Dig Site - Part 1/3 of Jewels & Equipment

This is the first in a planned set of three posts about jewels and equipment.

Part 1: Dig site - collecting jewels and monster missions
Part 2: Upgrading Jewels - increasing the bonus of jewels
Part 3: Equipment and Socketing jewels - adding jewels to equipment for use.


Dig Site

The dig site becomes available to players when they finish Teepee Hollow and can access Turtle Falls.  There are two purposes to the Dig Site: to use daily digs to collect jewels; and to send monsters on missions to earn loyalty points and troop experience points.

How to dig?

Within the Dig Site there are eight places to "dig" for jewels. The amount of daily digs allocated to you depends on your troop level, and they renew each day at the Battle Camp daily reset (5pm PDT).  The number of digs available to you can be seen above the Dig Site on the main game map, or above your avatar's head while you're within the Dig Site.

To use your daily digs, click on one of the either locations within the Dig Site that are indicated with the "Search" markers. There is no known advantage to which place you choose to dig as the prizes for the digs are random. Many people choose to use all of their digs in the one place so that the random nature balances out with their digs.

Winning a jewel and bone from a dig at the Dig Site

The prizes from the digs include level 1 and level 2 jewels, along with items used to send monsters on missions: bones, pebbles, metal ore, wood, leather, teeth, roots and seashells.  These latter items have no other purpose in the game.  Jewels will be discussed in more detail in part 2 of this series of posts.

Non-jewel items collected from the Dig Site (not runes or plans)

Understanding the Mission Board

The other part of the Dig Site is the ability to send a monster on a mission. Only one mission can be underway at a time. To send a monster on a mission, click on the Mission board at the center of the Dig Site screen.

Click on the Mission board to send a monster on a mission

After clicking on the Mission board, you'll see a number of available missions for you to select. (The higher your troop level, the more missions you may be able to choose from).  The missions are categorized by the rarity of the monster required to go on that mission - a monster of the same rarity (super on a super mission) will have a 50% chance of success, a monster of higher rarity (ultra on a super mission) will have a 100% chance of success.  Neither the percentage chance of success or the duration of the mission is effected by the feeding level of the monster - a level 1 rare will have the same 100% chance of success on a common monster mission as a maxed rare.

Each mission will provide you with a different level of loyalty points (coins with yellow stars) and troop experience (blue flag with XP written on it).  Loyalty points can be spent in the troop shop (see part 2 of this post series).  Troop experience is combined with experience gained by troop members donating stones to help level up your troop.  The amounts of loyalty points and troop experience are shown at the top of the mission screen - here I have 58 loyalty points accumulated and my troop is at level 6, with 42.3k of 50k experience required to level us up to level 7.

Each mission requires a different combination of components found during your daily digs.  Missions that appear in blue indicate that you have all the required components to send a monster on that mission, other missions will be in grey until you collect the components needed.  A blue flag indicates that your monster has competed its mission and is available for collection along with your reward.  The "N/A" timer icon shows if you've chosen to delete a mission. This is a process that takes 6 hours and will give you a new mission to choose from after that - it's a way to remove missions for which you don't have the required components for, or have no monsters that qualify. (For example, if I didn't have a spare epic monster to send on the epic mission, I may delete this mission on this screen by selecting that mission and clicking "delete mission").

Mission board showing a newly deleted mission with countdown (Left),
 and its appearance when a new mission is ready (Right).

How to Send a Monster on a Mission

Once you've chosen a mission that suits you, click on the mission to make sure that you have all the components needed. In the example screen below, I'm choosing the bottom left super mission that will earn me 19 loyalty points and 16 troop experience.

Selecting the bottom left Super mission

Press the "Choose Monster" button on the bottom of the screen to select a monster to send on a mission.  All of the monsters in your inventory (not including storage) that have the same or higher rarity as the mission will be available for you to select from.

The above screens show me selecting a super or an ultra for the mission.  Each time the mission duration, shown at the bottom of the screen, remains unchanged.  The chance of success is 100% for the ultra selections as its rarity is above a super, whereas the super only has a 50% chance of success.  Once you've chosen the monster, click "Go" and your monster will be sent on the mission.  The mission screen will begin the countdown (hours:minutes:seconds) until your monster returns for you to collect, along with the reward prizes.  The chosen monster will appear in your inventory but will be unavailable for use until after the mission is over and you've reclaimed your monster from the Dig Site. To reclaim your monster, click on the blue flag indicating the mission has finished, and then click the "Claim Rewards" button. Your monster will then be available in your inventory once more, and you'll be able to initiate another mission.

Mission screen showing the mission completion countdown (Left),

and a different completed mission (Right).

Why should Beginners visit the Dig Site?

Jewels, loyalty points and even troop experience are generally not things that beginner players are all that concerned with - they're features that impact higher level players more significantly.  However, everyone only receives a limited number of digs each day and sending monsters on missions to earn loyalty points (for making purchases in the troop store) is a very slow process.  There are no inventory limitations preventing you from starting the collection process early and building up a supply of jewels, mission components and loyalty points for later in the game when you'll really appreciate this head start that you've created for yourself.

Sending monsters on missions also helps build your troop's experience level, helping it to level up so that you receive a slight attack bonus and more items in the troop store.  It's an alternative to donating stones to your troop that costs you nothing but the unavailability of one monster for a while.