Running a Gate

Running a Gate

A run has four stages: waiting room → valley → boss → reward.

Waiting room

Entering a gate takes you to the waiting room, a small platform in the gate world.

Ready Pedestal	Right-click to mark yourself ready. The run starts when all players are ready, or 90 seconds after the waiting room opened (as long as at least one player is ready).
Hunter Shop	The trader and his stall. Right-click either one. See Hunter Shop.
Exit Gate	Turquoise gate back to the spot where you entered.

The waiting room tells you everything about the gate: rank, gate type, modifiers, death mode and whether it is a Red Gate. This is your last chance to turn back.

The waiting room already looks like the area you are about to enter: ice and snow for the Ice Wasteland, sandstone for the Sand Temple, blackstone for the Volcanic Depths, and so on. The seal in the middle and the four gate obelisks are the same everywhere, so you always recognize it.

Note

Your armor is locked once the run starts. The rank was calculated from your gear, so you cannot swap in better armor afterwards. Weapons, food and everything else stay free.

Building the valley

After the start, the valley is generated piece by piece so the server keeps running smoothly. The progress is shown in the action bar. At 100% the screen fades to black and you are teleported to the head of the valley.

The valley

The valley is a landscape under the open sky, with its own drifting particles per landscape (fireflies, falling leaves, ash, snow or petals):

• Combat zones – flat areas with rock ridges, platforms, ruins and a landmark. Monsters wait here.
• Passes – walkable paths between the zones, with mountain ridges in between.
• Side zones – dead ends with loot or traps.
• An invisible wall at the border keeps you from climbing out. If you still fall into the void, you are brought back to your world (the run stays open).

The info box at the top of the screen shows the gate, how many monsters are left and the remaining time.

No more searching for the last monster: when only a few are left (5 by default) they glow through walls, and from 10 left an arrow in the action bar points to the nearest one, with its distance and whether it is above or below you.

Monsters that join the fight later (boss minions, ambushes, waves from an event zone, a gate breaking open) rise out of the ground with dust and a sound, so you see where they come from.

Tip

Blocks in the gate cannot be broken or placed – except ore veins, which are there to be mined, and the hatch of the hidden vault (see Secrets and Traps).

Elite guardian

From rank A there may be an elite guardian, from rank S there always is one (Elite Gates and Red Gates always have one). It is one of the area's own creatures, half again as big. It appears after all normal monsters have fallen, has 2.75× health and 1.5× damage, and must die before the boss can appear. It leaves its own reward chest. You recognize it by the glowing ring around it, in the color of the gate rank.

The boss

When the last monster (or the elite guardian) falls, darkness covers every player for four seconds – and when the sight returns, the boss is there, its name shown as a title in the middle of the screen. Each area has two bosses of its own, one per gate – see Monsters.

While the boss lives, the info box shows its name and a health bar in the color of its area. Two small notches at 50% and 25% mark where it enters its next phase.

Bosses have three phases:

Phase	When	What changes
Normal	above 50% health	Normal abilities
Enraged	below 50%	Shorter cooldowns, stronger abilities, new abilities
Last Breath	below 25%	The most dangerous abilities

Before an ability hits, the boss warns with particles and a sound (1.5 seconds). Abilities:

Ability	Area	From phase	Effect
Shadow Summon	all	Normal	Summons minions
Shockwave	all	Normal	Knocks everyone back
Void Salvo	all	Normal	Homing projectiles
Collapse	all	Normal	Rocks fall from above
Curse	all	Enraged	Weakness
Plague Cloud	all	Enraged	Damaging cloud
Aegis	all	Enraged	Short shield around the boss
Last Stand	all	Last Breath	The boss unleashes everything
Frost Field, Glacial Chains, Blizzard	Ice	Normal / Enraged	Frozen ground, rooted legs, blinding snow
Sand Tomb, Scorching Winds, Tomb Quake	Sand (and Volcanic)	Normal / Enraged	Sand traps, burning winds, pull to the centre
Abyss Web, Shadow Blink, Abyss Roar	Cave (and Ruin, Abyss)	Normal / Enraged	New beasts, teleport next to you, darkness
Signature attack	its own boss only	Normal	One per ruler, used often: Brood Swarm, Avalanche Leap, Royal Guard, Molten Charge, Root Grasp, Void Pull, Burrow Strike, Frost Nova, Sand Vortex, Eruption, Thorn Summons, Gaze Beam – see Monsters

Rewards

When the boss dies, a reward chest opens in the boss zone, with an Exit Gate right next to it. The loot depends on the rank, the gate type, the area and the modifiers:

• Hunter Coins, Essence Stones, Mana Crystals, Gate Fragments, Gate Key Fragments
• The area's own currency (see Items and Blocks)
• Dungeon Cores, and from rank S+ a 35% chance for a Boss Core
• Gate gear from rank C: armor pieces and a blade of the boss you just defeated (see Items and Blocks)
• Vanilla treasure: diamonds, emeralds, gold, experience bottles, and at high ranks netherite scrap, echo shards and nether stars
• Extra loot (each with its own chance): enchanted books – Mending from rank A –, an enchanted diamond sword or bow, healing and strength potions (fire resistance in the Volcanic Depths), golden apples, an armor trim template matching the area, the netherite upgrade template from rank S, rare music discs, and a Heart of the Sea in Treasure Gates. The elite guardian's chest and secrets (vault, mimic, treasure goblin) have their own extra loot too.

Tip

Server owners can change all extra loot – chances, items, enchantments, potions, which chest, which rank, area or gate type – in config/solomining_loot.json. See Configuration.

In the chat you get a run summary: rank, time, monsters defeated, deaths, secrets found and Hunter points gained.

Tip

Jackpot Gate: about 3% of all gates are jackpots – announced when you enter. The boss chest holds twice the loot plus an extra roll of extra loot.

You also get experience, Hunter points (see Hunter Rank and Advancements) and possibly advancements. Gate monsters themselves do not drop their usual vanilla loot.

Event zones

Some zones hold an optional event: one per gate, two from rank C, three from rank A. Event monsters do not count towards the monsters you must defeat, so you can skip them.

Event	How to spot it	What to do	Reward
Trial Shrine	A small blackstone altar with a soul lantern	Step close: three waves attack. Defeat all of them within 90 seconds.	Blessing (Strength, Regeneration, Resistance) and loot
Ambush	Nothing – it is hidden	Walk into the zone and you are surrounded. Defeat them all.	Loot left behind
Seals	Three blackstone obelisks topped with crying obsidian	Touch an obelisk and it glows for 15 seconds. Make all three glow at the same time. Alone that means running.	A hidden chest

Time limit

Each run has a time limit: 20 minutes + 5 per rank step (rank E 20 min, S* 55 min). The clock only runs while someone is inside the valley. Warnings come at 5 minutes and 1 minute. When time runs out, the run fails: the monsters vanish and everybody is sent home without reward.

Leaving and coming back

Way out
Exit Gate	In the waiting room, and next to the reward chest after the boss.
Exit Crystal	Right-click anywhere in the gate.
/solomining exit	Same as the crystal.

You land where you entered the gate. The run stays open: /solomining return takes you back to where you left off, and the paused clock continues.

Important

Logging out inside a gate: when you log back in, you wake up in your world, and /solomining return brings you back into the run. Exception: Red Gates keep you inside – see Gates and Ranks.

When a run is over and everybody has left, the gate in your world disappears. Finished gates are removed from the gate world after 10 minutes.

Playing together

• Everyone who enters the same gate joins the same run. With portalAccessMode server owners can limit who may enter (see Configuration).
• More ready players mean a little more monster damage and a few more monsters per player; with 3 or more ready players the rank goes up one step.
• With PartyLink installed, a party counts as one group for natural gates. With Loyal Companions, companions can fight along, but deal at most 3 damage per hit to gate monsters.