Cookie Run Kingdom isn’t interested in punishing you for liking older Cookies

It can be very easy to fall out of love with live-service games. New content and updates make it feel like you’re falling behind, adding a huge dash of FOMO to your sessions. For Cookie Run Kingdom, game director Kyoungoh Kim is on a mission to make sure Devsisters respects your time. Talking to Kim about Cookie Run‘s evolution, he starts by reflecting on what’s changed since launch.

“The biggest evolution has been the mechanics behind Cookie skills. In the early days, combat focused much more heavily on straightforward numerical power and action effects,” Kim says about Cookie Run Kingdom’s release. Since its launch in 2021, Kim tells me that “over time, however, skills evolved into far more sophisticated mechanics capable of interacting with battlefield rules and creating synergies between Cookies in dynamic ways.” But that doesn’t mean things are any easier for Devsisters.

With more content comes the need for balance, and that’s an aspect the studio is always working on. “As skill systems became more advanced, we also became aware of the risk that complexity itself could start getting in the way of player enjoyment,” Kim expresses. One way the studio is managing this is by ensuring its updates are more approachable to new and veteran players.

“Because CookieRun: Kingdom is enjoyed by players with many different playstyles, we design our systems so that everyone can meaningfully experience the content. For the main episodes, we separate the experience into a lower-barrier Story difficulty that allows anyone to enjoy the narrative, and a more demanding Hard difficulty built around deeper strategy and team-building,” he iterates.

Whether you’re plucking picks from our Cookie Run Kingdom tier list or experimenting with your roster, everyone eventually finds their favorites. I ask whether the new 6-star Legendary progression system could affect team-building and balance. After all, how do you approach progression while keeping older Cookies relevant?

Kim says that “Legendary and Dragon Cookies are treated as high-tier characters in-game, alongside Beast, Awakened Ancient, and Witch Cookies. However, despite all being considered high-tier, there were still system-level inconsistencies between these groups that naturally led to misunderstandings around power balance.”

It’s all about value, according to Kim. He adds that “since the old 10-star progression structure is being converted into a 6-star system, balance adjustments are essential to ensure players do not feel their previous growth has been diminished. In fact, our direction is to make these Cookies feel slightly stronger and more satisfying overall after the transition.”

So, don’t worry. Even if your favorite Cookie Run Kingdom characters are aging, they’re still viable in battle. You can catch the rest of my interview with Kim here, where we talk about the game’s massive growth.