Orteil’s masterpiece is basically a psychological experiment disguised as a baker's tool. You start clicking a giant cookie. Then you’re hiring grandmas. Suddenly, you’re tearing holes in the fabric of the universe to summon more dough. But for the completionists out there, the standard list of 600+ achievements is just the surface level. The real game—the one that actually tests your patience and your willingness to break things—is found in the cookie clicker secret achievements, officially known in-game as Shadow Achievements.
These aren't your typical "bake 1 nonillion cookies" milestones. They don't even give you milk. That’s the catch. In a game built entirely on the concept of "number go up," Shadow Achievements are the only things that provide zero mechanical benefit. They are purely for bragging rights. They’re "unfair or difficult to get," as the game itself describes them. Honestly, some of them are just plain mean.
Why Shadow Achievements Feel Like a Fever Dream
Most games reward you for being good. Cookie Clicker rewards you for being weird, lucky, or a literal cheater. If you look at your stats page and see those empty slots at the bottom, you're looking at the Shadow realm. These don't count toward your total achievement percentage, which is why your bar might say 100% even if you're missing ten of these.
One of the most infamous examples is Just Plain Lucky. There is no strategy here. You cannot optimize your garden or your pantheon to get it. The game simply runs a check every second: there is a 1 in 1,000,000 chance you'll just... get it. Some players leave the game running for years and never see it pop. Others get it within their first hour. It’s a chaotic bit of programming that perfectly encapsulates why this game is so addictive and frustrating at the same time.
Then there’s God Complex. This one is a meta-joke. To earn it, you have to rename your bakery to "Orteil." If you do it, you get the achievement. If you’re feeling extra cheeky, naming yourself "ikte" also works. It’s a nod to the developer, a classic "dev-shoutout" trope that feels like finding an easter egg in a 90s era RPG.
The Hardcore Trio: Speedrunning and Self-Harm
If you think clicking is easy, you haven't tried the "Neverclick" or "Hardcore" runs. These are the core cookie clicker secret achievements that actually change how you play the game. They require a fresh start—usually via a "Born Again" ascension where you forgo all your prestige upgrades.
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1. True Neverclick
You have to reach 1 million cookies without clicking the big cookie. Not once. You have to sit there and wait for Golden Cookies to spawn. You need two of them just to afford your first cursor. It is slow. It is agonizing. It makes you realize how much you take that mouse button for granted. If you accidentally click—even once—the run is dead.
2. Hardcore
This one is about purity. You need to get to 1 billion cookies without buying a single upgrade. No "Plastic Mouse," no "Forwards from Grandma," nothing. You are relying on the raw DPS (Dough Per Second) of your buildings. It turns the game into a slow-motion crawl that reminds me of the early days of incremental gaming back in 2013.
3. Speed Baking (I, II, and III)
These are the adrenaline spikes. Speed Baking III requires you to hit 1 million cookies in under 15 minutes. In a fresh run. Without prestige. You basically need a "Frenzy" or "Click Frenzy" from a Golden Cookie almost immediately. If you don't get the right RNG in the first three minutes, you might as well wipe your save and try again. It's the closest Cookie Clicker gets to being an eSport.
Cheating and The Fourth Wall
Orteil knows you’re probably looking at the source code. He knows you might be tempted to open the console and type Game.cookies = Infinity. Instead of just banning you or breaking the game, he gave the cheaters their own badge of shame: Cneated Cookies Taste Awful.
To get this, you just have to use the browser console to give yourself cookies or an achievement. It used to be called "Cheated Cookies Taste Awful," but the typo in the current version is intentional. It stays on your save forever unless you manually edit it out. It’s a permanent mark on your record. Some people want it just to fill the slot; others treat it like a virus.
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Then there is Third-party, which you get for using an add-on or a script. It’s not necessarily a "cheat," but it’s a recognition that you’re not playing the "vanilla" experience. It’s one of the easiest cookie clicker secret achievements to trigger if you’re using something like Cookie Monster to track your efficiency.
The Garden and the Gritty Reality of RNG
If you’ve spent any time in the Garden minigame, you know it’s a nightmare of mutations and tick-rates. But there is a secret achievement hidden in the dirt: Seedless to Nay.
You have to collect every single seed in the garden, and then—this is the painful part—you have to sacrifice your entire seed collection to the sugar giants. You lose everything. All that work, gone. In exchange, you get a Shadow Achievement and some Sugar Lumps. It is a brutal trade-off. It’s the ultimate "prestige" move for players who have nothing left to prove.
Speaking of RNG, let’s talk about Four-leaf Cookie. You have to have four Golden Cookies on the screen at the same time. This is almost impossible to do naturally. You usually need a "Sweet" effect, a "Distilled Essence of Redoubled Luck," and some very fast fingers with the "Force the Hand of Fate" spell in the Grimoire. It’s a frantic, stressful ten seconds of gameplay in a game that is usually about idling.
The Ones Nobody Talks About
There are a few achievements that are so obscure they feel like urban legends.
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- When the Cookies Ascend Just Right: You have to ascend with exactly 1 trillion cookies. Not 1 trillion and one. Not 999 billion. Exactly 1,000,000,000,000. It requires you to sell buildings and click very carefully as you approach the limit.
- Tabloid Addiction: You have to click on the news ticker 50 times. Most people ignore the ticker after the first hour. It’s a simple one, but it’s hidden in plain sight.
- Olden Dish: This is the "forgotten" achievement. You have to click the small, faded cookie icon that appears in the info tab. It’s a relic of the game's UI that serves no purpose other than this one specific click.
Technical Nuance: Born Again Mode
To actually hunt these, you need to understand "Born Again" mode. When you ascend, you can click the cookie icon next to the "Reincarnate" button. This lets you play without your Heavenly Chips or prestige bonuses.
Most players make the mistake of trying to get True Neverclick on a standard run. It won't work. The game checks if you have prestige active. If you do, the achievement is locked. You have to go back to zero. It’s a humbling experience to go from baking septillions a second to waiting five minutes for a single cookie to drop from the sky.
The Philosophy of the Shadow
Why do we do this? There is no "End" to Cookie Clicker. Even after you’ve baked enough cookies to fill the observable universe, the numbers just keep getting bigger. The cookie clicker secret achievements offer a different kind of goal. They aren't about power; they are about experiences.
They force you to engage with the game’s weirdest mechanics. They make you care about the news ticker. They make you fear the "Orteil" name. They turn a game about mindless accumulation into a game about precision, luck, and occasionally, blatant hacking.
If you’re looking to round out your collection, start with the "Born Again" ones. They are the most satisfying because they require a different skillset. Leave Just Plain Lucky for the background. It’ll happen when it happens.
Actionable Next Steps for Achievement Hunters
- Open the Info Tab: Scroll down and find the tiny cookie icon. Click it. That's your first "hidden" one done in five seconds.
- Plan a Born Again Run: Next time you ascend, don't just Reincarnate. Switch to Born Again mode and knock out Hardcore and True Neverclick in one go. It’ll take a few hours, but it’s a rite of passage.
- Check your Bakery Name: Change it to "Orteil" for five seconds, get the achievement, and change it back if you hate it.
- The Ticker Grind: Sit there and click the news headlines. Do it until the achievement pops. It’s mindless, but it’s one less empty slot in your stats.
- Garden Sacrifice: If you’re deep in the end-game, finish your seed collection. It hurts to reset, but the Shadow Achievement is the only way to truly "beat" the Garden.
Don't stress the 1-in-a-million odds. The beauty of Cookie Clicker is that it's always running. Eventually, the universe—or the code—will give you what you’re looking for. Just keep the tab open.