Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder Takes Players On An Adventure Deep Underground
Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder is available now.
The sequel to Cave Digger takes players again on an enigmatic adventure in an alternative western world, where ever-shifting caves full of riches, dangers and mysteries await. Along with the technical advancements, the sequel adds many new gameplay twists like combat, optional co-op, character customization and an array of physics elements. At launch the game is available in VR on Oculus App Lab, Steam and PlayStation VR with a cross-platform multiplayer support.
Naturally Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder maintains plenty of elements from its prequel, not the least of which is the updated mining mechanics forming the core of the game. The mining runs are based on a brand new procedurally generated level system so they change each time the player goes back to caves. Another familiar element for any first Cave Digger game fans are the puzzles related to multiple endings, each revealing a different angle to the game story. And then the fan favorite animated chest companion called Chompy makes a return as well, but this time not alone! There are several Chompies showing up throughout Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder.
The player is a prospector who begins their adventure in a seemingly abandoned camp with the goal to extract valuables from the caves, trade them for new tools, upgrades, and locations in order to advance their frontier exploration. New Frontier hides its mysteries within. To unveil the secrets, follow in the footsteps of a previous adventurer known only as Clayton. Explore old mines, nautical caves, ruins of an ancient civilization and find the pages to a tale of greed, eldritch power and secrets beyond space & time. Who the mysterious Clayton was and what he did in the Valley becomes clear in the end, but is it really the end? Check out the trailer here:
Getting Started
When you step into the game, after the tutorial you will find yourself in a wintery valley with a small cabin, a tool shed, an elevator and a map. At first there aren’t many tools available, but as you explore the caves and mine the rich veins inside them, you will be able to upgrade your gear and purchase tools which more than often serve multiple purposes. With better tools you’re eventually able to unlock new locations and start digging for more precious gems, ores and relics.
Players can slot tools to four slots, two on waist, two on arms, for each run from the given options: a pickaxe, sledgehammer, shovel, gold pan, scanner, trusty revolver, and dynamites. The pickaxe and the sledgehammer are used for destroying the mineable walls, while the shovel can be used to dig the floor nodes. The gold pan is for finding treasures submerged in the water, the scanner shows you useful information about your surroundings and the revolver of course is the most effective way to protect yourself! With the dynamites, you can explode mining walls, deal damage to groups of enemies and just wreak havoc in general.
Each mining run consists of three procedurally generated floors. You will move between the floors in an elevator, and you always have the chance to go back up to the surface when you find one. You can secure loot to your backpack by dropping the item behind your back at around head height, like you would carry an open backpack ready to drop the loot to. When a backpack gets full it automatically starts to filter out the least precious loot as you secure more valuable items. So even with a full backpack, it might be a better idea to just continue to descend deeper for more rare findings, unless you’re in low health. You can check your health and backpack status among other things from your handy glove.
You can form a party of up to four players. Each player can choose their tools for each run. Your group members can secure loot to any of your group’s backpacks. Each group member gets the same share of the loot regardless of which backpack is loaded. Explosions from dynamites and traps cause friendly fire. So, be careful with the boom sticks! The game supports cross-platform public matchmaking if you’d want to drop in to an unknown frontier party at any point of the game. Though for players looking for a single player adventure experience, Cave Digger 2: Dig Harder is a great fit too. Co-op is not necessary to complete any part of the game.
Whether you prefer to play prequels before sequels, or just don’t own a virtual reality headset yet, Cave Digger is available not only on most VR platforms but also on flat screens on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
Controls and Menu Overview
Once you’re in, it’s definitely worth taking a look first at Gameplay settings under the Options menu. There’s smooth or snap turning, hold or toggle grabbing, the sitting or standing mode, and hands angle adjustment among other settings. For streaming, especially neat is Streamer mode which can be found under Visual settings. Toggling it on increases the field of vision for your viewers while keeping it original for yourself within the headset. There’s also the Increase Ambient Light toggle and Bloom Intensity to adjust it to your preference. You can also toggle on subtitles here. The game is currently localized to 11 languages: English, Deutsh, Español, Français, Italiano, Português do Brasil, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
Controls
Left stick moves you around and clicking it changes between walk and run. Right stick turns your view and pressing it activates teleporting. Left and right triggers activate a given tool speciality in hand, and left trigger also activates the lighter that can be used to light torches, dynamites and illuminate dark areas. Left and right grab buttons pick items. A button is for jumping and B for crouching. X in the left controller opens the game menu.
Codex
This is where you see all the loot, enemy and relic types you have found in the game. Each note comes with their flavor texts. You can also check here how many are yet unknown of each type. For the true completionist, this is certainly a frequently visited menu but every player should check the flavor texts at least once.
Store
In the Store menu you can buy new tools, upgrades, outfits, structures and other utilities that make the frontier exploration more interesting. Especially worth mentioning is the Worker’s Glove which upgrades your glove with a special magnet so you can pick up several loot pieces at once. Also, certain other tools have upgrades that drastically change their basic usability in a surprising way.
Library
Here is where all the Clayton – The Greed comic pages go that you have found in the game. Collect them all to reveal the mystery of a previous legendary adventurer Clayton. If you are into knowing the deeper game lore and/or like the comics, completing this section should be especially rewarding.
Errands
Here you can see all the active errands that you have taken and their status. Errands are optional side tasks that reward you once completed. You can see available errands on the map board in the camp and accept them by “looting” the errand posters to your backpack. You can keep up to three active errands at once and you can remove any errand in this menu and replace it with a new one from the map board. The available errands change frequently.
Multiplayer settings
Under the Multiplayer menu, you can search public rooms. You can filter by language, region, and Gameplay tags for example Relaxing, Quiet, Explore, Social, Streaming, and different game areas. There is also your friend list to send direct invites to your room, group management features, and your room code in the upper right corner, which is another way to join a room.
Feedback
Here you can report bugs or other feedback you’d want to share. Here is Enter title field, Enter description field, and a toggle to send a screenshot of your current game view in your feedback. In the lower right corner, there’s also “Click the face that matches your feelings to report” with three Clayton face options. If you are in Discord, you can also send feedback through our Discord channel.
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