Haunted Mines

Play 1-4. The offlaner takes the top lane and keeps soaking through the first Mines phase and while the Golems are in lane; the four-man plays the bottom lane, its Sapper camp and later the Mines. Your offlaner needs waveclear and survivability, because there will be long stretches where nobody can come to help. Point-control heroes in the four-man make the Sapper camps safe; if you have none, take the Sapper camp farthest from the enemy four-man instead of fighting for the near one.

• Top: a self-sufficient offlaner who clears waves and never dies alone.
• Bottom: tank, healer and two damage dealers, one of them with area damage for Miner groups.
• Stay 1-4 during the first Mines; the offlaner only joins later, when the Skull race decides the game.

At 0:30 clear the Sapper camp in your four-man's lane and capture it right away; watch for an invade, since both teams want the same camp. Use the Healing Fountain once before 1:00 so it is back for 3:00. At 2:20, roughly 20 to 30 seconds before the Undead Army spawns, start your Siege camp and capture it at 2:40, ten seconds after a wave, so the giants join behind your minions and pressure a Fort while everyone is underground. At 3:00 decide how many heroes go down: the more siege damage your team has, the fewer you need in the Mines, because pushing with a decent Golem is your plan anyway.

• 0:30 - Sapper camp in the four-man lane; capture immediately.
• Before 1:00 - Healing Fountain once.
• 2:20 - Siege camp; capture at 2:40 to join behind the wave.
• 3:00 - Mines open; four go down, the offlaner keeps soaking.

Underground, collect Skulls from the Miner groups nearest you without spreading away from the team, starting with the top-right or bottom-left groups because they carry 10 Skulls instead of 8. If both teams farm evenly, each ends up with about four groups, at least 32 Skulls, so the objective is won either by killing enemy heroes before they finish their side or by winning the numbers fight at the central Golem: bringing it to 25% alone yields 24 Skulls. With vision cut to 6.5, hug the terrain, keep the healer central and let heroes who use walls (stuns, dashes, blocks) pick the fight spot. When you clearly win the Skull count, your four-man pushes with your Golem; when you clearly lose, they defend the lane the enemy Golem takes; when it is close, the team with more siege damage pushes and the other defends. Use the roughly 30 seconds before the Golems land to capture your Siege camp so the giants meet them in lane, and crowd-control enemies near the spawn point so the Golem's opening abilities land on them.

• Farm the 10-Skull groups first (top-right and bottom-left), then the nearest remaining ones.
• Do not start the central Golem without a numbers edge; it is where fights break out.
• Behind on Skulls? Leave early, take a camp and set up to kill the enemy Golem under your structures.
• Kill the enemy Golem before chasing heroes; it never stops pushing.

Four camps, all always active, even with the Mines open or Golems in lane: a Sapper camp near the middle of each lane and a Siege camp at the top-left and bottom-right. Sappers are cheap experience but massive structure damage, so keep the one in your four-man's lane on cooldown. Two Watch Towers sit beside the left and right Mine Shafts; they go neutral 45 seconds after you leave, so only take them when you are already in the area, and remember an enemy-held tower shows exactly who enters or exits that shaft.

• Sapper camp (3 Sappers): 0:30, respawns 2:30 after capture, 90 base experience. Each Sapper sprints at a structure and explodes for 1750 damage to it (187 to nearby non-structures); a stun, silence or knockback interrupts the charge, but they try again immediately.
• Siege camp (2 giants): 0:30, respawns 3:00 after capture, 280 base experience. Dodgeable rocks, outrange structures, 100% bonus damage to buildings.
• Capture the Siege camp 10 seconds after a wave spawns (2:40 for the first) so the giants walk in behind minions.
• Watch Towers: capture by standing in them; neutral again after 45 seconds unoccupied.

The objective is the only win condition, so every late phase is a full commitment: the Golems' time scaling is huge by then and a 20-Skull gap turns into a Golem that eats a Keep. Send the whole team down once the offlaner's soak stops mattering, win the Golem fight in the center, then push with your Golem in the lane the glowing bones announce while one hero delays theirs. Unlike every other map, the Core has no ability, so once a Keep falls a Golem plus a Siege camp can finish without a hero ever entering Core range. Use the Mines as a hidden highway: they let you cross the map out of sight of Watch Towers and pop up behind a defending team.