Arcade Whale
Arcade Whale OriginalMade in-house, playable only here
Pin Mine
How to play
Tap or click a pin to pull it out · 1-9 pull the numbered pin · H hint · R restart the shaft · P pause
About Pin Mine
Pin Mine is a free pull the pin puzzle game you play in your browser with no download, built from the pin-pulling puzzles you have seen in phone game ads. Each level is a mine shaft cut into warm brown rock and seen from the side. Silver pins slide through the rock and hold up whatever sits on top of them: shiny gold coins, blue water, glowing lava, grey boulders and purple slimes. At the bottom waits a mine cart on its rails and Digby, a cheerful mole miner in a hard hat. Tap a pin and it slides out, and everything it was holding falls. Your goal is to fill the cart with gold up to the line, keep Digby safe and leave no slime behind.
The whole game is the order of the pins. Pull them in the right order and the gold rolls into the cart. Pull them in the wrong order and lava melts the gold before it gets there, or pours onto Digby. Look at what each pin holds before you touch anything, then plan the drops. A level that goes wrong costs nothing: the same shaft starts again right away, and you can try a new order.
Every element follows a simple rule. Lava melts gold and burns Digby. Water poured onto lava turns it into safe grey stone with a puff of steam, and gold can roll over the stone. Slimes walk towards Digby as soon as they land, so drop them into lava, into a pit or under a falling boulder before they reach him. Boulders crush slimes, but a boulder that lands on Digby knocks him out. Grey ore is worthless on its own, yet it turns into gold the moment it touches gold outside the cart, so a little gold can make a lot more. Fuse pins have a short timer and pop out by themselves once you pull your first pin, so in those shafts the plan has to be ready before you start.
The campaign has 90 shafts. The first ones teach one element at a time, and each new element gets a short banner the first time you meet it. Later shafts mix them: water and lava stacked over the same gold, slimes that have to be burned before the gold can fall, boulders that must miss Digby, ore that needs gold to touch it, and fuse pins that force a fast, planned order. After shaft 90 the Mirror shafts begin, with every tower again but flipped from left to right.
Each full cart pays coins, and extra gold above the line pays a little more. Coins buy new hats for Digby in the hat cabinet: a beanie, a cowboy hat, a top hat, a viking helmet and a crown. When you are stuck, the Hint button costs 40 coins and lights up the next pin to pull; if your current order can no longer win, it restarts the shaft and shows you the first pin. If you are short of coins, a short video gets you the hint instead. After a lost shaft you may watch a video, once per shaft, to rewind the last pin, and after a win you may watch one to double the coins. None of this is needed to finish a level. A daily reward adds coins when you come back, your shafts, coins and hats are saved in your browser, and the shafts you complete count on the weekly board.
Pin Mine tips & strategy
Read the shaft from the top down
Follow each pin and ask what falls if it goes first. The pin at the top is often not the one to pull first, especially when lava sits right above the gold.
Water before gold
When water and lava share a shaft, the usual plan is to turn the lava into stone first and only then let the gold fall. Gold that meets lava is gone for good.
Use the extra gold
The cart only needs to be filled to the line, but every coin above it pays a bonus. Ore that touches gold on the way down turns golden too, so let them meet before the cart.
Plan fuse shafts before you tap
The first pull starts every fuse. Decide the full order first, then pull quickly, so the timed pins drop their load where you want it.
Game details
- Developer
- Arcade Whale
- Genre
- Puzzle
- Released
- Updated
- Platforms
- Browser (desktop, mobile, tablet)
- Orientation
- Portrait or landscape
- Players
- Single player
- Leaderboard
- Weekly, resets every Monday
Frequently asked questions
How do I play Pin Mine?
Tap or click a pin to pull it out. Whatever it was holding falls down. Fill the mine cart with gold up to the line, keep Digby the mole safe and make sure no slime is left. On a keyboard the number keys pull the numbered pins.
Why does the order of the pins matter?
Everything that falls reacts with what it meets. Lava melts gold and burns Digby, water turns lava into stone, boulders crush slimes. The same pins pulled in a different order can fill the cart or lose the shaft, so look first and pull second.
How do I deal with lava?
Pour water onto it first. Water turns lava into grey stone with a puff of steam, and gold can then roll over the stone safely. In some shafts you can instead let the lava drain away into a pit before the gold falls.
How do I get rid of slimes?
Slimes walk towards Digby, and a slime that reaches him ends the shaft. Drop them into lava, into an open pit or under a falling boulder. A shaft only counts as won when no slime is left.
What are fuse pins?
Fuse pins have a small timer. Nothing happens until you pull your first pin; after that the fuse burns down and the pin pops out on its own. Work out the whole order before your first tap.
Is Pin Mine like the Hero Wars ads?
Yes. It plays like the pull the pin puzzles in those ads: pins hold back lava, water and treasure, and the order you pull them decides whether the treasure is saved or lost. It is our own game, not the official Hero Wars. In Pin Mine the pin puzzle is the whole game, 90 shafts of it, free in the browser with nothing to download.
Is Pin Mine like the Homescapes ads?
Yes, in the part those ads show: water, lava and gold held back by pins, where the wrong pin first ruins everything. It is our own game, not the official Homescapes. Pin Mine has its own mole miner, a mine cart you fill to a line, grey ore that turns into gold, boulders that crush slimes, fuse pins on a timer and 90 shafts with a flipped Mirror mode after them.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. Your shaft, coins and hats are saved in your browser on this device.
