7 Free Games Where You Win By Clicking

A quiet, gentle new genre is creeping toward your computer and all you have to do is click. And click. And click. And there is the surmise of the entire incremental genre, or clicker. Many see them as time wasters, with little stimulation to keep entertaining, but others find the steady accumulation of numbers addictive.

What is an Incremental Game?

The objective of most incremental games is to advance through the given scenario, be that an RPG setting, an oil company, or a bakery, by building resources related to your clicks. The games are extremely open ended, often offering a reset feature to gain additional knowledge, investors, or resources based on accumulative experience for the next replay. After a while some incremental games require little input, essentially rending their gameplay idle. This has given incremental games a sub-genre using the moniker, idle game.

Clicker Heroes

“Ever wondered what one quadrillion damage per second feels like?” asks the Clicker Heroes Steam entry. I hadn’t, but I’m glad I have some way to finding out. Similarly, reviewer internisus believes Clicker Heroes to be “a horrifying examination of human psychological weakness.” I can also agree with this.

You begin with a minimal load out, with only one hero, delivering tiny amounts of damage. Each time you click a monster, you deliver damage, each monster that dies delivers gold. As you accumulate gold, you can level up a stable of Heroes, unlocking powerful, prolonged attacks. I played for 7 hours and racked up 3,679BN DPS, with 91,976 Click Damage, 1,478T gold, dispatching 18,289 monsters in the process. Sounds impressive, right? Any hardened Clicker Heroes player will definitely tell you I’m at the beginning of my journey.

Progress Quest

This is another older game with an excellent RPG element. Your goal is to build a ninety-pound teenage into a fearsome warrior. My class was Fighter/Organist, identifying as with the ancient tribe of the Enchanted Motorcycle.

Progress Quest is more of an idle game: past the first few clicks, the game largely plays out without your input. You can play in your browser, or download the original client, and watch the story unfold.

AdVenture Capitalist

AdVenture Capitalist is financial management incremental game, with a focus on building a successful business empire. You click through Lemonade Stands, Pizza Deliveries, all the way to Banks. Time and profit boosts are delivered at different levels, pushing further into the game. Similarly, you can hire managers to keep your empire ticking over whilst you are away, as well as additional multipliers you can purchase with your profits.

By the time you’ve unlocked each manager, the game becomes idle, your only required input deciding which upgrade to splurge your outrageous bank balance on. I’ve only played this on Steam for half an hour, but have played the Android version for far too long. Both offer the same steady build, the same ridiculously large numbers, and the same end game of retirement. AdVenture Capitalist keeps you coming back, mindlessly, for more.

Autoclickers

If you’re really, really serious about nailing a high score/conquering the world/building an empire, you might want to investigate autoclicker software. Most mouse auto clicker allow you to assign left, middle, and right mouse buttons at individual intervals, set pauses between clicks, and set a stop time for a specific amount of clicks.

However, some incremental games will limit the number of ‘manual’ clicks per second (CPS) to negate the effects of an autoclicker. For instance, Cookie Clicker limits manual clicking to around 250CPS, even if your autoclicker and computer are able to handle more.

Final words

Incremental games are seemingly here to stay. Their absolute minimal commitment level makes them appealing to the casual gamer, whilst others enjoying the chase of monumental scores, accompanied by equally mesmerizing and occasionally hard-to-pronounce numbers.

There are also a massive range of incremental games available for Android, and iOS, and you can find many of those games on this massive list. You’re sure to find something to destroy your mouse with!

Are you an incremental addict? Or are these games just a waste of time? Have you made an incremental? Let us know below!