Coal Mining Inc. Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Become a Top Coal Industry Tycoon

Coal — many of us use it in everyday life, but did you know that there’s more to it than just being used for cooking?

Coal actually has a myriad of uses that make it a very important resource in not just households but industrial settings as well. First and foremost, coal can be used to generate electricity. The coal is used to turn water into steam with pressure so high it makes turbines move. Hence, the movement from the turbines creates electricity.

Aside from this, coal is also used in the creation of metal, the production of cement and synthetic material like foams and carbon fibers, tars, fuels for all types of vehicles, and believe it or not, medicine. Without the use of coal, life could be a little bit more difficult for us.

But what if you were flung into the boots of someone who works at the place where it all begins — a coal mine? We’re not talking about miners, pickaxes, and canaries, we’re talking about roaring machinery, drills, and filling train cars of coal at a time. To the coal miners out there who do their thing, we couldn’t have made this guide without you. For the rest of us, there’s Coal Mining Inc.

Lion Studios isn’t a stranger to Level Winner since we have covered some of their titles in the past such as Mr. Bullet, The Superhero League, and Happy Glass. Coal Mining Inc. is one of their latest releases and it isn’t short of being as fun as the previous titles here. It’s a moderately-paced game with plenty to do and the best part about it is that, because it’s new, it will be sure to receive more content in the future.

For now, Coal Mining Inc. will have you experience a basic understanding of what it’s like to manage a coal mine. There will be challenges along the way, especially with how you manage your funds, but that’s where we come in.

If you’ve just started digging through the game and want to know how to make it through with a lot of big bucks, dive into the nitty gritty by reading our Coal Mining Inc. guide below!

1. The Ads Are Everywhere, But Necessary

This is a harsh reality, our dear friend!

Ads can be pretty invasive these days. You’ve seen them all, they’ve asked you if you could do better, they’ve promoted their decision-based forms of gameplay — is there truly no end to them? It doesn’t look quite like it. As unfortunate as it may seem, Coal Mining Inc. actually grants you some goodies for watching the ads that flow through the game itself. Think of it as worker’s compensation!

There are several things that Coal Mining Inc. can give you that can propel your progress forward. Some of these are large sums of money, working speed, and most importantly, diamonds. Diamonds are hard to come by and it’s with these most precious stones that you will succeed in maxing out any of your coal mining plants (we will tell you what powers they wield soon). So as far as ads go, viewing them is a must.

Naturally, if you’d like to free yourself of ads and gain a small bonus to the profits you earn from your coal sales as well as a neat little golden forklift statue, the devs of the game offer this, too. Send them some love if you’ve had enough of the ads and if you’d like to just mine your coal in peace!

With that bitter pill out of the way, let’s move onto the sweet little details of the game itself. We’ll first start with how your plant works.

2. Understand How The Plant Works

As most idle management games work, you are to take resources and turn them into a source of income. Upon understanding how your plant works, you will have a better outlook on how you can streamline your coal processing. Let’s first start with the coal mine itself.

The coal mine is where the genesis of your operations happen, at least in the first plant. This mass of dirt is where drill cars dig and excavate coal onto their bins. The raw coal is then harvested by trucks that bring it to the massive conveyor, the heart of your plant.

This conveyor is in charge of grinding the coal into smaller, more manageable and more profitable pieces. It segregates the coal into multiple other conveyor belts called coal blasters that allow for the refined coal to be collected by forklifts that then load these onto trains. Though, we’re quite certain that these might just be tractors rather than forklifts, but let’s stick to the game’s terminology.

After being loaded onto the train, you don’t have too much to worry about since this means that the coal has been considered sold to your clients. However, two more facilities remain to be identified by this guide: the office and the auto drill machine.

The office improves your plant’s equipment as well as boosts the sales of every coal yield you load onto the train. Without it, the coal you harvest won’t get to those trains on time.

The auto drill machine, on the other hand, supplements the coal mine with even more coal yield. After shaving off a layer of earth, the machine loads the raw coal onto a conveyor belt that leads to the grinder in the very middle of the plant. The purchase of this machine is worth it as it provides a quicker way to bring coal through your coal blasters. It does start out quite slow, however. In the second coal plant, this machine is replaced by a rotary shaver instead. We’ll talk about these fancy machines individually later on.

Now that we’ve explained how the plant works, you might be developing some ideas on how to iron out the kinks in your production. If you’re still a little bit lost, have no fear and read on. The guide’s not over yet!

3. Upgrade Anything Speed-Related First

Speed might be the most important attribute when it comes to any of your equipment.

In upgrading the drill speed of your drill cars, they should fill up much faster. The trucks that carry the coal from the coal mine onto the conveyor will travel much faster as well and lastly, the forklifts will get the coal to the trains sooner than the client could chastise you for being late (if you have an order at all). You may also opt to tap on your vehicles individually to grant them a small and temporary speed boost.

As much as possible increase the number of vehicles you have. More vehicles means faster yields. While this is more expensive than just increasing the speeds of your vehicles and equipment, it will still greatly help in filling the trains in time. Unfortunately, the orders will pile on with even greater numbers and the requirements will increase in steepness.

This is where our next item comes in — capacity.

4. Capacity Is For Overall Yield

Imagine that you’re trying to put cream or sugar in your coffee. Your spoon is tiny and maneuverable but it will require more movement than having to use a larger spoon. This principle goes well with Coal Mining Inc.

The coal is the sugar or cream and the trains are the coffee. Some orders will require you to fill the trains much more quickly than using speed alone. You’ll eventually need the power of bigger, better containers on your trucks and forklifts. When you feel that speed isn’t enough, start focusing on the capacity of your vehicles. For the drill cars, it’ll allow for trucks to deliver more coal at once.

For side machines like the auto drill and the rotary shaver, capacity allows them to store up more coal at a time. Much like the others, this offers a significant boost in yield so chasing order deadlines will become even easier. Both side machines are valuable assets in the overall efficiency of your plant.

5. Unlock Side Machines For Extra Cash

Both the auto drill and rotary shaver are quite expensive to unlock initially. What you should know is that upon purchasing one or the other, depending on which plant you are currently at, the rate at which you earn your money will dramatically increase. Not only do you have a chain of drill cars and trucks, but you also have some coal coming in from the side.

These side machines, while more focused than your regular pieces of equipment, are quite reliable as you don’t have to pay too much attention to them while you are harvesting your coal. Instead of having to tap vehicles that move about, you can simply buy this automatic marvel and let it hang back. It’s less involved and less stressful.

Now that we’ve covered what you can do to increase the speed and efficiency of your machines, let’s now tackle how you can increase your earnings.

6. Working On The Office Can Greatly Impact Sales

The primary purpose of the office in your coal mining plant is to get you better equipment and implement quality control by increasing the price of the coal you mine.

The office, while smaller than the equipment you have at your plant, is possibly your most important building. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to control the quality and price of your coal as well as order bigger, better vehicles that run about in your plant. Most of your earnings actually come from how much work you put into upgrading your office.

In addition, the office makes special liaisons with high-profile investors who are willing to further fund your mining operations. They only ask you for a bit of your time since entertaining these investors prompts an ad to pop up.

While you can gain huge sums of cash by watching ads, diamonds can also be found out in the open. They are also rewarded to you after completing an order. Where does one spend their diamonds? The next item should tell you.

7. Use Diamonds On Chests And Time Advances

As you play the game, you’ll begin to notice that you’re slowly amassing diamonds. The question is, where should you spend these?

Diamonds are used to buy out Time Advances and chests. It’s these two kinds of items that are recommended for purchase using your hard-earned diamonds.

Firstly, Time Advances. These are mysterious watches that can be used to advance time in the plant. The more expensive the watch, the further in time your plant will be sent. The purpose of these watches is for you to instantly earn larger sums of money (more than those offered by investors), especially when you really want that complete chain of upgrades.

Secondly, you have chests. As they’re called lootboxes in most games, these chests contain manager cards. Upon successfully gaining the indicated number of cards on a manager card, you will have hired that manager. These managers have special passive abilities that improve the performance, efficiency, and sales of your coal mining plant. Without them, you wouldn’t get very far into the game.

Spending your diamonds on these is a great deal, but how can you earn them back?

8. Complete Your Quests And Orders

Like many mobile games today, quests are what give the players a semblance of progress. It’s through this progress that they keep themselves motivated and wanting more of the game. For Coal Mining Inc., quests not only propel you forward, but assist you in the improvement of your overall plant as well.

For example, some quests involve you having to upgrade your facilities to a certain level or making your forklifts or trucks carry more. Upon completing any of these, you get the chance to claim a healthy slew of diamonds. Clearing all quests at once will allow you to claim twice the diamond amount albeit through watching an ad.

To add to your diamond count are orders. Orders are where you get time-limited assignments in an attempt to fill a client’s requirement of coal. This can be started by tapping the icon of a locomotive at the right side of the screen. Once the client’s train arrives, we recommend you boost all your vehicles (through ads) for a speedy and clean finish.

The worst that could possibly happen is that the client will ask why you’re taking so long and thus, asking them for more time will require watching another ad. After completing the order, you may also gain twice the diamond amount by watching another ad.

With all these diamonds, your coal mining plants will sparkle like the stars above. Wait a minute… Let’s talk about those next!

9. Reach For The Stars

It’s a cliché saying to everyone to reach for the stars, but in this game, doing that could open up the opportunity to get a new coal mine.

To gain stars in your coal mine, you have to simply keep upgrading everything. Once you’ve managed to max out a section, that section can be leveled up. In leveling up that section, not only would they look bigger and better, but they could also be upgraded even more until they hit the level cap. Upgrading your equipment fills a tiny bar every time and reaching the next star is always a financial challenge.

After reaching a certain number of stars, you will be able to unlock the next coal mining plant.

10. Open Up The Next Coal Mining Plant

This is it! This is where all your hard work has taken you. You open up a new coal mine and then realize you’re… starting from the bottom?

While this may look unfortunate, a new coal mine means a new adventure for you. You will be able to exercise what knowledge you have gathered from completing the first one and make less mistakes in the long run. As soon as you get in the groove of things, you’ll soon realize how easy the new mine is compared to how you did in the older one.

After all, with everything completed in the first mine, you will no longer have anything to strive for. As they say: “It’s lonely at the top.”

And there’s our haul of wisdom for you for Coal Mining Inc. It’s an industry that shouldn’t be taken for granted and as a game, it allows you to somehow appreciate what goes on where we dig up fossilized plant matter and use it as an energy resource.

Got tips of your own for Coal Mining Inc. or have anything you’d like to point out? Deposit your thoughts in the comments below!