One of the most exciting features of SteamWorld Build is the ability to unearth treasure from caves beneath your city. Digging is most efficient with a legion of miners, but players need will plenty of gold nuggets to hire them. In this guide, we'll explain how to get gold nuggets in SteamWorld Build.
Gold nuggets are a crucial resource in the mines. Prospectors, miners, mechanics, and guards can only be recruited with gold, and as the caves get more dangerous, players will need a large workforce to stay safe and productive.
For all things SteamWorld, check out our guide to getting sand and a breakdown of the game's trophies and achievements.
How to get gold nuggets in SteamWorld Build
As mentioned above, gold nuggets are mainly used to increase your underground workforce. Like most resources in the game, players have plenty of options if they hope to climb a mountain of gold.
The simplest way to get resources like gold nuggets is to trade with the train. Recurring trades can be used to exchange any resource for gold, but cash works well too. Check the train station often for a good chance of finding a '20 gold nuggets for 8,000 cash' deal.
In the mines, your first taste of gold will come from underground chests. These can be seen sparkling in the dark, and will give a decent number of gold nuggets every time you find, tunnel towards, and open them. In the same vein, tumbleweeds have a random chance of giving eight gold nuggets if you spot and click on them on the surface.
The mines also provide plenty of gold ore. When you've got several miners at your disposal, using the dig tool on this ore will yield four nuggets per node, though it will be gone forever once dug up.
After significant story progress, keep an eye on the train station for the gold scavenging miner equipment. It costs a pretty penny - usually 30,000 cash and seven rubies - but provides passive gold when equipped on a miner. If you're especially lucky, this item can rarely be found in underground chests.
Another often overlooked way of getting gold nuggets involves destroying old headquarters. On the first floor of the mines, many old miners and mechanics will sit dormant - destroying their headquarters will let players reclaim tons of gold.
Those are all the best ways we've found to get gold nuggets in SteamWorld Build. If more are discovered, we'll be sure to update this guide, but for now you should check out the game's PC requirements or find out if it's on Xbox Game Pass.
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