Wrinkler

14 Wrinklers around the Big Cookie; the max as of 2.052

A wrinkler with Scary Stuff turned on.

A wrinkler with Scary Stuff turned off.

Wrinklers are twitchy leech-like creatures that, in normal gameplay, only start to appear during the Grandmapocalypse. While they at first appear to reduce CpS (cookies per second), they actually provide a massive boost to cookie production in the long run.

There is a 0.01% chance a Shiny Wrinkler will spawn instead of a normal wrinkler.

There is a 0.01% chance upon starting the game that all wrinklers will be replaced with winklers.

With the "Scary Stuff" option turned off, the wrinklers will have googly eyes placed overtop of their eyes.

Overview

Ten wrinklers feeding off the Big Cookie.

Twelve wrinklers at the Big Cookie.

A wrinkler can be popped, or exploded, by being clicked three consecutive times. The game hints at this property by having a wrinkler continuously shake when hovered over, and in the Grimoire as a backfire in the Ressurect Abomination spell. When exploded, it will drop 1.1 × the total number of cookies withered during its lifespan and may unlock seasonal upgrades. While offline, wrinklers are dormant, and do not wither CpS or collect cookies. The stats menu displays how much of the current CpS is being withered, as well as the number of popped wrinklers in the current ascension. If a wrinkler is popped before reaching the big cookie, it will not drop any cookies or upgrades, but will count towards the "Wrinklers Popped" statistic.

If the Grandmatriarchs are appeased, whether via Elder Pledge, Elder Covenant, or by selling all grandmas, all the wrinklers on the screen will automatically be exploded, and will not begin to appear again unless the Grandmapocalypse is restarted.

CpS multiplier

Because wrinklers store a percentage of the total wither rate, each additional wrinkler adds a larger bonus than the previous one. The net increase in CpS is 0.5% with one wrinkler, rising to 1008% with a maximum of fourteen. The fourteenth wrinkler alone increases net CpS by more than 143% of the pre-wrinkler base value.

To calculate the effective CpS multiplier, assuming N wrinklers present, the formula consists of:

• (withered CPS for each wrinkler. Each wrinkler hoards 5% times number of wrinklers present. Hoarded cookies are then amplified by a flat factor of 1.1 (10% gain after popping), an additional 1.05 (5% more cookies) with the Easter Season Wrinklerspawn upgrade and additional 1.05 with the Heavenly Sacrilegious corruption upgrade.)
• (Remaining unwithered CPS)

Put together, this is:

• without wrinkler upgrades.
• with 1 wrinkler upgrade.
• with both wrinkler upgrades.

From the above formula, we can draw the following CpS conclusion:

No. wrinklers	CpS Multiplier	CpS Multiplier with one of: "Wrinklerspawn" or "Sacrilegious corruption"	CpS Multiplier with both: "Wrinklerspawn" and "Sacrilegious corruption"
0	1	1	1
1	1.005	1.00775	1.0106375
2	1.12	1.131	1.14255
3	1.345	1.36975	1.3957375
4	1.68	1.724	1.7702
5	2.125	2.19375	2.2659375
6	2.68	2.779	2.88295
7	3.345	3.47975	3.6212375
8	4.12	4.296	4.4808
9	5.005	5.22775	5.4616375
10	6	6.275	6.56375
11	7.105	7.43775	7.7871375
12	8.32	8.716	9.1318
13	9.645	10.10975	10.5977375
14	11.08	11.619	12.18495

Spawn Rate

Each empty wrinkler slot has a (re-) spawn rate of 0.001% (0.005% with "Unholy bait") per Grandmapocalypse stage per frame (the usual framerate is 30 fps). The Skruuia, Spirit of Scorn and Garden plants can also alter the rate.

	factor
Grandmapocalypse stage	1/2/3 (One Mind/Communal Brainsweep/Elder Pact)
Unholy bait	5
Skruuia, Spirit of Scorn	2.5/2/1.5 (Diamond/Ruby/Jade)
Elder Spice	+2 wrinkler slots (indirectly boosts spawn rate)
Dragon Guts	+2 wrinkler slots (indirectly boosts spawn rate)
Garden plants	1-(1-0.85^WA)+0.02WR WA = # of Wardlichen WR = # of Wrinklegill

For example, if you have unholy bait and 3 Wardlichens in the garden when in Communal Brainsweep stage, the spawn rate will be r= 0.001% * 2 * (1-0.15*3) = 0.0011%.

On average, collecting all 12 wrinklers takes:

$\frac{1}{r}\sum_{k=1}^{12} \frac{1}{k}=\frac{1}{r}\frac{86021}{27720}$ frames

$\approx\frac{0.10344}{r}$ seconds

• On average, it takes 57 minutes and 28 seconds (11 minutes 30 seconds with "Unholy bait") for all 12 Elder Pact (speedup factor is 3) wrinklers to spawn, from a starting point of 0 wrinklers. For Communal Brainsweep, it takes 3/2 of that time, about 86 minutes (17 with "Unholy bait"). For One mind this is three times as long, which is about 172 minutes (34 with "Unholy bait").

Seasons

Halloween

Main article: Halloween Season

Halloween Cookies are unlocked randomly during the Halloween season by popping wrinklers. The unlock rate is 5% to 91% depending on achievements, upgrades, dragon auras, heavenly upgrades, pantheon gods, garden plants, and wrinkler type (normal or shiny).

Christmas

Main article: Christmas Season

A wrinkler during the Christmas season

The appearance of wrinklers change during Christmas season, but shiny wrinklers don't change.

Easter

Main article: Easter Season

All Easter upgrades are egg based in theme and can be unlocked randomly when clicking a Golden Cookie or Wrath Cookie, or by popping a wrinkler. At base, a Golden/Wrath Cookie has a 10% chance to unlock an egg and a wrinkler has a 2% chance to unlock an egg. Achievements, upgrades, dragon auras, heavenly upgrades, pantheon gods, and garden plants all increase the chance to unlock an egg.

Upgrades

Icon	Name	Unlock condition	Base price	Description	ID
	Wrinklerspawn	"Rare" egg (see Probabilities)	999 x 3E	Wrinklers explode into 5% more cookies. Cost scales with how many eggs you own. "Look at this little guy! It's going to be a big boy someday! Yes it is!"	224
	Unholy bait (heavenly upgrade)	"Starter kitchen" purchased	44,444	Wrinklers appear 5 times as fast. "No wrinkler can resist the scent of worm biscuits."	292
	Sacrilegious corruption (heavenly upgrade)	"Unholy bait" purchased	444,444	Wrinklers regurgitate 5% more cookies. "Unique in the animal kingdom, the wrinkler digestive tract is able to withstand an incredible degree of dilatation - provided you prod them appropriately."	293
	Elder spice (heavenly upgrade)	"Unholy bait" purchased	444,444	You can attract 2 more wrinklers. "The cookie your cookie could smell like."	364
	Eye of the wrinkler (heavenly upgrade)	"Wrinkly cookies" purchased	100 million	Mouse over a wrinkler to see how many cookies are in its stomach. "Just a wrinkler and its will to survive. Hangin' tough, stayin' hungry."	495

Achievements

Icon	Name	Description	ID
	Wrinkler poker	Poke a wrinkler 50 times without killing it. "Also the name of a card game popular in retirement homes."	598
	Itchscratcher	Burst 1 wrinkler.	105
	Wrinklesquisher	Burst 50 wrinklers.	106
	Moistburster	Burst 200 wrinklers.	107
	Last Chance to See (shadow achievement)	Burst the near-extinct shiny wrinkler. "You monster!"	262

To help keep track of how many wrinklers you have popped, go in the "Stats" section, then look under "Special".

Trivia

• In the game's code, next to the code that tells the wrinklers to return 110% of their withered cookies is the comment "cookie dough does weird things inside wrinkler digestive tracts".
• The "Moistburster" achievement is a reference to the Alien Franchise's Chestburster.
• The "Last Chance To See" achievement is a reference to the book and radio documentary series about species extinction by novelist Douglas Adams and zoologist Mark Cawardine. There is also BBC television series that followed.
• Prior to the v1.0453 update, Wrinklers disappeared when you closed the Cookie Clicker window or exited the browser.
• The wrinkler may be a reference to the Mosquito Larvae or the Wriggler.
• The "Eye of the Wrinkler" description is a reference to the song "Eye Of The Tiger."
• When the option "Scary Mode" turned off, wrinklers will occasionally blink.
• Wrinklers will begin to shake when your mouse is over them.

See also

• Shiny Wrinklers
• Winklers

Interactive Objects
	Big Cookie			Golden Cookie		Wrath Cookie
Wrinkler		Reindeer		Santa	Krumblor		Shiny wrinkler
Category:Interactive Objects