Undermine: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Honest Take on Undermine

I've got about 400 hours in this game, and I still remember my first run like it was yesterday. I walked into the first room, saw a golden chest, thought "oh cool, free loot," and got absolutely wrecked by a trap I couldn't even see. I sat there staring at the death screen for a solid ten seconds, wondering if this was a skill issue or if the game was just being a dick. Turns out—it's both. That's Undermine in a nutshell: beautiful, punishing, and completely unforgiving if you don't respect it.

Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. This game is hard. Not in the "oh I just need to learn the patterns" way like some roguelikes. It's hard in the "I spent my first three runs trying to stack poison and got destroyed by the second boss EVERY TIME" kind of way. But once you understand what the game is actually asking from you, it clicks. Hard. And then you can't stop playing.

Why This Game Makes You Want to Throw Your Mouse

Let's talk about the elephant in the room: Undermine does a terrible job of teaching you its systems. You know how some games give you a tutorial that actually explains mechanics? This game gives you a pickaxe, a vague hint about the gold, and basically says "good luck." Here's the stuff that made me rage-quit the first dozen times, and I bet it's the same for you:

• The gold mechanic is a trap. Seriously. The game pushes you to hoard gold, but holding too much actually makes enemies stronger. I lost count of how many times I was sitting on a fat stack of 500+ gold, feeling like a king, then got one-shot by a skeleton I could have killed in two hits if I wasn't holding so much wealth. The Gold Loss system scales enemy damage and speed based on your current gold. It's not explicitly stated anywhere in-game. You learn this by dying and checking the wiki.
• Item synergies are not obvious. You pick up the Flamethrower thinking "fire is good, right?" Then you discover that it does 45 base DPS but ramps to 120 after 3 seconds of continuous fire, but by that time you're already surrounded by enemies because you stopped moving. Meanwhile, the Lightning Wand does 30 damage per hit but chains to three targets instantly. Which is better? Depends entirely on your build, but the game gives you zero hints about this.
• The blacksmith is a money sink. You finally save up 2000 gold to upgrade your weapon, and then you realize you need Iron Ore which only drops from specific enemies in later floors. So you're stuck with your basic pickaxe for another ten runs. It's frustrating as hell.

The biggest problem? Most guides online are written by people who already beat the game six times. They forget what it's like to not know that the Rat King boss is weak to blunt damage, or that the Cursed Dungeon floor is actually optional and you should skip it until you have at least 200 HP. I'm writing this so you don't waste your first 30 hours like I did.

Day One Survival Guide

Alright, fresh spawn. You've just loaded into the hub, you've got a dinky little pickaxe, and you're about to jump into the mines. Here's what you actually need to know before you go anywhere:

• Spend your gold IMMEDIATELY. Every time you see a shop or a donation altar, dump your gold. Do not hold more than 100 gold unless you have a specific reason. The scaling penalty is real. I've done runs where I purposely kept my gold below 50 and the enemies felt like they were on half speed. It's that big of a difference.
• Prioritize the Health Charm from the first shop. It's 500 gold, it gives you +50 max HP, and it's the single best survivability item in the early game. I cannot stress this enough. Skip the weapon upgrade if you have to. The Health Charm has saved my ass more times than any sword in this game.
• Learn the enemy attack patterns on floor one. I know it sounds boring, but every enemy in the first three floors has a specific tell. The skeletons raise their sword before swinging, the bats screech before diving, the slimes bounce twice before splitting. Spend a few runs just watching them and not attacking. It feels stupid, but it pays off.
• Never, ever take the Midas Curse on your first run. It doubles the gold you find but makes you take double damage. It's a trap item for beginners. I took it thinking "more gold, more upgrades" and then a single spider hit me for 80 damage. I died in two hits. Not worth it.
• The Greatsword is your best friend for learning the game. It's slow, but it has the widest swing arc. It hits everything in a 180-degree radius in front of you. You can clear rooms without needing perfect positioning. Pick it up from the weapon merchant if you see it. I don't care if you like fast weapons—learn with the Greatsword first.

One more thing: the map is your most important tool. I know it seems like a waste of a button (default is M), but I check it constantly. It tells you which rooms have treasures, which ones have shops, and most importantly, which ones have secret rooms that don't show up on the minimap. If you see a wall that looks suspiciously empty compared to the others, swing your pickaxe at it. You'd be surprised how many free potions and gold piles I've found that way.

The Stuff Nobody Tells You

Once you've got the basics down, you're going to hit a wall around floor four or five. That's where the real game starts. Here's the advanced stuff that took me way too long to figure out:

• Stacking damage types matters more than raw numbers. The Flamethrower I mentioned earlier? Pair it with Burning Oil potions. Each tick of fire damage applies a stacking burn that does 10% of your weapon's base damage per second. At three stacks, it's doing 36 DPS on top of your normal attacks. Stack it to five? You melt bosses without even touching them. Contrast that with the Poison Knife which only stacks to three and does flat damage that doesn't scale. Fire is king, poison is for chumps.
• Donate to the church early and often. The Church of Gold in the hub town has a donation box. Every 500 gold you donate permanently reduces the gold scaling penalty by 1%. By the time you've donated 5000 gold, you're taking nearly no scaling damage from holding wealth. It's the long-term investment that pays off. I ignored this for my first 50 hours and I regret every single one of them.
• The Lightning Shield relic is overrated as hell. Everyone hypes it up because it looks cool—lightning arcs around you, hitting enemies. But it does 8 damage per bolt and the bolt fires every 2 seconds. Meanwhile, the Spike Shield does 20 damage on any blocked attack and has no cooldown. If you're running a melee build, the Spike Shield is what you want. Don't let the shiny lightning fool you.
• Potion stacking is broken. If you find the Alchemist's Gloves relic, you can carry two potions. But did you know you can also craft a potion, drop it on the ground, and pick it up again to bypass the slot limit? You can carry three, four, or more potions if you keep doing this. It's not a glitch—the developers left it in because it's actually a test of inventory management. I've walked into boss fights with six Health Potions and a Bomb Potion. It's stupidly effective.
• Bombing walls is not random. Every floor has one secret room. The easiest way to find it is to look for a wall that has a slightly different texture—it's usually darker or has a crack you can see if you look closely. Failing that, the map will show a room-shaped void if you're standing in the right spot. I spent my first 200 hours bombing random walls like an idiot. Now I find the secret room in 30 seconds.

Speaking of bombs: don't hoard them. I had a run where I had 12 bombs by floor six, and I died because I didn't use them. Bombs one-shot most early enemies and clear traps. Use them liberally. The game throws more at you than you think.

Mistakes That Got Me Killed (Repeatedly)

I've died over 500 times in this game. Not an exaggeration. I keep a death counter in a notebook because I'm insane. Here are the mistakes that killed me the most, so you don't have to make them:

• Chasing every chest. I see a golden chest in the middle of a room full of spikes, and my brain says "free loot." My brain is a liar. Half the golden chests in this game are traps—they spawn enemies or poison gas when you open them. Check the room first. If there are suspicious pressure plates on the floor or a single enemy sitting next to the chest, it's a trap. Walk away. The loot is not worth losing half your health bar.
• Not using the Dodge Roll enough. The Dodge Roll has iframes (invincibility frames). I didn't learn this until my 20th run. I was just walking out of enemy attacks like a chump. You can roll through enemy projectiles, through boss attacks, even through the Spike Pit trap if you time it right. Bind it to a comfortable key—I use Shift—and practice rolling into attacks just to see the invincibility frame window. It's generous once you know it exists.
• Ignoring the Blessing of the Forge shrine. Every floor has a shrine that costs 100 gold and gives you a random blessing. I used to skip it because "100 gold is a lot." Then I realized the blessings are permanent for that run and can be game-breaking. The Blessing of Quick Hands doubles your attack speed for 30 seconds. The Blessing of Iron Skin gives you 50% damage reduction for the entire floor. Always use the shrine. It's the best value in the game.
• Fighting the Golem boss without fire. The Golem on floor three is immune to physical damage for the first phase. You need either a Fire Potion, a Flamethrower, or the Torch weapon to break his armor. I fought him with a plain sword, hit him for zero damage for 40 seconds, and just stood there waiting to die. Don't be me. Check your inventory before you walk into the boss room.
• Over-upgrading weapons you hate. I spent 4000 gold upgrading the Rapier to +5 because some guide said it was "meta." I hate the Rapier. It's too fast, too short range, and I miss half my hits. Stick with one weapon type you're comfortable with. The Greatsword and Battle Axe are my comfort picks. Your mileage may vary, but find YOUR weapon, not the "best" one according to some tier list.

Oh, and one more thing: don't upgrade your pickaxe past +2 until you've upgraded your armor to +3 first. The pickaxe is a waste of ore. You'll find better weapons in the dungeon anyway. Armor is permanent and makes you survive longer. Survival is how you get better loot.

Questions You're Too Embarrassed to Ask

I know you have questions. Here are the ones I see new players asking on forums, plus the answers I wish someone had given me:

Q: Why do I keep dying on floor two when I was fine on floor one?
A: Floor two introduces Poison Slimes that leave puddles on death. The puddles do 15 damage per tick and stack. If you kill five slimes in the same spot, you've made a lake of poison that will melt you in seconds. Solution: lure them away from their spawn point before killing them. Also, check your shoes—the Poison Boots relic makes you immune. Grab it if you see it.

Q: Is it better to save gold for the blacksmith or spend it on potions?
A: Potions. Always potions. The blacksmith upgrades are nice, but they're expensive and require rare materials. You won't see Mithril Ore until floor six at the earliest. Meanwhile, a single Health Potion can save your run. I spend my first 300 gold on two potions and then hoard the rest for the church donation. Don't sit on a pile of gold waiting for a blacksmith run that may never come.

Q: What's the best build for the final boss?
A: There's no single best build, but the combination that wrecked the final boss for me was: Greatsword +4, Spike Shield, Health Charm, and Burning Oil potions. The Greatsword hits multiple segments at once (the final boss has multiple weak points), the Spike Shield reflects his projectiles, and the Burning Oil DoT stacks while you're dodging his sweeps. I finished the fight in under three minutes. Something like a Fire Wand build could work too, but you need good positioning for it. Check out our Dead Cells guide for more on positioning because the same principles apply here—you want to be behind the boss, not in front of it.

Q: How do I unlock the secret character?
A: You're thinking of the Lost Soul class. To unlock it, you need to find the Broken Amulet on floor five, then use it on the Mysterious Altar on floor seven. Don't touch any gold on floor seven before you do this—the amulet breaks if you pick up gold while carrying it. I lost three runs this way because I mindlessly walked over a coin pile. The Lost Soul starts with a passive that gives you +50% attack speed but halves your max HP. It's a glass cannon, not recommended for beginners. Stick with the Warrior class until you've beaten the final boss at least once.

Q: What's with the birds in the starting area?
A: If you throw your pickaxe at the birds, they drop seeds. Collect three seeds and bring them to the Garden Plot in the hub—you'll get a permanent +5% gold find bonus. It's a tiny thing, but it adds up over hundreds of runs. Also, the birds are just fun to hit. Emotional satisfaction is a real stat.

Q: I'm stuck on the third boss. Help?
A: The Golem again. Bring a fire weapon, don't stand in the glowing circles (they explode for 50 damage), and when he does the ground pound, roll TOWARD him, not away. The shockwave is wider at range. Getting close forces him into a recovery animation where you can get three free hits. If you need more help with bosses in general, our Hades guide has a section on boss positioning that works here too—especially the "dodge through, not away" tip.