the source

The source is the flagship, the largest thing in the playground and the only one that keeps running while the tab is shut. Come back after a day and it has been working, which is the whole contract of an idle game.

Three places open up as you go. The Garden grows seeds that mature and cross-breed into new strains. The Spiral is the dark half, waking as you feed the loop, withholding production through Cravings and souring golden drops into Wrath, and generous to anyone who sits through it. Crystals form under the molecule every few hours whether you are there or not, and level your sources when you spend them.

Eventually you let all of it go. Ascending trades every source and every tap for Clarity, a permanent multiplier on everything that comes after, and you keep your Clarity, achievements and states of mind through the reset. Giving up the numbers to make the next numbers arrive faster is the oldest idea in the genre and still the best one.

It runs in the browser with nothing to download, no real currency, and nothing purchasable with real money.