Cave Digger Upgrades

Which building do you upgrade first? What do the buildings even DO? Now you know.

Introduction

The following information is obtained by looking at the game files, so may be incomplete.

For example, if a feature of a building is tied to some object (a button, perhaps) which only appears when it reaches a certain level, then that will look, in the code, like it's just displaying more stuff in the building.

But in practice, the player can now press that button, and so improving the building will unlock whatever that button does.

So, beware that changes listed as "cosmetic" may be more than merely cosmetic in reality!

Please comment if you find any of these cases.

All

All buildings (bank, general store, post office, saloon, sheriff, and well), have two levels of upgrades to apply. One call six buildings have both levels of upgrade, you get an achievement.

Other than the Saloon, you can never enter any of the buildings, no matter how much you upgrade them.

When upgraded, they usually also change cosmetically.

Bank

Increases monetary rewards:

• Stage 1: Increases the cash received from all sources by +15%.
  This bonus is displayed separately in the mining results text.
  
• Stage 2: Increases the cash received from all sources by a further +15%. (+30% total bonus).

Originally posted by Cave Digger VR:

Upgrade Bank for extra bonus gold

General store

Sells things, mostly upgrades of one form or another.

Upgrading causes the items in the store to be refreshed, but appears to have no effect on the contents of the store, though one of the mails from the machine says:

Originally posted by Cave Digger VR:

By upgrading the Shop you can unlock new purchasable goodies!

Post office

Is the home of the Mailbox Machine.

Level 1 enables the Mailbox Machine.

Saloon

Is the only enterable building.

Home of the elevator, Reset Machine, etc.

• Stage 1: Add showcase table to show all the loot types you've gathered.
  
• Stage 2: Add (or perhaps just improve?) dartboard.

Originally posted by Cave Digger VR:

Upgrade the Saloon for more entertainment

Sheriff

Displays a quest board.

Upgrading changes the quests that are given: there are three "tiers" of quests.

Originally posted by Cave Digger VR:

Upgrade the Sheriff to unlock quests

Well

The well is important for the local environment.

Upgrading to level 1 causes the cacti and desert trees to bust into bloom.

Level 2 may further improve them: not sure.

Originally posted by Cave Digger VR:

Make the town flourish by upgrading the Well

Other things

Various other things can be upgraded, but none of thew following items count as buildings, so do not count towards the achievement for getting all buildings built.

There may be other achievements related to upgrading these things, however, and for some, such as the lever for the train, purchase is required for progression.

Cacti and trees

Upgraded indirectly through the well.

Changes appear to be cosmetic: their bursting into bloom is the reward for upgrading the region's water supply.

Rails

2 different upgrades, effectively providing 2 levels.

Enables you to drive further along the track, past different obstacles (broken bridges, etc).

Train Radio

2 levels.

Each level makes some objects (likely new parts of the radio) visible. Only cosmetic, or are some of these objects buttons?

Train engine

Each level also makes some objects (likely new parts of the train) visible. Likely to be cosmetic, to make it look faster, but I may be wrong!

• Level 0: train speed is 7.
  
• Level 1: train speed is 10.
  
• Level 2: train speed is 14.
  
• Level 3: train speed is 18.

Other train parts

The lever, horn, etc.

Not sure how many add-ons you can buy from the train, but for some, like the lever, purchase is required for game progression.