Dig down through the ground block by block. You get 10 free digs a day, banked for 1 extra days. Every 10 metres down is a milestone.
Layers
| Layer | Depth | Dig cost | Finds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topsoil | 0–10 m | 1 | Materials 0.05 h:70; Food 0.05 h:15; nothing:10; buried object card-lore:5 |
| Clay | 10–30 m | 1 | Materials 0.08 h:65; Food 0.05 h:10; buried object:10; grub fight:5; nothing:10 |
| Gravel | 30–60 m | 2 | Materials 0.12 h:60; current-age ore 0.15 h:20; Royal Jelly 1:2; nothing:18 |
| Old roots | 60–100 m | 2 | Materials 0.15 h:50; Food 0.1 h:20; amber chip (Essence 2):8; grub fight:7; nothing:15 |
| Bedrock | 100–160 m | 3 | Materials 0.25 h:55; current-age ore 0.3 h:25; cave-in (lose 1 dig):10; nothing:10 |
| Aquifer | 160–220 m | 2 | Water pocket (drain with 50 builders or lose the column):30; Materials 0.2 h:40; Fishing bait x2:20; nothing:10 |
| Fossil bed | 220–320 m | 3 | Fossil fragment (5 = a fossil card duplicate):25; Materials 0.3 h:45; Royal Jelly 2:5; ancient queen chamber (Royal Jelly 10):1; nothing:24 |
| Ore vein | 320–9999 m | 3 | Current-age ore 0.5 h:50; Materials 0.4 h:30; Royal Jelly 3:5; amber queen fragment:1; nothing:14 |
Rules
- Each block costs 1 dig (layer column 4 = cost in digs); 10 free digs a day, banked for 1 extra day.
- Depth milestones every 10 m: permanent +2% Materials and a Codex chapter.
- Tools by age (mandibles, bronze pick, iron pick, steam drill, pneumatic drill, laser bore, matter bore) each reduce hard-layer cost by 1 (minimum 1).
- Fossil cards (Sphecomyrma, Hell ant, Titanomyrma, Prionomyrmex, Amber queen) drop from the fossil bed and deeper, by their age.