Digging

Supplies

In order to dig, you must have a shovel. You can create shovels at an anvil using two iron, or you can make slate shovels from 1 stone blade and 2 boards at a carpentry shop. You may also eat foods to increase your endurance, allowing you to dig faster. A portable food for this is grilled fish. You may also build a kitchen and cook +end foods in that.

Location

Location, location, location. All digging must be done on patches of dirt found around egypt. Visually, dirt has a texture most like sand but has a more red hue (this varies by graphics settings, and there are multiple types of dirt texture. For example with advanced terrain on, dirt has a more stonelike texture and is grey with a very small hint of red). If it looks like sand, but you cannot collect sand while standing on it, it is probably dirt. It is not know if the location affects materials produced by a dig site. Please see Dig sites for dirt locations. (But there's dirt all over, especially in CC's.)

Labor

You need 12 diggers with slate shovels per dig period as a bare minimum. The more diggers, the better for everyone, however, so always go for more people instead of less. With 15 diggers, you will probably get half as much as you would with 30 diggers in the same time, because the extra 15 add more to the results than the first 15. (Because many of the first 15 are simply holding the hole open.)

Slate shovels, and shovels at quality 3000 provide 1 dig per attempt. Shovels at q9000 provide 2 digs per attempt, and shovels at q9999 provide 3 digs per attempt. The performance of intermediate or lesser shovels is random, with chances of giving the higher or lower amount varying with quality. This means 4 people with q9999 shovels can have a successful dig.

Endurance foods speed you up, allowing even less people at the dig for minimum results (or more productive digs with the same number of people :))

Profit!

Both cuttable stones and medium stones are produced at a digging site. Early estimates put the ratio of cuttable stone to medium stones at somewhere around 10:1 (or maybe 8:1). Later estimates, with fish and better quality shovels, are showing 5:1. This may be because medium stones come "deeper", and with more people and better shovels we are able to keep the holes "deeper" allowing us more medium stones. No other resources have been produced by a dig at this time.

What to Expect and What Will be Expected

Digs can last for a short or a long time, but an hour is a fair amount of time to set aside. And although you don't have to bring your own shovel, it is best to ask the dig organizer if shovels will be available - or check the dig announcement for details. Offering to help provide shovels is always nice, as it helps those in need. Bringing fireworks or even seeds along to amuse yourself and others is also optional.

After arriving at the dig site, the leader will often designate a "picker" or two, to retrieve the stones for dispersal later. Typically, as a digger, you will asked to move a few steps away from the dig site so as to allow the pickers easier access. Just click on the dig site, and a "Dig deeper [D]" menu will appear. Pinning it is a good strategy, as you will likely be clicking that button a lot in the next hour or two. Digging sets an Endurance timer, so you will have to wait before you can dig again. Don't be shy about talking and be sure to check for people needing their Leadership petitions signed or acrobatics worked. Remember: it's a game and even clicking on a dirt hole can be fun!

If you end up staying until the end, be sure to thank the organizer and pickers: those tend to be frantic and tedious jobs. Watch the main channel, there might be another event starting up to take advantage of the energy of the group. Work on those Acrobat Facets!

If some of the stones are to be distributed to the diggers, the leader will announce how many, what kind and what the distribution scheme is. They will likely call off names and then begin handing out the stones. If you get a stone or two, thank the leader and then move a bit out of range - this allows the distributor to see the people still in need of stones more easily. If, on the other hand, the dig was for research donations at your local University, pat yourself on the back as well for a job well done. Thanks to you, we are that much closer to a perfect society!

Tips for small digs with good shovels

With a perfect shovel and grilled fish, as little as 3 people can successfully dig for stones. This puts stones within reach of even very small groups of trusted people. There are some things that will help:

1. Stay fed. Make sure someone has a timer and reminds people when to eat, so that no-one ever digs without an endurance boost. Grilled fish lasts 180 teppyseconds, so a RL timer set for 3 minutes gives a decent safety margin. For a really small dig, just one person digging with 0 endurance once can cost many stones.
2. Dig efficiently. For slate shovels it doesn't matter when you dig, but a good shovel expands the hole more than 1 step per dig action. So far, 2 expansions for a 9k shovel and 3 for 9999 shovel are known. If you dig when the hole is at maximum size, one of those expansions will get you a stone, but the excess is lost. With a 9k shovel, wait for the hole to shrink once from maximum before digging, and with a 9999 shovel wait for it to shrink twice. This expands the hole to maximum and gets a stone without wasting digging power. If you have very few people you may have to let it expand further due to endurance, but this is better than digging too early.
3. Take turns. Arrange an order of digging, so that multiple people don't try to expand the hole to maximum size at the same time. When you see the person before you dig, wait for the hole to shrink the right amount before you dig. This matters less with many people and not at all with slate shovels, but with 3-7 people it can double your stone output.
4. Pass the best shovel. If you don't have a perfect shovel for everybody, then you're better off passing the best one around. You can pin the "Give Shovel..." menu so all you have to do is click and press enter after you dig.

Are we sure digging at max size gives at most 1 stone? I thought I've seen 3 stones show up when I dug with a q9999... ?
(Tamutnefret) Out of hundreds of dig actions, I've never seen more than 1 stone from a single person's dig action even with quality 9999 shovels. Lag can often cause the appearance of a stone and a person's dig action to be separated by a few seconds.

Using these guides, a group of 4 people with a 9999 shovel and grilled fish were able to dig up a stone every 8 seconds. Without taking turns and allowing the hole to shrink, they got half that rate and even slower when someone forgot to eat. A group of 3 should be able to get 1 stone every 32 seconds, which is very slow but a lot better than nothing.

With 9k shovels, 5 people should be able to get 1 stone per 16 seconds. 6 people should be able to dig up 1 per 8 seconds, and 7 people should get about 1 per 5-6 seconds.

With a 9999 Shovel and End food of about 28 or higher solo digs are doable. Could probably do a solo with less End, say 24 minimum but getting stones takes alot longer.

from ATitD forums - author Tamutnefret