# Beginner's Guide: Your First Shifts

> How CRACK works and what to do in your first shifts: cracking the shell, getting paid, buying better tools, and getting to bed before the gas.

Source page: https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/guides/beginners-guide/ · Category: Guides · Updated: 2026-10-28

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.

![Four lab workers in front of the giant egg in the CRACK containment bay](https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/img/ss1.webp)

## 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](https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/tools/) on better tools, and later on [workbots](https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/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](https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/egg/#agitation-and-sedatives).
- **Cash in early.** Your first upgrades are worth more than hoarding cash, especially since [wealth redistribution](https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/events/) 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.

![Green sleep gas flooding the corridor toward Employee Quarters](https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/img/ss4.webp)

## 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](https://crack-wiki.pages.dev/guides/game-modes/).

## Quick answers

### What is the goal in CRACK?

You work as a HATCH CORP lab employee. Your job is to crack open a giant egg one layer at a time, sell what you dig out, buy better tools and eventually find out what is inside. The game has multiple endings.

### How long is a shift in CRACK?

A shift lasts a few real-time minutes. The day clock cycles through WORK, BREAK and SLEEP, and you should be in your bunk when the shift ends.

### What happens if I don't make it to bed?

Sleep gas floods the floor at the end of the shift and anyone left outside gets knocked out. You pay a sleep aid fee out of your own pocket. Since v1.0.43 the default fee is $5, and Chill Mode removes it.

## Sources

- [CRACK on Steam (store page)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4312190/CRACK/)
- [Developer launch announcement, 2026-10-24](https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4312190)
- [VGTimes preview of CRACK](https://vgtimes.com/video-game-previews/172020-preview-crack.html)
- [GameBrief launch preview](https://www.gamebrief.net/blog/crack-egg-game-launch-preview-2026)