AutoClickers are Third-Party Scripts which automate the playing of the Kittens Game to a greater or lesser degree. They run concurrently with the game, examine the state of the game, and then click on various buttons without user input. This makes idling the game (e.g. leaving it running overnight) far more effective than the designer intended and thus their usage is considered to be cheating by some players. If you are using an AutoClicker, you should mention this if requesting assistance on Reddit or other places, both because it alters the game balance and because AutoClickers can cause what appear to be bugs in the base game.
There are certain buildings and technologies in the game that are designed to make idling more effective for users that are not using AutoClickers — thus, using an AutoClicker impacts the value of these items. These include:
- Order of the Void: This Metaphysics technology is intended to be used by non-AutoClickers to improve their Apocrypha bonus while idling. Using an AutoClicker that supports "auto-praising" (automatically clicking on "Praise the Sun" in the "Religion" tab when faith is near the maximum) will result in the Apocrypha bonus increasing far faster than intended.
- Steamworks: This building is initially meant to be used by non-AutoClickers to produce some residual craftable goods when resources are at their maximum level. Using an AutoClicker that supports "auto-crafting" (automatically crafting goods when resources approach their caps) obliterates this use (and is far, far more effective) at producing resources. Later, however, the Magneto building will benefit from having multiple Steamworks both built and turned on, even for the AutoClicker, though this is not required and there is a substantial penalty in coal use.
- Mint: This building is meant to allow non-AutoClicker users to produce some luxury goods (furs and ivory) while idling. Using an AutoClicker that supports "auto-hunting" is a more efficient way to produce these same goods in the early game, although they become more effective than hunting once your maximum catpower goes above around 13 thousand.
- SETI: This workshop upgrade is meant to allow non-AutoClicker users to eliminate the need to worry about observing astronomical events in the mid and late game. Using an AutoClicker that supports "auto-observation" ensures that all astronomical events are observed whether this upgrade is built or not, and is therefore (technically) irrelevant. Note, however, by the time that this upgrade becomes available, the number of astronomical event messages in the log is likely high enough that simply removing the "spam" of these messages is worthwhile... :)
- Trade with the Leviathans: There is only a 3.5% chance per Black Pyramid per year for the Leviathans to be available for trading, and they only remain for a year (unless the user takes actions). Using an AutoClicker guarantees that a trade(s) will occur at each possible opportunity. Since Leviathans trades are highly likely to produce a time crystal, this represents a significant advantage for the AutoClicker.
When an AutoClicker is configured to automatically craft goods, most craftable goods (especially goods that require other craftable goods as inputs) are far easier to obtain than the designer intended. This is most notable in regards to:
- Compendium: Compendiums are hard to craft due to two separate bottlenecks: parchment → manuscript (requires culture) and manuscript → compendium (requires science). Without an AutoClicker, a user can accumulate an unlimited number of furs and easily convert them all to parchment with a single click, but the next step is limited by the culture cap — the number of manuscripts that you can craft in one operation is limited by the maximum amount of culture that you can hold at one time. The same is true when converting manuscripts to compendiums (but with science as the limiting input). With an AutoClicker, though, these caps are largely irrelevant (unless they are absurdly low), and since compendium's direct impact is to increase the science cap, the net effect of this is to make buildings which are capped by science much easier to build than intended (specifically, Deploy Space Station, which allows the AutoClicker user to get far more population in less real world time than is intended)
- Blueprint: Same as the previous point — just another step (with another science cap). This makes it much easier to construct large number of buildings that are normally capped by blueprints (most notably, Ziggurat, which makes it far easier for the AutoClicker to get alicorns, sorrow, and time crystals than is intended)
- Eludium: Requires 2500 alloy (which requires steel, which in turn requires titanium, which has the third lowest cap in the game) and 1000 unobtainium (which has the lowest resource cap in the game and is by far the hardest to produce of the "basic" resources) as inputs to produce one Eludium as output. Without an AutoClicker, building even limited quantities of this good is difficult in the extreme — with an AutoClicker, it is simply a matter of leaving the game running in background for a couple of days. This effects a large portion of the late game, as eludium is used in a few Space building or their upgrades, which can ultimately increase unobtainium production by upwards of 350%.
A list of some currently available AutoClickers:
- Kitten Scientists: https://github.com/cameroncondry/cbc-kitten-scientists
- Can automate just about the entire game — building buildings, crafting resources, researching technology, researching workshop upgrades, building religious structures, assigning kittens to jobs, feeding necrocorns to leviathans, up to and including resetting the timeline. Has a robust UI to turn on and off automation functionality.
- KGAutoPlay: https://github.com/dandcvs/KGAutoPlay
- Fully automated script, automatically play the game for you from beginning to end. It was originally a modification of ScriptKitties.
- Bio's AutoPlay: https://github.com/Bioniclegenius/Bio-s-AutoPlay
- Can automate large amounts of the game, including resource crafting, building construction, space buildings, science upgrades, and workshop upgrades. Requires knowledge of JavaScript to modify goals.
- Linear Kittens: https://github.com/dwhalen/linearKittens
- Will automatically play the game for you from beginning to end. Requires knowledge of JavaScript to reconfigure. Very, very slow (will result in script timeout warnings) after the midgame.
- Bugged when it tried crafting blueprints without requisite technology. Workaround is "scienceResourceCap = 0.9;" in the console.
- Doesn't clearly explain the current step in its plan.
- ScriptKitties: https://github.com/MaPaul1977/KittensGame
- Options to automate building, some crafting, hunting, trade, praising, researching science, buying upgrades in workshop, holding festivals and manage energy.
- ScriptKitties extended: https://github.com/JonathanBeverley/KittensGame
- As above, with a UI overhaul, automation for assigning kittens, exploring, embassies, unicorns, religion, shattering, and more.
- Support for BU branch is limited, and the "scripts" are mostly broken.
- AutoKittens: http://birdiesoft.dk/autokittens.php
- Options for auto-observing, auto-crafting, auto-hunting, auto-trading, and auto-praising. All building and upgrading is manual.