Wand of digging

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Type	Wand
Name	Wand of digging
Icon

A magical device which drills tunnels through unworked rock.

A wand of digging will remove a straight line of rock walls in the direction zapped; a targeter allows you to determine the exact path the line will take.

It can affect rock walls, whether normal or transparent, and certain strange types of walls (such as the walls of the Slime Pits, Pandemonium, or the translucent membranes in Cigotuvi's Fleshworks). It can also affect inanimate statues and iron grates. Digging has no effect on non-rock walls, such as stone walls, metal walls, crystal walls, "unnaturally hard" walls, etc.

Strategy

A wand of digging is quite useful for digging passages into otherwise inaccessible areas, to escape incoming enemies, or to create corridors or kill holes to fight enemies one at a time. It can also be used to broaden existing corridors to increase access to a monster (say, by a summoner aiding his horde).

Even formicids can benefit from a wand of digging, as it digs tunnels without draining you.

History

• Prior to 0.22, the wand could not be aimed past existing walls, reducing its precision.
• Prior to 0.20, this wand could not destroy inanimate statues.
• Prior to 0.14, this effect was also available through use of the level 4 Earth Magic spell Dig.
• Prior to 0.12, monsters would never use wands of digging.