One of the most bizarre, twisted, and scary twists in video games comes from Cookie Clicker. If you've heard of Cookie Clicker, it's because of this infamous event – the Grandmapocalypse. And now that Cookie Clicker is on Steam, it's the perfect time to revisit one of gaming's most challenging moments. This isn't a standard clicker game, it's an abomination of the old gods. Cookie clicker granted us eyes so we could see.
Cookie Clicker is a legendary clicker game created by solo development team Julien “Orteil” Theinnot. Originally released as a browser game in 2022, this memetic game about creating your own cookie empire has gotten dark and eerie thanks to the creator's constant updates, adding bizarre new features until we now have a very complete little game on the click of a big cookie ad infinitum.
In Cookie Clicker, you can turn your grandma squad into a meaty mass with endless baking potential. Here's how to trigger the grandmapocalypse.
How to trigger the Grandmapocalypse event
To begin the end times, you will need to complete a few first steps. Before you can start, you need to unlock grandmothers — this is a type of building that automatically generates cookies.
- Step 1: Buy 7 types of grandmother to unlock the “Elder” achievement.
There are many different types of grandmother. By upgrading and purchasing 7 different types of Grandmothers (like Farmer or Cosmic), you will get the Ancient achievement and unlock the next required building – the Bingo Hall / Research Center.
- Step #2: Build Bingo Hall/Research Center
Bingo Hall/Research Center upgrade unlocks with Elder achievement and has the ability to make your grandma four times more efficient. Research Center fees 1 quadrillion de cookies to buy, so it will take a lot of savings and clicks before you can finally buy it.
- Step 3: Wait 30 minutes for new upgrades
The Research Center unlocks new upgrades after about 30 minutes. Save your cookies, because you will need 16 quadrillions de cookies to purchase the upgrade required to trigger the Grandmapocalypse event.
- Step 4: Buy these five upgrades
- #1: Specialty Chocolate Chips
- #2: Designer Cocoa Beans
- #3: Ritual Rolling Pins
- #4: Underground kilns
- #5: A spirit[[Triggers the Grandmapocalypse event]
Buy upgrades in order as they unlock. Every time an upgrade appears, buy it and it will take around 30 minutes to unlock another upgrade. The final upgrade A spirit, costs 16 quadrillions de cookies. It also triggers the event and will completely change your game, giving you disgusting new work and a bunch of new features.
What is the Grandmapocalypse?
The Grandmapocalypse causes a multitude of changes to the game. Not all of them are good. Some of them are disgusting. And some of the changes are absolutely amazing.
- Keep Buying Research Center Upgrades to upgrade from Stage 1 to Stage 3. Once you reach the final stage, you can stop the effect of the Grandmapocalypse with an upgrade temporarily or permanently.
- The background art will change. First the grandmothers become creepy, bloody and googly-eyed – then they become abominations de la chair.
- Wrinkles et Rage Cookies will appear. Wrath Cookies replace Gold Cookies and can give nice bonuses or damaging debuffs to your cookie production.
Wrinkles are weird, slimy monstrosities that circle your cookie and start siphoning 5% discount on your cookies per second. You can pop them immediately or you can let them fill up – once filled, you can pop them for a huge cookie reward bonus. Basically, there's no reason to destroy the Wrinklers immediately. Let them gorge themselves on cookies, then pop them when they're ripe for a big reward.
This is when the game becomes bizarre. If the Grandmapocalypse is too gross for you, you can turn off Weird Items in Steam's Settings menu.
