Guide
The Deeps mining guide
The Deeps is the idle mining game inside Cromon Quest, the creature-collection RPG on Cronos, and mining it well comes down to four decisions. Who digs: a Cromon mines at full rate while a free robot loses 40%. Where they dig: deeper lanes produce far more ore but demand higher total stats. Whether the lane is typed: a matching element earns +15%, a wrong one loses 33%, and robots lose 50% there. And when you check in: away production runs at half speed and banks up to 6 hours per absence. The payoff is Cromite, a permanent stat boost of up to +10 per stat that follows your Cromons into every battle. This guide covers the routes to it.
Cromon or robot on a lane?
A Cromon whenever you can spare one. Robots are free and skip the stat gate, but they dig 40% slower on a normal lane and 50% slower on a typed one, and they never earn the type bonus. Even a wrong-element Cromon (-33%) out-digs a robot on a typed lane. Robots are still the right call for lanes you cannot staff yet, and for holding a lane while your Cromons fight in the Arena: a mining Cromon is busy everywhere else.
How do typed lanes work?
A few lanes in every mine carry an element, shown on the lane and in the assign screen. Match it and the Cromon digs +15% faster; mismatch it and the lane takes a -33% penalty, flagged with a red badge. The practical rule: keep one solid Cromon of each element you meet often, and route your strongest off-type Cromons to the neutral lanes where no penalty applies. The types guide lists every element.
Deeper mines add two twists. Contested lanes are invaded by a hostile element and mine at -50% until you staff them with a Cromon of the mine's own element, which cleanses the malus. Linked twin lanes come as a framed pair: they want exactly two identical Cromons (two copies of the same species, two Voltrick say), one on each lane, for +15% each; a mismatched, robot-staffed or half-empty pair takes -30% instead (a robot is capped at -50%). Both are opt-in flourishes on the biggest mines, so most lanes stay simple.
What is the fastest route to Cromite?
Progress, then routine. Milestones pay first: every lane you buy and every obstacle you break grants Cromite, and completing a mine pays a lump sum. After completion the mine turns into a routine payer: keep enough real Cromons digging for 10 hours in a day and the daily quest pays bonus Cromite, bigger in the bigger mines. The 7 mines unlock in a chain, each one free to open once the previous is complete, so the long game is pushing the chain while your completed mines pay daily.
What should I spend ore on first?
Lanes before levels, and never let the chain bottleneck. A new lane adds a whole digger; levels make one lane faster, with a second miner joining automatically at lane level 50. Ore also breaks the timed obstacles that gate deeper batches (from 1 hour up to 24 for the deepest, skippable with CroCoin), and it upgrades the elevator and factory: if lanes out-produce that chain, the surplus is wasted, so keep them in step. Then spend the Cromite you earn where it pays twice: on the Cromons that both dig and fight, since boosts persist through fusion.
Send them digging
Free to start: connect your wallet, receive three starter Cromons and open your first lane in Fire Gorge.