Excavation
Excavation is a discovery you can encounter while actively mining in the prison mines, including the Netherite mine. When a Buried Artifact appears, swap to your brush, uncover it, and follow it across the mine. The encounter finishes with a timed scramble to recover its scattered pieces.
Getting your brush
Your first discovery gives you a free Excavation Brush. If your inventory is full, the brush is reserved for you and arrives when you free a slot. You can also use /excavate brush in the prison mines to claim your first brush.
Keep it: the brush is unbreakable and can be reused. If you lose it, replacements are available in /shop → Pickaxes.
How to excavate
- Find the artifact. Watch for the discovery message and the marked suspicious sand or gravel beneath the artifact.
- Hold right-click with your brush. Aim at the suspicious block itself and stay within reach. Keep brushing until its progress fills; swinging your pickaxe will not uncover it.
- Follow it. The artifact moves to a nearby spot. Let it land, then brush the new block. Follow and brush it through two stops.
- Recover the scattered pieces. The artifact shatters into several marked points. Pick a point, move within reach, and hold right-click with your brush again. Recover as many as you can before the on-screen countdown ends.
The mining HUD shows your current excavation step, brushing progress, and the countdown during the final scramble. Only the player who discovered an excavation can brush and claim its points.
Collecting and leaving
Recoveries collect automatically when you finish brushing. Leave inventory space before you start. If a finished point asks you to free space, clear a slot and right-click it again before it expires. You can also look at a fully brushed point and use /excavate collect.
Stay near your discovery until you finish. Running too far away, changing worlds, disconnecting, dying, or letting the encounter expire ends the excavation. Anything already recovered stays yours; unfinished or unclaimed points disappear. Use /excavate cancel if you want to abandon your current find.
Improving your brush
Charge your Excavation Brush with Ancient Energy, then drop it into the Wormhole to enchant it. Its Efficiency enchant makes brushing faster, helping you recover more points during the final scramble. Check the brush's tooltip for its current upgrade progress.
Use /excavate for a quick reminder of the controls while playing.