Also seeing this. Lost 900 buckets of yellow paint I was saving to make stupid in-game pixel art. Doesn’t matter since the penalty for hitting mines makes creating a canvas impossible.
On the other hand, this is a great refresher that the grind is too grindy without more random encounters and sights along the way, upgrade prices are too high, and many upgrades don’t feel significant.
Dirt mining efficiency is the only thing that really feels like it matters. That means the only pickaxe upgrades that feel like they do anything are whatever gets you to mine dirt in two swings. The next, I dunno, 4 upgrades after that to amethyst and dirt in one don’t matter until endgame.
Swing speed would feel like it is doing something early game, but that’s off limits until after the absurdly expensive mine-by-numbers shovel tool. I think swing speed should be unlocked by one or two pickaxe upgrades. Shovel can branch off of swing speed.
Bag size doesn’t feel too urgent until I get the mine by numbers shovel. I might get one or two upgrades.
So after getting the mine dirt in two pickaxe and I go straight for the shovel tool because that feels good to use. But it’s like a 2-3 hour grind maybe? That’s a lot of patience for probably seeing only the water biome and no flavor encounters other than a couple gems and a treasure chest or three.