UnderMine: 12 Major Tips to Progress

You are a peasant sent into the mines by your boss the wizard who wants you to collect gold and along your journey to find the source of the tremors that are shaking the mine back and forth. Along the way you will meet characters who will then help you buy setting up shop above the mine. Death is a part of the game and is something you will face. But not to worry the wizard has plenty of workers/peasants to do the job and if one dies the other will take the job of going down the mines. During your journey you will get the opportunity to pick up relics which are items found in item rooms. These change your run in many ways. Some of them will change your stats such as swing damage, throw damage, or HP. Others will switch out your bomb for a powerful bomb. Others do things such as show you secret rooms. This game is a roguelike in nature and has randomized levels that differ on each run you do. It is a classic perma-death roguelike in a similar vane and with similarities to Rogue Legacy and Binding of Isaac.

1. Movement and Set UP- Use a controller as it is far more difficult to aim with the mouse and keyboard if you do use keyboard and mouse remember to check to see that you have mouse aim turned on this makes the pickaxe and the direction you are facing congruent with where you point your mouse towards. Go through the options and change things to your liking. There is a rumble setting however it goes off anytime you jump so you might want to turn it off before starting so you don’t have the distraction. When the game first came out you could find secret rooms by swinging your pickaxe at a wall. If it rumbled then that meant there was a secret room there.

2. Opening a curse chest should be a rare occurrence. Often you will not get any great reward for your risk and you will get a curse that can ruin your run or end it prematurely. There are situations however where it is wise and preferable to open a cursed chest or pray and get a curse for a blessing. For example if in the shop there is a potion that removes a curse on the same floor as your curse chest then yes go ahead and open it. There is also another encounter where it might be beneficial to get a course. There is a room with relics in it and each one costs you a curse, you choose one out of three. Sometimes you will get the choice to get a really powerful ability that could win you the run. Please take the risk then. It might save your butt later on. The collector update has drastically changed the cost of opening and taking a curse. Before this update it was never, and I repeat never a smart or an option to take a curse. It would simply destroy a run and increase the damage of enemies sometimes 50%. There are curses that make fireballs come from the sky and destroy you. Remember all those rooms with oil? What if you have boots that drop oil- The ones that make you able to jump in oil? Yeah those , one fireball and you are doomed. Now the balance has changed to make the curses somewhat more favorable in a risk reward situation where if you really want to take the risk you can.

3. Take advantage of buying keys and bombs before you start your run because you will most likely run out of one or the other.

4. One of the first things you will need to upgrade ounce you unlock the shopkeeper at the top of the mines is the expended food supply in the shop. Also upgrade to get the pepper shaker to increase the effectiveness of food. These 2 upgrades are far more powerful than any others. HP is king in this game. Remember that.

5. Use bombs in combat. Bombs can be one of your most powerful weapons if you can land them appropriately in a fight. They are very, very powerful even when you have not upgraded them at the top. When fighting a boss especially you can quickly whittle down his hp with a few bombs especially if you have bombbushka or blue or red bombs.

6. Progress in this game is gated by bosses- learn their patterns, try to defeat them over and over again until you learn their weakness and strengths. The more you win the more progress you will make. The latest update has made the worm boss much more manageable to fight. You can now get out of the stone prison he locks you in.

7. The collector update has drastically changed the balance of the game. The day after the update I defeated the worm boss Selt, Rescued Lillyth after beating the Gargoyles, Defeated Mortar charged Golem. That’s three bosses in one day. The collector update has made the curses an actual viable strategy now where before a curse could destroy a run and end it prematurely.

8. Hp is king. Whenever you get low on hp always try to find the shop because it will always have a little hp at least. Try to upgrade the shop and expend the food supply as soon as you can because HP is very important in this game. Don’t fret about the money it costs to buy the steak, remember that you can get all of it back as the HP will allow you to go further and further in the game. HP is always I repeat always a smart buy. Never worry about spending money on something so important.

9. Use keys sparingly. Keys don’t drop very often so when they do make sure you are using them the best way you can. There are 2 important key rooms on every floor, the shop and the item/relic room. Sometimes any one of these can be unlocked however there is no guarantee of this. If you have a key make sure you don’t use it to open a chest but save it until you can open the item room first. There are really good items in there that will help your run far more then the gold, etc that you will find in a chest. The only situation when you will have a better use for your remaining key is when you are very low on hp and need to get to the shop to buy food. Then the smart option is to go to the shop first. Often the shop will contain a key and you can purchase the key there and get into the item room as well. However the key is not a guarantee though there is a good chance of it being there especially after you have spent the gold to upgrade your shop.

10. Peep Skeletons. When you walk up next to a skeleton laying on the ground you will notice you can interact with it ,or peep it by pressing Y(if you are using a controller) This is really important to peep the skeletons because sometimes they have valuable goodies for you. They carry keys and bombs which they will drop after you peek them. Whenever walking into a room with combat try your best to be careful not to destroy a skeleton because a destroyed skeleton cannot be pepped. If the room has an enemy like BOBO (the snorlax blue looking bear) peek the skeleton right away because if BOBO runs into the skeleton then it will be destroyed. Often you will find the skeleton’s to be your best source of keys/ bombs, etc the most so early on in your adventure.

11. Use the pickaxe for ranged attacks on any flying enemy, enemies that are lit in fire, and enemies such as bombs and walking skeletons that you need to keep your distance from. You will not be able to dodge the projectiles they fire at you if you are close to them using your melee attack.

12. Secret rooms are a thing, as well as secret rocks. Secret Rooms you will notice pretty soon after starting your first run as you will see a dark wall that is twinkling. This means there is a secret room behind the wall. You can get to it by placing a bomb there. After it explodes walk into the room. These rooms are random just like the levels. There could be any a number of things for you to take. Chests, cursed chests, Alters, etc.