1 The loop in order
Mine rocks. Rocks drop ores. Ores are crafted into bars. Bars unlock skill tree upgrades that permanently boost your stats, which lets you mine rocks with more power, which produces more ore.
Everything in the game feeds that circle. When you are unsure what to do next, the answer is whichever action makes the next turn of the circle faster.
2 The mining area is the real mechanic
The developer states that any rock inside the mining area will spawn pickaxes that mine for you. That is the sentence to build your whole understanding around.
Your cursor is not doing the work. It is deciding which rocks are inside the area, and the number of rocks in there determines how many pickaxes are working. Positioning to cover several rocks at once is therefore worth more than hovering carefully over one.
3 Ores, bars and why smelting matters
Mined rocks drop ores, and ores are crafted into bars. Bars are what the skill tree consumes, so ore sitting uncrafted is progress you have earned but not banked.
There is also a variety of different material rocks, which means your bar supply is not one number but several. Being rich in one material and short of another is the normal state, and it is what stops you buying the whole tree at once.
4 Where the first bars should go
| Priority | Why |
|---|---|
| Anything that widens or improves the mining area | More rocks covered means more pickaxes working at once |
| Mining power | Directly counters the rising rock health you are about to cause |
| Yield or drop improvements | More ore per rock compounds through every later purchase |
In incremental games the rule is always the same: buy the thing that multiplies, not the thing that adds. Anything affecting how many rocks you process per minute qualifies.
5 Pickaxes are a separate track
Crafting pickaxes uses different materials, and each new pickaxe has better stats to help you mine faster and hit harder. This runs alongside the skill tree rather than competing with it.
Because pickaxes need specific materials, they also give a reason to mine rock types you would otherwise ignore. If a craft is blocked, that is the game telling you which material to go and collect.
6 Levelling and talent points
Every level up earns a talent point. Spending it reveals three random talent cards and you keep one of them.
7 Unlocking The Mine
The Mine automatically mines rocks and instantly crafts bars for you, and the developer calls it the idle mechanic of the game.
Treat reaching it as your first real goal. Before it exists, every bar comes from you being present. After it exists, the game keeps working while you do something else, which changes the character of everything you buy afterwards.
8 Your first session
- Move the cursor so the mining area covers several rocks rather than one.
- Craft ores into bars regularly. Uncrafted ore buys nothing.
- Spend early bars on area and mining power before anything cosmetic to the loop.
- Craft a better pickaxe as soon as the materials allow it.
- Read all three talent cards before choosing, since the choice raises rock health either way.
- Aim at unlocking The Mine as the first milestone.
Rocks become ore, ore becomes bars, bars buy permanent upgrades that mine more rocks. Your cursor decides which rocks sit inside the mining area, and every rock in there spawns a pickaxe, so covering several beats hovering over one. Craft ore promptly, spend early bars on area and mining power, and craft pickaxes when the materials allow. Talent cards raise rock health as well as your power, so read all three. Unlocking The Mine is the first real milestone.
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