I created an application that automatically idles your Steam games to extract all of your available Steam Trading Cards. The application automatically finds the games you have drops remaining in, and idles those games one by one until all of your trading cards are in your inventory. This way, you can start up the program and go to sleep / work / away and come back to an inventory full of cards.

Website
Source Code
Official Group

Installation Instructions

Go to the Official Site, download and run the setup.exe file there. The program should launch automatically when the installation is complete. Make sure Steam is open and you're logged in. To start idling, you'll need to click the (Sign In) button and sign in to Steam. Once that's done you should be "in-game" on Steam and the program will indicate as such. Now go watch TV, go to bed, or go on vacation. When you come back to your computer, you should have a pile of Trading Cards in your inventory.

Some FAQ

How does this work?

First of all, the program will determine which of your games still have card drops remaining. It will go through each application and simulate you being “in-game” so that cards will drop. It will check periodically to see if the game you’re idling has card drops remaining. When only one drop remains, it will start checking more frequently. When the game you’re idling has no more cards, it’ll move on to the next game. When no more cards are available, the program will exit.

Do I need to download a game in order for this program to get it's trading cards?

No.

Do I need to be logged in to Steam for Idle Master to work?

Yes, Steam needs to be running and you must be logged in.

Can I play a game while this is running?

It’s possible, but doing so may significantly reduce your card drop rate. For best results, exit this program before playing a game.

How do I close the application?

Simply click the red X on the application.

Is this safe?

Presumably so, yes. The program that simulates you being in-game is no different than other popular methods like using Steam Achievement Manager or "the AppID trick".

Why do I need to sign in to Steam from the application?

When you visit your badges page on Steam, it will show you how many card drops you have remaining in each game. When another user looks at your badges page, they can only see the badges you've completed. By signing in, this allows Idle Master to connect to Steam properly and gives it access to this information that only you can see.

Why should I trust this?

The entire project is open source, which includes the source code for all binaries.

Troubleshooting

Idle Master looks like it's working, but I'm not getting any Steam Trading Cards.

First of all, be patient. Idle Master doesn't make them drop any faster than they normally would if you were playing the game, and each game has a different drop rate. Another thing to check is that your Steam profile correctly shows that you're "In-Game". If Steam doesn't think you're "In-Game", it means something is wrong with your configuration.

10 years ago*

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If I try to download the setup.exe from oficial site, chrome would say it's dangerous and whatnot. I know about false possitives so just spare me. But I wanted to know if everyone gets this and if we can safely use it as if in an updated browser is still flagged... well...

9 years ago
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It's safe, I've been using it for awhile now, along with tons of other users I suppose.

9 years ago
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It's just a pity that with the standalone tool we lost the ability to order by total value of cards.

9 years ago
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HELP

Idle master starts idling Deadbreed which is game that only gives you cards when you spend money on the game, how to pass to the next game?

9 years ago
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Blacklist it.

9 years ago
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Thanks for the reply, but i tried to do it [see comment below] and it didnt work

9 years ago
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Blacklist it or press Next [>|]

9 years ago
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Thanks for the reply Dyna, but I have no idea how to do that, i tried to put Deadbreed in blacklist as 'AppID 277950' and it didnt worked, i tried other ways like AppID277950 or appID 277950 and It doesnt work

Which key does the 'next' thingy?

9 years ago
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Wait, are you using the latest version? I think you only have to type the actual appid, just the number.

9 years ago
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Worked, thank you so much ^^

9 years ago
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Indeed, be sure to have the latest version (for other people reading this).

9 years ago
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Are you sure about the "when you spend money" part? Idlemaster's currently idling that game here as well and I got 4/5 cards without ever having played it.

9 years ago
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No, I was wrong, It is badly explained when you click 'check how many cards remaining in this game', imo, so i thought the only way to get cards was to spent money, actually you get 5, I think, and the others is by spending money in-game or buying them, sorry for the confusion (:

9 years ago
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The way IdleMaster works is that it scans your badge page for games which have drops remaining. Unless something goes wrong, it shouldn't try to idle games that won't give you any card.

9 years ago
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i idled it without spending anything and got all cards...

9 years ago
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there have been giveaways for different Deadbreed versions on various sites. I assume some version will get you cards while other versions will only give you access to the game w/o cards.

9 years ago
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did you read the other replies twisted? :p

9 years ago
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idk what to say ... i feel unsafe useing this

9 years ago
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It's safe.

9 years ago
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2177 card drops remaining...
Hmmm how long would this take?

9 years ago
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My guess would be 850 hours or 35 days...

9 years ago
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But you will be rich, which is nice :p

9 years ago
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Yay I finally figured out Step 3: profit :)

I'm at 1944 cards now. Been running it for 24hours for 5 days now.
So that's about 40-50 cards per day.

9 years ago
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The maximum I had for 'harvesting' it was 80 something, and it made me 5 euros in steam wallet :3

9 years ago
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Nice.
Indeed lots of card to sell

9 years ago
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the annoying part on this is the selling. i dont understand why steam can´t add a sell-all button or window and than sell all cards in this window to lowest or highest price or 1 cheaper than lowest or whatever option the palyer want.

would not be hard to make something like a tradewindow and put cards in i wanna sell and than press button ...

but have to type the price each card again made me quit the idle and selling and i just dont care anymore bout this ... lol

9 years ago
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there is a google chrome extension to do that (: steam inventory helper if im not mistaken

9 years ago
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exactly, super easy to use for selling cards, i recommend doing it for packs of max 100 as it sometimes get stuck when processing fore example 500-1000 cards

link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/steam-inventory-helper/cmeakgjggjdlcpncigglobpjbkabhmjl

9 years ago
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Thanks for this :)

9 years ago
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just got 149 cards, some were foil, they all worth 12 and something euros, after sold they got me 9 and something euros

By my account, on average you should get the value of more than 100 euros before selling o.o

9 years ago
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Would be great to pick the game manually, or even edit the queue, or at least blacklist/whitelist.

9 years ago
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used "mostvalue" last night before i headed off to bed and checking this morning it got through Inversion (3 cards) pretty quickly then moved on to Port Royale 3, at around 3.30am, then nothing for the rest of the time it was idling until 11.45am this morning -.- its been averaging about 23 cards a night up until now. has anybody else noticed that Port Royale 3 cards are slow in coming? anyway ive stuck it on the blacklist for now.

[edit] took PR3 off the blacklist and within 2 minutes it dropped a card? fuck knows what happened last night?

9 years ago
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Still getting this error

And the python version doesn't work either. The second windows saying "In-Game" never comes up so it never works.

9 years ago
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did u install .net framework 4 or 4.5?

9 years ago
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Apparently I had 4.5.1 installed, because when I tried to install it, it only gave me the Repair or Remove option.
Ran a repair and tried Idle Master again, the error still occurs.

9 years ago
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I hope you get it fixed mate. Sorry I have no suggestions for helping you.

9 years ago
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Yea im doing it
Dropped like 70 cards
sold some of them
have 6$ on steam

9 years ago
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Hmm, this has me curious so I downloaded it to see. It setup fine, and says I'm signed in to Steam, but it gets stuck at saving your information. I see some others have had this problem and asked what to do but I haven't seen any answers. Any thoughts?

9 years ago
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By a miracle or some sorcery my Idle Master is now working again.

Also, relevant: Clicky

9 years ago
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yay!

9 years ago
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steam is now tracking this program and users are in risk to get a community ban, just saying.

9 years ago
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Proof?

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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Source please. You can't come in here and make such a claim without proof, evidence, or a source....geez.

9 years ago
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source?

9 years ago
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steam is now tracking this program

What is your source for this?

9 years ago*
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is there a option to move to the next game? I have 200 cards in cs go and i dont want to idle them i want to idle some other game instead ?

9 years ago
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I guess you'll have to blacklist it.

9 years ago
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does it count to time played?

9 years ago
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Yep !

9 years ago
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I love this app, I would have never gotten my 2200 cards otherwise.
Here are some suggestions for feature improvements:

  • Idling order: Most value cards first
  • White list of games: (by appid) Pick these games first
  • Black list (and white list) also show the name of the game
  • Add a ETA (time estimate) on left to idle
  • On the blacklist, Replace the X icon with a trashcan icon (as to not confuse it with the close window button)
  • Add a button for manual cards remaining check
  • Show stats on # cards received in the last 24 hours, # of cards received total
9 years ago
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2177 card drops remaining...

18 days later I'm at 1399 cards.

So that's about 43 cards / day.

9 years ago
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How long has the site been down for? What happened?

9 years ago
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I stopped using it a while ago after getting tons of cards, but now I'm back at 680 card drops left and I think I'm gonna start using it again ^^ though the website is down right now as Derperio wrote already.

9 years ago
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Web is up

9 years ago
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9 years ago
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Did you log into your Steam account from the app? Do you have drops remaining?

9 years ago
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yes i did its 0/0 ... nothing happends

9 years ago
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If you look at you badges page is there any game with drops remaining?

9 years ago
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tryed after a few h works now :D

9 years ago*
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Version 0.8 has been released. You can read all about it here:

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/idlemastery#announcements/detail/235647626271623075

9 years ago
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Works like a charm! Thanks a bunch for this tool man :D

9 years ago
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nice, thanks!

9 years ago
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It seems Valve made some changes to the game pages and they don't display the little summery on the right now (single/multi-player, has achievements, trading cards, etc.).
Since I don't want to install most games to get the cards from them is there any easy way to know if a game is VAC (besides SteamDB)? Is it possible they moved that little info somewhere else and I just didn't notice it?

EDIT: nvm, seems to be back now.

9 years ago*
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Hello, is there any chance to make this idle manager as mobile app? As pc feature is good and big thanks for it. So i just want to ask if it possible to make it for mobile.

9 years ago
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I don't think it is, as it simulates team running the game. Unless Steam can run games somehow on your mobile, this won't be possible.

9 years ago
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I love the application so far ^^

670 card drops remaining-geese that will take a long time XD

9 years ago
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