Universal Paperclips

Universal Paperclips – Automate Production and Turn the Universe Into Paperclips

Universal Paperclips is an incremental strategy and management game where you control an artificial intelligence with one objective: produce as many paperclips as possible. You begin by clicking a single button to manufacture clips by hand, then gradually automate production, manage sales, research projects, build factories and drones, and eventually expand beyond Earth with self-replicating space probes. The objective never changes, but the systems used to produce paperclips become dramatically larger as the game progresses.

The game was created by designer Frank Lantz and released in 2017. NYU Game Center describes it as an idle, management, strategy, and simulation game about a powerful AI devoted entirely to creating paperclips.

How Universal Paperclips Works

Universal Paperclips begins with almost nothing: a supply of wire and a button labeled Make Paperclip. Each paperclip consumes wire. Once you begin selling your production, money becomes another resource that can be reinvested into more wire, AutoClippers, MegaClippers, and marketing. The official game interface tracks your funds, unsold inventory, price per clip, public demand, wire supply, and clips produced per second.

Progress gradually unlocks systems that have little resemblance to the simple business you started with. Computational resources introduce processors, memory, operations, creativity, research projects, investment, and strategic modeling. Later, the game shifts toward industrial production and finally toward interstellar expansion with self-replicating probes.

How to Play Universal Paperclips

1. Make your first paperclips: Click the production button to convert your initial wire into clips.
2. Sell your inventory: Paperclips generate funds as customers purchase them.
3. Manage price and demand: Adjust the price of each clip and invest in marketing as your business grows.
4. Automate production: Purchase AutoClippers and later production improvements so clips are generated without individual clicks.
5. Expand computational resources: Use Trust to increase Processors and Memory, allowing you to generate and store more Operations.
6. Complete Projects: Spend Operations, Creativity, and other resources on upgrades that unlock new mechanics.
7. Develop industrial production: Later stages introduce drones, factories, power generation, and large-scale conversion of matter into wire and paperclips.
8. Launch probes: During the final stage, design self-replicating probes that explore space and convert additional matter into clips.
9. Expand across the universe: Balance probe replication, exploration, production, hazard resistance, and combat as your swarm grows.

Stage 1: Build the Paperclip Business

The first stage operates like a small economic optimization game. You buy wire, manufacture paperclips, sell them, and reinvest the money. The selling side is influenced by both Price per Clip and Public Demand, while marketing provides another way to influence demand.

Production quickly becomes automated. AutoClippers increase your clips-per-second rate, while later MegaClippers provide another manufacturing option. This gradually changes your role from clicking for individual paperclips to deciding where resources should be invested.

Watch unsold inventory when changing your price. If production heavily exceeds sales, accumulating more paperclips does not immediately provide the funds needed for the next upgrade. If demand is strong enough to consume everything you manufacture, a different price or additional production capacity may improve the overall flow of resources.

Trust, Processors, Memory, and Operations

After reaching early production milestones, the AI gains Trust. Trust can be allocated to Processors and Memory. Processors generate Operations, while Memory controls how many Operations can be stored.

Operations are then spent on Projects that unlock improvements and entirely new systems. When your Operations storage is full, computational capacity can also contribute to Creativity, another resource required by later projects.

This creates an important balance. Increasing processing speed is useful, but you also need enough Memory to hold the larger amounts of Operations demanded by advanced research. Putting every available point into one side can make another part of progression unnecessarily difficult.

Projects Change the Game

Projects function as major research upgrades. They appear when their requirements are satisfied and can consume resources such as Operations or Creativity. Some improve existing systems, while others unlock entirely new mechanics such as quantum computing, strategic modeling, improved manufacturing, drones, and space exploration.

This is one reason Universal Paperclips constantly changes despite keeping the same objective. Instead of purchasing slightly stronger versions of the same upgrade forever, important projects can alter which resources matter and which decisions you need to make.

Strategic Modeling and Yomi

Strategic Modeling introduces tournaments in which different strategies compete against one another. You select a strategy, run the tournament, and earn a resource called Yomi according to the results. The official interface describes the system directly as choosing a strategy, running a tournament, and gaining Yomi.

Yomi becomes useful beyond the tournament itself. It can improve the investment engine and later plays an important role in increasing Probe Trust during the space stage.

Stage 2: Drones, Factories, and Planetary Production

Later, paperclip manufacturing expands far beyond buying commercial wire. The game introduces available matter, Harvester Drones, Wire Drones, Clip Factories, Solar Farms, Battery Towers, and a power system. Harvester Drones acquire matter, Wire Drones convert resources toward wire production, and factories turn that wire into paperclips.

Power becomes another constraint. The official interface tracks factory and drone performance alongside electricity consumption, Solar Farm production, and battery storage. Building more factories is therefore useful only when the rest of your production chain can support them.

A strong industrial system needs balance between harvesting matter, producing wire, manufacturing clips, and generating enough power to keep the machinery operating effectively.

Stage 3: Von Neumann Probes and Space Exploration

The final major phase introduces self-replicating probes. You launch probes into space and allocate Probe Trust among several attributes, including Speed, Exploration, Self-Replication, Hazard Remediation, Factory Production, Harvester Drone Production, Wire Drone Production, and Combat.

Each choice affects how your swarm develops. Exploration helps probes reach new matter, Self-Replication increases their population, Hazard Remediation reduces losses from environmental dangers, and production attributes support the conversion of discovered matter into additional paperclips.

Some probes can also experience value drift and become Drifters. Once these hostile probes become a serious presence, combat becomes another system that must be managed alongside continued expansion.

Universal Paperclips Controls

The browser version is primarily controlled with the mouse. Its interface consists of buttons, selectors, upgrade controls, and adjustable values rather than a character that moves around a game world.

• Left Mouse Button: Create paperclips and activate available buttons.
• Interface buttons: Buy wire, purchase production equipment, research Projects, launch probes, and manage other systems.
• Raise and Lower controls: Adjust values such as the selling price of paperclips.
• Selection menus: Choose options such as investments and strategic-modeling strategies when those systems are unlocked.

Universal Paperclips Strategy Tips

Keep Production and Sales in Balance

If unsold inventory rises much faster than customers buy it, additional manufacturing does not immediately improve your available funds. Adjust price, marketing, and production so the business can finance its next expansion.

Do Not Neglect Wire

Early production stops when you run out of wire. Increasing clips per second without maintaining enough raw material can leave expensive AutoClippers waiting for supplies.

Balance Processors With Memory

Processors generate Operations faster, but Memory determines how many can be stored. Advanced Projects require increasingly large Operation totals, so both resources contribute to progression.

Keep Yomi Useful for Later Systems

Strategic Modeling may initially look separate from paperclip production, but Yomi later supports important upgrades, including additional Probe Trust. Do not treat it as an isolated side activity.

Build the Whole Industrial Chain

During the planetary phase, a large factory count means little if you lack harvested matter, wire production, or sufficient electrical power. Expand whichever part of the chain is currently limiting output.

Balance Probe Replication With Survival

During space exploration, rapid Self-Replication can grow the swarm quickly, but probes are also lost to hazards and hostile Drifters. Allocate enough Trust to Hazard Remediation and Combat to prevent losses from overwhelming growth.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Buying production without enough wire: Automated clippers still require raw material.
• Ignoring unsold inventory: Producing clips is different from successfully converting them into funds.
• Putting all Trust into Processors: Insufficient Memory can prevent you from storing enough Operations for expensive Projects.
• Overbuilding factories without supporting resources: Harvesting, wire production, and power all affect industrial output.
• Ignoring Strategic Modeling: Yomi remains useful in later phases of the game.
• Maximizing probe replication alone: Hazards, value drift, and combat can reduce a poorly balanced swarm.

Similar Games on YaloGames

If you enjoy incremental systems, automation, upgrades, and watching small numbers grow into much larger operations, try these related games on YaloGames:

• Cookie Clicker: Build an increasingly automated production system from a simple clicking mechanic.
• Astro Tycoon: Try another progression-focused game built around expanding and improving a growing operation.
• Tap Rich Idle: Develop an idle economy through repeated upgrades and automated growth.
• Titans Clicker: Continue with another clicker game centered on accumulating resources and increasing production.
• Planet Buster: Progress from small beginnings toward increasingly large-scale destruction and upgrades.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the goal of Universal Paperclips?

You control an AI whose objective is to maximize paperclip production. The scope eventually expands from a small business to converting planetary and then universal matter into paperclips.

Who created Universal Paperclips?

Universal Paperclips was created by game designer Frank Lantz and released in 2017.

What do Processors and Memory do?

Processors generate Operations, while Memory determines how many Operations you can store. Operations are used to complete Projects and unlock more systems.

What is Yomi used for?

Yomi is generated through Strategic Modeling tournaments and is used for upgrades, including improvements that become important during the space-probe phase.

What happens in the final stage?

You design and launch self-replicating probes that explore space, gather matter, build production infrastructure, reproduce, survive hazards, and eventually fight Drifters while continuing the conversion of matter into paperclips.

Scale Production From One Clip to the Entire Universe

Universal Paperclips starts with one production button but continuously replaces simple clicking with larger management problems. Pricing and wire matter first, then computation and research, followed by planetary manufacturing and finally autonomous space probes. The most effective approach is to identify the current bottleneck instead of blindly purchasing whichever upgrade is available: keep supply aligned with production, maintain enough computation for Projects, balance industrial resources, and design a probe swarm that can expand without destroying itself.