Dome Keeper: Complete Guide

A practical guide to Bippinbits' roguelike mining defense game: the mine-and-defend loop, keepers, domes, gadgets, every mode, and how to play the new multiplayer well.

Researched September 2026 — current as of patch v5.0.8 (3 September 2026), the post-multiplayer "Lost Keepers" era. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

The loop is dig, deliver, defend. Between waves you drill down into the mine, carry resources back to your dome, and spend them on upgrades. When the wave timer runs out, you hurry back and fight from the dome.
Three resources: iron (the main currency for upgrades), water (tied to your gadgets) and cobalt (the rare one, used for the stronger upgrades and, in Prestige, for score).
Get back before the wave hits. The dome weapon only fires when you are at the controls. Watch the wave timer and leave yourself travel time.
Spend early on drill and carry. Faster mining and more carrying capacity snowball; every later upgrade comes faster.
Pick your primary gadget with the run in mind. Shield, Repellent, Orchard or Droneyard each changes how you play.
Relic Hunt is the main mode. Dig to the relic chamber at the bottom, activate the nodes, carry the relic home, and survive the final wave.
Deeper tiles are harder. Each biome needs more drill strength. If you can barely scratch a tile, go upgrade before pushing down.
Multiplayer is here. Up to four players in co-op, plus competitive Versus, on PC with local split screen and online play.

The Core Loop

Mining phase

Drill in any direction from the dome. Resource tiles drop chunks that you must physically carry back to the dome (each keeper does this differently).
The wiki notes resource clusters follow predictable patterns, especially iron. When you find one iron tile, dig around it.
Hidden caves and gadget chambers appear in the mine. Chambers let you pick a new supplemental gadget.

Defense phase

Monsters approach across the ground and through the air, each type with its own attack pattern.
You aim and fire the dome weapon. Upgrades raise damage, speed and special effects.
The dome has a health bar. Some gadgets (Shield, Dome Armor) protect it; repairs come from upgrades.

Cycle timing

Cycle length depends on map size and how much of the map's iron you have already mined. The wiki's formula is: cycle duration = 60 + 45 x sqrt(TileCount / 1000) x IronMined%. In plain terms: bigger maps and more iron extracted mean longer mining windows, and the hardest difficulty shortens every cycle.

Keepers

Two keepers come with the base game; two more arrived with The Lost Keepers DLC alongside the multiplayer update.

Keeper	Source	How they mine and carry	Playstyle
Engineer	Base game	Drills tiles directly and pulls resources behind him on a tether	Straightforward, efficient; the best starting keeper
Assessor	Base game	Mines with orbs and moves resources using packets, based on kinetic and gravity tech	Rewarding once you master its physics; strong haulage
Infiltrator	The Lost Keepers DLC	Moves swiftly using rope and jumps; uses kunai for mining and Kunai Carriers for resources	Fast, mobile, great at long-distance runs
Beastmaster	The Lost Keepers DLC	Digs and moves using mechanical tentacles; summons catgoblins that carry resources	Pet-based logistics; strong in larger maps

Recent patches worth knowing:

v5.0.4 let clients share unlocked items with the host for a combined loadout, and lets you play a DLC keeper in a lobby even if the host does not own the DLC.
v5.0.7 and v5.0.8 reworked Kunai Carriers (no more colliding, manual pick-up option, flying carriers no longer auto-grabbed) and added an option for Assessor, Infiltrator and Beastmaster to choose whether resources or gadgets drop first.

Domes

Dome	Weapon
Laser Dome	A standard precision laser; forgiving and reliable
Sword Dome	An experimental melee sword that requires mastery but can dominate even the strongest assailants
Artillery Dome	A powerful mortar plus an anti-air gun for flying enemies
Tesla Dome	A state-of-the-art dome built around electrical attacks

Start with the Laser Dome while you learn enemy types. The Sword Dome is the classic "high skill, high reward" pick; the Artillery Dome's separate anti-air gun is excellent against flyer-heavy waves.

Primary Gadgets

Gadget	What it does	Battle abilities
Shield	Absorbs incoming damage to the dome	Electro Blast, Invulnerability, Reflection
Repellent	Produces monster-repelling liquid that delays waves	Wither, Debilitate
Orchard	Grows fruit that temporarily boosts speed and mining power	Snare Roots, Vine Canopy
Droneyard	Produces drones for resource transport and combat	Battle Grid, Parasitic Drones

Which to choose:

Shield is the safe pick for new players and higher difficulties.
Orchard makes every mining trip faster; strong for greedy players on big maps. (Its combination with the Infiltrator was toned down in v5.0.3.)
Repellent buys more mining time per cycle.
Droneyard automates hauling and adds combat help.

Supplemental Gadgets

Found in gadget chambers during a run. Examples from the wiki:

Gadget	Effect
Auto Cannon	Automatic heavy-damage turret
Missile Launcher	Target-seeking rockets
Buzz Saw	Continuous damage to nearby enemies
Dome Armor	Increases dome durability, with a reactive pulse
Blast Mining	Explosive charges to clear mine tiles
Probe	Reveals nearby resources
Teleporter	Two-way travel between dome and mine
Condenser	Slowly generates water

Teleporter and Probe are the gadgets that most change how aggressive you can be in the mine. Auto Cannon and Missile Launcher ease defense so you can stay out longer.

Game Modes

Relic Hunt

The standard mode. Retrieve the relic and bring it back to the dome while defending against monsters.

Dig out all 12 special tiles covering the relic chamber.
Activate all nodes, puzzle keys scattered through the deepest biome; wires on the map point toward them. The chamber only opens when both conditions are met.
Carry the relic home. The final wave starts automatically and is far stronger than normal waves.
Per the wiki, once the relic is delivered the run counts as a success whether or not you manually kill every monster in the final wave, so the priority is getting the relic to the dome, not a perfect defense.

Map sizes:

Size	Width x Depth	Nodes
Small	40 x 40	2
Medium	50 x 50	3
Large	60 x 65	4
Huge	70 x 90	5

Difficulty options are Normal, Hard, Brutal and You asked for it, which also shortens every cycle by 24 seconds. Recent patches added Relic Hunt modifiers such as Short Cycles, Tough Start, stronger monster damage, and an option to have the second station's weapon enabled from the start.

Guild Assignments

Unlocked after your first successful Relic Hunt. These are Relic Hunt variants with twists. Four are available at first (Showdown, Iron Contribution, Upside Down, Maze), and more unlock as you earn badges. There are 16 base assignments plus 9 from DLC, each with Regular and Challenge tiers. Badges unlock permanent upgrades and cosmetics through the Keepers' Guild.

Prestige

A score-attack mode. Score each wave = cobalt multiplier x base prestige. Sending cobalt raises the multiplier; sending iron and water raises base prestige.

Variant	Rule
Countdown (default)	Cobalt multiplier starts at 20 and drops by one each cycle; leave before it goes negative
Endless	Play until overwhelmed
Fixed Cobalt	You get 10 cobalt and none from the mine
Miner	20 waves with no combat; pure optimization

Buy the Leave this planet upgrade to "win" a Prestige run and unlock the next variant. Since v5.0.7, Prestige supports 3 or more players casually, but those scores are not uploaded to leaderboards.

Multiplayer

Co-op: up to four keepers defending one dome. In multiplayer the second weapon station is available from the start (with its weapon disabled until upgraded) so several players can buy upgrades at once.
Versus: teams race to survive longest or deliver the most resources. Relics can be stolen; the No Relics modifier (v5.0.7) removes that for calmer games.
Split screen is supported, with a text-scaling option added in v5.0.8 for TV and Steam Deck play.
The official 2v2 community tournament held for the multiplayer launch (recapped by the developers on 28 April 2026) showed a popular pairing: the Infiltrator's mobility with the Assessor's carrying capacity.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Digging too deep in the first cycles. Your drill is weak and travel time is long. Clear the upper layers first.
Ignoring carry upgrades. Resources sitting in the mine are worth nothing.
Coming back late. If the wave arrives while you are deep underground, the dome takes free damage.
Spreading iron across every upgrade. Focus drill, carry and one defensive line early.
Forgetting flyers. Pick upgrades or gadgets that handle air enemies before the waves that feature them.
Rushing the relic without defenses. The final wave is much harder than anything before it.

Advanced Tips

Mine in loops. Dig a path that goes out and curves back, so you never return along a dead-end tunnel.
Follow iron clusters. When you find iron, clear the whole cluster before moving on.
Push extraction before big spending. Since cycle length scales with iron mined, extracting more early gives longer mining windows later.
Scout for nodes early in Relic Hunt. Knowing where the nodes sit lets you plan the last few cycles precisely.
Split roles in co-op. One player defends and upgrades, others mine; swap as waves approach. Use the direction indicators (v5.0.8) to find each other.
Try the staging beta. The developers publish patches early on a public staging branch in Steam.

FAQ

Is Dome Keeper multiplayer? Yes. Up to four players in online or local co-op, plus Versus, as of the 2026 multiplayer update.

Do I need The Lost Keepers DLC to play with friends who have it? No. Since v5.0.4 you can play the DLC keepers in a lobby even if the host does not own the DLC, and clients can share unlocks with the host.

Which keeper is best for beginners? The Engineer. His drill-and-tether style is the most direct.

How do I win Relic Hunt? Uncover the relic chamber, activate every node, carry the relic back to the dome and survive the final wave.

What does cobalt do? It is the rare resource for stronger upgrades, and in Prestige it raises your score multiplier.

Does Dome Keeper have mods? Mods exist for singleplayer; the developers said in May 2026 they are working to enable mods for multiplayer and improve mod support.