Mining skills
Mining skill points let you shape how you mine: break ores in fewer hits, keep more rewards, earn more mining XP, warp between sites or tilt your odds towards rare finds. This page lists every perk, what it needs and what it does. How to spend points and reset them is on the Mining page.
How points and perks work
Section titled “How points and perks work”- Each point you allocate goes into one branch. A perk unlocks once the branch has the points it needs, and you keep every perk you have reached.
- Mining Technique, Reward Preservation, Travel Pads and Mining Training each have five perks, at 1, 3, 5, 8 and 12 points. Prospector Focus has three, at 3, 5 and 8 points.
- Every point also needs a mining level, so you cannot rush one branch. With 25 points you can fill two branches and have 1 point left over.
| Mining level | Points earned | Most points one branch can hold |
|---|---|---|
| 5–19 | 1–3 | 2 |
| 20–39 | 4–7 | 4 |
| 40–59 | 8–11 | 7 |
| 60–79 | 13–17 | 11 |
| 80–99 | 19–23 | 12 |
| 100 | 25 | 12 |
Prospector Focus stops at 8 points. Each table below gives the points a perk needs in its branch and the mining level that point needs. The perk names are the ones on the perk cards in game.
Mining Technique
Section titled “Mining Technique”These perks make your hits stronger, so ores break in fewer hits.
| Perk | Points in branch | Mining level | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean Strike | 1 | 5 | Your first hit on each ore deals 3 damage instead of 1. |
| Steady Strike | 3 | 20 | Damage beyond what an ore needs carries over to your first hit on the next ore. |
| Precise Strike | 5 | 40 | Your hits can be critical hits, dealing 3 damage instead of 1. Better pickaxes land them more often. |
| Continuous Strike | 8 | 60 | After 2 normal hits on the same ore, your next hit is always a critical hit. |
| Expert Strike | 12 | 80 | With a  Diamond Pickaxe, every hit deals 1 extra damage and critical hits deal 5 instead of 3. |
Reward Preservation
Section titled “Reward Preservation”When an ore breaks, its reward is sometimes destroyed. These perks make that less likely. Their bonuses grow with your pickaxe: they are small with the Bronze Pickaxe and only work in full with the Diamond Pickaxe.
| Perk | Points in branch | Mining level | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic Preservation | 1 | 5 | Mined rewards are less likely to be destroyed. |
| Rare-Ore Preservation | 3 | 20 | Rewards from Rainbow and Dark ore are even less likely to be destroyed. |
| Rare-Drop Preservation | 5 | 40 | Once per attempt, the first Rare or better reward that would be destroyed gets a second chance to survive. |
| Dark-Ore Preservation | 8 | 60 | Rewards from Dark ore are much less likely to be destroyed. |
| Master Preservation | 12 | 80 | With a Diamond Pickaxe, Dark ore rewards are never destroyed. |
An attempt is one of your daily attempts at a site.
Prospector Focus
Section titled “Prospector Focus”Each perk unlocks a focus mode. Choose one on the Prospector Focus tab of the Mining Radar; only one can be active at a time. “Rare ore” means Rainbow and Dark ore.
| Perk | Points in branch | Mining level | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tunnel Vision | 3 | 20 | More rare ore at every site in one site group you choose, less in all the other groups. |
| Greedy Extractor | 5 | 40 | Rewards lean towards Rare and better, but rewards are more likely to be destroyed. |
| Claim Jumper | 8 | 60 | More rare ore and more Rare-or-better rewards until you complete your first site of the day; after that, less for the rest of the day. |
The site groups are the site types in the Mining sites table, from Foundational Mining Site up to Rainbow Ravine.
Once you have started mining for the day, your focus is locked until the daily reset at 00:00 UTC. The Prospector Focus tab shows the exact boosts and penalties of each mode, and Clear Focus turns your focus off while it is not locked.
Travel Pads
Section titled “Travel Pads”Warp to a mining site’s entrance instead of walking there.
| Perk | Points in branch | Mining level | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel Pads I | 1 | 5 | Return to the entrance of the site you are in. |
| Travel Pads II | 3 | 20 | Warp to the Mt. Chimney and Route 111 (Desert) Mining Sites. |
| Travel Pads III | 5 | 40 | Warp to the Meteor Falls and Route 112 Mining Sites. |
| Travel Pads IV | 8 | 60 | Warp to the Route 125 and Wally’s Room Mining Sites. |
| Travel Pads V | 12 | 80 | Warp to the Route 133 and Orebound Isle Mining Sites. |
Use them from the Mining Radar: on the Mining Sites tab, pick a site and press Warp to go to its entrance. While you are inside a site, Return to Entrance sits next to it. Neither works during a battle, and you can only warp to a site your mining level has unlocked. Seasonal event sites and the crew site on Invictus Cliffs have no pad.
Mining Training
Section titled “Mining Training”These perks add mining XP. An ore gives only 1–2 mining XP (1 when its reward is destroyed), so these flat bonuses add up fast.
| Perk | Points in branch | Mining level | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall XP Boost | 1 | 5 | Every ore you break gives 1 more mining XP. |
| Ore-Breaking XP Boost | 3 | 20 | Breaking an ore whose reward you keep gives +1 XP. |
| Rare-Ore XP Boost | 5 | 40 | Breaking Rainbow or Dark ore gives +2 XP. |
| Site XP Boost | 8 | 60 | Completing a mining site (mining every ore in it) gives +10 XP. |
| Daily XP Boost | 12 | 80 | Your first completed site each day gives +25 XP more. |
The Overall XP Boost card says 5%. It always adds at least 1 XP, and since an ore gives so little, that works out to 1 more XP for every ore.
Which branches to pick first
Section titled “Which branches to pick first”This is advice based on what the perks do, not a rule. A reset lets you change your mind later.
New miners. Points come slowly, and below mining level 20 a branch can only reach its first perk.
- Overall XP Boost (Mining Training) and Clean Strike (Mining Technique) cost 1 point each and help on every ore.
- Next, take Ore-Breaking XP Boost and Steady Strike, at 3 points each from mining level 20.
- Travel Pads I is a cheap extra: it takes you back to a site’s entrance at any time, not only once the site is finished.
- Leave Reward Preservation for later: its bonuses are small until you have a better pickaxe.
Levelling fast.
- Mining Training is the only branch that adds mining XP. Filled, it adds XP on every ore, +10 XP for every site you clear and +25 XP more for your first site each day.
- Mining Technique adds no XP, but your ores break in fewer hits, so each attempt takes less time.
- Travel Pads save the walk between sites when you use your daily attempts at several of them.
Rare rewards.
- Reward Preservation keeps more of what you dig up. It works in full only with a Diamond Pickaxe, and Master Preservation then saves every Dark ore reward.
- In Prospector Focus, Greedy Extractor leans rewards towards Rare and better but destroys more of them, so pair it with Reward Preservation.
- Claim Jumper suits you if you clear one site a day. Tunnel Vision suits you if you mine mostly in one site group, such as Orebound Isle (Rainbow Ravine).
Your free reset. It unlocks at mining level 50 and waits until you use it. For example, level up with Mining Training and Mining Technique first, then move your points into Reward Preservation once you have a Diamond Pickaxe (its blueprint needs mining level 60).