Crystal Depths beginner's guide: what to do in your first hour

Crystal Depths is a free idle mining game you play in your browser. You start by tapping the crystal, then hire workers and machines that run the mine for you. This guide helps you make the most of your first hour. Every number here comes straight from the game.

First 5 minutes: tap, then buy Pickers

Each tap gives 1 crystal. The first Picker costs 15 crystals and makes 0.2 crystals per second. Tap your way to the first few Pickers.

Two cheap upgrades follow right away:

• Steel Pick (100 crystals): tap ×2. Unlocks after mining 50 crystals in this mine.
• Picker: Honing (150 crystals): unlocks once you own a Picker, Picker output ×2.

Every producer's first upgrade costs only 10 times its base price and doubles its output. Get into the habit of checking the "Upgrades" tab whenever you buy a new producer; an orange dot appears on the tab when something is affordable.

Milestones: 10 and 25 are magic numbers

Each time you own 10, 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 of a producer, its output doubles. So when you have 9 Pickers, the 10th is worth far more than a single Picker. The buy list shows the next milestone under each producer.

Rule of thumb: finishing a producer to its next milestone usually pays more than jumping to a new producer. Producers (base price / output per second):

Each one you buy makes the next 15% more expensive. The "×10" and "Max" buttons help when buying in bulk.

Resonance: multiply your output while you play

The bar under the crystal is the Resonance meter. Each tap fills it by 4%, and it starts draining one second after you stop. The fuller it is, the higher your output, up to ×2.

When the meter hits 100%, RESONANCE bursts: for 10 seconds both output and taps are ×3. That's one burst every 25 quick taps. Tuning (2,500 crystals) makes the meter fill 50% faster, and Long Echo (250 thousand) makes bursts last 5 seconds longer.

Tip: trigger a few bursts when you open the game, then spend. It moves you forward much faster than waiting.

Layers: each one is a permanent ×1.25

The more crystals you mine in this mine, the deeper you go: Amethyst (1 thousand), Emerald (100 thousand), Sapphire (10 million), Ruby (1 billion), Topaz (100 billion) and Star Crystal (10 trillion). Each layer multiplies all output by 1.25 for the rest of that mine, and the crystal and scene change color.

Don't miss geodes

Now and then a glowing geode appears on screen and stays for 12 seconds. Tap it for one of these:

• Crystal Hoard: a minute's worth of production.
• Crystal Rain: output ×5 for 15 seconds.
• An instant Resonance burst.

Geodes only appear while the game is on screen.

Drop by every day: daily reward and quests

The 🎁 button at the top left opens the daily reward. It's a seven-day streak: the reward starts at 5 minutes of production and grows to 60 minutes plus a 30-minute ×2 booster on day 7. Miss a day and the streak restarts at day 1.

The Quests tab has three quests every day ("Tap 300 times", "Crack 2 geodes" and so on). Each pays 15 minutes of production and they reset at midnight.

How long until the first collapse?

Once you've mined 10 billion crystals in a mine, collapse unlocks. Collapsing gives you Echo Stones and a stronger start in the next mine. In our own balance tests, the first collapse takes about 40 minutes for a player who checks in now and then, and about 47 minutes for one who never taps. For details, see the collapse and charms guide.

Quick summary

1. Tap, buy your first Pickers, don't miss Steel Pick and Honing.
2. Finish producers to 10 and 25.
3. Trigger Resonance while you play and catch geodes.
4. Claim the daily reward and quests every day.

Your progress is stored only in your own browser. To move to another device, export your save from Settings. Play now.