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Idle Startup

Merrill Lines

Build a tech company from a one-person garage into a global empire. Train six skills, automate the grind, prestige for permanent Founder bonuses, climb the leaderboards, and chase 50+ achievements in this clean, endlessly-scaling idle game — progress rolls on even while you're away.

CasualIndieSimulationFree To Play

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About This Game

From a garage to a global empire

You started with a laptop and an idea. Idle Startup is a relaxing incremental game about growing that idea into a global tech company — one completed task at a time. Pick a skill and it goes to work: progress bars fill, XP rolls in, money stacks up. Spend it, level up, and watch new skills and whole departments unlock as your company climbs from a one-person Garage Startup to a Corporate Office.

Six skills, each its own journey

Every one of the six skills has its own upgrade tree gated by level and cost, backed by a company-wide store and an R&D lab. Push each skill through milestones at levels 25, 50, 75 and 99 for permanent, company-wide bonuses — and when a skill maxes out it keeps earning Mastery, a slow bonus that never stops growing.

Prestige, and go again — faster

Cash out your company for Founder Points and spend them in the Founder Store on permanent, cross-run upgrades: extra parallel skill slots, compounding growth, seed capital, a veteran team. Every run resets the ramp so the next climb is faster and reaches higher. It's an endless prestige loop with real teeth.

Automate the grind

Once you know the loop, hand it off. The Auto tab lets you toggle Auto-Hire, Auto-Train, Auto-Invest, Auto-Research, Auto-Accept-Contracts — even Auto-Refound. Build a machine that runs your whole company while you watch the numbers climb, or walk away entirely and come back richer.

Take on contracts, climb the boards

Accept contracts for bonus goals, then measure yourself against everyone else: global and friends leaderboards, plus time-to-99 speedrun boards tracked down to the second. How fast can you max a skill?

Make it yours

Switch between interface themes — the sleek Midnight IDE or the warm Poolside FM sunset — with seasonal drops like the Star-Spangled July 4th theme and its full-length lo-fi music playlist. A tidy, modern interface designed to stay out of your way.

Always progressing

Idle Startup respects your time. It keeps earning while it's closed, greets you with a Welcome Back recap of everything you made and every level you gained, and hands you a free Coffee Break speed boost a few times a day. Your save syncs through Steam Cloud, so you can pick up on any device.

Optional boost packs (you don't need them)

Three small optional purchases let you skip ahead if you want to: an Energy Drink for a 2× speed boost across four hours, a Coffee Pot for a full 24 hours, and a one-time Productivity Suite for a permanent 2× speed boost and unlimited offline earnings. None of them are required — the whole game is playable and completable without spending anything.

Features
  • One-click idle loop — pick a skill, it runs itself
  • 6 skills across 4 company tiers, from Garage Startup to Corporate Office
  • Deep upgrade trees — 66 skill & company upgrades, an R&D lab, and a Founder Store
  • Milestone bonuses at Lv 25/50/75/99, plus endless Mastery on maxed skills
  • Prestige loop — cash out for Founder Points and permanent cross-run upgrades
  • Full automation — six toggleable auto-managers, including auto-prestige
  • Contracts for bonus goals to chase
  • Global + friends leaderboards and time-to-99 speedrun boards
  • 50+ Steam achievements, from First Day to Trillionaire
  • Interface themes, including seasonal drops with their own music
  • Offline progress with a clear Welcome Back recap
  • Steam Cloud saves — play on Windows and macOS (Steam Deck supported via Proton)
  • A free recurring speed boost, no ads ever
  • Optional one-time boost purchases — never required, never gated

Community Activity

  1. Idle StartupSteam patch notes
  2. Idle StartupSteam patch notes
  3. Idle StartupSteam patch notes

    Update 8g: A couple of fixes

    Two small things from your reports. July 4th theme and the right side of the screen On smaller or high-DPI windows, the Star-Spangled (America 250) theme added an extra label to…

  4. Idle StartupSteam patch notes

    Update 8f: A few fixes

    Some small things you reported. Refound confirm dialog Two fixes here. First, pressing "Refound" on the confirm dialog now actually closes it and resets your run, instead of…

  5. Idle StartupSteam patch notes

    Update 8e: Two small fixes

    A couple of things you reported. No more "0 seconds" on the speedrun boards The fastest-first-99 and fastest-all-99 boards sort by shortest time. A very fast run that finished in…

  6. Idle StartupSteam patch notes

    Update 8d: Two bug fixes

    A couple of things you reported. Card totals no longer get stuck The Card Collector and Deck Hoarder achievements count every card you have ever pulled, duplicates included. The…

  7. Idle StartupSteam patch notes

    Update 8c: Graphics settings

    A few of you reported the game running your CPU hot or spinning up the fans. That is fair, for an idle game it should barely register, so I looked into it. Here is what was going…

  8. Idle StartupSteam announcement

    Thank you. 38,000 players in two weeks

    Thank you Two weeks ago I put this game out with no idea what would happen. Since then more than 38,000 of you have added Idle Startup and actually played it. Two weeks. I did…

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