Getting Started in Mine Antarctica

What Mine Antarctica is

Mine Antarctica is a free Roblox incremental mining simulator from PolarMine Games. You explore a frozen mountain, break rock with a pickaxe, collect crystals and treasures, then return to base to sell or plant what you found. The twist is temperature: the higher you climb, the colder it gets, and cold will chip your health if your Climb Higher warmth upgrade cannot keep up.

Height drives crystal rarity. Playing only at the foothills feels safe but pays poorly. Pushing too high too soon empties your health bar. The skill is learning how far your current warmth, bag, and pickaxe can stretch before you teleport home.

This guide is the onboarding companion to the Guides Hub, the Climb Higher deep dive, and the full pickaxe tier list.

Mine Antarctica beginner walkthrough

Controls

Input	Action
WASD	Move
Space	Jump
E	Interact / use contextual prompts
LMB	Mine / swing pickaxe

Equip the pickaxe from your hotbar, face the rock or crystal, and hold or click LMB depending on your dig style. Learn the teleport-to-base control on your HUD early — ending a run voluntarily beats freezing to death mid-slope. For a full HUD tour (altitude, Cash, Shop, Index, Mountain RNG, BASE teleport), open the dedicated Controls Guide.

The core loop

1. Climb toward a crystal band your warmth can survive.
2. Mine crystals and any hidden treasures along the route.
3. Teleport to base when the bag is heavy or the cold tick starts winning.
4. Sell at the Gem Buyer for Cash — or plant high-Luck crystals in the garden.
5. Upgrade Climb Higher, then Carry More, then pickaxe.
6. Repeat on the current mountain, and again after the hourly Mountain RNG refreshes the zone.

That loop is the entire early game. Everything else — bombs, radars, gamepasses, late pickaxes — is acceleration.

First 15 minutes checklist

1. Like the game and join PolarMine Games for +1 Mining Luck.
2. Complete any onboarding prompts and locate the Gem Buyer, upgrade vendors, garden, and Pickaxe Shop.
3. Make a short foothill run with the Rusted Scrapper to learn dig timing.
4. Sell junk crystals, keep anything tagged with strong Luck for the garden.
5. Buy Climb Higher as soon as Cash allows — before fancy pickaxes.
6. Grab Splintered Timber (25 Cash) when warmth is no longer your immediate killer.
7. Stretch toward higher bands carefully; the early cold wall often bites around ~280m.

If you only remember one sentence: warmth first, bag second, pickaxe third.

Upgrade order explained

1. Climb Higher (warmth)

Climb Higher raises how much altitude you can endure before cold damage. Without it, rarer high-band crystals are theoretical. Detailed breakpoints and routing live in the Climb Higher guide. Buy this whenever cold — not dig speed — ends your runs.

2. Carry More

Carry More expands how many kilograms of crystals you haul before a forced sell trip. Buy it when you are warm enough to stay out but keep teleporting with a full bag and leftover stamina/health. Deep dive: Carry More & Backpack.

3. Pickaxe Power and Mine Size

Visit the Pickaxe Shop when mining time is the bottleneck. The ladder runs from Rusted Scrapper → … → Reinforced… → … → Genesis Core. Full cost / Power / Mine Size numbers are on the Pickaxe Tier List Hub. Early jumps (Splintered Timber, Chipped Flint, Shadowed Talon) are cheap relative to the Cash you lose dying cold.

Selling vs gardening

The Gem Buyer turns crystals into Cash. The garden turns the right crystals into Luck, which improves future digs. New players often sell everything and then wonder why rarity feels awful. Rule of thumb:

• Sell commons you do not need for Luck.
• Plant crystals that advertise strong Luck values.
• Revisit the Garden & Luck guide once you can identify keepers quickly.

Hourly mountain RNG

About every hour the Antarctic mining zone refreshes. Treat that timer like a raid reset: bank Cash, repair your upgrade plan, then hit the new layout with bombs or radars if you have them. Full timer and cliff-skip notes live in Mountain RNG & Hourly Zones; consumables are covered in Bombs & Radars. For height-vs-depth rarity, Frost, Mossite, and Gem Buyer vs garden decisions, read Crystals & Rarity. When PolarMine schedules Admin Abuse live-ops, prep with Events & Admin Abuse.

Optional Robux help

Gamepasses such as 2x Speed, x4 Carry KG, 2x Fast Dig, INSTANT Mine Crystal, x2 Crystals, luck passes, and VIP compress the loop. None are required for the strategy above. Value notes live on the Gamepasses Hub.

What not to do

• Do not paste codes from Mine a Mountain, Expedition Antarctica, or Mine a Planet — they do not work here. See the Codes Hub (no active codes in October 2026).
• Do not run scripts. PolarMine permanently bans exploiting and unauthorized software.
• Do not ignore cold because a YouTube short showed someone hovering at max height with endgame gear.

After the tutorial wall

When Climb Higher consistently clears your early freeze line:

1. Push pickaxes through Tempered Steel / Reinforced… while still funding warmth.
2. Build a garden that actually raises Luck instead of a junk crystal museum.
3. Plan radar/bomb spends around hourly resets.
4. Track patches on the Updates Hub and keep Official Links bookmarked for group shouts.

You now have the whole beginner kit: controls, loop, upgrade order, and the next guides to open. Climb safe, sell smart, and let warmth unlock the mountain before you chase Genesis Core fantasies.