Guide to Advanced Gameplay
By MysteriousMage.
Research: The Deep Dive
Here I will be covering the recommended order to complete the research trees, this is going to be my personal recommendation.
- Green Tree:
- First things first just unlock everything, when it forks go to the right, then up, then left.
- Max out the 3 large nodes that give “All your Mines Generate x% more income”
- Max out all Ruby nodes
- Max out the single Obsidian node
- Max out all Sapphire nodes
- Rest of Starter Island Nodes
- Rest of Fire Island Nodes
- Rest of Ice Island Nodes
- Blue Tree:
- Again unlock everything first
- Large node “Ad boosts x% more income”
- Both “Rock Barriers are removed x% faster” nodes
- Large node “You collect x% more idle cash after watching an ad”
- Both “Ad boost last x% longer” nodes
- Both “Maximum ad boost duration is increased by x%” nodes
- Both “Unlock Rock Barriers costs x% less” nodes
- Both “Increasing the prestige levels of mines costs x% less”
The red skill tree is actually the hardest to give an exact order to upgrade the most efficiently as it can be affected by outside factors. The biggest and most important is if you are about to reach Prestige 5 (maximum prestige as of writing this) if that is the case you want to max out “Hiring new managers costs x% less” before prestiging.
The next big factor that will affect the order to upgrade will be whether or not you have gotten the super managers Mr and Mrs Goodman, their active abilities are a 90% cost reduction for the elevator or the warehouse. I will lay out the order 3 times first assuming without Mr and Mrs Goodman, then assuming one of them, and then assuming both, on the second and third I will put any differences from the first in bold.
- Red Tree without Mr and Mrs Goodman:
- Once again unlock everything first
- “The Upgrade Cost Reduction of your X managers is x% stronger” Mine, Elevator and Warehouse evenly until maxed
- “Effects last longer” and “Regenerate Faster”, Mine, Elevator, and Warehouse evenly until maxed
- Max Hiring new Managers costs less
- Elevator Load Expansion and Warehouse Load Speed evenly until maxed
- Max Mine Mining Speed
- Max Mine Shaft walking speed
- Everything else evenly until maxed
- Red Tree with either Mr or Mrs Goodman:
- Once again unlock everything first
- “The Upgrade Cost Reduction of your X managers is x% stronger” Mine and whichever location you don’t have evenly until maxed
- “Effects last longer” and “Regenerate Faster”, Mine, Elevator, and Warehouse evenly until maxed
- Max Hiring new Managers costs less
- Elevator Load Expansion and Warehouse Load Speed evenly until maxed
- Max Mine Mining Speed
- Max the remaining “The Upgrade Cost Reduction of your X managers is x% stronger”
- Max Mine Shaft walking speed
- Everything else evenly until maxed
- Red Tree with both Mr and Mrs Goodman:
- Once again unlock everything first
- “The Upgrade Cost Reduction of your X managers is x% stronger” Mine
- “Effects last longer” and “Regenerate Faster”, Mine, Elevator, and Warehouse evenly until maxed
- Max Hiring new Managers costs less
- Elevator Load Expansion and Warehouse Load Speed evenly until maxed
- Max Mine Mining Speed
- “The Upgrade Cost Reduction of your X managers is x% stronger” Elevator and Warehouse evenly until maxed
- Max Mine Shaft walking speed
- Everything else evenly until maxed
Events: A Quick Completion Guide
There are 2 methods I know of the one I personally use which I will call the “Once Through” and the one I usually hear mentioned when people ask which I will call the “Twice Through”.
Once Through
I upgrade only mineshaft 1 and the elevator and warehouse until mineshaft 1 reaches level 800 (elevator and warehouse usually around 1200). I will usually start using Blingsley after shaft 1 reaches 200. Once shaft 1 reaches 800 I unlock shafts 2-5 and start the barrier at shaft 6 and watch the two ads, sometimes this will finish off the barrier so I will unlock shafts 6-10 and start the barrier at shaft 11 and watch the two ads.
Once I get to a point where I am waiting on a barrier to unlock more mineshafts I will purchase as many managers as possible assign cost reduction managers to all unlocked mineshafts starting at the bottom with execs and work my way up and begin to max out all mines from top down while continuing to upgrade the elevator and warehouse (replacing managers once the shaft hits level 800). At this point I have every unlocked mineshaft maxed the elevator and warehouse can easily cover what the mineshafts are producing, and I am still waiting on a barrier, at this time I will either go work on other mines or go deal with irl things.
I will do my best to make sure I return every hour to watch more ads if I can. Once the barrier finishes I will quickly open all 5 new shafts, start the next barrier and watch the 2 ads for it, then assign cost reduction managers from bottom to top and then max those shafts from top down (replace managers when mine maxed) and upgrade elevator and warehouse. After a barrier comes down usually takes less than 10 minutes to max the next 5 shafts and get elevator and warehouse to handle it. If I do not have 5 exec cost reductions I will buy more managers. I will continue working in this way until mine is maxed out.
This works for me personally but I am pretty far into the end game, earlier on it might be better to go with the Twice Through strategy.
Twice Through
From what I have heard for this strategy you unlock mines and barriers as fast as possible upgrading each mine to ~300 as you go down but with every 5th mine being upgraded further as you wait for the barrier unlock. Once you have unlock shaft 30 go back to the top and upgrade each shaft to 800.
I might suggest a new strategy for those in the earlier game that I will call the “Merged Strategy” this method is untested since when I tried to use it on the most recent event it just looked like the Once Through because of my research and cards.
Merged Strategy
This strategy works basically like the Twice Through but instead of actually spending money on upgrading shafts as you work your way down just focus on the top shaft that is not maxed out.
In all of these strategies you want to use all super managers (particularly Blingsley, Mr. Turner, Dr. Steiner, and Dr. Lily) as often as possible making sure to assign mineshaft super managers in your best performing mineshaft at the time.
Mainland Strategy
This is my personal method for completing mainland mines. I upgrade only mineshaft 1 and the elevator and warehouse until mineshaft 1 reaches level 800 (elevator and warehouse usually around 1200). I will usually start using Blingsley after shaft 1 reaches 200. Once shaft 1 reaches 800 I unlock shafts 2-5 and start the barrier at shaft 6 and watch the two ads, early on this will finish off the barrier so I will unlock shafts 6-10 and start the barrier at shaft 11 and watch the two ads.
Once I get to a point where I am waiting on a barrier to unlock more mineshafts I will purchase as many managers as possible assign cost reduction managers to all unlocked mineshafts starting at the bottom with execs and work my way up and begin to max out all mines from top down while continuing to upgrade the elevator and warehouse (replacing managers once the shaft hits level 800).
At this point I have every unlocked mineshaft maxed the elevator and warehouse can easily cover what the mineshafts are producing, and I am still waiting on a barrier, at this time I will either go work on other mines or go deal with irl things. I will do my best to make sure I return every hour to watch more ads if I can.
Once the barrier finishes I will quickly open all 5 new shafts, start the next barrier and watch the 2 ads for it, then assign cost reduction managers from bottom to top and then max those shafts from top down (replace managers when mine maxed) and upgrade elevator and warehouse. After a barrier comes down usually takes less than 10 minutes to max the next 5 shafts and get elevator and warehouse to handle it. If I do not have 5 exec cost reductions I will buy more managers. I will continue working in this way until mine is maxed out.
Tips and Tricks
A section of tips and tricks that I have either discovered or been told that I think might not be known by a decent portion of the playerbase. I will continue adding to this as I think of/remember more
- When using Mr. Turner and Dr. Steiner wait until miners are returning to activate them to get an extra drop off.
- When using Ranger Sue wait until miners until miners have started mining to activate her to get the most mining time.
- Hold down upgrade button to purchase upgrades as soon as possible (I can not personally confirm this one because it does not work on my phone but make work on other phones/tablets or on emulators)
Reference Images
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