Rusty Pick

Pip the miner goes down the old Canary Mine with a rusty pick, two sticks of dynamite, two ropes and three hearts. Every run is a freshly carved mine: four caves, sixteen levels, one ancient worm at the bottom.

Hearts are rare. A crate might hold one; otherwise it is the old trader's stew or a heart container, and he is not cheap.

The lift down costs gold. Every level's lift wants its fare, and it rises steeply the deeper you go. You cannot just run for the exit: collect enough, then get out before your lamp runs dry.

Gold hides in the soil (watch for the glint), and the real treasure is where it is hard to get: gems glinting in hollows deep in the rock, sealed vaults that only dynamite opens, and hoards guarded by a pack of cave creatures.

Your pick decides where you can go. The rusty pick only bites loose soil. Steel digs packed earth and mines gold ore clean, where dynamite would scatter most of the gold. Diamond cuts through stone and frees whole gems. Hook the pick into soil walls to climb, hang from ledges, and save the dynamite and ropes for when nothing else works.

Light is time. The mine is pitch dark. Your headlamp burns oil, and when the flask runs dry the dark gets very small. Collect oil, save it, and it pays out at the elevator. A swarm of fireflies may light your way.

The mine is full of traps: spikes, dart traps that fire when you cross their line, trapdoors, fire vents, swinging spiked logs, powder barrels, pressure plates that set a boulder rolling, and icicles that drop when you walk below. A golden canary on a pedestal? Somebody wants you to take it, and its guards are waiting.

Nine cave creatures with their own tricks: a bomb beetle that curls up and rolls at you (kick it back!), a toad whose tongue drags you to its mouth, an owl whose screech shoves you off ledges, a gecko that drops from the ceiling and pounces, a mushroom hermit who throws his cap like a boomerang, a slime that splits when you hit it, a badger that charges through soil and leaps every gap, a gnome who tosses bear traps into your path, never steps in one himself, and comes with a knife once you are caught, and fireflies that just want to follow you.

Between the caves you rest at the old trader's fire: a steel or diamond pick, heart containers, a stew for a lost heart, a bigger oil tank, dynamite and ropes, and once you clear a world, a shortcut that lets every later run start in the next one. You will not afford everything. Choose.

At the very bottom: the Deep Worm. Drop the ceiling on its head.

Score = gold earned + depth + lamp oil saved. Two world leaderboards: all time and this week. There is also a Daily Run, the same mine for everyone, every day.

Controls

• Keyboard: arrows or WASD to move, Z or Space jump, X or J swing the pick (hold up or down to dig that way), C or K dynamite (hold down to place it), V or L rope (hold down at an edge to lower it), jump at a soil wall and hold towards it to climb, up at the elevator, Esc pause, M sound, F fullscreen
• Gamepad: stick/D-pad, A jump, X pick, B dynamite, Y rope, Start pause
• Phone: turn it sideways, on-screen pad and buttons

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