Dome Keeper Assessor Guide: Sphere Mining and Upgrades

To play the Assessor effectively in Dome Keeper, replace standard drilling routines with ricocheting kinetic spheres and gravity-bundled hauling. Launch spheres into tight corners rather than open spaces to maximize block impacts, and invest early in sphere damage upgrades before reaching harder rock strata.

Core Assessor Mechanics

The Assessor replaces direct drills with kinetic energy spheres. When launched into rock, a sphere ricochets off surfaces and deals impact damage to adjacent tiles until its momentum or bounce limit expires. The suit can also deflect active spheres to redirect them and sustain their lifespan.

For resource transport, the Assessor uses gravity bundling rather than dragging minerals individually. Loose iron, water, and cobalt can be compressed into a single orb and launched directly up vertical shafts toward the dome intake.

Excavation Angles and Shaft Setup

Early-cycle efficiency determines whether your economy keeps pace with incoming waves. Use these steps to establish your mine layout:

1. Establish a central drop shaft: Dig a single vertical chute directly underneath the dome. Launching spheres straight down bounces them between the narrow walls, clearing a deep transit path quickly.
2. Target 90-degree corners: Never fire spheres into wide, open caverns where they dissipate without hitting walls. Aim into narrow exploratory cuts to maximize the number of collisions.
3. Puncture side pockets for veins: When you encounter an iron or cobalt vein, cut a narrow entryway into the deposit and fire horizontally. The sphere will rattle rapidly within the enclosed space to shatter the entire vein.
4. Use suit deflection as a paddle: Position your suit to intercept returning spheres. Deflecting an active projectile resets its momentum and keeps it drilling into stubborn deposits.

Sphere Upgrade Priorities

Rock durability increases significantly in deeper strata. Base-level kinetic spheres lose momentum quickly against reinforced stone, making targeted tech upgrades essential.

• Sphere Damage and Hardness Penetration: Buy this first. High base damage allows spheres to shatter medium and hard rock layers before their rebound charges deplete.
• Additional Sphere Capacity: Adding more active spheres allows you to excavate exploratory probes in multiple directions simultaneously.
• Sphere Lifetime and Rebound Count: Increasing maximum bounces keeps projectiles working longer inside hollowed-out chambers to clean up remaining blocks.
• Deflection Boost: Upgrades that strengthen suit deflection allow you to trap spheres against hard walls and break high-density blocks rapidly.
• Bundle Retention and Launch Power: Upgrading your bundle ensures heavy loads reach the top of the shaft without dropping loose ore along the way.

Hauling Logistics and Defense Timing

Because you can launch bundled minerals directly to the surface, you do not need to drag hauls manually. However, bundles are subject to gravity and collision physics. Keep your central vertical highway wide and straight; catching a jagged ledge halfway up stalls the haul and forces you to fly up to re-launch it.

Manage your mining cycles using the wave progress meter at the top of the screen:

1. Dig and harvest until the wave meter reaches roughly three-quarters full.
2. Bundle all loose iron, cobalt, and water into a single orb.
3. Position yourself directly beneath the clear vertical shaft and launch the bundle upward.
4. Ascend immediately behind the bundle to man dome defenses.

Allocate your early iron between suit mining tech and essential base survival. Invest in baseline dome shields, laser or weapon tracking speed, and primary offensive power so enemy swarms do not breach the dome while you work deep underground.