With the reintroduction of the Haunted Mines, and all people still learning how to play the map, I thought it is a good idea to give people some pointers. Even old Veterans like my, who played the map before have some things to learn about the new Haunted Mines.

How to play the Hunted Mines? Why are some games taking so long? Here is the answer!

There are a few strategies on this map. Some are new, some existed in the old version of the map.
Remember 1 thing and keep it in your mind at all times. Haunted Mines is all about Trading Structures!!! You have to make optimal decisions, so you get as much Structure damage, while you trade as least structure damage of your own. So first and foremost, for the love of God - DO NOT always defend! I see constantly and it drives me nuts. You want to do damage, not spend the game getting a strong Golem and then wasting it, by not going to push with it.
The thing about the mines is that you have to use your golem. He is the meet shield, you have to do the damage. If you always defend, you will get nowhere.

If you have the strong Golem push with it! Let your defenses take care of the enemy golem. Spare 1 hero to soak the xp in the other lane and go HAM.

If you have the weaker Golem defend! Send 1 hero to help your Golem and soak XP, but make sure to burn through the enemy Golem before he can enable a strong push.

Enter as fast as possible and farm the small camps of miners first. If you are quick, you can try to steal some of the sculls on the enemy side of the mines, ultimately making your Golem stronger. As with the objective on Garden of Terror, the small camps win the game, not the big one. Then attack the Golem in the middle of the map as 5 man team. If the enemy comes to contest, give them some space and wait until they attack the Golem. Then collapse on them as they are being busy avoiding the Golem's stun and root in the small, cramped space.

Pumpkin Camps.
Take this camp just as the mines are opened. It will push the lanes during the mines faze, and get some siege damage done for free, if the enemy team ignores them. As they have to travel just a bit to reach the gate, the enemy will have to commit to clan it, if they want to prevent damage. This will buy you time to take all the small camps of miners inside the mines.

Siege Giants camp.
Many people opt to take the Giants, before the mines open, instead of the Pumpkin Camp. That is a valid strategy. However! In most cases the camp will be cleaned fast and easy, not really doing much. If they are left alone, they will not do much more than the Pumpkins. If not you are just buying time. That is much better done with the Pumpkins, because the Siege Giants have a lot of Value during the Golem faze. One of the oldest strategies in this map is to take the Siege Giants camp, just as the Golem is spawning. And it is very effective, as if it is timed correctly, the Giants will attack the enemy Golem, as he is attacking your Fort gate. They will do a ton of damage to that Golem. If you have the stronger Golem, you are in even better position. You can just let your defenses and the Giants clean the Golem, without any serious damage done, and this will allow the solo hero in that lane to counter push with the camp, at the same time as the enemy has to still deal with your Golem in the other lane.

What lane to push?
On Battlefield of Eternity the Immortal attacks the most fortified lane, The Golem however changes lanes each time. This opens up some interesting new strategies. Like pushing the same lane every time. This works much better if you are ahead and have the stronger Golem (or at least even in strenght), which won't be hard. If you followed the prior advice. Imagine this. If you got to push 1 lane down and killed a fort with your Golem in the first wave, the second time your Golem will push the other lane. So if you leave your Golem alone, and you attack the other lane, threatening the keep, the enemy has a tough decision to make. They can let your Golem push down their other fort and defend the Keep, or they can let you siege their keep to defend the fort. No matter, if they defend the keep or not, the next time your Golem will change lanes again, and will kill that keep regardless. Now there is the problem of the enemy Golem being in the lane you push. You can choose to kill it first, or ignore it and push with it behind you. Killing it will slow you down and give you less opportunity to do damage, but will prevent damage to your structures. Ignoring it however is often better (yet harder to convince your team to try). As you will starve the Golem of minions (You will be killing them further down the lane as you push), and you own minions will attack him, the damge he will do will be minimal, but you will net much more structure damage. Remember this map is all about trading structures! This is the best possible outcome, yet the strategy still nets advantages regardless of your success.


I hope, I helped some people that never played this map before. Please let me know in the comments what you think, as well as share some of your own strategies. I plan to add more in this guide later on.

Good luck and see you in the Nexus. :)