Beginner's Guide: Your First Shifts

CRACK is a 1–4 player co-op incremental game. You and your coworkers break apart a giant egg in a HATCH CORP laboratory. Every crack earns money, and money buys a better way to crack. That loop is the whole game, and it keeps escalating until you are running a demolition crew with robots, explosives and scaffolding.

The core loop

1. Crack. Hit the egg with your current tool. Shell pieces are physics objects and break off like puzzle pieces.
2. Collect. Put fragments and minerals in buckets.
3. Sell. Haul the buckets to the Resource Depot and get paid. Payouts go to your balance, because every player has their own money.
4. Upgrade. Spend money at the HATCH CORP Equipment Supply Depo on better tools, and later on workbots, scaffolding and dynamite.
5. Sleep. Get back to your quarters before the shift ends. Then do it all again, one layer deeper.

Your first shift, step by step

• Read the work order. The HUD shows the current Daily Work Order with a progress counter, for example Split and peel off the shell. Work orders unlock new parts of the lab. Finishing the first ones opens the Resource Depot and then the Company Store.
• Swing the pickaxe. Your starting pickaxe has a durability bar (250 uses on the base model). Tools wear out, so watch the bar.
• Peel, don’t just smash. Hitting one spot over and over raises the egg’s agitation faster. Spread your hits around. See The Egg.
• Cash in early. Your first upgrades are worth more than hoarding cash, especially since wealth redistribution events can take a cut of a large balance.

Tip: The First Crack achievement unlocks in your first minute. 99.6% of players have it. The next one most players earn is Automation, from powering on your first workbot.

The daily schedule

The lab clock cycles through WORK → BREAK → SLEEP. The PA system calls breaks, and they are mandatory.

Phase	What to do
Work	Crack, haul, sell, complete work orders and events
Break	Visit the break room: arcade, basketball hoop, pills
Sleep	Be in your bunk in your quarters before the gas hits

If you are on the floor when the shift ends, sleep gas knocks you out and you pay a sleep aid fee. Patch v1.0.43 lowered it from $20 to $5. Sleeping in your bed every night for a whole run unlocks the rare Well Rested achievement.

What to buy first

Prices beyond what’s shown below are not documented yet. Check the Depo, because stock rotates and items can sell out.

1. A better primary tool. The shop has five tiers (Standard → Intermediate → Advanced → Specialty → Executive) and tools come in MK I / MK II versions.
2. A scanner upgrade. It shows you where the valuable minerals are.
3. Scaffolding, once the low parts of the egg are stripped. The middle and top are out of reach without it.
4. Workbots when the robotics bay opens. Automation is the biggest mid-game power spike.
5. Dynamite ($19.99, Advanced tier) for late layers. Light it with a blowtorch and step away.

Beginner mistakes

• Holding a parasite too long. It explodes if it doesn’t reach the processor in time.
• Building scaffolding and then standing on it during an agitation event. It can collapse.
• Forgetting that money is per-player in co-op. Use the transfer device to pool funds for big purchases.
• Spending every dollar right before the day ends. Keep enough for the sleep aid fee in case you miss bedtime.

Want a calmer run?

Patch v1.0.43 added Chill Mode: no bedtime, no sleep aid fee, bots never break, the egg agitates half as fast, and audits and pipe bursts are gone. Some achievements need those events, though. See Game Modes.