Mining Progression Guide: HOTM 1 to 10

Mining has had a rough couple of years, but it's as important as ever: it supports almost every other skill. This guide covers mining from HOTM 1 to HOTM 10, plus a little late-game mining.

Getting into the Dwarven Mines

If you can already get into the Dwarven Mines, skip to your first HOTM levels.

Your first HOTM levels

Commissions give Heart of the Mountain (HOTM) XP. Each HOTM level unlocks perks that help you mine more. You upgrade perks with powder, a currency you get from mining events, commissions and several other ways covered below.

Commission tips

• While doing commissions, the only perk really worth spending powder on is Mining Spread. It lets you mine several mithril blocks at once.
• Only use Pickobulus. It's the best pickaxe ability for commissions.

Gear for HOTM 2 to 7

At HOTM 2, unlock the Mithril Drill SX-R226. It's the best drill in the game for a while: it's a great drill, and it gives 20% more mithril powder.

Also get at least:

• a Legendary Mithril Golem pet
• full mithril equipment
• full Glacite armor

These give you much-needed mining speed and more mithril powder. Reforge your equipment to Royal for more powder from events.

At HOTM 3, upgrade the drill to the Mithril Drill SX-R326 and your mithril equipment to titanium equipment.

Speeding up the grind

That gear is technically enough to reach HOTM 7, but the developers have added a lot of quality-of-life updates that make it much faster.

Attributes are an underused way to blitz through the game:

Drill parts are one of the big benefits of using a drill. Only get the lowest-tier upgrades, like the mithril drill engine and fuel tank.

A Spicy Omelette gives 20% more powder.

These don't seem like much, but with them you can reach HOTM 7 in about a week of dedicated play, instead of the soul-sucking grind it used to be.

Money and getting around

Early-game mining makes very little money, and you'll need coins for these upgrades. The best early-game money-making method is going to the Safari. Episode 2 of Asxent's normal profile series shows how to unlock it.

• An Aspect of the End or Aspect of the Void, whichever you can afford, lets you teleport to the right spot.
• Commission milestones unlock quick warps such as /warp mines and /warp cn.

The Forge

The Forge, in the Dwarven Mines, lets you forge items and tools that help with mining. You unlock more forge slots as your HOTM level goes up.

Mining events

Only three events matter:

• Raffle: tickets spawn all over the floor and you pick them up. Get the Magnetic Talisman, unlocked in the Obsidian collection, for a bigger ticket pickup radius.
• Goblin Raid: kill the goblins invading the mines. Target the automatons: each one counts as 10 kills.
• Mithril Gourmand: an NPC visits the mines wanting tasty mithril. Mine mithril in the marked area to get Tasty Mithril. In roughly the last 30 seconds of the event, type /tptodonexpresso to teleport to him, then hold the Tasty Mithril and click him.

Each event has a minimum amount you need to take part, but the rewards scale, so always do as much as you can.

The Crystal Hollows

Reach HOTM 7 before you enter for the first time. The Crystal Hollows introduce gemstone powder. It's much easier to get than mithril powder, but you need far more of it.

Max out Great Explorer first

Great Explorer lets you open chests in the Crystal Hollows for extra gemstone powder.

Opening chests is glitchy and sometimes doesn't register, but there's no way around it.

• The start is slow, so try to grind only during 2x powder events.
• For even more gemstone powder, look into the Jasper drill, the Spicy Omelette and the Thyst attribute.
• Open chests in the Precursor Remnants. They can drop automaton parts, which sell for a decent amount on the Bazaar.
• Wear a Mineral or Glossy Mineral set for more mining spread while grinding powder.

Once Great Explorer is maxed, max out Powder Buff too. After that, upgrade whatever you want.

Perks to max before the Glacite Tunnels

Before moving on to the Glacite Tunnels, max out these perks, in this order:

1. The mithril powder perks: Mining Spread, Mining Speed and Mining Fortune.
2. Fortunate Mineman and Speedy Mineman.
3. Powder Buff.

Crystal Nucleus runs

A Nucleus run means placing 5 crystals in their spots in the Crystal Nucleus, then rolling a loot pool. Each crystal needs a task:

1. Complete the Jungle Temple, after using a key to get in.
2. Return all the scavenged tools to their owners, using a metal detector.
3. Give the King some eggs, then break into the Goblin Queen's fortress.
4. Give all the automaton parts to the big robot.
5. Kill a Bal.

Runs aren't really worth it unless you're on an Ironman profile or want the Divan Alloy for the Divan's Drill. You get SkyBlock XP for your first 50 runs.

The Glacite Tunnels

Unlocking the tunnels

You can also craft a warp scroll for the Glacite Tunnels in the Forge.

Gear

Progress here depends on your gear and powder. At a minimum, max out the important mithril and gemstone powder perks first.

First upgrades:

• full Divan's armor, reforged to Jaded
• a semi-maxed Titanium Drill DR-X655
• a Bal or Scatha pet
• titanium equipment is fine for now

Nice to have: Flawless gemstones in the armor and a powder coating on the drill.

Eventually: Dwarven Handwarmers, Perfect gemstones, maxed drill parts, and the Divan's Drill and Pendant. The first upgrades are plenty to start with, though. You can mine with worse gear, but it makes mining horrendous.

Glacite powder

The Glacite Tunnels introduce glacite powder. You get it from commissions, from mining glacite, and from fossils.

Fossils

To the left of the Glacite base camp is a fossil area with the Scrap Excavator. Put in Suspicious Scrap and play a minigame to see what's inside. It's usually junk, but sometimes you fully excavate a fossil. Fossil patterns are shared on Reddit. A higher-tier brush gives you more excavation chances.

Donate fossils to the museum for:

• that fossil's pet recipe in the Forge
• HOTM XP
• a good amount of glacite powder

Mineshafts and corpses

Mineshafts are portals to small mining zones with corpses. Inside, dwarven metals and gemstones can drop Suspicious Scrap.

• Every block you break in the tunnels has a chance to spawn a mineshaft. There's also a pity system in case you go too long without one.
• The block that spawns the mineshaft makes it more likely to be that ore or gemstone variant.
• Lapis corpses are always free to open. Other corpse types need their own key.
• Vanguard corpses spawn alone in their own room and need a Skeleton Key. They have a small chance to drop a Shattered Locket, the ingredient for the best equipment piece in the game.

Grandpa Wolf, an NPC added in a recent update, keeps track of every corpse you've opened. His milestones give various rewards, though none are essential. He also has a pity meter for Vanguard corpses in case you're unlucky with drops.

Anything missing?

This guide skips a few niche things, but it's enough to get anyone new to mining started. If you have questions, leave a comment on the video.