Mines

Each province has one mine, marked by a mine tower. Select the tower and press F to open its window: its name and story, who holds it, what it digs, what is piled up and where it goes, and when it is next open to attack. The world map's Mines layer shows every mine as the icon of what it digs, ringed gold for yours, blue for another guild's and red while under attack; point at one for its holder and when its window opens.

Taking a mine

1. Wait for the mine's daily 30-minute window. It opens at the same hour every day.
2. Destroy the mine tower.
3. Press Claim Mine in the mine's window and hold still through a 10-second channel.

• You must belong to a guild that has a Heartwood.
• A guild holds one mine, and one more for each Heartwood rank (at most nine). A claim past that limit is refused, or void at the close.
• Several guilds may claim during the window. The last claim before it closes wins.
• When the tower falls, a quarter of its pile spills at its foot as a cart anyone may loot for an hour, claim or no claim.
• If the tower falls and nobody claims it, the mine is left unheld until a guild takes it.
• A mine piles up at most 24 hours of output. Capturing it takes the pile.
• Output travels home by caravan, and can be intercepted. See Raiding caravans and wrecks.

Running your guild's mines

The build bar's Mines tab (/buildmode, or All our mines in a mine's window) lists every mine your guild holds: what each digs, its pile, any cart on the road, its rank and when its window opens. The Guild Leader and Inner Council change what a mine digs and raise its rank there, or in the mine's own window.

• A common mine can dig Gold, Ore, Lumber, Stone or Magic Essence; what is already piled stays and goes home with the next carts. A Mithril or Adamant mine digs only its own.
• Richness: a province rich in a good digs more of it (70% to 140%), so the same mine can be rich in stone and poor in gold.
• Miners work every held mine, two and one more a rank. A killed miner is a citizen lost, and the mine digs less until the dead are replaced, within minutes.
• Its output piles at the mine and goes home by caravan: full carts from your nation's homeland, a quarter cart from anywhere else. The Mines tab warns when your stores are too full to take the next cart.
• The window's hour can be chosen once while your guild holds the mine: it moves to that hour, at most 12 hours either way.
• Your guild hears from the Herald, and sees on the HUD, 15 minutes before a window opens, on the tower's first hit and when it falls.
• Nothing is dug while the mine's window is open, or while your guild has no Heartwood.

Mine ranks

Your city's builders raise a mine one rank at a time, drawing the materials from your city's storage like any upgrade. Each rank needs your Heartwood at one rank below it.

• Losing the mine loses its ranks. When another guild takes it, the tower goes back to rank I and any upgrade under way is abandoned. Whatever had been delivered to it comes home.
• A higher rank piles more before it fills, and its tower takes longer to fell.
• From rank III guards keep the tower. They fight whoever hurts it, a miner or one of them; a fallen guard is replaced after 10 minutes, never while the window is open.
• Work stops while the mine's window is open, and resumes when it closes.