Bauxite Mines – Last Fortress: Underground

Last updated: 12.01.2023 ☣ Game version: 1.352.001

In Last Fortress: Underground, Bauxite mines are used to gather aluminum, a resource used for:

• Upgrading neutral cities during Seasons 1-5.
• Getting Alliance Contribution Points.

During S0-S5, there are level 8-10 mines, and once you hit Dimensions (S6+), level-11 mines appear.

Mine Level	Mining Time	Aluminum Capacity	Alliance Points
8	5 hours	16,000	1,600
9	6 hours	32,000	3,200
10	12 hours	100,000	10,000
11	18 hours	150,000	15,000

The Usage of Aluminum

City Upgrades

During Seasons 1-5, aluminum is used to upgrade the neutral cities you capture to get more Influence points. 

Alliance’s Territory Influence depends on the cities your alliance is occupying. The higher each city’s level is, the more influence points you will get and the better weekly rewards.

Alliance Contribution Points

As you gather aluminum, you will get alliance contribution points for it, namely 10% of the gathered aluminum. So, 100,000 aluminum gets you 10,000 points.

You can then spend these points in the Alliance Shop.

Your alliance leadership can convert 100,000 aluminum gathered by its members into 30,000 alliance points that can be used to restock the Alliance Shop.

Note: Mining aluminum can only earn you 100,000 alliance contribution points per week. You can double this limit by buying a special pass, but is it worth $20? Probably not.

After bauxite mines were introduced, a deficit of anything in the Alliance Shop became almost impossible.

Alliance Duel and Personal Race

On Mondays, you will get one Alliance Duel point for each aluminum gathered. For example, a fully gathered level-10 bauxite mine will grant you 100,000 points. Hence, it is crucial to time it well with a buff card.

During the gathering phase of the Personal Armaments Race, you can get all three chests with a level 10 mine if you time it well. A level 9 mine will get you 32,000 points, but you can easily close the rest with speed-ups.

Gathering Aluminum from Bauxite Mines

Using bauxite mines is different from using other mines. You need to:

1. Defeat the garrison defending the mine first.
2. Assign the required number of troops for gathering.
   1. Only troops, no APC is required.
   2. The game will choose the lowest level of troops possible. So if you have Lv.9 and Lv.10 troops, it will hire Lv.9 first if they are available (not used in lineups).
   3. The type of troops depends on the defending lineup you get after clearing the mine.
3. Wait till the gathering time ends.
   1. (!) You will not be able to use the mining troops until the mining is done.

Note: You can mine only one bauxite mine of any level at a time.

You can also attack the bauxite mines of other players to gain aluminum. But:

1. You can attack only after the mine’s progress reaches 30%.
2. You can get only 50% of the aluminum you remove from the mine by the attack.
3. Your first attack removes 20% of the overall aluminum capacity in the mine, and each consecutive one removes 10%.
   1. Let’s say you attacked a level 10 mine. In this case, you will remove 20,000 aluminum from the mine’s total capacity with the first attack, but you will get only 10,000 aluminum.
   2. Also, each attack shortens the mining duration for the mine owner by 10%. For example, the first attack on a level 10 mine will shorten the gathering by 72 minutes. 

95% of player troops attacked in a bauxite mine become lightly wounded. If you want, you can garrison your lineup to defend the mine. Also, attacking a bauxite mine takes only one APC durability point.

Tip for S0 or Homeworld: Do not attack someone’s bauxite mine directly. Send your APC to gather a regular mine near the target or attack a regular zombie with “Garrison in place” checked. This way, you will get to the mine a lot faster, and the other player will have less time to react if it isn’t a friendly aluminum farming.

Abusing Destructive Mining

You can have a deal with other alliances to attack one another’s bauxite mines. Why? (also – a good video by TerdNugent on this)

• To gather aluminum faster. Let’s see how this works on a level 10 mine:
  
  • You attack someone’s mine four times after its progress reaches 30%.
  • You reduce the mine’s capacity by 50,000 aluminum.
  • You get half of that, which is 25,000 aluminum.
  • You reduce the time for the other player by 40% (288 minutes).
  • The other player gets to mine 50,000 in 432 minutes (7hr 12m).
  • The other player attacks your mine and gets 25,000.
  • Both of you get 75,000 aluminum in 7hr 12m, which would normally take 9 hours.
    
• To get more Alliance Duel points on Monday.
  
  • You can deplete 2 level 10 bauxite mines in a day, which is 200,000 aluminum.
  • But if you attack each other’s mines, you can get 300,000 aluminum on Monday.
    
• To get Personal Armaments Race gathering rewards.
  
  • With attacks, you can correct the timing of bauxite mines and get aluminum during the gathering stage.
  • This will usually grant you all three reward chests.
    
• To get 200,000 Alliance Contribution Points a week.
  
  • As I wrote earlier, there is a premium pass that allows you to increase the limit from 100,000 to 200,000. 
  • If you decide to get it, abusing destructive mining will provide you with better chances of reaching this weekly limit.

	Level 8 Mine	Level 9 Mine	Level 10 Mine	Level 11 Mine
Full mining time	300m (5h)	360m (6h)	720m (12h)	1080m (18h)
Aluminum capacity	16,000	32,000	100,000	150,000
Time removed (per attack)	30m	36m	72m (1h 12m)	108m (1h 48m)
Total possible time removed	120m (2h)	144m (2h 24m)	288m (4h 48m)	432m (7h 12m)
Capacity removed (1st attack)	3,200	6,400	20,000	30,000
Capacity removed (each next)	1,600	3,200	10,000	20,000
Total possible capacity removed	8,000	16,000	50,000	75,000
Aluminum gained (1st attack)	1,600	3,200	10,000	15,000
Aluminum gained (each next)	800	1,600	5,000	7,500
Total possible aluminum gained	4,000	8,000	25,000	37,500
Points gained (1st attack)	320	640	2000	3000
Points gained (each next)	160	320	1000	1500
Total possible points gained	800	1600	5000	7500