The Monsters of Dig or Die[ | ]
Crash landed onto an alien world, you as the player are not alone. The local population is made up of ferocious monsters that will engage to attack you the moment that you are within their detection range. They won't stop pursuing you unless you can manage to run far enough away from them, kill them or get killed yourself. Monsters that travel on the ground will dig tunnels to you from any direction, if it is the easiest way to get to you. All monsters will try to navigate the quickest path to the player including how long it takes them to break through structures. They may find it easier on heavily fortified bases, to not break through and instead, walk straight into the base's main entrance. Building up a strong line of defensive turrets is what you will need to do, if you have hopes of surviving the night. Monsters wading through water are slowed down while they swim through it. Their ultimate goal is to bring the player to his demise.
Monster List[ | ]
| Name | Icon | Speed | HP | Armor | Range | Damage | Number of attacks | Cooldown | DPS | Knockback Monster | Knockback Target | Drops (probability) | Remarks |
| Tier 1 | |||||||||||||
| Hound | 
| 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1s | 4 | 0 | 10 |
| |
| Firefly | 
| 2 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1s | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| Monster and its projectiles emit light |
| Tier 2 | |||||||||||||
| Red Firefly | 
| 2 | 50 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 1s | 18 | 1 | 5 |
| Monster and its projectiles emit light |
| Dweller | 
| 2 | 35 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1s | 6 | 0 | 10 |
| |
| Piranha | 
| 1.5 | 35 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 1s | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| Very high regeneration speed |
| Bat | 
| 7 | 50 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 0.7s | 14.3 | 2 | 5 |
| |
| Tier 3 | |||||||||||||
| Black Hound | 
| 4 | 85 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 1s | 10 | 0 | 10 |
| |
| Black Firefly | 
| 2 | 100 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 1s | 30 | 1 | 5 |
| Monster and its projectiles emit light |
| Black Dweller | 
| 2.5 | 70 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 1.2s | 15 | 0 | 10 |
| |
| Black Piranha | 
| 1.5 | 60 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 1s | 15 | 2 | 10 |
| Very high regeneration speed |
| Black Bat | 
| 7 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 0.7s | 14.3 | 2 | 5 |
| |
| Mad Crab | 
| 2 | 3000 | 6 | 2 | 30 | 1 | 1s | 30 | 0 | 20 |
| - Area of effect and damages x5 against turrets. - Calls for reinforcements |
| Tier 4 | |||||||||||||
| Shark | 
| 4.5 | 120 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 0.6s | 25 | 2 | 5 |
| |
| Explosive Firefly | 
| 4 | 120 | 0 | 1 | 50 | - | 99s | - | 0 | 0 |
| Monster and its projectiles emit lightExplose on close range |
| Armored Ant | 
| 4 | 200 | 4 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 0.8s | 25 | 2 | 10 |
| |
| Acid Ant | 
| 3.5 | 200 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 1 | 0.5s | 40 | 2 | 5 |
- | |
| Firefly Queen | 
| 2 | 5000 | 0 | 27 | 12 | 3 | 1.5s | 24 | 0 | 5 |
| Monster and its projectiles emit lightSpecials attacks: energy projectiles widely spread against player, less spread against turrets. |
| Dweller Lord | 
| 2 | 4000 | 10 | 30 | 20 | 1 | 1s | 20 | 0 | 20 |
| |
| Tier 5 | |||||||||||||
| Lava Spider | 
| 4 | 300 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 1 | 1s | 15 | 2 | 10 |
| Projectiles do small area of effect damage and set player on fire |
| Lava Bat | 
| 5 | 400 | 0 | 5 | 15 | 1 | 0.7s | 21.4 | 2 | 10 |
| Projectiles do small area of effect damage and set player on fire |
| Particle Bug | 
| 2.5 | 400 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 1 | 0.5s | 20 | 0 | 10 |
| |
| Particle Bird | 
| 2 | 300 | 5 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 1.5s | 13.3 | 1 | 10 |
| |
| Heavy Particle Bird | 
| 2 | 400 | 7 | 8 | 30 | 1 | 1.5s | 20 | 1 | 10 |
| |
| Hell Hound | 
| 4 | 500 | 5 | 0 | 20 | 1 | 1s | 20 | 0 | 10 |
| |
| Demon | 
| 8 | 10000 | 10 | 40 | 15 | 3 | 2s | 22.5 | 0 | 20 |
| |
| Demoness | 
| 8 | 13000 | 15 | 40 | 15 | 5 | 1.5s | 50 | 0 | 20 |
| |
Reference: Monsters data table.
Dangers of Night Time[ | ]
When the dark of night arrives, the last 4 monster species killed first time, will rapidly spawn nearby and they will all be aggressive immediately heading straight for you, even if you're not in their detection range. This makes night time dangerous when you kill a powerful, higher-tiered monster without having first upgraded to strong higher-tiered weapons and/or having built a well protected base. An ideal strategy is to only kill the monster types you are confident that you can defend against in large numbers at night. Gathering resources and materials to build a lot of turrets is never a bad way to spend a day in Dig or Die.
Item Drops[ | ]
Starting from the very beginning, when trying to craft new weapons or turrets, you'll quickly learn that you'll need to kill certain monsters to get the materials needed to craft better equipment. See the chart above for specific details on which monsters drop which items, and their respective drop rates. But during night time a special chemical reaction turns their blood radioactive and make them become berserks; and so at death their body is too damaged to retrieve the usual drops, instead you'll get some radioactive blood.
Difficulty differences[ | ]
Depending of the difficulty of the game, the max HP of monsters and player will change, as well as the night spawn rate.
| Difficulty | Monster HP Modifier | Player Max HP | Night spawn rate modifier |
| Peaceful* | 50% | 100 | (no night spawn) |
| Easy | 50% | 100 | 25% |
| Normal | 75% | 75 | 50% |
| Hard | 100% | 50 | 100% |
| Brutal | 150% | 25 | 100% |
* When playing on Peaceful difficulty, monsters will not attack you unless you attack them first, allowing for a much more relaxing experience.
History[ | ]
- v0.2: all data updated from the game source code
- v0.11: updated