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Idle Planet Miner Tips, Cheats & Strategy Guide to Mine more Planets

This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information

Idle Planet Miner is a relaxing, very slow paced idle game created by Iron Horse Games and available exclusively on Android. And we’re here today to help you get the most out of it by sharing some Idle Planet Miner cheats and tips for faster colonization of the universe.

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You have to be extremely dedicated and committed to the game in order to unlock most of its features. The beginning is specifically slow, but with the perfect, relaxing music and casual approach that only requires you to log in for a few minutes every now and then, this game is a winner. And you’ll learn how to play it to get the most out of it faster.

So let’s not wast any time – instead, let’s check out Touch Tap Play’s Idle Planet Miner tips and tricks below.

Log in every 120 minutes
You don’t have many reasons to spend more than 5 minutes in the game after launching it (yet I still end up with 30+ minute sessions for some reason…)

Either way, the idea is to try to log in every 2 hours or sooner, because after two hours your mines stop working, no resources are created and you have no gains from this.

It’s extremely important to log in often to reset the counter in Idle Planet Miner because the game is very slow paced and resources are gathered slowly and crafted even slower. Therefore, you must make sure that your mines are always working, hence the need to log in every 120 minutes or so.

Upgrading planets vs research
At first, I thought that I should focus on researching everything as fast as possible because that’s how I will progress faster, but that is not necessarily how things work.

The thing with this game is that finding the balance and right thing to do is very difficult. Resources are always scarce and sometimes the things you can research won’t help you at all in terms of making your life easier. Therefore, my recommendation is to focus early on improving your planets and upgrading them as much as possible in order to produce as many resources as possible.

Craft as much as possible (try no never sell base resources as they are pretty much worthless), then sell. Rinse and repeat and upgrade your planets in the mean time in order to increase the flow of your resources. And then research.

But when you research, make sure you do it right: focus on the easiest thing that you can unlock next. Remember that some of the research projects are more important than others.

Early on in the game (before selling your first galaxy or two), I would say that extremely important are the research projects that give you extra planets and the Rover. Everything else doesn’t matter that much early on, when your main goal is to make enough money to bring value to your Galaxy in order to sell it.

Get the Rover ASAP
I mentioned this one earlier and I want to make sure that you understand the importance of this research milestone: when you get the Rover, you unlock time based missions which will give you some amazing rewards after a specific amount of time passes.

These rewards are usually premium currency, but can come in various shapes and quantities, from resources to all sorts of boosts. Really, consider the Rover the first thing you have to reach and research it ASAP. The sooner you get it, the sooner you start sending it to work and get all the goodies it has for you.

Smelt and craft
You should constantly do both activities, unlocking new recipes as long as they make sense. During your first run, Aluminmum Bars will be the most advanced thing you will produce, while the Hammer will be the most advanced crafting item (although I would recommend sticking to the Batteries).

Although crafting and smelting takes time, these products offer a lot more when sold that what you’d get from selling the base ingredients. So it’s definitely worth the trouble.

But don’t hoard on these items, especially not early on! Micromanage everything like a pro, decide what items you need to produce, which ones are required for your next research project and sell everything else. The money you get from selling the smelted and especially crafted products are really nice and they help you upgrade your planets faster.

Colonization is not important early on
In your first couple of galaxies, colonization is not as important as the fact that you unlock it early suggests. The requirements for even the first level of colonization are pretty big compared to the boosts that they offer, so don’t make them a priority. I do believe that you end up with more value early on if you simply sell all the resources required for colonizing a planet.

Things change after the second sale of your galaxy, when things move a bit faster and the boosts add up… but until then, don’t make colonization a focus for spending your resources.

Grab those free boosts (and the Beacon)
You can watch an ad in Idle Planet Miner for some nice free cash or every now and then to get your ships a boost. I recommend doing so heavily, especially after unlocking the Rover. I say that because the Rover gives you the chance to spend the points earned from watching ads on getting useful boosts for a set of planets.

Upgrade planets based on their output
Although for the most part money will be the deciding factor on how you will upgrade your planets, it doesn’t hurt to actually plan things ahead and upgrade them based on the resources that you need.

After the 6th planet, things start to get a bit more complicated as more advanced resources come into play. From that moment on, you should focus on the planets that give you the most of the highest element that you need.

I usually upgrade all the three stats (speed, cargo and mining rate) in a row to keep things even, but I always start with the speed as I have the impression that it matters the most when it comes to resource production.

But the most important part is to produce the item that you need and focus on that. For example, even if you have discovered Aluminum, if you still need Copper Wires and Batteries for your research and Colonization tasks, it makes no sense to focus on leveling up your Aluminum planets.

Assign (and re-assign) managers to your most important planets
Managers are extremely expensive – not only to purchase them, but also to unlock slots to actually get to use them – which makes micromanaging them extremely important as well.

Fortunately, you can assign and reassign them as you see fit. So just keep an eye on them, know the boosts that they offer and make sure that they’re always managing the planet that delivers the resources you need the most at that given time.

Sell your Galaxy often
Getting to a Galaxy that’s worth 10 million is an ordeal first time you play and even your second galaxy will take some time to get there.

Therefore, you should sell your Galaxy often: as soon as you get to 10 million, sell it! You get 10 credits for that, which gives you the chance to buy some rooms and get some nice boosts for your next play. These bonuses are extremely important and you should unlock them as fast as possible.

So if the value of your Galaxy isn’t growing fast enough, don’t wait for reaching the next milestone. You’re winning a lot more in terms of progress speed from selling it sooner and putting those credits to work!

This would be it for today’s guide for Idle Planet Miner. If you have additional tips or tricks to share with fellow players, don’t hesitate to do so by commenting below.

Author
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Luciano
Writing about computer and video games since 2008, Luciano started to develop a major interest in mobile gaming starting 2013, after his son was born and free hours for hardcore gaming became nothing but a sweet memory. As a result, Touch Tap Play was created (in 2013 also), so that he can share his love for mobile gaming, but especially write tips and tricks to help fellow gamers do better in their virtual adventures.