Game: DigDigDrill
Genre: Adventure, Simulation
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows, macOS), iOS and Android)
Developer | Publisher: Toorai | Phoenixx
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $9.99 | UK £8.99 | EU € 8,99
Release Date: March 18th, 2026
Review code used, with many thanks to Stride PR.
Created by solo developer Toorai, DigDigDrill is a 2D mining simulation. I was digging a hole a few months ago, so it seems a natural progression to swap a trowel for a mining drill.
Will I dig DigDigDrill?
Start at the Top
DigDigDrill has a simple objective: “collect ores, craft drills and aim for floor 999”. There is no tutorial as such, although the very simple movement controls are given straight away. However, if you encounter something new, a help box will appear to explain the discovery. As most were single-screen help boxes, I found this approach worked well to learning the mechanics of DigDigDrill.
To start, your drilling machine is not very powerful, and the battery will frequently run out. However, you don’t have to go to the surface to recharge; in DigDigDrill, your drill automatically recharges. There is a downside to this, as the empty batteries get thrown into your bag, taking up valuable space. Even so, I liked this method, and you can always upgrade your inventory space!
The mine is densely packed with squares of varying rock or material. You’ll also come across chests, crates and many different ores. Some crates will contain torches, which will allow you to see further into the darkness; other crates will contain bombs, which explode when drilled, clearing away a portion of rock; and others will have coins and ores. There is a generous amount of all the collectables.
When your bag is full, you can still collect more, but with a heavy bag, your drilling speed will severely drop, so it’s time to head to the surface and unload all the loot.
Scattered throughout the mine are ‘healing’ rocks. Brightly coloured squares, which absorb energy from orbs to regain their durability. Most of the time, these rocks can be ignored; however, the mine is split into 100 floor blocks, each separated with a solid row of ‘healing’ rocks. The only way to break through is to find and destroy three orbs. This increases the time it takes for the ‘healing’ rock to restore its power, giving you a chance to drill through it.
Puzzling Drills
Even with the three orbs destroyed, you’ll still need to increase your drill power to break through the barriers. It can be infuriating when your drill is just shy of being strong enough. However, some of the collected chests will contain blueprints for new drill heads, and these can be crafted at the forge on the surface.
However, this is not a simple click of an ‘upgrade’ button, in exchange for some coins or ores. You’ll have to do some careful puzzle piece packing, and I adored this aspect of DigDigDrill.
At the start, you only have a handful of ores, so it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to fill the blueprint completely. But this doesn’t matter; in the early game, the main purpose is to create more powerful drills. Just put as many ores as you can in the blueprint. Some ores have a fixed power value, whilst others have a range, so there is always an element of surprise as to the outcome. The ore shape can be flipped horizontally, but not rotated. You need to pay to use the forge, so it’s a balancing act between selling ores and keeping them to create drills. Old drills can’t be sold, just discarded.
As you progress further down the DigDigDrill mine and unlock different minerals, you will start to have enough shapes to completely fill a blueprint, and in doing so, you’ll create a four-times enchanted drill. Enchantments give additional strengths, and my favourites were the Bomber (increases a bomb’s range), CrateBlast, OreBlast and BatteryBlast (chance of an explosion when destroying a crate or ore, or when recharging). I found it very satisfying when these enchantments worked together and caused a bomb blast which rippled through a great swathe of rock (and I appreciated that my loot wasn’t destroyed!).
Eventually, you’ll unlock the ability to upgrade the enchantments, done by merging your chosen drill with three others having the same enchantment.
Save enough money, and you’ll be able to buy extra drill slots. This allows other drills to ‘lend’ their enchantments to your main drill, but it doesn’t affect the drill’s power. The power can be increased slightly by using gears. Gears are found in gold chests, and as well as the digging power, they can be used to influence the drill speed, movement speed, critical hit chance and critical hit damage. Thankfully, the gears are not a one-time use, enabling you to alter the balance depending on the activity. I used movement speed most of the time, but honed in on critical chance when trying to break through the barriers.
You’ll also unlock charms, which add an extra layer of enhancement, via another piece placement puzzle. There is a lot of customisation in DigDigDrill!
It took me around 14 hours in total to break through to floor 999, having reset the whole mine to get bonus gears, and spent time carefully crafting enchanted drills and merging them together. The reward for which was truly worthy of all the effort! But I won’t spoil the surprise!
Gameplay
The mining controls are very straightforward; move in the direction, and any rock in the way will be mined. When accessing the various surface facilities, the controls are given on-screen. DigDigDrill works very smoothly in both docked (I played via the Switch 2) and handheld modes. The text and various icons are large enough to read clearly on the small Switch Lite screen, and there is full touchscreen functionality.
DigDigDrill automatically saves, and there is no night or day cycle.
Conclusion
There’s a plethora of digging games out there, but DigDigDrill really impressed me. The different puzzles to create drills or enhance them added depth to the game, and I really enjoyed the strategy and planning needed to break through the barriers.
A thoroughly comprehensive mining game, simple in concept, but designed to challenge.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up 
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