Dwarf Eats Mountain Prestige Timing: Decision Tree for Resets

Table of Contents

1. The Three-Question Decision Tree
2. Run 1: The 14 PP Threshold Explained
3. Run 2-3: The 20-25 PP Sweet Spot
4. Run 4+: Push Until It Hurts
5. Prestige Buy Order by Run Number
6. Signs You’re Holding Prestige Too Long
7. Prestige Verdict: Three Questions, One Reset Button
8. What Five Patches Changed Under The Reset Button
9. Sources

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The Three-Question Decision Tree

Three questions, answered in order, and you stop wasting runs. All three are now built on the documented economy rather than on my gut feel about clear times.

Question 1: How far is your next PP reward marker?

PP is not earned on a timer. The first PP reward lands at mountain level 2, and every reward after that shifts the next marker 1-3 mountain levels further out. That means the UI tells you the truth: if the next PP is one mountain away, that mountain is usually worth clearing before you reset. If the marker has started climbing multiple levels per reward, your run is past the point where the next PP pays for its own time.

Question 2: Does my PP total let me open the next tier and still buy from it?

Tiers unlock by PP spent: Tier 2 at 12, Tier 3 at 45, Tier 4 at 120, Tier 5 at 180, Tier 6 at 250. The tier gate and the purchase price are two different numbers, and mixing them up is what made the version of this page I wrote in May unreliable. The game’s When-to-Prestige guide derives its 14 PP recommendation from “cost equals tier” - 12 to open Tier 2 plus 2 for one Tier 2 buy. The prestige database does not price records that way: it lists 1 PP for the bulk of records in every tier, Ancestor’s Picks and Marching Orders included, and 1000 PP for six headline unlocks (Meadhall, Shrine, Turret Railgun, Flamelords, Vault of Kings, Divine Relic). Read together, the practical point survives the arithmetic: at 14 PP you open Tier 2 and can afford more than one buy on the same screen; at 13 you open nothing and stare. What neither source publishes is the cost ramp after the first rank of a multi-rank upgrade, so trust the shop tooltip over any guide for that. [Unverified - per-rank PP cost ramp] The useful question is not “am I close to an upgrade” but “am I about to open a tier I can actually spend from”.

Question 3: Which named system is actually the bottleneck?

Check what is stopping you, then buy the real upgrade for it:

• Runners can’t keep up → Marching Orders (+50/70% speed, tapering 5% per runner to a 15% floor) or Hard Carries (+1/2 carrying capacity). Both Tier 2.
• Damage too low → Ancestor’s Picks (Tier 2): +15/30/45/60% Miner damage and +3/6/9/12 Luck in one upgrade.
• Mithril missing → Greyglitter Leylines (Tier 4, +2/3/4 mithril luck to all dwarves) or Holy Pickaxe (Tier 2), not more raw damage. Mithril luck raises the damage-based mithril progress multiplier; it is not a flat percent chance per hit, which is why stacking damage does not fix it.
• Everything balanced but slow → it is Prestige time.

If the answer is “everything is balanced but slow” — reset. That is the signal.

The Prestige screen shows available upgrades and your current PP. Check this before deciding to push or reset.

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Run 1: The 14 PP Threshold Explained

Your first run is about learning the systems while building a baseline.

Why 14 PP and not 10?

Because 10 PP opens nothing. Tier 2 requires 12 PP spent, and you then still need enough left over to buy from it. Ten PP buys you a stack of Tier 1 upgrades and a locked screen. Fourteen is the total the game’s own prestige guide works with — spend 12, buy one Tier 2 upgrade, reset — and it is the first reset that makes run two visibly faster than run one.

What 14 PP actually buys:

Purchase	Tier	Documented effect
Spend down through Tier 1 to open Tier 2	Tier 1	Start-of-run value: Veteran Settlers (start with 2/4 dwarves), Swift Start (start with 1/2/3 runners), Guild Apprentices (first 1/2/3 miners free), Explosive Interns (free demodwarves), Heirloom Inheritance (start with a random Tier 1 artifact)
Ancestor’s Picks or Marching Orders	Tier 2	Miners +15/30/45/60% damage and +3/6/9/12 luck, or runners +50/70% speed tapering 5% per runner to a 15% floor
Buried Heirlooms Newspaper (if you have 16+)	Tier 2	5/10/15/20% chance for +1 PP every time you consume a mountain — the PP snowball upgrade

Pick the Tier 2 buy from your own bottleneck. The one thing I got badly wrong on the first version of this page was calling these “Runner Speed” and “Miner Damage” as if the game labels them that way; it does not, and the game has no generic “Early Speed Pack” or “Gallery Slot” prestige upgrade at all. The real catalogue is 97 named records, and you should shop it by name.

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Run 2-3: The 20-25 PP Sweet Spot

Your second Prestige run benefits from Run 1’s upgrades, and the maths changes because you now earn PP faster.

The 20-25 PP range is where early stability lives, not because a system unlocks there but because that is roughly the budget where you can take a Tier 2 upgrade and start the run with something. What to prioritise at this stage:

1. Runner capacity — Hard Carries (+1/2 carrying capacity, Tier 2) if your runners are making repeat trips while ore sits on the ground.
2. The damage branch you actually use — Ancestor’s Picks ranks up to +60% miner damage and +12 luck, which is why it is the most-recommended first Tier 2 buy for slow mountains.
3. Start-of-run upgrades — Looming Motivation handles the case where a mountain reclaims uncollected ore; Fleet-Footed And Rock-Hard keeps runners alive through hazards.
4. Den and artifact support — Fated Finds and Undermined Foundations once den clears are reliable enough that better den rewards change your next run.

I spent run 2 frustrated that my damage seemed fine but gold was still slow. The culprit was runner capacity — I had maxed damage while my runners made two trips where they should have made one. That is the pattern the game punishes: buying the cheap upgrade in the wrong system.

Tier ladder to plan against: Tier 3 opens at 45 PP spent, Tier 4 at 120. Tier 3 is where the specialised branches live — Spelunker’s Guild, Manufactorum, Ballista Lore, Beam Mastery, Deep Penetration, Infernal Fortune, Key Master, Undermined Foundations — so runs 2 and 3 are really about reaching 45 without wasting PP on a weapon line you will abandon.

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Run 4+: Push Until It Hurts

By run 4 you have enough permanent upgrades that the early game becomes a speedrun, and the question shifts from “when to Prestige” to “which tier am I saving toward”.

The rule: push until the next PP marker costs more time than the next upgrade saves. There is no fixed PP target for a run at this stage because tier gates are cumulative-spent thresholds, not per-run quotas.

What each gate actually opens:

PP spent	Tier	What lands there
12	Tier 2	Marching Orders, Hard Carries, Ancestor’s Picks, Buried Heirlooms Newspaper, Fated Finds, Fleet-Footed And Rock-Hard, Holy Pickaxe, Powder Keg Lineage, Ritual Power, Cyberdwarf, Powder Hall, Soulbound Legacy
45	Tier 3	Spelunker’s Guild, Manufactorum, Undermined Foundations, Ballista Lore, Beam Mastery, Deep Penetration, Infernal Fortune, Favored by Fortune, Key Master, Mountain’s Buried Treasures, Soul Tithes, Rocket Salvo
120	Tier 4	C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K., Greyglitter Leylines, Hand of God, Martial Culture, Mapped Destruction, Master Enchanters, Ascetic Rites, Yeeti Arms, Gemcraft, Explosives Kit, Meadhall, Shrine, Turret Railgun, Flamelords, Stalwart Legacy
180	Tier 5	Artifact carryover: Vault of Kings keeps 1/2/3 random artifacts through a reset, Divine Relic lets you keep one artifact of your choice, Speleological Domination scales damage off Underground Mapping
250	Tier 6	Repeatable per-ascension damage on each line (Endless Picks / Blaze / Explosions / Lasers / Penetration, +3% damage per rank) and King of the Spire (Rank 1 needs Ascension Rank 1, Rank 2 needs Ascension Rank 5)

Tier 3 and Tier 4 are the route-changing gates, because Manufactorum, Cyberdwarf and C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K. are unlocks rather than stat bumps — and each has a second requirement beyond the prestige purchase. Manufactorum needs the prestige upgrade and The Great Forge before Khazad Greathold will sell it; Cyberdwarf (Tier 2) needs the prestige upgrade and more than 9 Scientists; C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K. (Tier 4) needs its own prestige plus Cyberdwarf tier 2; Alchemy needs its prestige plus more than 7 Scientists, and its Philosopher’s Stone path needs 8 Scientists. If one of those is missing from your shop, it is not a bug — it is an unmet prerequisite, and that is the single most common “where is my upgrade” post in the community.

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Prestige Buy Order by Run Number

Generic tier lists fail here because your options change as tiers unlock. This is the order the documented effects support:

Run 1 (open Tier 2 at 12, buy at 14):

1. Swift Start — if the first five minutes are lost to ore on the ground
2. Veteran Settlers — more starting dwarves removes dead time from every future run
3. Guild Apprentices or Explosive Interns — whichever free-buy line matches the damage branch you are using
4. Mountain’s Hidden Veins / Ancient Cache — if mithril costs are already blocking useful buys
5. One Tier 2: Ancestor’s Picks (slow mountains) or Marching Orders (slow hauling)

Run 2-3 (toward 45):

1. Hard Carries — capacity beats speed when trips are the problem
2. Buried Heirlooms Newspaper — the +1 PP proc is the only prestige upgrade that pays you back in the currency itself
3. Orequake Finger / Heirloom Inheritance — manual ore control and a usable artifact at minute zero
4. Fated Finds, Undermined Foundations — den rewards and artifact consistency
5. Greyglitter Leylines or Holy Pickaxe — once mithril is the currency wall

Run 4-5 (toward 120):

1. The weapon prestige for your actual damage branch — Powder Keg Lineage, Ballista Lore, Infernal Fortune, Deep Penetration
2. Key Master and Triple Seal Gate support — the Level 50 gate is a spire requirement, not optional content
3. Ritual Power — 3 tiers; it unlocks rituals and strengthens specific ones (Boon of Chad, Boon of Shielding, Call Earthquake) rather than buffing everything
4. Ascetic Rites — ritual cost reduction, which is how late rituals stay usable

Run 6+ (180 then 250):

1. Vault of Kings and Divine Relic — artifact carryover removes the setup tax from every run
2. The Endless * line for whichever weapon actually carries your clears (+3% damage per rank, uncapped)
3. King of the Spire once you are repeatedly entering the Great World Spire — it is a convenience layer, not a substitute for the artifact checklist
4. Ascended Mithril Cache / Ascended Soul Cache when rare currency, not damage, is what slows each reset

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Signs You’re Holding Prestige Too Long

I see this pattern constantly in community discussions: players who sit on a run for four hours because they want “one more artifact” or “just a few more PP.”

Hard signs it is time to reset:

• The next PP marker has moved several mountain levels ahead of you
• You are opening the Prestige screen and every remaining buy is in a system you do not use
• Your runners are making repeated trips while ore sits uncollected
• Mountain clear time doubled from your last one
• You have started farming dens for one specific artifact rather than finishing the run

The cost of overstaying: every minute after your optimal Prestige point is a minute not spent on a faster run. A four-hour run that yields 20 PP is worse than two 90-minute runs yielding 14 PP each — 28 PP, plus a Tier 2 buy on the first one.

I kept a run going to mountain 42 once because I wanted a specific artifact. Got it. The artifact was mid-tier and the extra 90 minutes cost me two full Prestige cycles. The mistake is not wanting the artifact; it is that artifacts do not survive the reset unless you have reached Tier 5 at 180 PP spent and bought Vault of Kings or Divine Relic. Chasing one drop with a sub-180 PP account is trading permanent progress for temporary inventory.

Late-run setup. If your screen looks like this but clear times are still climbing, it is Prestige time.

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Prestige Verdict: Three Questions, One Reset Button

The Prestige system rewards frequent, focused resets over long exhaustive runs. Three questions — how far is the next PP marker, can my PP total open the next tier and buy from it, which named system is the bottleneck — decide it for you.

After 12 completed runs, the single biggest time-waster is waiting too long. Reset sooner than feels comfortable, and buy the bottleneck rather than the bargain. What I can put a number on: the tier gates at 12/45/120/180/250 PP spent, the first PP reward at mountain level 2, and the eight spire artifacts. What I cannot: any fixed hour count from first reset to the Level 100 gate, because that depends entirely on which route you fund.

Next run: pick your tier target before you start. Check at mountain 5 whether you are on pace for it. Adjust. Reset. Repeat.

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What Five Patches Changed Under The Reset Button

Prestige timing is patch-sensitive in ways the May version of this page did not know. Verified from the game’s changelog record:

• v1.2.1 (May 29, 2026) fixed a bug that could remove PP after the prior patch and granted compensation to saves that had already prestiged. If you are reading an old guide that treats a PP loss as normal attrition, it is describing a bug that was fixed within eleven days of launch.
• v1.2.2 (May 30, 2026) added further PP-recovery fixes and an internal save-backup safety net.
• v1.3.0 (June 6, 2026) is the one that changes this page’s advice. It added King of the Spire (Tier 6), two more Vault of Gods ranks, and Endless Artifacts — once every non-Tier 5 artifact is collected, artifact sources keep paying out +0.5% all-dwarf damage, +0.5% ore gold value, or +1 PP. That closes the old “nothing left to gain from this run” ceiling. It also made Delete Save and Begin Game on the prestige screen require holding the button.
• v1.4.0 (July 21, 2026) hardened prestige and backup saves against interrupted writes and made DPM/OPM panel positions persist across prestige.
• v1.5.0 (September 11, 2026) fixed damage upgrades that sometimes failed to apply until reloading, plus late-game timer, large-number and save crashes. Read Question 1 again: if your damage “suddenly stopped scaling” before this patch, that was often the reload bug, not your build. The same patch put a maximum payout cap on Mithril luck per mountain, and the official note does not state the cap. [Unverified - mithril luck cap value]

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Sources

Source	What it backs
WikiTactics — When to Prestige	14-15 PP first target, 12 PP Tier 2 gate, cost equals tier, first PP reward at mountain level 2, markers move 1-3 levels
WikiTactics — Prestige Upgrades database	Named records, tier gates at 12/45/120/180/250 PP spent, per-record Cost PP values (1 PP for most records, 1000 PP for Meadhall, Shrine, Turret Railgun, Flamelords, Vault of Kings and Divine Relic), Ascension Rank requirements, documented upgrade effects
WikiTactics — Best Prestige	Phase-by-phase buy order and the route-changing unlocks
WikiTactics — Late Game Ascension	Special mountain levels and timers, spire artifact path, Tier 6 ascension spending
WikiTactics — Great World Spire Checklist	The eight required spire artifacts and their sources
WikiTactics — Unlock Order	Manufactorum, Cyberdwarf and C.L.U.S.T.E.R.P.I.C.K. prerequisites
WikiTactics — Patch Changelog	v1.2.1 through v1.5.0 changes affecting prestige and saves
Steam store page, appid 4078200	Release and pricing context (read 2026-10-09)