Cookie Run: Kingdom’s Sudden Popularity Explained

The first time I saw my little gingerbread man run for his life, with his legs even smaller, the image stuck in my brain. I couldn’t stop thinking about Cookie: Execution realm. Created by Devsisters, the mobile game has become a huge hit – right now the number one game in the role-playing section of the Apple app store, and it also has a thriving community of fanatic artists. A spinoff of the larger Cookie Run franchise, the latest version in the series combines the classic city-building game with a platformer that has real-time combat elements.

If it seems like a lot, it’s because it is. There is actually a lot going on in this not-so-little free mobile gacha game. Players design and build a city and play through levels, collecting rewards that can be spent to roll and try their luck to unlock new characters. Released in January 2021, the game has built a massive audience and even features classic Sega characters like Sonic and Tails in the game.

Cookie: Execution realm is best known for its lovable (and sometimes sexy) cast, all of which are, you guessed it, cookies! There are alcohol-inspired cookies, red velvet-inspired cookies, even an avocado one. The game mixes the absurd with cuteness to create something totally unique.

What is Cookie Run: Kingdom?

On Cookie Run: Kingdom You do two main things: run and build a kingdom. Although the game draws characters from previous entries in the franchise, you don’t have to play the other games to know what’s going on. When you enter the game, you will see a lovely gingerbread town full of unlocked cookie buildings and characters. While in town, you can build attractions and amenities for your cookies, such as houses, cafes, gardens. From there, you can enter a hub where you select levels for the “running” part of the game that consists of platforms and battles.

Image: Devsisters via Polygon

Portions of levels in Cookie Run: Kingdom they work much like the popular mobile game, Temple run. Press buttons to jump and slide, avoiding obstacles as your cookies advance automatically. While platforming elements are limited, most of your time playing levels will consist of battling various dessert-themed enemies in real-time combat, with your team of cookies. Throughout the game, you will unlock cookies with different roles such as attacks, defenders, and healers. It’s up to you to build a well-balanced team that can take on the most terrifying cake monsters.

As you beat the levels, you get different rewards that you can spend to build or upgrade buildings in your kingdom, level up your cookies, or spend on gacha. Everything fits: to level up your cookies, you need to update your realm. And to upgrade your kingdom, you need to upgrade certain buildings, add decoration, and beat certain levels (which require your cookies to be leveled at the proper strength). These achievements also advance the main story, as his team of gingerbread cookies makes their way through the Cookie Kingdom.

How do you unlock new cookie characters?

As it is a gacha game, you play a dummy coin “jewel” to get your cookies. In gacha, you spend this in-game currency, which can be obtained by beating levels and performing in-game tasks, or purchased for real money, for a random chance to unlock cookies or Soul Stones (which can upgrade your fighters). ). Generally speaking, the more powerful the cookie, the lower the probability that you will get it in gacha. It is also comparable to a loot box where players spend in-game money, which can be earned or purchased for real money, to give to your favorite characters.

When you “roll” or bet on the characters, you see a scene in which a magical witch spreads the dough. Then he uses a magic cookie cutter that puts the dough in the oven. The stove doors open and reveal what you’ve won. It’s a satisfying mechanic that I find myself wanting to go back to for the dopamine rush every few days, it’s kind of scary! And the odds of getting specific characters are generally low. For example, under a normal banner, the odds of rolling and getting Moon Rabbit Cookie, a popular character used in defense, is 0.090 percent.

Image: Devsisters via Polygon

There are several ways to spend in-game currency to get a cookie, and the conversion to real money may vary. This hides the real cost and can make it easier for people to keep spending. There are also numerous ways to spend real money in exchange for various building and leveling resources, soul stones, and gacha-related perks, such as increasing the probability of a successful roll. Like other games of this model, some of these packages are urgent and can be difficult to differentiate from the free items.

Cookie Run: Kingdom makes it very easy to earn gems in the game. A level that takes less than a minute to complete can win you a 100 gem ballpark. Players also get rewards for completing missions and certain city building achievements. When I was actively clearing levels, I was able to get 3000 crystals per day, in addition to getting magic cookie cutters that I could spend on rolls instead of gems. I managed to get 31 cookies, many of which are powerful high-level cookies, in a few weeks without spending any real money. That said, there is a low probability of getting a single specific cookie; You may get a few good ones, but it will take some work and you won’t get all of them right away. It’s even more work to level up.

How did Cookie Run: Kingdom get so popular?

Cookie Run: Kingdom comes immediately after another great success, Genshin Impact. Like Genshin Impact, the game features a free gacha pattern with popular characters. There is an overlap between the two fandoms – a quick look at my server shows many people who named their realms after Genshin Impact characters and towns, which means that players likely came to the app as fans of Genshin Impact.

Users in TikTok has also targeted out that a great part of Genshin fandom also just quit the game to go to Cookie Run: Kingdom, as some players were upset with the anniversary rewards in Genshin. Now the joke of the fans is that Cookie Run: Kingdom actually gives players what they want with a TikToker even saying what to start the game after playing Genshin for so long I felt like “having a healthy and proper relationship.”

the Cookie Run: Kingdom the fandom is thriving. Some people draw their beloved cookies like people, like Herb cookie or almond cookie. The art is often widely circulated, with a video of the almond cookie art he’s harvested more than 3.4 million views on TikTok. These cookie characters are such a popular choice for fan artists, because they have detailed anime designs and there are so many varieties. Almond Cookie, for example, has a gray demeanor and wears a cool trench coat. Sea Fairy Cookie is really pretty, in her little mermaid outfit.

Others like to rank cookies on TikToks based on silly metrics like how silly cookies look when pulled. Others will link the game to other recent meme trends. For example, people have made Squid like Deltarune memes. The catchy music of Cookie Run: Kingdom It is often played in the background of these videos, but it has also started to spread to other TikToks unrelated to Cookie Run.

The fandom around the game shows how much people love these cookie characters. The concept of the game is relatively light-hearted and simple, right? You play as these cookies and fight monsters. But the real draw is how satisfying it is to collect cookies and see them live in your small town – they can sit by the campfire or play in a little Sega arcade cabinet.

But there is also controversy in the Cookie Run fan community. There is a prevalent concern, within the fandom, about whitening, a phrase that refers to when artists lighten the skin tone of characters, cookies in their fanart. There is no formal recognition of race within the Cookie Run universe, however cookies do come in a variety of colors, which fans use as a starting point to draw them as people. Now there is a trend where people The Cookie Run art “un-white wash” darkens the skin tone of the humanized person. This video from user Whitewashfixer shows the artist darkening the skin tone of Herb Cookie’s art, and has been viewed approximately 1.3 million times.

What do cookies eat in Cookie Run: Kingdom?

Cookie Run: Kingdom’s The cinematic universe continues to grow, each season, as the game updates. As you play, you can juggle multiple campaigns, each with its own cast, story, and set of levels. The main story follows GingerBrave, a gingerbread man cookie swinging a candy cane like a sword, who wants to make a home for all cookies. But the presence of these vast worlds only seems to raise even more questions about their lives, with one that stands out in particular: Do cookies eat other cookies?

We know that some cookies, such as Dark Enchantress (which is styled similar to Maleficent), believe that cookies were made to be eaten. However, it seems that cookies eaten by other cookies are frowned upon, as GingerBrave’s entire crusade is to ensure the happiness and prosperity of all cookies. Cookies do eat and drink other things. Champagne Cookie, who heals his team members by bathing them in alcohol, seems to be enjoying a nice glass of wine or champagne. (You can also build your cookies at a bar in town.)

However, the line between cookie and non-cookie starts to blur. While in town, you will prepare jelly beans, bread, donuts, cakes and other sweets for them to eat their cookies. While they don’t bake cookies, these are certainly the components for baking a cookie, so it gets a bit iffy. Cookies do not bake other cookies. All cookies are made by a faceless magical witch who uses special cookie cutouts and a magical oven to create the cookies. So in the end, there seems to be no formal cookie cannibalism.