Prospectors is a play to earn strategy game that allows players to take on the role of a gold-mining entrepreneur. It features freely tradable resources and plots of land whose deposits are recorded on the blockchain.
We’ve created an account with Prospectors and learned how to play. In this article, we’ll report on what we’ve discovered. We’ll explain workers, resources, materials, tools, transportation, job orders, and more. We’ll also briefly discuss what we think of the game after having played it.
If you’re wondering whether Prospectors is the right game for you, read on to find out all of the details you need to make the right decision.
Prospectors Gameplay
Prospectors is a classic “idle” game.
The player sends his worker off to do tasks; orders a building to be built, mine to be constructed, tools to be manufactured. The player then leaves the game and does something else with his time. When he comes back, the building is built, gold is being mined, or tools are available to be used.
But issuing orders is easy. The difficult part is to be profitable.
In Prospectors, being profitable is important – because unlike most idle games, players can earn real cryptocurrency for playing the game. Players can spend crypto on the game as well. So using a losing strategy can cost more than just wasted time.
Whether a strategy is successful or not depends on how it manages the basic gameplay mechanics of Prospectors. This section will explain those mechanics.
Gold and PGL
The object of the game of Prospectors is to earn gold. The more gold a player earns, the more he can be judged to have “won” at the game.
Gold can be converted into a crypto token called Prospectors Gold (PGL). There is both a WAX and EOS version of this token. There is also an old Ethereum version that was used for fundraising in the past.
PGL (WAX) and PGL (EOS) can be converted back and forth to each other at a 1:1 ratio using a migration tool provided by the developer.
PGL (Ethereum) can also be converted into PGL (EOS) at a 1:1 ratio, although this is a one-way transaction.
In addition to earning gold within the game and converting it into PGL, players can also convert PGL held in their wallets into in-game gold. This means that players can buy gold from other players as well as earn it within the game.
Game map and plots
All of the action in Prospectors takes place on the in-game map. This map is made up of squares called plots.
Any player can mouse over a plot to see if it contains stone or wood. If a plot has been explored at some point in the past, players can also mouse over it to see if it contains underground resources such as gold, iron ore, clay, or coal.
If a plot is unexplored, the player will have to explore it first to see whether it has underground resources.
Free, rented, and blocked plots
If a plot has not yet been rented by any player or has recently become unblocked, the plot is considered free. Any player can mine from a free plot, but no player can construct a building on one.
If a player wants to have exclusive rights to the resources on a plot, he can rent it. This not only allows the player to prevent others from gaining the resources, it also allows him to build structures and store materials on it.
If a player doesn’t pay the rent for his plot, it will become blocked for a period of time. During this time, the player will be able to move his belongings off the plot. At the end of this period, the player’s remaining belongings on the plot will be auctioned off.
After this, the plot will become free once again.
Workers
Each player has three workers.
There is no way for a player to increase the number of workers he has under his control. However, he can hire workers controlled by other players.
Each worker has three equipment slots and a backpack to carry items. Workers can be ordered to mine resources, construct buildings, manufacture tools, transport goods, or perform jobs for other players in exchange for gold.
Buildings
As with RTS games like Warcraft and Starcraft, much of Prospectors gameplay revolves around building structures to speed up production.
Construction of each of these buildings requires 31 days of time and a combination of one or more of the following resources or materials: wood boards, wood girders, nails, stone, clay bricks, or clay tiles.
Here is a list of the buildings available.
Gold mine – Allows 6 workers to mine from a gold deposit simultaneously instead of just one.
Iron ore quarry – Allows 6 workers to mine iron ore simultaneously and multiplies each one’s productivity by 4.
Clay quarry – Lets 6 workers mine clay at a 4x faster speed.
Coal mine – Lets 6 workers mine 1 coal deposit at 4x speed.
Stone workshop – Produces blocks and plates from stone.
Iron furnace – Produces steel plates, steel blocks, and nails.
Brickyard – Turns clay into brick and tile.
Sawmill – Workers can use this to manufacture wooden boards, girders, and wooden handles.
Tool workshop – Workers can produce a wide variety of tools with this building; hammers, shovels, axes, pans, and more.
Cart factory – This building can be used to produce carts and wagons to transport materials.
Resources and materials
To build structures, tools, and transports, workers need a variety of resources that can be mined from deposits. These resources include gold, wood, stone, coal, clay, and ore.
Once these resources are mined, they can be turned into materials such as stone blocks, stone plates, wood beams, clay tiles, steel plates, nails, cart bodies, wagon wheels, and other useful parts and pieces.
Tools
If a worker doesn’t have any tools, he can still explore plots, mine resources other than gold, and carry objects. However, most mining operations will be faster if the worker is equipped with a proper tool.
A worker cannot mine gold unless he has both a pickaxe and gold pan equipped. Construction also cannot be done without tools.
There are eight tools available in Prospectors: the shovel, spade, pickaxe, hammer, sledgehammer, axe, saw, and gold pan.
Transportation
Workers can only carry a certain number of items in their backpacks. Once the amount of goods exceeds this limit, the player will need to rent a plot of land and transport goods to this plot.
Equipping transportation devices to a worker will allow him to carry more. But ultimately, the player will need a plot of land.
As a player’s gold mining operation expands, his transportation needs grow, and developing a logistics operation becomes a significant focus of gameplay.
Job orders
If a player doesn’t want to use his workers to mine, he can instead send them to take jobs offered by other players. This may be less profitable than owning a mining operation. But it can also carry less risk.
The player can also hire workers controlled by others. But this can only be done if he is renting a plot.
Getting started with Prospectors
Signing up for Prospectors is simple. Just navigate to the official Prospectors website, and click choose server.
You’ll be given a choice between Prospectors Yukon or Prospectors Wild West.
Wild West is the original EOS version of the game. This version is dominated by early entrants.
If you are new to Prospectors, you’ll probably want to start off with the WAX version, Yukon. But it’s ultimately up to you. If you’re a fan of the EOS network, feel free to choose Wild West instead.
If you choose Yukon, you can sign up using WAX Cloud Wallet. If you choose Wild West, you can sign up using Scatter, Lynx, Wombat, or TokenPocket.
We tested Prospectors Yukon and found that this version of the game can be played with an empty wallet. So no purchase is necessary to get started.
Before creating an account, click play tutorial to get a full explanation of how to play.
An NPC named Helpie will appear to teach you how to play.
Prospectors Review
So is Prospectors worth playing?
The first thing to say here is that Prospectors is a very polished game. Although the developer claims that it is in open beta, we found no bugs, and the interface functioned very smoothly.
We also found the controls to be highly intuitive. Sometimes the constant clicking of buttons did get tiring. It would be nice if the developer would implement drag-and-drop capability for moving items between workers.
But this is a small complaint. Overall, the controls made sense and were easy to figure out.
We also found Prospectors to be a very sophisticated game with many different strategies players can employ. Idle games tend to have a reputation for being very simple. But this is not a criticism one can make of Prospectors.
If the fantasy of being a gold miner interests you, you might want to check out Prospectors. This is especially the case if you don’t mind games that take a long time to develop and that require you to check in on them from time to time.
However, if you only like to play games that require short bursts of active participation, you should probably stay away from Prospectors. No matter how complex it is, it is still an “idle” game that requires a lot of patience. Some players simply don’t like these types of games.
In summary, Prospectors is a great addition to the strategy idle game market. We expect most players who enjoy these types of games will not be disappointed by it.
