Wondermine

"You never know what treasure a Monster might find in the Wondermine. Everyone should have a turn! Monsters with multiple elements can find better things in here. They'll be away for a while, but it's worth the wait."

- In-game description

The Wondermine is a primary Production Structure in Dawn of Fire that produces Crafting Items; it allows Monsters to "mine" for various items. The Wondermine is the first and only indirect Production Structure, and the tenth overall Production Structure available in the game, unlocked at level 9 when the Cold Land appears.

Unique among the other Production Structures, the Wondermine is an indirect Production Structure that does not require other Crafting Items for its production nor does it create Crafting Items out of nothing. Instead, monsters that reside on the Continent must be sent into the mine to find Crafting Items. These monsters can be of any level and elemental number but they must reside only on the Continent; those that reside on the Outer Islands or Starhenge cannot be sent into the Wondermine. Once monsters are sent into the mine, they are temporarily removed from the Continent, and their position on the Continent is marked by a signpost. Although monsters no longer contribute to the song and temporarily get removed from the Continent, they still take up bed space while they are in the Wondermine.

While monsters are in the mine, they do not sing, and they cannot be fed, sold, moved, or teleported to another island. However, monsters may be used in the Breeding Structure during this time. The monster's level and species appear to have no effect on the items that are found in the Wondermine; only the elemental number of the monster affects item outcome.

Products
The products that are produced by the Wondermine are listed below.

The monster that was sent into the Wondermine also has a chance to bring back another Crafting Item. These items are randomly generated from all of the items that can be obtained from the primary production Structures, except for Weavers, that is, the Fruit Tree, Garden Patch, Bog, and Ice Machine. The one exception is the Apple Tart, which also has a chance to be found in the Wondermine. As the player reaches higher levels and their Production Structures are able to produce more kinds of items, the variety of these randomly generated items from the Wondermine increases.

Strategy
The larger the monster's elemental number, the greater the time the monster spends in the mine. Every additional elemental number increase doubles the amount of time spent in the mine, and it doubles the chance of bringing back an item to a maximum of 100%. The only exception to this rule is that Quint Element Monsters take only twelve hours, rather than the expected sixteen hours to gather Crafting Items from the Wondermine. The reduced waiting time of the Quint Element Monster helps make up for many of the items' chances being capped at 100%, such that the chance of success is no better for the Quint than for the Quad.

As a statistical average, there is no difference between sending a Single Element Monster into the Wondermine twice and sending a Double Element Monster into the Wondermine once. However, if the statistics are considered without averaging, sending a Single Element Monster into the Wondermine twice has some chance of bringing back two of each object, but a reduced chance of bringing back just one. In addition, with each trip into the mine, a monster brings back one additional primary production item apart from the items unique to the Wondermine. Sending a monster into the Wondermine twice may produce the same primary production item again, or it may produce another random primary production item.

When Triple, Quad, or Quint Element Monsters are used, the probability limit of 100% affects the statistics for the slime, mushroom, hot pepper, and amber. For example, the statistical average result for four trips of a Single Element Monster or two trips of a Double Element Monster is 1.6 Slimes, while one trip of a Triple Element Monster is just one Slime. Some of the expected return is "wasted" because the probability cannot go beyond 100%. Moreover, for planning purposes, it is guaranteed that one of the Crafting Items will be produced, rather than just having a good chance of one Crafting Item and a possibility of two Crafting Items being produced.

If the player seeks a Crafting Item in which there is a 100% guaranteed success of finding one, a Quad or Quint Element Monster should be used, rather than monsters of fewer elements. For the same time period, having one single trip for a Quad Element Monster is worth more than having two trips with a Triple Element Monster to get a single Crafting Item, e.g. Amber. Although less likely than sending in a higher elemental number monster, it is possible that using a lower elemental number monster for two trips will grant the player with a particular Crafting Item both times.

For efficiency, notes of the player's Dawn of Fire lifestyle should be taken, particularly the times in which they are available to play the game. If the player is fairly active throughout their day and sleeps for over eight hours, a Quint Element Monster should be used for optimal Wondermine item production as they they will most likely get up to two collections from the Wondermine throughout the whole day. If the player sleeps fewer than eight hours, they could still use a Quint Element Monster but a Quad Element Monster might be more efficient for optimal item collection as they could just collect the Crafting Items right after they wake up and right before they sleep. Speed-ups could also be used in this case as the overall search time is lower and this manipulation of this feature could result in three collections per day.

Most importantly, the player must be active every so often in order to send a monster into the Wondermine. For periods of inactivity, the monster selected to explore the Wondermine should be the highest elemental number available to the player so it can explore the mine while the player is away. For periods of constant activity and if many random items are desired, Single Element and Double Element Monsters should be sent into the Wondermine.

Christmas
For the 2015 Christmas season, the Wondermine was decorated with multi-colored lights. In addition, the signpost, which marks a monster's position on the Continent while it explores in the Wondermine, contained snow on it.