Scientists

Scientist access booth

Scientists allows you to send them on excavation missions for rewards such as minerals or relics. This feature unlocks once you reach 50km and open the next basic chest you get (it grants you a scientist).

Scientists can be sent on missions through the scientist interface. The interface is accessed by clicking on the miner in the booth on a pile of dirt at the top of the mine, or on the sidebar, or by doing the keyboard shortcut Shift+S.

Scientist mission and relic interface (outdated)

Scientist mission and relic interface (new version)

The scientist interface has four tabs, three for your scientists and one for your relics. It is not possible to have more than three active scientists, and you will not be awarded additional scientists if you have three active already. The only ways to get rid of scientists are for them to be killed during a mission, or by sacrificing them to the Core at 501km (don't worry, it's very easy).

How to get them

From Chests

The first basic chest you open after reaching 50 km will give you your first scientist. After that, if you have a "slot" free, the chances for getting scientists are:

• 3/80 if you have none
• 2/80 if you have one scientists
• 1/80 if you have two scientists
• 0/80 if you have three scientists

From excavation

You can get "New Contract" as a possible prize for excavation. This will only happen if you have a slot free. This is not usually recommended, since they are dangerous missions and you are more likely to lose the searching scientist than getting the new one. You also might get a scientist from a basic chest while you are waiting for the excavation to complete.

From caves

You can get a scientist scroll, as an item, from caves. You can get them even if you already have three scientists, and there is no limit to the number of scrolls you may keep on the Caves inventory. If you click a scientist scroll when having all of your scientists active, one of them at random will receive bonus XP. This can help you with the quest to get one to level 30.

Rewards

A scientist's excavation can give any of these rewards. Higher rarity means it will appear less often. When the image shows "???" (Unknown), this means you won't know the reward until you complete it. This happens around 1/3 of the time. There is a shop purchase for 50 tickets (Illuminating Crown) that reveals the image of these previously unknown rewards, however hovering over the image still gives the ??? message.

Since there are a lot of rewards, and many (most, in the middle to late game) are not worth the risk of death, these missions should be better avoided, if possible, unless probability of death is very low (ideally 0%).

v0.40 note

Scientists can get a minimum of 2 Super Miners souls from an excavation, the amount scales with scientist rarity and level. Difficulty appears on par with tickets.

v0.44 note

You can now buy an extra upgrade from the garage called Illuminating Crown in exchange for 50 tickets that allows you to view hidden excavations, meaning that "???" missions no longer appear.

Reward	Description	Rarity
Endless Miner Speed Potion	Relics	.55
Golden Shovel	Relics	.56
Key of Luck	Relics	.71
Sword of War	Relics	.5
Basic Chest	Treasure chests	.10
Golden Chest	Treasure chests	.92
2x Tickets	2 Tickets	.67
Large bag of money	Some large sum of money	.35
Small bag of money	Some small sum of money	.10
Big Cheese	Double all current minerals in inventory, limit 1x your capacity (note: this can only be a possible reward with the condition of having less than 14 days worth of your last 3 unlocked minerals)	.94
The Golden Pike	Relics	.97
New Contract	Unlocks another scientist (not available if you have 3 scientists)	.57
Endless Scientist Experience Potion	Relics	.75
Key of Gold	Relics	.91
Relic Bag	Increases max relic slots by 1 (note: this is no longer available as of update 0.44)	.72
Medium bag of Money	Some amount of money	.20
Small Mineral Pile	Small Amount of Minerals	0
Medium Mineral Pile	Medium Amount of Minerals	.20
Large Mineral Pile	Large Amount of Minerals	.12
Endless Drill Speed Potion	Relics	.70
Sparkly Distraction	Relics	.60
Book of Success	Relics	.90
Steel Shield	Relics	.55
Light Golden Boots	Relics	.55
Golden Scythe	Relics	.80
Endless Gem Speed Potion	Relics	.55
Book of Ingenuity	Relics	.65
Midas Touch	Relics	.85
Elemental Pike	Relics	.85
Nugget of Attraction	Relics	.70
Book of Time	Relics	.65
Wider Well	Relics	.50
Unlock a New Weapon	Unlocks a new battle weapon	.50
Pay Cut	Relics	.45
Oil	25% of your maximum amount of oil upon completion.	.40
Wooden Shield	Relics	.42
Copper Scythe	Relics	.65
Scythe	Relics	.40
Copper Pike	Relics	.90
Light Boot	Relics	.40
1 Ticket	1 Ticket	.45
Carrot of Time	Scales with scientist's level with base reward 6 minutes	.22
Strawberry of Time	Scales with scientist's level with base reward 12 minutes	.3
Banana of Time	Scales with scientist's level with base reward 3.5 minutes	.05
Chocolate of Time	Scales with scientist's level with base reward 16 minutes	.45
Book of Secrets	Relics	.94
1km Depth	Gain 1km depth (only available until km 600)	.55
Sack of Endurance	Relics	.50
Cargo Expansion	Relics	.40
Bullseye	Relics	.30
Eagle Eye	Relics	.45
Golden Bow	Relics	.70
Egg of Incubation	Relics	.75
Pile of Building Materials	2 Building Materials	.18
Stack of Building Materials	10 Building Materials (only available until km 600)	.49
Super Miner Souls	X Super Miner Souls	.45

Scientists table

There are 17 different scientists

• Although each one has their own name, all stats are common for a certain rarity. So in fact there are only 4 functional types of scientists, with their chances to come up: Common (53%), Uncommon (21%). Rare (16%), and Legendary (10%)
• Rarity, % reduction and XP multiplier go hand in hand: Higher rarities apply a reduction of the % chance of death for each excavation, allowing them to last longer. They also get more XP from excavations, allowing them to level up faster.
• Also, when the time comes for a scientist to die, the higher rarities roll on the RNG (Random Number Generator) not once, but multiple times. Thus they can be saved even from death.
• The level of the scientist affects to the speed (time required) for the mission, and increases the amount of rewards for mineral piles, souls, money bags, and timelapses, and does NOT affect the chance of death.

Name	Rarity	% reduction	chance to get	exp multiplier	amount of RNG rolls
Jank	Common	0%	2/19(10.5%)	1	1
Mrs. Marge	Common	0%	1/19(5.2%)	1	1
Taylor	Common	0%	1/19(5.2%)	1	1
Ziggy	Common	0%	2/19(10.5%)	1	1
The Aussie	Common	0%	1/19(5.2%)	1	1
Lt. Ramirez	Common	0%	1/19(5.2%)	1	1
Layla	Common	0%	1/19(5.2%)	1	1
Dennis	Common	0%	1/19(5.2%)	1	1
Dallas	Uncommon	10%	1/19(5.2%)	1.1	1
Ernie	Uncommon	10%	1/19(5.2%)	1.1	1
Dr. Gilbert	Uncommon	10%	1/19(5.2%)	1.1	1
Dr. Franduzle	Uncommon	10%	1/19(5.2%)	1.1	1
Mr. Mustache	Rare	25%	1/19(5.2%)	1.25	2
Mr. Mustachio	Rare	25%	1/19(5.2%)	1.25	2
Professor Zany	Rare	25%	1/19(5.2%)	1.25	2
Dr. Archibald	Legendary	55%	1/19(5.2%)	1.55	4
James The BEAR	Legendary	55%	1/19(5.2%)	1.55	4

On death

It happens. In fact, scientist are commonly considered expendable. When (not if) the inevitable happens and your scientist dies:

Time of death

Although the result for an excavation (success or death) is determined by the game at the start of the excavation, you won't discover it until the end. That is, a scientist can die at any moment of a doomed excavation. This can be 2 seconds from the start, or 1 second from the end, doesn't matter. You cannot do anything. Don't count your rewards until excavation is complete.

Resurrection

On death, scientists can automatically resurrect. There are three relics (Scythe, Copper Scythe and Golden Scythe) that give you a % of instant scientist resurrection. Even if you have no Scythes relics, there is a base chance of 1% of this happening.

If they are not automatically resurrected, you may bury or resurrect them with tickets. Burying them is free, usually the best option, and there are even quests for that. Resurrecting them costs tickets proportional to the level of the scientist (so, the ones you want to keep are the most expensive, the amount of tickets is equal to $\sqrt[4]{(level^3)}$ which is then rounded to the nearest integer). This should be done sparingly if at all (e.g. keeping a Legendary scientist who died at lv1, which may cost 1 or 2 tickets, is acceptable).

Resurrection cost used to be also linked to the % reduction of death (a legendary, 55% reduction, costed 55% more to revive). This was removed on v0.40.

Here below is a table of the ticket cost to revive a scientist with tickets from levels 1 to 100 (max)

level	cost	level	cost	level	cost	level	cost
1	1	26	12	51	19	76	26
2	2	27	12	52	19	77	26
3	2	28	12	53	20	78	26
4	3	29	12	54	20	79	26
5	3	30	13	55	20	80	27
6	4	31	13	56	20	81	27
7	4	32	13	57	21	82	27
8	5	33	14	58	21	83	27
9	5	34	14	59	21	84	28
10	6	35	14	60	22	85	28
11	6	36	15	61	22	86	28
12	6	37	15	62	22	87	28
13	7	38	15	63	22	88	29
14	7	39	16	64	23	89	29
15	8	40	16	65	23	90	29
16	8	41	16	66	23	91	29
17	8	42	16	67	23	92	30
18	9	43	17	68	24	93	30
19	9	44	17	69	24	94	30
20	9	45	17	70	24	95	30
21	10	46	18	71	24	96	31
22	10	47	18	72	25	97	31
23	11	48	18	73	25	98	31
24	11	49	19	74	25	99	31
25	11	50	19	75	25	100	32

Immortal scientists

A combination of Warped Scientist (see below) plus Scythe relics allows a scientist to cheat death (almost) forever. However, scientist death calculations have a couple of twists on the rounding of the RNG rolls, and there is always a (very) small probability of death. It's commonly admitted, however, that there are better uses both for the relic slots and for the Books of Secrets needed for this strategy.

As of v0.44 with the change to Scythe relics only having a maximum effect of 80%, this strategy is less viable, and it takes considerable ticket investment to keep scientists alive.

Death reasons

When a scientist dies, 1 of 15 death reasons can be displayed. The table below lists these reasons. This is only flavor text and does not affect gameplay in any way.

Death reason
Fell off the side of the mine
Ate some expired meat
Was too close to live explosives
Discovered boron is not edible
Returned to the periodic table
Should have studied safety first
Now weighs 21 grams less
Studied explosive drills to conclusion
Invented hover boots - never seen again
Victim of a cave-in
Victim of Methane Asphyxia
Victim of a Methane Explosion
Carbon Dioxide Suffocation
Long Term Hydrogen Sulfide Exposure
Was Electrocuted
Decided to Explore Without You

Warped scientists

When you sacrifice a Scientist to The Core, (yes, you can do it, there is even a quest for that), if the Core is Warped (blue) you may get back a Warped scentist (there is another quest for that, see if you can do both at the same time). These scientists have a higher rarity, and thus lower death chance, more RNG rolls, etc. The probability is just 50%, though. You can of course reattempt to warp them, but you will have to resurrect them first.

The Warped Scientist is always received at level 1, no matter the level of the original Scientist.

You can also use a Divine core, but it is a waste of a Book of Secrets since there are no Divine scientist, so if you really need to do it (mostly for the quest), use just a Warped (blue) core.

• Common and uncommon turn into Warped, equivalent to a common Rare
• Rare turn into Warped+, slightly better than a common Legendary
• Legendary turn into Warped++, which are the best ones, but still aren't immune to death.

Name	Rarity	% reduction	upgrade chance	exp multiplier	amount of RNG rolls
Jank	Warped	25%	50%	1.25	2
Mrs. Marge	Warped	25%	50%	1.25	2
Taylor	Warped	75%	50%	1.75	2
Ziggy	Warped	25%	50%	1.25	2
The Aussie	Warped	25%	50%	1.25	2
Lt. Ramirez	Warped	25%	50%	1.25	2
Layla	Warped	25%	50%	1.25	2
Dennis	Warped	25%	50%	1.25	2
Dallas	Warped	32.5%	50%	1.325	2
Ernie	Warped	32.5%	50%	1.325	2
Dr. Gilbert	Warped	32.5%	50%	1.325	2
Dr. Franduzle	Warped	32.5%	50%	1.325	2
Mr. Mustache	Warped+	60%	50%	1.6	3
Mr. Mustachio	Warped+	60%	50%	1.6	3
Professor Zany	Warped+	60%	50%	1.6	3
Dr. Archibald	Warped++	70%	50%	1.7	5
James The BEAR	Warped++	70%	50%	1.7	5

here is the overview for the reductions for each rarity

rarity	reduction(from source code)	reduction(as remaining %)
common	1	100%
warped common	0.75	75%
uncommon	0.90	90%
warped uncommon	0.675	67.5%
rare	0.75	75%
warped rare	0.40	40%
legendary	0.45	45%
warped legendary	0.30	30%

and here is how the death chance works

this is the functions/formula it uses to get the death chance

here are the keys

• death_chance = original death chance without any reductions (this number could be say 70%, in that case the game will use the value 70)
• sci_Redu = the rarity's number is shown in the table above
• BoS% = the amount of percentage points you have in books of success

round(death_chance*sci_Redu)*(1-BoS%)

Time to level up

This table shows the amount of time that would take a scientist to reach a certain level, provided it doesn't die in the process.

level	time(hours)	total overall(hours)
1	2.0	2.0
2	2.1	4.1
3	2.2	6.3
4	2.3	8.6
5	2.4	10.9
6	2.5	13.4
7	2.6	16.0
8	2.7	18.8
9	2.8	21.6
10	3.0	24.6
11	3.1	27.7
12	3.2	30.9
13	3.4	34.3
14	3.5	37.9
15	3.7	41.6
16	3.9	45.4
17	4.0	49.5
18	4.2	53.7
19	4.4	58.1
20	4.6	62.7
21	4.8	67.6
22	5.0	72.6
23	5.3	77.9
24	5.5	83.4
25	5.8	89.1
26	6.0	95.1
27	6.3	101.4
28	6.6	108.0
29	6.9	114.8
30	7.2	122.0
31	7.5	129.5
32	7.8	137.3
33	8.2	145.5
34	8.5	154.1
35	8.9	163.0
36	9.3	172.3
37	9.8	182.1
38	10.2	192.3
39	10.7	202.9
40	11.1	214.1
41	11.6	225.7
42	12.2	237.8
43	12.7	250.6
44	13.3	263.8
45	13.9	277.7
46	14.5	292.2
47	15.1	307.3
48	15.8	323.2
49	16.5	339.7
50	17.3	357.0
51	18.1	375.1
52	18.9	393.9
53	19.7	413.7
54	20.6	434.3
55	21.5	455.8
56	22.5	478.3
57	23.5	501.9
58	24.6	526.5
59	25.7	552.1
60	26.8	579.0
61	28.1	607.1
62	29.3	636.4
63	30.6	667.0
64	32.0	699.0
65	33.5	732.5
66	35.0	767.4
67	36.5	804.0
68	38.2	842.2
69	39.9	882.0
70	41.7	923.7
71	43.6	967.3
72	45.5	1012.8
73	47.6	1060.4
74	49.7	1110.1
75	52.0	1162.1
76	54.3	1216.4
77	56.7	1273.1
78	59.3	1332.4
79	62.0	1394.4
80	64.7	1459.1
81	67.7	1526.8
82	70.7	1597.5
83	73.9	1671.4
84	77.2	1748.6
85	80.7	1829.3
86	84.3	1913.6
87	88.1	2001.7
88	92.1	2093.8
89	96.2	2190.0
90	100.5	2290.5
91	105.1	2395.6
92	109.8	2505.4
93	114.7	2620.2
94	119.9	2740.1
95	125.3	2865.4
96	130.9	2996.3
97	136.8	3133.1
98	143.0	3276.1
99	149.4	3425.6
100	156.2	3581.7