Little Alchemy

Little Alchemy is a fun and educational open-ended discovery game where you mix basic elements like air, earth, fire, and water to craft new and increasingly complex items.

Created by Jakub Koziol of Recloak Games as a Chrome browser hobby project, Little Alchemy launched on December 8, 2010, and its success eventually led to the release of a sequel indie game, Little Alchemy 2, seven years later.

With no characters or storyline, Little Alchemy puts the player at the center of the experience, encouraging discovery through experimentation. It originally launched with 100 elements to combine, eventually expanding to over 580 thanks to its growing popularity.

Little Alchemy and Little Alchemy 2 are now free to play online at CrazyGames.

Little Alchemy Reviewed

We loved playing this together with the two boys (7 and 10) in our family. Each time someone found a new item, we would show it to each other. They enjoyed the fun. But as parents, we appreciated how educational it was. Not only teaching them about new elements, but also getting them to think outside the box to work out how to create new combinations.

Review by FamilyGamingDatabase.

How to play Little Alchemy

You start with the basics in Little Alchemy, with each player starting out with four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. The game's idea is to explore various combinations by mixing as many elements as possible, unlocking new ones and contributing to a growing collection of elements to explore.

There are no time limits, no health bar breathing down your neck, and no real way to fail other than by limiting your creativity once you’ve exhausted all obvious options to combine elements.

Mix the elements

Some combinations are straightforward and mirror real-world principles, such as combining metal and stone to create metal, or fire and earth to make lava, but other combinations are not so straightforward and require a bit more creativity, for example, combining water and horse to get a hippopotamus.

All elements are easily accessible in the sidebar, and each new item you create will appear there, ready for use! The canvas can get a little messy as you test out more elements, so there is a cleanup button you can use in the bottom right to wipe the slate clean.

Alchemy combinations

Recloak is constantly updating Little Alchemy Classic with new items to craft. There are currently 580 items to discover in this original game.

Some combinations will be more evident than others, and there are often more ways than one to create a new item. Some combinations rely on logic while others require more creative, out-of-the-box thinking. Here are some basic creations so you understand how Little Alchemy works:

fire + earth = lava

earth + air = dust

steam + air = cloud

earth + lava = volcano

fire + stone = metal

These are all logical combinations. However, some don't seem as obvious, like water + horse creating a hippo. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and mix elements you wouldn't expect to create something just to see what happens.

How to make a human in Little Alchemy?

Combine water + earth. You’ll create mud.

Combine fire + earth. You’ll create lava.

Combine air + lava. You’ll create stone.

Combine mud + stone. You’ll create clay.

Combine sea + earth. You’ll create primordial soup.

Combine fire + fire. You’ll create energy. (You can also combine water + air to create energy.)

Combine primordial soup + energy. You’ll create life.

Finally, combine clay + life to create a human.

How to Make Life in Little Alchemy?

Combine air + fire. You’ll create energy.

Combine water + earth. You’ll create mud.

Combine air + water. You’ll create rain.

Next, combine earth + rain. You’ll create a plant.

Then, combine plant + mud. You’ll create a swamp.

Finally, combine swamp + energy to create life.

How to Make Metal in Little Alchemy?

fire + stone = metal

How to Make Stone in Little Alchemy?

earth + fire = lava

lava + air = stone

Easter Eggs

There are no bonus challenges in Little Alchemy, but what comes close are the hidden Easter eggs found beyond the 580 elements, often referencing pop culture. Discovering them is half the fun, but if you absolutely can’t wait, here are the hidden secret combinations to look out for in Little Alchemy.

astronaut + ice cream = astronaut ice cream

dog + computer = doge

dog + internet = doge

cat + music = keyboard cat

lake + story = nessie

turtle + ninja = ninja turtle

ring + volcano = the one ring

story + mountain range = yeti

story + ice cream = yeti

time + space = tardis

tardis + doctor = the doctor

Little Alchemy Tips

Start with intuitive, real-world combinations like water and earth to create mud. This will build your confidence and help you gather a solid collection of second and third-level elements. Having similar elements early on lets you better understand how different merges with the same base element can unlock new layers of discovery.

Use the clean-up button to declutter the copies of your elements, making it easier to see how many unique elements you have. Don’t worry, cleaning up won’t lose your progress; it will simply clear out duplicates from sight.

Not all combinations require real-life intuition or science. Some require literary thought. Think about the actual meaning of a word and what it represents. Oftentimes, in more advanced combinations, that is the key. So if you want to create a hippopotamus, your best bet is to combine items like water and a horse, as hippo literally means…you guessed it, “river horse”.

If you reach a point where you can no longer find combinations, there are extensive guides online that can help, like on the Fandom page.

Tech Specs

Built with HTML5 and JavaScript, Little Alchemy works well on most devices, including older hardware, and requires no installation for online play. The game was initially launched on the Chrome App Store in 2010 and later became available on the web in 2012.

Tips

If you reach a point where you can no longer find combinations, there are extensive guides online that can help, like on the Fandom page.

More Games Like This

If you enjoy mixing and matching items to create new things, check out more of our merge games! A really popular and fun title is Farm Merge Valley. Browse our casual category for other games worth a try, like Eggy Car, Friday Night Funkin, Geometry Dash Online, and more.

Developer

Recloak developed Little Alchemy.