Gold and Goblins Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Find Hidden Gems and Become a Digging Tycoon

In most sources of folklore, goblins are often seen as evil or wicked creatures that look for nothing to do than loot or cause harm to anything that moves. These little, green miscreants have been seen almost everywhere in fantasy pieces, games, and cartoons, but the goblins we’ll be talking about today are quite different.

The goblins we’ll be mentioning here are actually cute little smarties that enjoy nothing more than mining and exploration. These hardworking dudes are out to find the shiniest jewels, the tastiest elixirs, and the most gold. How they get better at mining is through the magic of fusion where they gain better tools and probably bigger muscles. All of these are made possible in today’s game, Gold and Goblins.

From the makers of Idle Light City and Dragon Champions, Gold and Goblins is an idle merger simulation similar to games like Merge Zoo where your wealth is vastly earned while you are offline and progress happens only whilst you play the game.

As it is with most idle merger games, Gold and Goblins is quite challenging since most of your time spent will be trudging through the mines — splitting rocks apart with raw strength or powerful tools or by blowing said rocks to bits and pieces using sticks of dynamite. The essence of this game is patience and only the most patient will see their labor bear fruit.

Have you picked up this game recently but don’t know how to get farther faster? Worry not, dear reader! Read our Gold and Goblins beginner’s guide for some useful tips, tricks and strategies and perhaps you’ll push your goblins through the mines with more efficiency!

1. Ads Will Help

In today’s gaming landscape, ads are nigh inescapable. They’re plastered everywhere we look and, especially in mobile games, every other thing we tap is most likely an ad. They can be quite difficult to deal with sometimes, especially if they cannot be skipped since they ruin our immersion when we play any game. These sentiments shouldn’t be the case when we play Gold and Goblins.

Ads should be viewed in a more optimistic light — see them now as a means to gain more gold, extra stuff like elixirs and additional goblins. Watch these if you wanna open deliveries that come to your mine so you may power up your Gem Mines and the goblins themselves.

ADditionally (pun intended), you can watch these for the prize wheel and to increase your passive income. The gains you receive from watching these ads double and cap at 12 hours. Half a day of earnings will definitely boost your progress forward the next time you get on. When you come back, you’ll be given an extra opportunity to double the rewards through an ad. Of course, if you wanna rid your game of ads, you could send some coin to the developers themselves.

With all talk about ads aside, let’s proceed with how to get through the game itself. We will start with what you should prioritize in leveling up.

2. Level Up Your Forge

The Forge is the heart of your operations.

It produces a steady stream of gold to your mine and, if you haven’t activated any Gem Mines yet, grants you passive income for when you aren’t playing the game. That said, leveling up your Forge might be more important than producing the goblins themselves. While it may not look like much in the beginning, leveling up your Forge will greatly assist your earnings all throughout the game.

Remember what we said about that opportunity of doubling your offline earnings? That’s the Forge mostly doing the heavy lifting. If you didn’t level up your Forge to a high enough level, your earnings won’t be that great even if you’ve got yourself some Gem Mines available. This is why the Forge is one of your most important investments. Expensive? Definitely, but it’s worth the trouble in the long run.

Along with the Forge, there’s another main object of the game that needs to be mentioned…

3. Fire The Cannon When Able

KER-BLAM! Nope, that’s not the sound of dynamite, but the sound of your Cannon!

Your Cannon shoots out only the best weapons to take those pesky rocks out. That’s right, the goblins. From out of the Cannon, goblins are brought into duty but with every shot, the cost increases exponentially.

This shouldn’t stop you from firing it whenever you can afford it (thanks to your earnings from the Forge, of course). The Cannon itself is just as important to you as the Forge is. You may scrimp on your spendings for the upgrades, but never scrimp on your Cannon.

The reason why we suggest that you fire this piece of heavy-duty equipment whenever possible is because you can’t just clear the whole mine quick enough with a single goblin — a single goblin with elite tools and muscle, sure, but not with the ones you start out with.

This is where one of the core game mechanics steps in.

4. Merge Your Goblins (And Dynamite)

Don’t forget, this is an idle merger!

Like most idle mergers, the goblins themselves can be merged. While we don’t know what happens to their consciousnesses, personalities, or even memories, this is how goblins are. They’re born, they’re merged, they become even more powerful every time. Naturally, greater goblins bear greater numbers, and while it isn’t their tools that change, it’s what they wear (for example, they’ll eventually wear helmets after reaching a certain level).

Occasionally, you get these goblins via deliveries if it isn’t from the Cannon. Deliveries are free barrels that come around once in a while and among the many things they possess inside, it could be a new goblin. Normally these goblins are inferior to the goblins you actually fire from the Cannon, but they shouldn’t be excluded at all from your workforce.

Along with the goblins, you’ll sometimes get sticks of dynamite from the deliveries. Dynamite sticks help lessen the time needed to break a rock and if you have multiple dynamite sticks of the same number, these, too, can be merged! Merge them as you would a goblin and you’ve got an even more powerful stick of dynamite. Save these sticks for bigger, badder rocks and you’ll get through your current mine in no time. They might even help the lesser goblins mine the rocks faster.

Just because some of the goblins you get from deliveries aren’t as good as the ones you might currently have doesn’t mean they’re entirely useless. Let’s talk a little bit about them.

5. Can’t Merge? Get Lesser Goblins To Help

Let’s imagine that you have a level 9 goblin and a few others below that. But your deliveries gave you goblins that have levels from 3 to 5. Obviously your level 9’s the hero here and the ones from 3 to 5 aren’t all that great. They won’t be able to cut through any of the rocks ahead of them. Pretty useless, right?

Not really! Consider having these lesser goblins as a blessing more than a burden since you should be able to use these eager little guys to mine lower-leveled rocks. Leave the sturdier rocks for your heavy-duty goblins and the weaker ones for your lesser goblins to work on. It may take more time for them to finish, but at least after you’ve left the game (an important bit of strategy that we’ll talk about later), you’ll come back to see your mine slightly cleaner through the help of teamwork.

This shouldn’t be limited to just mining rocks. The next big thing in any mine are the Gem Mines that you find on the sides.

6. Aim To Unlock Gem Mines First

Like in everyday life, gems are precious stones that exude the air of luxury and refinement. They adorn many things that only rich people could afford. In many mobile games, they’re used as currency, which is why they’re just as important here in Gold and Goblins.

Disappointingly, they aren’t the premium gem currency the game uses, but they’re actual gems that you find in the mine. Amethysts, topazes, opals, agates — these are only a few examples of the gems you may encounter in the game. Their importance in funding your mining operations are just as important to that of the Cannon and the Forge. You’ll be able to spot these mines as soon as you begin the new mine.

Pay attention to the sides; they each have these wooden platforms covered with rocks (which you’ll need the goblins to dig through). Of course getting to these will require some digging yourself, so be sure to cut through the sides first before going down the middle.

After managing to free up the mine from any surrounding rocks, it’s time to de-rock the mine itself. If you’ve got one powerful goblin (accompanied by multiple smaller ones is better), have them work on the mine immediately. Unlocking the mine will grant you more earnings with every delivery it makes through its respective mine cart. You’ll have to be actively playing the game to claim them, though.

Do keep in mind that once a Gem Mine has been unlocked, you can still level these up if you’re in the next level of your current mine. This can be done by scrolling the screen down to the portion where your Gem Mines are. Level them up like normal and you should get a boost in your earnings.

Freeing up the Gem Mines is one thing, but did you know that you don’t have to always be around to pick up the earnings gained from them?

7. Level Up The Mines For Automation

Idle mergers don’t often require stringent hours of gameplay to be successful in them. It’s in their nature that you would take advantage of what happens when you aren’t playing (we’ll talk more about this later). Unlocking the mines as stated in the previous item is a big step forward in your progress, but you won’t be there all the time to pick up the bags of gold (or tokens, if you’re in an event) that come from them. This is where automation comes in.

Automation means that the Gem Mines automatically fund your operations. Ergo, you don’t need to actually be playing the game to claim the currency you gain from them. The huge advantage to this is that the earnings from your Forge will be greatly augmented and after logging back on, you’ll be surprised to probably have reached a number you didn’t think was possible to reach. There is a caveat to automating your Gem Mines, however, and that’s having them be at a certain level.

As you dig through the mine (or visit the shop regularly), you will find chests that have cards in them. These cards are what you need to level up a gem mine. If you’ve saved up enough elixirs, you may use these to select the mines you currently have. For example, in your current mine, the Gem Mines you have unlocked (or can unlock if you haven’t reached them yet) are amethyst and topaz.

If you can afford the upgrade of either, do yourself a favor and power that bad boy up. Eventually, the game will prompt you to automate the gem mine. Patience is key in bringing out the best in these Gem Mines. If you’re successful, you will be swimming in gold up until you fire the cannon a few times. But even then, your goblins will be much more powerful then.

With all your goblins upgraded and your Gem Mines consistently providing you with income, it’s time for the best part of the game.

8. Leave No Stone Unbroken

You can proceed through your mines two ways: either you breeze through them or you take your time digging through the other rocks.

While breezing through the mine is a much easier task to do, it’s actually better to break through every single stone in the mine. That’s right, clear it out before you move on. The logic behind this is that each stone has a secret in them; sometimes they don’t just contain gold. The common stone may sometimes possess a hidden chest, gems (the premium currency) or elixirs needed to level up your mines. This is especially important if you’re not at the final leg of the mine yet.

Think of it this way: to get to the very end, you need to explore every nook and cranny of the current mine you’re in because you might miss out on extra currency, cards, and other stuff that’ll propel you forward. It’s a tedious process, yes, but it may be necessary for anyone playing this game. The game will indeed point out if you missed some things if you breeze through the mine.

The main game is a long, grueling, but rewarding grind. If you want to take a break from it and try something else where you’re at a speedier pace, albeit pressed for time, why not try joining an event?

9. Join Events When Possible

Events in any mobile game are a way for the developers to keep their player base engaged and invested. Oftentimes, they give the player a different setting and a different feel to the game to take their mind off of the game’s main ambiance.

Here in Gold and Goblins, events can range from all sorts of different settings: the goblins set off on an exploration to discover ruins in a jungle, finding mines full of candies and sweets, an elixir flood, and many more. Are you up to, literally, getting to the bottom of this and see how deep the mines go?

Event mines play as normal mines would but they do not share currency. The big difference here is all of your upgrades during the event start from the very beginning. Now, don’t let this surprise frustrate you. Consider this, instead, an opportunity for you to use the knowledge you learned from any mistakes you made in your current mine. You’ll know better how to progress faster through each level of the event.

Aside from the upgrades, you’ll start your earnings from scratch as well. You’ll be earning tokens, not gold. The pressure put on you during these events is time (it only lasts for a few days or a few hours), but getting through each mine as quickly as possible will earn you greater rewards than you normally would during the regular game mode. These rewards aren’t immediately given to you, however, and will require the event to be over before the payout.

Now that all of your goblins are busy trying to break rocks that take hours long and you’re all out of cash, what should you do?

10. Put The Game Down When You’re Out Of Money

You’re stuck. The rocks will take forever to break down, you have no more gold to fund the cannon, you can’t make upgrades, what then? Put the game down and come back later.

Don’t let this feature discourage you from playing the game. Instead, think of it as something to look forward to. Always keep in mind that after watching an ad as soon as you get on, your rewards will be doubled. After painstakingly upgrading your Forge and your Gem Mines, you should be getting tons of gold.

After all, wouldn’t you be proud of your little goblins after they’ve been working so hard to keep the mines operational after you’ve fallen asleep? They work real hard and coming back to them would definitely be more than just a pat on the back.

We cannot stress enough that Gold and Goblins is all about patience. Whichever mine you might be at, it always pays to take your time and earn the most at an easygoing pace. That is, unless you’re gunning for the top during events. Game on and good luck!

Do your goblins perform better? Is there anything we missed? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below!