Crafting and Home Base
You extract loot and Gnomium to upgrade a persistent Home Base across four tiers, starting from the mushroom hut the High-Gnome gives you. Crafted tools such as the Backpack, Smacker, Glue Gloves, and Glider change how you play, and furniture is built from cheap raw materials. A game over collapses your progress back to Day 1, taking home upgrades, stockpiled materials, and crafted gear with it.
In Burglin' Gnomes, you do not merely steal items for abstract monetary value. You extract them to upgrade a persistent Home Base across four tiers.
Gnomium and Crafting
Gnomium is the upgrade currency, and you do not find it lying around a house. The High-Gnome awards it for completing tasks, which is the mechanical reason task completion outranks opportunistic looting: loot funds your gear, but tasks fund your base.
Early extraction of low-value crafting materials is often prioritized over high-value, heavy electronics, since tools are what let you survive demanding maps at all.
Essential Blueprints
- Backpack: Adds two additional inventory slots, easing the encumbrance pressure that defines early runs.
- Smacker: Solid self defense against smaller enemies, and your usual first weapon.
- Glue Gloves: Make your hands just sticky enough to stick to walls, which turns vertical navigation from a gamble into a route.
- Glider: Controlled descent for long drops.
You may see a "Mole Disguise" recommended as a stealth tool. It is not a base-game item. The name comes from a third-party cheat mod, and no amount of crafting will produce one. There is a Mole entity in the game, which is likely where the confusion started.
Home Base Tiers
Your base upgrades through four tiers, each costing Gnomium plus crafted materials:
| Tier | What You Get | Gnomium Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A small but cozy mushroom hut, provided by the High-Gnome | Starting state |
| 2 | An actual hut with a door | 2 |
| 3 | A roof for some safety, and a balcony | 3 |
| 4 | A new side room | 4 |
Furniture
Furniture is cheap, built from raw materials instead of a large currency pool. A Chair costs 1 Grabble, a Table 2 Grabble, an Equipment Stand 2 Grabble and 2 Clonk, and a Gnome Cannon 3 Grabble and 2 Gnomium.
The costs are this small, so furniture is not the progression decision some guides make it out to be. Build what is useful to you, particularly the Equipment Stand for organizing gear, and spend your real planning effort on tools and tier upgrades.
Build Order That Actually Works
The temptation is to chase the flashy traversal tools first. Resist it, because the tools that solve specific maps are worthless until you are running those maps.
A sane progression looks like this:
- Backpack. Encumbrance is the constraint on every early run. Two more slots means fewer trips, and fewer trips means less exposure. Nothing else changes your run economy this much.
- Smacker. Cheap insurance against the threats you cannot avoid.
- Glue Gloves. The moment vertical navigation starts costing you runs, this stops being optional.
- Tier upgrades as Gnomium allows. They come from task completion, so they arrive on the High-Gnome's schedule and never on yours.
- Glider last. Take it when the maps that reward controlled descent are actually in your rotation.
The general principle is to buy the things that improve every run before the things that solve one map.
Material Priority In the Field
The counterintuitive part of the loop is that low-value crafting materials often beat high-value electronics on an early run.
A television is worth a lot and costs you enormous encumbrance, a slow crawl to extraction, and elevated risk the whole way. Crafting materials are light, and they unlock the tools that make every future run faster. Early on, the compounding value of a tool beats the one-time value of a big-ticket item.
Flip that priority once your Home Base is built out. At that point the tools exist, the tiers are unlocked, and heavy electronics become the correct target.
Always prioritize keeping your run alive. A game over sends your progress back to Day 1, taking home upgrades, stockpiled materials, and crafted gear with it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Gnomium used for in Burglin' Gnomes?
Gnomium is the Home Base upgrade currency, and the High-Gnome awards it for completing tasks and never leaves it in houses to find. Tier 2 costs 2 Gnomium, Tier 3 costs 3, and Tier 4 costs 4, each alongside crafted materials.
Should you steal crafting materials or heavy electronics first?
Early extraction of low-value crafting materials is often the better call. Tools are what let you survive the harder maps at all, so getting them online beats hauling heavy electronics on early runs.
How many Home Base tiers are there in Burglin' Gnomes?
Four. You start in a small mushroom hut from the High-Gnome, then upgrade to an actual hut with a door, then add a roof and balcony, and finally a new side room.
Is there a Mole Disguise in Burglin' Gnomes?
No. The Mole Disguise is not a base-game item. The name comes from a third-party cheat mod, though a Mole entity does exist in the game, which is probably where the confusion started.
What happens to your progress if a run ends badly?
A game over collapses your progress back to Day 1, including home upgrades, stockpiled materials, and crafted gear. That is why finishing tasks outranks chasing one more valuable item.
What to Read Next
- Items and Stealing. Hauling the loot that funds Gnomium spending.
- Getting Started. How the quota penalty affects your upgrade pace.
- Solo Operative Guide. Tool priorities when playing alone.
- Tips and Tricks. Where Gnomium comes from, and the item that only exists in a mod.