Mine to a shopping list
Dome Keeper rewards targeted digging. Before you go down, open the upgrade screen, see what you are about to buy, and mine that resource. A day spent hauling iron you cannot yet spend is a day wasted.
The three resources
- Iron — The backbone of almost every upgrade. Mined directly, squeezed from veins by Iron Worms (a Production gadget that extracts extra iron from exposed clusters), and burned in the Furnace to delay the next wave.
- Cobalt — Rare and hard to farm. The Resource Converter’s Cobalt Conversion upgrade is worth taking when cobalt is on your critical path.
- Water — Produced by the Condenser at one unit every 1.8 cycles. It looks minor until you pair it with the converter.
Why water is the linchpin
The Resource Converter is one of the most useful gadgets in the long run because it turns resources into each other. Its iron-and-water loop is the key:
- Efficient path: 1 water → 8 iron and 1 iron → 2 water.
- Fast path: 1 water → 5 iron and 2 iron → 1 water (half the time, half the yield).
With a Condenser feeding water and the efficient upgrades taken, you can effectively gain iron indefinitely — the water you make becomes iron, and a sliver of that iron becomes the water back. This is what makes the Guild Assignment modes “Iron Contribution” and “Iron Shortage” survivable.
Carry capacity changes the maths
A bigger pack makes every trip produce more. It is one of the cheapest ways to lift a run’s output, and it compounds with the Lift and Droneyard that move resources for you. The gadgets guide shows which slots those occupy.
Related guides
- Mining Guide — getting the ore home before the wave.
- Gadgets Guide — Condenser, Converter, Iron Worms and the slots they fight for.
- Upgrades Guide — what to spend the ore on first.