Getting started in Time Heroes

Time Heroes is a free browser game about mining coins, hatching creatures and pooling what you build into a colony. Your first hour is one small loop. You mine coins, coins buy eggs, eggs hatch pets, pets raise your damage per second, and a higher damage per second mines coins faster. Everything you unlock later plugs into that loop.

You play in a desktop or laptop browser. There is nothing to download and no app store version. Mobile play is closed, so you can sign up on a phone, but the game itself needs a computer.

Your first hour, step by step

1. Getting started
2. Hatching
3. Mining
4. Progression

The six steps

• 1. Mine. Hold or tap the rocks in front of you. Every rock you break pays coins, and coins are the only thing you need at the start.
• 2. Hatch. Spend those coins on an egg. A pet comes out and starts mining with you the moment it lands. Your first egg is always an Uncommon and your second is always a Rare.
• 3. Equip. Put your best pets on your team. Only equipped pets add their damage per second, so a strong pet sitting in your bag does nothing.
• 4. Research the Auto Miner. It opens at level 11 and costs 10 Forest Essence. Auto-Hatch and Auto-Delete open earlier and cost less, but this is the card that changes how you play.
• 5. Beat Elderoot. The first world boss opens at level 20, charges Forest Essence to enter, and gives you 90 seconds to bring it down.
• 6. Open Magic Hollow. The second world asks for level 20, 100K coins and that boss beaten.

What the Auto Miner changes

Before the Auto Miner you are the mining machine. Coins arrive when you tap and they stop when your hand stops. After it, the pets on your team keep breaking rocks and coins keep arriving for as long as the game is open, whether you are touching the screen or not.

It also switches on earning while the game is closed, which every new account starts without. Two cheaper cards open before it and are worth picking up on the way: Auto-Hatch at level 5 opens eggs for you, and Auto-Delete at level 7 clears Common pets out of your bag.

Three habits that pay off

• Leave the tab open. An open game earns at the full rate, and a closed one earns at half, only for the away hours you have unlocked.
• Bank your Forest Essence. The Auto Miner asks for it, and research, crafting and the shuttle keep asking for essence long after that.
• Sell a spare pet without hesitating. Selling one does not remove it from your Codex, so the entry stays even when the pet is gone.

What opens as you level

• Level 8: colonies, the shared mothership a group of players runs together.
• Level 10: the shuttle, your own ship, and the first coal in the ground.
• Level 11: the Smelter, which turns raw ore into ingots.
• Level 20: the Space Map, which pilots call The Dial.
• Level 30: the Nest, which hatches eggs while you are away.
• Level 32: Duels, a timed race against another player over who banks more trophies from hatching.
• Level 33: the Digsite, a dig board where you decide when to stop.
• Level 34: the Tower, 100 floors you climb with a team of 5 pets.
• Level 60: Paradox, the first deliberate reset.