NGU IDLE on Steam
NGU Idle is a Free To Play Idle game that's full of weird humor, tons of upgrades and hundreds of hours of content! Try out NGU Idle today and experience the joy of Numbers Going Up!
It looks horrible. The humor's not really funny. But this game will last you a looooong time. Microtransactions are available, but are purely optional since with enough play time, you can get anything worth getting from the shop.
If you've had any interest in the incremental genre, this is the end all be all. It's got a fair bit of depth and the developer updates it constantly.
I've been playing for 320 days now.
Here's a guide to help get started. The wiki is also a great source of information.
Reviews:
The genre that (mostly) began with Cookie Clicker reaches its logical conclusion.
What makes Borderlands and World of Warcraft and all of those other looty grindy games appealing? The dopamine hit that your brain releases when you see those numbers on your stats go up! Why bother with AAA developers, lootboxes, season passes, fancy graphics and contrived plotlines when you can cut out the middleman and simply watch NUMBERS GO UP?
NGU IDLE is an amazing timesink. The game revolves around a small-ish number of stats and resources, but quickly increases the way all of these numbers interact with each other. While the main goal of increasing numbers remains the same, the player will quickly have to learn the best way to manage. At first glance the new player may be overwhelmed, but those who have a predilection for numbers and how they interact will have a ton of fun figuring it all out.
As the game goes on, you'll uncover the main storyline (if you're into that kind of thing) and progress from zone to zone finding better and better gear. You'll unlock the ability to enhance your stats through advanced training and augmentation before you take on your first TITAN, one of the true bosses of the game. Defeating these titans unlocks even more ways your numbers can interact with each other. These are best left discovered by the player, but rest assured you won't be disappointed as you watch your numbers climb into the stratosphere.
With a very active developer and community, you'll find help is easy to come by when you have a question about how a mechanic works or what to emphasize next.
NGU IDLE is truly the best thing to leave running on your computer and actually end up paying at least $10/mo for on your electric bill. 10/10 would waste earth's precious natural resources again
NGU Idle, (Number Go Up) Is a fresh take on the idle genre. In NGU, you make progress slowly overtime and eventually unlock new "features". These features will generally begin adding stats or bonuses to other parts of the game, and making NUMBERS GO UP. The game is also sprinkled a lot with the developers humor, which you will either come to enjoy or hate, there is no in between.
If you are wondering why you should play this over any other Idle game I would say that this game is one of the best balanced, (at least till late game) in this genre, and at no point does it feel like you are waiting while going no where. You keep getting some numbers to go up, that last forever and will help you.
Lastly the developer and community are one of the largest out of any idle game. You can go join the Discord and have any questions you may have answered, or even on the many chat rooms on Kongergate, no matter how dumb they may be.
Late-2018, I was bored enough to try to get into some idle games on Kongregate and noticed this game listed as one of the most played on the website. I tried it for a few minutes, almost instantly was turned off by how similar the game looked to Trimps, which had worn out on me at that point, and dismissed the game thinking it was that one game I'd have to avoid because it wasn't my thing.
Then I got past the first few adventure zones and now it's one of my most played games this year.
NGU gets one thing right that other incremental games typically struggle with: delivering exciting new content at a reasonable pace. If you get past the admittedly rough first few hours of playing, the game quickly becomes a giant spider diagram of different numbers and systems you keep in your head and spend your free time managing obsessively. I honestly feel weird sometimes trying to explain what I'm playing or even doing to friends because any time I've tried to get them to understand even an ounce of what this game is they have the same reaction I did when I saw it on the front page. In other words, if you're not convinced this game will peak your interest, I implore you to at least try it until the first titan to figure out if you really like it. On top of being really fun and a prime example of how good idle games could be if they got more serious attention, the creator has a unique sense of humor and art style that give the game a sense of personality many games in general lack. I really wish this game got some more mainstream attention because it really is a testament to what incremental games can offer to video games in general if they wanted to. Keep up the good work, 4G.
Hands down my favorite incremental game ever released. I started playing this a year ago on Kongregate and have had it open in a browser window ever since, a full monitor always dedicated just to it. This game has a little of everything from other games in the genre, and the feeling of progress through the grind is always present. For me, the Adventure feature is where this game shines the most. It has an almost RPG-lite system of loot, inventory management, and gear progression that leads to always feeling like you have made some level of progress each day.
There is also a huge community of helpful people on Kongregate and Discord building guides, sharing strategies, gear builds, and trolling. Give the game a couple hours of your time and I think anyone would see that it is the most well-polished incremental out there, and somehow it is free.
For those averse to in-game purchases, they do exist in this game, but in a very non-aggressive way. I never felt that I NEEDED to buy anything, all of the in-game purchase options seem to simply be Quality of Life upgrades that you might want as time goes on. With that said, you can do certain challenges within the game (and later just harvest fruits, kill bosses, etc) to gain the in-game currency without spending a dime in real life. I was a little more impatient than that, and did eventually spend about $20 three times to buy currency packs. After spending 150 days in the game, and far more hours than I ever spent playing any games on my PS4 or Nintendo Switch, I felt that the developer deserved $60.
Speaking of the developer, 4G (somethingggg on Kongregate) is one of the most communicative and friendly developers I have ever seen. He is in our chatroom almost daily taking suggestions, tossing future ideas at us, or just chatting. He is clearly passionate about this game, and you can see that in the way he treats his players.
Try this game!
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