Upgrades/Trivia

• With the exceptions of Plain, the primary tier names are comprised of flavors and secondary words (mostly minerals):
  • Berrylium, portmanteau of beryllium and berry
  • Blueberrylium, portmanteau of beryllium and blueberry
  • Chalcedhoney, portmanteau of chalcedony and honey
  • Buttergold, compound of butter and gold
  • Sugarmuck, compound of sugar and muck
  • Jetmint, compound of jet and mint
  • Cherrysilver, compound of cherry and silver
  • Hazelrald, portmanteau of hazel and emerald
  • Mooncandy, compound of moonstone and candy
  • Astrofudge, portmanteau of the Smash Mouth album Astro Lounge and fudge
  • Alabascream, portmanteau of alabaster and cream
  • Iridyum, portmanteau of iridium and yum
  • Glucosmium, portmanteau of glucose and osmium
  • Glimmeringue, portmanteau of glimmer and meringue
• In Orteil's sprite sheet for all the icons in Cookie Clicker, there are currently unimplemented icons for the different tiers.
• The Assistant to the Regional Manager kittens are a reference to Dwight Schrute from "The Office (US)".
• Carpal tunnel prevention cream, and its flavor text "it...it hurts to click..." is a reference to the South Park episode "Make Love Not Warcraft".
• The flavor text for "Four-Leaf Clover Field" is a reference to to the movie "Cloverfield."
• The flavor text for the Cursor upgrade called "Iron Mouse" ("Click like it's 1349!") is probably a reference to the black metal band called "1349," as well as a reference to the Prince song "1999" ("Party like it's 1999!"). Or it simply could be the fact that it is iron, commonly used in medieval devices.
• The flavor text for the Cursor upgrade called "Wishalloy Mouse" is a reference to the song "All Star" by Smash Mouth ("don't smash your mouse"), which lyrics include "Get your game on, go play."
• The flavor text for the Cursor upgrade called "Ambidextrous" ("Look ma, both hands!") is a play on the phrase, "Look ma, no hands!"
• The flavor text for the Cursor upgrade "Thousand Fingers" to "Quadrillion fingers" is a reference to Quagmire from Family Guy, who often says "Giggity" when he gets excited.
• The flavor text for the Cursor upgrade "Quintillion fingers" is the second half of a quote given by Boomhauer, a character of King of the Hill in an episode when he discusses navigating the Internet.
• The Mine upgrade "Ultimadrill"'s flavor text makes a reference to the anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann with its quote "Pierce the heavens, etc...". The line "Your drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens" has been used in many other works since, predominantly internet memes.
• The Alchemy lab upgrade "Ambrosia" and its flavor text are a reference to the book series "Study" by Maria V. Snyder, relating a substance known as ambrosia, that is delicious but opens the mind to magical influence.
• The Shipment upgrade "Warp Drive" and its flavor text "To boldly bake." are references to Star Trek.
• The Portal upgrade "Sanity Dance" and its flavor text are a reference to the '80s pop song "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats and the lyric from that song "We can dance if we want to / We can leave your friends behind" (We can change if we want to, we can leave our brains behind).
• The flavor text for the Portal upgrade "Maddening Chants" is a reference to this memetic video about Moonbase Alpha
• The flavor text for the Bunny Biscuts is a reference from the book series Watership Down
• The text from the cookie upgrade "Chocolate-stuffed biscuits" (A princely snack !) is a reference to a very-well known biscuits brand in France, "Prince".
• The use of Portals and the Altered Grandmas may be a reference to "Immaterium" from Warhammer 40,000, in which the minds and/or bodies of those who travel through it are significantly warped.
• The Time Machine upgrade "Flux Capacitors" and its flavor text are a reference to the Flux Capacitor in the Back to the Future trilogy.
• The flavor text for Plain Cookies was orginally "Meh.".
• The flavor text for the Time Machine upgrade "Time paradox resolver", "No more fooling around with your own grandmother!" is a reference to the episode "Roswell That Ends Well" of the television series Futurama, wherein the character Fry has intercourse with his own grandmother when he goes back in time, and in doing so, becomes his own grandfather.
• The name of the Time Machine upgrade "Quantum Conundrum" may be a reference to the game of the same name.
• The previous flavor text of the Time Machine upgrade "Quantum Conundrum" ("It's full of stars!") and the flavor text of the Shipment upgrade "Chocolate Monoliths" ("My god. It's full of chocolate bars.") are references to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and its quote "My God! It's full of stars!". The name of the "Chocolate Monoliths" upgrade may be a reference to the mysterious objects 'Monoliths', which are the focus of the movie.
• The flavor text on the Time Machine upgrade "Causality Enforcer" is a reference to the movie The Matrix, shortly after they meet the causality program of the Matrix, when Morpheus says, "What happened, happened, and couldn't have happened any other way." It is also possible this is a reference to the television series, Lost, in which Daniel Faraday says the very same quote.
• The in-game sprite for the time machine strongly resembles the one from the 1960 movie, "The Time Machine", based on the classic H. G. Wells novel, and superficially the machines from other dramatizations of the same.
• The Antimatter Condenser upgrade "Large Macaron collider" is a reference to the Large Hadron Collider.
• The Chancemaker upgrade "Winning lottery ticket" is a reference to the game Fallout: New Vegas and its flavour text "What lottery? THE Lottery, that's what lottery! The only lottery that matters!" is a quote by the character Oliver Swanick, who was the only survivor of a "cleansing" by the Caesar's Legion due to winning a lottery.
• The Chancemaker upgrade "Your lucky cookie" and its flavor text is a reference to Uncle Scrooge's Lucky Dime- the first dime he ever earned and his most prized possesion.
• The Chancemaker upgrade "Improbability Drive" and its flavor text is a reference to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Infinite Improbability Drive, a engine allowing spaceships to travel anywhere.
• The Fractal Engine upgrade "One particularly good-humored cow" and it's flavor text may be a reference to Mokalsium.
• Part of the flavor text for the Prism upgrade Gem Polish ("Truly, truly outrageous.") is a reference to the 1980s cartoon series Jem, specifically the opening theme.
  • Some believe that it may also be a reference to the League of Legends champion, Taric, but this too is a reference to the theme from "Jem."
• The quote for the cookie upgrade "Eclipse Cookies" ("Look to the cookie.") is from a Seinfeld episode, "The Dinner Party", where Jerry orders an eclipse cookie. He explains to Elaine that they must 'look to the cookie' and all our race problems will be solved (this is referring to the black and white colors on the cookie, in harmony). It may also refer to a Mortal Kombat easter egg, "Look to la luna."
• The quote for the cookie upgrade "Madeleines" ("Unforgettable!") is a reference to the book In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, in which madeleines are used to contrast involuntary memory with voluntary memory.
• The 4 cookies added in 1.036 - Madeleines, Palets, Palmiers and Sablés - are types of French biscuits, which may be a form of cheeky patriotism on Orteil's part.
• The 4 new cookie upgrades added in version 1.075, Caramoas, Sagalongs, Shortfoils and Win Mints, are based on Girl Scout cookies, referring to Samoas, Tagalongs, Trefoils, and Thin Mints respectively.
• The prices of the Kitten upgrades may be a reference to the common myth that cats have nine lives.
• The flavor text for the Kitten upgrades (starting with Kitten engineers and the [text], sir) may be references to the movie "Fight Club".
• The Mouse upgrade "Adamantium Mouse" is in reference to the fictitious metal of the same name in the Marvel Comics Universe and other popular media.
• The Mouse upgrade "Unobtainium mouse" references a hypothetical material.
• The title of the "Get Lucky" upgrade is a reference to the Daft Punk song of the same name. The flavor text even makes a reference to a section of the song's lyrics: "We're up all night to get lucky."
• The upgrade "Neuromancy" is most likely a reference to the novel Neuromancer by William Gibson, while it's flavor text could be a reference to the grandmas of the Grandmapocalypse.
• The description of the upgrade Jaffa Cakes is a reference to a product of the same name introduced by the company McVitie's, and is a reference to Carl Sagan's quote "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe" from his book Cosmos. It could also be a reference to the YouTube channel "The Yogscast" where in a modded version of Minecraft called Tekkit, they created a factory to automatically make jaffa cakes.
• The flavor text of the "Heavenly chip secret" upgrade may be a reference to a quote from the original Legend of Zelda game for the NES- "It's a secret to everybody.'
• The name and flavor text of the "Loreols" upgrade is a reference to the L'Oréal brand and their slogan: "Because you're worth it.".
  • Additionally, the name and appearance are based on Oreo brand cookies.
• The name and flavor text of Grease's Cups is a reference to Reese's Peanut Butter Cups chocolate candy.
• The name and flavor text of Zilla Wafers is a reference to the Japanese movie monster, Godzilla, as well as the snack Nilla Wafers.
• The name and flavor text of Digits is a reference to Cadbury's Chocolate Fingers that come in the same flavors depicted in the sprite.
• Lombardia cookies is a reference to Milano cookies from the Pepperidge Farm brand.
  • The flavor text of Lombardia cookies is a reference to the internet meme "Pepperidge Farm Remembers".
• Bastenaken cookies is a reference to Bastogne cookies from French company Lefèvre-Utile (Bastenaken is Bastogne in Dutch).
• Communal Brainsweep may be a reference to the Brainsweeper enemy from that other well known browser game, Kingdom of Loathing (which is an abomination created "For Science!", similar to a lot of the Research Center upgrades); alternatively, it may refer instead - or as well - to Brainsweeping from the Mysterious Benedict Society novels, a drastic form of brainwashing which erases almost all of the subject's memories. In either case, it ain't good.
• The "Bat cookies" flavor text is a reference to the movie, "The Dark Knight" where Commissioner Gordon says that Batman is the hero that Gotham deserves.'.
• The "Eyeball cookies" flavor text and the "Abysmal glimmer" upgrade are references to Nietzche's Beyond Good and Evil, aphorism 146.
  • The flavour text is a reference to the line "when you stare deep into the abyss, the abyss stares back"
• The "Spider cookies" flavor text is a reference to the theme song of '60s television series cartoon, Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
• The "Ghost cookies" flavor text is a reference to the Ghostbusters theme song.
• The "Christmas Tree Biscuits" quote, "Whose pine is it anyway?" is a reference to the popular comedy-improvisation show "Whose line is it anyway?" that ran in the late 80's to early 90's with both English and American versions.
• The flavor text of "Santa's Dominion" makes a reference to a poem of Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem's quote is "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
• The Weighted Sleighs upgrade's flavor text may possibly be a reference to a saying from Gabe Newell.
• It seems like even with upgrades that make other upgrades cheaper, the player still needs the original amount of cookies for upgrades to light up. This is only a visual bug, and the player can still buy the upgrade even if it isn't brightened.
• When holding the cursor in the store and moving it quickly over the tooltip of an upgrade, the store window will minimize.
• The flavor text for the Christmas upgrade 'Increased merriness' ,'The s'more the merrier', is a play on the quote, "The more the merrier". A s'more is a roasted marshmallow sandwiched between two graham crackers.
• If the game is not in Christmas season, using the command 'Game.seasonPopup.spawn ()' will spawn a bouncing golden cookie instead of a reindeer.
• The flavor text for the Ghostly biscuit upgrade "spooky scary skeletons will wake you with a boo" is a reference to the Andrew Gold song "Spooky Scary Skeletons"
• The Prism upgrade Pure Cosmic Light was the only main building final upgrade to not have a blue sparkle in its sprite as of V1.0411 (fixed in 1.0418).
• The flavor text for the prism upgrade Grainbow, "Remember the different grains using the handy Roy G. Biv mnemonic" refers to the mnemonic Roy G. Biv, which actually is used to remember the seven colors of the rainbow.
• Вefore 1.0420, season updates couldn't be bought twice in a row (i.e. once the 24 hours are over, it becomes locked again, so the player needs to buy a different season before they can buy this one again).
• Starting with the version 2, base cost of "Licorice macarons" upgrade increased 10 million times, from 1 quintillion to 10 septillion, which makes it most significant upgrade cost increase both in absolute and relative numbers at the moment. Next cost increase in absolute numbers to consider is "Brane transplant" — from 1.667 trillion to 5 quintillion (cost of efficiency increase upgrades for buildings is calculated based on building base price and tier multiplier common for all building types).
• The flavor text for Bunny biscuit is a reference to Watership Down's El-Ahrairah being blessed with being hard to catch.
• The flavor text for Duck Egg is a reference to the song, video, and book 'The Duck Song.'
• The flavor text for Robin Egg is a reference to the superhero Robin from the 1960s Batman TV show as he would often make exclamations following the same format.
• The flavor text for Salmon roe is a reference to the song 'Libera me from hell' from the anime 'Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.'
• The flavor text for Omelette "Omelette du fromage" is a reference to an episode of the cartoon show 'Dexter's Laboratory', when the main character (Dexter) repeats the same phrase over and over again.
• The "Aqua crustulae" upgrade name means "Water of cookie" in Latin, although in proper grammar this would be "Aqua crustuli" or "Aqua crustulorum". It's probably is a reference to Latin expression "Aqua vitae" that means "Water of life".
• The "Ardent heart biscuits" upgrade's flavor text probably have a reference to Red Hot Chili Peppers band.
• The "egg" bears a strong resemblance to a normal Pokémon egg from the game series "Pokémon".
  • However, Orteil has previously said that "egg" is not a reference to anything.
• The flavor text for "Shark Egg" is a reference to the thoughts of the sharks in one of Orteil's other games, Nested
• If the player looks at the upgrades in the Stats screen after they are purchased, they will all say "[Purchased]". However, the kitten upgrades will say "[Purrchased]". This also applies to the upgrade when it is not purchased; on the bottom it says "Click to purrchase" instead of "Click to purchase."
• The flavor text for the "Undecillion fingers" upgrade is a reference to the movie "The Year Without A Santa Claus"
• Version 2 changed quite a few upgrades:
  • All upgrades that "added x base CpS" to the buildings were changed to another "doubles efficiency" upgrade, which was a buff because the base CpS increase was less than the original base CpS, and each upgrade stacks with all others (except the doubling efficiency of cursors and their -illion fingers)
  • Every -illion fingers upgrade for the cursors except "thousand fingers" and (maybe) "million fingers" were buffed, so now all of them except "thousand fingers" add 5x10^x cookies per cursor. "Octillion fingers" now gives 5 million CpS per cursor instead of around 200,000 (needs correction).
    • This is later changed again where each upgrade becomes multiplicative, from "Trillion fingers" onwards by 20 instead of the flat increase by 10 times. However, it also makes the highest "finger" upgrade no longer give an incredible flat amount of cookies per click at the start of a new ascension.
  • As stated above, Persistent Memory is no longer an actual upgrade, but now a legacy upgrade, costing 5 heavenly chips.
  • Upgrades that add to the cookie production multiplier (i.e. Santa's Dominion adds +20% cookie production) were buffed to be global, so the percentages were reduced. Cookie upgrades that added +5% made the percentage, for example, go from 1,000% go up to 1,005% production. Now, those +5% cookie upgrades give +1% cookie production, and would boost the percentage from 1,000% to 1,010%.
  • The description of certain research upgrades were changed to match how they really act. One Mind, for example, originally said "grandmas gain +1 base CpS per 50 grandmas," implying the player may need to get 50 grandmas for a CpS boost. Now, it says "grandmas gain +0.02 CpS per grandma," showing that each grandma boosts every other grandma by 0.02 base CpS, instead of requiring 50 to get the boost.
  • Some cookies/biscuits (i.e. Macarons) now require a Heavenly Upgrade to purchase.
• The Cookie Upgrade "Pecan Sandies" flavor text is a reference to the It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Season 3 Episode 9 "Sweet Dee's Dating a Retarded Person" where Frank wants the band to be called "The Pecan Sandies"
• The flavor text for the "Molasses cookies" upgrade is a reference to the song "Potatoes and Molasses" from Episode 3 of the short cartoon series "Over the Garden Wall."
• The stuff rationale's description is a reference to the Xavier: Renegade Angel episode "Vibracaust."
• The flavor text for the "Butter pucks" upgrade is a reference to the character Puck from Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, when Puck says, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"
• "Beardlier Beards" Wizard Upgrade flavor text "The beard is the word" is a reference to the song Surfin Bird by The Trashmen.
• The Name and flavor text for "Rules of acquisition" is a refrence to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition from the Start Trek series.
• The "Havabreaks" upgrade is a reference to Kit Kat chocolate bars. The name is a reference to the Kit Kat slogan "Have a break", the icon looks similar to actual Kit Kat bars, and the flavor text describes the chocolate bar and brings up the 200+ Kit Kat flavors in Japan.
• The "Dim Dams" upgrade references the popular snack Tim Tams.
• The flavor text for Corn syrup cookies is likely a reference to the "Country girls make do" meme phrase.
• Christmas Santa Upgrades:
  • The flavor text for "A festive hat, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse, is a direct quotation from the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
  • The flavor text for "Reindeer baking grounds" is a reference to the book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray.
  • The flavor text for "Santa's legacy" is a reference to a quote from the movie Scarface: “In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women.”
  • The flavor text for "Santa's dominion" is a reference to the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
• Debug Upgrades:
  • The "Reindeer Season" flavor text Go, Cheater! Go, Hacker and Faker! is a reference the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" where santa calls his reindeer by name: And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:​​​​​​"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer and Vixen,'"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donner and Blitzen"
  • The "Magic Shenanigans" flavor text "It's magic, I ain't gotta explain sh*t." is a reference to the meme of the same name.
  • The " Turbo-charged soil" flavor text "It's got electrolytes!" is a reference to the movie "Idiocracy"
  • "Steamed cookies" that are "localized entirely within this gaming platform" are references to the Steamed Hams scene between Seymour Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers, in an episode of the Simpsons named: "22 Short Films About Springfield".
  • The flavor text of the debug upgrade "Ultrascience" ("YEAH, SCIENCE!") may be a reference to a quote said by Jesse Pinkman in a Breaking Bad episode titled "A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal."
• The upgrade "Forwards from grandma" is a reference to the subreddit r/forwardsfromgrandma.
• The upgrade "Great Baker in the sky" might be a reference to either the Pink Floyd song "The Great Gig in the Sky" or Mao Zedong's propaganda song "Red Sun in the sky"
• The icon for the upgrade "Plasmarble mouse" originally used a different color palette, before being changed to Alabascream: