If you have just crash-landed your vessel on a hostile, gelatinous moon, you are probably wondering exactly how long to beat Into the Slimy Mines. Developed by Ant Workshop and published by Wales Interactive, this title violently collides roguelike meta-progression with card-driven tower defense. You aren't just placing turrets; you are actively carving the very tunnels the enemy swarm uses to reach your base.
Because the game relies heavily on randomized runs, deck building, and accumulating permanent upgrades for your dwarven crew, your total playtime will swing wildly depending on your strategic competence and your appetite for grinding out guild ranks. Whether you are just looking to rescue Captain Firebeard's stranded crew and roll the credits, or you are a die-hard completionist aiming to max out every Drill Rig under the Ironkilt Intergalactic Industries banner, we have broken down the exact hour counts you can expect.
How Long to Beat Into the Slimy Mines: The Short Answer
Roguelikes notoriously resist flat playtime estimates, but based on the game's overarching structure and the pacing of its meta-progression economy, we can confidently bracket the experience into three distinct playstyles.
If your sole objective is a successful Main Escape—meaning you push through the core biomes, defeat the final depths, and rescue the essential crew—expect to spend roughly 12 to 15 hours. This accounts for the inevitable early-game failures where your under-leveled rig gets overrun by slimes before you can grasp the intricacies of pathing.
For players who want a Standard Run—clearing the campaign while unlocking a comfortable majority of the turrets, dabbling in different guilds, and finding most of the lore—the clock will push toward 20 to 25 hours.
Finally, for the true Ironkilt company men gunning for 100% Max Rank, the playtime expands drastically. Fully upgrading every faction and unlocking every single combinatorial card synergy requires a dedicated 35 to 45 hours of deep-core drilling.
| Playstyle | Estimated Playtime | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| Main Escape (Any%) | 12–15 Hours | Clear all biomes, rescue the core crew, see the credits. |
| Standard Run | 20–25 Hours | Clear the game, unlock most rigs, experiment with all three guilds. |
| 100% Completionist | 35–45 Hours | Max out all guilds, find all 20 datapads, unlock 30 add-ons. |
Breaking Down the 30 Dig Sites (The Main Campaign)
The spine of the campaign is built around 30 distinct dig sites. These are divided cleanly across 6 unique biomes, with each biome plunging you through 5 increasingly difficult depths.
This structure is the primary dictator of your playtime. You cannot simply brute-force your way to the bottom of the moon on your first try. The early biomes act as a brutal filter, teaching you that dragging Dig cards to excavate tunnels is a double-edged sword. Every block you clear to reach a missing crewmate simultaneously creates the exact path the slime horde will use to attack your core.
If you dig a straight, highly efficient line to your objective, you save time and cards, but you give the slimes a terrifyingly short runway to your base. If you dig a meandering, serpentine path, you create a massive kill-box for your turrets—but you risk running out of resources or being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the swarm. Mastering this risk-reward spatial puzzle is what bridges the gap between a 15-hour clear and a frustrating 30-hour struggle.
How Long to Beat Into the Slimy Mines: 100% Completionist Guide
If you intend to wring every drop of value out of this slime-infested rock, you are committing to a serious grind. Hitting the 45-hour mark requires mastering systems that casual players will barely touch.
To achieve true 100% completion, you must max out the Anvil, Warhammer, and Pickaxe guilds. Each of these three factions dramatically alters your playstyle. The Anvil guild favors stubborn, static defense; the Warhammer guild leans into aggressive, explosive damage; and the Pickaxe guild is all about rapid economic expansion and unearthing ore. Leveling all three to their maximum rank requires dozens of successful, high-depth runs.
Furthermore, you will need to unlock all 6 Drill Rigs and equip them with the game's 30 different add-ons. The customization here is staggering, allowing you to tailor your loadout to the specific environmental hazards of the deeper biomes.
Finally, the lore hunters will need to track down all 20 hidden datapads. These collectibles piece together the grim, corporate-dystopian backstory of Captain Firebeard, your expendable crew, and the ship's passive-aggressive AI, F.O.R.G.E. Finding these datapads relies partially on RNG and thorough exploration, which naturally pads the playtime for completionists.
Mechanics That Will Tank (Or Save) Your Playtime
Your efficiency in Into the Slimy Mines comes down to deck management. The game operates on a brilliant, streamlined upgrade math: place a Level 1 Cannon, drop another Level 1 Cannon on top of it, and it instantly merges into a Level 2 Cannon.
This sounds simple, but in the heat of a swarm, inventory management becomes frantic. Players who hoard cards waiting for perfect merges will find their base overrun, ending their run prematurely and inflating their total playtime. Conversely, players who panic-place un-upgraded turrets everywhere will hit a hard damage ceiling in the later depths.
Learning when to deploy weapons of mass construction—like generators that keep your rig powered, or lures that distract the gelatinous masses—is critical. The game features 10 core buildings and 26 turrets. Memorizing the synergies between these tools is the only way to consistently survive the deeper biomes. If you refuse to adapt your deck to the specific slime variants introduced in the later levels, expect your playtime to balloon as you repeatedly fail at depth 4 or 5.
How It Compares to the Genre
If we look at the wider landscape of roguelike resource-defenders, Into the Slimy Mines sits comfortably in the middle of the pack regarding length. It is noticeably longer and more structured than a bite-sized arcade defender like Dome Keeper, which can often be "beaten" in under 10 hours.
However, it avoids the endless, punishing grind of something like Loop Hero. By hard-capping the campaign at 30 dig sites and providing clear, tangible upgrades through the three dwarven guilds, the game respects your time. The card-driven mechanics ensure that no two runs feel identical, preventing the 35-hour completionist grind from feeling like a repetitive chore.
FAQ: How Long to Beat Into the Slimy Mines
How many biomes are in the game? There are 6 unique biomes, each containing 5 depths, making for a total of 30 distinct dig sites you must clear to rescue the crew.
Is there permanent progression between runs? Yes. While your tower setup and tunnel layout reset, you retain meta-progression currency to unlock new cards, upgrade the 6 Drill Rigs, and rank up the Anvil, Warhammer, and Pickaxe guilds.
Can you keep playing after rescuing the crew? Absolutely. The meta-progression systems, the 30 rig add-ons, and the 20 lore datapads provide ample reason to keep diving even after the main narrative concludes.
Does the game have controller support? Yes. Because the game launched simultaneously on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, the UI and card-dragging mechanics are heavily optimized for gamepad play.
Sources
- Ant Workshop & Wales Interactive Official Press Release: Game structure, 30 dig sites, and guild mechanics.
- Loot Level Chill Review (May 2026): Pre-release playtime impressions and rogue-lite loop analysis.
- Steam Store Data: Verified mechanics including the 10 buildings, 26 turrets, and card-merging logic.