0.5*0.9=67.5 seconds and T=Tmax-Tmin=135 seconds.

Cookie chain is not effected by these factors and always has Tmax=900*0.05=45 seconds, Tmin=300*0.05=15 seconds and T=Tmax-Tmin=30 seconds.

Useful tables

The tables below shows some common probabilities. You can reproduce the number by finding P-1:

Time between Golden Cookie Spawns (in seconds)
Chance With no upgrades With only "Lucky day" With "Lucky day" and "Serendipity"
0% (Tmin) 300 150 75
.1% 349.9 178.0 90.7
1% 373.4 191.2 98.1
10% 408.6 210.9 109.2
25% 428.3 222.0 115.4
33.3% 435.9 226.3 117.8
Average (<t>) 446.562 232.251 121.158
50% 448.6 233.4 121.8
66.6% 460.5 240.0 125.5
75% 466.8 243.6 127.5
90% 481.5 251.9 132.1
99% 503.7 264.3 139.1
99.9% 518.0 272.3 143.6
100% (Tmax) 900 450 225

Golden Goose Egg, Heavenly Luck and Arcane Aura, as well as Startrade during the Business Day season, all multiply the min and max time by 95%. Starspawn during Easter, Starterror during Halloween, as well as Starlove during Valentine's Day, all multiply the min and max time by 98%. The following tables assume that you have Lucky day and Serendipity. With a 98% upgrade active, the probabilities are:

Chance No 95% upgrades One 95% upgrade Two 95% upgrades Three 95% upgrades
0% (Tmin) 73.5 69.833 66.367 63.033
.1% 89.0 84.7 80.6 76.6
1% 96.2 91.6 87.2 83.0
10% 107.1 102.0 97.2 92.6
25% 113.3 107.9 102.8 98.0
33.3% 115.6 110.2 105.0 100.0
Average (<t>) 118.887 113.317 108.001 102.940
50% 119.5 113.9 108.6 103.5
66.6% 123.2 117.4 112.0 106.7
75% 125.1 119.3 113.8 108.5
90% 129.7 123.7 118.0 112.5
99% 136.6 130.3 124.3 118.5
99.9% 140.9 134.5 128.3 122.4
100% (Tmax) 220.5 209.5 199.033 189.067

With no 98% upgrade active, the probabilities are:

Chance One 95% upgrade Two 95% upgrades Three 95% upgrades Four 95% upgrades
0% (Tmin) 71.267 67.7 64.333 61.1
.1% 86.3 82.1 78.2 74.3
1% 93.4 88.9 84.7 80.6
10% 104.0 99.1 94.4 89.9
25% 110.0 104.8 99.9 95.2
33.3% 112.3 107.0 102.0 97.2
Average (<t>) 115.476 110.060 104.903 99.988
50% 116.1 110.7 105.5 100.5
66.6% 119.7 114.1 108.8 103.7
75% 121.6 115.9 110.5 105.4
90% 126.0 120.2 114.6 109.3
99% 132.7 126.6 120.7 115.1
99.9% 137.0 130.7 124.7 118.9
100% (Tmax) 213.767 203.067 192.933 183.267

Duration

The initial duration value is 13 seconds.

Factors

Type Name Factors
Upgrade Lucky Day 2
Upgrade Serendipity 2
Heavenly upgrade Decisive Fate 1.05
Heavenly upgrade Lucky Digit 1.01
Heavenly upgrade Lucky Number 1.01
Heavenly upgrade Lucky Payout 1.01
Garden Plants[note 2] Fool's Bolete *0.98
Garden Plants[note 2] Green Rot +0.005

Every other Golden Cookies on the screen will give a factor of 0.95.

Effect Duration

Effects Buff Initial duration (seconds)
Frenzy 7x cookie production 77
Click frenzy 777x cookies per click 13
Dragon Harvest 15x cookie production 60
Dragonflight 1111x cookies per click 10
Building special

(N/10+1)x cookie production

N: Number of selected building

30

Factors

Type Name Factors
Upgrade Get Lucky 2
Upgrade Green Yeast Digestives 1.01
Heavenly upgrade Lasting Fortune 1.1
Heavenly upgrade Lucky Digit 1.01
Heavenly upgrade Lucky Number 1.01
Heavenly upgrade Lucky Payout 1.01
Dragon aura Epoch Manipulator 1.05
Pantheon god Vomitrax, Spirit of Decadence 1.07/1.05/1.02
Garden plants[note 2] Gildmillet +0.001
Garden plants[note 2] Fool's Bolete +0.001
Garden plants[note 2] Queenbeet +0.003

Outcomes

Note: These numbers are long term probability for clicking Golden Cookies only. See Golden Cookie Probabilities for more details. As of v.2.002, it appears as if effects such as Frenzy and Clot stack their multiplier effects instead of replacing each other.

  • 37.1~42.2% to get "Lucky!":
    • Gain an instant amount of cookies equal to 13 plus 15% of the current number of cookies in the bank, or 15 minutes worth of cookies (which is CpS * 900) plus 13, whichever is less. This means that in order to get maximum amount of cookies, you should have 6000 * CpS in your bank, or 42000 * CpS in order to maximize the amount during a Frenzy.
      • For 15 minutes worth of cookies Wrinklers are not taken into account, so the CpS rate used is the rate before the Wrinklers consume part of it.
    • Stacks with Frenzy; if Frenzy is active when you get Lucky, you can potentially get 15x7 = 105 minutes (or one hour and 45 minutes) worth of cookies.
Frenzy cookie
  • 37.1~42.2% to get "Frenzy":
    • Get x7 cookie production for 77 seconds.
    • Affects Cookies per Second, but does NOT affect Cookies per Click directly (although it indirectly affects cookies per click with the "mouse" upgrades).
    • You can see how long you have left by looking at the icon to the right of the Big Cookie.
    • Before version v2.002, Golden Cookie effects doesn't stack with itself (getting a Frenzy while another Frenzy is active simply resets the timer).
    • As of v2.002, Frenzy now stacks with itself (getting a Frenzy while another Frenzy is active adds up the total time of Frenzy).
  • 3.48~3.97% to get "Click frenzy":
    • Gives x777 cookies per click for 13 seconds.
    • Works only for manual clicking, not for Cursor's autoclicking
    • Can stack with Dragonflight
    • Can also indirectly stack with frenzy and Building Special. After buying all the main "mouse" upgrades, your clicking power during frenzy increases by approx x7 because of the increase in CpS, so therefore getting a Click Frenzy during a Frenzy yields roughly x5439 clicking power until either the Frenzy or Click Frenzy ends.
  • 0.0035~0.0039% to get "blab" (really rare):
    • Does nothing but has a funny message, which includes:
      • Cookie crumbliness x3 for 60 seconds!
      • Chocolatiness x7 for 77 seconds!
      • Dough elasticity halved for 66 seconds!
      • Golden Cookie shininess doubled for 3 seconds!
      • World economy halved for 30 seconds!
      • Grandma kisses 23% stingier for 45 seconds!
      • Thanks for clicking!
      • Fooled you! This one was just a test.
      • Golden Cookies clicked +1!
      • Your click has been registered. Thank you for your cooperation.
      • Thanks! That hit the spot!
      • Thank you. A team has been dispatched.
      • They know.
      • Oops. This was just a chocolate cookie with shiny aluminium foil.
  • 0.76~0.84% to start a "Cookie chain":
    • If the number of cookies in your bank is less than 10 billion, the first cookie you click in the chain will reward you with +7 cookies, and 3 seconds after being clicked another cookie will appear which grants +77 cookies, and then the third +777 cookies, and so on. If the number of cookies in your bank has reached 10 billion but less than 100 billion, the cookie chain will start from +77 cookies, and when reached 100 billion it will start from +777 cookies, and so on.
    • However, each cookie only appears for a limited amount of time, decreasing as you proceed. The first cookie stays onscreen for 10 seconds, the second for 5, the third for 3 1/3, the fourth for 2.5, and the fifth cookie and every one thereafter for 2. The chain ends if you fail to click a cookie before it disappears. (Fortunately these are instant-on, there is no "fade-in") This lifespan will NOT be increased by Lucky Day or Serendipity. Should you miss the cookie, a random new cookie will spawn in about 3 seconds. As of patch 1.0465, should that cookie be allowed to disappear naturally, the next one will appear after a similar amount of time (making deer synchronization easier), presumably ad infinitum. As of v.2.002, another cookie does not appear to spawn if the chain is broken.
    • There are a few things that can cause the chain to break:
      • There is a flat 1% probability of the chain ending on its own, on every cookie.
      • The chain will end if the reward that would have been obtained by clicking the next cookie in sequence is more than 50% of your bank. (That is, your bank is less than 2x the value of the next cookie.) The next cookie is assumed to be of the same type as the current cookie, Wrath or Golden, for this calculation.
      • The chain will end if the reward that would have been obtained from the next cookie in sequence is more than 6 hours of automatically collected cookies (That is, 21600 times your CpS). It is affected by Frenzy, so it can be 42 hours, assuming you have enough cookies in your bank.
      • As of patch 1.0466, if the outcome of the new cookie is more than the current maximum (due to either the Frenzy running out or Wrath/Gold alternation), you get 6 or 42 hours income exactly instead.
      • Before version v2.018, if "Distilled Essence of Redoubled Luck" is bought and activates in the middle of the cookie chain (you will get 2 cookies in the same time while in chain) the chain will stop.
      • As of version v2.018 Distilled Essence of Redoubled Luck will no longer break the chain. The chain will instead keep going if you manage to click both Golden Cookies in time. The two Golden Cookies rewards will act as if the Golden Cookies spawned independently in the chain.
      • Using Force the Hand of Fate.
      • Other than these, there is no cap.
    • An easy way to get the most cookies out of a chain is minimising the screen until only a small part of the clickable cookie is visible. That way the cookie chain spawn will only appear in that area and you can get the highest chain possible.
    • Golden Cookies will not start chains until you have at least 100,000 cookies baked all time.
    • The following table shows the rewards and requirements for each level of the chain:
Rewards for Cookie Chain

Max Reward

(<=6 hrs CPS)

Cookies in bank required

(2x Max Reward)

CpS required

Base CpS required during Frenzy

(CpS required/7)

777,777,777 1,555,555,554 36,008 5,144
7,777,777,777 15,555,555,554 360,082 51,440
77,777,777,777 155,555,555,554 3,600,823 514,403
777,777,777,777 1,555,555,555,554 36,008,230 5,144,033
7.777×1012(T) 15.556×1012(T) 360.082×106(M) 51.44×106(M)
77.777×1012(T) 155.556×1012(T) 3.601×109(B) 514.403×106(M)
777.777×1012(T) 1.556×1015(Qa) 36.008×109(B) 5.144×109(B)
7.777×10n 1.5556×10n+1 3.60082×10n-4 5.14403×10n-5
  • 5.09~7.14% to start "Dragon Harvest" (requires Krumblor, cookie dragon, proportionally decreasing odds of other effects):
    • Get x15 cookie production for 60 seconds.
    • Requires Reaper of Fields aura to be active on Krumblor.
  • 5.09~7.14% to get "Dragonflight" (requires Krumblor, cookie dragon, proportionally decreasing odds of other effects):
    • Gives x1111 cookies per click for 10 seconds.
    • Works only for manual clicking, not for Cursor's autoclicking
    • Can stack with Click Frenzy, but 80% chance to kill existing Click Frenzy buff.
    • Can also indirectly stack with frenzy and Building Special. After buying all the main "mouse" upgrades, your clicking power during frenzy increases by approx x7 because of the increase in CpS, so therefore getting a "Dragonflight" during a "Frenzy" yields roughly x7777 clicking power until either the "Frenzy" or "Dragonflight" ends.
    • Requires Dragonflight aura to be active on Krumblor.
  • 0.76~0.84% to get "Cookie Storm":
    • A massive amount of Golden Cookies appears everywhere on the screen for 7 seconds, each granting you 1–7 minutes worth of cookies.
    • As of the current version, Golden Cookies clicked during the Cookie Storm have characteristics of regular Golden Cookies.
    • Those cookies do not count for clicked/missed Golden Cookies counters. They can, however, unlock Easter eggs.
  • 8.79~10.01% to get a Building special:
    • Get a variable bonus to cookie production for 30 seconds.
    • Possible specials: High-five (Cursors), Congregation (Grandmas), Luxuriant harvest (Farms), Ore vein (Mines), Oiled-up (Factories), Juicy profits (Banks), Fervent adoration (Temples), Manabloom (Wizard Towers), Delicious lifeforms (Shipments), Breakthrough (Alchemy Labs), Righteous cataclysm (Portals), Golden ages (Time Machines), Extra cycles (Antimatter Condensers), Solar flare (Prisms), Winning streak (Chancemakers), Macrocosm (Fractal Engines), Refactoring (Javascript consoles).
    • You need at least 10 buildings of a type to get its special. One of the available specials is chosen at random. If you have 10 buildings but not of a specific type, this GC acts as a frenzy instead.
    • Production bonus equals +10% per building of corresponding type, meaning 10 buildings will give you +100% (x2), 20 will give you +200% (x3), and so on.
    • Stacks with Frenzy; if Frenzy and a building special bonus are active at the same time, the bonuses are multiplied. For example, having 60 Cursors during a High-five while a Frenzy is active will grant 49x production for the duration of the stacked bonuses.
  • 1.74~1.94% to get "Everything must go" (Business Day season only, proportionally decreasing odds of other effects):
    • All buildings are 5% cheaper for 5 seconds.
  • 0.017~0.02% to get "sweet": Gain one sugar lump.

Combo Tables

This section concerns the possibility of two completely overlapping buffs. For example, the probability of getting a full dose of Click Frenzy during an ongoing Frenzy, rather than a partial overlap where Frenzy ends during the Click Frenzy. (To see how often a Frenzy Golden Cookie followed by a Click Golden Cookie are likely to occur, please check Golden Cookie Probabilities.)

To get a full overlap of Frenzy+Click Frenzy, the second Golden Cookie (Click Frenzy) must spawn before 77-13=64 seconds, which is impossible since Golden Cookies cannot spawn before Tmin=300 seconds without any improving factors. However, with the upgrades Lucky day (halves spawn time), Serendipity (halves spawn time again), and Get lucky (doubles effect duration), the necessary timing for spawning the second cookie becomes 2*(77-13)=128 seconds, which is larger than Tmin=300/4=75 seconds, thus allowing the effects to overlap. The probabilities can be calculated from P(128), the cumulative density function.

The following table gives the probabilities of full overlap buffs for given pair effects with Lucky day, Serendipity, and Get lucky. Each column represents further spawning factor and each row represents possible extra effect duration factor.

98 95 95+98 95x2 95x2+98 95x3 95x3+98 95x4
Frenzy+Click 76.9% 85.3% 94.2% 97.4% 99.5% 99.9% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Frenzy+Flight 93.9% 97.2% 99.5% 99.9% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Harvest+Click 0.3% 0.5% 1.2% 1.9% 3.6% 5.3% 9.3% 13.0% 20.8%
Harvest+Flight 1.6% 2.5% 4.7% 6.9% 11.8% 16.2% 25.4% 33.1% 47.2%
With Epoch Manipulator Frenzy+Click 93.9% 97.2% 99.5% 99.9% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Frenzy+Flight 99.6% 99.9% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Harvest+Click 1.0% 1.6% 3.1% 4.6% 8.2% 11.5% 18.8% 25.0% 37.2%
Harvest+Flight 4.7% 6.9% 11.8% 16.3% 25.7% 33.4% 47.5% 57.8% 73.3%
With Lasting Fortune Frenzy+Click 99.6% 99.9% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Frenzy+Flight 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Harvest+Click 3.1% 4.7% 8.3% 11.8% 19.2% 25.5% 37.9% 47.4% 63.1%
Harvest+Flight 11.4% 15.9% 25.0% 32.7% 46.9% 56.9% 72.6% 81.6% 92.0%
With both Frenzy+Click 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Frenzy+Flight 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
Harvest+Click 8.2% 11.6% 18.9% 25.3% 37.7% 47.0% 62.8% 72.9% 86.0%
Harvest+Flight 23.7% 31.1% 45.0% 55.1% 71.0% 80.1% 91.1% 95.6% 98.9%

The average lengths of time a stacked frenzy will last are, in seconds:

98 95 95+98 95x2 95x2+98 95x3 95x3+98 95x4
Frenzy+Click 25.008 25.473 25.844 25.943 25.992 25.998 26.000 26.000 26.000
Frenzy+Flight 19.825 19.935 19.990 19.998 20.000 20.000 20.000 20.000 20.000
Harvest+Click 3.048 4.050 5.983 7.493 10.105 11.892 14.693 16.459 18.971
Harvest+Flight 3.000 3.971 5.827 7.258 9.683 11.295 13.712 15.140 16.990
With Epoch Manipulator Frenzy+Click 27.825 27.935 27.990 27.998 28.000 28.000 28.000 28.000 28.000
Frenzy+Flight 20.993 20.999 21.000 21.000 21.000 21.000 21.000 21.000 21.000
Harvest+Click 6.346 7.947 10.702 12.621 15.592 17.439 20.124 21.712 23.830
Harvest+Flight 6.175 7.688 10.235 11.954 14.491 15.962 17.893 18.883 19.973
With Lasting Fortune Frenzy+Click 28.993 28.999 29.000 29.000 29.000 29.000 29.000 29.000 29.000
Frenzy+Flight 22.000 22.000 22.000 22.000 22.000 22.000 22.000 22.000 22.000
Harvest+Click 11.055 13.058 16.150 18.108 20.913 22.541 24.744 25.932 27.337
Harvest+Flight 10.595 12.399 15.060 16.635 18.682 19.719 20.887 21.376 21.794
With both Frenzy+Click 31.000 31.000 31.000 31.000 31.000 31.000 31.000 31.000 31.000
Frenzy+Flight 24.000 24.000 24.000 24.000 24.000 24.000 24.000 24.000 24.000
Harvest+Click 17.472 19.532 22.469 24.205 26.524 27.757 29.240 29.922 30.576
Harvest+Flight 16.428 18.115 20.311 21.453 22.736 23.275 23.754 23.898 23.982

Strategy

The Golden Cookie may fail to spawn the first time you start a new game on a browser with no saved Cookie Clicker data. This happens if minTime and maxTime do not get set properly. If you are going for a "true neverclick" run, reload Cookie Clicker after "Game saved" first appears.

Golden Cookies are more visible against the black background of the secondary windows in Cookie Clicker (Stats, Options, Info). If you've been waiting for a long time for a Golden Cookie, click into Stats.

Before obtaining the Golden Cookie upgrades you can time roughly when the next one will appear based on when you clicked on the last one. The minimum time between each is 5 minutes without upgrades. This makes getting the 7 and 27 clicks needed to buy Lucky Day and Serendipity easier. After you get the upgrades there's less of a need to time them as they appear frequently. With both upgrades, if you get a Frenzy outcome; the earliest time a new Golden Cookie can spawn is thirty seconds before the frenzy ends.

By keeping a large sum of cookies in your bank, at any given point you can maximize the returns of the Lucky outcome. The maximum available from a Lucky outcome is 900 times your current CpS (15 minutes of production), or 15% of your current banked cookies. The game chooses the lower number, so for maximum gain from lucky cookies you need to have 6,000 times your CpS in the bank. If you have that amount in your bank, both upgrades and get all the Golden Cookies on average every 4 minutes and 50 seconds you'll receive 15 minutes worth of production from Lucky and 7.7 minutes from Frenzy, which is equivalent to a 470% CpS bonus, not counting the other outcomes. This makes Lucky Day and Serendipity some of the most powerful upgrades in the game if you're willing to invest the time into watching for Golden Cookies.

On the other hand, banking cookies ties up resources that you could use to buy cookie-producing buildings instead. With Serendipity, and assuming you hit all Golden Cookies, each banked cookie earns 0.15 cookies on average every 290 seconds, so each additional average cookie-per-second from Lucky costs 1933⅓ cookies. As long as the price of buildings hasn't increased too much, buying them immediately without banking is a cheaper way to improve your CpS—especially because "Frenzy" applies only to building income (roughly doubling every building's effective CpS) but doesn't affect the interest rate from banking. If the building you're considering buying costs less than 1,933⅓ times twice its net CpS contribution, you should buy it as soon as you can afford it. In practical terms, if your antimatter condensers are upgraded to String theory but not Large macaron collider, you should start banking only when the next condenser will cost about 1,400,000 times your CpS multiplier. This threshold will be proportionally higher if you don't anticipate hitting all of the Golden Cookies.

  • A trick to make Golden Cookies easier to see is to resize the browser window to an area so the Golden Cookie is easily clicked. The Golden Cookie always appears somewhere within the area of the browser window. When the area is restricted in such a way it only takes a quick glance to check if a Golden Cookie has appeared.
  • This strategy is also very helpful during cookie chains. When zoomed in, golden and wrath cookies appear larger so you're less likely to break the chain by missing a cookie.

'Get Lucky' Upgrade

With the introduction of the Get Lucky upgrade, banking more than 42,000 seconds of cookies becomes a viable strategy. The doubled duration of the "Frenzy" outcome means Lucky Golden Cookies can potentially give you up to 900 times your CpS including the boost from the frenzy, or 6,300 times your base CpS (105 minutes of cookies!), assuming that the amount is less than 15% of your banked cookies. Due to the reduced probability of getting the same type of Golden Cookie twice in a row, the Golden Cookie following a Frenzy has almost a 90% chance of being a "Lucky". 

Once you have Get Lucky, the Click Frenzy can appear while already in a Frenzy. This combo can lead to massive cookie creation. If you also have all the "mouse" upgrades, giving you 7% of your CpS per click, with an average of 6 clicks per second for 25 seconds (you usually lose about a second moving the cursor onto the cookie), you can receive up to approximately 17⅓ hours of production, not including the clicking bonuses from the Cursor upgrades (excluded from the calculation because of how variable the bonuses are) which can boost the final result to well over half a day's worth of production. With keyboard clicking (like the MouseKeys feature) enabled, the total figure can easily be in the neighborhood of CpS*150,000.

Another Golden Cookie "combo" that is made possible by Get Lucky is a Frenzied Cookie Chain. The rewards at each level are not changed, but the income cap does take the Frenzy into account, therefore you may be able to get a higher "top reward" than you would otherwise get without the frenzy. (Specifically, this benefit occurs if the first seven significant figures of your base income lie between 1.028807 and 7.201646). Achieving this combo can grant a bonus of anywhere between 10800 and 75600 times the CpS, above what the chain would otherwise have given you.

Note that this also makes it entirely possible for a second "regular" Frenzy to occur whilst one is already in play. In this case, the effects do not stack; instead, it merely resets the duration of the 7x multiplier back to 154 seconds immediately following the second Golden Cookie click, not after the expiry of the first Frenzy. Similarly, triggering an Elder Frenzy (666x multiplier for 12 seconds) does not stack the multipliers, but instead replaces the Frenzy with the Elder Frenzy entirely.

The brinkmanship of knowing just how long to leave a cookie on-screen before clicking it in order to maximize your cookie production thus depends on having a good eye for the Frenzy's timer bar, in order to click it when just over 26 seconds are left in case of a Frenzy + Click Frenzy overlap combo. Keep in mind, however, that the amount of cookies lost by cutting a Frenzy short by a few seconds is relatively minimal, and that in most cases, clicking the Golden Cookies as soon as they appear is sufficient.

Conversely, clicking a Golden Cookie during a Clot period may shorten the deficit from the Clot (by ending it immediately and replacing with a Frenzy) but may also reduce the benefit of a Lucky or a Click Frenzy. So on balance, it is likely to be worth leaving the Golden Cookie as late as possible or until the Clot has ended.

With Dragon's Fortune aura, your CpS is further increased by 111%. This effect stacks the Frenzy + Lucky combo with a factor of 2.22. Combining this effect with 'Force the Hand of Fate' again stacks this effect for a total of 4.93.

Following the example above, the first effect would give you 233 minutes of CpS for each Lucky obtained during a Frenzy. Combined with 'Force the Hand of Fate' this rises to 517 minutes of CpS!

'Cookie Storm' Strategy

Cookie Storm

During a 'Cookie Storm', a player can minimize their window so that all the Golden Cookies gather in one spot on the screen. This will let a player click as many Golden Cookies as possible and can be very helpful if a player is trying to collect all of the Easter eggs.

Trivia

  • Golden Cookie effects, achievements, and upgrades all incorporate the number seven in some form; for example, "Frenzy" gives the player 7x production for 77 seconds, while the "Leprechaun" achievement requires clicking 777 Golden Cookies. This phenomenon is a reference to how Western cultures view seven as a lucky number.
  • The "Frenzy" effect previously provided the player x2 cookie production for 60 seconds.
  • The "Lucky" effect previously gave the player 20% (currently 15%) of their current cookies plus 13.
  • The upgrade "Get Lucky" and its flavor text are a reference to the Daft Punk song by the same name.
  • All Golden Cookie-related achievements are based on all time clicks, not clicks from the current game.
  • The only Golden Cookie achievement which involves a number that isn't a multiple of 7 is "A stroke of luck", which needs 27 golden cookie clicks. This may be a reference to the number of bones in the human hand, the part of the body which would normally do the clicking.
  • Because Golden Cookie-related upgrades are based on all-time clicks, if you unlock the 'Get Lucky' upgrade and reset, once you click one golden cookie, all three upgrades become available.
  • According to a news statement, Golden Cookies taste "somewhere between spearmint and liquorice".
  • Golden Cookies take on a different appearance depending on which Season is active:

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 The factors of all garden plants will stack first, then the inverse is combined with other factors multiplicatively in the table. The way that garden factors stack (multiplicatively or additively) depends on the type of the plants and the order of stacking depends on the position of the plants.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The factors of all garden plants will stack first, then combine with other factors multiplicatively in the table. The way that garden factors stack (multiplicatively or additively) depends on the type of the plants, and the order of stacking depends on the position of the plants.
Interactive Objects
PerfectCookie
Big Cookie
GoldCookie
Golden Cookie
SpoopierCookie
Wrath Cookie
Wrinkler - 1
Wrinkler
Raindeer
Reindeer
Santaclaus
Santa
DragonAdultStage01
Krumblor
ShinyWrinkler
Shiny wrinkler
Category:Interactive Objects
Cookie Clicker game mechanics
Cookies Cookie ClickerClickingBuildings
General AchievementsGolden CookiesMilkSugar LumpsNews TickerOptionsCheating
Cookies per Second (CpS)Cookies per Click (CpC)
Upgrades Upgrades overview
Multipliers: Flavored CookiesKittens
Research: GrandmapocalypseWrath CookiesWrinklersShiny wrinklers
Ascension AscensionHeavenly ChipsChallenge Mode
Seasons Seasons overview
Valentine's DayBusiness DayEasterHalloweenChristmas
Minigames Minigames overview
GardenStock MarketPantheonGrimoire
Further reading Gameplay