That was pretty fun at first but the late (?) game gets pretty frustrating.
Having coffee only affect the lowest miners is bad enough when aiming for the emerald cave, but even moreso when artifact hunting. Having to sit through a dig, potentially burn (and re-buy) coffee, then reset to have another go gets tedious fast!
edit: okay, coffee isn't necessary for artifact farming if I disable the Spawn upgrade, but this still feels like a pretty grindy loop for unknown reward!
edit2: the reward was nice, game was still fun overall, but the artifacts could definitely do with being less RNG-dependent.
Ability to downgrade or something like that should've been a priority fix - fully maxed out with every upgrade, unable to reach the cave at all. Wouldn't have known there even was prestige without the comments here. Meanwhile having to do it all again, able to reach the cave without even using coffee, just by not buying spawn rate *or* miner speed upgrades. (focuses them into a single tunnel more often, full speed spread out more)
Really good game. The spawnrate upgrade ends up being a huge nerf after prestige 2 though, nearly couldn't complete pres 2 at 360 but easily beat pres 3 with no spawnrate upgrades
Hi! Yes, I've been thinking about adding the possibility of disabling upgrades or downgrading so the player can strategically select if they want to mine resources for money or mine rocks for upgrades or they're just making a run for the cave. I'm adding it to the backlog.
Should probably be a way to undo upgrades. Out of curiosity I cut short days in and maxed everything and it's been multiple days without being able to hit the bottom. Think the offender is the increased resources in the ground. Have reached the layer above the bottom with 1 of the 22 workers once post coffee use (should really be able to buy 1 coffee per max worker) and not at all close since then.
The rng on how far they get down pre coffee use is a big range furthest I've gotten down before coffee is about 160 and shortest is 106.
Didn't realise what coffee did till i saw the comments, so was a bit slow. Got to the emerald cave on day 15, except the miner who got there was on the very edg of the map, so instead of getting a game complete message, instead I watched him fall forever into the void.
Sorry about that!! It's already fixed, it's coming out in the next update, it seems to be an edge case but yeah, unfortunately it can happen if you get really unlucky. Thanks for playing!!
Yes, prices should increase as you buy more and more workers, but also the sale prices of resources can increase depending on how deep you mine (which resource you get) and depending on the upgrade called "Profit".
Well played! yep, it says it in the description, it refills the energy of the workers in the lower levels. So if you have 4 coffees it refills the energy of the 4 workers closest to the bottom.
Yeah, sorry, it's hard to convey what it does, it's not ONE coffee per day, it's ONCE, like in "you could use that buff once per day", and the buff affects multiple workers. Do you think there could be a better way to phrase it? it's just a caption I could modify it, no problem, I'm open to suggestions if it's more clear for the players. Thanks!
7 days achieved! It didn't require the super lucky start, but I did have a lucky middle game with two miners working together to make a deep mine on day 4 or 5, which got me enough copper to get 2x strength upgrades (to one-shot rock tiles).
I'd be surprised if 6 days was possible, even with lots of luck. You'd need to get two workers on day 1, get a deep mine for copper by day 4, and have enough rock for 2x strength upgrades and several energy upgrades. I just don't think it's possible even with luck on your side.
You have to be really lucky about the spawns and ALSO about the miners stacking together. If on day 6 a few fall down the same hole, they will be more efficient (spend less energy and go further down) so if you don't buy too many miners and focus on maxing strength and energy and coffee, maybe... just maybe... you could reach level 300.
Also your path in the last day shouldn't have many resources and mostly rock. Because resources tend to distract miners and force them to move sideways, they should optimize by being mostly in the same hole.
I think (not 100% sure) you could technically reach it on 6 if you get super lucky and have enough upgrades and coffee, the numbers are there, but you'll have to play a lot. It's not worth it, LOL, you are the first one to reach the cave on day 7, so you're the king now!
Also, I'll update the game in a few days, so all this will be changed so don't bother.
Nice! Day 8 is great! It's the record so far, I think nobody got to day 7 yet.
And yes, I figured people would find it useful to buy and drink coffee "in the moment" if they couldn't reach a resource they needed or to extend the day a bit longer.
8 days! Super fun game. I think a 7-day is possible, but it would require a lot of luck on early days (especially day 1, need two miners days 1).
Strategy:
Re-roll until the first three days are +worker, +worker, +energy.
Priority is upgrades, but rock is limiting early on. Don't save resources if you can buy a useful upgrade or another worker.
+speed upgrade is useless for trying to minimize days.
Coffee is very powerful. Coffee is probably worth it if you can get to copper and more than pays for itself if you can get to silver. ALSO: coffee can be bought and used at the end of a round - never buy coffee in advance.
Because deeper metals are so much more expensive than earlier metals, all that matters is getting to deeper levels. Therefore, chance for 2x resources and more minerals spawned is not worth it (more minerals actually slows down progress). Clover can be worth it if you have extra cash lying around.
Day 5: silver
Day 6: gold
Day 7: platinum -> max workers and get as much energy + strength as possible.
Day 8: I got to the emerald cave without even using coffee that day (barely).
Oh man! you have no idea how awesome it is to see people trying to find strategies to beat/speedrun your game! you guys made my day!
Just a tip: we figured out a few comments back that if you get SUPER LUCKY you could hire 2 extra workers in the first day and start day 2 with 3 workers.
I don't know if that would help getting to day 7, but I leave that to you ;-)
There's a 10% base chance of getting a resource instead of rock, so if you get SUPER LUCKY and get that, the miner won't even hit the third layer and you'd get 3 rock and 17 iron, which translates to $88. That's the max you can get on day 1. Which lets you hire TWO extra miners for day 2!
Oh no, really?? I thought I fixed that! I'll add it to the backlog, sorry! that was some bad luck, seems to be an edge case, not only a miner digging far right but also the ONLY one to reach the cave so no other miner triggered the end screen?
Excellent game! The use of one-way-exchange in a duel currency system, the nostalgic well timed SFX, the understandable and pretty competent behavior AI for your little dudes, it all adds up to a well polished and enjoyable experience. Thank you Wired Pixels for making this!
15 days! but I didn't use the coffee til day 7 or 8 cause I didn't know what it was for. The little question mark tool tips didn't do anything when I clicked on them. Not sure if they were meant to show a description or hint. On Mac and Firefox if that makes a difference.
If you hover over the question mark, does it not work? Hovering over any item or its value should show the tooltip. Sorry if that wasn’t clear, I’ll add clicking for tooltips to the backlog.
Short and sweet! Did it in 13 days first try, there's still optimization out there. Plenty of times I missed the early upgrades by a few resources. And the big cheese of buying the coffee after initially running the day, buying upgrades and then using it. For those playing after me, coffee stacks (it will affect multiple miners if you got multiple) and the clover is just 1 per day. The moment coffee starts paying for itself is when it starts snowballing hard.
Yep! I think I need to balance the coffee, lol. Too OP. And I think that's a record! in all the testing the best I got was day 14 so congrats! It also depends on RNG and even small decisions in the early game could affect the end game drastically.
Keep in mind I made this in a week for a game jam, so surely I can improve a few things, mainly balance the coffee and make some upgrades more meaningful (like profit which you could probably even ignore) so I'll probably fix those once the voting period for the jam is over.
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That was pretty fun at first but the late (?) game gets pretty frustrating.
Having coffee only affect the lowest miners is bad enough when aiming for the emerald cave, but even moreso when artifact hunting. Having to sit through a dig, potentially burn (and re-buy) coffee, then reset to have another go gets tedious fast!
edit: okay, coffee isn't necessary for artifact farming if I disable the Spawn upgrade, but this still feels like a pretty grindy loop for unknown reward!
edit2: the reward was nice, game was still fun overall, but the artifacts could definitely do with being less RNG-dependent.
Ability to downgrade or something like that should've been a priority fix - fully maxed out with every upgrade, unable to reach the cave at all. Wouldn't have known there even was prestige without the comments here.
Meanwhile having to do it all again, able to reach the cave without even using coffee, just by not buying spawn rate *or* miner speed upgrades. (focuses them into a single tunnel more often, full speed spread out more)
Hi. I'll update the game tonight and I'll add the downgrade option. Still if you play again it's less than 10 minutes until you reach the cave.
Sorry for the inconvenience. I'll have it fixed ASAP.
Done!
Really good game. The spawnrate upgrade ends up being a huge nerf after prestige 2 though, nearly couldn't complete pres 2 at 360 but easily beat pres 3 with no spawnrate upgrades
Hi! Yes, I've been thinking about adding the possibility of disabling upgrades or downgrading so the player can strategically select if they want to mine resources for money or mine rocks for upgrades or they're just making a run for the cave. I'm adding it to the backlog.
Thanks for playing and for your feedback!!
Should probably be a way to undo upgrades. Out of curiosity I cut short days in and maxed everything and it's been multiple days without being able to hit the bottom. Think the offender is the increased resources in the ground. Have reached the layer above the bottom with 1 of the 22 workers once post coffee use (should really be able to buy 1 coffee per max worker) and not at all close since then.
The rng on how far they get down pre coffee use is a big range furthest I've gotten down before coffee is about 160 and shortest is 106.
Hi. Yes, the spawn rate upgrade can backfire if you upgrade it too early. I'll add an option to downgrade.
Thanks for the feedback!
Didn't realise what coffee did till i saw the comments, so was a bit slow.
Got to the emerald cave on day 15, except the miner who got there was on the very edg of the map, so instead of getting a game complete message, instead I watched him fall forever into the void.
Sorry about that!! It's already fixed, it's coming out in the next update, it seems to be an edge case but yeah, unfortunately it can happen if you get really unlucky. Thanks for playing!!
13th Worker costs 25k
Yes, prices should increase as you buy more and more workers, but also the sale prices of resources can increase depending on how deep you mine (which resource you get) and depending on the upgrade called "Profit".
16 days
didnt know coffee does the whole stack when used until day ~12
Well played! yep, it says it in the description, it refills the energy of the workers in the lower levels. So if you have 4 coffees it refills the energy of the 4 workers closest to the bottom.
it also says "once per day" like the clover and thats used one by one, i thought you just use one to refill the energy of multiple workers.
Yeah, sorry, it's hard to convey what it does, it's not ONE coffee per day, it's ONCE, like in "you could use that buff once per day", and the buff affects multiple workers. Do you think there could be a better way to phrase it? it's just a caption I could modify it, no problem, I'm open to suggestions if it's more clear for the players. Thanks!
maybe something along the lines of "refills energy of one worker PER coffee used, consumes entire stack on use."
maybe not exactly this, but something similar.
14 days! buying max coffees definitely is the strat
Nice! yeah, coffee is OP. :-)
Cool game thank you!
7 days achieved! It didn't require the super lucky start, but I did have a lucky middle game with two miners working together to make a deep mine on day 4 or 5, which got me enough copper to get 2x strength upgrades (to one-shot rock tiles).
I'd be surprised if 6 days was possible, even with lots of luck. You'd need to get two workers on day 1, get a deep mine for copper by day 4, and have enough rock for 2x strength upgrades and several energy upgrades. I just don't think it's possible even with luck on your side.
You have to be really lucky about the spawns and ALSO about the miners stacking together. If on day 6 a few fall down the same hole, they will be more efficient (spend less energy and go further down) so if you don't buy too many miners and focus on maxing strength and energy and coffee, maybe... just maybe... you could reach level 300.
Also your path in the last day shouldn't have many resources and mostly rock. Because resources tend to distract miners and force them to move sideways, they should optimize by being mostly in the same hole.
I think (not 100% sure) you could technically reach it on 6 if you get super lucky and have enough upgrades and coffee, the numbers are there, but you'll have to play a lot. It's not worth it, LOL, you are the first one to reach the cave on day 7, so you're the king now!
Also, I'll update the game in a few days, so all this will be changed so don't bother.
Still, great achievement reaching it on day 7!
You are officially the GOAT of this game :-)
Well played!
8 days after a few attempts!
strategy was to get 3 guys then max out energy and put a few upgrades in strength (3-4), get more guys and drink a lot of coffeeee :D
also you can buy coffee at the end of the day and drink it straight away which I did every day after my first 2 upgrades in energy
Nice! Day 8 is great! It's the record so far, I think nobody got to day 7 yet.
And yes, I figured people would find it useful to buy and drink coffee "in the moment" if they couldn't reach a resource they needed or to extend the day a bit longer.
Thanks for playing!
8 days! Super fun game. I think a 7-day is possible, but it would require a lot of luck on early days (especially day 1, need two miners days 1).
Strategy:
Oh man! you have no idea how awesome it is to see people trying to find strategies to beat/speedrun your game! you guys made my day!
Just a tip: we figured out a few comments back that if you get SUPER LUCKY you could hire 2 extra workers in the first day and start day 2 with 3 workers.
I don't know if that would help getting to day 7, but I leave that to you ;-)
Thanks for playing!
Fun little game to figure out.
12 days first try. 9 days second try
Once each worker digs up about 100$, start buying coffee (around once you hit copper)
AFTER buying upgrades at the end of the day, buy as many coffees as you have workers to get an extra "day".
More resource spawns can sidetrack your miners. Also rock and iron end up being the limiting resource for more dig power.
Yep, with more time (without the game jam deadline) I'll study and tweak the numbers more carefully to make everything more balanced.
I'm glad you liked the game, thanks for playing!
I'm wondering if it is possible to finish in day 8. The max gold I got on day 1 is 76.
Maybe day 1 80 gold is possible with:
R
II
I
Haha, yes. Best case scenario for day 1 is:
RRR
III
There's a 10% base chance of getting a resource instead of rock, so if you get SUPER LUCKY and get that, the miner won't even hit the third layer and you'd get 3 rock and 17 iron, which translates to $88. That's the max you can get on day 1. Which lets you hire TWO extra miners for day 2!
10 days first try! I think I got pretty lucky with the iron spawns on the first day haha
Nice! Good job! Yes, rng can help in the outcome of your run.
Thanks for playing!!
my only miner who reached the emerald depth was digging on the furthest right tile and ended up falling through the world forever
Oh no, really?? I thought I fixed that! I'll add it to the backlog, sorry! that was some bad luck, seems to be an edge case, not only a miner digging far right but also the ONLY one to reach the cave so no other miner triggered the end screen?
I'll fix that asap. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Excellent game! The use of one-way-exchange in a duel currency system, the nostalgic well timed SFX, the understandable and pretty competent behavior AI for your little dudes, it all adds up to a well polished and enjoyable experience. Thank you Wired Pixels for making this!
Thanks for those kind words. I'll probably add more content in the coming days. I'm glad you liked it!!
Nice!
thanks!
Really cool short game! I finished in 9 days!
WOW! Another record! I'm curious about the strategy, since early game decisions (and some lucky rng) can drastically affect the end game.
I tend to buy 4 miners and then focus on the upgrades.
Thanks for playing!
Good
thanks!
is 12 days any good?
It's a new record! congrats!
Same! I thought it'd be at least 13+ in those last few seconds, but I just pulled it off too.
Someone managed to beat it in 9! I'm curious about the strategy. I love when people find optimized strategies to beat your game, it's so cool!
15 days! but I didn't use the coffee til day 7 or 8 cause I didn't know what it was for. The little question mark tool tips didn't do anything when I clicked on them. Not sure if they were meant to show a description or hint. On Mac and Firefox if that makes a difference.
If you hover over the question mark, does it not work? Hovering over any item or its value should show the tooltip. Sorry if that wasn’t clear, I’ll add clicking for tooltips to the backlog.
Thanks for playing!
No, hovering didn't work either.
Good to know, I'll have that fixed on the next update. Thanks!
Short and sweet!
Did it in 13 days first try, there's still optimization out there. Plenty of times I missed the early upgrades by a few resources.
And the big cheese of buying the coffee after initially running the day, buying upgrades and then using it.
For those playing after me, coffee stacks (it will affect multiple miners if you got multiple) and the clover is just 1 per day.
The moment coffee starts paying for itself is when it starts snowballing hard.
Yep! I think I need to balance the coffee, lol. Too OP. And I think that's a record! in all the testing the best I got was day 14 so congrats! It also depends on RNG and even small decisions in the early game could affect the end game drastically.
Keep in mind I made this in a week for a game jam, so surely I can improve a few things, mainly balance the coffee and make some upgrades more meaningful (like profit which you could probably even ignore) so I'll probably fix those once the voting period for the jam is over.
I'm glad you liked it, thanks for playing!!
Fire, I love idle games.
And I love making them :-)
thanks for playing!
Great game. Short but really enjoyed it. Is what s... 20 days to the emerald cave. Couldn't have done it without coffee which is pretty realistic.
Nice!
Yes, I wanted players to combine upgrades and coffee to reach the cave. And I had to keep it short because it's for a game jam.
I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for playing!