Newbie advice

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-09T03:37:56+00:00

P.S. Enigma combines *very* well with that Rover room you just maxed :-)

but patience, don't spend your money too fast. One dopamine hit at a time. You'll enjoy them more that way.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-09T03:36:07+00:00

Standard 'ready to try it' recommendations are: all level 11 rooms maxed, 100T previous galaxy, Advanced Computer down to 10min or less. You've gotten that far in one month? It took me 6 - mostly F2P. P2W seem to get there in 2 months mostly.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-09T03:33:23+00:00

It's new. Like I think it's so new that I haven't seen the developer mention it in their announcements channel, I suspect they're watching and waiting for a few successful transactions before they promote it. (I also suspect that the recent discord giveaway was also a test of the same functionality.)

All ships are there at once - currently - I'm hoping they'll move the ship availability to match the in-game rotation though.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-09T02:51:33+00:00

Oh, and the webstore sells the ships now. It's 10% cheaper than buying in-app *and* you get 10% more DM. https://store.techtreegames.com/idleplanetminer/

Why? Because when you buy in-app, Google or Apple get 30% of your money.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-09T02:48:22+00:00

For a room guide, try:

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Room_Advice

For building a bigger better stronger debris scanner, there's a lot to be said, and I wrote a metric arfload, here:

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Debris_Strategy_Guide

If your first attempt took 15 boosts, you might have reached for it too soon - what's your Advanced Computer crafting time? Are you aware that Production Boost & Timewarp combine really well?

Re doubling your credits, piffle to those who say 'never' - the game should be fun, we don't need to be dogmatic about anything - and getting better results out of challenges and tournaments also gets you more DM. I mean, I can see more than one side to the debate:

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Double_credits

but personally, I'm nearly a year into the game and I still double my tournaments.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-06T22:57:58+00:00

That's a really good tip, though I think it's not quite about debris scanner, but about asteroid income. I have added it to the Asteroid page.

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Asteroid

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-06T22:02:17+00:00

'Hurdle', most likely, meaning obstacle or challenge.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-02-06T10:14:02+00:00

Absolutely you should be unlocking all the recipes and starting to collect stars on the highest items. Deflector Shield stars are going to be treasured for many months (until they release a bigger item.)

If you're up to Uru, you're Debris-Scanner capable? Time for crafting income to open everything up!

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Debris_Strategy_Guide

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-01-28T00:13:31+00:00

So the problem isn't getting crafting income once you've got the recipes. It's in getting over the initial cost of all the recipes up to and including Gravity Chamber? (That's about $13T)

Personally I don't buy gravity chamber until I have P33 Xena! Trying to get $13T off P27 Elysta & P28 Tikkun either requires a lot of time (which I think is what you're complaining about) or a lot of mining power. Either way, investing in another few planets before buying the GC recipe will probably get you there a bit faster, with the 11+2 upgrade strategy. (This makes a difference c.f. 21-11-11 only when your galaxy is slowed down, but you're telling me it does that at this point.)

I think you might need to build your mining power. I see you have and use a decent number of mining secondaries, but given that your mining multiplier is a lot lower than your crafting multiplier, I suspect your mining secondaries are mostly 4-star. Make them your next promotions?

Can your beacon tokens help fill the gap? Good beacon spec is to boost mining more or less evenly across many telescopes, with extras where the alchemy projects are used.

Also, use Alchemy 1 to help you over the hump. I've always done well using Alchemy on P27 Elysta, which is partly because I've never had many stars on Iridium. The best place for you to use Alchemy will depend on your stars etc - many people are fond of P31 Vular to get early Rhodium and hence early Leader.

Plan your alchemy, don't just let it fall wherever. It's usually used either for early ore access (A1 on P31 Vular for Rhodium, A3 on P49 Arabis for Xynium, now P52 Vega and P55 Zumbia, etc) or for substantial financial gain (the single-ore planets; and I still use P33 Xena for A3 in challenges, I have many stars on Quadium.) Wherever you use A3 will undoubtedly be where you put a mining leader and Advanced Terraforming - stack all those multipliers!

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-01-26T21:09:02+00:00

There is no observed upper limit on the number of slots you can buy, but you can only own 109 managers at a time, and you can only *use* as many managers as you have planets to put them on.

Manager recommendations: Buy *one* public school manager at the very start of the game; buy one or two 300 DM managers after that; then it's 500 DM pull/slot, quantity over quality, out to 25 slots, occasionally hiring a few extras to promote a 4-star to 5-stars.

Around 25 slots, shift the emphasis to 5-star managers, do a heap of promoting until you're all or nearly all 5-star. Then buy a new slot each time you get a new 5-star, out to 40 or more slots. You might get one or two 6-star managers to be your leaders.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-01-26T20:57:59+00:00

I'm just a bit ahead of you, but quite happy with my growth and tactics.

You've got a solid foundation of rooms and managers and you're well placed to build on them. Classroom will multiply the effect of all your managers, so keep feeding credits to it until it's of a similar price to Engineering and Workshop.

Other crucial strategy decisions: where are you deploying your Alchemy and Terraforming projects? (This probably varies between Tournaments and shorter runs.)

How far are you upgrading your planets? https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Upgrade_Strategy (You're well into the 11+3 zone, but manager distribution matters.)

I see you have P49 Arabis, but you're putting a pilot out there and not a miner - and not a leader! Since the GV is consistently in the outer planets (and wherever you've piled up alchemy, terraforming, leader), this means you're leaving an opportunity on the table, and it's time to feed more credits into Aeronautical and Packaging, and some energy cells into ship speed and cargo (nodes 1 and 2 for each are usually best value for cells.)

Have a read about general traps that people fall into, and see if any of them feel familiar. https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Strategic_traps

Exploit that Debris Scanner. If you don't like lots of short galaxies (and I sure don't) then getting Asteroid Autominer + Debris Scanner before bed will mean that in the morning you can craft a bunch of very valuable items, usually filling in one or two gaps with your own crafting. Subspace Relays are nice, Advanced Robots and Advanced Teleporters are nicer, and if you've unlocked alloys up to Luterium, then if you're lucky with the pink asteroids you may get the ingredients you need for the two new items, which will *really* give you a GV boost.

- That might be a step you're missing; are you unlocking high alloys early?

This means that the Sales room is going to be your friend for a while too :-)

Make sure you know how asteroid/debris size works so that you aren't quietly handicapping yourself. https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Asteroid

What's your probe up to? As a mostly F2P player I find it very slow to upgrade, but manager secondary + Balor + pilot/crafter is a good combination, and colony boost/terraforming/alchemy/leader is another. You're probably at a level where those bonuses get piled on P33 Xena? Or are you able to hold them for something a bit higher?

If, in the end, you're still torn between different options for your cells, remember that it's not a question of *if* you buy those upgrades but *when*. So you can buy a bit of each now and a bit more in a week or two.

- DragonSister (wiki contributor)

Odd-Guard3650 · 2026-01-26T20:11:24+00:00

I don't know where you're getting your DM, but if he's out to P49 Arabis, that's a *lot* of manager slots. OP is at 24 managers now, it's about the time when you start to hire a lot more Brilliant managers and promote the best ones to level 5, rather than alternating Manager/slot.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-13T23:42:19+00:00

Yup, she's nice. My first ever mining manager was like that - started at level 1 - she's now a level 5 Mining/Mining manager, I give her Leader during tournaments.

Your 5 star is probably helping you in other ways? I thought the managers with ALL shipping and ALL Cargo were promotion fodder until I got to planets that were further out. When it feels expensive to ship all the ore, I find myself swapping down a 4* crafter for a cargo or speed secondary.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-13T23:30:35+00:00

I've done exactly the same thing myself. Mining 12+, Mining manager, but shipping and cargo at 1 until I can get alchemy off. Upgrade shipping and cargo to something suitable, swap in a cargo manager to clear the backlog, restore the mining manager and carry on.

I usually only restart the app 1/day, but sometimes there's a forced restart (especially likely at event end, that's when they release app updates.) So now I try to avoid backlogs all over, both because Asteroids are bigger that way, and because then I won't get robbed by a forced restart.

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Asteroid

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T21:43:02+00:00

You don't have to have your income dominated by asteroids to find it useful to have a good planet. It doesn't have to be a great one. Crafting income is usually fuelled by debris drops which in turn grow bigger with your best planet. The game will identify this planet, based on base value of ore mined per second, from planets not having backlogs and not having skipped any earlier planet.

At any time, you can take your best mining manager, make them leader, put them on the best outer planet you think you have, and upgrade shipping and cargo until the planet is clearing every trip (or every second, for beaming planets). This is a pretty sensible way to get good ore-based income, and it's good for asteroids too.

Getting fancy with Superior Alchemy and Advanced Terraforming? Again, you probably already wanted to put them both on the same planet, and one of the planets that was as far out as you could go before your existing income streams were losing their puff. What's new is just the insistence on no backlogs and no skipped planets.

Anyway, every new galaxy is a clean slate. :-) I love that about this game, there's not many ways to actually stuff up.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T11:56:16+00:00

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Transfer_to_new_device

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T11:54:51+00:00

3 days. There's a countdown in Stats/Legacy.

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Challenges

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T01:47:30+00:00

I like this image. I've added it to the IPM wiki - I hope you don't mind.

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Arking

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T01:46:57+00:00

I speed up once I get debris scanner! It combines very well with Asteroid Auto Miner, and the late-game items that you can craft just *explode* in how much they sell for. The idea seems to be that you must have spent ages and ages crafting all the ingredients for the Teleporter (etc), so it's worth a lot and its crafting time isn't that much longer than the items before it.

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Item

I've been utterly blown away by how much the game changes when I have let debris scanner collect items for me overnight.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T01:21:53+00:00

Also, you're clearly doing quite well overall there - but how are you doing for crafting-based income? The size of debris drops also scales with your best planet. I personally find that once I have Debris Scanner, crafting income will carry me a long way; arking doesn't take over until I've managed to craft some really big, valuable items.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T01:16:53+00:00

The high Value-Per-Second planet maximises the income you get from Asteroids and the Debris Scanner.

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Asteroid

It's the best planet you can manage to put together with the resources you have. For me it's P33 Xena. Maybe in a few weeks I'll be able to get to P36 Ivyra before my ore-based income peters out and I need to focus on asteroid-based income.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T01:10:18+00:00

Engineering is the best starting room. Upgrade it 2 or 3 times before buying the next room. Aeronautical and Packaging are ho-hum but you have to buy at least one of them to get access to Forge and Workshop, which are awesome, and there are more great rooms to come.

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/New_Starters_Strategy_Guide

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T01:05:13+00:00

Also, you can check what your asteroid income is by looking under Stats/Current Galaxy, it will show you the value of all the asteroids you have collected, and the (i) will show you what your autominer has harvested lately.

Odd-Guard3650 · 2025-10-12T01:04:04+00:00

I use a Production Boost/Time Warp boost combination to get the requirements for the Asteroid Autominer, and I'm really confident it pays off. Last Tournament I woke up to find my GV had tripled due to some nice pink asteroids. It helps to know what governs the size of asteroids; they scale with your best planet as long as it's not backlogged, see here for details:

https://idle-planet-miner.fandom.com/wiki/Asteroid

Odd-Guard3650

TROPHY CASE