Guide created for version 1.1.1 by LightPaladin07. For any questions, you can find me on the official Click Click Dig Discord server, where I go by the name !paladyn. Please keep in mind that it's not a fully completed version of the guide, and I'm still working on it whenever I feel like it.

You can't decide between focusing on Click Damage or Helper Damage? Maybe the information I've written below will help you choose.

Let's break down the pros and cons of each playstyle:

Pros:

• stronger early game
  
• easier to benefit from Diggy Awake gold bonus (so more gold)
  
• stronger active skills

Cons:

• loses power in later stages of the game
  
• requires you to be active to progress
  
• slower transition between layers (maybe will get fixed in the future)

Pros:

• much stronger mid to late game
  
• doesn't require as much activity
  
• faster transition between layers (Clicker Build should get fixed in this regard)
  
• benefits from Diggy Asleep DPS bonus
  
• has more ways of improving damage

Cons:

• weaker early game
  
• a bit weaker active skills than Clicker Build (but still strong)

Based on the points I've written above, if you were to play as optimally as possible, I would recommend starting the game focusing on Click Damage (but focus on Helper Damage research instead of Click Damage one) and then transitioning to Helper Damage after a short while.

There are various things you can buy using diamonds. I recommend prioritizing things as written below:

1. BUYING new crafters
   
2. Research (damage and gold)
   
3. UPGRADING crafters AND More Jade Gems upgrade
   
4. Research (offline time duration) [or just skip it as it's pretty much useless]
   
5. Double fossils

DO NOT spend diamonds on re-rolling benefactors; you will get them all very quickly.

• Squashing earthworms - every 8 hours you can get up to 40 diamonds (so 120 diamonds a day)
  
• Codes - redeem them in settings, check the Codes section for all the codes
  
• Redeeming prize tickets - every prize ticket has a chance of giving you diamonds
  
• Tasks - some tasks reward you with a small amount of diamonds
  
• Reaching certain depths for the first time - grants you a small amount of diamonds

If you value optimization and would like to refine your gameplay to progress even more effectively, I recommend checking out the tips I've written below. These tips contain useful information about which mistakes you should avoid. For more information about why these are mistakes, you can check their respective sections.

• Ignoring Helper Position bonuses or not adjusting your Helpers’ positions accordingly after each Big Bang
  
• Spending too much gold on inferior Helpers for Milestone Perks
  
• Spending too many fossils on benefactors (a general rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t spend more than 3% of your active fossils on one upgrade)
  
• Spending diamonds on doubling fossils from Big Bang (unless you’ve maxed every other upgrade)
  
• Hyper-fixating on maxing out the Mining Shop (most upgrades there are bad and a waste of time)
  
• Crafting 2-star Helper Items (they’re suboptimal)
  
• Neglecting to craft Hammers, Helper Potions/Click Enhancers, and Lucky Coins
  
• Not committing to one damage type or trying to balance out Helper and Click damage buffs
  
• Upgrading Edgar above level 7

• Focus on crafting Hammers, Helper Potions/Click Enhancers, and Lucky Coins (ideally in a 1:1:1 ratio)
  
• Use my formula to calculate optimal Benefactor upgrade points

Helpers are units that you buy to start dealing more Damage Per Second (DPS). Each Helper has its own "Buffing Zone" (more info about that in the "Position Bonus" section). In the Demo, there are 5 different Helpers, and each new Helper deals more damage but also costs more coins (10 times more coins to be exact). Therefore, the newest Helper you unlock will almost always be the strongest one and worth investing the most. But that's not all—aside from DPS, Helpers provide other buffs in the form of what I call "Milestone Perks."

Reaching levels 10, 30, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, and 250 will allow you to buy a Milestone Perk. Usually, it's a percentage boost to that Helper's DPS, but it can also be an increase in income, click damage, all-damage, or even fossil gain. Keep in mind that ALMOST EVERY Milestone Perk is an "orange" upgrade, meaning that they are often not as effective as you might believe. For more information on "orange" and "green" upgrades, check the "How to use math to your advantage" section.

Now, let's talk a little about how you can optimize upgrading your Helpers to progress even more effectively (This part is mostly for people who chose Helper Damage as their main focus, if you play Clicker Build you can just skip to the table below).

I don't have access to exact information, nor the motivation to check and write down how much each Helper level gives in terms of DPS, but here are some fairly accurate estimates I've noticed:
For the first 50 levels, every 10 levels will approximately double your Helper's DPS. After that, every 10 levels bought will increase DPS by about 50%.

What can we do with this information? Surprisingly, a lot. We will be checking what is more worth it: upgrading your best Helper (which, in the later parts of the game, will certainly be Considerable Carl) or investing in a weaker Helper to unlock a Milestone Perk that increases all-damage (and therefore boosts your best Helper's DPS).

There's a table that has every unusual Milestone Perk in the game, you can use it to decide what you wanna spend your coins on:


I mentioned before that almost every Milestone Perk is an "orange" upgrade, meaning that every All-Damage buff goes toward a singular multiplier. That’s why, for example, if you buy Fox & Fiddle’s level 150 perk, your damage will increase by 10% (assuming you didn’t buy any other All-Damage perks). However, Fox & Fiddle’s level 250 perk won’t increase your damage by 20%, but by 1.3 / 1.1 = 1.18, so about 18%. You have to take this into account when calculating the value of each upgrade.

Now, if you like optimizing a lot, you can use the formula written below to compare the value of upgrades. Let me just say that I don’t really know if it’s worth the effort to optimize your Helper upgrades this much (XD), and keep in mind that this formula isn’t perfect. Because of the data being kind of estimated, the results won’t be 100% correct, but you can use it as a baseline. I personally never used it in my playthroughs, and it was made solely for the purposes of this guide.


Let me explain on example how exactly this formula works:
We want to figure out whether it's more worth it to buy this upgrade or to get the level 250 Gill-bert perk.

milestoneCost = 4.925e11 (take this value from the table; it's the upgrade cost of the perk)
bestHelperIncrease = 0.5 (put 1 here if your best Helper’s level is 40 or less. If it’s higher, then this value should be 0.5)
multiplierBeforeUpgrade = 1.65 (click on your DPS meter and look at the value of the multiplier called "helper upgrades for all damage")
multiplierAfterUpgrade = 1.9 (because 1.65 + 0.25, I took this value from the table)

Now, let’s put this all together:
1.9 / 1.65 = 1.15, subtract 1 from that and we get 0.15.

Next:
0.5 / 0.15 = 3.33

Finally:
4.925e11 * 3.33 = 1.640e12

As we can see, the result we got is a number that’s higher than the cost of the next 10 levels of our best Helper (which is 9.508e11). From that, we can conclude that upgrading Considerable Carl is more optimal than going for Gill-bert's level 250 perk.

To craft an item, you need to have a crafter on a sufficiently high level (Tier 2 items require at least a Tier 2 crafter). Each crafter level reduces the crafting time of all items that are a lower tier than the crafter by 5%. For example, a Tier 4 crafter will have a 10% crafting time reduction when crafting a Tier 2 item.

Pretty much every item that you can craft will benefit you in one way or another, but you are limited by the number of crafters you have and the materials you own. That's why it's important to choose the correct items so as not to waste time or resources on suboptimal upgrades. You can find a craftable item tier list with explanations below:

Universally strong items no matter the build, provide massive benefits to DMG and income. Additionally, when it comes to Xatrium Bars, they are a good option for less active players who lack materials. However, not every upgrade in the Mining Shop is worth investing in, and you'd rather use your crafters for better items (for more info, check the Mining Shop section).

Strong items that require specific builds to be effective (either Helper or Clicker build). Similarly to S Tier items, they have their own separate multiplier ("green" upgrade), which is a huge advantage. For more info, check the "How to use math to your advantage" section.

Items that benefit specific builds but provide weaker buffs than A tier items (for more info, check the Diggy Awake/Sleep section).

Items worth crafting only if you lack materials for anything else. Provide mediocre effects that can be good in the early game but fall off later because of the way math works in this game.

Items not worth crafting at all, waste of resources.

Benefactors are an important source of Click Damage/DPS and income. They can also reduce the duration of crafting, ore searching, and the cooldown of active abilities. However, be careful—buying and upgrading benefactors COSTS FOSSILS. This means that if you spend too many, you might actually get weaker, not stronger. That’s why it’s crucial to invest your fossils responsibly to avoid making the game harder for no reason. I will explain one of the best investing strategies in the later part of this section. For explanations on "green" and "orange" upgrades, check the "How to use math to your advantage" section.

Firstly, let's talk about the value of each benefactor; maxing out all of them will cost you about 110k fossils so you need to choose wisely.

• Edgar [GOOD] (10% benefactor upgrade cost reduction when maxed) - a fairly useful benefactor, helps you save some fossils, but make sure to stop upgrading him once he reaches level 7. That’s because the remaining levels are too expensive, and you won't save as many fossils as you would spend on upgrading him.
  
• Payroll Pig [STRONG] (400% more coins when maxed) - one of the strongest benefactors, massively increases income, and it is a "green" upgrade, so it has its own separate multiplier.
  
• Ms. Hops [STRONG] (400% more DPS when maxed) - another incredibly strong benefactor, providing a huge increase in DPS, and it's also a "green" upgrade.
  
• Twitchy [STRONG] (400% more Click Damage when maxed) - a great benefactor that helps a lot if clicking is your main source of damage. It’s a "green" upgrade.
  
• Charles [MEDIOCRE] (5% crafting time reduction when maxed) - reduces crafting time of items by about 3 minutes per crafter. If you start a new crafting immediately after the previous one ends, you will find value in this benefactor.
  
• Norbert [BAD] (5% ore finding time reduction when maxed) - not as valuable as Charles because ore will eventually run out, and you shouldn’t really lack ore in your inventory if you balance between crafting Xatrium Bars and other items.
  
• Chill Bill [BAD] (50s skills cooldown reduction when maxed) - almost entirely useless.

Now, let's talk about the optimal spending strategy. This method works mainly for damage benefactors (so Ms. Hops and Twitchy). When upgrading these benefactors, you need to make sure that the damage you lose from spending fossils is less than the damage you gain from increasing your benefactor level. For that, I created a special formula:

I will explain how this formula works with an example. Take a look at the picture below:
You want to figure out when you should upgrade this benefactor. You can use the formula I've written earlier to calculate it. Here's how:

• upgradeCostInFossils = 1234
  
• multiplierBeforeUpgrade = 4.2 (because 100% + 320% = 4.2x)
  
• multiplierAfterUpgrade = 4.3

Let's calculate:
4.3 / 4.2 = 1.0238
Now, subtract 1 from this number, and we get 0.0238.

The last step is:
1234 / 0.0238 = 51,848 fossils.

That means if you have fewer than this amount of active fossils, buying this upgrade will decrease your DPS. You should have a little bit more fossils than this number to ensure that your DPS increases. You can potentially use this formula to calculate when to upgrade Payroll Pig, but it wasn't made for this purpose.

Infernia Shop is a place where you can spend your Jade Gems on various upgrades. You obtain 5 Jade per each Obsidian layer you break, and you can increase this number with the "More Jade Gems!" upgrade (which costs diamonds). Jade Gems are much easier to gain than Xatrium Bars, which automatically raises the attractiveness of every upgrade. I recommend purchasing upgrades based on the advice written below (for more explanations on "green" and "orange," check the "How to use math to your advantage" section):

• Strike It Rich [STRONG] (+100% more gold when maxed) - very strong buff to income. It's a "green" upgrade, so it has its own multiplier, making it really impactful.
  
• Fossil Philosopher [GOOD] (+10% damage per fossil when maxed) - (+10% damage per fossil when maxed) - pretty decent upgrade, even though it's an "orange" upgrade. It can be helpful, especially in the early game but not only.
  
• Fossils Fossils Fossils [GOOD] (+18% more fossils gained when maxed) - a decent increase in fossil gain, shouldn't be omitted. This is also an "orange" upgrade.
  
• Rise And Shine [GOOD] (+180% more coins when Diggy is awake when maxed) - another "orange" upgrade. If you focus on Helper Damage, you will find it hard to use this buff in lower depths where the amount of coins you can gain per layer is bigger.
  
• Nap Time [GOOD] (+180% more DPS when Diggy is asleep when maxed) - it's an "orange" upgrade, but considering its relatively low cost, it can be extremely helpful (if you play a Helper build). This upgrade is the most cost-efficient source of Diggy Asleep DPS bonus.
  
• Click Connoisseur [DEPENDS] (3 more CPS during hold-to-click when maxed) - if you use the hold-to-click feature a lot and play a Clicker Build, then you will probably find value in this upgrade.

Mining Shop is a place where you can spend your crafted Xatrium Bars on various upgrades. Buying all upgrades costs 74 Xatrium Bars. I recommend purchasing upgrades based on the advice written below (for more explanations on "green" and "orange," check the "How to use math to your advantage" section):

• Strike It Rich [STRONG] (+125% more gold when maxed, costs 13 Bars to max out) - one of the 2 most important upgrades in the shop. It's a "green" upgrade, so it has its own multiplier, making it really impactful.
  
• Fossil Philosopher [MEDIOCRE] (+11% damage per fossil when maxed, costs 13 Bars to max out) - a pretty weak upgrade. Why? Because you can craft 13 Dinosaur Bones instead and have a bigger bonus (or just craft a couple of much better items instead). Also, it's one of the "orange" upgrades. This upgrade can be worth buying if you are low on materials and can afford to craft only bars.
  
• Fossils Fossils Fossils [GOOD] (+40% more fossils gained when maxed, costs 13 Bars to max out) - a really important upgrade that will massively increase the number of fossils gained. Even though this is one of the "orange" upgrades, its effect is undeniable.
  
• Rise And Shine [MEDIOCRE] (+125% more coins when Diggy is awake when maxed, costs 13 Bars to max out) - another "orange" upgrade. The more you upgrade other sources of the Diggy Awake buff, the more this buff becomes obsolete.
  
• Nap Time [MEDIOCRE] (+125% more DPS when Diggy is asleep when maxed, costs 13 Bars to max out) - similar to the previous upgrade. It's an "orange" upgrade and won't really give you a 125% buff but something closer to 44%. You would rather craft something else than use bars for this upgrade (unless you lack other materials, of course).
  
• Core Crumble [BAD] (8% core HP reduction when maxed, costs 6 Bars to max out) - pretty useless. It can help a bit when you go for the core for the first time, but there are much better items to craft that will help you even more.
  
• Click Connoisseur [DEPENDS] (2 more CPS during hold-to-click when maxed, costs 3 Bars to max out) - if you use the hold-to-click feature a lot and play a Clicker Build, then you will probably find value in this upgrade.

Destroying a planet's core should be the main objective for every Click Click Dig player. It takes some preparation and effort to break it for the first time, but it's worth it considering the rewards that await you.

The first core break is the most impactful because it unlocks several upgrades. First, breaking the core for the first time will reward you with a Core Sample, which doubles all your damage. This will help you significantly in future core runs. Secondly, for every run you will receive a Planet Token, which you can spend on Planet Perks. Some of these perks are extremely powerful and will greatly benefit your future runs (for more info on these perks, check the Planet Perks section).

Here is a checklist of things I recommend you have before going for the core for the first time:

• At least 25k fossils (50k would be even better)
  
• Fully maxed Gold and Damage research (choose the damage type of your preference, but keep in mind that using a Helper Build is much easier and faster)
  
• Maxed or mostly maxed Infernia Shop
  
• Maxed Gold buff in the Mining Shop (and maybe the fossil damage one as well)
  
• At least 10 Hammers, 10 Helper Potions (or Click Enhancers if you use a Clicker Build), and 10 Lucky Coins crafted
  
• Damage and Gold Benefactors at around level 25

If you've checked off all the points above, you should be good to go. Keep in mind that the Core has a lot of HP (over 2e22), but you only need to break one layer, which is at 7133 km depth. Be prepared, as breaking the core can take several hours (if you're prepared well, it shouldn't take longer than 2 hours), and you cannot break it while the game is turned off (at least in the current version of the game).

• Try to spam Big Bangs until you get perfect Helper Position Bonuses (preferably L-shaped).
  
• At the start of the run, position your Helpers to maximize the Gold Bonus. When you start to struggle with progression, adjust Helper Position Bonuses to increase damage accordingly.
  
• Don't forget to use your active skills on the core when possible; they will speed things up a lot.

The way damage and gold buffs are calculated in this game is inconsistent. Some upgrades give you a separate multiplier, while other upgrades sum their buffs up, creating one bigger multiplier. This creates misunderstandings where players might assume that the upgrade they're buying will give them a massive increase in DPS or income, but in fact, the increase won't be as significant as they thought.

I will explain which upgrades belong to which category so you won't waste time investing in "not as good" upgrades. Take a look at the pictures below:

---

Marked with green color are those multipliers that come from only one source, and all orange multipliers are those that are a sum of multiple different upgrades. For example, in the first picture, the orange x3.5 Diggy Sleeping multiplier is actually a sum of several different upgrades (180% comes from Infernia Shop, 50% from Mining Shop, 10% from Items, and 10% from Helper Milestone Upgrades). On the other hand, the green x5 Benefactors multiplier comes from only one source, which is Ms. Hops.

What does that mean? It means that when you see that Ms. Hops increases your DPS by 400%, she really does increase it by 400% and not by any other lower number. That's why I refer to the buff Ms. Hops gives as a "green" upgrade—an upgrade that gives as much as it says and doesn’t invite any confusion.

On the other hand, when it comes to "orange" upgrades, a player can mistakenly think that the buff they are buying is large when, in fact, it doesn’t provide as much. I mentioned the x3.5 Diggy Sleep multiplier before. When a player buys the 50% increase from the Mining Shop, they might think their DPS while Diggy is asleep increased by 50%, which is not entirely true—it would only be true if they didn’t have any other upgrades related to this multiplier. In reality, we can calculate that the actual increase in DPS after buying this upgrade is: 3.5/3 = 1.16, so about 16% more DPS. You might think that 16% more DPS isn’t a bad deal, but keep in mind that to get this buff, you needed to craft 4 Xatrium Bars—you could have used your Helpers to craft something more useful and had an even bigger boost in DPS. That’s why I deem "orange" upgrades as suboptimal (at least some of them).

Some "orange" upgrades are better than others because their cost is lower. A good example of this could be the Infernia Shop upgrade to Diggy Sleep bonus—it gives you a 180% increase, which you can obtain using Green Jade, a much easier-to-gain currency that doesn’t require your Crafters' attention. I will be explaining which upgrades are more beneficial than others in different parts of the guide.