# Gold, Miners and Reward Cards

> Where gold comes from in Blockade Brigade: kill bounties, selling towers, Miners on hills, reward cards and rarities, rerolls, the Reward Store and research.

- Page: https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/economy
- Site: Blockade Brigade, a tower defense game for Windows PC (https://blockadebrigade.com/)
- Last updated: 2026-10-22
- Text generated: 2026-11-02 07:37 UTC

Gold wins games, but only gold you spend at the right time. Here is where it comes from, where Miners fit in, and how to play the reward cards.

- Where gold comes from
- Miners
- Reward cards
- Rerolls and the Reward Store
- Research

### Where gold comes from

- **150** gold at the start of a game, before research
- **5 to 500** gold per kill: a Raptor pays 5, a Tin Trooper 10, the Blimp Boss 500
- **75%** back when you sell a tower (all of it in the first 15 seconds)
- **0** interest, and no bonus for clearing a wave: kills, Miners and cards are it

Every enemy pays its bounty when it dies. Tougher enemies pay more: a [Tank](https://blockadebrigade.com/enemies/tank) 25, a [Clanker](https://blockadebrigade.com/enemies/clanker) 40, a [Domeguard](https://blockadebrigade.com/enemies/domeguard) 60, the [Giant Worm](https://blockadebrigade.com/enemies/giant_worm) 150 and the [Mech Boss](https://blockadebrigade.com/enemies/mech_boss) 400. Bugs and Drones pay more as they arm up in later waves. An enemy that gets through pays nothing and costs you lives, so a strong defence is also your best income.

### Miners

The [Miner](https://blockadebrigade.com/towers/miner) (150 gold, 10,000 XP to research; each Miner after the first costs 40% more: 210, 293, 411...) is the one tower that makes gold. It stands on hilltops only, never on flat ground or a ramp, and needs no power.

- **When it pays:** once, at the end of each wave you clear. The smoke stack shows it working during the wave.
- **How much:** collection × speed × depth × the hill bonus. The hill bonus is +15% per level of hill, and a taller hill also gives more collection and depth, up to a hill 5 high (+75%): a taller hill, such as the Islands volcano's summit, counts as 5. Platforms under a Miner do not count.
- **Upgrades:** 150, then 300, then 600 gold. Every upgrade lays a conveyor belt down one of the slopes next to it and raises its collection, speed and depth together. A Miner can take one belt per slope beside it, at most three; water and path count as cliffs and block a belt. Count the slopes before you build.
- **The mine runs out.** The first level of a mine holds 200 gold, and every deeper level holds three times the one above (600, 1,800 ...). Upgrades, research and cards that add depth open the next level, even in a mine that has run dry.
- **Each Miner raises the price of the next one,** so a few well-placed, upgraded Miners beat many new ones.

- Tips
- Build Miners early: a Miner built at wave 5 pays at the end of every wave after it.
- Pick the tallest hilltop with the most slopes around it. Height raises every payout; slopes decide how far it can be upgraded.
- Late in a game, gold in a gun often beats gold in a Miner: it may not have enough waves left to pay for itself.
- Think twice before digging a tall hill down with the bulldozer: it is your best Miner ground.

### Reward cards

After each wave you choose one of three cards. The kinds:

| Card | What it gives |
| --- | --- |
| Tower stat | A bonus for one tower type (damage, fire rate, range ...), by rarity: Normal 2%, Common 5%, Rare 10%, Epic 15%, Legendary 25%, Mythical 35%. The most common kind of card. |
| Instant Gold | Gold now: half to all of what your last wave's kills paid, and never less than 40 + 15 × the wave (55 after wave 1, 190 after wave 10). |
| Gold Drop | Every kill pays more for the rest of the game: +2% to +10% a card, and they add up. It comes 5 times a game, then that place offers Instant Gold or a Miner card instead (the Cards list shows "Gold Drop 3 / 5"). |
| Extra Lives | +1, +2 or +3 lives. |
| Extra Reroll | +2 to +5 rerolls. |
| +1 card | One more card to choose from on every screen after this one. |

**Endless cards.** Once you have taken the same stat for the same tower five times, it stops coming as a normal card and turns up as a grey Endless card worth 1 to 5%. Stat cards never run out in a game; they just get smaller, which is a nudge to spread your picks.

- Tips
- Gold Drop is best taken early: it pays on every kill for the rest of the game.
- Instant Gold grows with your kills and the wave, so the same card is worth more later.
- Pick stat cards for the towers you will keep building. A Legendary card for a tower you never place is worth nothing.

### Rerolls and the Reward Store

You start every game with 6 rerolls; a reroll swaps the cards on offer for new ones. The Reward Store on the card screen sells more with gold:

- **Reroll Pack:** 3 rerolls for 150 gold (50 a reroll).
- **Extra Card Draw:** one more card on every screen for the rest of the game. The first costs 500 gold, and each one after costs 500 more (500, 1,000, 1,500...).

An Extra Card Draw bought early pays out every wave after. Rerolls are best kept for the waves when a Legendary or Mythical card would change the game.

### Research

Your kills earn XP, and XP buys research: new towers and permanent upgrades that carry over to every game. For gold, the Starting Gold research adds 50 gold a level, up to +500 over ten levels. The card research lines add cards to each screen and let you favour, filter and hold cards. A challenge with research off (the [Cannon Challenge](https://blockadebrigade.com/leaderboards/maps)) ignores all of it, so everyone starts alike.

The Clanker says

Finders keepers!

[← Terrain is a weapon](https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/terrain) [Next: Armour, shields and flyers →](https://blockadebrigade.com/strategies/armour-shields-flyers)

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About the whole site: https://blockadebrigade.com/llms.txt