tl;dr: Cataclysms give you 1 Primal Candy, which increase all production by x4, and also gives you a set of Blessings and Curses to choose from.

You unlock your first Cataclysm after conquering an entire galaxy. When you're ready to start it, you can click the "Catsclysm" button on the galaxy map to enter it. Note that if you ascend before entering a Cataclysm, you'll need to clear the galaxy map again to get that button back.

You'll see 2 prompts before proceeding: The 1st tells you about the Cataclysm; the 2nd checks that you're sure you want to continue. This means it's safe to click the button if you want more info.

The 1st prompt tells you what you'll lose, keep, and gain.

The first prompt

That prompt doesn't cover everything, so here's a complete breakdown.

You'll lose everything you'd lose in an Ascension:

• All your resources (metal, experience, fuel)
  
• Galaxy map progress
  
• Chunks and placed buildings

Additionally, you'll also lose:

• All your candy. You'll need to acquire it again, starting from zero.
  
• All your Ascension upgrades. These will need to be purchased again.
  
• The stat for your "Total Experience" will be reset.

You'll keep:

• All achievements.
  
• All Library logs
  
• All food and lunchboxes.
  
• All discovered recipes (although you'll need to unlock the relevant Ascension upgrades to cook them again).
  
• All the upgrades you've unlocked will remain visible.
  
• Most of your stats are retained, including the number of times you've joined each Guild and League (so the upgrades that use those stats will continue to grow in power).

You'll gain:

• 1x Primal Candy. Each Primal Candy boost all production by a massive x4
  
• +1 fleet size
  
• Every 2 Primal Candy gives +1 Lunchboxes gained from conquests

Additionally, combat will become more difficult:

• With each Cataclysm, enemy levels are increases, and they attack in larger fleets.

After entering a Cataclysm, you will need to choose 2 Blessings, and 1 curse. The options available to you are random, but you'll have a pretty big selection to choose from.


For each successive Cataclysm, the number of Blessings you need to choose will increase by 2, and the Curses will increase by 1. For example, in your 2nd Cataclysm you'll choose from 4 Blessings & 2 Curses, then 6 & 3 / 8 & 4 / 10 & 5 / etc.

The Cataclysm menu. This was before patch 2.0.2, which roughly doubled the number of options, and buffed many Blessings.

The menu after patch 2.0.2 and after entering the 4th Cataclysm.

At the start of each Cataclysm, you get to choose your Blessings and Curses again, so you're only locked into your choices until your next Cataclysm.

Each successive Cataclysm will give you another Primal Candy, up to the tenth Cataclysm. After that, you won't gain any more Primal Candy, but you'll be able to toggle on as many or few blessings/curses as you want (info via).

Blessings are powerful boons with a wide range of effects. Your choice of Blessings will depend on your playstyle, and while some may be subjectively better, it's up to you which buffs you'd like best.

Not my first pick, but saving up Lunchboxes then getting 3 levels of this can net you a lot of recipes!


One of the best Blessings IMO, especially early on. It's less powerful around the mid-game, when upgrades are pretty affordable. It becomes indispensable again later, especially around the tier 10 unlocks, when it takes forever to afford most upgrades. It only applies to upgrades you've bought, but does also apply to buildings unlocked from conquests (which are always in Tier 4), letting you get Kitchens or other buildings early, without having to do conquests.


Incredibly helpful. Eg. makes Insectoid Chunks give 2x production, instead of x1.5. Always my first pick.


Very handy for idle players. You can track how long has passed with a stat added in v2.0.2, "Time Since Last Ascension".


Great for idle combat players, where battles last longer due to your decreased damage output. Also helps counter the "Agonizing Patience" curse somewhat.


Chosen upgrades are totally random, so this Blessing is most powerful early in the game, as you're more likely to get a high-tier upgrade for free. By the late game, the free upgrades are more likely to come from lower tiers, so are easily purchased almost immediately.

Curses are detrimental effects to your game. Some are objectively harder to play with than others. The harder ones can create more blockages or stop you from buying certain buildings, limiting your acquisition of certain resources, and potentially blocking your synergies.

If you choose a curse that block things like buyable buildings or purchasable ships, note that the items it chooses are randomly chosen at the star of each Ascension. You might get lucky, or you might find yourself in a very difficult situation, but you can always enter a new Ascension to try your luck again.

Be very careful which Curses you acquire, as there's no way to undo a curse once it's selected, until you reach your next Cataclysm. Once you do, then like with Blessings, your previous choices will be reset and you'll get to choose your Curses again. This means that if a certain Curse proved to be too difficult, you don't have to choose it in your next Cataclysm.

Not too bad, and you can use Ship Healing buffs from cooking to counter this somewhat.


Low to medium difficulty, this is the curse I always take first. Forces you to mix up battles, so if you're used to taking a Tortoise into every battle, you'll have to come up with a new strategy. It doesn't affect Wasps though, so cooking "Stygian Chocolate" can help as they buff Wasp damage (+15%). "Infernal S'mores" are also helpful, as they buff both damage and health for all ships, and "Nuclear Pasta" increases ship health.


Very high difficulty, and the hardest curse IMO. It prevents you from acquiring certain synergies, and greatly limits your resource production as you'll have much less room for buildings. I always avoid this one if possible.


Potentially high difficulty. But missing out on buildings isn't actually as harsh as it sounds. As hiromi_teija points out in the comments below, you can still activate all the active synergy upgrades, because the game won't count any synergies that you can't use due to locked buildings. And the disabled building(s) change with each Ascension. I still leave this until much later.


The first level of this curse is one of the easiest to start with, and the 2nd level isn't too bad either. Just make sure you take advantage of Solar Panel synergies wherever you can, and keep them upgraded. Hydrogen Generators can be hard to use with this curse, but IME their synergy with Fuel Pumps means you can get a lot of Fuel from a low number of Generators, as long as you have a ton of Fuel Pumps.


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