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Getting Started in CastleMiner Z

By ScotUpdated

Tactical Quick Answer

To survive your first days in CastleMiner Z, gather at least 20 wood from the Forest biome, craft a basic pickaxe, and mine straight down to escape the night waves. Skip Copper tools entirely and rush iron, then gold, which is the cheapest pickaxe that mines diamond. Build a sealed safehouse with a roof before dark, and craft a shotgun or assault rifle instead of relying on melee.

Surviving your first few days in CastleMiner Z requires quick resource gathering and a solid defense strategy. The game drops you into a hostile world where enemies spawn constantly. You need to gather materials, craft weapons, and build a safehouse before night falls.

Gathering Early Resources​

Your very first priority is collecting wood. Trees grow in the Forest and Elevated Forest biomes, so chop down the nearest ones and gather at least 20 blocks. This gives you enough material to craft basic tools and a starting weapon.

warning

Trees never regrow. Logs are a genuinely finite resource in any given area, so do not burn wood on things stone can do. The world does repeat as you travel, meaning Forest biomes reappear far out past Hell, but that is a long walk and not a renewable supply next door.

Once you have enough wood, open your crafting menu and make a basic pickaxe. Use this to mine straight down into the earth. The surface level is dangerous at night. Mining down keeps you safe from the initial wave of surface enemies and lets you gather essential ores.

Look for coal and iron as you mine downward. You need these materials to move past the early game. Coal powers your furnaces and iron is the foundation for your first real weapons and tools.

tip

Always keep your essential gear in your hotbar. Items in your hotbar stay with you if you die, while your main inventory drops on the ground.

Upgrading Your Tools​

Basic wooden and stone tools break quickly. Your goal is to craft an iron pickaxe as fast as possible.

  1. Mine iron ore and coal.
  2. Build a furnace to smelt the iron ore into ingots.
  3. Craft the iron pickaxe at your crafting station.

An iron pickaxe gets you to gold, and a gold pickaxe is the cheapest tool that can mine diamond. From there a diamond pickaxe unlocks bloodstone. Do not waste high tier picks on dirt or stone when a lower tool will do, since durability is finite at every tier.

The Copper Trap​

Copper is the first ore you find, but do not craft Copper tools. Copper pickaxes and weapons degrade so fast that you spend more time replacing them than actually progressing. Skip Copper tools entirely and push straight to Iron. Save all your Copper for crafting ammunition instead. Bullets are the best use of Copper in the game.

Building a Safehouse​

Nighttime brings aggressive zombies and dangerous flying enemies. Staying out in the open is a quick way to lose your inventory. You need a safehouse to survive the night.

Your building material choices depend on your difficulty setting. Dragons only destroy terrain on hard difficulty and in Endurance, so on Easy and Normal a basic stone or sand shelter keeps you safe. On Hard, dragon fireballs obliterate sand, dirt, wood, leaves, and standard rock on impact, and you need to dig underground until you can craft blast-proof walls.

warning

On Hard mode the dragon-resistant materials are Diamond Walls, Bulletproof Glass, Bloodstone, Space Rock, and Space Goo. Note that this means the crafted Diamond Wall, not raw diamond ore, and the two are easy to mix up.

As you progress, upgrade your base to Bloodstone or Diamond Walls. Bloodstone holds up even against the Undead Dragon, so it is a perfectly good long-term material and not a compromise. Make sure your base has a roof and a secure entrance, since enemies swarm any opening they find. Going underground is also a legitimate answer at any tier: zombies do not spawn underground and skeletons cannot break blocks.

Basic Defense Strategy​

Craft a shotgun or an assault rifle as soon as you have the materials. Melee combat is risky and drains your health quickly. A shotgun easily handles early game zombies at close range.

If you see a dragon early in the game, run and hide. You do not have the firepower to kill a dragon with basic iron weapons. The ammunition cost alone makes the fight a waste of resources. Get underground or behind blast-proof walls and wait for the dragon to leave the area.

Inventory Tips​

The game does not explain its inventory controls well. Right-click on any item stack to split it in half. Keep right-clicking before you place the items down to drop them one at a time. This is critical for sharing ammunition and resources with teammates in co-op.

Items in your hotbar stay with you when you die, while your main inventory drops on the ground, so always keep your best weapon, your pickaxe, and a stack of ammunition in hotbar slots. On Hardcore difficulty this protection does not apply and you lose the hotbar as well.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What should I do first in CastleMiner Z?

Collect wood from the trees in the Forest biome. Gather at least 20 blocks, then craft a basic pickaxe and mine down to gather coal and iron. Trees never regrow, so take more than you think you need.

Do I lose my items when I die?

Items in your hotbar stay with you and your main inventory drops on the ground, so keep your best weapon, pickaxe, and ammunition in hotbar slots. Hardcore difficulty is the exception, where you lose the hotbar too.

Should I craft Copper tools?

No. Copper pickaxes and weapons degrade so fast that you spend more time replacing them than progressing. Save your Copper for crafting ammunition and push straight to Iron.

What blocks survive dragon fire on Hard mode?

Diamond Walls, Bulletproof Glass, Bloodstone, Space Rock, and Space Goo. That means the crafted Diamond Wall, not raw diamond ore. Bloodstone resists even the Undead Dragon, so it is a solid long-term choice.

Can I run out of wood?

In a given area, yes. Trees never regrow, so logs are finite where you are standing. Forest biomes do reappear as you travel outward because the world repeats, but that is a long expedition and not a nearby resupply.