Starting from the second mine, you will begin encountering abandoned buildings along the edges of the caves. These are Mine Shafts, and repairing them unlocks powerful new streams of income to fund your expedition.
How to Repair and Activate Shafts
To get an abandoned shaft up and running, you must clear the area and assign a worker:
Clear the Path: Break any boulders blocking access to the building.
Assign a Goblin: Drag one of your goblins right to the edge of the shaft.
Wait for Repair: Just like mining rocks, a countdown timer and a circular progress bar will appear.
Activate: Once the timer hits zero, tap the flashing Activate button to start production.
⚠️ Level Clear Requirement: You must find, repair, and activate every single shaft on the map to successfully complete the mine and move to the next level!
Income, Upgrades, and Jewel Types
Once activated, each shaft constantly quarries a specific type of precious jewel to generate gold.
Jewel Balancing: Different jewels have different market values, but a higher-tier jewel isn't automatically better. Shafts vary wildly by mining speed, upgrade costs, and level-up multipliers. A shaft that gives minor returns early on might become your most profitable asset after a few upgrades.
Upgrading: Tap the green button at the bottom of the shaft to level it up and increase its profit margins. If the button turns grey, your treasury is currently too low to afford the upgrade.
Manual Collection vs. Automation
While the shaft features a spinning yellow work cycle bar just like the Forge, it handles your gold payouts very differently at the start.
🛒 Manual Collection
By default, gold from a shaft does not go directly into your treasury. Instead, it accumulates inside a mine cart. You must watch the progress wheel and manually tap the cart when it arrives at the surface to claim your earnings.
🤖 Automated Production
Tapping carts manually gets tiresome quickly. As the boss, you can delegate this task by hiring a goblin manager to automate the unloading process:
Hiring Requirements: Tap the blue automation button (the icon with circular arrows) on the side of the shaft to see what the manager requires.
Research Cards: Managers aren't very bright and need exact manuals. You will need a specific number of matching Jewel Research Cards (Common or Uncommon) and a set amount of Elixir to unlock full automation.
Still Profitable: Even if you don't have enough cards to fully automate a shaft yet, you should still upgrade its level with gold to maximize the value of your manual taps.
🔗 Want to decode the data displayed on your screen? See our guide: What Do the Numbers in the Mineshafts Box Mean?