Subterra guide: from starter miner to real crypto

Subterra is a browser mining game: you dig ore in a shared mine, forge it into miners, and your miners earn real crypto (LTC, SOL, XRP, DOGE or TRX) in a pool every minute. It feels slow at first, and there's a good reason. Here's how it works, where the early SUBT really comes from, and how to grow a fleet without spending money.

Why it feels slow at first (and what to do about it)

Here's the honest math. The free starter Copper Miner makes 1,000 H/s. Each pool pays a fixed reward per block, shared by everyone's hashrate, and on Oct 28 the SUBT pool had about 5.45 million H/s in it. One starter miner's share is tiny.

Meanwhile the free Faucet alone pays 10 SUBT every 30 minutes. So early on, your SUBT comes from playing, not mining. The mining side only starts to matter once you've forged a room full of miners. That makes your first goal simple: turn free play into ore and SUBT, and turn those into miners.

Note: 10,000 SUBT is worth $1 on the site.

Your first hour: the free miner

The starter quest on the Dashboard gives you a free Copper Miner, placed and running for you. To finish it:

1. Swing 25 times in the Mine.
2. Claim the Faucet or Quick Faucet 5 times.
3. Win 5 mini-games.
4. Watch 3 ads.

Then open Pools and join one. Your miners only earn while you're in a pool.

A daily routine that adds up

Do the mini-games early: every 5 wins they pay more. Keep your ad blocker off, since ads fund the rewards.

Digging smarter

• You get 10 swings per mine, and a fresh mine opens every 20 minutes. That's the real limit on ore, so drop in whenever you claim the Faucet.
• Ore is spread evenly. There are no richer deep layers, so dig wherever there's open rock.
• Every mine hides one Arcade Lootbox, buried anywhere in the mine. The bar above the mine shows if it's still there.
• A pickaxe's power is the size of each hole, and durability is how many swings it lasts. Buried pickaxes are free upgrades, so grab them (you can hold 3).
• Mine Boosts (+5 swings per mine for 24 hours, 5,000 SUBT) are for later, once SUBT comes easier.

Forging: your first ten miners are free

Three tier-1 miners cost only ore, no SUBT. Build these first and fill the 10 free slots in Room 1:

• Fuse two identical miners into one a level higher with 2.5× the hashrate. Most miners go up to level V; tier 4–5 and season miners stop at level IV. Two 1,000 H/s miners become one 2,500 H/s miner that only takes one slot.
• Short on one ore? The Machine can swap two ores for one random ore of the same tier, or refine a batch of one tier into the tier above.
• Next up are the Silver, Quartz and Nickel Miners (5,500–12,000 H/s), which need tier-2 ore plus 2,000–5,000 SUBT.
• Placed miners share one energy bar that lasts 48 hours. Any visit tops it up, so log in at least every two days.

Choosing a pool

Each pool pays a fixed reward per block, split by hashrate, so your share is your hashrate divided by the pool's total. The Pools page shows "your share if you join" for each one, which makes them easy to compare. You can switch once an hour.

• Pick the coin you actually want to withdraw: LTC, SOL, XRP, DOGE or TRX. The SUBT pool pays the in-game currency instead.
• Split mining lets you mine two pools at once, split by any whole percentage from 1 to 99% (say 70% DOGE and 30% TRX).
• Block Hunter pools pay one winner the whole block every 30 minutes. With a small fleet it's a lottery, so stick with regular pools at first.

Pool rewards change from time to time. On Oct 27 every pool went up by 20–33%.

Cashing out

Withdraw from the Wallet:

• To FaucetPay: LTC, SOL, XRP, DOGE or TRX, sent instantly, from about $0.02, plus a small level bonus.
• To your own wallet: LTC, SOL, XRP or DOGE from $1, with a 2% fee, sent by hand.

Every payout appears on the public Payouts page, and on-chain ones link to the blockchain. SUBT itself can't be withdrawn: crypto can be exchanged into SUBT, but not back.

Things to skip

• The Mines betting game returns 98% on average, so it slowly costs you. Play it only for fun.
• Lootboxes are worth a little less than their price on average.
• The Season Pass ($25) and packs are optional. The free track gives a reward at every level, and you never need to deposit.

Season 2: Colossus (until Nov 17)

The free Season Pass track has 30 levels, with a reward at each. Pass quests (5 daily, 12 weekly) earn the XP. Level 1 gives you a Stone Idol, a 2,000 H/s season miner, so it's worth claiming early. Season items are only sold during their season, and you keep them forever.

My take so far

Subterra is well built and very transparent: a full wiki, public payouts and clear odds on every lootbox. The catch is the slow start. One starter miner barely registers in the pools, so treat the first week as a crafting game: claim, dig, forge, fill Room 1. It's still on my Testing page until my first withdrawal lands.

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