Excavation

The dig site opens from R1 once you have earned 1T gold in total.

Digging

The first dig costs 10B gold; each dig costs x1.2 more than the last.
Digs reset only on reincarnation.
A dig may turn up faction coins: 2 coins, plus 1 more for every 4 digs.
Every 10 digs you open a cache: 5 minutes of idle income plus 5 faction coins.

Artifacts

Artifacts are permanent finds with lasting bonuses. Until found, the game shows only a riddle:

Artifact	Riddle
Bone Crown	The dead remember every crown they laid down in this life.
Deep Ore	The more a dwarven realm has raised, of any kind, the deeper its roots reach.
Demon Horn	Demons who keep many dragons find what the dragons buried.
Dragon Scale	Further down, where the dirt runs warm, something scaled once slept.
Elder Seed	Sown by the patient. It wakes only for elves who let a single reign grow long.
Ember Heart	It warms to a demon who sits on a mountain of unspent gold.
Forge Rune	Dwarves who sink many shafts hear it ringing in the rock.
Gnome Lantern	A lantern still lit, far below where any light-sworn digger should have reached.
Goblin Idol	Goblin fingers that never stop tapping this reign wear it loose.
Goblin Purse	A goblin with a heavy purse of coins smells its cousin in the dirt.
Halo Fragment	Every prayer an angel speaks this reign loosens the earth around it.
Jaw Bone	It speaks only to undead hands that have lain still a long while.
King's Key	At the deepest any one life can reach, a key waits for the digger who never stopped.
Map Shard	Keep digging past the first coin. A torn map waits a little deeper.
Moonless Chalice	A cup that has never held sunlight waits for a dark-sworn digger.
Moonpetal	It blooms where elven ploughs are many.
Old Coin	The ground pays its first small debt to anyone who digs a handful of times.
Sand Hourglass	The patient digger, still going long after the map, finds time itself buried.
Seraph Feather	It drifts toward the angel whose well of mana brims, not the one who spends it.
Star Chart	Dig until the night sky shows through the bottom of the pit.
Wyrm Egg	Only a soul reborn many, many times feels the warmth below. Any banner may find it.

Clues and keystones

Some finds are clues on the way to raising a keystone, which unlocks a neutral faction forever.

Find	Riddle
Clue	Something huge once wrote its name here, in stone no shovel should reach this early.
Clue	Dig a little past the first map and the second slab answers the first.
Clue	Bark gone to stone, where a coin was once pressed into the wood.
Clue	Deeper, a second piece of the same tree, marked with a great count.
Clue	A sundial carved from bone, still keeping time for no one.
Clue	Its twin lies deeper, shaped like a count of hours.
Keystone	Something enormous lies broken under the realm, waiting to be stood up again.
Keystone	Grey roots grip a stone that once stood in a ring of others.
Keystone	A long bone hums under the realm, as if it remembers every hour above it.

Artifact sets

From Ascension I, each faction has a set of three pieces; a complete set can be worn for a powerful bonus (a second set slot opens at R27). The pieces' riddles:

Sylvan Regalia: ??? The oldest roots coil around a crown only for elves who let a reign run long.; ??? Dew gathers on the string of an elf who has not lifted a finger in a while.; ??? Fell many trees as an elf, and the first tree will let one leaf fall.
Hearthforge Relics: ??? Beneath a dwarven realm riddled with mine shafts, an anvil still rings.; ??? A dwarf who trades often with the crown is owed a book of old debts.; ??? Each thing a dwarf builds adds a link. Build enough and the chain surfaces.
Choir Relics: ??? It answers an angel who prays again and again within one reign.; ??? Its smoke rises only for an angel holding a brimming well of mana.; ??? The wider an angel's well can grow, the nearer the Herald's wing.
Grave Regalia: ??? The ferryman pays back the dead who have stepped down from the throne often.; ??? Lie still as the undead do. The lantern finds the one who does not stir.; ??? Wrapped in a hoard of crowns, the dead are buried as kings.
Hoard of Snatchfinger: ??? A goblin who taps and taps and taps this reign strikes the old pick.; ??? The fuller a goblin's coin pile, the louder the sack calls to it.; ??? Goblins who run many taverns win the die back in a crooked game.
Infernal Trophies: ??? It fills for a demon who hoards, never spends.; ??? A demon with a full roost of dragons finds the chain that bound them.; ??? Raise high walls as a demon and a broken throne turns up in the rubble.
Storm Relics: ??? It rings for a giant who trades at the royal table again and again in one reign.; ??? Raise enough gates into the clouds and a giant's rope comes down to meet them.; ??? Shovel after shovel in a single reign, until the giant's jaw lets go of a tooth.
Grove Relics: ??? It falls only where every column of the realm stands at the same height.; ??? A bowl that fills for the warden whose well is widest, however much is in it.; ??? Lean on the old circles spell after spell, and the staff they cut will find your hand.
Mask Relics: ??? A face with no features waits for hands that have stopped moving.; ??? Hold it to your ear in a realm that earns best while its ruler sleeps.; ??? Every crown set down in this life cracks the mirror a little further.
Tinker Relics: ??? A little machine is missing a tooth. It turns up beside whoever keeps the small folk's shovels busy.; ??? A pointed hat falls from a head knocked again and again against the stone.; ??? Gnomes forge only for a crowded realm. Raise roof upon roof and a small anvil rings below.
Night Relics: ??? Bite after bite after bite, never changing the bite, and a ring slips onto your finger.; ??? Lie still. The longer your hands rest, the looser the coffin's last nail.; ??? Under the night court's eye, a reign loud with spells tears the veil red.

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