Pixel Miner

About Pixel Miner

Pixel Miner is a descent game with a resource clock. You dig through soft earth, collect ore deposits, and go deeper. Your oxygen depletes continuously and is only replenished by oxygen pockets scattered through the strata. The deeper you go, the more valuable the ore and the sparser the oxygen — which creates a pressure gradient that pulls you down and a survival instinct that pulls you up.

Digging is directional and has a cost. Down is fast, sideways is slower, and up is slowest of all — which means retreating is genuinely expensive and the decision to descend past a certain point is close to irreversible. That asymmetry is the game's central mechanic. You are not just deciding whether to go deeper; you are deciding whether you will have the oxygen to come back up if you are wrong.

Hard rock layers cannot be dug and must be routed around, and unstable ceilings collapse a short time after you dig beneath them. Together they mean that a shaft straight down is the fastest route and also the one most likely to bury you. Reading the strata — spotting where the hard rock forces a detour and where the unstable ceiling makes a route lethal — is the skill the game is built around.

How to Play

Descend as deep as you can, collecting ore before your oxygen runs out or a cave-in reaches you.

Every game on this site can be paused with P or Esc and restarted with R. Sound, retro screen effects and fullscreen are toggled from the buttons above the play area.

Game Mechanics

Directional dig cost

Downward digging is fastest, lateral is about 60 percent slower, and upward is roughly three times slower than down. This asymmetry makes descent close to one-way and turns every depth decision into a commitment.

Oxygen economy

Oxygen depletes at a constant rate and is restored by pockets found in the strata. Pocket density decreases with depth while ore value increases, so the risk-reward gradient runs directly against your survival.

Unstable ceilings

Cracked blocks collapse roughly 1.5 seconds after you dig beneath them, and the collapse propagates upward through any other unstable blocks above. Digging under a stack of them creates a cascade that will bury you.

Scoring

Your best result is saved in this browser only. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no global leaderboard — see the storage policy for exactly what is kept.

Tips & Strategy

• Dig staircases, not shafts. A diagonal staircase costs slightly more time than a straight shaft and gives you lateral escape routes when a ceiling goes.
• Map the oxygen before descending. Look for the next pocket before you commit to a layer. Descending without a known refill is how runs end abruptly.
• Never dig under a stack of cracked blocks. Collapses cascade upward. One cracked block is survivable; a column of them is not.
• Know when to stop. The extraction bonus for surfacing alive is substantial. A deep run that ends in a cave-in scores less than a moderate run you walked out of.

Common Mistakes

• Digging straight down. It is the fastest route and the one with no escape when a ceiling collapses.
• Ignoring oxygen until it is low. Ascending is three times slower than descending. By the time oxygen is critical, you cannot get back.
• Chasing rare ore into a dead end. Rare ore is frequently placed behind hard rock. Check the route before you commit oxygen to it.

Features

• Asymmetric directional digging that makes descent a commitment
• Oxygen economy with pockets that thin out at depth
• Unstable ceilings that collapse in cascading chains
• Undiggable hard-rock layers that force lateral routing
• Ore value scaling with depth
• Local best score and best depth reached