Mining and Dwarves Controls Cheatsheet

This cheatsheet is the short bind list for Mining and Dwarves. It is not a second copy of the full controls guide. Keep this page open when you forget a key. Every row explains why the bind exists, because Super Auto Miner does nothing on empty dirt.

The game is mouse-first, single-player, and built to be played at your own pace. Steam lists mouse-only play, custom volume, adjustable text size, camera comfort, and playable without timed input. There are no quick-time events to fail. Binds still matter, because idle income only starts after you hire dwarves, and active income still wants Q and W aimed at the right thing.

Auto Click versus Manual Click

On first launch you pick a click mode. You can switch later in settings. Auto Click fires while the cursor sits on a rock. Use it on a Steam Deck, a laptop trackpad, or any long session. It is the honest way to play the idle plus active hybrid without a third-party clicker. Manual Click is higher effort: each hit is a click.

Auto Click is not a cheat. Sockhouse Studios shipped both a cozy idle and a juice-forward clicker, and Auto Click is the mode the game recommends on a Deck or a trackpad.

The mouse is an aiming stick

Even in Auto Click, the cursor is the pickaxe. Super Auto Miner clicks under the cursor, not everywhere on screen. If you fire Q and wander to the skill tree, you spent the burst on the UI. Park the mouse on a dense cluster, then press Q. That is why launch-week jokes about Q plus W, then hold still keep showing up. Holding still is the point.

On Deck, trackpads and the right stick both move an on-screen cursor. Auto Click plus a parked cursor is how the OLED 1TB test target in the Linux listing stays comfortable. Flicking the cursor during Q wastes the ability you just unlocked.

Q, Super Auto Miner: hover, then fire

Q unlocks from the skill tree. Your cursor auto-clicks rocks several times per second for a short burst. Why it exists: you are still the strongest pickaxe in the room after dwarves spawn. Q is an active spike, not a full-screen nuke. Hover a cluster, or the special orb if that rock needs to die, press Q, and keep the cursor there. Do not mash Q on bare ground. Do not open the skill panel mid-burst.

Buy cooldown for it first, duration later. Details live on the abilities guide. This sheet only cares that Q without a hover is a wasted bind.

W, Multi ore: use it on the orb

W unlocks as Multi ore. Extra ore lands on the rocks you are mining. Why it exists: gold from small rocks is fine, but the special orb that spawns when the deposit fills is the payday. A widely shared launch tip is to fire Multi ore on the orb, not on the first pebble you see. Fill the sink, wait for the orb, hover it, press W, and let Q or Auto Click finish the job. If the orb is not up, W on junk rocks is legal and weaker.

The orb is easy to lose in a cluttered screen. Train the muscle: deposit full, orb up, W, hold still.

Other inputs and Deck

Primary click, or Auto Click hover, is the entire early game. The skill tree panel spends void shards; there is no prestige refund, so open it between bursts. Settings switch click mode, volume, text size, and camera comfort, all listed Steam accessibility flags. If you are mouse-only, click the ability UI instead of tapping Q and W.

Linux listings name SteamOS 3.6.19, a Steam Deck APU, 500 MB storage, and testing on a Deck OLED 1TB. Valve’s Deck badge can lag behind launch. In practice this is a lightweight Godot incremental: Auto Click, parked cursor, Q on clusters, W on the orb. There is no timed input to miss. Put the Deck down and let hired dwarves work, then come back for abilities. That split is the idle versus active argument compressed into binds.

If a control feels wrong, change click mode, then check that Q is unlocked, then check that you are hovering a rock. Most reports that abilities do nothing are empty-dirt Q. Longer versions: controls guide, abilities guide, idle versus active.