About Mineralium

Mineralium is an independent browser puzzle inspired by Lines 98. If you remember arranging coloured balls in Color Lines, the central rule will feel familiar: minerals take their place here. Move them through free cells and form lines of five or more of one colour.

Essence, a descent into the mine and instrument crafting extend the familiar puzzle. Discover the world of Mineralium below, or start with the rules and example moves.

The secrets of stone

Every mineral holds its primordial essence — the substance from which its colour, lustre and hardness once took shape. For a long time, no one noticed it. Stone was split, polished, melted and given new forms. The ancient masters asked a different question: what gives the stone itself its form?

For years they studied the rock, compared their finds and sought repetitions in the endless variety of minerals. Gradually, a clear order emerged beneath the intricate facets. Matter followed its own rules, forming the same patterns again and again. The masters learned to read those patterns — and one day found a way to unravel them.

That was how the essenciator came to be.

Generations of observation and experiment found their expression in its workings. Minerals arranged into lines reveal their essence: through slender glass pipes flows a primordial liquid, filling the waiting flasks. Each holds a substance still free of its familiar form, ready to take shape again in skilled hands.

Ever since, masters have carried an essenciator into the mine. Among the heavy strata they seek the means to create something never seen before, restore a forgotten instrument, or complete a thought left in the margin of an old recipe.

Much of the first masters’ legacy has been lost. Their instruments have outlasted their records, and some discoveries still bewilder the most learned minds.

How it works in the game

Cleared lines yield essence matching the minerals’ colour. It travels through the pipes and fills the flasks. A completed flask adds to your permanent reserves, ready for use in the Workshop. An unfinished flask remains part of the current descent.

The art of seeing the unseen

An experienced master sees a future line where scattered stones still lie. They preserve a narrow passage, discern a hidden connection and patiently prepare a move whose time has not yet come.

Look closer. A design is already taking shape among the coloured facets. Holding it in mind, recognising a new possibility, finding a way through a tangled field — these are arts revealed to an attentive eye.

In time, details once overlooked begin to form a clear picture. And one day, a solution that would have taken long deliberation becomes visible at a glance.

How it works in the game

Select a mineral, then an empty cell. An unobstructed path must connect them horizontally and vertically. A straight line of five or more matching minerals clears; the line itself may also be diagonal. A move that does not clear a line brings new minerals onto the field. Longer lines earn more points. How to play · Scoring

What the chronicles leave untold

From the distant depths came things for which there were no names. Darkened chests with intricate locks. Grains of an unknown substance. Drawings crowded with the marks of workshops long vanished.

The sparse accounts break off at their most intriguing passages. What sent their authors back beneath the mountain, lanterns freshly filled? Which discoveries did they keep from prying eyes?

The answers remain below, among silent veins and untouched deposits. Perhaps one awaits in a chest whose lid you will be the first to lift.

How it works in the game

Your score marks the depth reached. New mineral types appear as you descend, making open paths increasingly precious. Chests are among the discoveries: keep them in your Inventory and open them there. Recipes unlock crafting possibilities. Finds already awarded remain yours after a descent ends.

The legacy of forgotten masters

Old drawings still bear the marks of hot flasks and hurried notes in the margins. Their authors built instruments that could extract the finest traces, alter a mineral’s properties and find a use for what others dismissed as worthless rock.

With these devices they travelled where few returned from. Each guarded a secret: a particular adjustment of a lens, an improved retort, a combination of instruments tested through long descents.

Now you can continue their work. Prepare materials from the essence you have gathered, restore an instrument from a discovered recipe and put it to the test. In time, the notes in the margins of the old drawing will be your own.

How it works in the game

Craft materials from essence, then use learned recipes to make and improve artifacts. Take three instruments into a descent. Some increase your yield; others provide special actions, such as recolouring a mineral or swapping two stones. Active instruments use charges. Their cards explain the effects and conditions. Open the Workshop · Open Inventory

Beyond the last mark

The depth gauge is still moving. Coloured light trembles in the flasks. Ahead lies a mass of mountain beyond the reach of any reliable account.

How many forgotten works remain there, how many unsolved patterns and substances still without a name? Even the greatest masters left that question unanswered.

The Hall of Fame keeps the names of those who travelled furthest. Yet the final page of the chronicles of descent remains unwritten.

Perhaps it will bear your name.

How it works in the game

The depth of your descent determines your place in the shared leaderboard. Personal records, achievements and collections preserve the story of your discoveries. Return through the play button to continue an unfinished descent. Hall of Fame · Profile

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