Tap My Katamari Guide

tap my katamari guide

Guide updates

Game Updates

Update 2.1 – When Things Got Worse

Edit: Tap My Katamari 2.1 is completely broken. The figurine and record do not work at all and there’s no visible tracking for stars. It’s unknown if it’s not actually tracking star count or if those two items simply do nothing, but for now the game is basically the same but nerfed massively. The bongos are also basically useless as they increase base Cousin Power but it’s not multiplied by your All Power multiplier. Disaster.

I’m so sad I waited until this update to make this guide. Not only was the time travel glitch patched out (fair enough, it was blatant cheating though it did make the game 10x more enjoyable), but Mushrooms were massively and needlessly nerfed.

Crossy Mushroom now has a 20 second timer, and if you’re lucky you’ll get 2-4 candy over the course of the timer. Silent Trumpet (tap multiple times at once) no longer seems to affect it and the candy drop rate is SO much lower it’s barely even worth using, a stark contrast to being one of the most useful aspects of the whole game.

Money, Puff, and Friendly mushrooms were also nerfed. These now last for a mere 4 hours (and are only useful while the game is open!) instead of lasting until the next star. This addresses the issue where making stars was a terrible idea, but goes insanely too far and basically makes these all but useless unless you have tons of spare candy. At least they’re cheaper now (50 candy).

Coin Fever stacks for up to 12 hours instead of 4, letting you watch up to 3 ads in a row. Not exactly generous but slightly less annoying I guess.

New presents were added, still trying to find info on them as I burned all my stars and candy before the update. The two new Cosmic Presents finally reward you for making more stars (adding more Cousin Power and Coin percent per star made). Bravo, since making stars was almost offensively pointless progress-loss before, but since the transition animations still waste so much of your time after you reset, resetting is still pretty unbearable.

The time travel glitch was patched by making timers never exceed a hardcoded max, so yeah, they did fix what many thought was “unfixable”. You can still spoof the clock, but if you cast Crossy Mushroom and go a week back in time, you will still only have 20 seconds of Crossy Mushroom, not a week’s worth like you used to. As a note, you can still time travel glitch your Magnetic Heart/Coin Soul cooldowns, since that’s a bad thing instead of a good thing.

Hopefully the devs will realize this was an overreaction and continue tweaking these things. With the time travel glitch fixed, I don’t really think any of these changes were justified, other than the new presents which seem good.

Should I play it?

Honestly I have major issues with the game. Even for an idle this is insanely slow and grindy, and paying your way to victory would still take ages and hundreds of dollars. I find it hard to see this as anything but a cynical cash grab. Nonetheless, if you completely ignore the cash shop, accept that completion is impossible, there’s just enough Katamari charm and (excessive) complexity to let this app be an okay time-burner if you’re bored with your other idle games.

There’s a shadow of a really fun game here though. Before the time-traveler glitch, my problems with the game were fairly minor, since Candy, the premium currency, can be spent to fix most of the problems with the game (gee it’s almost like all flaws are deliberately manufactured to encourage spending). Considering the recent update I doubt said flaws will ever be meaningfully addressed, however.

If you just want an enjoyable relaxing idle game and haven’t played them yet, I would strongly recommend AbyssRium, Green The Planet 2, or World of Jewelry first. And if you have any idle games you prefer, feel free to let me know too. I’ve been looking for more games to play and write guides for

Why make a guide for a game I don’t like? I already invested the time, and I can help my fellow bamboozled Katamari fans out a bit. Even players playing heavily flawed games need help too. And as many issues as I have with the game, I do think there’s something here that could be much better.

Upgrade Info

Prince

The Prince menu is all of your most basic Idle Game upgrades: Tap power multiplier, one-off skills to increase tap power and earnings, and also your Prestige option.

Prince Upgrade

Raises distanced earned per tap, Max 3000

Your most basic upgrade

Charge ‘n’ Roll

Charges Katamari with x times tap.

How this works is activating Charge gives you a brief 4 second timer where you mash manual taps. Then that tap count is multiplied by the listed number and that amount of distance is moved. This power is nearly useless outside of Time Trial events though, because excess distance does not wrap over to the next object, an extremely frustrating quirk of the game that massively drags out the early game upon restarting.

Magnetic Heart

Automatic taps x times per second. Does not activate most “per tap” effects.

Not amazing in early playthroughs, but it will help you meet tough Time Trial goals and you can upgrade the duration to make it the lazy gamer’s favorite skill.

Coin Soul

Earn x times the current “object” value in coins every manual tap.

Very useful early on, it’s less noticeable with extreme powerups but still good to upgrade whenever possible.

Make a Star

Cash in your current Katamari (and restart from level 1) in exchange for the listed number of Star Tokens.

It’s like Prestige in Call of Duty and similar systems are in many other Idle games. There’s finally proper rewards for cashing in your Katamari with the King’s Figurine, but I’d still do this as rarely as you can, making sure you maximize the value of your Katamari. Only do this when totally stuck since in exchange you have to go through the early stages of the game again.

Cousins

These are your idle progress earners, and are one of the most important aspects of progress. Once you’ve earned certain “Mojos” and presents, a fraction of Cousin power will be added to every tap, meaning cousins help you roll pretty extremely after the right set of multipliers.

Mojo

Mojos are skills Cousins come with, unlocking at increasing intervals of Cousin Level. They’re helpful but random, and can be re-assigned (randomly) by spending a few Candy. Generally it’s best not to worry too much about what Mojos you have on your Normal Cousins unless you have a great deal of excess candy. Turning candy into Star Tokens and upgrading your permanent Special Cousins will be more worth your while.

  • Magical: Increase Tap Power
  • Sneaky: increase Critical Chance
  • Lucky: Increase Critical tap value
  • Regal: Increase King’s Treasure cash payout
  • Helpful: Increase All Power
  • Powerful: Increase this Cousin’s Cousin Power
  • Brave: Increase Tap Power during Time Trials
  • Energetic: Increase Tap Power by x% of Cousin Power
  • Smart: Increase Coins earned from objects

Testing Tap Value rate with a large amount of lategame presents, I found Magical is generally the most effective Mojo to have, if you have plenty of Candy you might want to fill your Special Cousins’ Mojo lists with Magical.

Sneaky and Lucky are good too, but you can’t go over 100% critical rate. Energetic can be good early on as well, but the Squirrel’s Nut present does the same job more effectively once obtained and upgraded.

Note that the more candy you spend on cycling a specific Mojo slot, the more likely high level Mojos becomes. After cycling a mojo 5-10 times, you should get a level 6 Mojo every time.

Since only Velvet really matters in the “endgame”, players with lots of candy can focus on putting lots of Powerful on her to increase their overall cousin power most significantly. Once Velvet is level 2000, all other Cousins’ Cousin Power is effectively moot.

Love/Cosmic

At level 1000 and 2000, you get special “Love” and “Cosmic” upgrades for cousins that drastically multiply how much Cousin Power they have.

Love is extremely important and will overtake certain higher-cost Cousins down the line. Optimal spending will often mean carefully noting which cousin you need to upgrade; sometimes it’s the latest Love Cousin (lewd) that you can upgrade, sometimes it’s the latest Cousin you’ve gotten. Don’t worry about this until a Cousin actually hits level 1000 btw.

Cosmic is basically useless except for Velvet’s (the last cousin), you might as well unlock it since eventually it’s cost will be infinitesimal, but unlike Love it will basically never actually be of worth.

Cousin List

Cousins have increasing Cousin Power and cost and are unique only in those two stats. All normal cousins are unlocked sequentially and have random Mojos. Don’t worry much about normal cousin mojos as they are lost upon making a Star.

  • Nik
  • Foomin
  • Lucha
  • Ace
  • arch
  • Daisy
  • Peso
  • Kuro
  • Shiako
  • Princess
  • Miso
  • Colomno
  • Fuijo
  • Ichigo
  • Macho
  • Miki
  • Kyun
  • Opeo
  • Nichkel
  • Johnson
  • Shy
  • June
  • Lalala
  • Havana
  • Dip
  • Kunihiro
  • Ryu
  • Marny
  • Honey
  • Twinkle
  • Ban-Ban
  • Paula
  • Velvet
Special Cousins

Permanent cousins that provide a basic All Power multiplier to Tap/Cousin power instead of having specific Cousin Power. Their mojos start random, but are permanent, so if you wish to change Mojos for specific effects, start with the special cousins.

Special Cousin costs ramp up fast but their value stays constant, so get one or two early, upgrade to get a few mojos, then cool off on spending Candies on them unless you have a lot.

Special Cousin List

Special cousins are awarded randomly when purchased, though they are functionally identical.

  • Drooby
  • Nai-Nai
  • Heuy
  • Hans
  • Mu
  • Sherman
  • Signolo

Presents

The Cosmos

Unlocks after 10 presents.

Not actually an item (as I first guessed), but a section of new, even more powerful and expensive Presents.

Present List

Reddit already has a nice list of the Presents so I won’t repeat that for now.

Mushrooms

A mix between premium currency and freebies, we have a lot of temporary game-boosters in this menu, some free, most costing Candies.

Coin Fever

Free*, 4 hour cooldown, up to 12 hours

Double your coin earnings for 4 hours each ad you watch, up to 12 hours total. Since it’s an iterative game, double both is and isn’t as significant as it sounds; it’s not entirely crucial but unless you’re direly opposed to ads you usually might as well get the bonus.

Would it have killed them to make this a mushroom for thematic reasons?

Crossy Mushroom

Free, 4 hour cooldown, lasts 20 seconds

This used to be one of the best skills in the game, giving you a couple dozen candies when stacked with Silent Trumpet. Now it gets you maybe 2-4 candies. Still worth using simply because it’s free, but good god it did not deserve this extreme of a nerf.

Lazy Mushroom

Taps a large number of times per second,  cost 10 Candy

With the time travel glitch this was OP, but now it just seems like a lure to leech lazy people’s money. Candy is better spent in the pursuit of stars.

Not sure how the multiplier for this is calculated, it goes higher but stopped for me currently at 1.08k times.

Royal Mushroom

Get about 1000x the current Object Coin value instantly

This is designed to get you “over the hump” but is mostly just a leech unless you have lots and lots of candy. Save it for Cosmic.

Money Mushroom

3x money earned for 4 hours

No longer worth it, though at least it’s cheap. Used to last until making a star.

Puff Mushroom

3x Tap power for 4 hours

Friendly Mushroom

2x Cousin Power for 4 hours

Cosmic Mushroom

Get Star Tokens as if you cashed in your current star without losing progress

Cost increases up to 500 depending on how many Star Tokens it earns

Especially with Royal Sceptre this is amazing: it can earn you over six times the Star Tokens actually making a star will! Shame it’s very expensive and there’s no longer a good way to get lots of extra candy. But this is more or less the one thing really worth your candy right now.

Store

The store is where you convert frustration and money into brief, meaningless relief after getting stuck on deliberately unpleasant aspects of the game. I don’t recommend it.

 Royal Pinata $5

Spending Candy adds candy to the Pinata, it will store up to 10,000 candy. Pay the $5 to collect all the candy and reset the counter. Obviously only worth it when the pinata is very full.

Deluxe Gym Pass $5

Permanently double Star Tokens, Coins, Tap Power, and Cousin Power.

Probably the best single item to get in the game. If you want to toss the devs some money (like I almost did before this update ruined everything), this is how to do it.

200 Candy $2

The tier where it’s so small they hope you buy it to get over a hump in the game’s progression.

550 Candy $5

The tier where they say “most popular” to encourage you to buy it. All the cool kids like peer pressure… (Leans too close to you.) …don’t you?

2600 Candy $20

You’re not actually supposed to buy this tier, it’s just here to make the tier above and below look like steals. Hopefully being aware of this effect will reduce it’s effect on you.

7000 Candy $50

The Whale tier. Please don’t. …or if you do, hey look, a guide writer’s Patreon page [Most Popular].

(Really though, 7000 candy is not as much as it sounds like. It’s totally possible to blow this much without coming close to the end of the game. It is simply impossible to buy your way to the end of the game, this game is not meant to be beaten.)

Walkthrough

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

Nah really, WIP, I’ll get to this soon. But remember it’s an idle game, nothing is permanent so don’t worry too much about making mistakes as long as they don’t cost you real money.

If you have walkthrough advice please send it, because a lot of what I know about early game is now irrelevant.

Story

The King of All Cosmos and the Prince have been captured by a greedy publisher and must tap away every second of their lives for even a brief glint of hope for freedom. This freedom never comes.

The Ending

This is what you got at level 3000, which used to be “the end” of the game. I haven’t reached the end of the game since it upgraded to 3500, but I assume it’s comparable to the literally nothing you got from reaching 3000 before.

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Author: SirTapTap

Gaming guide writer, content creator, streamer, UX designer, web developer, and a bunch of other stuff.

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