Guide:Don't dig up
This means the page will walk you through a specific task, strategy, or enemy/boss fight.
Don't dig up is a special seed that flips the entire world generation upside down by placing the player in the Underworld and making the Surface the most dangerous area in the game. Some weapons are swapped as well, with powerful endgame weapons appearing early in a weaker form and early, weak weapons being buffed and dropping from endgame enemies (e.g. the Aqua Scepter and Bubble Gun are swapped).
This guide will cover how to approach this inverted world generation. Weapon swaps and how they affect each swapped weapon are covered at the end of the guide.
The beginning
The center of the Underworld is replaced with a solid ash starting island, along with ash grass and ash trees for wood. The Guide is replaced with the Tax Collector, and Lava Slimes and Mimics are the only enemies that can spawn.
- Lava Slimes take the role of Blue Slimes in the forest of normal worlds. They have the same stats, are less aggressive, and drop Gel.
- Mimics spawn in Pre-Hardmode in this seed with reduced stats and drop Gold Chest loot. The bright background of the Underworld and darker coloration of the Mimic can make them hard to spot on the starter island, but they are well-worth killing for their money and item drop, especially early on.
- You can outrun them with a Well Fed buff or trap them with blocks or platforms to kill them. Due to their high defense, you should consider crafting some Ash Wood Swords until you get one with a damage-boosting modifier and use that for a faster kill.
- Mimics will spawn anywhere under the surface even in Pre-Hardmode, but at a lower rate than normal. Killing Mimics is valuable, but farming Mimics for their loot is generally less valuable than searching for chests that contain their loot anyway.
As a start, shake trees and break Pots as you travel to each edge of the starter island, chopping some trees down and killing some slimes for Ash Wood, platforms, and torches. This gets you fruit and Rope to work with as well, on top of any loot you may get from early Mimic spawns. Do not bridge off of the starting island for now, as normal Underworld enemies can start spawning as soon as you leave the island[a].
Occasionally, floating ash can give other Underworld enemies space to spawn near the edges of the starting island; in this case, run away from the edge to avoid more enemy spawns and use blocks to protect yourself. Against Hellbats and Demons, block yourself in, wait for them to come close, and then surround them in blocks to trap them for your escape. Against Fire Imps, stab them once, put blocks behind them so they can't move, and then kill them. Against Bone Serpents, you are almost certainly dead, but your best chance is to jump and place platforms on the side of ash trees in a desperate attempt to get away from the ground and avoid its charges, then rope up to the layer above.
Once you have looted your starting island, you can either make a base or immediately start heading up. Consider surrounding your spawn area in blocks, which can prevent you from potentially pouring lava over your spawn. Crafting Ash Wood armor can reduce lava damage, but not by enough to make it survivable early on.
The mushroom layer
Directly above the Underworld layer is a Glowing Mushroom layer that contains stone and basic ores, along with an even mixture of daytime, nighttime, and underground enemies. This seed requires you to mine a lot, so crafting a Furnace here and making an Iron or Lead Pickaxe can be helpful. Wooden Chests can spawn in this layer, and hold surface loot.
Try to avoid the urge to go straight up. If you mine straight up into lava, that will dump onto your base and potentially your spawn. Otherwise, this is still slow and limiting, leaving you with little chance of finding any chests or control over what biome you end up in. Instead, try roping up in a few locations on the starting island searching for a longer path up; this will let you quickly move through most of the layer, and you can start mining a path once you are already close to the end of the mushroom layer.
In general, it is impossible to know what biome you will end up in after crossing the mushroom layer beforehand, besides the Jungle. You can spot the Jungle in the mushroom layer by its mud walls and the lack of stone. By climbing up to near the mushroom layer at each edge of the starting island, you can potentially find the Jungle before even entering the mushroom layer this way.
The underground
Above the mushroom layer, Life Crystals start to spawn, natural Minecart Track paths become common, and world generation resembles a fake "surface", with Grass for Daybloom, primarily Sand in the Desert, and a focus on softer blocks as generally seen in the underground layer. The biomes of the world also begin here, with the Jungle and Snow Biome extending down to the edge of the mushroom layer and the Desert starting a bit above the mushroom layer. According to the Depth Meter, this layer is listed as "Caverns", but its behavior is a mixture of surface and underground elements, and it does not behave like the cavern layer in any other way.
This layer is great for earlygame loot and finding most herbs, but Zombies and Demon Eyes still make this layer dangerous. Use the minecart tracks to cover horizontal distance and search for biomes, and try to focus on moving up. You can craft a Bed to set your spawn within this layer to skip the mushroom layer, or set up housing to buy a Pylon here. Happiness is disabled in this world, and instead you only need 2 NPCs in close proximity, outside of an evil biome, to buy a Pylon.
Outside of the central 14% of the world, the underground also counts as Ocean sometimes. This gives a low chance of finding the Angler or a Shark while exploring, causes Ocean fish to appear while fishing here, and means NPCs will sell the Ocean Pylon almost anywhere in the underground. Both the Ocean Pylon and the Forest Pylon are great generic pylon options to set teleportation points. Note that unless you use a Bed, you will also have to use a Cavern Pylon at your spawn to make use of your pylon network.
Be careful breaking pots around this point, especially if you find the Jungle early on. Pots in this seed have a 1/10 (10%) chance of spawning a slime with a Fallen Star in it. These slimes are always aggressive and will often get an immediate hit on an unsuspecting player. Try to instead break pots from a distance using arrows or Rope, so you have time to react.
Once you reach 140 max HP and have 5 or more defense, killing most types of slimes has a 1/200 (0.5%) chance of spawning King Slime. This list includes the slimes that count towards spawning King Slime during a Slime Rain, and notably does not include Lava Slimes in the Underworld. If you get a random King Slime spawn, the safest option is to use a Recall Potion to escape; King Slime is too big to feasibly fight in a cramped space. This chance is also too low to exploit on demand, and with Slime Rains never occurring in this seed, you will instead want to use a Slime Crown to summon him. If King Slime is defeated once, he will no longer spawn naturally after a slime kill.
If you go far enough to the sides of the world, past the Dungeon or Jungle, you will find the world's Corruption or Crimson, covering the entire world's edge. You can get Deathweed and other resources from here, but generally it is easier to get resources from the world's evil biome on the surface.
- The Desert is a fantastic option for exploring upwards at this point. Dangerous Underground Desert enemies cannot spawn until you get high enough to reach
Sandstone Walls(Desktop, Console and Mobile versions), and the lower portions of the Desert have wide open caves populated by sand islands and desert houses. The edge of the proper Underground Desert makes a good spot for a pylon for quick forays into the cavern layer. - The Jungle has open caves that are good for finding loot and moving up, but Underground Jungle enemies still spawn at half their normal rate here, making it more dangerous.
The cavern layer
Above the underground layer is the cavern layer, with cavern enemies, better ore, cavern-layer loot from chests and pots, and cavern layer-exclusive generation like normal Glowing Mushroom biomes and Marble and Granite Blocks. The Depth Meter will read "underground" here, but this layer matches the cavern layer of normal worlds.
Goblin Tinkerer and other bound NPCs that only appear in the cavern layer will appear here, much like normal cavern enemies and critters. The exception is the Bound Mechanic, as the Dungeon is still accessed starting from the true surface as normal.
Sandstone Chests generate their primary loot in the same way as normal worlds, so this is the layer where Magic Conches and Ancient Chisels will begin to generate. A Magic Conch is especially useful, as it makes reaching the surface and evil biome much easier. The Underground Desert also no longer has lava, while the ice biome has lava instead of water as you go higher.
If you plan to dig to the surface normally, lava can be a problem, as it can flow down your tunnels if you are not careful. Surface chasms are an especially good way of ascending, offering an open path to the surface after you blow up the edges with bombs or dynamite.
The surface
The surface layer is permanently dark, darker than normal night, covered in Corruption or Crimson, and has lower gravity than normal. Gravity starts dropping as soon as you cross the surface-cavern boundary, down all the way to 10% of normal at the top of the world, and you will die if you touch the top of the world. Fallen Stars will also kill you in one hit, all of the evil biome enemies have buffed HP, damage, and size, and being within the Corruption or Crimson covering the surface boosts the spawn rate to extreme levels.
The best way to deal with the surface is to keep moving. Any enemy you kill will be replaced almost immediately, and their stats are too high to deal with. In Corruption worlds especially, Devourers are almost three times as likely to spawn as usual here, making them a constant threat. Focus on mobility: a Featherfall Potion and/or double jumps can help with staying in the air, while a Shield of Cthulhu or movement speed buffs can help with aerial mobility. A minecart rail could work for crossing the surface, but finding a good height for one can be difficult, and this limits your ability to respond to Fallen Stars.
Another option is a sky bridge to block falling stars. Falling stars spawn in the top 5% of the total height of the world, with that being the top 60 blocks in a small world, 90 blocks in a medium world, or 120 blocks in a large world. If you put a row of blocks beneath that, falling stars can no longer kill you, and the stars never drop as items anyways. Placing the skybridge at the height where the Depth Meter says you enter space is a reliable way to block all falling stars, but a lower sky bridge may be better to avoid Harpies.
Neither the Forest Pylon nor the Cavern Pylon work in this layer, while the Ocean Pylon will work almost anywhere on the surface, though it will only actually be sold at the oceans. The Dungeon entrance can be a good spot for a surface pylon, though whether you use an artificial biome to get a pylon you want or you bring an Ocean Pylon beforehand, you will need to prepare in advance. Sunflowers can also be used to make housing valid despite the Corruption or Crimson.
The surface layer is most useful for finding Floating Islands, fighting the Eater of Worlds, Brain of Cthulhu, or Deerclops, finding the Dungeon entrance, and finding corrupt/crimson chasms. The evil oceans reached through the Magic Conch can also be used for fishing, having a chance of Ocean fish despite being infected. It can also make for a good arena location due to the wide open space, if you can work around the falling stars and reduced gravity.
The surface layer can also be a good option for enemy farming. It will always spawn surface nighttime enemies and never daytime enemies, though it will also spawn Underground Jungle and Underground Corruption/Crimson enemies. Blood Moon enemies will spawn on the surface as well, due to them being night enemies.
Bosses
The starting island in the Underworld can be a great natural arena with plenty of space and weak enemies, but requires some terraforming. Smooth out the ground and use a bridge of platforms for fighting King Slime and the Eye of Cthulhu.
Nocturnal bosses such as the Eye of Cthulhu can be spawned and will not despawn during the day in this seed. This removes the normal time limit for fighting them. Natural Eye of Cthulhu and mechanical boss spawns will also spawn at any height in the world, not just on the surface or in the Underworld, which can force you to return home while spelunking. If you do not want to fight a natural Eye of Cthulhu spawn, you will have to either leave and reenter the world or despawn it; the best way to do this is to wait for it to spawn, then come on screen, and only then teleport home. Do not teleport before it comes on screen, however, as in that case it will follow you all the way back to spawn due to how despawning mechanics work.
Invasions such as the Goblin Army will enemies spawn at any height, rather than just the surface. Blood Moons and Eclipses will also boost spawn rates everywhere, even when their respective enemies cannot spawn, making them useful for enemy farming.
The Eater of Worlds and Brain of Cthulhu can be fought in their natural chasms, but this can be difficult due to the boosted stats of evil biome enemies. Using a summon item to fight them in the Underworld with an artificial biome will likely be easier. This can also apply to Deerclops, who only naturally spawns on the true surface in this seed, but an artificial snow biome takes longer to make.
Skeletron requires you to fight on the surface, where dangerous evil biome enemies can spawn, but outside of Devourers none of these enemies can move through blocks. Use blocks to close off your arena from outside enemies, and consider using lava to block enemy spawns within the arena entirely.
Hardmode preparation
When you enter Hardmode, the evil biome and new Hallow surrounding the entire edge of the world will start spreading, and in this seed, the Dryad does not sell Purification Powder and the Steampunker does not sell the Clentaminator or any Solutions to use with it. This makes it very difficult to purify large areas without just mining them out. For the most part, evil biome spread can still be ignored if you play decently fast; the Jungle will generate Chlorophyte Ore that will block and reverse nearby evil biome spread naturally, and evil biome spread is universally slower due to all of it occurring underground. With the starting island also being totally safe from Corruption and Crimson, the main concern is protecting your Pylons, which you can also do with Sunflowers.
If you want to prevent the Corruption or Crimson from spreading entirely, you can also quarantine it by mining a 3 block tall tunnel just below the evil biome along the whole surface up to the Dungeon. This will prevent the evil biome from spreading below at anywhere but any chasms that extend below the surface, which you would have to destroy or quarantine manually. A simpler option is to seed Hallow into areas you want to keep safe, as this will combat the spread of the evil biome. Chlorophyte also works after defeating the mechanical bosses, but takes more work to seed properly as its natural spread is more limited.
Flattening out the starting island makes it an ideal place to fight the Old One's Army and Wall of Flesh. The Wall of Flesh can kill NPCs in the path of the mouth, though, so you may want to move them elsewhere before the fight. Water Walking Potions also let you use the surrounding lava lakes to extend the arena without any more work.
Hardmode
When Hardmode starts, the Hallow generates on the same edge of the world as the Jungle, completely replacing the evil biome on that side below the surface. This includes the Aether, which is always located in this area of the world. Mimics also drop normal loot now, and the evil biome surrounding the edge of the world begins to spread. However, due to the world being underground, the evil biome will spread slower than usual.
The main goals in early Hardmode are getting Hardmode ores, Souls, and new enemy drops such as weapons and accessories.
Chasms on the surface are the best place to smash Altars for generating Hardmode ores, much like in normal worlds. The surface in this seed now spawns Underground Corruption and Crimson enemies, which makes this more difficult than usual, but mining into a chasm from below can avoid most of the enemies. Hardmode ores will generate anywhere below the surface, including in the starting island, but the higher tier ores are limited to higher in the world; focus on mining below the surface evil biome to get each ore type.
Enemies will drop Souls of Night and Light at any height in this seed. You can farm for Souls of Night on the surface with its high enemy spawns and Souls of Light from the Hallow that generates at the start of Hardmode, or you can make an artificial biome at the starting island for easier but slower farming.
Mid-late Hardmode
The Jungle Temple generates at the surface, making it much easier to find, but Wraiths will spawn as you traverse the temple because of this. Lihzahrd Bricks do not count for the Jungle biome in this seed, but as long as you are in front of temple walls, Golem will not enrage.
Most bosses can be fought either on the surface or the underworld starting island. The starting island is safer and has normal gravity, but the limited height can make it harder to use Gravitation Potions. Dynamite and later Launchers are an easy way to clear more space, and a smooth floor and ceiling will give plenty of room to move around. The surface has more immediate space, but more dangerous enemies and lower gravity. If you want to use a surface arena, use a frame of solid blocks so most enemies cannot reach you inside, and cover the bottom in lava to prevent enemy spawns along with an Obsidian Skin Potion to avoid taking damage yourself. A ceiling is also important to prevent falling stars from reaching you.
Prismatic Lacewings will spawn during any time of day, making them easier to farm, and no longer despawn outside the Hallow. The Empress of Light will never enrage below the surface, and will always enrage above the surface, where low gravity can make it more difficult to get a Terraprisma. Duke Fishron will enrage outside the surface ocean, despite the ocean properties of the underground layer, meaning you must deal with the lower surface gravity to fight him. If you can get a flying mount such as the Shrimpy Truffle, those are unaffected by the reduced surface gravity.
Solar Eclipses still spawn as normal despite the lack of sun, but with the message of "The horrors have arrived!" instead. Because Solar Eclipse enemies only spawn during the daytime, they will not spawn on the surface, unlike Blood Moons.
The Celestial Pillars spawn at varying heights underground instead of the surface. This makes the Solar Pillar easier, due to Crawltipedes almost never attacking and Corites being the only other enemy that can go through walls, but other Pillars become substantially more difficult. Focus on moving in and out of the edge of the pillar's range to kill a few enemies at a time without getting overwhelmed, and boost mining speed to quickly reach the Pillar once its shield is down.
General tips
- The don't dig up seed starts with far more Herbs naturally generated than normal worlds.
- While normal worlds start with 3-4 hours of existing herb growth, don't dig up worlds start with 15-20 hours of herb growth.
- These herbs are also evenly spread throughout the entire world's height, making herbs sprout extremely fast on the surface.
- Trees and other surface plants grow 3.5x faster on the true surface of the world than underground. This is especially useful for Pumpkin Seeds, as smart cursor does not work with Pumpkin Seeds below the surface even here.
- Gem Trees, Life Fruit, and other plants exclusive to the underground will grow 1.5x faster in this world, but will still not grow above the surface line.
- NPCs will move in faster into houses above the surface than underground. This means that it will take NPCs longer to move in earlygame unless you build larger or more houses.
- Fishing catches in many areas are changed to make it easier to get catches from areas that would otherwise be hard to fish in.
- Fishing in the underground has a 1/2 (50%) chance to become a surface catch, and if this happens, a 1/3 (33.33%) chance to become an ocean catch. In most areas, this gives a 1/2 chance of an underground catch, a 1/3 chance of a surface catch, and a 1/6 chance of an ocean catch, while in an evil biome the ocean catch gets overridden with a surface catch. This is so that surface and ocean fish are easier to get, due to the danger of the true surface.
- Fishing in the bottom 100 tiles of the underground will always give cavern fish.
- Fishing in the space layer will always ignore Corruption and Crimson.
- Ocean fish can also be fished up at the surface oceans of the world by bridging out until you are outside the Corruption or Crimson and fishing from there. This method can also work for fishing in other biomes on the surface through artificial biomes.
Weapon swaps
Many weapons in don't dig up are swapped with another weapon at a different point in progression, with their stats adjusted to fit in better with their new home. Most weapons benefited from the swap, becoming significantly more powerful than the weapons they replaced. Here are comparisons for whether each weapon is better or worse after the swap:
- Aqua Scepter and Bubble Gun are the most notable swap. Aqua Scepter is far more powerful in this seed, being dropped by Duke Fishron, and getting a massive range alongside the best DPS of any weapon pre-Moon Lord. Bubble Gun becomes far worse from the swap as the inverse of Aqua Scepter; it has worse DPS, worse range, and no pierce.
- Unholy Trident and Flower of Fire. Unholy Trident is now available from Shadow Chests, and has better pierce and range to function as an easier to use but weaker Demon Scythe, making it the second best mage weapon against Wall of Flesh. Flower of Fire gets a much higher attack speed, making it a solid weapon against Plantera, but it can struggle against phase 2 without pierce.
- Magic Dagger and Wand of Sparking/Frosting. Magic Dagger is harder to obtain due to the difficulty of finding surface chests, but has better range and attack speed than the normal Wand of Sparking, in return for using up more mana. While it does lack a debuff, the Magic Dagger will always do more DPS than the Wand of Frosting. The Wand of Frosting does about the same damage as the Magic Dagger, with Wand of Sparking being a bit weaker.
- KO Cannon and Chain Knife are both improved. KO Cannon is easier to use and deals more damage, while Chain Knife gets drastically increased range, damage, and speed, and can patch up its lower projectile speed with melee speed bonuses.
- Ice Bow and Snowball Cannon. The Ice Bow is now an excellent earlygame tool for lighting up dark areas with incredible projectile velocity for easy aiming, with comparable damage to the normal Snowball Cannon. The Snowball Cannon struggles with high defense targets due to low base damage, but can get very high DPS with Ichor support.
- Keybrand and Katana. Both of these weapons are significantly improved, but the Katana especially gets very high damage output, comparable to or even surpassing the Starlight in return for very limited range. Both of these weapons benefit greatly from melee speed.
Footnotes
- ↑ The center 26% of the world's width, -50 blocks on the left side only.
