Excavator Trench
Work the three joints of an excavator to dig a trench. Boom, stick and bucket are driven by hydraulics you hold, and the bucket edge cuts the ground column by column. Drag the edge through the soil and curl to fill the bucket, lift, take it to the truck and open it. Dig the trench to the drawn depth, but no deeper: a pipe lies just below. Six trenches, longer and deeper.
- Arcade
- Free, plays in your browser
- Mouse, touch or keyboard
- Added 11 November 2026
- #excavator
- #digger
- #trench
- #construction
- #linkage
- #hydraulics
Excavator Trench
0% · Getting ready
Loading Excavator Trench 0%Watch a 20-second trailer
A real run of the game, recorded with captions and no sound.
How to play
- Hold the six controls (keys 1 to 6, or the buttons on a touch screen): boom up and down, stick in and out, and bucket curl and open. Moving several at once is how you draw the bucket edge in a straight line.
- Lower the bucket edge into the ground at the far end of the trench, then drag it toward the machine while curling the bucket. The soil you cut goes into the bucket. Raise it with the bucket still curled, carry it over the truck and open the bucket to tip the soil in.
- Dig the whole trench to the depth of the green dashed box, then make sure at least 88 per cent of the soil is in the truck. If the bucket edge goes below the pipe line the run is over, and soil dropped on the ground counts against you.
Controls: mouse, touch or keyboard. Made by CalcoTools.
Tips and strategy
- Take thin slices. A bucket only holds a small amount, so scrape a few tenths of a metre at a time and drag the edge only about a metre.
- Curl the bucket fully before you lift it. Soil stays in while the bucket is curled and pours out the moment you open it above the ground.
- Dig the far end of the trench first and work back toward the machine: the arm reaches farthest when it is stretched out low, so do the hard reach while the ground is highest.
FAQ
- Why do I need to move three joints to make a straight line?
- Each joint swings the arm in an arc. The bucket edge's position is the sum of three arcs, so a straight line needs all three joints moving together by different amounts, which is what a skilled operator learns to do by feel.
- Why is there a pipe below the trench?
- Utilities are often buried where diggers work, and operators have to know how deep to go. Digging a little too far is how many are struck, so the trench has a depth limit and a margin before the pipe.
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