Getting Started

Your first 10 minutes in CyberIdle. Build your first production chain and start generating resources.

Key Concepts

Production Cycles

Buildings produce resources every 1 second (one cycle). Operating costs like credits and energy are also deducted each cycle. The numbers you see for costs and outputs are "per cycle" - essentially per second.

The Four Constraints

Your empire is limited by four resources shown in the top bar:

  • Credits — Money for building and operating
  • Computation — Processing power for complex operations
  • Energy — Power to run your buildings
  • Intelligence — Unlocked later for advanced automation

Building & Inspecting

Click an empty hex to open the building menu and place a new structure. Click an existing building to see its info panel with production rates, costs, and options.

Automation Toggle

Each building has an automation setting in its info panel. When enabled, the building runs automatically. Disable automation to pause a building if you need to conserve energy or credits temporarily.

Step 1: Place Your First Extractors

You start with 50 credits, 20 computation, and 50 energy. Your first buildings should be extractors—they cost nothing to build and require only small operating costs.

Recommended First Buildings (No Build Cost)

Tip: Cell Collector is especially valuable early—it costs no energy to run AND grants +10 energy when built, helping you sustain more buildings.

Step 2: Process Raw Materials

Raw e-waste isn't very useful on its own. Once you have 10 Rubble, build a Scrap Smelter to convert e-waste into scrap alloy—a more valuable processed material.

First Processing Buildings

E-Waste Dump → E-Waste → Scrap Smelter → Scrap Alloy

Step 3: Sell for Credits

Early on, you need credits to build more infrastructure. Once you have 20 Rubble and 10 Scrap Alloy, build a Street Market—it grants +20 credits/cycle.

Market Building

The Bootstrap Problem: You need money to build, but you need buildings to earn money. Extractors and markets solve this by giving you a starting income loop.

Step 4: Scale Up

Once credits start flowing, add more extractors and processors. Watch your production rates. If your smelter is waiting for e-waste, add another dump. If e-waste is piling up, add another smelter.

The key insight: Balance your chain. The slowest step limits everything else.

Step 5: Expand Your Chains

With stable income, build more complex production chains. Circuit scrap can be processed into conductive film, which combines with other materials to make data cables, which are needed for logic boards...

Each new resource unlocks new buildings and possibilities. The complexity grows naturally as you solve each new puzzle.

First 10 Minutes Checklist

What If Things Go Wrong?

Energy Keeps Going Negative

You have too many buildings for your energy supply. Build more Cell Collectors (each grants +10 energy) or pause some buildings by clicking them and reducing their priority.

Credits Keep Draining

Your operating costs exceed your income. Build a Street Market for passive credits, or reduce the number of active buildings. Every building has a credits cost per cycle.

Building Won't Produce

Check the building's input requirements—it's waiting for resources. For example, a Scrap Smelter needs both E-Waste AND Power Cells. Build extractors for the missing inputs.

Resources Piling Up

Good problem to have! Build more processing buildings to use those resources, or build additional markets to convert them to credits.

Early Game Milestones

Here's what a healthy progression looks like in your first few hours:

First 10 Minutes

  • 3-4 extractors running
  • First processing building placed
  • Street Market generating income
  • Positive credit flow (income > costs)

First Hour

  • Multiple production chains active
  • 10+ buildings placed
  • All four raw materials being extracted
  • Producing components (Data Cables, Logic Boards)
  • 50+ credits/cycle income

First Few Hours

  • Complex multi-step chains completed
  • Building upgrades unlocked
  • First research projects started
  • Approaching Tier 2 resources
  • Comfortable stepping away (offline progress!)
Remember: CyberIdle is designed for both active play and idle progress. Once your chains are stable, you can step away and return to meaningful progress. Active play is roughly 3-5x more efficient, but idle gains are never trivial.

What's Next?