The first humans are back on Earth, having lived on Mars for 2000 years. They escaped the most catastrophic volcano eruption in recorded history: Yellowstone.

Join the fastest-growing persistent-world PVP browser game of collecting, trading and pirates. There are multiple mine types including weapons, vehicles and explosives. You can trade your items or pillage other players to build wealth of your own.

Mining Things
You can’t help but mine things. You are always mining, day and night whether logged into minethings.com or not. You never know when you will discover something.

To see what you’ve discovered, just click “Findings.” If you have found anything new, it will be listed here immediately. Note that you must click “Findings” in order to see the new things you’ve found. Clicking “Things” will only show you what you have since you last checked your mines.

Mining Gold
You can mine gold if you’d prefer gold instead of things. Just go to your “Findings” page and click the button that says “mine gold.” Gold findings vary in size; usually, you will get about 3g at a time but sometimes you find more. All mines generate gold at the same average rate.

Batteries
Your miner bots run on batteries and when the batteries run out, they will stop mining. The battery time remaining is shown at the top of each page.

To recharge the batteries, click “Findings.” They will be instantly recharged to last 16 hours plus one hour for each meld that you have.

How to Mine Faster
Three ways:
1. Obtain equipment. These are things like the drills, pickaxes, lights and hardhats that boost your mining rate. You can find these at an equipment mine if you own one, or you can buy them from other players. A miner bot can use one of each type of equipment. You can browse equipment at the Equipment Mine

2. Purchase or rent additional mines and you will mine from these new mines at the same base rate as your starting mine (25 buckets per hour). You can mine from up to three different mines at once. If you have two mines, you will mine twice as many things. If you have three mines, you will mine three times as many things. You can buy more than three mines but will only be able to mine from three at one time. You can purchase mines for gold or credits at the Shop.

3. Purchase Explosives from other players. These can be detonated at any mine (even rentals) and will perform hours worth of mining instantly. M-80s typically find 0-1 things, Dynamite 1-3 things and TNT 5-9 things. The rarer explosives deliver even more.

Melds
A meld is a collection of things. Each type of meld requires its own specific set of things and a specific quantity of each. If you have the required things in your home city, you can make the meld. Each meld can only be created once per miner. Your level (number next to your name) is determined by how many melds you have. Some melds are harder to get than others.

To create a meld, go to the Mines page, click on one of the melds found under the Melds heading, and then click “Create Meld.” If you have the required items, you will see a message telling you that the meld has been created and your meld count will increase by one.

The Starter mine tends to have the easiest melds but other mines have melds as well. Have a look at all the mines to see which melds will be the easiest for you to make next.

Buying
Gold can be used to buy things from other miners. To buy something, the first thing to do is locate the page for that thing. Click on the “Mines” link and then click on the type of mine your desired thing is found in. You will see a list of all known things from that mine. Click on the thing you are interested in and you will be taken to the market page for that thing.

You may find that there are people who are willing to sell you this thing right away. Their prices will be found under the “Listings” column. If there are listings, you can click the “Buy” link and you will be able to purchase immediately.

If there are no listings or if the listings are too high in price, you have the option to bid on a thing. To do so, simply click “Buy,” enter the amount of gold you’d like to spend on the next page, and click “Place Bid.” Your bid will be added to the “Bids” column and will stay there until either you cancel it or someone sells to you. Keep in mind that there are other bidders also interested in the same thing and the higher your bid, the sooner your purchase will generally be made. Once someone does meet your bid, you will receive a message to let you know.

Selling
Selling works similarily to buying. To sell one of your things, first locate the market page. You can do this from your “Things” page by finding the thing you wish to sell and clicking its name. You will be taken to the market page for this thing.

You might find that there are bidders already lined up waiting to purchase at your command. These bids will be listed in the “Bids” column. If the price is right, click the “Sell” and then “Sell for…” on the next page. You will immediately sell to the highest bidder.

If there are no bids or if you don’t like the bids that people have placed, you can place a listing instead. Just click the “Sell” link, type in any price you’d like and click “Place Listing.” Your listing will be added to the “Listings” column and at some point somone else may come around and buy yours. There may be others who are also trying to sell the same thing, so you will sell yours sooner if your price is lower. You will get a message once the sale has been made.

Inventory Limit
You start out with an inventory limit of 75 things. Your inventory is computed as the total count of all mined things belonging to you. Things en-route and in other cities count towards this inventory. Melds do not.

If you are over your inventory limit, you will not be able to bring new findings from your mines into your inventory. You will continue mining at the same rate and accumulating new findings, but you cannot see what they are or use them until reducing your inventory.

To reduce your inventory, click ‘Things,’ click on one of your things and either sell or trash it.

Thing Rarity
The color of the thing represents its rarity. Things on the “Mines” page are listed top-bottom from most to least rare (orange/purple/red/blue/green/yellow). Each color is many times more common than the color above it. Rarity alone does not determine the price of a thing but it plays a large part.

Cities
Your home city has a lot going on and you can progress in the game without ever venturing out, but it is only one corner of the world. There are other cities with different mines you can access if you buy a vehicle. A vehicle also allows you to transport your things from one city to another. You can buy vehicles from other players just the same way you buy anything else.

When you first start your account, you can only see your home city. To view another city, you must first send a vehicle to that city. Once you have visited the city once, it will appear in your “Cities” menu and you will be able to view that city whenever you want.

Each city has its own marketplace and you’ll find that prices differ from city to city. A thing’s market page shows the bids and listings for the current city only. If you want to see market data for another city, simply change the current city via the “Cities” menu found at the top of every page.

Each city has its own set of mines. This list can be found by clicking “Mines” and noting which mines appear in the “Mines in [city name]” list. These mines are available for purchase in the shop.

Melds can only be created in your home city. You can buy the things needed from any city you want, but in order to make a meld with them they must be in your home city.

If any of the things or vehicles that you are transporting are listed, those listings will be canceled. You can relist the things once they arrive at the next city.

Moving
Moving means changing your home city. By default, your home city is Harmond. Your home city provides you with a +5 bucket/hour mining bonus and allows you to transform things into melds. Prices from the local mines tend to be cheaper than elsewhere. Moving can be a great choice for those wishing to gain better access to things outside their current home.

To move to another city, first you must view that city by clicking the “Cities” dropdown menu and clicking on the city you want to view. Once you are viewing the city you want to move to, click “Home” and you will see a link on that page that says “Move to [city name].”

Moving does come with its costs. Upon moving, all your melds will be transformed back into the things that were required to make those melds. That means that your meld count will go back to zero. This will also likely put you over your inventory limit and you cannot simply re-create those melds since those things are located at your former home city and not your new home. You will have as long as you need to decide what to do with these things but as long as you are over your inventory limit, you will not be able to bring new findings to your inventory nor recharge your battery.

Another cost is that you will no longer have the +5 mining bonus in your former home city. This “home city” bonus moves as you do.

Since you will be below the minimum required melds for choosing a profession, your profession will revert back to Miner. Vehicles en-route will retain their profession until arrival.

Once a miner moves, we require that they stay in their new home for at least one week.

Moving will give you a four-day boost to your battery charge so that you have more time to sell things.

Gadgets
Many different types of gadgets are available to those who have earned 15 melds. You can buy them from other players at the Gadget mine or purchase a gadget mine yourself. Some gadgets give boosts to vehicles and ships while others give you extra information such as your stats, sales history and meld costs. One gives you more inventory slots and another allows you to sign up for market notices. While gadgets are not essential to advance in minethings, most will give you a noticeable benefit.

Vehicles
Vehicles allow you to visit other cities, transport things, pillage other player’s cargo and hunt for highwaymen. You can buy a vehicle from another player if there are any listed in your city. Go to the “Mines” page and look for vehicle mines to find your first vehicle.

Vehicles have four attributes: speed, capacity, attack and armor. Speed determines how quickly you move along each route and also determines whether combat occurs in the event that you are chasing or being chased. Capacity determines how many things you can carry along the route. Attack factors in if you are a highwayman or a guard and your vehicle encounters another vehicle. “Armor” comes into play when another vehicle attacks yours.

If you have chosen either the highwayman or guard profession, you can have your vehicle pillage or hunt selected classes of vehicles. Doing so puts you in an aggressive stance towards those vehicles. All combat takes place when at least one of the two vehicles are aggressive.

Vehicle Combat
When an aggressive vehicle encounters a non-aggressive vehicle, the first thing to happen is that the aggressive vehicle chases the other. If the non-aggressive vehicle is slower, a battle ensues, otherwise the target escapes and both vehicles go on their way. Battles will last one hour and at the end a winner is chosen. The winner is determined by comparing the sum of the aggressive vehicle’s weapons’ offensive ratings plus the vehicle’s attack against the sum of the defending vehicle’s weapons’ defensive ratings plus the vehicle’s armor. If the aggressor’s offense value is more than the defender’s defense value, the attack is a success and a pillaging commences, otherwise both vehicles go on their way.

If two aggressive vehicles meet, combat is unavoidable and there is no chase at all. The battle’s winner is determined a little differently. Both vehicles will add their aggressive and defensive weapon and vehicle stats (all combat stats). Whoever has the bigger number wins. In case of a tie, both vehicles go on their way.

Pillaging means that the victor takes ownership of half of what is in the victim’s vehicle and places those things in his own vehicle. If the aggressor doesn’t have room for half of the victim’s things, then the aggressor will only take enough items to fill his cargo. Anything a vehicle is carrying can be pillaged, including weapons.

An important thing to consider when venturing out is what exactly you want to take with you. If you are trading, you will want some defensive weapons. If pirating, you will favor offensive weapons. If hunting, you will want either kind. A highwayman will also want to remember to leave room in his vehicle for pillaged items. A highwayman with a full cargo cannot pillage at all.

If you should find yourself with less than zero gold, you will not be able to use vehicles until you have paid off this debt.

Ships
Ships are available to miners who have earned 20 or more melds. They allow travel to the offshore city of Daigard and can also travel directly between Harmond and Cissna. Ships can carry anything that vehicles can carry and behave very much like vehicles when travelling. The differences are to be found in the ship combat. Ships fight using a combination of cannons, crew, and weapons while vehicles only use weapons. Vehicles are never destroyed in combat but a ship can be.

Five attributes govern how a ship behaves: speed, capacity, cannon portals, crew and hull. Speed for ships is just like speed for vehicles. A ship’s capacity determines how many things it can carry. Cannon portals determines the maximum number of cannons that can be outfitted onto the ship. Hull determines how many cannonballs a ship can absorb before it is sunk.

To use a ship, you must first switch professions to either Merchant, Pirate, or Bounty Hunter. The nature of these professions is described on the Profession page. Once you have switched to one of these professions, click on the Ships link and you will see your ships listed ready to send. Sending ships works just like vehicles with the exception of cannons and cannonballs.

Cannons are found in the Cannon mine and can be attached to a ship when the ship is sent. Once attached, the cannon can never be removed and the ship can never be sold or trashed. They are a permanent fixture of the ship, so choose your cannons carefully. Once attached, you can re-order the cannons provided that the ship is not currently en route. Each attached cannon will subtract 1 from the ship’s capacity. Alternatively, cannons can be brought onto the ship as cargo and will not be permanently attached or used in battle.

Cannonballs are also found in the Cannon mine and there are three different types. Massive cannonballs damage the enemy ship’s hull in hopes of sinking the ship. Each point of damage subtracts 1 from the enemy ship’s hull. Grape shot is aimed at the enemy’s crew to cause casualties and turn the crew battle in your favor. Each point of damage will cause 1 casualty. Chain-shot tears the enemy’s sails, slowing the ship and allowing yours to escape. Each point of damage reduces the enemy ship’s speed by 1. Cannonballs can be brought onboard the ship upon sending it and a crate of 10 occupies only one cargo space. Crates that are partially used will remain on-board and take no cargo space.

Ships can become sunken if their hull reaches zero. A sunken ship is lost forever but its cargo remains intact, ready for others to find.

Ship Combat
Like vehicles, combat occurs when one two ships pass one another and at least one of them is instructed to hunt or pillage the class of the other. If one of the ships is aggressive, the other is considered defensive. If the defensive ship is faster, it escapes before combat occurs. If both ships are aggressive to each other, fighting is unavoidable.

Combat between ships occurs in two phases. In phase one, the cannons of both ships are fired and damage is taken on both sides. In phase two, the crew of each ship fights one another.

The cannon phase is fought over three rounds. Only cannons that have been permanently attached are used in this phase. Cannons brought on as cargo are ignored. Some cannons fire in all three rounds while other cannons will only fire in one or two rounds. The rounds a cannon will fire in is determined by the cannon’s rate of fire.

Each round begins with both ships firing their cannons in portal 1 if they can. The cannonballs are chosen randomly from those aboard the ship. Damage is tallied up on each side and two important calculations are made: if a ship that was not attempting to attack the other becomes faster due to damaging the other’s sails, the ship will escape immediately. Also if a ship’s hull reaches zero, the ship is sunk and all cargo is lost. Then both sides fire from portal 2 if they can, then both from 3, 4, 5, etc until they have both fired all their cannons. At this point, the next round begins.

The crew battle phase follows the cannon phase. Some crew may have been lost during the cannon phase but the remaining crew will still fight valiantly. Each crew member will grab a weapon if there are enough available on the ship. The weapons will add to the crew strength. If there are more weapons than crew, the best weapons will be chosen and the rest left aside. Crew strength is calculated as the crew count plus the total offense+defense of the weapons they are carrying. If a crew member falls, his/her weapon is removed from the crew’s total strength. The fight will commence by both sides losing one crew member simultaneously until the strength of one crew is significantly greater than the strength of the other. At this point, the victor is the side with the greater crew strength.

A ship that loses hull/crew/speed during battle can regain the lost stats. Lost hull is regained slowly over time when a ship is left in a city. Lost speed is regained instantly after battle. A portion of crew casualties are only injuries and are healed immediately after battle. The entire crew is replenished instantly upon arriving at a city.

Weapons
Weapons help your vehicles attack and defend while they are traveling and they help your ship’s crew in battle.

Vehicles: Each weapon has an offense and defense rating which are used along with the vehicle stats to determine the outcome of an attack. The offensive rating is used when your vehicle is attacking another vehicle. The defensive rating is used for when your vehicle is being attacked by another. If both your vehicle and the other are trying to attack each other, both offensive and defensive stats are used.

Ships: Your crew can arm themselves with weapons during the crew vs crew phase of battle. Each weapon that is carried by a crew member will add both its offense and defense stats to your crew numbers. If there aren’t enough crew to use the weapons on your ship, the best weapons will be chosen. If a crew member is killed/wounded in battle, his weapon is dropped and no longer counts towards the crew strength.

To use a weapon, simply bring it along when you are selecting which things you want your vehicle/ship to carry. Weapons take up one cargo slot each. Their stats are automatically added to a vehicle’s stats and automatically used by a ship’s crew.

Weapons themselves can be pillaged just like any other cargo. If you lose a fight, you’ll likely lose some of your weapons as well.

You can find weapons at the weapons mine or purchase them in any city.

Professions
There are seven total professions you can choose from. Your profession determines how your vehicles and ships behave while moving from one city to another. Everyone starts out as the Miner profession. A Miner’s vehicles cannot carry anything and he/she cannot use ships. The other six professions are the three land professions: (Trader, Highwayman, Guard) and the three sea professions: (Merchant, Pirate, Bounty Hunter). Land professions use vehicles and cannot use ships and sea professions use ships and cannot use vehicles.

Traders can bring things on board their vehicles as cargo. The only things they cannot bring are vehicles and ships. Traders can take advantage of this unique ability by buying something in one city and selling it in another. This earns them a profit based on the price difference between the two cities. Traders do have to consider that there are highwaymen who can engage them in battle and steal their things. The trader has several ways of dealing with this problem and are given a +2 capacity bonus to help.

Highwaymen can only bring weapons on vehicles. They chase all other vehicles and upon catching one will attempt to pillage it. If the highwayman’s vehicle defeats its opponent, it will take all of the victim’s things. Highwaymen’s vehicles receive a 25% boost to their vehicles+weapons offensive power.

Guards chase the vehicles of highwaymen and upon catching one will attempt to defeat it. If successful, they will collect a bounty in gold. The bounties are determined by the enemy vehicle’s rarity. Yellows earn 5g, greens 25g, blues 100g, reds 350g, purples 1000g, oranges 2500g. Guards are also restricted to bringing only weapons in their vehicles.

Pirates behave similarly to highwaymen except they use ships instead of vehicles. Instead of an attack bonus, pirate cannons have a 25% chance of doing double damage. Pirates can only pillage if they win the crew battle. A pirate who sinks an enemy’s ship will get nothing.

Bounty hunters behave similarly to guards except they use ships instead of vehicles. They can gain a bounty either by defeating a pirate ship either in the crew battle or by sinking the pirate’s ship.

Fishermen use bait and ships to catch fish. Pieces of bait on a fisherman’s ship are replaced with fish of equal rarity as the ship moves toward its destination. Their ships will occasionlly find sunken treasure instead, provided that they have bait to use at all. Their ships are limited to carrying bait, weapons and cannonballs.

If a highwayman, guard, pirate or bounty hunter vehicle/ship is defensive towards another vehicle/ship and wins the battle, no pillaging or bounty collecting is performed. They consider themselves lucky to get away and leave it at that.