Grandmapocalypse Guide

How to trigger the most infamous event in the game. Including all the details you'll need to get started on the Grandmapocalypse, Wrinklers and Wrath Cookies.

How to trigger

Step 1: Get the "Elder" Achievement

Grandmas are an unique type of building. They have 2 upgrades, normal upgrades that are unlocked by having a certain number of Grandmas (These have rolling pin icons and are not relevant), and synergy upgrades that are unlocked by having fifteen of other buildings (These have Grandma icons).

Example: Having 15 farms will unlock the "Farmer Grandmas" Upgrade.


Purchase 7 different types of Grandmas to obtain the Elder Achievement. The soonest you will be able to do this is with the "Cosmic Grandmas" unlocked by having 15 Shipments.

Step 2: Purchase the Bingo center/Research facility

Obtaining the "Elder" Achievement will unlock the Research Facility.


Purchase this upgrade, and it will begin unlocking new upgrades every 30 minutes or so.



Note that the Research Facility costs 1 Quadrillion Cookies, and will take a while to reach.

Step 3: Purchase the "One Mind" Research Upgrade

Start buying the Research Upgrades. Note that the next upgrade will only begin researching after the previous one has been bought.
1st - Specialized chocolate chips: Cookie production multiplier +1%.
2nd - Designer cocoa beans: Cookie production multiplier +2%.
3rd - Ritual rolling pins: Grandmas are twice as efficient.
4th - Underworld ovens: Cookie production multiplier +3%.

5th - One Mind:


Attempting to purchase this upgrade will result in the game giving you an ominous warning:


Click "Yes" to start the Grandmapocalypse.

Phase 1: Awoken

It has begun. Wrinklers will slowly spawn around the Big Cookie, and "Golden Cookies" have a chance to spawn as "Wrath Cookies". (For details check the "Wrinkler" and "Wrath Cookie" sections.)

Grandma is now off her meds with her brand new icon.


The blue striped background has also been replaced.


Continue with the Research and purchase "Communal brainsweep".
6th - Exotic nuts: Cookie production multiplier +4%.

7th - Communal brainsweep:

Phase 2: Displeased

The second stage of the Grandmapocalypse. Wrinklers will spawn faster and Wrath Cookies are now more common.

Grandma looks a bit upset now




Continue with the Research and purchase "Elder Pact".

8th - Arcane sugar: Cookie production multiplier +5%.

9th - Elder Pact:

Phase 3: Angered

The third and final stage of the Grandmapocalypse. Wrinklers will spawn even faster. All Golden Cookies now spawn as Wrath Cookies.

Granny has had enough and now reveals her true form




Clicking the Big Cookie after reaching Phase 3 will change the background music from "Click" to "Grandmapocalypse". The "Preclick" song that plays when you open the game will still remain.

Congratulations! You've doomed us all.

Phase ?: Appeased

Reaching Phase 3 on the Grandmapocalypse will unlock two new "upgrades". They will allow you to put a stop to Grandma's rage, for a price.

"Elder Pledge" lasts 30 Minutes. Its cost increases everytime you buy it.


Buying "Elder Pledge" 1 time will unlock "Elder Covenant"
"Elder Covenant" is permanent, but cuts 5% of your Cookies per Second. It can be Revoked.



Buying "Elder Pledge" 10 times will unlock one final Grandmatriarch upgrade.
This can be easily done by buying a Pledge, then buying a Covenant, Revoking it, then buying another Pledge (Declaring and Revoking a Covenant will reset the time you need to wait to buy another Pledge).
Do this enough times and get the last upgrade:
Sacrificial rolling pins: Elder pledges last twice as long.

It's recommended to only buy the Elder Covenant to unlock the achievement and final upgrade, then revoke it to avoid the 5% penalty.
If you've reached Phase 3 but now want to stop the Grandmapocalypse to farm Golden Cookies while avoiding the bad effects from Wrath Cookies, stick to Elder Pledges, their cost is relatively low.

Wrinklers

Wrinklers will spawn and surround the big cookie. You can pop them by clicking on them. They each take 5% of your Cookies per Second. With the maximum of 10 Wrinklers (12 with the Heavenly Upgrade) spawned, they will take 50-60% of your CpS.

Sounds pretty bad, you should pop them as soon as possible, right?
No. You should actually let them eat as much as possible. When Wrinklers are popped, they vomit out all the cookies they ate, plus a large bonus.

By letting the Wrinklers consume your CpS, you are effectively multiplying the amount of cookies you get by more than 5. Yes, they are extremely good. You should only pop your Wrinklers if you need the cookies to buy an upgrade.



Wrinklers also have a very small chance to spawn shiny. Popping one of these is a Shadow Achievement. Expect a few frustrating hours if you want to get this.

Wrath Cookies

Wrath Cookies can trigger any of the Golden Cookie Good effects (including upgrade exclusives like Dragonflight) but also have a roughly 50% chance of triggering one of three Bad Effects. They also add a very small chance of triggering one of two new Good Effects.

Wrath Cookie Exclusive Effects:

• Ruin!: Lose cookies. The opposite of Lucky!
  
• Clot: Halves CpS for 66 seconds. The opposite of Frenzy
  
• Building debuff: Cuts CpS by a certain amount for 30 seconds. This depends on the amount you own of a random building. The opposite of Building buffs.
  
• Cursed Finger: For 10 seconds, it turns CpS to 0, but every click grants you 10 seconds of your CpS. Similar to Click Frenzy.
  
• Elder frenzy: Boosts CpS by x666 for 6 seconds. One of the strongest effects in the game.

As you can see, Wrath Cookies can be a bit of a gamble. But the positive effects greatly counterweight the negative ones. Golden Cookies are generally still better, because losing so much CpS for long can hurt quite a bit.

If you're farming Golden Cookies, you should stop the Grandmapocalypse at Phase 1, since you can get Wrinkler benefits while also getting a pretty high chance of getting Golden Cookies. You should still get to Phase 3 on one of your first runs to get the Grandmapocalypse Achievements.

If you're an idler who doesn't care much about hunting for Golden Cookies, there is no reason not to go all the way to Phase 3.

Wrath Cookies still count towards your Golden Cookies Clicked, so don't worry about not making progress towards Golden Cookies Achievements.

Achievements

Achievements related to the Grandmapocalypse:

• Elder nap: Appease the grandmatriarchs at least once.
  
• Elder slumber: Appease the grandmatriarchs at least 5 times.
  
• Elder calm: Declare a covenant with the grandmatriarchs.
  
• Itchscratcher: Burst 1 wrinkler
  
• Wrinklesquisher: Burst 50 wrinklers.
  
• Moistburster: Burst 200 wrinklers.
  
• Last Chance to See (Shadow Achievement): Burst the near-extinct shiny wrinkler.

Other:

• Eldeer: Pop a reindeer during an elder frenzy. (Christmas Season only)

This is too scary :( I don't wanna play anymore

Ah yes, the classic "boohoo i just wanna play the cookie game why did it all get so creepyyyyy". The game is over 8 years old now, I'm sure many of us have been there.

Thankfully, the benevolent Orteil (he's the guy who makes this game btw) has added a new setting in the Steam version. Go to the "Options" menu and disable "Scary Stuff".

Now instead of wanting to kill you, Granny merely scowls at you for being a coward.

Y'know, in a way this is almost scarier.

Wrinklers will also get some big dumb googly eyes stapled onto their heads


Thankfully, disabling scary stuff will not disable the sick new grandmapocalypse theme.

[Kunovega]

Of course not.

[Samulellus]

I don’t think this is said in the guide, but does the grandmapocalypse persist through ascension?

[Kunovega]

The guide already answered your issue; I'll quote it again since you didn't read it:

"Wrath Cookies still count towards your Golden Cookies Clicked, so don't worry about not making progress towards Golden Cookies Achievements."

[Smudge]

Can someone help me? I'm trying to end the apocalypses so I can grind Golden Cookies, but when I end the apocalypses the game still gives me wrath cookies, can someone please help.

[Jk]

I know I'm an omegapussy for this, but the replaced grandma sprite spooked me more than any of the regular grandmapocalypse stuff lol. Guess it's just a familiarity thing

[MayAvali]

Another tip to take advantage of the "Clot" debuff is to use it when farming. The CPS reduction counts towards the garden, so seeds are effectively half off.

[celestialandromeda]

@maniacallycrying if you have the background changer heavenly upgrade then it isnt perma stuck

[maniacallycrying]

quick question, can you change the theme or is it permanently stuck?

[celestialandromeda]

after ascending does it stop the grandmapocalypse until you restart it again or is it like permanent after that?

[Kunovega]

@mihai maybe if you're a 3 year old.