Online Digger Game
Play a seeded Digger-style tunnel chase, collect 16 emeralds, and compare routes across difficulty and scoring modes with exact replay.{{ playSnapshot ? playSnapshot.seed : setupSeed }}{{ playFeedback }}
A tunnel chase rewards two opposite instincts. Digging toward treasure creates useful shortcuts, but every open cell can also give a patrol a shorter route to the player. A safe plan therefore changes as the mine opens.
Emeralds are the main objective. Gold bags add a second tactical choice: opening the ground below a bag can make it fall, and a drop of more than one cell breaks it into collectible gold. The same fall can crush a patrol or the player, so a bag shaft needs a side exit before it becomes useful.
- Route pressure
- Patrols can follow connected tunnels but cannot cross untouched dirt.
- Defensive timing
- A shot travels through open tunnel cells in the facing direction, stops at a bag, and must recharge after firing.
- Repeatable practice
- A seed fixes the mine's random choices. Fair comparisons also require the same difficulty, mode, and sequence of actions.
High scores alone do not prove a clean run. Mode changes point values, difficulty changes lives and patrol pressure, and firing often can produce many points with poor accuracy. Emerald progress, lives left, route work, and the ending reason give the score its meaning.
This is a classic-inspired custom ruleset rather than a reproduction of every rule from an earlier Digger game. Its fixed 15 by 11 mine, scoring multipliers, patrol timing, and three-minute active-time limit define the comparison.
How to Use This Tool:
Choose the kind of practice run before planning a route. Difficulty and mode remain fixed until the run ends.
- Choose Difficulty for lives, patrol count, movement pressure, and shot recharge, then choose Run mode for scoring and patrol cadence.
- Enter a Run seed you can recognize and select Start digging. Keep the same seed when you want to practise the same mine.
- Move with the arrow keys or WASD, release the direction to stop, and fire with Space only when the shot indicator is ready. Touch controls provide the same movement, stop, fire, and pause actions.
- Review the ending reason together with Emeralds, Lives left, Shot accuracy, and Route work. Use Replay same seed for a direct retry or change the setup before comparing a different rule set.
Interpreting Results:
A mine clear is the only ending that confirms all 16 emeralds were collected. Caught and Crushed identify different route mistakes, while Shift ended means the 180 seconds of active play expired. Paused time does not consume that limit.
- Compare scores only when difficulty and mode match; Rush and Practice deliberately change point value and patrol timing.
- Read route work as a tradeoff. Fewer new tunnels may reflect an efficient line, but it can also mean that much of the mine was left unexplored.
- Use shot accuracy with the number of shots fired in mind. “No shots” is neither a hit nor a miss rate.
- Keep the same seed for route practice, but remember that identical outcomes also require the same ordered actions.
Technical Details:
The mine advances in fixed 80 millisecond ticks. Player movement, patrol movement, bag falls, invulnerability, shot recharge, and the active clock all use those ticks, so pausing freezes the entire run rather than merely hiding motion.
Formula Core
Each scoring event is multiplied by the selected mode and rounded before it is added. This matters for half-point results such as a Rush emerald.
S is the score, b is the event's base value, and m is 100 for Classic, 125 for Rush, or 85 for Practice. Emeralds and shot stops have a base value of 250 points; gold and bag crushes have a base value of 500 points.
Shot accuracy is the number of patrols stopped by shots divided by shots fired, multiplied by 100 and rounded to the nearest whole percent. Bag crushes do not count as shot hits.
Rule Core
Movement opens dirt permanently. Patrols choose paths through the resulting connected tunnel cells, while intact bags block both the player and patrol routes.
| Event | Rule | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Emerald collected | Collect all 16 | The mine clears immediately |
| Bag unsupported | Waits 4 ticks, then falls through open tunnel cells | A fall beyond one cell breaks into gold |
| Player hit | Loses one life and returns to the start with 15 ticks of protection | The run ends when no lives remain |
| Shot fired | Travels up to 8 open cells and stops at a bag or first patrol hit | Recharge begins immediately |
| Active limit reached | 2,250 ticks at 80 ms each | The shift ends after 180 seconds |
Difficulty changes the starting margin and action timing; mode changes scoring and the patrol interval. These values are part of the run identity and should remain fixed during comparisons.
| Setup | Lives | Patrols | Shot recharge | Other effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 5 | 3 | 2.08 s | Slowest patrol pressure |
| Normal | 3 | 4 | 2.80 s | Balanced timing |
| Hard | 3 | 5 | 3.44 s | Player and patrols move more often |
| Classic | Base values | 100% score and patrol cadence | ||
| Rush | Higher pressure | 125% score; patrol cadence about 15% faster | ||
| Practice | Route study | 85% score; slower patrol cadence | ||
Worked Examples:
Rush emerald value
An emerald has a base value of 250. Rush multiplies it by 1.25, and the resulting 312.5 rounds to 313 points for that event. A Classic score is therefore not a fair baseline for the same route in Rush.
Opening a bag shaft
Digging below a bag starts a four-tick delay before it falls. Moving sideways before the drop creates an escape path; remaining in the same column risks a crushed ending even if the bag also removes a patrol.