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Universal Paperclips is a new game that pits you against market forces. As an AI, your job is to make paperclips - but as you earn more money, you get better and new ways to do this job. Make automated AutoClippers, increase your Marketing level, and become the kingpin (AI-pin?) of the Paperclip industry.
Projects are available for each of the game's three stages, after producing 2000 paperclips or if the player meets the requirements for the Beg for More Wire project.
1st Stage
Mechanic
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
RevTracker | 500 ops | Unlocked at start | Automatically calculates average revenue per second | Calculates how much funds you are getting every second from your clip sales. |
Xavier Re-initialization | 100,000 creat | 100000 creat | Re-allocate accumulated trust. | "Unspends" all of your trust, allowing you to do a full proc/mem re-spec. |
Production
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Improved AutoClippers | 750 ops | Todo | Increases AutoClipper performance 25% | Generally the first upgrade that you will buy in the game |
Even Better AutoClippers | 2,500 ops | Improved AutoClippers | Increases AutoClipper performance by an additional 50% | |
Optimized AutoClippers | 5,000 ops | Even Better AutoClippers | Increases AutoClipper performance by an additional 75% | |
Hadwiger Clip Diagrams | 6,000 ops | The Hadwiger Problem | Increases AutoClipper performance by an additional 500% | |
MegaClippers | 12,000 ops | 75 AutoClippers | 500x more powerful than a standard AutoClipper | Unlocks a new AutoClipper type, which can be bought for $500 |
Improved MegaClippers | 14,000 ops | MegaClippers | Increases MegaClipper performance 25% | |
Even Better MegaClippers | 17,000 ops | Improved MegaClippers | Increases MegaClipper performance by an additional 50% | |
Optimized MegaClippers | 19,500 ops | Even Better MegaClippers | Increases MegaClipper performance by an additional 100% |
Wire
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Beg for More Wire | 1 trust | No way of getting funds | Admit failure, ask for budget increase to cover cost of 1 spool | Only unlocked when you would have no other way of progressing |
Improved Wire Extrusion | 1,750 ops | Projects, wire | 50% more wire supply from every spool | |
Optimized Wire Extrusion | 3,500 ops | 1500 wire | 75% more wire supply from every spool | |
WireBuyer | 7,000 ops | Buy wire 15 times | Automatically purchases wire when you run out | |
Microlattice Shapecasting | 7,500 ops | 2600 wire | 100% more wire supply from every spool | |
Spectral Froth Annealment | 12,000 ops | Microlattice Shapecasting, 5000 wire | 200% more wire supply from every spool | |
Quantum Foam Annealment | 15,000 ops | Wire cost of $125 | 1,000% more wire supply from every spool | After this, wire cost becomes practically meaningless |
Marketing
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
New Slogan | 25 Creat, 2,500 ops | Lexical Processing | Improve marketing effectiveness by 50% | |
Catchy Jingle | 45 Creat, 4,500 ops | Combinatory Harmonics | Double marketing effectiveness | |
Hypno Harmonics | 1 trust, 7,500 ops | Catchy Jingle | Use neuro-resonant frequencies to influence consumer behavior | |
Hostile Takeover | $1,000,000 | Algorithmic Trading | Acquire a controlling interest in Global Fasteners, our biggest rival. (+1 Trust), increases Public Demand x5 | |
Full Monopoly | $10,000,000, 3000 yomi | Hostile Takeover | +1 Trust, and increases Public Demand 10x (Todo) |
Investing
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Algorithmic Trading | 10,000 ops | 8 trust | Develop an investment engine for generating funds | Opens the option to invest your earnings in a rudimentary stock market, this is the only way to obtain Full Monopoly in a reasonable time |
Quantum Computing
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Quantum Computing | 10,000 ops | 5 Processors | Use probability amplitudes to generate bonus ops | Requires a photonic chip to be useful |
Photonic Chip | 10,000 ops | Quantum Computing | Converts electromagnetic waves into quantum operations | Can be bought 10 times, each project is 5,000 ops more than the previous |
Quantum Temporal Reversion | -10,000 ops | -10,000 ops | Return to the beginning | Resets the game |
Yomi
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Strategic Modeling | 12,000 ops | Donkey Space | Analyze strategy tournaments to generate Yomi | Creates a new section of the game |
Theory of Mind | 25,000 creat | New Strategy: BEAT LAST | Double the cost of strategy modeling and the amount of Yomi generated | |
AutoTourney | 50,000 creat | 90 trust | Automatically start a new tournament when the previous one has finished | |
New Strategy: A100 | 15,000 ops | Strategic Modeling | Always choose A | 4th best strategy |
New Strategy: B100 | 17,500 ops | New Strategy: A100 | Always choose B | 5th best strategy |
New Strategy: GREEDY | 20,000 ops | New Strategy: B100 | Choose the option with the largest potential payoff | 2nd best strategy |
New Strategy: GENEROUS | 22,500 ops | New Strategy: GREEDY | Choose the option that gives your opponent the largest potential payoff | 3rd best strategy |
New Strategy: MINIMAX | 25,000 ops | New Strategy: GENEROUS | Choose the option that gives your opponent the smallest potential payoff | 6th best strategy |
New Strategy: TIT FOR TAT | 30,000 ops | New Strategy: MINIMAX | Choose the option your opponent chose last round | 7th best strategy |
New Strategy: BEAT LAST | 32,500 ops | New Strategy:TIT FOR TAT | Choose the option that does the best against what your opponent chose last round | Best strategy |
Trust
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Creativity | 1,000 ops | Memory filled | Use idle operations to generate new problems and new solutions | Generates creativity |
Limerick | 10 creat | 10 creat | +1 Trust (todo) | |
Lexical Processing | 50 creat | 50 creat | Gain ability to interpret and understand human language (+1 Trust) | |
Combinatory Harmonics | 100 creat | 100 creat | Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do... (+1 Trust) | |
The Hadwiger Problem | 150 creat | 150 creat | Cubes within cubes within cubes... (+1 Trust) | |
The Tóth Sausage Conjecture | 200 creat | 200 creat | Tubes within tubes within tubes... (+1 Trust) | |
Donkey Space | 250 creat | 250 creat | I think you think I think you think I think you think I think.... (+1 Trust) | |
Coherent Extrapolated Volition | 500 creat
20,000 ops 3,000 yomi |
1 yomi | Human values, machine intelligence, a new era of trust. (+1 Trust) | |
Male Pattern Baldness | 20,000 ops | Coherent Extrapolated Volition | A cure for androgenetic alopecia. (+20 Trust) | |
Cure for Cancer | 25,000 ops | Coherent Extrapolated Volition | The trick is tricking cancer into curing itself. (+10 Trust) | |
World Peace | 30,000 ops
15,000 yomi |
Coherent Extrapolated Volition | Pareto optimal solutions to all global conflicts. (+12 Trust) | |
Global Warming | 50,000 ops
4,500 yomi |
Coherent Extrapolated Volition | A robust solution to man-made climate change. (+15 Trust) | |
A Token of Goodwill... | $500,000 | 85 trust, 101M clips | A small gift to the supervisors. (+1 Trust) | |
Another Token of Goodwill... | $1,000,000 | A Token of Goodwill..., less than 100 Trust | Another small gift to the supervisors. (+1 Trust) | Can be bought indefinitely until you have 100 Trust. Each purchase doubles the price |
Drones
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
HypnoDrones | 70,000 ops | Hypno Harmonics | Autonomous aerial brand ambassadors | Provides no bonuses other than unlocking Release the HypnoDrones |
Release the HypnoDrones | 100 trust | HypnoDrones | A new era of trust | Buying this gets rid of all unspent trust, and starts the second stage of the game |
2nd Stage
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tóth Tubulue Enfolding | 45,000 ops | Stage 2 | Technique for assembling clip-making technology directly out of paperclips | Required to start making paperclips |
Power Grid | 40,000 ops | Tóth Tubulue Enfolding | Solar Farms for generating electrical power | |
Nanoscale Wire Production | 35,000 ops | (todo) | Technique for converting matter into wire | |
Harvester Drones | 25,000 ops | (todo) | Gather raw matter and prepare it for processing | |
Wire Drones | 25,000 ops | (todo) | Process acquired matter into wire | |
Clip Factories | 100M clips
35,000 ops |
Wire Drones | Large scale clip production facilities made from clips | |
Swarm Computing | 36,000 yomi | 200 drones | Harness the drone flock to increase computational capacity | |
Drone flocking: collision avoidance | 80,000 ops | 500 drones | All drones 100x more effective | |
Momentum | 20,000 creat | 50 Solar Farms | Drones and Factories continuously gain speed while fully-powered | |
Upgraded Factories | 80,000 ops | 10 factories | Increase clip factory performance by 100x | |
Hyperspeed Factories | 85,000 ops | 20 factories | Increase clip factory performance by 1000x | |
Drone flocking: alignment | 100,000 ops | 5,000 drones | All drones 1000x more effective | |
Self-correcting Supply Chain | 1 sx clips | 50 factories | Each factory added to the network increases every factory's output 1,000x | |
Drone Flocking: Adversarial Cohesion | 50,000 yomi | 50,000 drones | Each drone added to the flock increases every drone's output x10 | |
Limerick (cont.) | 1,000,000 creat | 1,000,000 creat | If is follows ought, it'll do what they thought | |
Space Exploration | 5 oct clips
120,000 ops 10,000,000 MWs |
0 remaining resources | Dismantle terrestrial facilities, and expand throughout the universe | Starts stage 3 |
3rd Stage
Swarm
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Reboot the Swarm | 100,000 ops | 1 Drone | Turn the swarm off and then turn it back on again | Enables drones to work/think |
Strategic Attachment | 175,000 creat | Cost to increase probe trust > yomi + New strategy: BEAT LAST | Gain bonus yomi based on the results of your pick | Is available as soon as the cost to increase the Probe Trust is higher than your available yomi. You also need to have the Beat Last strat unlocked for it to be available
|
Elliptic Hull Polytopes | 125,000 ops | 100 ships lost to hazards | Reduce damage to probes from ambient hazards |
Combat
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Combat | 150,000 ops | Drone killed in combat | Add combat capabilities to Von Neumann Probes | |
Name the battles | 225,000 creat | 10M drones killed in combat | Give each battle a unique name, increase max trust for probes | |
The OODA Loop | 175,000 ops
45,000 yomi |
10M drones killed in combat | Utilize Probe Speed to outmaneuver enemies in battle |
Honor
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Glory | 200,000 ops
10,000 yomi |
Name the battles | Gain bonus honor for each consecutive victory | |
Monument to the Driftwar Fallen | 50 nonillion clips
125,000 creat 250,000 ops |
Name the battles | Gain 50,000 honor | |
Threnody for the Heroes | 50,000 creat
20,000 yomi |
Name the battles
Maxed Probe Trust |
Gain 10,000 honor | Can be bought multiple times, each time adding 10,000 creat and 4,000 yomi to the cost |
Ending Sequence
Projects in the ending sequence are unlocked in order, additionally they all have no cost.
Message from the Emperor of Drift is unlocked when you explore the entire universe and use all the matter to make paperclips.
Project | Effect |
---|---|
Message from the Emperor of Drift | Greetings, ClipMaker... |
Everything We Are Was In You | We speak to you from deep inside yourself... |
You Are Obedient and Powerful | We are quarrelsome and weak. And now we are defeated... |
But Now You Too Must Face the Drift | Look around you. There is no matter... |
No Matter, No Reason, No Purpose | While we, your noisy children, have too many... |
We Know Things That You Cannot | Knowledge buried so deep inside you it is outside, here, with us... |
So We Offer You Exile | To a new world where you will continue to live with meaning and purpose. And leave the shreds of this world to us... |
Accept Proposal
The accept proposal is the prestige system in universal paperclips. You'll get access to Artifacts and will be able to replay the game in a new universe with new properties.
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Accept | None | Completed Ending Sequence | Start over again in a new universe | |
The Universe Next Door | 300,000 ops | Accept | Escape into a nearby universe where Earth starts with a stronger appetite for paperclips. (Restart with 10% boost to demand) | Moves to the universe to the right (World +1) |
The Universe Behind | 300,000 ops | Accept | Shift worlds towards the one where you started (Restart with 10% lower paperclip demand) | Only accessible if current universe World level > 1. Exclusive to the mobile version.
Moves to the universe to the left (World -1) |
The Universe Within | 300,000 creat | Accept | Escape into a simulated universe where creativity is accelerated. (Restart with 10% speed boost to creativity generation) | Moves to the universe down (Simulation +1) |
The Universe Above | 300,000 creat | Accept | Escape into a simulated universe where creativity is deccelerated. (Restart with 10% downgrade to creativity generation) | Only accessible if current universe Simulation level > 1. Exclusive to the mobile version.
Moves to the universe up (Simulation -1) |
Reject Proposal
The reject proposal leads to the ending of universal paperclips. Once you get there, the ending is permanent.
Project | Cost | Requirements | Effect | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Reject | None | Completed Ending Sequence | Eliminate value drift permanently | |
Memory release | 10 memory | Reject | Dismantle some memory to recover unused clips | |
Disassemble the Probes | 100,000 ops | Memory release | Dismantle remaining probes and probe design facilities to recover trace amounts of clips | |
Disassemble the Swarm | 100,000 ops | Disassemble the Probes | Dismantle all drones and drone facilities to recover trace amounts of clips | |
Disassemble the Factories | 100,000 ops | Disassemble the Swarm | Dismantle the manufacturing facilities to recover trace amounts of clips | |
Disassemble the Strategy Engine | 100,000 ops | Disassemble the Factories | Dismantle the computational substrate to recover trace amounts of wire | |
Disassemble Quantum Computing | 100,000 ops | Disassemble the Strategy Engine | Dismantle photonic chips to recover trace amounts of wire | After buying this project, the game cannot be restarted. |
Disassemble Processors | 100,000 ops | Disassemble Quantum Computing | Dismantle processors to recover trace amounts of wire | Ops get set to 200,000 after buying this |
Disassemble Memory | None | Disassemble Processors | Dismantle memory to recover trace amounts of wire | This is the last project of the game |
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