Mining and Dwarves Controls
Auto Click versus Manual, the Q hover burst, W on the orb, settings, and what Steam Deck players should expect.
Mining and Dwarves is a mouse game. You point at rocks, you point at the skill tree, you point at pies. There is no movement stick, no camera drag, and no second player to cover the other side of the floor. The only decision that matters on boot is which click mode you live with. Everything else is a hover and two ability keys.
Printable bindings: controls cheatsheet. What the keys do in a cycle: abilities. This page is the mouse, the two click modes, Steam Deck caveats, and the accessibility options Steam already lists.
Mouse, Auto Click, and Manual
Left click damages a rock under the cursor when you are in Manual Click. In Auto Click, resting the cursor on a rock is enough; the game clicks for you. Auto is faster clicking and less demanding. The first-run prompt says so. Manual is labelled as a more demanding hands-on challenge mode. It is not a hidden loot flag. You can switch later in settings if your wrist or your pride changes its mind.
Keep Auto if you use a trackpad, plan to play on Steam Deck, want to hover Super Auto Miner without mashing, or came for an idle loop rather than a clicker high score.
Manual is reasonable if you enjoy the sound of each hit and you are at a desk with a real mouse. It will not make rocks drop extra shards. It will make a long session worse for your hand.
You still click UI either way: skill nodes, settings, pies on the floor. Auto Click is about rocks, not about buying the wrong upgrade by hovering it. Hover a node to read it. Click to buy.
The rest of the mouse is just targeting. Super Auto Miner does not spray the whole mine. It auto-clicks where the cursor is. If you leave the cursor on the skill tree during a Q burst, you spent the cooldown on the UI.
Ability keys Q and W
Q — Super Auto Miner. Unlock it on the skill tree, then press Q. For a few seconds (about seven at rank one) your cursor clicks rocks multiple times per second. You still have to hover. Drag across a cluster, then onto the special orb if one is up. The cooldown starts long, around the mid-thirty-second mark before ranks cut it. Q is the whole active layer of the game. If you only bind one key, bind this one.
W — Multi Ore. Chance for extra ore when you mine. Save it for the special orb that spawns when the deposit fills. Firing W on the first brown rock of a cycle is how you make the burst look weak.
Ore Vacuum, Refresher, Strike the Earth, Big Rock, Reactive Rocks, and Enhancer share the same bar. Vacuum is skippable. Refresher matters when Q and W are down and the orb is alive. Strike the Earth is a worker window with a ruby gem chance. The last three are later unlocks.
Pies are not keys. They spawn in the mine. Click them for a temporary skill boost. If you are on a trackpad, they are the one extra click Auto mode will not take for you.
There is no controller-only combo that replaces hover. If a Dock or Deck layout maps Q and W to face buttons, you still aim with the pointer. The game is mouse-first even when Steam Input is in the middle.
Settings, Steam Deck, and accessibility
Open settings when you want to swap Auto and Manual after the first prompt. That is the click-mode toggle. Volume and whatever UI scale the build exposes sit in the same menu; they do not change damage.
Steam Deck is in the store requirements. Sockhouse tested on a Steam Deck OLED 1 TB, and the first-run copy recommends Auto Click for Deck. At launch week the developers posted that they are still waiting on Steam to verify the game. Treat that as unknown-but-playable, not as a Verified badge. Use the trackpads as a mouse. Auto Click is what makes that tolerable.
Steam lists the game with a mouse-only option and a play-at-your-own-pace tag. That matches the design: no fail state, no raid timer, no ready-check. You can leave the floor running after a mixed crew exists. You can also sit on Q for every orb. The controls do not force either. They just refuse to be a twin-stick action game.
If your hand hurts, switch to Auto and let Q be the burst. If the upgrade board feels cluttered, zoom the OS; settings will not fix that.
What not to bind
Do not stack an external auto-clicker on Auto Click. The built-in mode already clicks rocks under the cursor, and Q already bursts. A third clicker fights the UI. Do not leave Q on a hold toggle you forget; a stuck burst is a stuck cooldown. Do not chase Deck gyro flicks. Rocks are large. Hover is enough.
Until Big Rock and friends unlock, the mine only asks for this: mouse on rocks, Auto if you want to be kind to your hands, Q on clusters, W on the orb, pies when they spawn. Bind the rest from the cheatsheet later. The scarce resource is void shards, not a perfect flick.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
Should I pick Auto Click or Manual Click?
Auto Click. It is faster, less demanding, and the mode the game recommends for Steam Deck and trackpads. Manual is a challenge option, not a loot option. You can switch in settings.
Does Super Auto Miner click the whole floor?
No. Q auto-clicks under your cursor for a few seconds. If the cursor is on the UI, the burst is wasted. Hover a cluster, then the orb.
What does W do?
Multi Ore. Save it for the special orb after the deposit fills. Using it on a random early rock wastes the window.
Is Mining and Dwarves Steam Deck Verified?
Not at launch week. The developers said they are still waiting on Steam to verify it. Auto Click plus trackpad-as-mouse is the intended feel, and the store lists a Deck test on OLED 1 TB hardware.
Can I play mouse-only at my own pace?
Yes. Steam lists a mouse-only option and play-at-your-own-pace. There is no fail state and no shared timer. Bind Q and W when you want bursts; otherwise hover rocks.