Turns mountain drops into buildings, workers, and upgrades, making it the clearest result of a functioning run economy.
Early Core
Mid Core
Late High
How to get it
- Runners deposit ores and gems into the stash.
- Some artifacts, rituals, expeditions, and calamities grant Gold or raise ore value.
What it pays for
- Construct buildings, hire dwarves, and buy most ordinary upgrades.
- Expand housing and logistics so later drops can actually be banked.
Decision rule When Gold is low, inspect the ground first. A pile of ore usually means a transport bottleneck, not weak mining. Unclaimed ore can be reclaimed by the mountain.
Unassigned workers. They are both the reserve for every production line and a contributor to Shrine Faith income.
Early Core
Mid Core
Late High
How to get it
- Build and upgrade Underground Housing as the main source.
- Some artifacts, rituals, expedition outcomes, and Prestige upgrades also provide dwarves.
What it pays for
- Assign them to buildings as Miners, Runners, Priests, and other specialists.
- Keeping some unemployed contributes additional Faith at the Shrine.
Decision rule Do not employ everyone automatically. Add logistics or damage where needed; once Faith is active, unemployment itself also has value.
A scarce resource connecting forging, runes, rituals, and advanced systems. It often gates breakpoints more sharply than Gold.
Early Situational
Mid Core
Late Core
How to get it
- Primarily obtained from looting Dens and spelunking; visible Mithril Veins are high-priority guaranteed targets.
- Any damage has a tiny Mithril drop chance based on Luck and Mithril-Luck.
What it pays for
- Runes and Mithril upgrades at the Great Forge.
- Selected rituals, enchants, building progression, and advanced unlocks.
Decision rule Clear Mithril targets before ending a mountain and reserve a budget for the next breakpoint. Avoid spending the last few points on marginal gains.
Spiritual essence from mighty mountains, used for powerful rituals and magical upgrades on a more fixed cadence than ordinary currency.
Early Locked
Mid High
Late Core
How to get it
- The game states that every fourth conquered mountain yields one Soul.
- Dens, Shrine rituals, Prestige upgrades, and selected artifacts can provide additional Souls.
What it pays for
- Cast powerful rituals and purchase magical upgrades.
- Some late forging and system milestones also require Souls.
Decision rule Treat Souls as a milestone budget, not an immediate spend. Check the next essential ritual or unlock before committing them.
Accrued while eating mountains, then made spendable by Prestiging to buy upgrades that persist between runs.
Early Situational
Mid Core
Late Core
How to get it
- Randomly gain 1 PP every one to three mountains.
- Bosses and selected artifacts can also grant PP.
What it pays for
- Spend it on permanent upgrades in the Prestige screen after Prestiging.
- Each upgrade costs its Tier, while total PP spent unlocks higher tiers.
Decision rule Before Prestiging, plan a bundle that materially accelerates the next opening. Ascension wipes PP and ordinary Prestige upgrades, so spend PP in Tier 6 first.
Converts Priests and spare population into divine upgrades, enchants, and rituals as a separate mid-to-late progression axis.
Early Locked
Mid High
Late Core
How to get it
- After unlocking Priests at the Shrine, each mountain kill grants Faith based on Priest count.
- Unemployed Dwarves add extra Faith, while selected rituals generate it directly.
What it pays for
- Unlock and upgrade the four deity altars.
- Cast enchants, sacrifices, and other major Faith rituals.
Decision rule When Faith is low, do not only add Priests; housing and unemployed population also contribute. Repeated enchants and rituals escalate in cost, so spend toward a defined goal.
