Idle Mole Empire Game Review

Idle Mole Empire Game Background

This is a 2D idle tapping tycoon game where you build a mining operation staffed by moles wearing funny hats. Build themed tunnels to generate a flow of income and use these revenues to expand and upgrade your operations. Expand the mines for as long as you want.

The game was developed by MarketJS. Its gameplay resembles some of our site’s other tycoon-style idle games like Idle Farm Business.

How to Play Idle Mole Empire

Select the play button on the lower center left of the welcome screen to begin. You begin each game with just enough money to pay for your first tunnel ($10). The elevator and shipping gate are already available to you at the start of the game.

To operate anything, left click or tap on them. At the start of the game, you’ll need to manually instruct the moles to dig for minerals, move the minerals up the elevator, and ship the minerals out the gate for cash. Selling the minerals is your chief source of cash. On top of that, you also earn idle income, a trickle of cash per second when you’re not playing the game.

Hiring managers will allow the moles to do the jobs themselves, freeing you to focus your attention elsewhere. Select the thunderbolt button above the managers to activate double time, which increases the productivity of your mole employees for 30 seconds. Double time has a 5-minute cooldown time before you can use it again. Having managers across all three parts of your mining system also activates idle income.

You can use the cash you earn to expand and improve on your mine. To expand your mine, select the level. Some levels need to be unlocked for additional Buy improvements to the tunnels, elevator shaft, and shipping gate by selecting the level number button.

Your web browser automatically saves your game progress. If you want to start over from scratch, select the gear button, then select Hard Reset on the bottom right corner of the options menu.

Basic Gameplay Advice

The first thing you should aim for is automation. At the start of the game, keep earning and saving money to afford a manager for at least one part of your operations (the tunnels, the elevator, and the shipping gate). Much of the early game will be spent commanding the operations directly until all the active parts have a manager.

The first few levels will only cost you the price of the new tunnel. Every so often, you will also need to pay extra to prepare the ground on top of buying the tunnel. This is usually found in bands of hard ground.

Like the elevator and the shipping gate, each tunnel can be upgraded. Each upgrade increases the output of that tunnel by a small amount. Upgrading the tunnel to Level 25 will grant you an extra worker for that tunnel and allow you to train your managers.

After a while, an investor mole will come to your mining operation to buy it out. If you take his offer, the game will reset your progress in exchange for much higher profits.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

Focus on tunnel upgrades before the elevator and the selling gate. Improve these the moment when they can no longer carry all the minerals dug up in one trip.

The cost of upgrading your facilities ramps up over time. Select upgrades in bulk to save on upgrade costs whenever you can. Investing on a tunnel, however, grants considerable returns. Each new tunnel provides higher revenues than the last. Focus first on making and automating new tunnels. Save up so that you can automate a new tunnel immediately after you build it.

Upgrading the tunnels won’t be necessary until much later in the game, such as when you’re trapped by hard ground or when the tunnels get more expensive than the upgrades. Focus on the higher-value tunnels rather than the ones closer to the surface.

One other benefit of aiming for automating the entire operation early on is idle income. This will allow you to earn cash while you’re not playing the game, which is useful during the slower parts of the game where you need to earn cash.

Educational Aspects

The game is fundamentally a business simulation, and your task is to keep the business growing for as long as you can. The game highlights the importance of delegation; players will not see a lot of progress until they’ve hired managers to run part of the business for them. It also imparts the lesson of patience; it takes a while to get the game self-sustaining.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is suited for a wide range of players, including older children and adults. We recommend this game for people who enjoy tycoon games and idle games.