Mina the Hollower can be very unforgiving, especially for those who are just starting out. These beginner’s tips will ensure that Mina never loses her spark — by reclaiming it in time, at least. Whether you’re looking for the best early-game upgrades, how to reach new areas, or tips on plasma vial management, this beginner’s guide will give you a head start.
Ready to dig in? Here are our best Mina the Hollower beginner’s tips to help you get started.
Study the in-game manual
Rather than rely on pop-up tutorials, Mina the Hollower comes with an extensive in-game manual. Go to the options menu to find it. If you find yourself thinking “I’m not reading all of that,” prioritize the “basic controls” chapter, followed by “spark orbs and death” and “pickups.”
Practice burrowing
Burrowing allows you to dig into the ground to avoid attacks or discover hidden areas in Mina the Hollower. To burrow, you’ll just need to hold the jump button. When you hit the ground, you’ll burrow and hop out after a short period of time or after you let go of jump.
Burrowing is vital to your success in combat and in exploration. It can be used to dodge attacks, jump farther, pick up objects, solve puzzles, and much more. If you get used to burrowing, your time in Mina the Hollower will become much easier, so burrow whenever you can (even if you don’t need to) when you’re starting out to get used to its timing.
Return to your Underlab
The Underlab is where you can go to refill your plasma vials and restore your health after taking on multiple foes. To get to the Underlab, burrow into any of the save points littered around the Tenebrous Isle.
Once inside, you can heal by stepping in the water and you can refill your plasma vials via the machine in the bottom right corner. Additionally, you can change your trinkets and weapons by interacting with the chests, and convert your bonestone to bones with the machine in the top right corner.
As you progress in the story, you can upgrade your Underlab to include even more equipment like a map, a training dummy, a sidearm duplicator and replicator, and more. Just make sure to visit the Hollower’s Guild in Ossex and assist its members!
Interact with everything
It’s a little hard to decide where to go first in Mina the Hollower, but the NPCs, newspapers, and road signs can help give you direction. Interact with everyone and everything you see as they’ll provide you with information and clues as to what to do next. They may even give you side quests to complete or free bones to have.
Many areas aren’t as unreachable as they seem
While some areas are unavailable until you’ve completed certain tasks, Mina the Hollower doesn’t require much backtracking. So, if you find an area that appears off-limits, carefully explore your surroundings before giving up. You may find breakable blocks, pits hidden beneath rocks, or obscured entryways on the edge of the screen.
On the left side of this picture, the region to the north seems impossible to reach, but, if you look closely, there’s a gap underneath the fence. If you circle around and approach that same fence from the north (see the right side of the image), the gap isn’t visible, but because you’ve noticed this “clue” previously, you’ll know it’s there.
Got stuck? Explore another region
That said, going back whenever things get tough is perfectly acceptable. Mina the Hollower is not a linear game, so if you feel stuck, try another region or return to Ossex for upgrades. Whenever you enter a new area, try to remember the path so you can easily return if needed.
Be on the lookout for ropes
If you see a dark wall with a little brown loop at the top, you’ve found a shortcut in the form of a rope. While you can only lower the rope from the top of the cliff, be sure to do so whenever you have the chance. Simply touch the rope to activate the shortcut.
Break everything, and burrow everywhere
There are many, many hidden pathways and items in Mina the Hollower. See a wall that looks slightly porous? A cracked brick? Even a perfectly ordinary boulder on the ground? Take no risks; hit every object that looks suspicious, and try burrowing everywhere. You never know what you might find!
Wherever you go, bring some kears
Some pathways and treasure chests in Mina the Hollower require “kears” (keys) to open. There’s nothing more annoying than being forced to leave an area without having opened every kear-locked pathway, so make it a priority to obtain a few kears in the early game and bring them with you. The easiest way to do so is to visit the Kear Institute in Ossex. The shop is located in the City Center, on the east side, next to the Emporium.
Inside, speak with Kearnes, the blue bird, who sells up to nine kears. The first one only costs 300 bones, but the price will increase with every purchase. Try to have at least two keys on hand whenever you leave Ossex, and be sure to speak with every merchant you meet in the wilds, as they may also sell kears. Your current stack of kears is displayed next to the kear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Buy permanent upgrades at the Emporium
You can find the Emporium in the City Center, west of the Kears shop. This is arguably the most important shop in Ossex, as you can purchase upgrades for your max HP, plasma vial count, sparks, joules, and trinket slots. As a new player, grab the spark container upgrade first, so you’ll get two (instead of one) chances to recover sparks after death. Next, it’s best to prioritize the health rose and vial pouch to boost your max HP and HP restoration potions, respectively.
Instead of buying a new weapon, upgrade the old one
Unless you dislike the first weapon you’ve chosen in Mina the Hollower, it’s best to buy a second weapon of the same type as soon as you can, as this will upgrade the weapon. Visit Legovich’s Arms, the weapon shop in Ossex, to purchase the duplicate. The shop is located in the City Center, west of the Kears Institute and the Emporium. You will need 2,000 bones to purchase the upgrade.
Farm bones around Ossex to get upgrades early
If Mina the Hollower is too hard, you can open the options menu, go to “modifiers,” and enable features like “take 0.75x damage” to make the game easier. If you don’t want to use modifiers, however, a good way to improve your survival chances is to farm bones by defeating enemies around Ossex. The slimes and bats in the Eastern Heath east of Ossex, and the larger enemies in the Southern Outskirts (follow the Eastern Heath to the south), make perfect bone-farming victims.
Don’t use your plasma vials too early
In Mina the Hollower, you can only restore the yellow part of your HP bar. After losing health, hitting enemies and gathering plasma roses (yellow flowers) will gradually refill the health bar with yellow “plasma.” Consume a plasma vial (an HP restoration potion) to turn the yellow plasma into red health points.
As you can only carry a limited number of plasma vials at a time (three by default), and extra plasma vials are rare, it’s best to save plasma vials until your HP is quite low and the plasma meter is (almost) full. That way, you will get the most value from your plasma vials.
Don’t push it, though; if you face a dangerous enemy, and your plasma meter is only halfway full, it may be wise to use a plasma vial before the next hit takes you out. Just remember that you’re still vulnerable while healing, and, if you get hit, your heal won’t go through.
Can’t find the spark orb? Slay your last opponent
Although this is mentioned in the manual, it’s too important not to repeat here; if you can’t find the spark orb after respawning, you must slay the enemy who defeated you. After dying, you can recover your bones by revisiting the site of your demise and collecting the blue spark orb, but if you were slain by a creature, that creature will have “absorbed” the orb. In other words, it’s best to spend your bones at a shop, use them during level up, or turn them into a “bonestone” (can’t be lost upon death) before fighting a boss.
You can jump further than you might think
Another move from the manual that’s too important not to point out: If you jump while burrowing, you will jump much further than when you jump from a standstill. Additionally, if you jump on a body of water, you can use the burrow move to swim for a second, then jump again. You can change directions while doing so; in the example below, Mina can jump, face north while burrow-swimming, and jump again to climb the rope. In other words, in watery regions like the swamp and bayou, you can cross far greater distances than in other regions.
There’s a third type of boosted jump, the “toenail jump,” but beware of the danger; if you jump from the edge of a ledge, you will jump further, but bad timing will land you in the pit. Mina will change colors when close to an edge, so, if you notice Mina changing colors, that is a great time to jump.
Beware of knockback effects
A room of minor enemies may not seem intimidating, but if there are many pits, they can become a menace. Oftentimes, it’s not the direct damage that’s dangerous, but the risk of being flung into the abyss, which not only causes damage but also teleports you to the start of a room. Even small enemies and projectiles can come with a knockback effect, so try to fight them at a safe distance from the pit whenever possible.
Don’t be stingy with the sidearms
Sidearms are handy combat tools, especially the ranged ones that allow some distance between you and the opponent, but hitting an enemy with a single projectile is hard. You know what’s easier? Throwing several projectiles in a row. This may feel like a waste of resources, but if it improves your hit chance, it’s worth it, as the sidearm refills (the purple “joules” vials) are very common.
