Top 10 mobile mining games

Although Stardew Valley has entered mature status, it's still widely played today with the possibility of new updates in the future. Now, while the game may be mostly known for the farming and social aspects, a notable location is the Mines. It makes up the majority of the adventuring aspect of the game and proves to be an invaluable environment. It's necessary to visit for valuable materials if you're hoping to make progress as a farmer, adventurer, and caretaker. There's also the enticing prospect of trying to reach the very bottom of the Mines and seeing what odd creatures lurk at the lowest levels.

Catching the wave of mining popularity early, Terraria has and continues to be the pixel mining game that many players flock to to get their survival craft on. Despite being restricted to the 2D plane, the game is surprisingly vast in all directions (though going up can be a hassle). However, it's appealing to grab a pickaxe and just start digging down just to see how far you can get and how fast. You'll quickly encounter monsters, traps, weird altars, and a treasure trove of interesting minerals. Keep going and you'll eventually reach a hellish layer that adds a whole new level of intensity and even a grotesque boss to boot.

Arguably the progenitor of the mining games genre, Minecraft may have gained immortality status without us noticing. The series has expanded from a free-to-play alpha build to one of the most-played games of all time. The charm of the blocky aesthetic and the sheer variety of nature and organisms (both living and dead) were more than enough to keep people coming back. On top of that, almost everything can be mined and a fair amount of it can be done with your bare hands. Once you get yourself some tools, you can mine anywhere to get what you want to build any structure you can think of as well as some nice gear for yourself.

Mining involves doing a lot of the same actions over and over again, which is why the tapping in Pocket Mine 2 works perfectly. This cartoon mining adventure puts you in a side-scrolling perspective as you follow a miner deep into blocky mines. When there's a block in your way, you tap it to start whittling it down until it stops being an obstacle. Your tenacity will help you get started, but you are a long miner which is why you can find some extra help. This takes the form of special cards and items that you can use to boost your digging power. The more you dig, the more artifacts and treasures you'll find.

Mining is already a very dangerous activity to begin with, which is why it helps to be tough like the guy in Mine and Slash. This hero is a burly miner, but he also has some brawling experience which will come in handy more than you think. As you start breaking through the blocks in this 3D adventure, you'll fight beasts and monsters that can get intimidatingly large. This is where your pickaxe can serve as a weapon to slash through these threats. You need to clear the way and keep your health up just so you can carry your haul back to safety.

If it's an activity, there's an idle game on it - and in terms of mining, one such title is Idle Cave Miner. You're presented with a mine that stretches farther than is readily apparent and the pixel art gives it a nice arcade look. You'll start with a small team and as you get more valuable minerals, you can build a bigger mining team with better performance. However, the mine will grow as you do and the challenges will get more dangerous as the more valuable minerals get harder to find. Invest in crafting and completing missions to give yourself a fighting chance.

In case it wasn't obvious, the most important tool in mining is the pickaxe, and that's what PickCrafter is all about. It's quite literally a game where you're directly controlling a pickaxe as you break through various types of rock to make your way through the mine. You can try and get into a rhythm as you tap to mine stuff while looking for minerals and other interesting elements. Use what you can to make your pickaxe the best pickaxe that it can be so that you can go further and discover all the secrets hidden in the stone.

The idle game can take various forms, and the 2D tower version is quite common and makes an appearance in Super Miner. You'll start as a young and eager miner as you clear a level in a discovered mine. You'll have to use tapping to help these miners mine and upgrade their means of mining. The more they improve, the more layers can be cleared in the mine as you make your way down. Different layers mean different rewards, but also different challenges that can be too much for you and your miner. Thankfully, you'll soon be able to hire a colourful cast of fellow miners to help out and take you deeper.

Following the invention of the pickaxe, people wanted to improve upon it and arrived at the drill, which you can test out in Overkill Drill. This is a vision of how powerful drills may be one day and how fast they'll be able to dig through countless layers of dirt and rock. It's a 2D adventure where all you have to do is keep drilling and digging. Of course, since it's a manned drill, you need to keep the operator safe as they work. Use everything that you uncover to upgrade the drill and keep it running at maximum capacity. Ships aren't just for outer space - they're for underground too.

Mining can be a simulation activity, or it can be an epic adventure like the one you can experience in Mine Quest. The stylistic visuals present a tiled world that makes you think of both puzzles and strategy. You'll follow the story of a Dwarf miner named Orli and his fairy friend Lumi as they explore the mines of a vast fantasy world. They'll dig through blocks of earth and stone in search of fortune but will also have to contend with the dangers within. Armed with whatever weapons and armour you can find, you'll need to help Orli slay the beasts below and return to the surface as a hero.

That's it with the list of the best mining games on mobile. What are your thoughts about it? If you find new games worth adding, let us know in the comments below.