Cookie Clicker is a game of exponential growth, where small decisions early on can have massive effects later. Here are the best tips and strategies, categorized by game stage:

1. Early Game (First Few Days/Weeks)
The goal here is to quickly transition from manual clicking to automatic production (Cookies per Second, or CpS).

Click to Start: Manually click the Big Cookie until you have enough cookies to buy your first Cursor.

Prioritize Buildings & Upgrades:

Buy Buildings: Purchase buildings (Cursor, Grandma, Farm, etc.) to rapidly increase your CpS. A good rule of thumb is to buy a few of each building type to unlock initial upgrades.

Buy Upgrades: Always check and buy upgrades that appear above your building store. Early upgrades, especially for Cursors and Grandmas, are extremely cost-effective for boosting CpS.

Golden Cookies (GCs): These are crucial!

They appear randomly; click them immediately for powerful temporary effects like Frenzy (7x CpS) or Click Frenzy (777x Click Power).

Enable the Golden Cookie Sound (in settings) so you don't miss them while the game is running in the background.

2. Mid to Late Game (Unlocking Minigames and Ascension)
Once you're into trillions or quadrillions of cookies, focus shifts to combos and permanent bonuses.

Use Sugar Lumps Wisely: Sugar Lumps (which generate over time) are used to level up buildings and unlock Minigames. Prioritize:

Wizard Towers (Grimoire): Unlocks the "Force the Hand of Fate" spell, which is essential for combos (see below).

Temples (Pantheon): Unlocks God-equipped slots for passive bonuses.

Farms (Garden): Unlocks the Garden minigame for powerful plant-based buffs.

Golden Cookie Combos (The Fastest Way to Progress):

The ultimate strategy is to stack multiple positive Golden Cookie effects.

A classic combo is a Frenzy (x7) combined with a Click Frenzy (x777). When both are active, your manual clicking can yield years' worth of cookies in seconds.

Use the "Force the Hand of Fate" spell to summon a Golden Cookie when you already have a powerful buff (like Frenzy) active, hoping for a Click Frenzy to stack them.

Wrinklers (Grandmapocalypse):

When the Grandmapocalypse is active, Wrinklers will appear and circle the Big Cookie. They reduce your current CpS, but they suck up cookies and multiply them.

Let them feast! Wait until you have 10 Wrinklers, and then pop them (by clicking them three times) for a huge cookie payout (they return all the cookies they "ate" plus a significant bonus).

3. Endgame (Ascension and Heavenly Upgrades)
Ascension is the game's prestige mechanic, where you reset your progress for permanent, massive bonuses.

Ascend Strategically:

Ascending grants you Prestige Levels and Heavenly Chips based on your total cookies baked.

Each Prestige Level provides a permanent +1% bonus to your CpS in all future playthroughs.

Your first ascension should generally happen when you have around 350-450 Prestige Levels (this requires baking around 8-27 quintillion cookies total).

Buy Heavenly Upgrades: Spend your Heavenly Chips on Heavenly Upgrades to make your next run significantly faster. Essential early upgrades include:

Legacy: Unlocks the Prestige system.

Heavenly Chips/Cookies: Boosts your CpS based on your chips.

Permanent Upgrade Slots: Lets you carry one non-prestige upgrade across ascensions.

Golden Cookie Alert Sound: An absolute must-have quality of life upgrade.

Achievements & Milk: Unlock achievements! Achievements grant you Milk, and certain upgrades (like Kittens) will give you a significant CpS bonus based on your total Milk percentage.