Idle game glossary: AFK, shiny, drop, hunt, prestige, RMT and more

The genre

Idle

A game that keeps progressing when you are not playing: your character hunts, production keeps running and you come back to decide what to upgrade. The word idle means inactive, doing nothing. The guide what is an idle game explains the genre.

Incremental

Another name for the genre: the numbers only go up — production, damage, gold — and the game is about making them grow faster.

AFK

Short for away from keyboard: a player who is inactive or absent. In idle RPGs, it became a synonym for progressing without playing (AFK farming).

Clicker

An idle game where it all starts with clicking — on a cookie, on a monster — until the upgrades click for you.

Idle MMO

An online game with other players — a market, clans, PvP — where your character hunts on its own in a browser tab. It is the format of the games on TopIdle, the Brazilian ranking.

Offline progress

What the game calculates while you are away. Not every idle game has it: some only progress with the page open — and then the tab cannot fall asleep.

Progression

Farm

Farming means repeating the same activity to collect XP, gold or items. In an idle game, your character farms on its own.

Grind

Long, repetitive farming, usually to level up or to get a hard-to-find item.

XP

Experience (also EXP). It comes from defeating monsters and completing tasks, and it makes your character level up.

Prestige

Also called rebirth or reset: taking your progress back to zero on purpose in exchange for a permanent bonus, which makes the next run much faster.

Boost

A temporary bonus — more XP, more drops, more speed — usually from an item or for a set amount of time.

Buff and debuff

An effect that makes your character stronger (buff) or weaker (debuff) for a while.

Build

A character's combination of gear, stats and skills.

Meta

The strongest choices of the moment — team, class, build. It changes with every update.

Tier

The quality level of an item, monster or area (tier 1, tier 2…). A tier list ranks what is best and worst in the current version of the game.

Hunting and loot

Hunt

The hunting area — or the hunt itself. In Poke Idle and Tibia Idle games, picking the right hunt for your level is half the game.

Drop

An item that falls from a defeated monster. The drop rate is the chance of it dropping.

Loot

Everything you collect on a hunt: items, gold, materials.

Shiny

A rare version of a pokémon (or a monster), with colors different from the regular one. In Poke Idle games, finding one is rare — each game publishes its own odds.

Boss

A monster stronger than the regular ones, which usually drops the best loot.

MVP

In Ragnarok and Ragnarok Idle games, the strongest boss on a map, with a reward for whoever contributed most to defeating it.

Respawn

When a monster (or your character) appears again after being defeated.

PvP and PvE

Player versus player (PvP), or player versus environment (PvE) — the game itself, with its monsters and bosses.

Economy and money

Gold

The game's regular currency, the one you earn by playing. Depending on the game, it is called gold, zeny or coins.

Premium currency

Diamonds, gems or coins bought with real money, for VIP, boosts and items. In many games, it cannot be withdrawn.

VIP

A paid subscription that gives you bonuses for a period of time: more XP, more space, shortcuts.

Market

Also called the auction house: where players list and buy items from one another, with in-game currency — and, in some games, with real money.

RMT

Real money trading: selling items, currency or accounts for real money. Most games forbid it; some allow it, with rules. See RMT in games.

P2E

Play-to-earn: a game that pays you in crypto or tokens for what you farm. There are no guaranteed earnings — the guide crypto idle games explains the risks.

Withdrawal

Taking your balance out of the game to a real wallet or account, when the game allows it. There is usually a minimum amount and a fee.

USDT

A cryptocurrency pegged to the dollar (a stablecoin), used by several games for payments, both in and out.

Accounts and rules

Main and alt

The main account (your main) and the extra ones (alts). Many games limit or forbid alts.

Multi-accounting

Playing with multiple accounts at the same time. What counts is each game's rule — per person, per IP or per device. How to open them is covered in multiple accounts in the same browser.

IP limit

How many accounts from the same internet address can play at the same time.

Bot

A program that plays for you. Forbidden in the vast majority of games with an economy.

Macro

A sequence of clicks or keystrokes repeated automatically. To the game, it is automation — and it is usually forbidden just like a bot.

Auto

Auto-hunt, auto-battle: OFFICIAL automation, from the game itself. It is different from a bot: it comes from the game and is allowed there.

VPN and proxy

They make your connection go out through a different address. Using them to get around account limits usually gets you banned.

Antidetect

A browser that disguises your computer so that each account looks like it belongs to a different person. See the comparison antidetect browsers for games.

Ban

When an account is suspended or closed for breaking the rules. In a game with a balance, the balance usually goes with it.

Wipe

The server resets everyone's progress — common when a game leaves beta or starts a new season.

Community and server

Guild

Also called a clan: a group of players with its own chat, goals and, sometimes, wars between guilds.

Alpha and beta

Testing phases. In beta the game already works, but it can still change a lot — and it sometimes ends with a wipe.

Patch

A game update. The patch notes list what changed.

Staff

The game's team — moderators and administrators; the GM (game master) is the one who looks after the server and the players.

Discord

Where the community of most idle games lives — and where rules and news usually come out first.