How to Play Mycelarium

Mycelarium (the 2026 incremental game by PLAN KAPKAN) starts as one mushroom and a slingshot aim. This page is a practical first hour, not an official route. The studio never published a tutorial script.

Fact	Value	Status
Growth cost	Water, by shot length and terrain	2 sources
Build cost	Food, when you place nodes or mushrooms	2 sources
Rain line	Hyphae shots spend no water during rain	1 source
Length	On-screen line: mycelia size is experience	1 source

The first stretch

Aim short and wide at the start. A long shot spends more water for a thin line, and a new save has one pool. Follow the food you can already see: surface pods and fallen leaves. Connect the nearest blue pool before you chase a deep tunnel. A play video reads two interface lines out loud: hyphae shots cost no water during rain, and your mycelia size is your experience. I quote those lines because they are on-screen text, and I do not turn them into a full rain simulator.

When growth feels expensive, the upgrades players buy first are Shot Range and Water Efficiency. Range lets the same aim reach the next leaf pile. Water Efficiency lowers the water spent per centimetre. Width is the third shot upgrade on the official tree, named Shot Width, and it is useful once the line is already fed. I would not buy a mushroom branch before the mushroom itself exists on the map.

When food stops

Food is not a timer. It drops when you build. If the counter hits empty, stop placing nodes, grow back toward fallen leaves, and use the rain window for longer shots. Absorption is the leaf upgrade. Predator is the mushroom that turns flies into food, and it belongs inside a defended patch, not on the frontier where crows take buildings. The full recovery order is on the food page.

There is no hard fail state in the store text. You can sit and wait for leaves. Controls are mouse aim plus the build menu; update 1.02 added number keys 1 through 8 for the eight buildable mushrooms. Controller support is absent from the store categories. Exploration mode keeps the task list you can see in the corner of the surface screenshot, including The Great Migration. Survival mode, also from 1.02, drops those end goals. Pick the mode at the start. The mode page explains why you cannot treat them as a toggle.

Opening surface colony with trees and the task panel — Official screenshot of the surface you see in the first hour. Copyright PLAN KAPKAN.

First underground pools and stone — Official screenshot of the pools a new network grows toward. Copyright PLAN KAPKAN.

Questions people ask

What should I buy first?

Shot Range, then Water Efficiency. Both change the cost of every later centimetre. Predator comes after food is the thing blocking you.

How long is a session?

Players describe anything from a short twenty-minute look to a few relaxed hours. There is no official length.

Food · Water · Upgrade tree · Modes

Sources

Steam store page for Mycelarium — checked 2026-11-07
FungalBrainRot play video on YouTube — checked 2026-11-07
mycelariums.wiki: beginner-guide — checked 2026-11-07

Checked 2026-11-07.