Deep Drill

Prospectus

Deep Drill Idle is a mining idle game that plays itself. There is no home screen: the page loads and the bit is already turning. Every metre it cuts pays ore, ore is the only thing you spend, and there is no timer, no lives and no way to lose — the well keeps producing while you read the panel, and it keeps paying while the tab is closed. Twelve rig tracks are what you spend it on: a bigger bit for speed, coolant to cut the rock's hardness, a wider hopper for richness, a night shift that makes coming back tomorrow worth more. Ore is paid per metre rather than per second, so a hard layer is automatically both slower and poorer — and every one of the eight strata is harder and poorer than the one above it. The well decelerates rather than merely slowing, and that wall is the whole point. When it stops being worth it, seal the well. Depth, ore and every rig level go back to zero, and the deepest point you reached pays out in cores. Twelve permanent core nodes never reset: speed, hardness liners, an old-workings charter that fast-forwards the shallows you have already drilled, a foreman that buys levels for you while you are away. The payout is superlinear, so one deep run always beats two shallow ones.

How it plays

Mouse or touch — the drill descends by itself, so every input is a purchase. Rig: press a row's price key to buy a level; the mode key switches between Buy x1 and Buy max, which spends the whole affordable ladder at once. Cores: spend the cores a sealed well paid out on twelve permanent nodes. They survive every future seal. Surge: x3 ore for eight minutes. Salvage: seal the well — depth, ore and rig levels reset and your deepest point pays out cores. Goal: get deeper. There is no time limit and no way to lose, and time offline keeps paying ore within your night shift's window.

Opening an account with this game takes one press: Open the holding, above, and it loads on this page itself — nothing downloads and no form stands between you and the first decision. It is drawn for a flexible screen and takes its instructions from mouse, keyboard or touch, as the game prefers. It adjusts itself to upright and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all present it properly. If a fullscreen control is offered, take it — a growing enterprise deserves the whole desk.

Analyst's notes for clicker holdings

• Buy in bulk when the game lets you. Clicker economies are staircases, and the x10 and x100 buttons exist because single steps stop being the game quite early on.
• Milestones beat momentum. An upgrade that doubles everything is worth three that add a trickle — scan for multipliers before topping up the familiar producers.
• Let the idle income work overnight. Most clickers pay their best rates while you are doing something else; open the game to set the direction, then close it and let arithmetic drive.

Deep Drill — questions from the readership

What does it cost to open Deep Drill?

Nothing, at any point. The holding is free from the first click to the last upgrade — no account to open, no download to wait for, no paywall filed anywhere in its pages. The advertising around this page is what pays the bookkeeping.

What kind of game is Deep Drill, exactly?

We file it on the Clicker shelf of the ledger. It is a browser game through and through — the prospectus above is the publisher's own summary of what the game asks of you and what it gives back.

Can I play Deep Drill on a phone or tablet?

Yes — it runs in the browser on phones and tablets just as it does on a computer. It adjusts itself to upright and wide screens alike, so phone, tablet and desktop all present it properly.

Is there anything to download or install first?

Nothing at all. Deep Drill is an HTML5 game: press the open button and it loads on this very page, and closing the tab leaves nothing behind on your device.

Closing entry

Finished the audit, or still mid-season? The full Clicker shelf is one click away — Eighty-three games built on the most honest loop in the business: press, earn, upgrade, press better. Clicker files for players who like their progress visible and their upgrades chunky.