History VideoGame / CookieRunKingdom

The colorful cast in the game include (but are by no means limited to) Gingerbrave, Strawberry Cookie, Wizard Cookie, The Five Ancient Heroes (Pure Vanilla Cookie, Hollyberry Cookie, Dark Cacao Cookie, Golden Cheese Cookie, & Lily White Cookie), and all sorts of familiar and new Cookies.

* AlwaysFemale: Every cookie in the Legendary class is female.

* RecurringElement: Super Epic Cookies are categorized as either having elemental powers (Stardust Cookie, Sherbet Cookie, & Capsaicin Cookie) or alluded to being rich (Clotted Cream Cookie, Oyster Cookie, & Shining Glitter Cookie).

** October 2022 is when ''Cookie Run Kingdom'' had a crossover...with ''Music/{{BTS}}''. You read that right; The number one Korean boy band had crossed over as adorable cookies.

* [[UnwittingInstigatorofDoom Unwitting Instigator Of Doom]]: Highlighted in Lord Oyster's bio in "A Mermaid's Tale". If he refused Abalone Cookie's offer, [[spoiler:then Black Pearl Cookie would never have been born because he wouldn't have sold her pearl for House Oyster's fortune.]]

* BackstoryHorror: The '''Dark Flour War''' is intense as far as SurpriseCreepy is concerned, with the burnt flour being Cookies' corpses crushed into dust and the fall of the kingdoms after their rulers' disappearance (who were presumably dead) and with what's left of the latter now being empty ruins plagued with hordes of monsters. Strawberry Cookie also mentioned seeing [[EatenAlive another sentient gingerbread man get eaten]] while she was escaping the Witch's house.

* ForWantOfANail: Highlighted in Lord Oyster's bio in "A Mermaid's Tale". If he refused Abalone Cookie's offer, [[spoiler:then Black Pearl Cookie would never have been born because he wouldn't have sold her pearl for House Oyster's fortune.]]
-->''"When House Abalone offered their hand, Lord Oyster couldn't help but feel uneasy to take it. If he refused, this story may have had a different ending."''

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: Not all of the Cake Hounds are evil by nature; Some of them are shown to be perfectly friendly and docile in spite of their origins and don't pose a threat to the good and innocent cookies.

* PreciousPuppy: The Cake Hounds act like adorable puppies to the point that Red Velvet Cookie has one as a pet and names him Chiffon. And while a lot of them are enemies, some of them are friendly NPCs.

* RiddleOfTheSphinx: A sphinx is found in World 17 and asks them the traditional riddle. In a unique subversion, the answer is ''not'' a human because none of the cookies know what a human is...[[AmbigiouslyHuman which is really weird considering that the witches who baked them could either be humanoid or completely human]].

''Cookie Run: Kingdom'' (additionally known as ''Cookie Kingdom'') is a non-runner spinoff of the ''VideoGame/CookieRun'' series, released on January 20th, 2021 by the South Korean company Devsisters, after much promotion and fanfare, with over three million downloads preregistered. Not unlike its predecessor, players assume the role of various [[AnthropomorphicFood cute, sentient gingerbread-man-style Cookies]], but this time is to build a kingdom for your own ruling, defend it from the [[FluffyTheTerrible Cake Monsters]] - those thanks to the Witch's Life Powder also came to life, and unravel the story which revolves around the great ancient kingdoms that once existed on this land. In other words, it's a free-to-play RPG and city builder hybrid.

The colorful cast in the game include (but not limited to) Creator/JeremyShada as Gingerbrave, Creator/EricaMendez as [[ActingForTwo both]] ancient hero and childhood friend of Pure Vanilla Cookie White Lily Cookie and duskgloom mermaid Black Pearl Cookie, and more.

* AbortedArc: The main adventure started when Gingerbrave and his friends chased after a Cake Hound that had stolen a magic crown. This plotline was tossed aside very early on and the story quickly became entirely focused on the battle against Dark Enchantress Cookie. This is lampshaded in a special anniversary cutscene where the main characters are reminiscing about there adventures, but none of them can quite remember how their adventure started in the first place (except Strawberry Cookie, but she keeps getting interrupted) and it's revealed that the particular Cake Hound still has the crown.

%%* ActionGirl: While most of the female Cookies qualify, Chili Pepper Cookie and Strawberry Cookie deserve a special mention for being in the story-canon unit, and also the first two female members you can get.

* AfterTheEnd: The main story takes place a long time after the Final Battle between The Five and Dark Enchantress Cookie, which resulted in their disappearance. Without the heroes' guidance, the ancient Cookie kingdoms crumbled and fell into ruin, and to rise another up is our objective in the game.
* AllThereInTheManual: Most of the information about the Five, ancient Cookie Kingdoms, and the worldbuilding are all in the Cookie Run: Kingdom official artbook.
* AncientEgypt: The Golden Cheese Kingdom's aesthetic, down to their architecture and [[GodEmperor ruling system]].
* AngelicAbomination: The Avatar of Destiny, a Guild Battle boss released in 2022, is a winged, haloed thing that summons pillars of light to attack your cookies.

** Dark Mode lets you play through more difficult versions of previously completed episodes. While netting additional rewards, players look into the perspective of Pomegranate Cookie's group. Said mode also requires that [[HundredPercentCompletion you get all stars from the main story's episodes to progress.]]
** Master Mode adds a third, much harder tier of difficult replays, requiring all stars in the corresponding Dark Mode episodes and focusing on the investigations of Clotted Cream Cookie and Financier Cookie. Master episodes allow farming Soulcores for Ascension, which are otherwise somewhere between "unreliable" and "pure luck" to acquire.
* AnthropomorphicFood: Hey, it's ''VideoGame/CookieRun'' after all. Here, aside from the humanoid Cookies we are all familiar with, we also have the living Bear Jellies and the Sugar Gnomes.

* ArcNumber: In the leadup to the ''BTS'' x ''Cookie Run Kingdom'' crossover, 7 becomes prominent. The game will have 7 purple balloons flying off, the schedule will have 7 sets of teasers in preparation for the event, and of course, all 7 boys will be in the game.

* AscendedMeme: One of the loading screen tips mentions that Angel Cookie is known for "the stare," referencing their [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Cookierun/comments/cwd97a/angel_cookies_face_is_perfect/ hilariously]] OffModel stare from during the Detective events in [[VideoGame/CookieRun the main game]]. They can even be seen doing it sometimes as one of their idle animations in the town! Lampshaded in the ''Holiday Express'' storyline when Macaroni Cookie references their strange face.
* BackstoryHorror: Three words, '''Dark Flour War'''. Dear god, the burnt flour being Cookies' corpses crushed into dust... Then there's the fall of the kingdoms after their rulers' disappearance - presumably dead, and are now empty ruins plagued with hordes of monsters. Strawberry Cookie also mentioned seeing [[EatenAlive another sentient gingerbread man get eaten]] while she was escaping the Witch's house.

** The BTS event gacha guarantees a cookie every 50 draws.
* BattleOfTheBands: The "Braver Together" event focuses on B.A.D 4 (Schwarzwalder, Red Velvet, Licorice and Poison Mushroom) wanting to rule the world by upstaging Music/{{BTS}} when they're having a concert.
* BeefGate: In the second half of the Red Dragon Hunt event, the titular dragon is fought deceptively early in the act, and he is ''far'' stronger than anything you've faced beforehand with a plethora of hard hitting, relentless attacks, requiring a specially prepared team with specific Toppings and Treasures if you want to have any hope of beating it.
* BigDamnReunion: The final scene in ''Stories of the Fireplace'' has [[spoiler:the elderly Cotton Cookie finally reuniting with Sherbet Cookie.]]

* {{Bowdlerise}}: Not applied to the base game released worldwide, but the Chinese version that goes through this and gets approved there. Some cookie's appearances have been changed, like the buttons on Gingerbrave's body are now round instead of skull-shaped, and Licorice Cookie's summons don't look like skulls at all.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:The effect of Licorice Cookie's punch in World 12, with [=GingerBrave=] having to fight off a brainwashed Wizard Cookie and Strawberry Cookie and later Raspberry Cookie.]]

* CartoonMeat: Stamina Jellies may not actually be meat, but their design of a delicious red blob with a StockFemurBone sticking out both ends is clearly intended to be evocative of meat on the bone.
* CerebusRollercoaster: Per ''Cookie Run'' tradition, events can go from silly and light-hearted to dark and foreboding and then back to laughter and sunshine. For example, the grim ''Duskgloom Sea'' story which details how Captain Caviar fought against Black Pearl Cookie is immediately segued to...[=GingerBrave=] attending a ''BTS'' concert about to be taken over by the Cookies of Darkness with their own evil music group.

* {{Cooldown}}: As per the RPG element, each Cookie has a fixed waiting time before they can use their skill again. Wise usage of time is the key to victory. There are also toppings and treasures that can be used to help reduce the cooldown as well, while some Cookies have abilities that quicken their cooldowns.

** On September 21st, 2022, Devsisters announced another crossover with Music/{{BTS}} for the "Braver Together" event in October, in which cookies based on all seven members of the boy band will be playable.

** Unlike the main franchise, which has an ExcusePlot most of the time, the plot of ''Kingdom'' is significantly more complex and include heavier subjects in every corner possible. By heavier, we mean a literal '''war''', the collapse of an entire Cookie civilization following their leaders' assuming death, and a literal Cookie '''holocaust''' with the Dark Flour War in the backstory that is promptly never mentioned again. So does the appropriately-named Dark Mode compared to the main plotline, particularly since it focuses on how Dark Choco Cookie fell from grace.

** Related to the Tower of Chaos above, the original lore of the game, that the living cookies were made by a witch who deliberately brought them to life while intending to eat them, is heavily expanded upon and examined in a more serious light than it was in previous games. Now there's an entire coven of witches instead of just one and the original cookie inhabitants of Earthbread escaped from them 1000s of years ago, only for this knowledge to be forgotten due to a religion springing up around those witches worshipping them like gods while hiding from ordinary citizens the reason why the witches created them. A devote follower of this faith learning the AwfulTruth is the StartOfDarkness of the game's main antagonist. Pastry Cookie learns most of this during her trip to the Tower, which greatly shakes ''her'' faith too.
** ''The Frost Queen and the Lantern in the Snow'' is one of the darkest Christmas events Devsisters has written and the events end on a more bittersweet note.

* EldritchAbomination: The Living Abyss, first released in early 2022 as the boss of Episode 13, then ascended to a Guild Battle boss a few months later, is a terrifying blobby thing made of licorice-dark goo which first crawled out of the Licorice Sea and will [[SwallowedWhole attempt to devour your cookies]] when you fight it.

** Similar to Ovenbreak, the animation that plays when you use the gacha is affected by what you're going to get. If only Gingerbrave opens the oven door and the witch doesn't return to look at you, don't have your hope high -- you'll get Soulstones. On the other hand, if Gingerbrave, Clover Cookie and Custard Cookie III open the door and the witch looks at you with laughably cutesy eyes, go open a bottle because an Epic is coming.

* FramingDevice: "The Frost Queen and the Lantern in the Snow" event is the tale of a villager telling his daughter of two friends (Cotton Cookie and Sherbet Cookie) the story as to why lanterns are hung during the winter.

* GrimUpNorth: Dark Cacao Kingdom, which was founded on the edge of the Giant Icing Ridge, a land of perpetual snowfall which beckons a life of austerity and perseverance. The climate was very harsh and lands were stalked by dire beasts of all kinds, causing their Cookies to live a life of combat and constant reminder of perils and death.

* GuysSmashGirlsShoot: Inverted for beginning Cookies that consists of three males (four; counting pre-registered players who got Clover Cookie) and [[TwoGirlsToATeam two females.]] The female Cookies are involved in direct combat while other male Cookies either shoot magic against enemies or heal their teammates (only one male Cookie is involved in direct combat, [=GingerBrave=] himself.) In the game itself, most of the Charge Cookies are male[[note]]Out of 19 Charge Cookies, five are female, two are ambiguous, and the rest are male[[/note]] while all but two of the Ranged Cookies being female.[[note]]The sole males for the Ranged Cookies are Sherbet and Creme Brulee Cookie[[/note]]

* HealingBoss: Season 10 of Cookie Alliance contained a Tainted Ent as a boss fight, which had a nasty habit of recovering all its HP in a few seconds if it wasn't dealt with effectively. While there were a few ways, [[CharacterSelectForcing the only really reliable method was to use Pumpkin Pie Cookie]].

* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Surprisingly for a gacha game, [[AvertedTrope averted]]. There are thirty-four male cookies to thirty-two female ones, meaning the males slightly outnumber the females.

* ItemCrafting: A massive part of the game. You create everything from food to tools, except the buildings - the Sugar Gnomes will help you with that. Tools are also essential to progress the story map.

* LighterAndSofter: In comparison to "The Frost Queen and the Lantern in the Snow" being the darkest and bittersweet winter event in the game, 2023 has ''Icicle Yeti's Winter Song'', which is about the titular character becoming friends with Snow Sugar Cookie with the only sadness coming from Frost Queen Cookie's origins.

** In World 17, the speech bubbles for the citizens of the Golden Cheese Kingdom are patterned differently than normal speech bubbles, which is something [=GingerBrave=] notes. [[spoiler:It's not just for show, it's to highlight how the kingdom is a virtual world.]]

* MirrorCharacter: [=GingerBrave=] and his crew are mirrors to the Ancient Heroes.
** Custard Cookie III to Pure Vanilla Cookie: Custard Cookie proclaims himself as a future king while Pure Vanilla never saw himself as a ruler. Custard Cookie is bratty but his heart is in the heart place, Pure Vanilla is completely altruistic. Their healing abilities are also a mirror to one another: Custard Cookie III can only heal and give only two cookies barriers, while Pure Vanilla's healing and barrier abilities outshine him ''and'' he can reduce injury debuffs.
** Strawberry Cookie to Hollyberry Cookie: Both of them wear bright pink, but Strawberry Cookie is a ShrinkingViolet (she shouts "Go Away!") while Hollyberry Cookie is a Boisterous Bruiser (she roars "Outta my way!") Strawberry Cookie uses a lollipop stick to push others away by spinning around, Hollyberry has a shield that she uses to charge into battle.
** Wizard Cookie to Dark Cacao Cookie: They both use lightning in their attacks, Wizard Cookie's being blue and Dark Cacao's being purple. Wizard Cookie can get excitable and wants to pursue magical knowledge, while Dark Cacao is grim and tends to be isolated.
** Chili Pepper Cookie to Golden Cheese Cookie: They're both greedy cookies who love to accumulate riches, but Chili Pepper steals from others while Golden Cheese shares her greed with her subjects. Chili Pepper is only joining the group solely for a crown, to the point that she doesn't play a part in the Cookie Odyssey and the World Exploration worlds post 14, while Golden Cheese allies with Ancient Heroes to protect Earthbread and mostly stayed away to rule over her Kingdom before coerced to return. Chili Pepper is an Assault Cookie who uses daggers, while Golden Cheese Cookie is a Ranged Cookie.
** [=GingerBrave=] and White Lily Cookie: They are the central character to their group of five, with [=GingerBrave=] being the hero who guides his team through countless trials whereas White Lily is the source of many mysteries associated to Dark Enchantress Cookie. White Lily sought out the answers as to why Cookies existed and the truth broke her, whereas [=GingerBrave=] also has pondered over the horrible truths of other cookies who never escaped the oven like he did, but ultimately states that what matters the most is him being free and with his friends.

** One of Twizzly Gummy Cookie's companions is Wild Strawberry Cookie, an alternate timeline/dimension version of Strawberry Cookie; Wild Strawberry Cookie's design is taken heavily from a ''VideoGame/CookieWars'' character of the same name, a Mythic variant of Strawberry Cookie from.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler:When White Lily Cookie seems to be trapped within a moonstone, Gingerbrave smashes it to bits...only to unseal Dark Enchantress Cookie in the process.]]
* NonLethalKO: Cookies defeated in battle, both player and enemy, will be flung offscreen, removed from the battle without appearing to suffer any actual harm from it.

** [[PowerEqualsRarity Common cookies are typically totally outclassed once you've pulled some Rares and Epics to replace them, and Rares in turn are useless once you've gotten more Epics.]] However, two of the Black Pearl Islands altar blessings provides a boost of 800+% to the stats of Common cookies or 300+% to Rares, boosting Commons to the most powerful cookies available and making Rares second only to boosted Commons.

* OneStatToRuleThemAll: There are ten types of toppings that each boost a different stat, but nearly every cookie wants either ATK (Raspberry), Cooldown (Chocolate), or [[DamageReduction DMG Resist]] (Almond). Tanks want the almonds, and everyone else wants either the raspberries or the chocolates depending on how their skill works. Cookies with unusual skills that run off a different stat have been added, but they all still want one very specific stat, just not one of the three most common.
* PlayEveryDay: Daily log-in bonuses are commonly granted. The player also needs to maintain their abode manually and keep their production houses running so that their kingdom would develop efficiently.

* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: After the Flour War, the five went their separate ways with their piece of Soul Jam. Most of the main story revolves around getting them back together for the war against Dark Enchantress Cookie [[spoiler: (AKA: White Lily Cookie)]].
* PreciousPuppy: The Cake Hounds act like adorable puppies to the point that Red Velvet Cookie has one as a pet and names him Chiffon.
* RecurringElement: Super Epic Cookies are categorized as either having elemental powers (Stardust, Sherbet, Capsaicin) or alluded to be rich (Clotted Cream, Oyster, Shining Glitter).
* RecursiveAcronym: For the Music/{{BTS}} crossover event, the Cookies of Darkness form a competing evil band called "B.A.D. 4", in which "B.A.D." stands for "Bad And Dark".
* ReplayMode: Early into the game, Wizard Cookie will request the rebuilding of a tower close to the kingdom so he can store archives; the tower acts a cutscene viewer, and contains all cutscenes the player has unlocked.
* RhythmGame: The October 2022 ''BTS'' event "Braver Together" and July 2023 "Summer Soda Rock Fest" event have rhythm games based on cookies running to gather notes and jellies a la ''[=OvenBreak=]'' and a rhythm game where you tape or drag parts of the screen in time with the music.
* RiddleOfTheSphinx: A sphinx is found in World 17 who asks them the traditional riddle. In a unique subversion, the answer is ''not'' a human because none of the cookies know what a human is.

** One of the underwater stages ''A Mermaid's Tale'' features a yellow sponge lying next to a pink sea star with green seaweed covering two of its limbs as if they were pants. [[WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants Makes one wonder if the Tearcrown kingdom has a Krusty Krab somewhere within its depths.]]
* SimulationGame: Half of the game consists of developing a new kingdom. This requires to set up new buildings and gather ingredients and tools for them.
* SkillGateCharacters: Most Common Rank units are qualified as this, since their skill sets gives novice players the baseline understanding as to what their classes are like and they're easily obtainable from the gacha (meaning they can get promoted up to 5 stars ''very easily''). They fall off very quickly in the early-game, though, since they don't provide any useful status buffs nor debuffs to help the team, and are easily benched when players starts getting better ranked Cookies.
* StarterMon: Of both introducing Ranks and Roles each starter units play as.

** Custard Cookie III and Clover Cookie[[labelnote:note]]If players pre-registered for the game[[/labelnote]] are free Rare units that introduces SupportPartyMember in a form of Healing and Support roles respectively.
* SuddenlyVoiced: Cookies gain voiced lines in the game (though initially only in Korean, a Japanese and English voice pack was released September 2nd, 2021 and October 8th in the same year, as well with Thai, Taiwanese, German and French released in May 3rd, 2022 respectively).
* SugarApocalypse: The Dark Flour War that almost destroyed the whole Cookie civilization had the Five Heroes not risen. Following the Five's disappearance, their subjects could not handle the overwhelming Darkness and the aforementioned civilization collapsed.
* SquishyWizard: Most of the Magic Class units are qualified as this (some of them being GlassCannon) since they are main damage dealers of the team but needed front line units to defend them against enemies that can easily take them out. Other mid-lane units, such as Bombs and Ambush, also qualify but without pure magic at their disposal.
* ATasteOfPower: The game's tutorial opens up with you playing as The Five, who are extremely powerful. Then you get to play with Gingerbrave and friends, who have three Common cookies on the team.
* ThrillerOnTheExpress: The ''Holiday Express'' event is a textbook one. A group of Cookies enjoying their time on a holiday train when suddenly Old Jolly (a Santa-esque Sugar Gnome) is found unconscious and face down in a pile of strawberry jam. An investigation ensues, and its up to famed mystery novelist Linzer Cookie to use her skills in writing mysteries to [[MysteryWriterDetective solve a case for real.]] Bonus points for Linzer Cookie being a walking Creator/AgathaChristie reference, making the ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' parallels even more obvious.
* TokenEvilTeammate: Licorice Cookie, Poison Mushroom Cookie, Dark Choco Cookie, Pomegranate Cookie, Red Velvet Cookie, and Choco Werehound Brute are playable characters you can pull from the gacha.
* TwoGirlsToATeam: Strawberry Cookie and Chili Pepper Cookie are the only two female Cookies in Gingerbrave's main group. Inverted with the five legendary hero Cookies, where Pure Vanilla Cookie and Dark Cacao Cookie are the only males in the group.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: You can make Herb Cookie chop down trees (which gives him a sad expression) or Red Velvet Cookie fight his [[PreciousPuppy Cake Hounds]]. And thanks to GameplayAndStorySegregation, production values or stats won't be affected.
* VillainsOutShopping: The existence of B.A.D 4 as a representative of the Cookies of Darkness appears to have shades of this, with Licorice, Red Velvet, Poison Mushroom, and Choco Werehound Brute are competing for first place in the music competition business. While a bit problematic, this plan is considered by many to be outright ''timid'' compared to the tactics [[MisanthropeSupreme Dark Enchantress Cookie]] [[BeastOfTheApocalypse is willing]] [[ApocalypseHow to pull]].
* WarIsHell: Those who came out from the Dark Flour War carry visible mental and emotional burdens on their shoulders, showing that PTSD is no joke. Not even the [[NiceGuy saintly Pure Vanilla Cookie]] and [[BigFun jolly Hollyberry Cookie]] - two of the ancient heroes and great monarchs - are immune from the feeling of guilt and being a "failure". It got so bad that Pure Vanilla had a mental breakdown while trying to face his past, and Hollyberry left everything behind to go into hiding, believing she didn't deserve either the throne or the sacred shield anymore.

** September 2021 had ''Cookie Run Kingdom'' crossover with ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'', with the only thing in common was that they liked to run a lot.
** October 2022 is when ''Cookie Run Kingdom'' had a crossover...with ''Music/{{BTS}}''. Yes, the number one Korean boy band crossed over as adorable cookies.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: The anniversary events act like epilogues to the storylines that happened throughout the year.

* WizardingSchool: The Parfaedia Institute that comes in the same update with Guild feature is the heart of Dessert Magic -- a field of magic in Cookie Run: Kingdom's world. Cream Puff Cookie studied there, it's also where Latte Cookie, Espresso Cookie and Eclair Cookie teach.
* WritingAroundTrademarks: The second year anniversary sidestories never directly mention either the Disney or BTS cookies when recapping their respective storylines.
* {{Wutai}}: The Dark Cacao Kingdom. It is based on ancient Korea.

[[caption-width-right:350:When running is not always an option...]]