Dino Idle

Dino Idle is a fossil-digging idle game. Tap a dinosaur skull to dig fossils, hire a crew that digs for you, open museum wings, travel from the Triassic to the Cretaceous, then call down the Meteor to start a new age with permanent bonuses. Play it online free in your browser with no download or sign-up, on a computer, phone or tablet. Progress saves automatically, and your crew keeps digging while you are away.

How to play

• Dig: tap or click the fossil in the dig pit, or press Space. At the start each tap is worth 1 fossil.
• Hire a crew: the Crew tab sells eight producers, from Volunteer Diggers and Paleontologists to Drill Rigs and Amber Mines. Each digs a set amount every second, and each copy costs 15% more than the last. Buy one, ten or as many as you can afford.
• Buy upgrades: every crew type has three upgrades that double its output, unlocked at 1, 10 and 25 owned. Era upgrades named after fossils, like the Stegosaurus Plates and the T. rex Skull, boost all production or make each tap also earn a share of your per-second rate.
• Build museum wings: six wings, from the Trilobite Hall to the Meteor Theater, each multiply all income by 1.5.
• Travel through time: the Eras tab moves your dig to the Jurassic for 30,000 fossils and the Cretaceous for 8 million. Each era unlocks new crew, wings and upgrades, and the scenery changes from red Triassic desert to Jurassic fern forest to a Cretaceous dusk with a smoking volcano.

Golden ammonites

Every minute or two a glowing golden ammonite appears on the dig site. Tap it (or press G) within 13 seconds for a lucky find worth about a minute of production, or a 20-second Dig Frenzy that multiplies production by 5.

The Meteor: prestige explained

Once you reach the Cretaceous and dig 2 billion fossils in one age, you can call down the Meteor from the Eras tab. Your fossils, crew, upgrades, wings and eras reset, and you start again in the Triassic. In return you get meteor shards, which you keep forever. Each shard adds 5% to everything you dig, taps included. Reaching 2 billion gives 10 shards, and digging further before you reset gives more. With 10 shards your next age runs 50% faster.

With steady tapping and sensible buying, the first Meteor takes roughly 15 to 20 minutes. Tap less and it takes longer, but your crew never stops.

Awards, offline digging and saves

• Awards: 22 awards, such as Into the Jurassic and Extinction Event. Each adds 1% to all income, and you keep them through every Meteor.
• Offline earnings: your crew keeps digging at its normal rate for up to 4 hours while you are away. When you return, a welcome-back summary shows how long you were gone and what was dug.
• Saves: the game saves to your browser every 10 seconds and whenever you switch away. The Save tab exports a backup string and imports it again in any browser.
• Big numbers: amounts are shortened to K, M, B and T, then switch to scientific notation (such as 1.23e15).

Tips

• Tap early, idle later. In the first minutes your taps are most of your income, so buy Soft Brushes and the Steel Pick quickly.
• Grab the cheap doublers. An upgrade that doubles a producer you own lots of is usually the best buy in the shop.
• Save for the next era. New crew types earn far more than another copy of an old one, so travel as soon as the cheap buys run out.
• Reset when growth slows. Waiting past 2 billion adds a few shards, but a fresh, faster age soon overtakes a slow one.

FAQ

Is Dino Idle free?

Yes. It is free to play with no account and nothing to install.

Does it keep going when I close the tab?

Your crew digs for up to 4 hours of the time you are away. Dig Frenzies and golden ammonites only happen while you play.

Will I lose my progress?

Not unless you clear your browsing data or play in a private window. Export a save string from the Save tab for a backup.

Does it work on phones and Chromebooks?

Yes. Tap the fossil to dig and tap the cards to buy; the dig site never scrolls the page. On a keyboard, Space digs, keys 1 to 8 buy crew and P or Esc pauses.

Like watching numbers grow? Try our Cookie Clicker for a classic bakery clicker, or 2048 for a puzzle that builds toward huge numbers. For more picks, see the best idle games.