Beginner's Guide to Cookie Run (LINE)


 * Last updated: April 8, 2015

Oh hello there! I see you've just downloaded Cookie Run to your device!

Let me tell you something. Cookie Run is not just a game you can casually play. It will take a very long time and a solid determination to dominate you from the rest of the players! Everyone starts from the beginning like you too, and it took quite some time to rank up. Since you're new here, let's get started. You may want to read the article Cookie Run first before delving into the game much further.

What is Cookie Run?

 * If you already know about this, then you can just skip to the next section.

Cookie Run is a platformer game made by Devsisters in Korea. Released January 23, 2014, it was once the most played LINE game around the world (Especially in Asian countries like Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia) before being replaced by another LINE game. Speaking of LINE, Cookie Run is a social game made specifically for LINE, a social chatting platform from Japan. It functions similar to Facebook, which allows the game to identify which of your friends is also playing, and puts them into the leaderboard. This game depends heavily on friends, so it's a good thing to add people here.

Besides LINE, Cookie Run also has its version in KakaoTalk, which is limited to Korea only. There, the game is much more advanced and updated, measuring up to 5 months more advanced than our version in LINE, so don't be surprised that players can get contents that hasn't even come to the game yet. It's most probably the Kakao version of the game. For now, we'll focus on the LINE version, which is why you and I are here.

You'll also need to know that Cookie Run has went several major changes from Season 1 to Season 4 (current). Each time a season changes, all of the strategies needs to be revamped, as one can render the older ones obsolete. It also raises the standard of the score. Each of the new releases made by the devs may be possible for users to break the highest record possible. For example, when Vampire Cookie comes out on Season 3, the highest record set raised from 60 million to 75 million.

There are three things that affects gameplay.

Cookies

Cookies are the character that you are going to play. Their ability can be ranked from C to S. Just focus on S and L-rank cookies. Don't bother looking at the others, well, except Buttercream Choco Cookie.

Pets

Pets are the creature that accompany you during your run. Aww, How cute! Their ability can also be ranked from C to S. Again, just focus on the S-rank pet, and forget the rest. To get them, you'll need 20 crystals to get just ONE S-rank pet. What? Too expensive? We'll tell you how to get easy crystals for you later in this section.

Treasures

Now this is the main attraction of the game. Treasures are the three tools that you can equip during your run. Although its effects are not too huge, this could be a game changer. At first, you can only have one slot of treasure, but as time goes by, more can be unlocked.

Their ability, as usual, can be ranked from C to S. Just focus on the S-ranked treasure to help you run your best. There are also Power+ treasures that can help you gain items everyday. Sweet, right?

Treasures are the place for you to spend majority of your crystals in.

There are also two currencies that will affect you as you develop your account, so pay attention.

Coins

Coins are the main currency of the game. You can use coins to spend on upgrades like upgrading Cookies, Health, Jellies, Pets, and Treasures. You can also use them to buy boosts like Double XP, Cookie Relay, and even Random Boost, which we will discuss later too in the guide. You can easily collect them in-game and in rewards.

Crystals

Now this is the valuable currency in the game. Like all freemium games, Crystals are the currency that you can't get in-game easily. The only way to get it is by logging in everyday and completing events. We will discuss in generating more crystals again later in this guide. With our guide, you can get at least 20 crystals per day! Feeling excited? Hope you do!

There are also lots of other stuff like Magic Powder, but let's discuss it on another day.

Now let's get to the cash-free guide to dominate Cookie Run!

Chapter 1: Help! I'm new! What to do?
Hey! I see you just got yourself a new account, played the tutorial, and you are ready to roll! At the very beginning you will see you have 10,000 and  1 only. Doesn't sound much right? Here's what you should first do:

Redeem the Secret Code

The very, VERY first thing to do for you is to redeem the code first. It is located in the Settings > Coupons. You will be redirected to your browser and just enter the secret code. What's the secret code? You can see it all here.

Congrats! By now, you should have collected 321! That is pretty huge! But it is not over yet! Don't use it first though. We will tell you what to spend later.

Add as many friends!
 * Main article: Add me - Spring Edition

Leaderboards feeling empty? Worry not! You can add as many people here in our forum for you to compete on scores. You can also leave your LINE ID too in the forum.

In addition to all of the LINE ID in the forum, you should add people who NEVER played Cookie Run before. Add up to 50 people, as they will be useful in the next two step.

Send them lives!

Now your leaderboard is filled with people! Congrats! That's your target objective to beat later on! For now, let's send them lives so that they can send lives back to you. It's ok. They are very dedicated people too, and they will gladly accept lives for you so you don't need to feel bothersome to send them. You can send them lives by tapping the mail icon on the right of each player on the leaderboard in the main lobby. Be sure to send all!

Invite Friends

Above your Cookies and Pet in the main lobby there is a button called "Invite Event". Click that, and invite as many friends as you can, providing that you have already add them and they have never played before. You will receive a lot of stuff, including a Free Extra Rare Egg (that usually costs you 20, free Zombie Cookie, free Gold Drop pet, a free and powerful Muay Thai Cookie, and you will get another  100!

Your Crystal Count should be 421! Wow! Even veterans wished to have that many crystals too. Once you had enough crystals, let's spend it!

Buy Cheesecake Cookie

Now, she is the cookie that you should first buy. Why, you ask? It's because she is the coin-maker for you to farm the way to the game. Before Cheesecake, players found it hard to farm coins. You don't want to wait for the cookie to unlock first, as she will take a very long time to unlock for beginners (by owning 24 pets, while you only have 1).

Buy Angel Cookie

Angel Cookie is also a very important cookie, especially for beginners. Not because of her ability to attract items in game, but the main focus here is her treasure, Angel Cookie's Holy Feather, which can attract items in game using other cookie as well! This is by far the most popular treasure for everyone, from beginners to veterans alike. That treasure is also a huge game changer in score, allowing you to compete on higher scoring folks.

The objective here is to upgrade Angel Cookie to level 8, but you don't have the coins yet to upgrade her.

Play a game

Just play a game using any cookie that you have bought. While familiarizing with the game, your objective here is to get 180,000 points, which is fairly easy. Once you completed a game, you should have unlocked several cookies to be purchased through coins. Now you can move to the next step.

Buy Buttercream Choco Cookie

He will multiply the amount of coins for you to farm coins later on. The objective here is not to instantly give you setups to generate the most points, but let's start with the basics. You will need coins to purchase stronger cookies, so we focus first on coin generating setup. You can easily buy him for 13,500, which I'm pretty sure you have that much coins as of right now.

Let's start farming coins!

Now, let's start with what we have! Now what is a relay? A relay cookie is a cookie that will help you continue the run when the main cookie went down. You can select the relay on the Cookie select screen on the upper left corner. You can purchase this for 3,000 (One time use). Since Buttercream Choco Cookie will grant back 25% of the coins collected in game, it was worth the investment.

Now, on the bottom right side of the set-up page, there is an item that lets you roll for a Random Boost. A random boost is an extra ability for you to play during that run. It functions only once per run, and it's a wager. Initially, you can purchase a random boost for 1,200, but if you don't want the boost, you can re-buy and exchange the boost for  600. Re-buy until you get Double Coins at hand.

Once you're set, click play, and play away. Play on Episode 1. Don't go anywhere yet!

You're playing first as Cheesecake Cookie. Without the upgrades, you will need to collect 23 flying invitation jellies that floats around the screen to trigger her ability. Once it is triggered, though, a firework of coins will fall upon you! Wow! Collect as much as you can! Focus on the gold coins, as they are worth 10 silver coins! Once the firework died out, you should collect another 23 invitation jellies, and repeat the cycle.

Also don't forget. Gold Drop's coin is worth 100 coins, so don't ever miss that coin!

At the end, the energy runs out, and you will have to summon your relay cookie, the Buttercream Choco Cookie. He has no in-game ability, unlike Cheesecake Cookie, but you should collect more coins in front of you. The Power+ effect of Cheesecake Cookie may help gain additional coins along the way. Avoid falling too, as it will instantly decrease the cookie's energy to 0.

Once you're done, you'll see your score, coins, and XP. Don't bother about your score. What you should focus is the coins. These are your ticket to purchase stronger cookies thereafter and dominate the game, so be patient.

From here on, there are several things that you can upgrade to make your cookie generate more coins. Oh, but before that, here's the thing you should remember everyday.

Receive Lives from Friends Have you done what I told you to send them lives? Chances are, they are sending them back to you already! Be sure to check out regularly on the bottom right of the leaderboard. You will see a mail icon with a heart that tells you how many lives you can claim. Click there and click "Send and Receive All" at the top of the page. You will then be sending lives back to them and receive yours. See how this works? It started off a chain reaction, where you can get more hearts from them later on in the game! Just make sure don't do it frequently, as you are only able to send them 1 lives every hour per person. Leave it be, and check it out again in 1 hour or 1 day.

Open your Gifts Lucky Draw
 * ''Main Article: Gift Points

Gift Points are another way to reward you for playing, by spending your coins, by sending lives, invites, et cetera. For every 100 Gift Points, you will get a chance to open one of the five presents offered. You can start by tapping the gift progress bar in the bottom of the leaderboard. Select Gifts Lucky Draw, pick one present, and you will get your reward. From your invites and sending lives, you can get TONS of Gift Points for you to collect and open some more Gifts Lucky Draw. You can receive rewards from just coins to free pets and cookies! Be sure to check back once you collected enough points to open up again!

Just remember that statistically, every 100 Gifts Lucky Draws, it is estimated that you can get 200,000, so it's a pretty good short cut to gain additional coins!

Chapter 2: Increasing your Coin Value per play!
You're set to generate coins, but oh no, you can only generate that much coins, do you? Wish you can collect more? Now here's some of the things you should spend those coins you get to. You can do it in any order, but you should read what's the function of each, and you can choose by your own which should you do first.

Remember that you will need extensive time to farm those coins. It's for your good to run faster

Upgrade Buttercream Choco Cookie to Lv8

Your relay Cookie starts with 5% Coin bonus. That's not a huge multiplier though. We can increase this somehow by upgrading him. You should first focus on him, since his upgrade cost is relatively low, compared with Angel Cookie and Cheesecake Cookie. Once you've upgraded him to his maximum level, you'll receive a free treasure, Buttercream Choco Cookie's Butter. Hey! Extra 3% Coin! You should equip this instantly before replacing it with Gold Drop's treasure.

Upgrade your health!

Health allows you to run further, making the cookie last longer in game. There are 60 levels offered for you to use, and you're starting at level 1. Upgrade as necessary. I would advise you to upgrade until you can reach the final stage of episode 1. You will know you've reached the final stage when you hear the theme song change. In addition, you will unlock the second stage, the Primeval Jungle! Congrats! From there, you should spend your coins on other places. It's your call, but you can upgrade your energy to Lv60 if you like. It's a long-term investment after all.

Upgrade your Bonus Time!

Bonus Time is also a great way to get additional coins. Upgrading it will make your Bonus Time journey longer. There are 60 levels, but you should upgrade it to level 30, as upgrades above level 30 is just increasing the score multiplier in Bonus Time. You don't need that for now.

You should not upgrade your jelly unless you're bored with the blue small bean and wanted a different color or shape. I wouldn't advise you to upgrade above level 20 for now.

Upgrade Angel Cookie to Lv8

Again, we know what our objective here is. We wanted the treasure, Angel Cookie's Holy Feather, which you can use it for your Cheesecake Cookie to attract more coins during her firework. It will also be used later in your scoring later on, so keep this intact!

This is the most time-consuming upgrade between all the rest of the guide, as you are going to upgrade a S-rank TREASURE, which is notorious for the chance of failure in upgrading. You can go to the treasure page, and select "Upgrade Treasure" in the middle. There, pick the Holy Feather, and upgrade away. Don't use your crystal AT ALL for this upgrade, even if you failed to upgrade it. The first three upgrades will guarantee you 100% chance of upgrade, but once you start to upgrade it to +4, you will experience failure in upgrades. You will lose your coins earned and have to retry. You are only awarded 40 in exchange, but that doesn't really count that much. Keep upgrading until you reached at least +6. If you're feeling lucky, you can just straight away upgrade it to +9, but do not, I repeat, do NOT use your crystal to upgrade, even though it gives you 100% chance of upgrading. Just keep the crystal for yourself for now. At the end, once you reached enough diameter for the magnet pull to pull coins to your cookie, you will get much more coins per run. I promise.
 * Upgrade your Angel Cookie's Holy Feather to at least +6

Upgrade Cheesecake Cookie to Lv8

Upgrading her will reduce the invitation jellies needed to trigger the firework. 23 and 16 is pretty damn important, as you can trigger up to x1.5 faster than Cheesecake on Lv1. In addition, you can get her treasure, Cheesecake Cookie's Piece of Cake, which is much more superior than Buttercream's treasure. You can either replace the treasure, or you can buy another cheap cookie (such as Bright Cookie) to unlock the second slot for your treasure. Equipping two will give you an extra 9% Coin Bonus in addition to the Double Coin and Buttercream's coin bonus!

Upgrade Gold Drop to Lv8

Your pet will generate 100 coins every set interval. Upgrading Gold Drop will decrease the time needed for Gold Drop to generate the next 100 coins. Fully upgrading him will grant you another treasure, the Gold Drop's Pure Gold Bar. This is definitely a much better version of Buttercream Choco's treasure. You should equip this, but if you have Cheesecake's treasure, you may want that treasure more than this one.

So at the end, you will get what you want, with two treasure slot open, your set-up should be either one of these:

It's either Angel Cookie's Holy Feather or Gold Drop's Pure Gold Bar. Or if you're ambitious enough and reached Level 25 and unlocked the third slot, you can just use them both, and get tons of coins!

If you've achieved this setup, then you're good to go! Your hard work has paid off, and in case you need additional coins, you can just return to this setup. You can save this combination in your "Original Combi", located in the Cookies, Pets, or Treasure page.

Summing it up: Upgrade your Health to Max (And progressively your Jelly and Bonus Time upgrades) Now you've got your coin-generating setup ready, you can use it to grab as much coins as you can and upgrade your health to Lv60. This will ensure longetivity of your run, enabling you to get some high scores in the future! Clearly, the most important variable in the game is your health, so be sure to fully upgrade it.

From here on you are ready to enter the third chapter. During your progress on Chapter 3 later, you can start upgrading your Jelly Upgrades and continue the upgrades on your Bonus Time. If you can't do it fast, don't rush. You can take it slow, or take it fast. All in all it's your call, but we won't be able to achieve a very good score until you finished the third chapter.

I suggest you upgrade your Jelly Upgrades to Level 20 for now, as the upgrades beyond it is quite incrementally expensive.

Now let's get to the fun part!