I've played to the Mines quest a few times now, here's my tips:
Character Creation:
You get to create a master and your first slave, then get a Bunny girl in the first night.
Creating the char it helps to put 5 into Charm.
I'd recommend setting some stats to 5.
Now for Classes:
As you gain XP you'll unlock classes. These provide additional skills, and increase a stat. It helps to think about each person's role:
- Paladin (e.g. Scholar (single heal) with 4 physics, then get Warrior, Worker for the Physics and Harvesting bonus, and either Healer (unlocked from the church's food quest) or make him an Elf and get Druid. (Healer group-heals and rezzes. Druid has a very useful AoE attack and group heal). Many magic staffs also have good melee; switch him to a stronger melee weapons if you have more than one other caster.
- My Seductress/Whore classes get Bard immediately, then Maid Pet Geisha and usually Farming. I find it useful to upgrade them to 2 Phys and give them hunter for the double attack.
- Pure mage: Very useful to have two casters with group heals, as group heals have a cooldown and sometimes the enemies do focus someone in your party.
My first successful playthrough was with a Paladin main (moderate in everything) and a Paladin with Magic and Phys maxed; I then understood how the upgrade system works: Each upgrade requires a rarer type of wood. It pays to have some stats at 5 from the outset, and just upgrade your level-1 stats to 2 using 100 gold and 10 wood after day 14. (You'll need to save up gold until then).
2nd playthrough was harder: Rogue/Fighter/Worker main with a Mage as a partner. Having two mages who can AoE and have different damage types and mass heals really helps in the harder fights.
3rd playthrough: Whore/Succubus main with a Paladin partner. I hired a fourth char on day one to make up for her weaker combat skills, and got lucky with guild tasks so I could also get Daisy. My whore main now has the Mines quest, did some medium bandit hideouts, gave birth, has all the charm and sex skills I could find, and still doesn't make a lot from prostitution :D
Current playthrough just started, "easy mode" with two male mages. my plan is to upgrade the bedroom and molest Daisy a lot. :D
Strategy from day one:
Create Main, go to town, talk to a guild and create first slave. I recommend siding with Mages for a good Staff, which makes your caster a bit imba from the start.
Check noticeboard.
Possible tasks:
- craft (energy shard, collar, ears ...) - ignore until you have the room built. You may get lucky and get a task for3 Energy shards, these sometimes drop in Goblin Caves.
- farm (meat wood stone etc) - these are great for day one, maybe except Bone.
- single fight (wolves are quite easy, bandits a bit harder. Accept but save for day 2 or 3)
- kill a number of goblins or bandits. Accept if it says Goblins (Bandits is a bit tougher but manageable).
- Complete a dungeon. These are quite easy, accept and save for day 3.
- need slave for 3 days (usually needs a combination of gender and class. Easy to do only that slave will be gone for three days.)
- need slave (you can buy one and train them up, but usually at a loss I think. Like if it needs a male harlot with sexuals 20, you'll have to hire someone, do a dungeon or two with them (or have them read a valuable XP scroll) until they can learn Harlot, date and train them, then have them work as a whore until the stats are up. And then turn them in at a loss. I'll skip these next time.)
Go home, date your first slave, click Travels, find a resource you need (if you don't have quests, just go farm foods).
At midnight or 1 am day 2, go to Aliron, check town, get Daisy. Set her to fishing, return your workers.
When everyone's back, date Daisy, praise both. Doubleclick your Scholar if you have one and make sure he has the staff equipped.
Click Crafting, you should have enough resources to start crafting meat soup.
Go to Aliron, "Buy Dungeon", buy a Goblin Cave.
I now just buy or hire a fourth character as soon as possible. Enter the goblin cave, Advance. If you have a Mage first slave, and they have a Staff, they can one-shot most goblins. So everyone except your mage with the staff focuses on one enemy. Your caster heals anyone whose HP are under 30, otherwise shoot the strongest enemy with fireball. You other characters all focus on the same enemy, preferably one that's already damaged. Use Magic to heal between fights. Don't use Energy shards if you only have a few, sometimes the guild wants 3 of them.
Do not hire a fifth character yet. Your mansion can house 5 slaves max by default, you want one slot available for when you win a bandit cave or find a random slave in a dungeon. (Can just sell them, but not if you have 5 people already.)
After a fight or three, you'll be out of mana for heals. Go back to Mansion, hit Travels, go farm something useful. And/or set your casters to cook, have someone fish. If you're just a few coins short of something you want to buy, set Daisy to prostitution. When your mana is mostly replenished, do some more of the goblin cave.
Getting Thief for your main character is useful for levelling up wits.
Buy weapons in town, even a club helps.
The cycle for me is:
- go to goblin cave until worried about mana
- go back and cook, or Travel and farm for food (occasionally wood) until mana is back up
- Always farm everything at the end of a dungeon (after the boss you get 1 locked chest, and some resources to harvest)
Your characters will become stronger with each round of these. You'll be quite weak in week 1 but should aim to have 4 people, everyone with a weapon, and grind goblin caves.
Random tips:
Characters may become pregnant if you forget to turn on Aphrodisiacs. (Double-click the char, click "food and details) in the bottom left. Two of my playthroughs my MC had an unplanned pregnancy, so uh ... :D
If you find a Pyramid:
If the description is something metal ... light ... Moon, it wants food.
If the description says "sizeable hole", it wants a stone.
If the description says wood female, it wants cloth.
Gild tasks refresh each week. Check on day 6 and day 13 (I think) to make sure you've handed in any completed quests, and maybe cancel impossible ones you've accepted, in order to free that slot for a new guild quest.