Haunted Mines Map Guide

Haunted Mines is a 2-lane Map belonging to the Nexus universe. The signature Objective of this Map is an Undead Army dropping Cursed Skulls. The team who collects more Cursed Skulls will get a stronger Grave Golem, the other team will get a weaker one.

Here you can find one or more formations that are viable on this Map. Keep in mind that positions in lane are not strict and will often change based on the situation.

The go-to formation for Haunted Mines is 1-4:

• 1 Hero, the Offlaner, covers the top lane;
• 4 Heroes cover the bottom lane.

• At 0:30 minutes or whenever available, start clearing the closest Sapper Camp and capture it as soon as possible. Watch out for invades!
• At 2:20 minutes or 20-30 seconds before the Undead Army spawns in the Mines, start clearing the allied Siege Camp and capture it slightly before the Undead Army appears in the Mines. To make this Mercenary Camp join the lane behind allied Minions, capture it at 2:40 minutes or 10 seconds after a wave of Minions spawned.
• At 3:00 minutes, you must be already near an entrance to the Mines and enter as soon as they open. After the first time, whenever the Objective phase starts, you must be already near a group of Risen Miners inside the Mines.
• During the Objective phase, collect as many Skulls as possible by killing at least 4 groups of Risen Miners on one side of the Mines. Then, if it safe to do so, you can go for the Grave Golem in the middle of the Mines, otherwise you can just leave the Mines and push a lane.
• If your team collected way more Skulls than the enemy team, push together with the allied Grave Golem while your Offlaner is soaking in the other lane, unless your team is going for a Keep or for the Core, in which case you should stay as 5.
• If your team collected way less Skulls than the enemy team, defend your Structures from the enemy Grave Golem while your Offlaner is soaking in the other lane, unless the enemy team is going for a Keep or for the Core, in which case you should stay as 5.

As shown in the image below, Haunted Mines has a total of 4 Mercenary Camps:

• 1 Sapper Camp (purple icon) near the center of the top lane;
• 1 Siege Camp (green icon) on the left side of the top lane;
• 1 Siege Camp (green icon) on the right side of the bottom lane;
• 1 Sapper Camp (purple icon) near the center of the bottom lane.

Mercenary Camps on Haunted Mines are always active, even when the Mines are open or Grave Golems are in lane.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 2 Giants. Once captured, it spawns the same units fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with them to get more value.

Instead of attacking enemies with Basic Attacks, Giants throw stones at them. These stones can be dodged, so it is possible to capture them without taking any damage. Once captured, they are capable of damaging enemy Structures without getting in their range. Giants deal 100% bonus damage to Structures.

This type of Mercenary Camp features 3 Sappers. Once captured, it spawns the same units fighting for your team in the corresponding lane. When possible, push with them to get more value.

When in range of an enemy Structure, Sappers will sprint at it and explode. You can interrupt this mechanic by using Stun, Silence, or even Knockback effects. That said, if you do not kill them in time, they will try again immediately after.

Haunted Mines features 2 Watch Towers: they are located in the middle area, one near the left entrance to the Mines and another one near the right entrance to the Mines. If a team controls a Watch Tower, entering in the Mines from the corresponding entrance becomes more dangerous as the enemy team could see you walk outside and quickly prepare a trap inside.

Securing a Watch Tower provides your team with greater vision, allowing you to keep an eye on enemy movements in that part of the battlefield. Watch Towers can be captured by standing in the area until your team gains control. After 45 seconds of not being occupied, they become neutral again. Because of this, they should only be captured when you are playing in that area for other reasons (either to capture Mercenary Camps or for contesting the Objective).

Watch Towers controlled by the enemy team are extremely dangerous, especially when there are bushes nearby, therefore you should think twice before contesting them. If you do not have mobility tools at your disposal and your teammates are not nearby to help you, you should definitely not try to capture a Watch Tower as you will only risk dying for no reason. Staying alive is more important than getting vision.

The signature Objective of Haunted Mines consists of an Undead Army composed of 8 groups of Risen Miners and 1 Grave Golem who drop Cursed Skulls. When active, each team has to collect 55 Cursed Skulls. Once a team does that, each team is rewarded with a laning Grave Golem. Their power is increased by the amount of Cursed Skulls collected by the corresponding team.

To enter or leave the Mines, you need to interact with one of the 4 doors.

The entrances are located in the following places:

• 1 entrance in the middle of the top lane;
• 1 entrance near the Watch Tower on the right;
• 1 entrance near the Watch Tower on the left;
• 1 entrance in the middle of the bottom lane.

While inside the Mines, some Heroes can use the surrounding impassable terrain at their advantage—to Stun enemy Heroes, to move faster, to block enemy Heroes, and/or to punish enemy Heroes who tend to group.

The exits are located in the following places:

• 1 exit at the top of the underground area;
• 1 exit on the right of the underground area;
• 1 exit at the bottom of the underground area;
• 1 exit on the left of the underground area.

Be careful when using doors to enter in or exit from the Mines. If enemy Heroes control a Watch Tower, they will have vision on the nearby door. This means they will be able to see who is entering and who just left the Mines.

At the beginning of the Objective phase, 8 groups of Risen Miners and 1 Grave Golem will spawn in the Mines. They drop Cursed Skulls.

The 8 groups of Risen Miners are spread around but they always spawn in the same locations. The underground Grave Golem always spawns in the center.

To give you an overview, the Undead Army is arranged as follows:

• 2 groups of 5 Risen Miners on the top-right;
• 2 groups of 4 Risen Miners on the bottom-right;
• 2 groups of 5 Risen Miners on the bottom-left;
• 2 groups of 4 Risen Miners on the top-left;
• 1 underground Grave Golem in the center.

In addition to dropping Cursed Skulls, the underground Grave Golem also drops Regeneration Globes when reaching 70% Health and 30% Health.

In the Mines there will always be 110 Cursed Skulls available for each Objective phase. Collect 55 Cursed Skulls before the enemy team does to get a stronger laning Grave Golem.

Risen Miners drop 2 Cursed Skulls and are split into 8 groups of 4-5 Risen Miners. As a consequence, ach group of Risen Miners will drop from 8 to 10 Cursed Skulls.

The underground Grave Golem drops 8 Cursed Skulls for every 25% Health lost and 6 Cursed Skulls upon death, for a total of 38 Cursed Skulls.

To give you an overview, Cursed Skulls are distributed as follows:

• 2 groups of 10 Cursed Skulls on the top-right;
• 2 groups of 8 Cursed Skulls on the bottom-right;
• 2 groups of 10 Cursed Skulls on the bottom-left;
• 2 groups of 8 Cursed Skulls on the top-left;
• a total of 38 Cursed Skulls in the center.

If both teams are collecting Skulls, each team will get about 4 groups of Risen Miners, which corresponds to at least 32 Skulls. This means that, in order to win the Objective, you need to kill enemy Heroes either before they collect Skulls from the other 4 groups of Risen Miners or to have numerical advantage for fighting the Grave Golem in the middle of the Mines and bring him down to 25% Health for getting a total of 24 Skulls.

Once a team collects 55 Cursed Skulls, laning Grave Golems for each team will spawn in opposite lanes at the same time, starting randomly and then alternating for the rest of the game. You can see in which lanes they will spawn by looking at the glowing bones near the middle of each lane. The allied Grave Golem will spawn in the lane with the glowing bones closer to your Core whereas the enemy Grave Golem will spawn in the lane with the glowing bones further away from your Core.

Contrary to all other Battlegrounds, there is no Core Ability on Haunted Mines.

To win the game on Haunted Mines, you should count on any of the following win conditions:

• Map Objective.

• Use the first Healing Fountain (2-minute cooldown) before 1:00 minute because the first Objective on this Map activates at 3:00 minutes, so you will have it back in time for that.
• Mines will open at 3:00 minutes into the game. For the first Objective phase, you should be at the entrance when it starts. For any other Objective phase, you should be already inside the Mines when it starts.
• If your team has enough siege damage, you could partially or fully ignore the Objective and push a lane instead. If there are Sapper Camps available, capture them.
• If the enemy team is ignoring the Objective to push, send some Heroes to defend Structures, otherwise you will fall behind despite collecting more Skulls than the them and winning the Objective.
• While the Grave Golem is spawning in lane, you can try to crowd control enemy Heroes near it, so that they will get hit by his powerful Abilities.