Dig Dug/Walkthrough

The pump stall

Having two or more Pookas on your tail can present you with a problem: if you try to explode one Pooka, the next one in line will pass right through his inflated friend and get you. The problem is that your pump line remains hooked to the first Pooka, and the other Pooka is not affected by your pumping.

The solution is to turn away from the first Pooka, breaking the connection, and instantly turn back and start pumping again. Your renewed pumping action will affect the closest Pooka. Meanwhile, the other Pooka will be immobile until he has completely deflated. Repeating the process one or more times will put plent of distance between Dig Dug and his pursuers.

Using rocks

The rocks are a great asset, once you understand how to use them. Some important observations about the fine art of rock-dropping follow:

1. Never turn down after passing under a rock; it will fall on your back.
2. You can hold a rock in place by staying directly under it. Wait there until a Pooka or Fygar comes up from below, move to either side, and the rock will crush him.
3. Rocks can fall through thin walls of dirt, so you can drop a rock on a Pooka or Fygar without ever entering his cave.
4. Pookas and Fygars will sidestep a falling rock if they can. Try to time your drop so that there isn't a close escape route for the intended victim.
5. As seen in the image, dig long vertical tunnels under the rocks. Make sure you do not dig to the left or right as you carve the tunnel- that will allow Pooka or Fygar to just escape the falling rock when it is dropped.

Be greedy near the end

When time is running out, and the last Pooka or Fygar heads for the surface, grab whatever points you can. This may mean eating the vegetable bonus, or waiting on the surface for the fleeing enemy. If you're too far from the surface to get there in time, just keep burrowing and score a few extra "dirt points." These free points can make a difference--next time your game ends 10 points short of an extra turn, you'll probably wish you had been more greedy.

The great escape

Unlike almost any other maze game, Dig Dug provides you with a way out of the seemingly hopeless predicament of being stuck between two approaching monsters. One possibility of course is to simply burrow away to the side. But if there isn't enough time for that, or you're stuck against a rock or the edge of the screen, you can still escape; just go through one of them. Hit a Pooka or Fygar once or twice with the pump button, and you can pass safely through him, as long as you do it before he deflates. The trick comes in handy very often--don't forget it.

Ender's Loop

To beat any level of Dig Dug, one must take advantage of the AIs. One way to do this is to dig out either left or right from the starting position, dig up a short ways from your starting position, turn around and continue digging out your initial tunnel, then go up again (this time further away from your start position) until you are higher then the end of your first upward tunnel. Continue from here in the opposite direction of the direction you went at the beginning of the level, until you have almost reached the vertical tunnel that exists before you start any given level of the game. Create a thin wall between you and the vertical tunnel, and shoot enemies as they pass by.

Free digging secret

It is best to try this before round 36 since everything speeds up.

1. Get the game down to two Pookas. If you only leave one, it will escape thus ending the round.
2. This works best in horizontal tunnels under the rocks.
3. Get a Pooka to follow you, inflate as necessary to delay him a little.
4. Right when you are next to the rock, inflate the Pooka once to just delay him. When he moves at your character again, move under the rock.
5. Quickly turn around and start pumping the Pooka up. Using the delay of the rock dropping, you should be able to cause the Pooka to burst at the same time the rock drops on him.
6. If you are successful, then the other Pooka will disappear and you can amuse yourself digging out tunnels all day long in the dirt. To return the game back to normal, drop another rock and you will go into the next round.

Scoring and round issues

The flowers that indicate levels max out at 69, but the counter continues until wave 99, and then goes back to 0. At this point there are no flowers. When you start on level 1, the flowers conntinue.

For scoring, after 999,990, the score goes back to 0. For the arcade versions, no extra men are awarded.

On the NES version, the flowers keep getting shown until round 93, but are truncated at 48. Ie. round 48 is full, 49 stay the same. 50-57 is shown. 60-66. So basically there are 12 flowers at the top of the screen.

The score flips at 999,990 back to 0. The level indicator number stops at 99.

Slow monsters levels

In the arcade versions (by Namco), when you reach level 124, the monsters slow down. Also, at level 136. This continues until wave 256.

Wave 256 issue

Dig Dug has a "kill screen" on round 256, which is counted by the game as round 0. The round starts with an enemy Pooka directly on top of Dig Dug, causing the player to lose all of his remaining lives very quickly.

The only way to get past this if you are playing the Atari revisions where this problem has been fixed.

On the NES version, there is no issue. The continues forever, and you continue to get extra men also.