Dwarf Eats Mountain Prestige & Ascension Guide

Prestige and Ascension solve different problems. Prestige turns one slow run into a faster next run. Ascension sacrifices the ordinary Prestige tree to grow a permanent Tier 6 layer. Treating both as “reset when the button lights up” wastes time and, before Ascension, can erase unspent value.

Version note: This guide was updated on August 10, 2026. The Ascension requirement shown after “PP needed in non-T6 upgrades” is a runtime value; use the number in your current Prestige screen rather than an old fixed target.

1. Separate the three progression layers

The game has three scopes of progress:

Layer	What it contains	What ends it	Main purpose
Current run	Gold, Mithril, Souls, Faith, dwarves, buildings, ordinary upgrades, and most artifacts	Prestige or Ascension	Push mountains and accrue Prestige Points
Prestige	Spendable PP and Tier 1–5 permanent upgrades	Ascension	Make ordinary runs start faster and scale farther
Ascension	Ascension rank and the special persistent Tier 6 layer	Nothing in the ordinary loop	Scale endless progression and rebuild faster after each deeper reset

Prestiging resets the current run and makes accrued PP spendable. Purchased Prestige upgrades then persist through later ordinary Prestiges. You can only spend PP in the Prestige screen after Prestiging; it cannot be spent during a live run.

Ascending is optional. Tier 6 upgrades work without Ascending, but Ascension rank gates and scales more of that layer.

2. Know exactly what resets and what remains

Progress	After Prestige	After Ascension
Gold, Mithril, Souls, Faith, dwarves, buildings, and run upgrades	Reset	Reset
Accrued PP	Becomes spendable	Unspent PP is wiped
Tier 1–5 Prestige upgrades	Kept	Wiped
Special persistent Tier 6 upgrades	Kept	Preserved by the Ascension rule
Ascension rank	Unchanged	Permanently +1
Ordinary artifacts	Lost unless a retention upgrade applies	Start the new cycle under the retained Tier 6 rules

Artifact retention is its own exception. Vault of Kings retains random artifacts, while Divine Relic and Vault of Gods allow selected artifacts. PP-producing artifacts cannot be selected by the choice-based effects.

The safe pre-Ascension rule is simple: do not leave PP unspent, and spend as much as the current Ascension rank permits in the Tier 6 upgrades you want to preserve. The game itself displays this warning in the Ascension panel.

3. Read the PP economy correctly

The base game awards 1 PP randomly every one to three consumed mountains. PP can also come from bosses and artifacts. Later upgrades add more sources, notably Buried Heirlooms Newspaper and, after mountain level 100, Primordial Hunger.

Three numbers on the Prestige screen mean different things:

• Accrued: earned during the current run but not yet spendable;
• Spendable: available for purchases after Prestiging;
• Spent: the cumulative amount that opens higher tiers and powers upgrades that scale from PP spent.

Do not hoard PP merely to reach a tier. Tier gates use PP spent, not PP sitting unused. Spending also improves effects such as Golden Inheritance, which grants starting Gold for every PP spent, and later Stalwart Legacy, which grants a starting dwarf for every 12 PP spent.

The interface supports Shift + click to buy up to five ranks and Ctrl + Shift + click to buy a whole row. Check the final allocation before beginning the next run, because PP cannot be spent outside this screen.

4. Use the Tier 1–6 unlock table

Each purchase costs PP equal to its Tier. A Tier 4 rank therefore costs 4 PP, regardless of the upgrade’s effect.

Tier	Total PP spent required	Cost per rank	Strategic role
1	0	1 PP	Starting resources, free early units, and immediate logistics
2	12	2 PP	Broad combat, Runner stability, PP generation, and first system unlocks
3	50	3 PP	Automation, advanced buildings, rituals, and build-defining bonuses
4	125	4 PP	Late buildings, Mapping synergies, starting population scaling, and specialist systems
5	180	5 PP	Artifact retention and powerful endgame multipliers
6	250	6 PP	Ascension-scaled, persistent, and endless upgrades

Unlocking a higher tier does not replace or invalidate lower tiers. The tree is cumulative: low-tier starting bonuses shorten every rebuild, while high-tier systems decide how far and how automatically the run can progress.

5. Spend PP by bottleneck, not by row order

There is no universal exact build, but a reliable purchase order exists at the level of jobs.

First 12 PP: make the opening functional

1. Buy at least one rank of Golden Inheritance so every PP spent also improves starting Gold.
2. Add Swift Start if ore waits on the ground, or Veteran Settlers if housing roles open too slowly.
3. Take Ancient Cache when early Mithril blocks the Forge or a decisive upgrade.
4. Use free Miner and Demodwarf purchases to reduce opening Gold pressure.
5. Spend the remaining points on the bottleneck you actually observed, then open Tier 2 at 12 spent.

Starting Runners usually beat extra damage when the previous run ended with ore piles and no Gold. Extra damage wins when Runners were idle while the mountain barely moved.

Tier 2: stabilize the loop and start compounding

Prioritize one upgrade from each relevant job:

• PP growth: Buried Heirlooms Newspaper adds a PP chance to every consumed mountain.
• Logistics: Hard Carries, Fleet-Footed And Rock-Hard, or Marching Orders.
• Broad output: Lust For Rock And Stone provides cooldown reduction to all dwarves.
• System access: Cyberdwarf, Powder Hall, or Ritual Power only when the current build will use that branch.
• Build cleanup: Controlled Demolition is especially valuable when explosives scatter ore or disrupt Runners.

Do not buy every system unlock immediately. An unopened branch costs nothing; an unlocked branch can consume Gold, Mithril, housing, and attention without helping the current goal.

Tier 3–5: unlock structure before adding small multipliers

At these tiers, ask what the next run cannot currently do:

• choose Manufactorum or Spelunker’s Guild when automation, treasure, Mithril, or Mapping is the missing system;
• buy Geode Sanctum, Meadhall, or Shrine when its resource axis is part of the next plan;
• deepen only the damage family supported by your artifacts and existing units;
• take artifact retention before a reset when a specific artifact removes a major opening gate;
• prefer broad economy or cooldown effects over a narrow unit bonus when the main build is still changing.

The goal is not to fill Tier 3 before touching Tier 4. The goal is to spend toward the next permanent breakpoint while avoiding dead branches.

Tier 6: buy the next Ascension, not the current run

Before Ascending, prioritize among the ranks currently allowed by your Ascension level:

1. Rebuild speed: starting Gold, Mithril, Souls, building head starts, and free-building automation.
2. Compounding: Primordial Hunger when runs reliably pass mountain level 100.
3. Main engine: the endless damage rank for the unit family you actually use.
4. Artifact continuity: Vault of Gods and Divine Archives when a retained artifact changes the opening.
5. Specialized utility: ritual cooldown, Shrine capacity, or Spire bypass only when that system is the real limiter.

Broad run acceleration is usually better for an early Ascension than spreading points across several unused damage families.

6. Prestige when the next run has a concrete advantage

Do not Prestige because the button is available, and do not extend a stalled run only because it still produces occasional PP.

Prestige when most of these are true:

• the next meaningful purchase takes much longer than the previous one;
• the current mountain or boss remains out of reach after a sensible reallocation;
• the PP package you can buy removes a named opening bottleneck;
• repeating the opening with starting Gold, Runners, Mithril, or free units will be materially faster;
• no nearby Den, boss, artifact, or mountain reward is worth finishing first.

Continue the current run when a reachable milestone grants more value than the proposed reset package. Examples include one more boss, a nearly completed artifact condition, enough PP to cross the next spent threshold, or a mountain that unlocks a critical system.

Use a marginal-time comparison: will the next 20–30 minutes buy more permanent progress here, or after a reset? This is more reliable than copying a fixed mountain number from another build or version.

7. Ascend only with a rebuild package ready

The Ascension panel shows the required PP spent in non-Tier-6 upgrades. Use that live requirement. Once eligible, Ascension is worthwhile when:

• the current Ascension rank permits Tier 6 purchases that materially improve the next cycle;
• useful PP has already been moved into persistent Tier 6 ranks;
• rebuilding Tier 1–5 is faster than continuing to stack ordinary Prestige bonuses;
• the current completion, artifact, or achievement goal does not require finishing this cycle first.

Ascending permanently grants +1 Ascension rank and starting PP equal to 25 per rank, capped at 125. That means rank 1 starts with 25 PP, rank 2 with 50, and rank 5 or higher with 125. This starting budget helps reconstruct the low tiers, but it does not preserve the Tier 1–5 purchases themselves.

Before holding the Ascend button:

1. enter the Prestige screen;
2. spend all useful PP;
3. put available purchases into the Tier 6 ranks intended to survive;
4. verify the current confirmation text and retained effects;
5. only then Ascend.

If you have no worthwhile Tier 6 purchase available, there is usually no reason to erase a productive Tier 1–5 tree immediately. Ascension is optional, and Tier 6 effects already function before the reset.

8. Rebuild efficiently after Ascension

After Ascending, use the starting PP as a route through the tree rather than recreating the previous build rank by rank.

1. Rebuy Golden Inheritance and the minimum starting logistics needed for a clean opening.
2. Reach 12 PP spent and use Tier 2 to restore PP generation, Runner stability, and one core system.
3. Reopen the structural buildings required by the chosen route; skip branches that did not contribute last cycle.
4. At 50, 125, and 180 spent, take the specific automation, late building, and artifact-retention breakpoints you need.
5. Return surplus PP to the Tier 6 layer before the next Ascension.

The correct measure of an Ascension is not the first run’s maximum mountain. It is how quickly the whole cycle returns to Tier 6 and whether each repeated cycle requires less manual rebuilding.

Reset checklist

Before Prestige

• Is the current run actually plateauing?
• Which exact purchase will make the next opening faster?
• Is there a nearby boss, artifact, or tier threshold worth finishing first?
• Will ore logistics, damage, housing, or a system unlock remain the bottleneck after reset?

Before Ascension

• Does the live panel show the non-Tier-6 requirement as satisfied?
• Have all useful PP been spent?
• Have available persistent Tier 6 purchases been bought first?
• Is the next cycle’s first 25–125 PP allocation planned?
• Are you willing to lose the current Tier 1–5 tree now?

Use the Prestige index to inspect all upgrades and exact ranks while planning the package.