Dig spots
Dig spots, sometimes referred to as dirt piles, are item containers that can appear in and outside the house. While holding a Shovel, dig spots may be excavated by interacting with them, providing a chance to find various items. Certain effects and items exist to improve the frequency and quality of dig spots and their items.
Locations
Many rooms have a random or definite chance to contain one or more dig spots when they are drafted, including almost all Green Rooms. Some rooms may have have more dig spots with increased luck.
List of rooms that may naturally contain dig spots
Does it never end?
This list is incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
- The Foundation
- Wine Cellar
- Aquarium
- Courtyard
- Greenhouse
- Morning Room
- Veranda
- Terrace
- Cloister
- Patio
- Storeroom
- Garage
- Boiler Room
- Pump Room
- Workshop
- [Secret Room: Secret Garden]
[Outer Room: Root Cellar]- [Outer Room: Hovel]
[Studio Addition: The Kennel]- [Studio Addition: Dovecote]
- [Studio Addition: Solarium]
[Found Floorplan: Tunnel]- [Found Floorplan: Conservatory]
- [Found Floorplan: Planetarium] Only with a particular upgrade.
Creating dirt piles
Some effects may create or spread dig spots in existing locations. Dig spots created this way are more frequently referred to as dirt piles.
- There is a particular experimental effect which can spread dirt piles to the grounds each time that it triggers. Around three dig spots are created each time the effect is triggered.
- [Outer Room: Shrine] If the Blessing of the Chef is active, spreading dirt adds a unique dish to the Dining Room that provides 5
and leaves a dig spot, plus an additional dig spot with a Freezer in the house. 
[Upgrade Spoiler: Cloister] The Cloister of Veia has the effect of adding 8 dirt piles to any rooms with a fireplace that are drafted from the Cloister.
Excavation
While holding a Shovel, a dig spot may be excavated by interacting with it.
Dig spots can contain resource items and more rarely special items, but also have a significant chance to provide nothing, or junk which is immediately discarded. Excavated items are found with a unique pickup screen that says "You DUG UP" rather than the usual "You FOUND".
The useful items include:
Does it never end?
This list may be incomplete. You can help by expanding it.
- Anywhere from 1 to 4 coins
- A basic key
- A turnip (immediately consumed to gain 6)
- Broken Lever
- Secret Garden Key
- Silver Key
- Vault Key 149
- Vault Key 233
- Vault Key 304
- Vault Key 370
The useless items include:
- Nothing at all
- One of the following junk items, labelled "Not worth picking up":
An unremarkable rock
A few unimpressive pebbles
A worthless tin can
A worthless old brick
A worthless old shoe
An old rusty nail
Each dig spot can only be excavated once. The excavated items do not exist in the estate until they are dug up, e.g. they do not appear in the Security inventory.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for various contraptions.
The Shovel has two contraption upgrades, the Jack Hammer and the Detector Shovel, which can be used to excavate dig spots, with significantly improved chances of special items and multiple resource items. They still cannot excavate a dig spot that has already been excavated by a Shovel.
The Jack Hammer has a significantly lower chance to dig up junk than the Shovel. It frequently finds resource items in multiples and can find special items that the Shovel cannot. Possible items when using the Jack Hammer include:
- 1 to 4 coins
- 1 to 3 gems
- 1 to 3 keys
- 1 to 3 ivory dice
- Wind-up Key, even if other Wind-up Keys have already been found today
- Silver Key
- Secret Garden Key
- Stopwatch
- Knight's Shield
- Allowance Token
While the items found by the Detector Shovel are similar to those of the Shovel, the probabilities are skewed significantly, with keys and large piles of gold being frequent finds. Possible items when digging with the Detector Shovel include:
- 1 to 4 coins, with 3
and 4 being much more likely - A basic key, which is again much more likely
- Broken Lever
- Secret Garden Key
- Silver Key
- Vault Key 149
- Vault Key 304
The Detector Shovel still has a chance to dig up trash, but the chance is reduced, and only includes tin cans and rusty nails.
Neither the Jack Hammer nor the Detector Shovel can dig up turnips.
If you've found a new clue, you know what to do.
Can the Detector Shovel dig up anything that the Shovel cannot?
Hidden dig spots
While the vast majority of dig spots appear as mounds of dirt on the ground, a small number of spots can be excavated with no visual indication of their presence. Most of these secret dig spots have fixed locations and contain fixed items or other objects. All hidden dig spots can be excavated by a Shovel or equivalent.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for Treasure Maps.
When a Treasure Map is brought into its marked room, a prompt appears that allows the map to be checked. Doing so while holding a Shovel or equivalent causes a hidden dig spot to appear in the room under the player's feet, which may be excavated to obtained a "lost coffer" which randomly provides one of the following:
- 40
- 8
- 25 and 3
The hidden dig spot does not exist in the room prior to checking the Treasure Map.
Each room has a unique appearance after digging for treasure in this way which lasts for the rest of the day. Treasure can be dug again starting the following day. In niche scenarios, it is possible to dig for treasure in multiple different rooms in one day.
Prompt appearing while near the secret dig spot
Dig spot cursor that appears after viewing the map in the Den
Treasure
The messed up Den floor
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for a secret exception.
The Bedroom does not contain normal treasure. When digging with the Treasure Map in this room, the digging animation simply ends without receiving anything. Instead, the hole in the ground contains Baron's Bafflers, a document that can be inspected through the hole.
Unlike in other rooms, the damage to the ground is permanent, as is access to the bafflers. Once this has been done, it is impossible to use the Treasure Map in the Bedroom again. The Bedroom can still be drafted in that spot; it simply has no location where the prompt appears.
All other hidden dig spots appear in unique, predetermined spots in specific rooms or other locations and have fixed contents. While these dig spots can technically be dug out very easily from the start of the game, their hidden location means that they are generally found during or at the end of major puzzles. These dig spots must be hovered over for a brief period of time with a Shovel or equivalent in order for them to become interactable, preventing them from being dug up randomly. Digging them is generally a permanent action which marks the location with an visible excavated dig spot for the rest of the game.
Due to the nature of these dig spots, the following section contains major spoilers.
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for all fixed hidden dig spots.
Patio
The Patio has a hidden dig spot by the grill which contains a File Cabinet Key. The location is indicated by a mark in the Aquarium which appears when its water level is set to 1 or lower in the Pump Room.
If multiple Patios are drafted at once before this dig spot is excavated, a File Cabinet Key can be acquired from each of them, though there is little benefit to doing this. Digging up a key causes all future Patios to have their hidden dig spots already excavated and uninteractable, with the key on the side of the grill if it has not already spawned today or been used.
The mark by the grill in the Aquarium
The hidden dig spot in the Patio
Digging up the File Cabinet Key
Spot that the File Cabinet Key reappears in if it is not used
Laundry Room
The Laundry Room has a hidden dig spot by the middle washing machine on the right side of the room which contains a File Cabinet Key. The location is indicated by a mark in the Aquarium which appears when its water level is set to 1 or lower in the Pump Room.
If multiple Laundry Rooms are drafted at once before this dig spot is excavated, a File Cabinet Key can be acquired from each of them, though there is little benefit to doing this. Digging up a key causes all future Laundry Rooms to have their hidden dig spots already excavated and uninteractable, with the key on the machine if it has not already spawned today or been used.
The mark by the machine in the Laundry Room
The hidden dig spot in the Laundry Room
Digging up the File Cabinet Key
Spot that the File Cabinet Key reappears in if it is not used
Campsite
Past the main campsite, there is a spot with white trees and two stones lying on the ground. There is a hidden dig spot lying in between the stones which, when excavated, presents the player with the Conservatory hidden floorplan.
The player may choose whether the Conservatory is added to the draft pool when digging it up. If they do, the Conservatory becomes available permanently and immediately and the dig spot remains excavated permanently. If they decline, the floorplan vanishes, but can be dug up from the already-excavated dig spot immediately to get the same prompt. If the player digs up the floorplan but ends the day without adding it, the dig spot becomes hidden again overnight.
Basement
At a certain point in the Basement, there is a hidden dig spot which, when excavated, presents the player with the Lost & Found hidden floorplan. The location is given by the underground map, either the complete map in the Rotating Gear or the fragment found in Abandoned Mine, which has a secret 10th legend entry reading "Buried Floorplan". When viewed through a Magnifying Glass, a mark can be seen on the map indicating the location of the dig spot.
The player may choose whether the Lost & Found is added to the draft pool when digging it up. If they do, the Lost & Found becomes available permanently and immediately and the dig spot permanently vanishes the next day. If they decline, the floorplan vanishes, but can be dug up from the already-excavated dig spot immediately to get the same prompt. If the player digs up the floorplan but ends the day without adding it, the dig spot becomes hidden again overnight.
West Path
On the West Path, there is a hidden dig spot just to the right of the bridge that contains a microchip, alongside a glass jar that presumably contained it. The location of this dig spot is given by a message encoded in corner rooms that begins in A New Clue.
This dig spot can only ever be dug up once and, unlike the other fixed hidden dig spots, permanently vanishes the day after it is dug up. If the microchip is lost without being placed, it reappears on the end post of the bridge alongside the glass jar that originally contained it the next day.
Location of the buried microchip
Digging up the microchip
The microchip's failsafe spot
Interactions
Spoilers Within
This section contains spoilers for Root Cellar.
The Root Cellar causes dig spots to be more common in newly drafted rooms, and allows them to appear in rooms they usually do not. Dig spots added by the Root Cellar often have green roots coming from them that regular dig spots do not.
Rooms that can contain dig spots only when the Root Cellar is in the estate:
- Excavating a dig spot may trigger a particular experimental trigger which is activated by digging up trash. Digging up nothing at all does not count for this experimental trigger.
- If there is a Conference Room on the estate when the dirt experimental effect triggers, the dirt piles will appear in the Conference Room instead of the drive.
- [Studio Addition: The Kennel] Excavating a dig spot while the Kennel is in the estate will unlock all doors that room. This includes digging for treasure.
