These All Hail the Orb tips are for your first playthrough. The game is short — three hours to the ending, five to seven for 100% — no fail states, no complicated builds, no resource crises that demand a restart. The only thing that takes planning is making sure you don't lock yourself out of achievements, and even that's been simplified by the April 22 patch.
Most of these tips come down to setting things up in the right order rather than any particular skill.
Key Takeaways
- Don't trigger the 1B Devotion finale until you're down to 3 or fewer remaining achievements
- Library automation is the priority — Knowledge is the slowest resource and the one most likely to delay your 100%
- Alchemy bench: spend 30 minutes here immediately when it unlocks — early discoveries compound across the whole run
- Duck gacha: roll 5 at a time, aim for 50 ducks before the finale
- Dungeon: explore every room — all 4 hidden achievements are room-specific and easy to walk past
- Resonance Crystals chain up to 10 times via Crystal Conduit — the Resonance Cascade achievement unlocks once this is active
Step-by-Step: First Playthrough Order
Phase 1 — Click, Recruit, Automate (Hours 1–2)
The first hour is mostly linear. Click the orb to generate Devotion. Recruit your first cultists as soon as they become available — automation is what frees you to focus on other systems.
The clicking achievements unlock in the first few minutes. Your First Devotee and Create 5 Cultists happen naturally. The Devotion milestone achievements (100 → 1K → 10K → 100K → 1M) unlock automatically as your cultist automation compounds.
What to actively manage: the Library. Set up Library automation as early as possible. Knowledge is the slowest resource relative to how much you need — 400K Knowledge for the Omniscient achievement is the milestone that will hold back your 100% completion if you deprioritize it. Automation running from early in the game accumulates passively while you focus on other systems.
The Speedy Transit alchemy discovery (connects Library to Cultist Quarters via portal) removes travel overhead and speeds Knowledge generation significantly. Getting this early is one of the highest-ROI moves in the game — it's covered more in the alchemy section below.
Phase 2 — Dungeon Exploration (Early in Hour 2)
The dungeon opens after Obelisk Stage 2. Go here before you get absorbed by the resource accumulation loop.
The four hidden achievements — Toasty Buns, Don'tcha think it's too early?, What's Behind the Bookshelf...?, and Bath Time — are all tied to specific dungeon rooms. Their Steam descriptions are blank until after you trigger them. They require no specific resource thresholds, no specific upgrade state — just reaching the right room and interacting with the right object.
The risk is that these rooms are easy to walk past. The dungeon has side branches that look incidental, and first-time players focused on progression tend to skip them. Don't. Explore every room, check every shelf, every tub, every corner that looks interactive.
I found three of mine by accident during a slow exploratory pass. The fourth — Bath Time — I genuinely walked past twice before a Steam community guide told me exactly where it was. The Steam community hub for All Hail the Orb has pinned guides with exact room names if you'd rather not search blind. No shame in that.
The post-April 22 patch does let you revisit the dungeon after the finale, so technically nothing is permanently missable. But finding them during the main run is faster than post-story cleanup.
Phase 3 — Alchemy Bench (First 30 Minutes After Unlock)
When the Alchemy Bench unlocks, stop and spend 30 minutes experimenting before moving on to anything else.
Why: alchemy discoveries give quality-of-life upgrades that compound across the whole remaining run. Getting them early means more time benefiting from them. Getting them late means they're nearly useless for a game you're about to finish.
The three most impactful early discoveries:
Speedy Transit — connects the Library to the Cultist Quarters via portal, removing the travel time overhead. This is the fastest way to accelerate Knowledge generation and should be your first target if you haven't already set up full Library automation.
Super Beds — reduces cultist sleep time, keeping your automation running more continuously. Small gains per cycle, but those add up over a 5-hour run.
Grotto Auto Harvest — automates a resource collection step that would otherwise require manual attention during the middle stages. Frees you to focus on other things.
The Grand Opus achievement requires all 9 alchemy recipes. The hardest one is Eureka Moments — it has a 0.01% chance to unlock per book read at the Library. That sounds scary, but if your Library automation is running continuously from early in the game, this resolves naturally without grinding. Players who rush past the Library and don't set up full automation tend to finish the story before Eureka Moments triggers, then need to idle post-patch. Set up the Library early and let it run.
Check your alchemy log periodically. Some recipes unlock when you hit specific resource milestones, and those milestones can arrive without you noticing if you're not checking.
Phase 4 — Duck Gacha (Any Point Before Finale)
The Quackpot is the duck-dispensing vending machine. It runs on its own separate currency — not Devotion, not Gold. The three duck achievements are First Quack, Quack Factory (20 ducks), and Duck Dynasty (50 ducks).
Roll 5 at a time whenever you have enough currency. Single rolls are less efficient. The developer reduced the cost of reaching 50 ducks post-launch, so Duck Dynasty is more accessible than it was for players in the first few days.
Check your duck count before triggering the 1 billion Devotion finale. If you're at 45 ducks, wait until you hit 50. The post-patch continuation does let you keep rolling after the ending, but cleaning this up during the main run is cleaner.
Phase 5 — Resource Milestones (Hours 3–5)
The resource accumulation achievements (Life Essence, Gold, Knowledge, Duckinite Ore) mostly unlock through standard play if you let automation run. The ones worth tracking:
- Omniscient (400K Knowledge) — the longest to accumulate. Library automation is the solution.
- King Midas (75M Gold) — comes naturally with late-game automation scaling.
- Shiny Rock to 4,000 Duckinite Ore — Duckinite is slower than Gold but still passive with automation.
If you're getting close to the finale and Knowledge is still short, run a Library automation pass for 30–60 minutes before triggering the billion-Devotion build.
The One Thing That Can Go Wrong
Triggering the 1 billion Devotion Obelisk building — The End...? stage — before you've finished your achievement list. This ends the main story.
The April 22 patch added post-story continuation, so the game doesn't cut you off permanently. But the dungeon hidden achievements require active exploration, and exploration is more natural during the main run than in a post-credit cleanup session.
Before triggering the finale, check off:
- All 4 dungeon hidden achievements found
- Duck Dynasty (50 ducks) or close enough to clean up immediately post-story
- The Grand Opus (all 9 alchemy recipes) — or at least confirmed that Eureka Moments is in progress
- Omniscient (400K Knowledge) — or close with Library automation running
The All Hail the Orb achievement guide has the full checklist of all 46 achievements if you want to confirm your state before the finale.
Tips for a Faster Run
Don't rush Obelisk stages. Each stage unlocks new systems. Advancing too quickly reduces the time your automation has to run, which means resource milestones arrive later instead of passively ticking over during transitions.
Cultists work for free. Once recruited, cultists automate passively. There's no upkeep cost or management required. More cultists = more automation = faster everything. Prioritize recruitment in the early stages.
The game is forgiving. There are no fail states. You can't mismanage resources badly enough to get stuck. The only planning the game actually requires is the dungeon pass and the finale timing. Everything else takes care of itself if you let automation run.
Track your alchemy log. Some recipes unlock at specific resource milestones, and those milestones can tick past without you realizing a new discovery is waiting. A quick check every 30 minutes of playtime is enough to stay on top of it. Missing a recipe for an hour isn't catastrophic, but if you're aiming for The Grand Opus, leaving unlockable recipes sitting in the queue is just wasted time.
The Resonance Crystal chain is worth understanding. Resonance Crystals spawn with a 10% chance per orb click and can chain up to 10 times once you have Crystal Conduit active. The Resonance Cascade achievement requires triggering this chain. It unlocks automatically once Crystal Conduit is in place — you don't need to farm it, just make sure the discovery is active and keep clicking. The chain triggering is easy to miss the first time it happens because the visual effect is quick.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you miss achievements in All Hail the Orb? One risk: completing the 1 billion Devotion Obelisk building while you still have more than 3 achievements left will end your run without them. The April 22 patch added post-story continuation, so you can keep playing after the finale and clean up most things. But if you haven't found all four hidden dungeon achievements before triggering the ending, those require active dungeon exploration — they don't unlock passively while idling.
What should I unlock first in All Hail the Orb? Set up Knowledge automation early. Knowledge is the slowest resource in the game, and the Omniscient achievement (400K Knowledge) is the one most likely to hold you back if you let the Library sit idle. After that, prioritize the Alchemy Bench when it becomes available — spending time experimenting early unlocks quality-of-life discoveries that pay off for the rest of the run.
How does the duck gacha work in All Hail the Orb? The Quackpot is a vending machine that dispenses ducks using its own separate currency. Roll 5 at a time when you have enough currency — it's more efficient than single rolls. The developer reduced the cost of reaching 50 ducks via a post-launch patch, so the Quack Factory and Duck Dynasty achievements are more accessible than early players found them. Aim to hit 50 ducks before triggering the finale if possible.
What are Resonance Crystals in All Hail the Orb? Resonance Crystals spawn with a 10% chance on each orb click and can chain up to 10 times through the Crystal Conduit alchemy discovery. One orb click can trigger up to 10 additional crystal spawns in sequence. The Resonance Cascade achievement requires triggering this chain — it unlocks naturally once you have Crystal Conduit active.
How long does All Hail the Orb take to complete? The game is designed to be completed in a single session — approximately 3 hours for the main story. A deliberate first playthrough aimed at 100% achievements takes closer to 5–7 hours, with the main additions being thorough dungeon exploration for the four hidden achievements and active Library automation to reach 400K Knowledge before the finale.
What are the four hidden achievements in All Hail the Orb? Toasty Buns, Don'tcha think it's too early?, What's Behind the Bookshelf...?, and Bath Time. All four are tied to specific dungeon rooms — they don't show in Steam until after you trigger them. Explore every side room and interact with anything that looks clickable. The Steam community hub for app 4262310 has pinned guides with exact room locations if you'd rather not search blind.
