Ore Heads

Head Office is hiring.

No experience necessary. Pickaxe provided. Hard hat sold separately.

Ore Heads is a cozy co-op mining game for up to 8 players. Come over the sea to the island of Belmora, sign on with Head Office, and dig your way up from Intern Digger to Chairman of the Boulder.

Dig in together

Every mine is one enormous place for your crew to explore and dig out side by side. Swing at the same rock and it breaks faster. Stuck under a ceiling or short of a bridge? Place blocks wherever you need them, and fill your backpack as you go.

When the shift ends, Head Office sets off the Blast. Everyone inside is carted back to the Mine Station with their haul, the ore moves, and the mine is full again for the next shift.

Seven mines, each stranger than the last

Every mine leaves the Mine Station on its own line, and Head Office opens the next as you level up.

• The Gallery: timbered drives and the first copper

• The Shaft: one huge drop to black water, and a ramp down its wall

• The Geode: a hollow of crystal, with great spikes in a shallow pool

• The Frozen Lake: a cavern of ice over a lake frozen to the bottom

• The Caldera: plank bridges between stacks of basalt over a lake of lava

• The Buried City: streets, houses and a temple nobody at Head Office will discuss

• The Heart: you'll know it when you see it

Ten tiers of tools stand between you and the deepest ore, from a wooden pick to Heartvein, so put your wages into sharper picks, bigger backpacks and hard hats that dig faster.

Volunteer for an expedition

From Level 20, the Department of Unusual Excavations sends crews of up to four below the mines, into dungeons laid out anew every run. Dash, guard, parry and swing your way through their creatures to the boss waiting at the end, on a difficulty from Routine to Strongly Discouraged. Come back with artifacts, rolled gear, armor and pages of a story Head Office would rather you didn't read.

Expeditions are where the danger is, and you choose when to go. The town, your plot and the mines stay safe.

Sell it, or make something of it

The Ore Buyer pays cash for your haul. Or take it home: smelt ingots, cut stone, saw planks and more at your own workstations, which keep working while you're away. Procedure manuals turn up in the rock now and then and teach you new recipes. Head Office calls this training.

Build your own place

Every miner gets a cabin on their own patch of the island, and more land to buy as they go. Build block by block in plaster, timber, brick, stone, glass and roof tiles, cut into stairs, slopes and slabs. Add chests, workstations, lamps and doors, fell the trees or keep them, and grow crops to cook on the Stove. Your plot and your progress come with you into any friend's game.

Keep yourself going

Keep an eye on your health, hunger and stamina. Hunger never hurts, it only slows you down, so stop and eat with your crew. Cook meals, brew potions and take them with you.

Climb the company ladder

Earn XP as you dig, craft and fight, from Level 1 all the way to 100. Head Office hands out a new title every ten levels, and levels open new tools, blocks, recipes, looks and mines. The townsfolk have favors to ask, and a few of them know more than they let on.

Dress for the job

Over 100 looks for your Square Head: mining helmets, flat caps, top hats, hi-vis vests, monocles, beards and full Legendary sets. Buy them at the Outfitter, earn them as you level up, or dig up pages torn from the staff catalog.

A cozy little island

Day turns to night, storms roll in and rain drums on the roof over your head. The town has shops to browse, a Head Office to report to, a sea to swim in and Square Heads who will happily babble at you.

Some say the mountain goes deeper than Head Office's maps. Head Office says not to ask.

The fine print

• Co-op for up to 8 players: host a public game or keep it to friends

• Play solo whenever you like

• Fast travel between the places you've found

• First or third person, switch any time

• Mouse and keyboard or controller

Head Office thanks you for your continued excavation.