Info & Wiki

You are the digger. Carve tunnels through the dirt, dodge the descending red drill at the top of the screen (lethal from the second dirt layer onward), and pop the underground creatures by pumping them up until they burst.

• Move & dig — Arrow keys or WASD. On mobile, on-screen touch buttons mirror the same controls. Movement is cardinal (one direction at a time; last key wins when two are held). Open tunnels are fast; carving fresh dirt is slower as you dig through it.
• Pump — SPACE or tap to inflate the nearest enemy. Four pumps and it pops.
• Fall — there is no Up climb. Gaps drop you like rocks; hold Down to dig through floors smoothly.
• Survive — never touch a creature directly. Early on the drill only pushes you; from the second dirt layer (depth 40 on Standard, 60 on Relaxed) it can kill if it catches you from above.
• Audio — open the settings icon in the header to set independent SFX and music volume. On some phones, tap Start (or the sound banner) to unlock audio after a cold start. Reduced-motion settings turn off screen shake.
• Mobile tabs — the bottom bar (Play / Browse / Create / Profile) keeps each tab’s place when you switch away, and pauses the game canvas so it does not burn battery in the background. Child screens use a shared Back control with a large tap target; appearance follows the selected game theme rather than system light/dark.

Classic — a fresh randomly-generated descent every run. Choose Standard (default; scores can go to the global board) or Relaxed (softer scroll/spawn, lethal drill from depth 60; personal best stays on this device). Dirt changes color every 40 rows; on Standard the drill becomes lethal from depth 40.

Daily Challenge — everyone gets the same level layout for the UTC day (shared seed + today's twist). Same drill rule as Classic (push early, lethal from depth 40). Enemy behaviour and moment-to-moment gameplay may vary. Twists:

• Enemy Swarm — far more enemies.
• Power Rush — power-ups appear far more often.
• Speed Demon — the drill descends much faster.
• Enraged — enemies move faster.
• Hardcore — everything is worse at once.
• Overdrive — swarming enemies and a sprinting drill.
• Rockslide — rocks fall much more often.
• Gem Rush — gem chutes appear far more often.
• Fog — visibility shrinks to a circle around you.
• No Power-ups — no speed or shield pickups.
• Friendly Drill — slower drill and fewer enemies.

Daily runs have their own leaderboard for that UTC date — compete on the same layout. Challenges reset at midnight UTC. Try Again keeps the same seed and twist while that UTC day lasts; if you play past midnight, Try Again loads the new day's challenge.

Extra life — the Daily Challenge starts with one spare life. The first lethal hit respawns you in a cleared pocket with a brief shield bubble instead of ending the run. Your remaining lives show as ♥ ×N under your score. Classic runs have no spare life. Custom levels only get one if the author toggled Extra life in the Level Builder. Community Fixed levels require a Goal; Infinite builder maps stay draft/test only and are not published to Browse.

Official puzzles — five curated 16×40 Fixed Goal levels (normal and hard) appear first in Community Levels with an Official badge. Reach the Goal to clear; optional gem routes and Wisps add score under pressure.

Pooka — the red goggled blob. It chases you and can briefly turn ghost to glide through dirt. Pump it four times to pop it.

Fygar — the green dragon. It chases like the Pooka but also breathes a horizontal jet of fire when lined up with you. Stay out of its row, or pump it from above/below.

Drake — a teal fire-drake that patrols a horizontal stretch of tunnel, pacing back and forth and breathing fire in the direction it faces. When not ghosting it falls onto supporting dirt or rock like a boulder (Pooka and Fygar float). Wait for it to turn, drop in from above, or pump it from a safe angle.

Wisp — a lavender orb that only travels through empty tunnels (it never ghosts through dirt). It wanders left, right, up, and down at random, with a chance to drift toward you when that path is open. Digging into a sealed pocket frees it into your tunnels — pump it or crush it with a rock.

Rocks — grey boulders teeter for a moment, then fall. A falling rock crushes any creature it lands on (and you, unless you have a shield — then the rock shatters). Lure enemies under a wobbling rock, then dig away the dirt beneath it for a big crush combo.

The drill — the glowing red ceiling that presses down. In Classic and Daily it pushes you early on; from the second dirt layer (depth 40) onward it becomes lethal if it catches you. Fixed custom levels do not scroll.

Speed — move and dig much faster for a short while.

Shield — a protective bubble that makes you immune to enemies and fire for a few seconds. Falling rocks shatter on contact instead of crushing you.

Both appear buried in the dirt as you descend — look for the glowing squares.

Themes restyle everything — the game canvas, the strata colors, the digger and enemies, and the whole app UI. Dash is free. The rest are part of a one-time €1 Theme Pack:

• Classic — authentic 1982 grainy-sand look with CRT scanlines.
• Neon — glowing synthwave palette with bloom.
• Voxel — blocky cartoon-sandbox beveled cubes.
• Dyslexia — OpenDyslexic font, calm high-contrast UI.
• Colour-Blind — Okabe–Ito palette plus non-colour cues: depth bands use unique geometric patterns, enemies get a high-contrast outline and a plate-backed type badge (circle / chevron / diamond / W for Wisp), and the drill is outlined so it stays readable without relying on hue alone.

The app is dark-first: system chrome (status bar / theme-color) stays dark for Dash, Classic, Neon, and friends. Switching to Dyslexia flips the shell to a light surface so Android / WebView dark-mode requirements and readability stay aligned with the selected theme.

Buying the Theme Pack also unlocks the Level Builder and the Theme Studio. You can preview any theme before buying, and switch freely between themes you own from the home page or your profile.

The Theme Studio lets you mix and match — take the textures from one theme, the enemies (Pooka, Fygar, or Wisp) from another, the digger from a third — and save the combination as your own Custom theme you can apply and reuse anytime. There's also a Sound & Audio category, so the synth character (waves, pitches and music scale) can come from a different theme than the visuals — tap Preview sound to hear how each one sounds before you pick.

The Level Builder lets you author your own stages and share them with the community. It is unlocked by purchasing the Theme Pack (a single €1 purchase unlocks every theme and the builder). The app owner can always access it without paying.

What you can place (one tile per cell):

• Dirt, Rock, Pooka, Fygar, Drake, Wisp, Speed power-up, Shield power-up.
• Wisp only moves through empty space. Painting Wisp replaces dirt on that cell. A sealed empty pocket holds it until a player digs in — useful for ambushes.
• Gem — bonus points when collected. Choose a preset value (300 / 500 / 800 / 1000; default 500). Cells without a saved value use the classic depth formula at play time.
• Spawn — where the digger starts (one per level; required).
• Goal — required on Fixed levels; reach it to win. Switching to Infinite permanently clears Goal tiles. Older published Fixed maps with no Goal still win by defeating every enemy until the author adds a Goal.

How to build:

• Pick a tool and click or drag on the grid to paint tiles.
• Set the grid size, difficulty, and whether the level is Infinite (draft/test only — the drill descends like Classic) or Fixed (publishable, Goal required).
• For Fixed levels: place Spawn and Goal. Use Test play and reach the Goal at least once. That clear is saved on your draft and must match the layout you publish. Editing the layout or gem values clears the badge until you beat it again.
• Extra life is honored in Test and when others play your published level.
• On mobile, tap Pan to scroll a tall map (drag to move), then tap it again to resume painting.
• Save draft stores unpublished content only (never flips publish state). Save live (on an already published level) applies your last Test-cleared layout via the server — beat Test again after edits.
• Publish promotes an unpublished Fixed level after a matching Test clear; Unpublish takes it offline. Infinite levels cannot be published. Titles and descriptions must not include hate, racist, or sexual content.
• Opening someone else's level loads a copy — save to create your own. Delete your levels from the builder or My Levels (also removes votes and play history).

Extra life — toggle this for your level and the digger starts with one spare life, surviving the first lethal hit and respawning with a brief shield (shown as ♥ ×N under the score), just like the Daily Challenge.

Trust model: beating Test attests the layout for the app's publish / live-save buttons (self-attestation). It is not anti-cheat. Existing published levels need one Test clear the first time an author updates them after this ships — that is expected, not a bug.

Fixed levels also have a solid floor at the bottom edge, so the digger can never fall off the map. Only you can edit or delete your own levels; everyone can read and play published ones.

Browse player-made stages on the Levels page. Each card shows the author, difficulty, plays and votes. Tap Play to jump in, or rate it with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Levels are sorted by net rating, so the community's favourites rise to the top.

Playing a community level works just like the main game — same controls and enemies — but the layout, enemies and goal come from the author's grid instead of a random seed. Published community maps are Fixed (Goal required); Infinite builder drafts are not listed here. Play counts, completions, and unique-player stats on Insights count signed-in runs only; you can still play while signed out.

Public level titles and short descriptions must not include hate, racist, or sexual content — names that break the rules are rejected when you save or publish.

Your score is depth reached × 5 plus enemies popped × 150. Enemies crushed by a falling rock also count, and gems buried in the dirt (often guarded by an enemy or tucked down a side chute) add a bonus when you grab them. Classic / Daily gems scale with depth; builder gems use the author's preset (300 / 500 / 800 / 1000) or the same depth formula when no value was set. The leaderboard on the home page has three tabs:

• Daily — top runs on today's shared challenge.
• Weekly — best scores since Monday (resets each Monday).
• All-time — the legendary runs.

Submitting a score to the leaderboard requires a logged-in account. If you play while signed out, your run is saved locally and you can log in afterward to post it. Leaderboard display names must not include hate, racist, or sexual content — disallowed names are rejected.

Your Profile tracks your career: total runs, best depth and score, a daily-score chart, your most recent runs, and a trophy cabinet of achievement badges. Both earned and locked badges are shown so you always know what to chase next.

Dig Dug Dash may show a single footer advertisement on main app pages (Play, Browse, Create, Profile, Info, and related screens). Ads are not shown on sign-in or registration. We configure non-personalized, children-safe ad requests where supported. In EEA/UK/CH, Google Funding Choices (certified CMP) collects consent; reopen it via Cookie preferences in the footer. Details are in the Privacy page. Ads use public AdSense publisher IDs configured in the app (not secret env vars).