The Caves Update

26 October 2026
39 changes in this update

Added

14 changes
  • Caves: digging sometimes opens a tunnel in the wall to explore. They collapse when the next lap digs into them

  • Caves hold geode veins, glowing fungus, crystals and abandoned mineshafts

  • Fossils in caves, dug out and cashed in when you prestige

  • Prestige: start your plot over for skill points, spent on a permanent skill tree in the toolchest menu

  • An elevator: build it beside your warehouse, ride it or fill it to sell. Your vehicles unload into it too

  • Multiple plots: switch, start or leave plots at the computer in your warehouse

  • Shared plots: invite another player onto your plot to dig and earn together

  • Your progress is saved online to your Steam account, so you can play on any PC

  • 25 achievements, listed from the pause menu and unlocked on your sbox.game profile

  • A Getting started tutorial that walks you from your first shovelful to your first prestige

  • A headlamp (F) for dark caves

  • An Options menu on the pause menu: sounds, particles, view distance, grass and trees

  • Digging and ladder sounds

  • Player name tags, and you can see other players' vehicles at work

Improved

13 changes
  • New lighting: shade, the pit and caves are only as bright as the light that reaches them

  • Day and night look right: a real dusk, a starry night with a moon, and a ten times longer cycle

  • The warehouse has ceiling lamps, and its ceiling catches their light

  • Wall lanterns and lamp posts light the pit evenly and glow

  • Much better performance from grass and trees, and in caves and deep pits

  • Players use the human model with your s&box avatar's look

  • Upgrades show what they change and what the next level gives

  • The chunk you dig next glows on the ground itself, green to red as you dig

  • Things you can use outline when you look at them, and a dot shows where you aim

  • Diggers dig with a real shovel stroke

  • Your garage glows through walls, with a marker on screen when it's far away

  • Shorter reach for digging, so you have to get close

  • Selling a vehicle asks you to confirm

Fixed

11 changes
  • Stutters on deep holes and big caves when digging or buying upgrades

  • Width and depth upgrades redig the hole cleanly from the top instead of leaving rings and ledges

  • Vehicles no longer slide off the plot, freeze in the air, climb walls or get stuck at the dig front

  • Players no longer get launched, left behind or stranded when plots shift or a neighbour leaves

  • Other players' plots no longer show doubled or missing parts

  • Players joining now show up fully dressed

  • Geodes and fossils show correctly for other players, and every geode can be cracked

  • Ladders no longer get you stuck

  • Light no longer leaks through rock into walls or deep into caves, and deep pits are no longer black

  • Gaps and holes in cave and warehouse walls

  • Wheelbarrow upgrade levels 4, 5 and 7 now carry more than the level before

Removed

1 change
  • The Plots button in the garage menu (use the warehouse computer)