CookieRun Crumble beginner’s guide - 9 tips for baking bad

• CookieRun: Crumble is the idle RPG spinoff of DevSisters' hit CookieRun franchise
• But what if you're a total newbie to the genre?
• Well, fret not, we've got the lowdown on how to get started in our complete beginner's guide

Devsisters’ CookieRun: Crumble is another spinoff of the developer’s smash-hit CookieRun series. And as with their other spins on the formula, such as OvenSmash and its multiplayer battler format, CookieRun: Crumble takes your favourite baked goods to an entirely new genre: an idle RPG. Worried you might not grasp it from the get-go? Don’t be, because we’ve got this complete beginner’s guide to help you along!

I’ll be providing both a basic overview and refresher of what CookieRun: Crumble is all about, as well as some of my tips after having played it myself. So, let’s get started with the very basics.

Tip #1 - Starting recipes

CookieRun: Crumble’s gameplay revolves around building a lineup of cookies that automatically battle various enemies before facing off against a boss at the end of each level. It’s very hands-off, and that means your main occupation is keeping your cookies upgraded by increasing their stats, equipping new gear and levelling them up.

To do that, you’ll have access to the Oven to bake new goods, Resolve to increase their stats, and, of course, the gacha pool to recruit new cookies and receive copies that can increase existing characters’ star ratings. There are various other subsystems too, but those are what I’d dub the ‘core’ systems to keep an eye on.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the tips I reckon are worth keeping in mind…

Tip #2 - Keep as much of your roster powered up as you can

When choosing a lineup for battle, the easiest way to do so is by selecting the ‘auto’ button. Idle RPG fans will already be familiar with this, but if you’re a newbie, it’s worth keeping in mind that while the auto button will sort your cookies and give you the most powerful lineup, it doesn’t pick those with high potential.

For example, a higher rarity cookie that could prove to be a real game-changer won’t be included if it isn’t a higher level. So be sure to keep powering up your cookies with EXP when you get the chance, and focus on the higher rarities as these will usually be more powerful. It's usually better to keep the rarest cookies levelled up, but particular synergies are worth focusing on too.

Tip #3 - Upgrade your oven

As I mentioned above, the Oven that sees your overworked gnome baking new equipment is one of the core systems for keeping your roster powered up. You’ll want to make sure you have at least the level two or three upgrade to unlock auto-baking, which takes out the busywork of having to manually tap for more gear. This function will even sort and apply new equipment when your inventory is full, as well as sell off defunct gear you have no use for any more.

Tip #4 - Check out the mercenary’s guild

Alongside stat boosts from Resolve, one of the other powerful ways to give your cookies an edge is with the mercenary’s guild. While this is introduced during the tutorial, it’s easy to forget about it, so check the ‘clover’ button on the top right portion of the screen to access it. The Mercenary Guild offers perks that can grant small but significant boosts to attributes such as attack, defence and maximum HP.

Tip #5 - Check your collection

As with most idle RPGs, CookieRun: Crumble is so chock-a-block with ways to gain rewards that it can be easy to forget some of them. But one you shouldn’t forget is the Collections feature that grants bonuses based on cookies you’ve drawn from the gacha. While incremental, with a few plus-ones here and there, they’re fairly frequent (especially if you’re always making pulls) and are always worth claiming for that little extra boost.

Tip #6 - Prioritise increasing attack power

As any RPG fan will tell you, the easiest way to not die is to make sure the other guy is dead first. And this is especially true in the idle RPG genre, as the main ‘blocker’ you’ll run into is the time limit during boss battles. Some bosses move around, others are simply beefy enough that you can’t grind down their health before the timer runs out. So, while you’ll usually be balancing upgrades, it’s best to always prioritise attack power first to get past this obstacle.

Tip #7 - Keep moving

Surprisingly, I found that movement was actually sort of important in CookieRun: Crumble, even though it’s meant to be idle. Generally, if you’re having trouble damaging a boss, it’s easy to crowd your cookies around to do more damage, especially if you have enough healers that taking hits isn’t too much of an issue. I found Cocoa Cookie and their hot chocolate spinning attack (never thought I’d write those words out in that order) to be especially helpful for dealing a lot of damage at close range.

Tip #8 - Delve into the dungeons

You may find yourself at a loss for how to get EXP, coins and dough (literally, dough) to help upgrade. Well, the easiest way is to head to the dungeon tab, which offers shorter levels with stricter time limits, but plenty of rewards of a specific resource for clearing them. You get a limited number of free keys each day, but can keep grinding through them by watching ads. The trade-off is that you get plenty of necessary resources that you’ll otherwise find quite tricky to get via passive play.

And of course, if you need further tips ‘n tricks for CookieRun: Crumble specifically, then we’ve got you covered! Check out our

CookieRun: Crumble resources guide

for more info on how to get EXP, coins and other necessary gubbins. Or dig into our

CookieRun: Crumble codes

list for quick ‘n tasty rewards!