Bonebed

Dig smart, not hard.

Every dig site in Bonebed is a puzzle. Skeletons of known shapes lie somewhere under the soil, and each tile you clear shows how many of its eight neighbours hold bone. Read the numbers, work out where the skeleton must be, then choose your tool:

• The pick costs 1 stamina and cracks any bone it hits. Cracked finds sell for half.
• The brush costs 2 stamina and never damages anything.

So every click is a bet on how sure you are.

One expedition is seven legs of trail. At each leg you choose where to go: a dig site, a trading post, a spring, or a roadside event. Stamina doesn't refill between sites, so what you spend here you won't have later. The last leg is the Bonebed itself, a large site with a legendary skeleton in it.

What's in the game

• Two regions and 26 fossils, from ammonites to a tyrant skull
• A museum to fill: the first undamaged skeleton of each species goes on display
• Instruments that buy information: sonar, core samples, line surveys and a magnetometer
• Dynamite, coffee and plaster kits
• Ten perks to pick up at the campfire between sites
• Three specialists who each change the rules
• Deep Time, eight steps of rising difficulty for each region
• A Daily Dig with a new seed every day
• A field journal with a note on every species

The first minute is a guided lesson, so there's nothing to read before you start.

Controls

Everything works with the mouse or a finger. Optional keys: 1 pick, 2 brush, Q W E R instruments, D dynamite, F plaster, M mute, Esc cancel.

Progress saves in your browser. On a phone, hold it sideways.