Hirelings hirelings

Hirelings mine gold automatically, providing gold every second, and are the main source of gold throughout the game. At the beginning of the game only Large Ants can be purchased, and more unlock as you collect gold, with later hirelings also requiring other resources to unlock. The initial version of Mine Defense contained only nine hirelings, and four more have been added through updates.

Hireling upgrades

Hirelings get a series of upgrades that increase their productivity. In addition, each hireling aside from Large Ants and Neurochrysalises have an upgrade that allows for the alchemical transmutation of the hirelings from gems by Alchemists. The tables below show the amount of each type of hireling required to unlock each upgrade; the alchemical transmutation upgrades are denoted by bold text. Large Ants and Hive Queens have a slightly different update schedule and have been separated into their own table. The 1.00 update added an alchemy recipe to convert sandshrew into gold to make the hive queen transmutation upgrade, Diamond-Spiked Eggs, more easily obtainable.

The rest of the hirelings receive upgrades at 10, 50, 100, 150, and 200 hired.

• *Neurological Enlightenment also requires 100K mage tower research to unlock.
• **Human Fusion also requires raising a youngling dragon to unlock.

Several hirelings also get resource bonus upgrades after hiring one million of that type of hireling.

• *Mana Man multiplies Flax Affinity rate by 1.5

Hirelings (aside from large ants and the newly added dragon hunter) received upgrades in the 1.00 update for hiring 1B and 1T of each type. Several of the upgrades provide new symbiotic resource relationships detailed below.

Symbiosis

Many types of hirelings gain symbiotic relationships with a separate hireling type through upgrades. In other words, one type of hireling receives a bonus amount of gold per second for every hireling hired of the other type. Some receive multiple bonuses. The following chart lists each of the symbiotic relationships, the rate of increase, and the upgrade required to gain the relationship.

• Note: Underdogs provides a reciprocal bonus to both bloodhounds and goblins.

Bloodhounds and wyverns also gain upgrades that boost their production based on non-hireling resources. These symbiotic relationships use different formulas instead of the simple base increase per hireling used by those in the table above.

Many of the 1.00 upgrades provide symbiotic relationships that allow hirelings to produce resources.

Rebellious goblins

With the Traitorous Goblins upgrade, one of your hireling goblins has a 1% chance (10% with Teenage Rebellion) to rebel and attack you each second (provided there is room to attack on the main screen). If it does, the newly attacking goblin on the main screen will be a different color, signifying that it is a rebel goblin, and will have 500 times the hit points and 50 times the strength of a normal goblin invader. Rebel goblins drop 1000 times the gold of a normal goblin and drop between 10 and 30 dragonscale. Three goblins will join your hireling ranks upon the death of a rebel goblin. If you have Teenage Rebellion, you also gain between 100 and 300 additional dragonscale and 2 of one of the four elemental essences, chosen at random. Note that the spirit essence multiplier affects the gold, dragonscale, hireling, and essence gained from killing the rebel, making rebels a fairly substantial source of essence early in the dragon-rearing section of the game.

Update info

• Version 1.00 - 13/12/2014
  • Added dragonhunters
  • Added a sandshrew to gold recipe to help with the hive queen grind
  • Hive Queen prices scale a bit slower
  • Added stretch upgrades
  • Slightly slowed down gem rate from goblins sacrificed
• Version 0.991 - 27/09/2014
  • Added an upgrade that increases the goblin cost of the smelting pit (it will make sense, don't worry)
  • Added wyvern upgrade Adamantium Affinity
• Version 0.99 - 20/09/2014
  • Neurochyrsalises can now be alchemized
  • Hireling hover text now shows the total production of that hireling
• Version 0.97 - 06/09/2014
  • The initial bagger upgrade for acquiring dirt is now cheaper
• Version 0.951 - 23/08/2014
  • Added an upgrade for 100 neurochrysalises
  • Added a powerful goblin/bloodhound upgrade
• Version 0.95 - 16/08/2014
  • Neurochrysalis boost to mages is not as strong
• Version 0.94 - 09/08/2014
  • Added a third yield upgrade for alchemists, and the alchemist screen now shows yield upgrades in the ratio column
• Version 0.93 - 02/08/2014
  • Added an upgrade at 200 Wyverns
  • Slight increase in Hive Queen gem cost
• Version 0.92 - 25/07/2014
  • Ant prices now grow exponentially always (so they will show infinity)
  • Transmutation now also occurs if you have 100% of the amount, instead of the current efficiency (i.e. 330%)
  • Added a new hireling to boost mana gain and two upgrades to go with it
  • Reduced world eater and hive queen alchemy prices
  • Added a cross upgrade between baggers and ants
  • Alt click now works the same way as ctrl click
  • Added upgrades increasing alchemical yield (without increasing cost)
• Version 0.91 - 19/07/2014
  • Made Internal Army far less powerful
  • World Eaters and Hive Queen recipes are more expensive, and other recipes have been tweaked
  • Holding ctrl allows you to move 10 mages or alchemists at once, or buy 10 hirelings at once
  • Rounded gem and hireling values, because people were getting annoyed at seeing 103.4 ants and so on
  • Added alchemist upgrades that increase potential (and therefore speed up transmutation)
  • Wyvern transmutation is now possible, but at a very high price
• Version 0.90 - 12/07/2014
  • Added a new tier of imbuement upgrades
  • Added alchemists lairs
  • Added alchemy recipes that are unlocked over time
  • Wyverns are slightly cheaper
  • Added upgrades at 200 for every hireling except Wyverns
  • Slightly nerfed the bloodhound upgrade - early on it was pretty broken
• Version 0.89 - 05/07/2014
  • Bloodhound upgrade to deal with how awful they were after the first 10 minutes
• Version 0.87 - 27/06/2014
  • Upgrades for 150 of each hireling
  • Batch imbuement - you can imbue 5, 10, 25, or max levels at a time
  • Two new symbiosis upgrades
  • A new late game hireling
• Version 0.85 - 21/06/2014
  • Red mage upgrade now only requires mage level to be 80% or higher, and doesn't require spiders
  • Queens now have an extra upgrade available
  • Added higher level imbuement upgrades
• Version 0.82 - 14/06/2014
  • Added a new red upgrade available after wizards have spent half an hour at maximum power, assuming spiders are unlocked already (check the power level in the mages tab)
  • Wizards can now increase the power of hirelings at the price of mana (after the new red upgrade is bought)
• Version 0.80 - 07/06/2014
  • Switched to a more advanced tooltip system and added a tooltip to the oracle
• Version 0.72 - 17/05/2014
  • New menu buttons
  • Buttons gray out when not affordable
  • New hireling buttons (easier to see how many you have)
  • Added lots of late game content (hint - if you have fewer than 1000 ants, you don't have everything, but don't try to buy them all yourself!)
• Version 0.68 - 10/05/2014
  • Added world eaters
• Version 0.55 - 27/04/2014
  • Hireling tooltips now display gold per second