Guides > Digging

Digging - Introduction

Using a shovel one can dig for dirt while one is standing on a patch of dirt. This has an Endurance timer.

What is usually called a Dig is an effort (usually by several or many people) to dig a hole, to obtain cuttable stones, medium stones, gypsum, and/or bauxite.

Supplies

In order to dig, each person must have a shovel. You can create blacksmithed shovels at an anvil, or you can make lesser quality shovels 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

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.

Dirt near the western edge of the map (such as by the Fool's Paradise chariot) will produce Gypsum as well as the standard stone types.
Dirt near the eastern edge of the map will produce Bauxite as well as the standard stone types.

Labor

Very early in a telling, you need 12 diggers with slate shovels per dig period as a bare minimum.

Tale 2 data:
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.

Digging is most efficiently done in groups of 2-3 people, though it may take more with bad food and shovels. Solo digging is possible with good food and shovels, but harder. (Note: I gathered 108 cuttables and and 24 medium stones on END +42 food in 22 minutes, so the efficiency of group vs solo digs later in a tale is debatable IMHO. -Eimear) If there are at least 5 stones from a hole out, and more should appear, they won't. Because of this, if too many people are digging on a single hole, the pickers simply can't keep up and most of the stones that should appear are lost.

Procedure

One person (often the leader of the dig) will stand on dirt, and use the menu option Dig a hole from their Projects -> Stonework menu. This will create a hole. This option is only available while standing on dirt. (picture?) Everyone involved will click on the hole, and select the option Dig Deeper. Each Dig Deeper starts an Endurance timer. The better your endurance, the more often you can dig.

Until the hole is completely closed, it will periodically shrink in size. Every "Dig" will expand the hole until it reaches a maximum size. So, a certain number of "digs" will be needed to maintain the size of the hole. Futher "digs" will continue to expand the hole. Once it reaches its maximum size, further "digs" will start producing cuttable and medium stones. Depending on the location, gypsum or bauxite may start appearing instead of cuttable stones after a while.

All other things being equal, a group of a certain size may be able to maintain a hole; each person beyond that minimum will contribute to production. 4 people over the minimum will produce more than 2 people over the minimum.

There IS a limit to the number of stones that can be laying around to be collected at any one time, but that number is large.

Profit!

Both cuttable stones and medium stones are produced at a digging site. The ratio of cuttable stone to medium stones is around 8:1 at a hole that does not yield gypsum or bauxite. A properly run dig with good food and shovels, and diggers who are good at digging and picking when possible, can yield around 300 stones per person per hour.

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. A fishing pole may also be useful, depending on the location and time of day.

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

Big digs are very inefficient as a way to get cuttable and medium stones, but popular in some circles as social events. If you're mainly interested in getting a lot of stones in a little time, you'll want a smaller dig.

1. Food matters. Even if you can't make some +40 super-endurance food, even a cheap +14 endurance recipe will cut your endurance timer by 2/3. This triples your productivity over not having food at all. Recipes that let you fill with cheap ingredients like camel, mutton, or honey for servings and last an hour per serving are cheaper than chugging grilled foods, too.
2. Shovels matter. If you're planning on spending several hours total digging over the course of the entire telling, investing in a 9k+ shovel will pay for itself many times over.
3. Stay fed. Food may last an hour, but it is important to eat again once it expires. The sudden spike in how long you must wait between digging is a good reminder to go eat.
4. Pick fast. If there are at least five stones up and more should come, they won't. With good food and shovels, stones come out fast, so you'll typically want at least half the group picking at any given time.
5. If you have too many people, split into multiple holes. It's the limit of five stones up at a time is per hole. If you have four people digging on one hole, five stones up and you start wasting them. Split into two people on each of two holes and there can be five stones up on each hole, so less is wasted.

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.
As of the third telling, getting multiple stones with a single dig while digging solo is reasonably common, and when solo, it's not possible that the stones could have come from someone else digging. -Quizzical