Understanding your Diglets per hour is essential for making smart upgrade decisions in Dig a Garden. Whether you are grinding actively or letting your drills work overnight, knowing your exact hourly yield allows you to prioritize which drills to purchase next and when to empty your inventory. This guide provides estimated earnings for every drill setup and helps you calculate your actual Diglets per hour, factoring in item rarity, inventory caps, and offline progression.
Estimated Diglets Per Hour by Drill
The foundation of your Diglets per hour calculation relies on the drills you have placed on your plot. Because drill speeds and item drop rates vary, your real earnings will fluctuate within these ranges based on luck and rarity distributions. Below is the comprehensive breakdown of solo and full-plot earnings for every drill in the game.
| Drill | Tier | Solo Diglets/Hr | Full Plot (5 slots) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Drill | C | 3K-6K | 15K-30K |
| Standard Borer | B | 8K-12K | 40K-60K |
| Group Drill | A | 18K-28K | 90K-140K |
| Turbo Digger | A | 15K-25K | 75K-125K |
| Deep Piercer | A | 20K-30K | 100K-150K |
| Mega Borer | S | 35K-55K | 175K-275K |
| Galaxy Drill | S | 40K-60K | 200K-300K |
Notice the variance between A-tier drills. The Group Drill is completely free by joining The Heap Roblox group, making it the most efficient A-tier drill for new players. Meanwhile, the Deep Piercer skews toward the higher end of A-tier earnings because it has a higher chance of unearthing Scarce and Legendary items, which drastically spike your hourly average.
How to Calculate Your Actual Diglets Per Hour
While estimates are helpful for planning, your actual Diglets per hour will depend on your specific setup, playstyle, and RNG. Calculating it manually is the most accurate way to gauge your farm's performance. Follow this precise walkthrough to measure your true earnings:
- Sell all items and note the exact time. Ensure your inventory is completely empty so you start from zero.
- Wait exactly 1 hour (or 30 minutes and multiply by 2). Do not open the shop or sell anything during this timing window.
- Sell all items again and note the total Diglets earned from this single transaction.
- Divide Diglets earned by hours elapsed to get your personal Diglets per hour baseline.
Example:
- Before: 0 Diglets (just sold everything)
- After 1 hour: 42,000 Diglets earned
- Your Diglets/Hour: 42,000
For the most accurate results, test this over a 2-hour period. Shorter testing windows can be heavily skewed by a single Legendary item drop, making your hourly rate look artificially inflated. A 2-hour test smooths out the variance between Common and Unusual item drops.
Daily Earnings Projections
Your daily earnings depend heavily on how often you play actively versus how long you leave your drills running offline. Because offline progression continues but is limited by your inventory cap, your overnight earnings will be lower than your active hourly rate. Here is how different setups project over a full 24-hour cycle.
| Setup | Hourly | Daily (8h online) | Overnight (8h) | Total Daily |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full C-tier | 4K | 32K | 16K | 48K |
| Full B-tier | 10K | 80K | 40K | 120K |
| Full A-tier | 25K | 200K | 80K | 280K |
| Mixed S+A | 40K | 320K | 100K | 420K |
| Full S-tier | 50K | 400K | 120K | 520K |
As shown, active play yields significantly more Diglets because you are constantly emptying your inventory and allowing the drills to continue digging. When you go offline, your drills will stop producing once your inventory reaches its maximum capacity. This makes inventory upgrades a critical priority if you want to maximize your overnight yields. For a deeper dive into maximizing your offline gains, check out our offline progression guide.
The Impact of Item Rarity on Diglets Per Hour
In Dig a Garden, not all items are created equal. The items your drills unearth are divided into four distinct rarity tiers, and the distribution of these items is what causes the massive variance in your hourly earnings. Understanding how rarity impacts your wallet is key to optimizing your strategy.
| Rarity | Value Modifier | Estimated Drop Rate | Impact on Hourly Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | Low (1x) | ~60% | Baseline steady income |
| Unusual | Moderate (3x) | ~25% | Consistent boost to averages |
| Scarce | High (10x) | ~12% | Significant hourly spikes |
| Legendary | Massive (50x) | ~3% | Massive, rare windfalls |
Because Common items make up the majority of your drops, your baseline Diglets per hour is relatively stable. However, if you are testing your hourly rate and happen to dig up a Legendary item during that window, your calculated earnings will look incredibly high. Conversely, an hour with zero Legendary drops will feel underwhelming.
This is why certain drills like the Deep Piercer are so valuable. While the Turbo Digger digs slightly faster, the Deep Piercer has an inherent modifier that increases the drop rate of Scarce and Legendary items. Over a long period, the Deep Piercer will almost always out-earn the Turbo Digger despite having similar baseline stats.
Inventory Caps and Offline Earnings Mechanics
One of the most overlooked mechanics when calculating Diglets per hour is the inventory cap. Every player has a limited number of inventory slots. When your inventory fills up, your drills cannot deposit new items, effectively halting your Diglets per hour at zero until you sell. This mechanic is the primary reason why your overnight earnings do not scale linearly with your active earnings.
| Drill Tier | Items Generated Per Hour | Time to Fill Base Inventory | Max Offline Diglets |
|---|---|---|---|
| C-tier | ~30 items | 3.3 hours | ~20K |
| B-tier | ~50 items | 2.0 hours | ~24K |
| A-tier | ~80 items | 1.25 hours | ~32K |
| S-tier | ~120 items | 0.8 hours (48 mins) | ~40K |
Without upgrading your inventory capacity, an S-tier drill like the Mega Borer will completely fill a base-level inventory in less than an hour. If you go to sleep for 8 hours with a full plot of S-tier drills, they will only dig for the first hour before stopping. You will wake up to a full inventory and miss out on 7 hours of potential digging.
To fix this, you must invest your early Diglets into inventory expansions. Expanding your inventory ensures your drills can run longer unattended, directly increasing your overnight Diglets per hour. If you are deciding between buying your next S-tier drill or upgrading your inventory, the inventory upgrade is often the better choice for long-term passive income.
F2P vs Premium Drill ROI Comparison
For free-to-play players, deciding which drill to save up for requires analyzing the Return on Investment (ROI). How many hours will it take for a drill to pay for itself? Since the Galaxy Drill is premium and currently off-sale, F2P players must look at the path from the Group Drill to the Mega Borer.
| Drill | Cost (Diglets) | Solo Diglets/Hr | Hours to Pay Off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Borer | 25,000 | 10,000 | 2.5 hours |
| Group Drill | Free (Join Group) | 23,000 | 0 hours |
| Turbo Digger | 150,000 | 20,000 | 7.5 hours |
| Deep Piercer | 200,000 | 25,000 | 8.0 hours |
| Mega Borer | 750,000 | 45,000 | 16.6 hours |
The Group Drill is an obvious standout. By simply joining the The Heap Roblox community, you get an A-tier drill for free, which pays for itself instantly and out-earns the Standard Borer dramatically.
When looking at the A-tier purchases, the Deep Piercer costs 50K more than the Turbo Digger but earns more per hour due to its better rarity drops. It pays for its extra cost in just a few hours of digging. The Mega Borer is a massive leap in price at 750,000 Diglets, requiring nearly 17 hours of solo digging to pay off. However, once you have a full plot of Mega Borers, you will be earning the F2P maximum of 175K-275K Diglets per hour, making the long grind entirely worth it.
Walkthrough: Upgrading Your Plot for Maximum Diglets
Optimizing your plot is about more than just buying the most expensive drill. It requires a strategic sequence of upgrades to ensure your Diglets per hour is always increasing. Follow this step-by-step walkthrough to efficiently scale your garden from a C-tier starter plot to an S-tier money-making machine.
- Claim the Group Drill: Before spending any Diglets, join The Heap group and claim your free Group Drill. Place this immediately.
- Fill Empty Slots with Standard Borers: While the Group Drill is your main earner, filling remaining plot slots with Standard Borers will multiply your baseline income.
- Upgrade Inventory: Once you have 5 drills running, save up your Diglets for an inventory expansion. This ensures your overnight earnings don't cap out after just one hour.
- Replace Borers with Deep Piercers: Start replacing your Standard Borers one by one with Deep Piercers. The increased Scarce and Legendary drop rates will accelerate your savings.
- Save for the Mega Borer: Once your plot is full of A-tier drills, begin the grind to 750,000 Diglets. Buy your first Mega Borer and replace your lowest-tier drill.
- Maximize Inventory Again: Before buying your second Mega Borer, upgrade your inventory a second time. S-tier drills generate items incredibly fast, and you do not want them sitting idle.
- Complete the Mega Borer Plot: Finish replacing all drills with Mega Borers and max out your inventory capacity. You are now earning the maximum F2P Diglets per hour.
FAQ
Q: Why do my actual earnings differ from estimates? A: Item values, rarity distribution, and inventory capacity all affect real earnings. Use our method to measure your actual Diglets per hour. If you hit your inventory cap during your testing hour, your real earnings will look much lower than the drill's true potential.
Q: Does the number of drills increase Diglets per hour linearly? A: Generally yes — 5 drills earn roughly 5x what 1 drill earns. There are no diminishing returns for adding more drills to your plot. The only bottleneck is how quickly you can sell the items they produce.
Q: What is the maximum Diglets per hour possible? A: With a full plot of Galaxy Drills (premium), you could theoretically earn 200K-300K Diglets per hour. The F2P maximum with Mega Borers is 175K-275K.
Q: Should I calculate Diglets per hour before every upgrade? A: It is helpful to measure before and after upgrades to verify that the upgrade was worth it. If your Diglets per hour does not increase after buying a new drill, you may have an inventory bottleneck preventing the new drill from performing.
Q: How do inventory caps affect my overnight Diglets per hour? A: If your inventory fills up while you are offline, your drills stop digging completely. Your effective overnight Diglets per hour drops to zero for the remaining time until you log back in and sell. Always upgrade your inventory alongside your drills.
Q: Which A-tier drill should I buy first: Turbo Digger or Deep Piercer? A: Always go for the Deep Piercer. Even though it costs 50,000 Diglets more upfront, its increased Scarce and Legendary drop rates mean it will consistently out-earn the Turbo Digger over time, resulting in a better long-term return on investment.
Q: Does joining The Heap group still give the free Group Drill? A: Yes, as long as you are a member of the The Heap Roblox community, you can claim the Group Drill for free. This is the single best value in the game and should be your very first step.