Mastering the hybrid mechanics of IGTAP: an Incremental Game That's Also a Platformer requires more than quick reflexes; it demands ruthless automation. Knowing how to raise your IGTAP maximum clone speed tier is critical if you want your automated runners to cycle through courses and produce watts at peak efficiency. When you push your IGTAP maximum clone speed tier higher, your clones clear challenging obstacle courses faster and generate currency at exponential rates.
In IGTAP, developed by Pepper Tango Games and published by Gamersky Games, players manually complete precision platforming courses to earn power in the form of watts, then spend that currency on incremental upgrades and automated clones. In this guide, we break down what clone speed tiers do, reveal secret upgrade locations across the courses, and explain how to align your movement abilities with late-game upgrade trees.
What Does the Clone Speed Tier System Do in IGTAP?
In IGTAP, you manually tackle challenging 2D platforming layouts full of spikes, springs, and wall bounces. Your character's jump height responds directly to the duration of your button press, and jumps register the instant your character touches the ground. Once you complete a course, you can purchase clones to repeat your exact path. However, clones do not simply run at standard speeds forever; their performance depends on two interconnected mechanics: the speed increase chance and the speed tier.
Speed Increase Chance vs. Speed Tiers
When you start a course, the base reward begins small, such as generating 1 Watt per clear, and you can purchase incremental upgrades to double or increase that baseline reward. Buying your first clone (costing 8 Watts on early courses) deploys an automated runner that continuously traverses the course to generate watts for you. Clones initially operate with a clone reward multiplier of 0.1x of your manual clear reward, which can subsequently be upgraded to 0.2x, 0.5x, 1.0x, and beyond.
When you invest watts into the clone speed increase chance upgrade, individual clones gain a percentage chance (such as 5%, 15%, or 25%) to trigger accelerated movement on their run. Instead of moving at the baseline pace of your original recorded run, a lucky clone rolls a speed boost and moves across the layout much faster.
Players will notice that these accelerated units stand out visually. In community gameplay demonstrations, clones that roll a speed increase sparkle with distinct lighting and color shifts compared to standard copies. Raising the chance ensures that more of your active clones trigger this state, while unlocking an IGTAP maximum clone speed tier raises the ceiling on just how fast those sparkling clones can travel.
Why Speed Tiers Matter for Watt Generation
Idle generation in IGTAP is directly tied to course turnaround time. When you record a clean course clear—such as taking a run down from 42 seconds to under 20 seconds, or down to 2 or 3 seconds on compact tracks—your clones inherit that route. Speed tiers amplify that baseline:
- Higher speed tiers reduce the total time required for a clone to reach the finish line.
- Faster completions trigger reward payouts more frequently.
- Clones continuously simulate your best time; whenever you optimize your trajectory and beat your personal record, all clones update to follow that faster run.
- Coupled with clone reward multipliers (which can scale past 1.0x to 1.1x, 1.5x, and beyond), faster cycles prevent income bottlenecks when saving up millions or billions of watts.
- As your currency requirements scale through Megawatts (MW), Gigawatts (GW), and Petawatts (PW), maximizing clone turnover ensures steady progress toward high-cost upgrades.
Hidden Clone Speed Upgrade Locations
While standard incremental upgrades can be purchased directly from the terminal stations at the end of courses, certain permanent enhancements are hidden in the environment. Finding these secrets lets you bypass normal progression limits and grants achievements like "Not all those who wander are lost" and "Definitely not lost."
Level 3: The Fake Spike Secret
The most famous hidden upgrade for the IGTAP maximum clone speed tier is tucked away inside Level 3. Reaching it requires a keen eye:
- Enter Level 3 and advance through the opening platforming stretch until you face a dense wall of spikes.
- Examine the spike barrier closely. One spike features a slightly darker color tone than the surrounding hazards.
- That darker spike is completely fake; you can safely jump directly through it.
- On the left side of the hidden alcove beyond the fake hazard, you will find the pickup that awards +1 maximum clone speed tier.
Level 4: The Approach Platform
Another speed-related pickup sits just outside Level 4. Before dropping into the course proper, inspect the large platform structure directly in front of the course entrance. You can scale this structure without advanced movement techniques to grab an accessible clone speed upgrade sitting right on top.
Beyond these speed pickups, players can also uncover hidden clone size tier upgrades and +50% global watt boosts throughout the demo levels:
| Course / Area | Hidden Upgrade Type | Movement Requirements | Hazard / Clue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 2 | +50% Global Watts | Basic Wall Jump (Dash optional) | Narrow gap above exit area |
| Level 3 | +1 Maximum Clone Speed Tier | Wall Jump | Jump through the slightly darker spike |
| Level 3 | +50% Global Watts | Dash and Midair Jump | High ledge combo |
| Level 3 | Clone Size Tier | Wall Jump | Launch off high flank wall to floating platform |
| Before Level 4 | Clone Speed Upgrade | Basic Platforming | Climb top of platform before entry |
| Above Level 4 | Clone Size Tier | Wall Bounce | Gap bounces over spikes to vertical vine |
| Between 4 & 5 | +50% Global Watts | Spike-edge Jump | Precise leap over hazard edge |
| Level 5 | Clone Size Tier | Wall Jump | Land on top of T-shaped platform |
| Level 5 Exit | +50% Global Watts | Wall Bounce / Dash | Navigate deep spike tunnel |
Mid-Game Unlocks and Expanding Clone Speed
Upgrading your speed ceiling requires massive wattage, leading into the game's tier milestones: Megawatts (MW), Gigawatts (GW), and Petawatts (PW).
Terminal Upgrades and Global Tiers
After unlocking dash and navigating upward past early courses, players encounter specialized terminals offering substantial bonuses. In these sections, an upgrade specifically labeled "+1 maximum clone speed tier global" appears, requiring significant resources (such as 475 Megawatts in early builds).
Players can also awaken the stone statue's power for 11.09 Gigawatts. Activating the statue enhances all previous courses, lifting previous purchase limits and unlocking deeper upgrade tiers across earlier stages. This allows players to return to early courses and purchase additional clones (up to caps such as 35 or 40 clones), raise clone reward multipliers, and further expand clone speed increase chances.
Upgrading Movement Tech to Complement Clone Speed
Clones mimic your fastest completion path. Even with a high IGTAP maximum clone speed tier, your automation suffers if the baseline recording is sloppy. You must revisit earlier courses as you unlock new movement tools:
- Wall Jump: Costs 700 Watts initially; radically shortens vertical courses and unlocks the "Wall jumping" achievement.
- Air Dash: Costs 3 million Watts; allows you to clear wide spike pits horizontally without falling onto lower ledges, unlocking the "Spintap" achievement.
- Midair Jump: Unlocked for 554 Megawatts; lets you double-jump over towering barriers, access hidden ledges, and unlock the "Jump, but again." achievement.
- Color-Swapping Blocks: Later stages introduce blue and orange polarity blocks that toggle when dashing (associated with the "Polar increments" achievement), fundamentally altering course geometry and enabling sub-5-second clears.
For official updates, release notes, and community discussions, visit the IGTAP Steam Store Page.
Late-Game Scaling: The Upgrade Tree, VMAN, and Clones
Once you transition past basic Watt generation into late-game prestige systems like the Atom Collider, clone stats take on an entirely new role. The Atom Collider serves as a late-game prestige system, which players commonly activate when they can purchase around 30 to 50 upgrades at once. After unlocking the GRP resource, the Atom Collider is used more cautiously because later stages producing GRP reset upon prestiging.
Green Clones and Size Synergy
In the late-game Upgrade Tree, you encounter nodes for Chance for Green Clones alongside clone size and speed upgrades. As noted in player community guides, speed and size interact significantly in late stages:
- A max-size green clone is observed by players to be roughly 3x faster than a normal-sized green clone.
- Large clones provide massive base rewards, and sparkling clones clear courses rapidly, creating an optimal loop of high payout and swift turnover.
- Upgrading to green clones is also a mandatory stepping stone toward producing GRP and eventually converting them into red clones.
Late-Game Upgrade Priorities
When navigating the mid-to-late game Upgrade Tree, player progression guides outline unlocking important upgrades roughly in the following order:
- Chance for Green Clones: The first upgrade at the tree's base and the highest priority most of the time, playing a critical part in producing GRP.
- Enable Buy Max on Course #'s Upgrades: Found on the right side of the base of the tree for Course 6.
- Open the Door to the Facility’s Lower Section: Unlocks the lower section of the facility, granting access to an early late-game course, the first set of refresh orbs, and key upgrades.
- Maximum clone speed/size tier: Greatly affects progression velocity, as max-size green clones move roughly 3x faster than normal green clones.
- Enable Jump and Dash Refresh Orbs / Unlock: Located in the lower facility to the far left; provides faster course times and makes orb-dependent courses completable.
- Buying Atoms no Longer Resets Course: Highly prioritized to prevent atomic purchases from resetting course progression.
- Completing a Course Boosts it by #X for ###s: Upgraded with extra NP during the early late game.
- Activate Zip Movers: Grants access to Course 10.
- Omni-Dash: The major turning point transitioning the player from the mid-late game into the end game.
- Chance For Green Clones to Become Red: The highest priority upgrade during the end game.
- Buying Atoms with GP no Longer Resets Anything: Ensures atom purchases made with GP do not trigger resets.
- The NP Cap is Now a Softcap: Causes NP generation to lower the higher you climb above the cap.
- NP Gain is Doubled for Each Course With an Active Boost: Stacks across all ten courses to reach up to a 1024x NP generation boost when boost duration upgrades are maintained.
Following this progression, players tackle VMAN speedruns. While early VMAN routing follows courses 1 > 2 > 3 > 4, unlocking Omni-Dash enables an optimized route of 1 > 2 > 5 > 3 > 4 > 6 > 7 > 8 > 9 > 10. Players overcome the common 3 GRP bottleneck by completing Course 6 in VMAN, which unlocks the Atom Collider section in VMAN. Advanced Omni-Dash movement techniques include the Super Jump (dash down into the ground and jump upon landing), Super Dash (dash sideways and immediately jump), Hyper Slide (diagonal downward dash in mid-air followed by an immediate jump on landing), Wall Dash (dash toward a wall and jump off), and Dash Climb (diagonal upward dash toward a wall followed by an immediate jump on contact).
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the IGTAP maximum clone speed tier upgrade actually do?
The IGTAP maximum clone speed tier raises the top speed that clones can reach when they successfully trigger a speed boost. While the speed increase chance stat dictates how often your clones run faster, the speed tier determines how rapid that boosted state is.
Where can I find the hidden clone speed tier upgrade in Level 3?
In Level 3, make your way to the wall lined with spikes. Look closely for a spike that is shaded slightly darker than the others. That spike has no collision; jump straight through it to reach a hidden room on the left containing the +1 maximum clone speed tier pickup.
Do clones copy my current run or my best run?
Clones always replicate the path of your best clear time. If you acquire new movement abilities like the wall jump, air dash, or midair jump, you should rerun older courses. Recording a faster personal record will update the trajectory for all active clones on that course.
Are clone size and clone speed upgrades mutually exclusive?
No, both upgrades work simultaneously. Clone size upgrades boost payout multipliers and, according to community testing, synergize with green clones to dramatically increase movement velocity, complementing your maximum speed tier investments.