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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This is an amazing piece of program. I manually had to get the cards from around 200 games and then, at the last 16 games remaining, I saw your program. It's currently running and it saved me a lot of data for download and manual operations. Good job.

10 years ago
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Yea, also comes with a feature that send your Steam account data to shit knows where xd

10 years ago
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It's open source, read it yourself to see what it's doing before posting moronic comments insinuating jshackles is a scammer.

10 years ago
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And ?

First - I did not insulted anyone

Second - if you blindly believe that every program that has public source avalivable to everyone is safe then good luck

10 years ago
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First, as I said, you are insinuating jshackles is attempting to hack people's accounts.

Second, I told you to read it, not use it blindly.

10 years ago
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Third - You cant read with understanding

10 years ago
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There's zero reason to understand your retarded statement. Idle master is open source, if he puts up malicious code inside it - it's disaster for his reputation.

God fucking damn it use your brain.

10 years ago
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"Second - if you blindly believe that every program that has public source avalivable to everyone is safe then good luck"

I've seen enough sneaky shit

Bye

10 years ago
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Blindly believe? Just open the source code.

Or you're too incapable to do that I see.

Making retarded statement only shows your ability... to do nothing.

10 years ago
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Haha so yea. Let's say I will make a program that will do magic shit. Smth, dunno, choose yourself, but the stuff it does is marvelous. And along with program I will give you its source code

When you will launch it, you will see that it needs to have some access to your account/login session/whatever.

Will you allow it do so ? Hm ? I doubt it...

10 years ago
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10 years ago
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I will if I can read the source code and confirm that it doesn't do anything malicious. Just like I did with this one. (And if I'm doubtful about the sincerity of the author I'll compile the thing myself from the source I have previously analyzed.)

Heck, the whole source code is 204 lines. It takes less than 5 minutes to dissect and analyze the whole thing. And jshackles is the guy behind "Enhanced Steam" that most of us are using so he's hardly a nobody.

10 years ago
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Thats the point. If you see the code is clear its not 100% sure that the program is safe. IF you compile the program from clear code, you can be pretty sure that its safe. But no one said that the program you got from the downloading is made from the exactly same source code.

My first comment was pretty much a joke but that doesnt change the fact that downloading program with its source code is not some form of proving that program is 100% safe. Apparently those two "omg omg moron read the sauce" guys above doesnt understand that simple fact

10 years ago
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You, for real, do not have reputation. An unknown guy out of nowhere.

The guy that made this thread has.

There's a difference between you two.

A simple logic you can't understand? Truly silly.

10 years ago
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And you still dont get it....what a guy

Don't cry when in the future you will lose something precious

10 years ago
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That's feature of HTTP (and any other unencrypted protocols).
Even by using browser you never know who might be stalking you. ;)

But read the sourcecode :P

10 years ago
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thanks jshackles.
it cleared my backlog. damn got too many cards now

10 years ago
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thanks jshackles.
it cleared my backlog. damn got too many cards now

10 years ago
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The sames as appid trick ,but looks more cool :d

10 years ago
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Appid trick, SAM, Idle Master, they're all basically doing the same thing. The difference with this is that is automatically stops the app once you have your cards and starts the next one. I've been idling cards in my sleep and while at work for a week now.

10 years ago
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Can you play a NON-steam game while running this?

10 years ago
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why wouldn't you? this program doesn't really run games, just tricks steam it does.

10 years ago
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So you can play another steam game too while it's running?

10 years ago
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Not personally tried but I think that Steam will then override the value with the real game you are playing until Idle Master do the next check and replace it.
Example:

  • Idle Master: Portal 3
  • You start Half Life 3 on Steam: "You are playing Half Life 3"
  • After some minutes Idle Master checks again and override the value with Portal 3
  • I think that Steam will revert it back to Half Life 3 in a short time
10 years ago
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Just to be on the safe side, don't play any vac games while doing this.

However, bear in mind, it reduces drop rate for your cards, meaining idle master will take longer to get to your cards

Other then that, you can play whatever you want in the background

10 years ago
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Yes, don't play on Vac servers, or just stay away from vac games in general while running it if you wanna be tin foil hate about it(Not a bad thing really).

I just run it at night while I sleep.

10 years ago
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Can you make it to work with steam family sharing?

10 years ago
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If you want it to make cards drop for games you don't own, it won't happen. This just makes Steam think you are playing the games. If you can't get cards, this won't change that.

10 years ago
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VAC Bans incoming in 3...2...1...

10 years ago
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Half life 3 confirmed!

10 years ago
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Nope.loljpeg

10 years ago
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"VAC Ban"

That word doesn't mean what you think it means.

10 years ago
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Deleted

This comment was deleted 5 years ago.

10 years ago
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same here, 3-4 foils too, didnt count

10 years ago
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Thanks man, testing it right now

10 years ago
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So I made 18 dollars off cards in the last few days on this, thanks again.

10 years ago
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Jesus Hillary, how many cards did you sell?

10 years ago
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I don't really know...kinda lost count...a lot, probably like 200+....

10 years ago
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Thanks, got ALL my card drops with this, although it took 3 days, on and off. The only issue is now it says I have X amount of booster Packs. WTF are Booster Packs and how do I get them?

10 years ago
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They come to you at random, basically its a pack with 3 cards, you can open it or sell the pack, I usually sell the pack, most tend to sell for around 30-40 cents.

10 years ago
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Hmm, thanks for the reply. I have never had one of these packs and, for some reason, I get the impression I won't ever feel the warm embrace of a loving Booster Pack...

10 years ago
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I have gotten like 10 or so, maybe more, more games you unlock the cards for the more chance you get them.

You will get them eventually.

10 years ago
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This program was working for me before. I tried to use it to idle for Defiance card drops. I left it running for a bit, didn't get a single drop. I think it might be because Defiance is a F2P game. I bet you gotta buy something to get the drops.

10 years ago
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In case of Defiance, you don't need to buy anything. I just got 4 cards from this game.

10 years ago
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Nevermind.

10 years ago
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Thank you, now I won't need to download games to get cards ^_^.

10 years ago
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steam-idle has stopped working,
any solution?

10 years ago
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use the steam.exe one? ;) no need to thank me

10 years ago
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This tool works like a charm, thank you! I've always been downloading games to drop cards, and recently I had 6 games with remaining cards... tested this and it's just perfect when you have to be AFK.

10 years ago
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267 games with cards. This will help a lot :)

10 years ago
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your script kicks ass!! i love how you don't even need to dl the games!

great job, thanks a lot:))

10 years ago
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ever heard of SAM? you don´t have to dl the games with this either

10 years ago
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i just heard of sam in this very thread, anyway i'll stick with idle for now

10 years ago
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Come on man , nobody actually cares about your shitty non functional application, why bother if there is already S.A.M? Tried idle master , hate it , will stick to SAM end of story.

10 years ago
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Goes out for the day, leave this running. It switches games automatically.

10 years ago
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Wow, are you actually serious? Yea, you only own like 3 games that have cards.
Idle master is a lot better than SAM, it automatically switches games after all the cards are dropped. People like yourself who own hardly any games may fail to see the point, but when you have some hundreds that need to be idled for drops, it's a lot more valuable.

10 years ago
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It does work and it works well. Your inability to follow basic instructions is not a fault of the application.

10 years ago
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Aren't you an edgy guy, actually I would use this over SAM ANY day.

You also must be slow if you think this is non functional, I mean hell it chewed through all 60+ of the games I needed to idle in a couple days without me touching it even, SAM is a pain in the ass.

10 years ago
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So with this program i can get alot of cards, even when i didnt spend money on steam?
Because didnt you only get card drops on how much money you spend on steam?
Or do you always get x amount of cards per new game you play than can drop cards?

10 years ago
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"you always get x amount of cards per new game you play than can drop cards"

^That.

Have you never seen this page?

Also, Steam Trading Cards FAQs.

10 years ago
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Well all the Free steam games that has Steam trade cards, i added them to the IDLE script... But when i go to my steam profile it says: No card drops remaining

(I didnt installed any game of them) Could that be the problem?
Or do i have to spend real money to be able to get some drops again? Because for all these games i didnt had a card drop yet, its the first time i do this.

10 years ago
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'Free' Games drop cards when you buy some in-game items for x amount of money(each game has its own amount AFAIK)

10 years ago
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From what I recall, it was about 1 card per $10 spent...

10 years ago
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This seems a little dodgy. Can anyone (excluding the guy that made this program) confirm that this method is Virus-free and working?

10 years ago
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It's working and virus free.

10 years ago
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No virus and it does work rather well.

10 years ago
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Yes, I can confirm this. I have checked the provided source code.

10 years ago
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Also confirmed on this end

10 years ago
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I was very sketchy as well, took several days and a bit of research for me to trust it finally...conclusion?
It is legit...No worries.

10 years ago
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and done, 158 cards after 3 days idling thx a lot man, your program is great!

10 years ago
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Wow thanks so much for this. Been leaving it running over night for the past week and have got through a lot of my card drops (although still 87 to go).

10 years ago
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Works fine thank you! :D needs so long to get a card...

10 years ago
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Thanks everyone for your support and feedback! I just wanted to drop a note saying that Idle Master has been updated to version 0.4, which adds in some new interesting features such as the ability to set a sorting preference on your list of games that need idled. For information on how this works, be sure to check out the "Documentation" folder which is included.

This update also adds support for OSX and Linux operating systems.

10 years ago
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Next update is the one where it gives me back rubs I hope.

10 years ago
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I'll give you a back rub.

10 years ago
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If you dropped cards you would be perfect.

10 years ago
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Well, there's always playing 52 pick-up...

10 years ago
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Love it, thank you very much ^_^

10 years ago
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Chii for the win!

10 years ago
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