Kittens Game features various mechanics.
Kittens Game uses a tick system. All events are queued and happen once per tick. Ticks match the refresh rate. Each second consists of 5 ticks; in other words, each tick lasts 200 ms. Each day consists of 10 ticks, meaning 1 day passes every 2 seconds. Each season consists of 100 days, from “day 0” to “day 99”, coming out to 1,000 ticks (200 seconds), or 3 minutes 20 seconds. Each 400 day year has 4,000 ticks (800 seconds), or 13 minutes 20 seconds.
| Unit of time | Ticks | Real Time |
|---|---|---|
| Day | 10 |
2 secs |
| Season | 1000 |
3 mins 20 secs |
| Year | 4000 |
13 mins 20 secs |
| Cycle | 20000 |
1 hr 6 mins 40 secs |
| Decade | 40000 |
2 hrs 13 mins 20 secs |
| Century | 400000 |
22 hrs 13 mins 20 secs |
| Millennium | 4000000 |
9 days 6 hrs 13 mins 20 secs |
Kittens Game has four seasons. Seasons affect catnip production from catnip fields, but do not affect production from farmers. Starting at Year 4 (with years starting at Year 0), seasons also have a chance to be warmer or colder than average, changing the modifier to your catnip production. There is a 35% chance that a season will be abnormal, with an equal chance of it being warm or cold (that is, a 17.5% chance of being warm, a 17.5% chance of being cold, and a 65% chance of being average).
| Season | Catnip Multiplier | ||
| Warm | Average | Cold | |
| Spring | +65% | +50% | +35% |
| Summer | +15% | +0% | -15% |
| Autumn | +15% | +0% | -15% |
| Winter | -60% | -75% | -90% |
Main article: Pollution
A high level of CO2 in the atmosphere negatively affects your kittens and harms resource production in several ways. Pollution can be mitigated with environmentally friendly energy sources and policies.
Effects are generally negligible up to ~1k ppm.
Kittens Game has ten cycles, each one lasting five years. The names of the cycles are based on the Space missions and are: Charon, Umbra, Yarn, Helios, Cath, Redmoon, Dune, Piscine, Terminus, and Kairo. They are accompanied by a symbol that appears to the left of the year. This glyph changes color to represent the number of the year within the current cycle: red for year 0, orange-yellow for year 1, green for year 2, blue for year 3, violet for year 4.
With Numerology researched, each cycle has a different effect on space production. Five cycles result in increased production of certain resources, while the other five mirror them with a decrease in production of those same resources. With Numeromancy researched, you get additional effects when holding festivals. These effects can be boosted with Breweries.
| Cycle | Glyph | Resource (With Numerology) | Effect | Festival Effect (With Numeromancy) |
| Charon | ⍙ | Lunar Outpost unobtainium output Entanglement Station gflops consumption |
-10% +100% |
Catnip, wood, and mineral income x1.5 |
| Umbra | ⍦ | Planet Cracker uranium output Hydraulic Fracturer oil output HR Harvester Energy Production |
-10% -25% +50% |
Coal, iron, titanium, and gold income x1.5 |
| Yarn | ⍧ | Hydroponics Catnip Production Research Vessel starchart production |
+100% -50% |
Culture income x2 |
| Helios | ⌒ | Sunlifter energy output Cryostation Storage |
+50% -10% |
Faith income x2, unicorn income x1.25 |
| Cath | ⌾ | Space Elevator transfered production bonus (for oil only) Satellite starchart production Satellite observatory’s science bonus Space Station science bonus Space Beacon starchart production |
+100% +100% +100% +50% -50% |
Catpower income x2 |
| Redmoon | ⍜ | Lunar Outpost unobtainium output Entanglement Station gflops consumption |
+20% -50% |
Unobtainium income x2 |
| Dune | ⍫ | Planet Cracker uranium output Hydraulic Fracturer oil output HR Harvester Energy Production |
+10% +50% -25% |
Uranium income x2 |
| Piscine | ⎈ | Hydroponics Catnip Production Research Vessel starchart production |
-50% +50% |
Science income x2 |
| T-minus | ⍝ | Sunlifter energy output Cryostation Storage |
-50% +20% |
Oil income x2 |
| Kairo | ℣ | Space Elevator transfered production bonus Satellite starchart production Satellite observatory’s science bonus Space Station science bonus Space Beacon starchart production |
-50% -25% -25% -25% +400% |
Starchart income x5 |
Upon researching Archery, your kittens can hunt for rare resources, including furs and ivory. Each hunt costs 100 catpower. Note that you don't actually have to have any kittens assigned as hunters in order to start a hunt; all you need is accumulated catpower.
Hunting is disabled in the Pacifism Challenge.
To determine the amount hunted, the game first obtains your civilization’s hunting bonus. Your Workshop upgrades increase this bonus, as follows:
| Upgrade | Bonus | Expected fur | Expected ivory |
|---|---|---|---|
| (No upgrades) | 0.0 |
39.50 |
10.78 |
| Bolas | +1.0 |
71.50 |
20.24 |
| Hunting Armour | +2.0 |
136.50 |
42.00 |
| Steel Armour | +0.5 |
~153.25 |
47.94 |
| Alloy Armour | +0.5 |
69.00 |
54.08 |
| Nanosuits | +0.5 |
~185.75 |
60.42 |
These bonuses are additive, i.e., researching Bolas, Hunting Armour, and Steel Armour would give you a total hunting bonus of 3.5. Expected values are given with the assumption that upgrades above it have already been taken.
Furs: Hunting will always yield furs. The game generates and sums two random integers: one from 0 to 79 and one from 0 to (65 * hunting bonus - 1), inclusive. For example, with Bolas and Hunting Armour (giving a total hunting bonus of 3), a random integer from 0 to 79 and a random integer from 0 to 194, inclusive, are generated, and the results summed. If the hunting bonus equals 0, the second integer always equals zero.
Ivory: Each hunt only has a (44 + 2 * hunting bonus)% chance to yield ivory. The game generates and sums two random integers: one from 0 to 49 and one from 0 to (40 * hunting bonus - 1), inclusive. If the hunting bonus equals 0, the second integer always equals zero.
Unicorns: Each hunt has a 5% chance of giving one unicorn.
Gold: In Iron Will mode, each hunt has a 25% chance of yielding gold (after you have researched Gold Ore. Two random integers determine the amount of gold acquired: one from 0 to 5 and one from 0 to (5 * hunting bonus - 1), inclusive. If the hunting bonus equals 0, the second integer always equals zero.
Bloodstone: If you have at least 10 Zebras in Iron Will mode, each hunt has a 0.05% chance of yielding a bloodstone. This chance increases to 5% if you do not already have bloodstone.
Note: Because of the way the game generates these random numbers, the probability distribution for the second random integer for furs and gold is nonuniform if the total hunting bonus is non-integral. In this case, the upper bound for the second random integer is non-integral, which results in it being possible to generate the next highest integer as well, but with half the chance of being generated as all the other integers. For example, if one has a hunting bonus of 3.5, the second integer generated for furs ranges from 0 to 226.5, meaning it can be any value from 0 to 227, inclusive, but 227 has half the chance of being generated as any single integer 0 to 226, inclusive. Put another way, each integer from 0 to 226, inclusive, has a 2/453 chance of being generated, and 227 has a 1/453 chance of being generated.
After building your first Library, every day offers a 0.25% chance that an astronomical event will occur. Each Observatory you build increases this chance by an additive 0.2%; e.g., with 20 observatories, the chance becomes 4.25% per day.
Events last for 30 days. If you click the Observe within the time limit, you will receive science, and, upon researching Astronomy, a starchart. If not, the event may still automatically succeed with a chance of 1% per Observatory (flat 25% chance in Iron Will mode).
Astronomical events may still occur while previous ones are pending. This will immediately time out the previous event, triggering the check against the automatic success rate.
Upon acquiring the SETI Workshop upgrade, all astronomical events succeed automatically and silently.
Astronomical events give (25 + Celestial Bonus) * (1 + Science Bonus) Science. Celestial bonus equals 5 once you research it, or 15 in Iron Will mode.
The following carry over on reset:
The following conditionally carry over on reset:
You always lose the following on reset:
You gain the following on reset:
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