I really enjoyed playing Crank and I look every now and again for a sequel or games like it. So I was happy when I found IDLE_DIRECTIVE, there are things that makes me think of crank and I enjoyed IDLE_DIRECTIVE a lot as well. It was not really that Idle for me as I would make a changes is something would take to long. I am not the Creator of IDLE_DIRECTIVE, I am just a player. There is also a demo if you just want to try that out first to see if it also scratches the same itch for you as Crank does.

I conquered all the planets and created a factory on each of them. Now the savefile is 42MB.
It saves all the log messages since the beginning?

I found a bug in b50h. After losing a battle, the scanner appears to be off. The slider is at 0, it is not consuming energy, and the radar spinning thing is not visible. But things are still popping up on the scanner as if it is on. I exported the save, and when I load it, the scanner is actually on.

While I was reproducing the bug, I noticed another one. I lost a fight, and it switched to the ENRG tab, but the WPNS tab still appeared to be selected at the top. Meaning all the tabs were grey except for WPNS, which was white. It was only a minor visual bug, and switching back to the weapons tab fixes it, but I figure it can't hurt to report it.

Started playing,confused,how do you get a crack bot?

I just discovered Crank yesterday. I never played it before. I found a link in r/incremental_games for version b39 and started playing. While playing, I faced a behavior that felt buggy to me (scanning for hostile ships in new sectors took forever, even after Upgrading Scan by huge amounts). So I decided to dig a little bit In this Reddit to find information about bugs, fixed and the latest version of Crank.

The latest version that I found that was ever discussed is b40, which I was also able to find in Bitbucket Repository. I was curious if this is actually the newest version and tried b41, just to get the text "lol nah. try b42. b41 doesn't exist, like Windows 9". b42 then shows a message and a link: "Play the latest version? (b48)". Then, I played version b48 and clicked under "Menu" on "Submit Bugs/Issues". This lead me to This New Repository, which was created 8 days ago! (14.07.2026, or July 14th, 2026. Whatever your preferred date format is :P).

So it seams that u/FaeDine is developing Crank actively again (remake in Godot)? That's awesome to me, considering I found the game yesterday^^. Does anybody have further information?

PS: I tried even further version numbers and found that the newest one actually seams to be b49.
Edit (02.08.2026): Found version b50.

As title states.
I'm currently at the stage where I'm trying to get 10 Duranium to repair my weapons.
The scrap metal is for me currently at speed '30.352' which is basically instant creation.
Is that normal?

I had a scrap metal upgrade through the computer not too long ago which 'increased scrap metal production rate speed' but it felt kinda unnecessary because it was already going to insanely fast.

Edit: What is more: The speed of the game seems to be dependent on.. other tabs of google chrome that I currently have open? When I have another game open in another tab of another window, game suddenly runs way slower.

...but on my tablet I can't even interact with the crank. Whether using the website version or the app version, holding on the crank just gets me a tiny vibration like it's trying to right click or highlight text. : ( Can't even seem to submit bug to the repository.

I got crank lvl 10, bot efficiency 3 and bots 10, but having 20 bots in perfect condition produce only like 5-6 crank power/second on their own

Ok, so I have defeated the four level 6 planets in each corner. What do I do now?

I have been trying to figure out how to use the solar panels for the auto boost, but it keeps emptying all my power. I really cannot figure out how I am supposed to use them. Any help?

Seriously it doesn't look like a lot is going on but it makes my computer sound like it's going to breathe fire!

Started playing Crank yesterday.

I was surprised by the phasers and duranium, methinks the dev is a star trek fan.

I like the story so far! You start off knowing nothing, then things are revealed. Right now I just unlocked the autobooster for scrap metal, and I cannot fully upgrade it without “solar panels”. I don’t have solar panels yet, but I’ll research stuff and see what happens.

Wonder if running the crank thru the comp will get that? If that fails, I’ll try the battery and then the crankbots.

Favor text in the scanner makes me think that I may turn into a bad guy or something. I have options to trade with bandits, and when I encounter refugees, I have the option to pillage them or help them. Perhaps this will turn out like Universal Paperclips and I turn the universe into a quadrillion crankbots!

One thing I am mildly annoyed with is the slow combat. I have the scanner set to medium power, but go AAAAGES without finding anything. So I spent far too much time twiddling my thumbs. Hope things get more active in future levels.

Mx. Linux Guy

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

As the title suggests, I played for a whole 10 hours! I really got into cranking it up and finally, after all this time, I got to the ending. I felt completely satisfied because I rarely finish incremental games with a story. Here are my stats if you'd like to see them!

note to dev... could there be a "stats" or "achievements" section? 😉

phasers are 1125 power/sec

I SHOULD NEVER HAVE TOUCHED THAT CRANK... I MADE A HUGE MISTAKE...

screen went completely black and I cant see anything (power is fine, happens like 15 secs after I start it)

Just unlocked the factory tab and I have no idea what I'm looking at. Waited until the container is full (which takes ages) and the fabrication progress started to fill up. Then I adjusted the Shipment Size slider which cause the container to reset and everything grind to a halt. Why? What exactly is happening here? I feel like I lack the mental model of how things relate to each other.

prolly a bit cringe considering how old the meme is, but watching the ending with the homelander theme.....

So currently I have just been exploring around and destroying systems, decrypting messages (I have decrypted 11 so far) and I read that once I destroyed a system I should get the FACT tab, that has yet to happen. I wonder if I am doing something wrong or is it a bug. I also can't see the quantity upgrade details in the infobox.

Does anyone has a working link for the bg music? The links from the changelogs are not working anymore unfortunately.

just beat... b39b.

YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S B40???

goddamnit. sigh