Randomness
Cookie Clicker uses a pseudorandom number generator for deterministic randomness purposes, such as the result of casting spells in the Grimoire and the type of sugar lump. Therefore, two games with the same seed would behave in the same way (getting the same Force the Hand of Fate outcomes for example). The purpose of seeding is to ensure the same outcome every time, even when savescumming. For events that are not seeded, multitabbing is generally the most efficient way to savescum.
Every run of Cookie Clicker has a unique seed, stored in Game.seed. This seed is five lowercase letters. The seed can only be changed by ascending, hard resetting or manually editing it in the console.
Keep in mind that the exploit Clone Missing Unseed causes everything to be seeded until something that causes a reseed (which is virtually every single action possible).
Seeded mechanics
- The Grimoire minigame (based on total spells cast)
- The Shimmering veil (based on shimmer clicks or cookie clicks)
- Sugar Lump type (based on time)
- Lucky Numbers fortune
- Tombola computing
- Dragon upgrade timing
- Grandma names
- Mice clicking mice message
- You names
All other random mechanics are unseeded.
Seeded mechanics such as Grimoire, Shimmering Veil, and Krumblor's timing can be predicted, usually with external tools.
Sugar lumps are millisecond precise, but may still be reliably manipulated with Choose Your Own Lump.
Seeded mechanics may be manipulated through discovering correlations in their chances. This is usually done by analyzing the game's code, and is known as either confirming or scrying.