Digging for Treasure: A Guide
 

Is Digging only for quests?
Actually, digging isn't just for breaking piles of flat rocks up for quest items, you can also use it around diggable areas and if you get lucky, you might get a good item!

How lucky is lucky?
Go ask the other players, they'll tell you to blame US LaTale's abyssal item drop rate or something.

Is it worth using my time for?
Digging in LaTale is like gold mining, you'll use up a lot of time in the task, but if the RNG doesn't hate you and drops something cool (no, not Level 141+ Cherryade), then you can celebrate! Oh, then you can sell it or brag about how you beat the game in a staring contest.

How does Digging work?
Excavation spots doesn't vary by random luck (though their item drop rate does), it's actually an invisible non-mobile mob that spawns anywhere on a walkable surface (there are specific areas that can contain these mobs).
You just use Dig to "attack" the ground. If you miss, then nothing happens (and digging in the same spot doesn't work unless someone defeats a mob elsewhere on the map and it happens to spawn on your digging spot), but if you hit the mob, then you have a chance to get an item.
Whether you get an item or not doesn't matter when you dig up a hole, however, after you "attack" the mob, it's defeated then it respawns in a different place within the same map.
Even with all this data, it is still a data that can't be tested due to the game's item drop rate. However, with comparsions to the information that the Behemoth's mouth in Field Area and Field Fork does the same except with staying at the bottom level of the map, this is a probable theory at that.

Does it matter where I dig?
Yes, it does. It determines which fashion items you can get since each location has a different set of drops.

Is there a list of where each is?
Of course! Just look here: JP LaTale Digging List
(Yeah yeah, I know, but I accidently destroyed part of a translated list and I'm running short on time right now.)

Is there a good market for this stuff?
As of 10/14, not really, since there aren't many out there in the first place. You could earn a pretty penny right now, but it might be better if you wait it out.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!
And remember, your shovel is your best friend! (No, drills don't work here.)

Is this out in the current La Tale?
Also I dig and the ground unearths but i don't get anything.
Is that a normal thing?

yes it is very normal unfortunately =.= there is only a small chance of actually getting an item or so it seems

I.. need.. that GREEN MAGI HAT >< STUPID DROPRATE AND MY LOW LUCK ):

Guide was nice, but I was hoping for some secrets lol.

There's no other secrets, sadly! That's all there is to digging: Luck, patience, and a ton of screaming at OGP for such an abyssal item drop rate.

I have a theory about this.....

When you "dig" the invisible mob on the ground you don't defeat it. You do make it move to a new random location, but its not defeated. When you "dig" the mob numbers pop up showing damage like a normal mob, and I've even 2 hit combo'd the ground before by getting the dig spot right away again. I believe that each maps dig spot is one spot that has a set amount of HP and "runs" when you dig it, and that in order to get anything from the ground you have to "defeat" the dig spot.

Just my thoughts anyway what do you think?

Also you lamers need to realize that the most efficient way to dig is to dig every tile on the map once, and go back and do it again. The tiles are as big as your character, and your "dig attack" has quite a bit of forward and a little backward range, so you can do more than just inch forward every time you dig (I see tons of people do this). Holes do NOT spawn past the left and right portals on the map, so you can save yourself a bit of ground everytime.

That theory might work (and take down the theory I have), but it's hard to tell whether the spot you hit is the first attack, in the middle of being damaged, or nearly dead; I'm saying that it's difficult to tell when the cycle restarts and how much damage it takes before finally exploding in a spectacular (yet invisible) way and dropping an item. The JP LaTale wiki had a theory of an excavation mob having only 10HP, but it didn't seem right (it was crossed out). It might actually be a variable, but it's not like we'll get any hints from the big guys.

That was a mouthful, but you get the gist of it, right?

I didn't notice this post till now lol. I've gone 2 hours straight digging alone on a map without finding a single bag. I've also gone 30 minutes alone and found 5 bags. The HP theory would only work if the mobs spawn with different HP.

If this is true though, I sense a use for those +element attribute atk weapons for digging, since they apparently give more attack on your shovel.

well ok I can give an example last night I decided to go on a digging crusade lol. I was digging in the red crop field just right of yong gong the map with the black beetles. I unearthed 3 things while digging on my lvl 37 knight. Everytime i hit the "mob" with my shovel i was doing between 10-15 damage. I estimated that it took about 200 dmg to kill each time give or take before i got a drop.....

Now I didn't get anything great lol just a coupe food items (pinnaple fried rice and black been noodle soup...or something like that lol) and an emote book.

I also.....kinda mapped the movement.....and the areas most likely for the "mob to move next. on that one map anyway.

BTW your right abstract in fact you may have made the dig site smaller than it is its quite a large square that you can dig in and hit the "mob". I usually run while digging and hit the shovel ever second or so it send me across a map rather quick and I don't usually miss a dig site i rarely have to go back and find one I missed(referring to my pitiful yet effective attempts to map the red crop field)

Another thing, i do believe that STR has an effect cause my knight did 10-15 each time but my wizard can hardly break 3 dmg each time.....so im pretty sure that STR is attributed to how hard you "dig" the "mob".

The damage on dig depends on Elemental Damage on the weapon that you are using.

the link doesn't work, oh btw i didn't understood well, the monster moves in the map and you can kill it by searching it (even if it takes you some mins to spot it again) ?

I believe that you only have to move 1 tile to be able to hit another one. It has happened to me many times now, I hit one (dig again, nothing happens), move 1 tile and hit another one (dig again, nothing happens), move 1 tile etc.... up to 4 times in a row once.

oh, and how far from the portal can it start to spawn?... (I've found ones like... 10 or maybe more tiles away from them)

I don't get what you people mean by tiles o-o one inch move?

the slow walk tile

That's assuming it wasn't previously hit, and it heals. If it doesn't heal (remember these aren't normal mobs, they may be a separate 'plane' from normal monsters) it can be hit by MANY people over the course of time, it can also have a significant amount of HP. My only question is, since there are people digging in the data, why don't they see these things, if they can surely get information about something's HP, EXP, different Attacks (even for things that DONT attack like bamboo boys!), and elemental points. Seriously, this perplexes me. There are obviously some data maps in there, I doubt they hide these specifically deeper than the rest.

Does anybody happen to have a copy of that JP Latale Digging List ?

The link is broken or so I suppose.

Heh, I've gone on digging sprees a lot, haven't found much though.

So far I've found Pineapple Fried Rice, Black Bean Noodles, Sulky Guidebook & Yellow Gem Sandals.
& also I've gotten a 3 combo on them before. 8D

& I think it's a little.. glitchy..?
Cos sometimes I do like, 56 dmg to it, no crit.
And then normally it's just the normal 1/2 .

can someone list the map's that they have found items or digable spots in?