Delve Deeper!

Delve Deeper is a turn based strategy game where the player takes control of a team of miner dwarves and competes against other mining operations. The goal is to collect as much treasures and minerals as possible in a number of turns. A game starts with the player choosing a site for his mining camp at the top of the mountain. The mountain consists of hex formed tiles. The player has access to five dwarves of different sorts (fighter, miner and scout) each which for every turn can be moved over a number of tiles. At the start of the game only small parts of the mountain have been excavated but for every turn the player can excavate one tile further. There are three different types of tile, one for each of the three layers of the mountain (dirt, stone and deep). Tiles come in different shapes and the player can rotate them to have them fit with the rest of the tunnels.

After placing a new tile the player gets to move his dwarves. Once a dwarf has been moved to a tile that has minerals it will mine one unit of it at the end of the turn. There are three types of minerals: gold, gems and mithril. Mithril is the most valued and can be found only in the deep layer while gold is the least valued and can be found on any layer. The player will also come across treasure chests with relics that the dwarves can pick up. These can give some extras to the team such as riches or increased strength and health to the dwarves. They can however sometimes also be undesirable and lead to negative effects. Each dwarf has different characteristics such as amount of health, movement and combat strength. Each dwarf also has a number of slots to hold minerals as well as one for relics. Once these are full they need to be returned to either the mining camp or to a gnome bank.

The player's dwarves are not alone in the mine. Each game can consist of one to three other teams that compete for the riches. There are also plenty of monsters and other vile beings that roam through the mine. Monsters include different kinds of slimes, goblins and dragons. The deeper the player gets the tougher monsters he will meet although at the same time the treasures get more valuable. Monsters only spawns in unlit parts of the mine. To prevent the monsters from getting close the dwarves put up lanterns every time they end a turn. Combat is automatic and happens whenever a player moves a unit to a tile with an enemy or monster. The combatants will then take turns and attack in order of their movement speed. The unit that loses a fight will be out of action for one turn but is then revived although with only one hit point.

A map editor is included with the game and allows the player to create his own custom levels.