Drifting Miner

5 votes

When is the mining going to stop? Probably not anytime soon in both reality and gaming which is why we come to Drifting Miner. You start your day as a corporate drone stamping document that may or may not jeopardize societal stability before you decide that you want a raise. Your boss responds to this request by assigning you a whole new job: Mining in space. You've got a solid vessel and equipment to help you with your new job, but it may or may not be more time-consuming. At least it sounds more exciting than sitting at a desk all day.

About Drifting Miner

There are going to be mining games and mining in games for years to come, it's all about how it's done and the place where it's set. This is a game that takes your mining operations and puts them in the popular setting that is space. You're a lone miner working for a giant company that's trying to make a profit from your life-threatening excavations. You're trying to balance your own profits with the expenses that come with making your vessel and equipment far more effective in mining. There's also the element of time that you need to consider when it comes to doing a good job and earning the most for your keep.

How to Play

Drifting Miner is a 2D top-down mining game about piloting a mining ship through space to gather things using the mouse and keyboard. To control the direction of the ship, move your cursor around and the front of the ship will follow it. To thrust forward, press the W key and the Spacebar can be used to turn on the magnetic beam to carry certain objects. The goal is to collect all the objects in an area and then leave through the portal. If your ship gets destroyed, you'll be sent back to the start of the level, and running out of fuel will require you to spend resources to refill it.

After some training, you'll be taken to the level select map screen. From there, you can spend your coins on new ships with different stats or on upgrading the drill to make it faster and more efficient. You can then click on whichever levels are unlocked with more unlocking as you progress. When you're in the level, you'll be looking for items like coins, rocks with ore in them, and batteries. To mine rock, you need to steer the ship into the rock which will prompt the drill to pop out and start destroying it. To finish the level, you need to carry the battery over to the power station and then leave through the activated portal. You'll need to be wary of hazards like pirate traps which will destroy the ship on contact. Depending on how much you collect and how fast you finish the level, you'll get between one and three stars.

Tips and Tricks

For a mining game, it moves slowly while always requiring you to complete levels quickly. You need to be careful with how much power you put on the thrusters since this will drain a lot of fuel and make it harder to control. If you need to move slower to collect more, that's worth it simply to be able to afford more upgrades and ships.