Guides / Idle AI Factory: Robot Tycoon
Idle AI Factory Beginner's Guide: Floors, Robots, Research and Reboot
ONI Games · Published
Everything a new boss needs in Idle AI Factory: Robot Tycoon: how your factory makes money, why floor levels 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 matter, what to upgrade first, how super robots, chests and AI Research work and when to do your first Factory Reboot.
Idle AI Factory: Robot Tycoon is an idle tycoon game where robots build gadgets on the floors of your factory and trucks ship them for coins. The short version of how to grow fast: level every floor to its next milestone, because floor levels 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 each double that floor's profit. Open the free chest every four hours for super robots, open the second factory at level 15, and do your first Factory Reboot at level 40 for AI Cores.
We make Idle AI Factory, so every number in this guide comes from the game's code.
How your factory makes money
Each floor of your factory is a production line with its own robots and its own product, from microchips to robot dogs and AI cores. Robots carry finished products to the lift, and the delivery truck ships them. Every truck trip pays coins, and coins do two jobs: they pay for upgrades and they fill your factory level bar.
Your factory level goes up as you earn. Each level asks for 1.8 times as many coins as the one before, and level-ups hand out chests: a Rare Chest at every tenth level and a Basic Chest at the other multiples of 5.
The first taps that help:
- Tap a robot and it works faster for a moment.
- Upgrade the floor to raise its production, and unlock new floors to add new products.
- Upgrade the truck so it can carry what your floors produce. A slow truck caps everything behind it.
- Catch the money drone when it flies over the factory. It pays free coins and sometimes drops a chest.
Floor milestones: the numbers that double your profit
Floor upgrades are not all equal. Five floor levels are milestones: 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100. Each one doubles that floor's production and gives you 1 AI Core. A floor at level 100 makes 32 times as much as the same floor below level 10.
That makes the best early habit simple: when a floor is a few levels short of its next milestone, finish it before you spread coins elsewhere. The upgrade panel shows the multiplier production really uses, so you can check each jump yourself.
Stars: prestige for a single floor
When a floor hits LVL MAX, the upgrade button turns into a star. Taking it resets that floor to level 1, but the floor keeps the star for good. One star doubles the floor's profit, two stars make it x4, three x6, and so on up to 10 stars, x20. The floor's upgrade costs grow by the same factor, so a star is a long-term gain rather than a free one.
Each star also pays AI Cores straight away: 5 in the first factory, 8 in the second and 12 in the third. Stars count toward your Factory Reboot reward too.
Three factories
You start in the AI Lab. Reach level 15 there and you can open Silicon City, a neon factory with its own floors, robots and products. Reach level 15 in Silicon City and the Space Base on the Moon opens. Every factory keeps its own level and coins, so you can switch between them from the world map.
Super robots and the crew
Super robots are not the robots on your floors. They are a collection of 16 special bots in four rarities, and each one gives your whole factory a bonus while it is in your crew:
| Robot | Rarity | Bonus at level 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Sparky | Common | Robot speed +5% |
| Bolt | Common | Truck speed +5% |
| Penny | Common | Drone rewards +10% |
| Dozer | Common | Upgrade costs -2% |
| Volt | Rare | Income +4% |
| Luna | Rare | Offline earnings +3% |
| Turbo | Rare | Booster time +8% |
| Hauler | Rare | Truck capacity +8% |
| Nova | Epic | Income +8% |
| Chronos | Epic | Offline time +30 minutes |
| Midas | Epic | Level-up bonus +20% |
| Atlas Prime | Legendary | Income +15% |
| Jester | Legendary (Robo Carnival event) | Income +12% |
| Comet | Legendary (Space Rally event) | Truck speed +15% |
| Neon Idol | Legendary (Neon Festival event) | Booster time +20% |
| Goldie | Legendary (Golden Week event) | Level-up bonus +40% |
Extra copies level a robot up: 2 copies take it to level 2, then 4, 8 and 16 copies for levels 3, 4 and 5. Each level adds half of the level-1 bonus, so a level 5 robot is three times as strong. You start with one crew slot; the second opens at level 20 and the third at level 50, or right away with the VIP Pass. Every robot you own also adds 1% income from your collection, even when it sits on the bench. You can see all 16 with their art on the Idle AI Factory page.
Chests: where super robots come from
Chests are only earned by playing, never sold for money. A free chest is ready every 4 hours, and more come from level-ups, the reward drone (a 1 in 5 chance per catch), days 3 and 7 of the login bonus and the weekend event track.
| Chest | Robot cards | Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary | AI Cores |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | 2 | 80% | 18% | 2% | 0% | 2 to 4 |
| Rare | 3 | 55% | 35% | 9% | 1% | 5 to 10 |
| Epic | 4 | 30% | 45% | 20% | 5% | 15 to 25 |
The odds are per card. Atlas Prime is the only legendary a chest can hold; the other four legendaries come from weekend events. Our guide to drop rates and pity explains how to read odds like these.
AI Research: what to spend AI Cores on
AI Cores come from milestones, stars, chests, the event track and Factory Reboots. You spend them in the Research tab, on eleven permanent upgrades in three branches. Each node needs the one before it at level 2, except the first node of each branch:
| Branch | Research | Effect per level | Max level | First level costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production | Quick Bots | Robot speed +6% | 5 | 4 cores |
| Production | Cheap Parts | Upgrade costs -4% | 5 | 8 cores |
| Production | Neural Boost | Income +10% | 10 | 6 cores |
| Production | Quantum Core | Income +5% | No limit | 60 cores |
| Logistics | Smart Logistics | Truck speed +10% | 5 | 4 cores |
| Logistics | Mega Trucks | Truck capacity +25% | 5 | 7 cores |
| Logistics | Drone Magnet | Drone rewards +25% | 5 | 6 cores |
| Logistics | Promotion Deal | Level-up bonus +20% | 5 | 10 cores |
| Idle | Night Shift | Offline time +1 hour | 6 | 4 cores |
| Idle | Dream Engine | Offline earnings +5% | 6 | 8 cores |
| Idle | Overclock+ | Booster time +15% | 5 | 6 cores |
Each further level costs 1.3 to 1.8 times the last, depending on the node, and Quantum Core needs Neural Boost at level 5. Upgrade cost cuts from research and robots together never take a floor below half price.
Where to start depends on how you play. If you check in a few times a day, Night Shift first: your factory only counts 2 hours of offline time at the start, and every level adds an hour. If you play in longer sessions, go down the Production branch toward Neural Boost for raw income.
Offline earnings
Your robots keep working while the game is closed, as long as you are away for at least 3 minutes. At the start the factory pays 10% of its live income for up to 2 hours. Night Shift and Chronos extend the time, Dream Engine and Luna raise the share, and research alone takes it to 8 hours at 40%. When you come back, a video can multiply the pile, and the Permanent Boosters purchase doubles offline earnings for good. Our offline earnings guide compares this with other idle games.
Boosters, drones and daily rewards
- Boosters run the factory at double speed or double profit for a while after a short optional video. Overclock+ research and robots like Turbo make them last longer.
- The money drone pays free coins, and each catch has a 20% chance to drop a chest.
- Daily rewards grow over a 7-day streak, and a video doubles any day's reward.
- Daily quests give three fresh tasks a day, each with its own coin reward.
- Weekend Rush doubles daily reward, quest and drone bonuses every weekend.
Weekend events and the four legendary robots
From Friday 00:00 to Monday 00:00 your local time, a weekend event runs. Every truck delivery earns 1 event token, and five event quests add 40 tokens each: ship 150 trucks, upgrade floors 100 times, catch 8 drones, activate 4 boosters and open 2 chests. The event track pays coins, AI Cores and chests along the way, and its last tier at 650 tokens is the event's legendary robot: Jester at Robo Carnival, Comet at Space Rally, Neon Idol at Neon Festival or Goldie at Golden Week. The four events take turns, one per weekend.
Your first Factory Reboot
Factory Reboot is the prestige of Idle AI Factory. It restarts your current factory from level 1, with its coins, floors and stars, and pays AI Cores for how far you got. Research, super robots, chests, your other factories, achievements and purchases all stay.
It unlocks at level 40, and the reward follows one formula: cores = (2 x (level - 30)^1.35 + 2 x stars) x factory factor, where the factor is 1 in the AI Lab, 1.5 in Silicon City and 2 on the Space Base.
| Reboot at level | AI Lab | Silicon City | Space Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 45 | 67 | 90 |
| 60 | 197 | 296 | 395 |
| 100 | 619 | 929 | 1,239 |
Those numbers are before stars; every star in the factory adds 2 more cores, times the same factor. The first reboot is almost always worth it, because research makes every later run faster. After that, reboot when your progress has slowed and the reward is clearly bigger than your last one. Our prestige guide goes deeper into timing.
A simple plan for your first week
- Level each floor to its next milestone (10, 25, 50, 75, 100) before spreading coins around.
- Keep the truck ahead of your floors.
- Open the free chest every 4 hours, and claim the daily reward and quests.
- Put your best robot in the crew slot: an income robot like Volt or Nova, or Chronos if you play in short visits.
- Spend your first AI Cores on Night Shift, then Neural Boost.
- Open Silicon City at level 15, and play the weekend event for its legendary robot.
- Reboot at level 40 or a little later, and spend the cores on research before you climb again.
Idle AI Factory FAQ
Is Idle AI Factory free?
Yes. It is free to download and play, with ads and optional purchases. Chests are never sold for money.
Does my factory earn while I am offline?
Yes. It earns 10% of your live income for up to 2 hours at the start, and research and robots raise both numbers.
How do I unlock the second factory?
Reach level 15 in the AI Lab, then open Silicon City from the world map. Level 15 in Silicon City opens the Space Base.
What does Factory Reboot reset?
Only the current factory: its level, coins, floors and stars. You keep research, super robots, chests, other factories, achievements and purchases, and you get AI Cores.
Ready to run your own robot factory? Idle AI Factory: Robot Tycoon is free on Google Play.
Scan to install on your phone
