Editing Excavation

'''Excavation''' is Primal Idle's fossil-digging activity, run from the Excavation panel on the [[Delving]] page. [[Expeditions]] and [[Caves|cave delves]] occasionally turn up a biome's '''Dig Site Map'''; spending a map starts a real-time dig at that biome's site, which delivers a crate of common fossils, [[Delving]] XP, and — roughly one dig in eight to twelve — the '''skull''' of a species that lives in that biome. Skulls are the keys to the [[Museum]].

== How excavation works ==

# '''Get a Dig Site Map.''' Maps drop from that biome's [[Expeditions|patrols]] (uncommon), its [[Expeditions|Guardian]] (several times more often), and its [[Caves|cave]] delves (best rate). Each map is specific to one biome.
# '''Start a dig.''' At the Excavation panel, spend a map to begin a dig in that biome's site. The biome must be unlocked.
# '''Wait it out.''' A dig runs in real time on the game clock and continues while you are away — offline time counts in full. Durations climb up the biome ladder, from 30 minutes at the first site to 90 minutes at the last.
# '''Collect.''' When the dig finishes it auto-delivers straight to your bank: a crate of common fossils, Delving XP scaled to the dig's length, and a chance at a species skull.

'''Dig slots.''' You can run more than one dig at a time — you start with one and unlock more at '''Delving 25, 50 and 75''' (up to four). A fifth slot comes from the '''Echo of the First Warden''' relic (the [[Caves#The Amber Door|Amber Door]]'s unique). A finished dig can also '''auto-restart''': if you have another map of that biome banked, it re-runs on its own, so a stack of maps digs itself.

== What you find ==

=== Common fossils ===

Every dig delivers a crate of common fossils. The crate deepens up the biome ladder: early sites give mostly bones, mid sites add ribs, vertebrae, claws and plates, and the deepest sites can turn up amber.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Fossil !! Sell value !! Notes
|-
| {{Icon|fossil-bone}} Fossil Bone || 20 || The staple; every dig produces several.
|-
| {{Icon|fossil-rib}} Fossil Rib || 35 || Common from the first sites on.
|-
| {{Icon|fossil-vertebra}} Fossil Vertebra || 55 || From the Murkwater site onward.
|-
| {{Icon|fossil-claw}} Fossil Claw || 80 || From the Scorched site onward.
|-
| {{Icon|fossil-plate}} Fossil Plate || 120 || From the Frozen site onward.
|-
| {{Icon|amberized-insect}} Amberized Insect || 200 || Only from the two deepest sites.
|}

=== Species skulls ===

Every completed dig has a chance to surface a species skull, drawn evenly from the [[Creatures|creatures]] that live in that biome. The odds '''curve by site''', from about '''14%''' at the earliest sites down to about '''8.6%''' at the deepest (the early biomes have the biggest species pools, so they're made a little kinder). There are '''57 skulls''' in all — one per species. Skulls sell for a tidy sum, but their real purpose is the [[Museum]].

'''No wasted digs:''' a skull-less dig instead banks a '''Field Journal page''' for that biome (a duplicate skull banks several), and the '''Curator's Desk''' trades those pages for a skull '''of your choice''' from that ground — so a bad-luck streak just becomes a guaranteed skull a little later. See [[Museum]].

=== Delving XP ===

Each dig grants [[Delving]] XP scaled to how long it took — longer, deeper digs award more.

== Dig sites ==

There is one dig site per [[Biomes|biome]]. Longer digs at deeper sites yield richer crates.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Biome !! Dig site !! Duration !! Delving XP !! Skull chance
|-
| {{Icon|grasslands}} Grasslands || Sunken Barrow || 30 min || 600 || 14.0%
|-
| {{Icon|redwood-wilds}} Redwood Wilds || Rootbound Boneyard || 37 min || 740 || 13.4%
|-
| {{Icon|murkwater-swamp}} Murkwater Swamp || Peatlock Trench || 43 min || 860 || 12.8%
|-
| {{Icon|cavern-depths}} Cavern Depths || Echoing Ossuary || 50 min || 1,000 || 12.2%
|-
| {{Icon|scorched-badlands}} Scorched Badlands || Scorched Wash || 57 min || 1,140 || 11.6%
|-
| {{Icon|coral-shallows}} Coral Shallows || Reefbed Shelf || 63 min || 1,260 || 11.0%
|-
| {{Icon|frozen-wastes}} Frozen Wastes || Permafrost Cut || 70 min || 1,400 || 10.4%
|-
| {{Icon|ashen-peaks}} Ashen Peaks || Cinder Terraces || 77 min || 1,540 || 9.8%
|-
| {{Icon|skyreach-plateau}} Skyreach Plateau || Skyfall Scree || 83 min || 1,660 || 9.2%
|-
| the Sundered Vale || The Shattered Bed || 90 min || 1,800 || 8.6%
|}

== See also ==

* [[Delving]] — the skill that runs digs and sets your slot count.
* [[Museum]] — where skulls and fossils become skeletons.
* [[Expeditions]] and [[Caves]] — where Dig Site Maps come from.

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[[Category:Excavation]]
[[Category:Delving]]
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