Video review:
Sign up: Idle Cash Lumber on Google Play
No referral system
I came across Idle Cash Lumber from various ads promising that you could get paid for chopping down trees. With “Idle” being part of the name, the game also has some passive elements where you can continue progressing without constantly tapping the screen.
The main premise is pretty simple: you chop down trees, and each tree gives you in-game money. You can also occasionally get extra in-game currency from ads; drones, wheel spins, and other rewards.
The game itself is basically a mix of a cookie-clicker-style game and an RPG. As you chop trees, you’ll level up and occasionally receive equipment that increases your stats. It’s the classic “number go up” gameplay loop, except you’re also earning a small amount of real money through the JustPlay blueprint.
Unfortunately, while the game itself has some RPG elements to make the experience more interesting, the actual earnings are extremely low.
How to Earn Money with Idle Cash Lumber
Idle Cash Lumber runs on the JustPlay blueprint, meaning your in-game earnings are converted into real money on a three-hour payout cycle.
You’ll earn the game’s currency by chopping trees, while additional opportunities such as drones, wheel spins, and extra cash can also give you more currency. These extra rewards typically require watching an ad.
Despite how much in-game currency you accumulate before a payout, I’m fairly certain your actual earnings are primarily determined by how many ads you’re watching rather than simply how much in-game currency you earn.
Like many beermoney apps, the first few payouts paid noticeably more before the earnings slowly decreased and eventually plateaued.
Note: I do want to add that I only encountered the most annoying type of ads to close. I’ll call them “low-quality ads” for now, but these are the ones that always redirect you to the Google Play Store, forcing you to go back to the app before you’re allowed to close the ad.
My Earnings
On average, I was earning around $0.01–$0.03 every three hours.
That means I was making around a cent or less per hour, despite watching a large number of ads as well as earning a lot of currency between each payout cycle.
The earnings started plateauing after I had earned around $0.68, and I continued using the app for a couple of weeks to make sure this wasn’t just a temporary drop or a one-off result.
Even when I earned significantly more or less in-game currency before a payout, my actual cashout generally stayed within the same $0.01–$0.03 range.
So based on my experience, earning more in-game currency doesn’t necessarily seem to equate to significantly higher real-money payouts.
Extra Rewards
There are additional ways to earn in-game currency.
You can access these by tapping your balance at the top of the screen and then going to the Rewards tab.
You’ll find several reward slots that give you additional in-game currency, with each one requiring you to watch an advertisement.
There is a limit to how many of these you can claim everyday, but if you really want to maximize the number of ads you can watch, these can be a more consistent way of generating ad opportunities instead of waiting for something to randomly appear in the gameplay.
That said, considering how little I was earning overall, I wouldn’t consider these additional rewards particularly worthwhile.
Idle Cash Lumber Game Mechanics
The game itself revolves around a cookie-clicker-style gameplay loop mixed with RPG mechanics.
You’ll manually tap to chop down trees while leveling up your character and obtaining better equipment to increase your damage.
Initially, you’ll have to do this manually. You don’t unlock the auto-tapping feature until around level 9, while auto-equipping becomes available around level 7.
This means you’ll have to manually tap the tree and equip your gear until you unlock those idle features.
As you level up and obtain better equipment, you’ll deal more damage to the trees. However, the trees also scale their HP alongside your character.
Apart from the typical RPG satisfaction of seeing your numbers get bigger, I don’t really see much reason for this system. The gameplay feels fairly linear compared to more traditional cookie-clicker games, which usually have more interesting progression systems.
Since most of the real-money earnings seem to be determined by ad generation, the amount of in-game currency you earn between every three-hour payout doesn’t seem to make much of a difference to your actual cashout.
Is Idle Cash Lumber Actually Worth Playing?
You have:
- Character levels
- Equipment
- Increasing damage
- Auto-tapping
- Auto-equipping
- Tree progression
- Additional ad-based rewards
If you actually enjoy the gameplay, you can earn a few cents while playing.
The problem is that the earnings are extremely low.
For me, the game felt more like a very basic RPG/clicker that happens to pay a tiny amount of money rather than a legitimate beermoney app worth using specifically for the earnings.
Cashout Options
Minimum cashout: $0.05
Cashout time: Instant
Cashout method: PayPal
Payment Proof
Availability
Android only
The app should be available in most major countries, although I’m not sure whether Idle Cash Lumber is available worldwide.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- PayPal cashout
- Semi-passive earning
- Pays every 3 hours
- Very low minimum cashout
- Instant payouts
- RPG elements
- Idle gameplay
- Simple gameplay loop
Cons
- Extremely low earnings
- Earnings plateau quickly
- Earnings are very linear
- Inconsistent ad generation
- More ads don’t necessarily seem to result in much higher payouts
- Very basic gameplay
- You get the annoying ads
Final Thoughts: Is Idle Cash Lumber Legit?
Would I recommend Idle Cash Lumber?
Definitely not.
The app essentially follows the JustPlay blueprint: generate ad views, play a simple game, and receive a payout every three hours.
The difference is that Idle Cash Lumber adds some RPG mechanics on top of the basic system, including equipment, levels, increasing damage, and eventually automated tree chopping. These additions can make it feel more like an actual game rather than simply watching ads for money.
Unfortunately, the earnings are insanely low.
After using the app for a couple of weeks, I consistently averaged around $0.01–$0.03 every three hours. It didn’t seem to matter much whether I watched over 100 ads or only around 10, or how much in-game currency I earned during the payout cycle. My earnings generally stayed within the same small range.
If your main goal is making money, I would recommend using JustPlay itself or looking for another JustPlay-based app instead. Many of them pay more, generate ads more consistently, or require less effort. Some JustPlay copies also have additional earning methods and bonuses that can increase your earnings.
Once you reach around level 9, Idle Cash Lumber becomes more automated, allowing you to automate the tree chopping and equipment management while continuing to generate opportunities for ads.
But even after unlocking these idle features, I don’t think the app is worth your time if you’re using it primarily for beermoney.
Overall, there’s really not much to Idle Cash Lumber beyond its basic clicker/RPG mechanics. It can be somewhat entertaining if you happen to enjoy this type of game, and getting a few cents while playing is better than getting nothing, but the extremely low earnings make it difficult for me to recommend.