Core Driller

The colony is dying.

Power reserves are critical. The only energy source that can keep life support running is buried deep in the planet's cave system — crystalline deposits, kilometres underground. You are UNIT-9, the colony's excavation drone. Small, agile, and entirely expendable.

Your job is simple: dig through each cavern, collect enough crystals to power the gate, and get out before the timer runs out. Every crystal you bank on the way out funds the manufacture of the next unit. Die too often, drain the bank, and deployment halts. The colony goes dark.

CORE is a grid-based puzzle game inspired by classic 1980s underground explorers. Each cavern is a self-contained puzzle — tight, tense, and solvable in minutes. The deeper you go, the harder the rock and the more hostile the environment.

WATCH YOUR HEAD
Chunks and crystals obey gravity. Clear a path carelessly, and you'll bury yourself. Every move matters.

KNOW YOUR ENEMIES
Six cave organisms stand between you and the gate. GRUBS patrol the walls clockwise. SPORES drift counter-clockwise — and explode into crystals when destroyed, if you can engineer it. TRACERS hunt you directly. HOUNDS lie dormant until you get too close. Learn each one, or don't come back.

MANAGE THE BANK
Every UNIT-9 destroyed costs crystals from the colony bank. Skilled operators run a surplus and never feel the pressure. Everyone else learns to play carefully. If the bank runs dry, the colony can broadcast an emergency signal to receive an aid package — but that's a last resort.

100 CAVERNS ACROSS 5 WORLDS
From the shallow Upper Seams to the deep Core, each world introduces new mechanics and new enemies. Boss intermissions at the end of each world test everything you've learned.

No ads unless you ask for one. No pay-to-win. No lives timer. Progress is never reset — you always resume from where you stopped. The colony computer reports everything in the same flat, clinical tone, whether the situation is routine or catastrophic. The stakes are yours to feel.

UNIT-9 DEPLOYED. CRYSTAL QUOTA: PENDING. PROCEED.