Dwarf Eats Mountain: 10 Mistakes That Cost You Hours of Time
These 10 mistakes cost me roughly 15 hours across my first 6 runs. Runner stun neglect, early Prestige traps, and one upgrade you should never buy before run 4.
Table of Contents
- Mistake 1: Training Every Dwarf as a Miner
- Mistake 2: Buying Every Upgrade You Can Afford
- Mistake 3: Prestiging at 10 PP
- Mistake 4: Neglecting Runner Upgrades After Mid-Game
- Mistake 5: Building Flameworks Before Runners Can Handle It
- Mistake 6: Spending Mithril on the Wrong Upgrades
- Mistake 7: Ignoring the Calamity Bar
- Mistake 8: Equipping C-Tier Artifacts When Slots Are Limited
- Mistake 9: Not Checking Prestige Upgrade Prerequisites
- Mistake 10: Giving Up Before the First Prestige
- Mistakes Verdict: Most of These Cost You 1-2 Hours Each
Mistake 1: Training Every Dwarf as a Miner
The mistake: Maxing out miners because “more damage = faster progress.”
Why it’s wrong: Damage without collection is useless. Ore sits on the ground. Your gold counter stays flat while you watch miners joyfully throw pickaxes at a mountain you can’t profit from.
The fix: Keep a 2:1 miner-to-runner ratio in the early game. For every 2 miners, have 1 runner. If you notice ore piling up, shift to 1:1 temporarily until collection catches up.
What it cost me: 45 minutes on my first run staring at a gold counter that wouldn’t move before I realized my 12 miners had 0 runners working.
Mistake 2: Buying Every Upgrade You Can Afford
The mistake: Treating the upgrade screen like a shopping list — buying whatever lights up green.
Why it’s wrong: +5% to everything is worse than +25% to your bottleneck. Affordable upgrades are often the least efficient ones. The +5% gold upgrade costs the same as a +20% runner speed upgrade, but one of them moves your run forward and the other doesn’t.
The fix: Before buying anything, identify your bottleneck. Is the mountain slow to crack? Buy damage. Is ore sitting on the ground? Buy runner upgrades. Is everything fine but slow? Consider Prestige.
What it cost me: On run 2, I bought 8 small upgrades across different categories instead of one runner capacity upgrade. The small upgrades saved me roughly 2 minutes total. The runner upgrade would have saved 15.
Mistake 3: Prestiging at 10 PP
The mistake: Resetting as soon as Prestige becomes available (~10 PP).
Why it’s wrong: 10 PP doesn’t unlock the upgrades that meaningfully change your next run. 14-15 PP does. The extra 3-4 mountains take about 20 minutes but the upgrades you unlock cut the next run by roughly 40%.
The fix: Push to 14 PP minimum. Check the Prestige tab at 10 PP — if your target upgrade costs 3 more PP, push for it.
What it cost me: My 10-PP reset run took almost as long as run 1 (185 minutes vs 210). My 14-PP reset run took 95 minutes. That 20 extra minutes saved 90 minutes.
Mistake 4: Neglecting Runner Upgrades After Mid-Game
The mistake: Thinking new dwarf classes (Flamers, Demos, Scientists) make runners irrelevant.
Why it’s wrong: Every new damage source floods the ground with more ore. Better damage without better collection creates a bigger pile, not more gold. Runners are the most important unit class in every phase of the game.
The fix: Every time you add a damage-building (Flameworks, Demolition Shack, Ballista Tower), check your runner capacity and speed. Upgrade runners before using the new damage building for the first time.
What it cost me: I added Flameworks, Demolition Shack, and Ballista Tower on run 3 without touching runner upgrades. Ground looked like a gold mine that nobody was mining. Spent 30 minutes troubleshooting before I realized the problem was obvious.
Mistake 5: Building Flameworks Before Runners Can Handle It
The mistake: Buying Flameworks as soon as it’s available.
Why it’s wrong: Flameworks doubles your damage output. That sounds great until the mountain floods with ore and your 3 base runners can’t keep up. The extra damage creates a bottleneck on the collection side.
The fix: Before buying Flameworks, ensure your runners can clear the current ground loot within 5 seconds of a damage burst. If ore stays on screen longer than that, upgrade runners first.
What it cost me: Built Flameworks at minute 8 on my first run. Ground flooded. Had to scramble to hire more runners while the timer ticked. Slowed my entire run by about 20 minutes.
Mistake 6: Spending Mithril on the Wrong Upgrades
The mistake: Buying the first Mithril upgrade you see, or hoarding Mithril indefinitely “just in case.”
Why it’s wrong: Mithril is powerful but finite. Spending it on low-impact upgrades (Mithril Gem +5% gold, Mithril Housing) wastes its potential. Hoarding it means you’re not using a resource that directly accelerates your run.
The fix: Mithril Pickaxes (15 Mithril, +50% miner damage) is always the first buy. Then Mithril Chainmail (runner survival) or Magnetic Gloves (runner capacity). Skip gem/housing upgrades until late game.
What it cost me: On run 3, I spent 25 Mithril on a gem enhancement before Pickaxes. Regretted it by mountain 15 when damage fell off.
Mistake 7: Ignoring the Calamity Bar
The mistake: Treating calamities as a background mechanic that doesn’t need attention.
Why it’s wrong: Calamities aren’t just flavor text. Falling rocks stun or kill runners. Monster infestations slow collection. High calamity pressure can stall a run completely. The bar fills faster as you deal more damage — and the more damage you deal, the more aggressive the disasters become.
The fix: Watch the calamity bar. When it’s above 70%, expect a disaster soon. Consider slowing damage output (don’t buy a damage upgrade yet) if your runners can’t survive the current calamity level.
What it cost me: Run 4, mountain 28, calamity bar hit 100%. Falling rocks killed 4 of my 8 runners simultaneously. Had to spend 5 minutes rebuying and retraining them. The disaster alone cost me more time than any single upgrade saved me.
Mistake 8: Equipping C-Tier Artifacts When Slots Are Limited
The mistake: Filling all artifact slots because “an artifact is better than no artifact.”
Why it’s wrong: Early game you have 3-4 artifact slots. Each one is precious. Equipping a C-tier artifact (Wooden Shield +5% survival, Smooth Pebble +1% Luck) means you’re not equipping an S, A, or B one when it drops.
The fix: Leave slots empty if your best available artifacts are C-tier. Wait for B or better. Use Rituals (late game) to replace C-tier with anything better.
What it cost me: I kept a Smooth Pebble equipped for 3 runs before realizing +1% Luck was doing literally nothing noticeable. The slot would have been better empty.
Mistake 9: Not Checking Prestige Upgrade Prerequisites
The mistake: Buying Prestige upgrades without checking what they unlock — or what they require.
Why it’s wrong: Some Prestige upgrades have prerequisites that aren’t obvious. You might spend 3 PP on an upgrade that does nothing because a prerequisite isn’t met. Worse, you might skip a cheap prerequisite and wonder why your build path is locked.
The fix: Read the Prestige tree carefully. Note which upgrades have prerequisites marked as “requires X.” Plan your PP spending route before committing.
What it cost me: Spent 4 PP on a Mithril-related upgrade on run 2 — only to discover it required Spelunker’s Guild, which I hadn’t unlocked. 4 PP wasted for a full run.
Mistake 10: Giving Up Before the First Prestige
The mistake: Quitting around mountain 8-10 because the game “feels slow.”
Why it’s wrong: The game before first Prestige is deliberately slow. It’s teaching you systems. After Prestige, permanent upgrades make runs 2-3x faster. The game opens up dramatically. Most of the interesting content (artifacts, builds, bosses, endgame) is locked behind that first reset.
The fix: Push to 14 PP before deciding if you like the game. That first Prestige is the tutorial. The real game starts when you see your second run cut in half.
What it cost me: Almost everything. I almost quit at hour 3. Glad I didn’t. By hour 10 I was hooked. By hour 40 I was writing this guide.
Mistakes Verdict: Most of These Cost You 1-2 Hours Each
The good news: every one of these mistakes is a one-time lesson. You make it, you learn, you don’t make it again. The bad news: they add up. Roughly 15 hours of my first 40 hours were optimization fixes that these 10 mistakes would have prevented.
If you’re reading this before your first Prestige: save this list. Check it every time you feel stuck. The answer to “why is my run stalling” is almost always one of these.
The most common root cause across all 10 mistakes: not checking your runners. Runner count, runner speed, runner capacity, runner survival. If your run is slow, check the runners first. Every time.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the biggest mistake beginners make in Dwarf Eats Mountain?
Training every dwarf as a miner. Miners deal damage but they do not collect loot. A balanced roster with dedicated runners is essential. New players often hire 15+ miners and wonder why their gold is not growing — because ore is sitting on the ground with no one collecting it.
Should I buy every upgrade I can afford in Dwarf Eats Mountain?
No. Buying every available upgrade spreads your resources too thin. Focus on your current bottleneck: if damage is slow, buy damage upgrades. If gold is slow, buy runner upgrades. A spread-out build takes 30% longer to clear mountains than a focused one.
When should I Prestige for the first time in Dwarf Eats Mountain?
Do not Prestige at 10 PP even though the game makes it available there. Push to 14-15 PP for your first reset. The extra 4-5 mountains take about 20 minutes but unlock Prestige upgrades that cut your next run by 40%. Resetting at 10 PP is the most common beginner mistake.
Should all my dwarves be the same class in Dwarf Eats Mountain?
No. A balanced team is crucial. You need miners (damage), runners (collection), and eventually specialized classes like Flamers (fire DoT), Demo Dwarves (burst damage), and Scientists (laser scaling). A mono-class build works early but falls apart by mountain 15-20.
Is it worth saving resources in Dwarf Eats Mountain?
Save Mithril for specific upgrades (Mithril Pickaxes first). Save Mountain Souls until late game. But never save gold or Prestige Points — unspent resources provide zero benefit. Spend gold as soon as you have enough for a meaningful upgrade and spend all PP before resetting.
About the author
Editor-in-Chief
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of gameguidesbox.com, began surfing the web in the late 19th century. Passionate about movies, coffee, gaming, and life itself. Favorite games include Titanfall 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Metro, PUBG, and CS2.
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