A MINING GAME BY TRONT
Start with a drill. End with a god complex.
Dig. Detonate. Recover. Awaken.
The ground is yours.
So is whatever is under it.
Equipped: Cutter
Balanced excavation
1-7 equips a tool. X cycles what you own. Choose here for touch controls.
A broad pocket. 2.6 s fuse.
Hold C to aim. Release to throw.
V Place a work light. Aim at it and press E to retrieve it.
F Scan minerals and signals. M opens your mine survey.
Space Lift. Hold R to return to the yard with your minerals.
B / G Plant a return anchor underground; return to it from the yard.
T Aim and place your freight dock. E opens its controls.
Z Foundry bore: melt a 12 m passage. Six-second recharge. Ready
Q Tear open rock with a rift. Hold the heart's trigger to draw in loose minerals.
The mine is paused. Field tips can be switched off in Menu.
Autosave ready
Charges scatter loose material. Work lights stay in your mine.
Send cargo through a shaft to the yard while you keep digging.
Recover heavy machinery by lifting it above ground. Recall leaves tethered loads below. Mineral cargo comes with you.
F records nearby deposits and buried signals. Click a signal to inspect its depth. The profile combines explored passages across the claim; the plan shows one depth.
Cut a clear shaft above the dock. The orange marker shows rock blocking the cage. Goods stay safe in transit; payment comes when you sell at the yard hopper. The cage returns automatically. Recalled cargo can be taken back here.
A first-person successor to Trent Sterling’s 2015 BUTTLOADS! Cut your own tunnels, follow veins, sell your finds, and build a better rig. Recover heavy machinery, unlock attachments in new strata, light your routes, and follow the roots into something impossible. Blast charges have a 2.6-second fuse. At 9 m, remote satchels stick to rock and wait for H. At 25 m, bore charges cut a 6 m tunnel along your aim and cost two charges. They scatter ore and kick you back; they do not destroy valuables. Work lights fall if their support is removed.
Pink thunderstone seams hold a choice: expose and recover a crystal with E for a spare charge, or blast it to ignite a chain reaction through the mineral pocket. Drilling alone is safe. Recover a middle crystal to break the chain. F records crystals on your survey; J explains discoveries.
Cinder moths live in cave pockets. Use your drill or mining axe (6, unlocked at 9 m) to fight. Their flare warns of a lunge; dodge or lift away. Placed work lights keep them back. Rest at the surface to restore health. If the yard crew rescues you, lost minerals wait in a recovery cache marked on M; E retrieves them.
The Foreman Below draws its armor from three pressure locks. Expose and break the locks to damage its core. Dodge its marked cutting jet or shelter behind rock; hold Space above ground shocks. Defeating it restores power to Ridge Common and unlocks Z, a reusable 12 m foundry bore with a six-second recharge.
On touchscreens, drag the right side to look and use the on-screen controls. Save locally or export a portable JSON file. Original prototype saves stay in their original storage; this remake uses a new world format.
Game, procedural art and sound © 2026 Trent Sterling, MIT. Three.js r140 © Three.js authors, MIT. Surface Nets architecture informed by Terrain Lab and Mikola Lysenko’s Surface Nets work.
The heart is awake. The sealed geodes are open. A backyard hole became a mine. The ring beneath the heart opens a passage into the much older workings below.
Bring charges and lights. Restore the buried stations, and Otis can send you back down from Bell Works.
This replaces the remake’s local claim. Export your current save first if you want to return to it.
The pressure locks fall silent. A current runs up through the old stations, under the road and into Ridge Common. For the first time in years, the well shines.
Foundry bore unlocked. Press Z underground to melt a 12 m passage. Six seconds to cool. No charges spent, no minerals destroyed.
The town pays $5,000 for bringing its power home. Your mine, equipment and discoveries stay yours.
"The roof came down. The safety brake held. Then the battery died. Your work-light cell will run the winch, if you can clear a shaft above me. Please leave the brake where it is."
One work light powers the rescue. The bell stops against rock and equipment. Stand beside it, then cut at the orange obstruction marker.
General supplies