The Excavation skill governs digging with shovels. XP is earned by breaking compatible blocks with a shovel. Levelling Excavation unlocks the Archaeology passive (treasure drops from soil and sediment blocks) and the Giga Drill Breaker active ability.
| Category | Gathering |
| Primary tool | Shovel |
| Super ability | Giga Drill Breaker |
| Parent skill(s) | None |
| Child skill(s) | None |
XP is granted each time you break a compatible block while holding a shovel. The amount depends on the block type:
| Block | XP |
|---|---|
| Muddy Mangrove Roots | 90 |
| Mud | 80 |
| Rooted Dirt | 60 |
| Clay | 40 |
| Coarse Dirt | 40 |
| Dirt | 40 |
| Grass Block | 40 |
| Gravel | 40 |
| Mycelium | 40 |
| Podzol | 40 |
| Red Sand | 40 |
| Sand | 40 |
| Snow Block | 40 |
| Soul Sand | 40 |
| Soul Soil | 40 |
| Snow (layer) | 20 |
XP values are configurable in experience.yml under the Excavation block.
Ranks: 8
Archaeology is a passive sub-skill that allows treasures to drop from compatible Excavation blocks. Each treasure has its own minimum skill level requirement; only treasures at or below your current skill level are eligible to drop. Higher skill levels unlock a wider pool of treasures.
Each treasure also has an independent drop chance (configurable in treasures.yml). When a treasure successfully drops, there is additionally a rank × 2 % chance that vanilla XP orbs worth rank points are spawned alongside it.
Treasure drops are entirely configurable via
treasures.yml. The min-level values in the table below are rawtreasures.ymldefaults and are not automatically scaled by Retro/Standard mode. Servers running Retro mode may wish to scale treasure min levels accordingly intreasures.yml.
treasures.ymlis not automatically updated when mcMMO upgrades. If you have an oldertreasures.yml, new treasures introduced in later releases will not appear until you regenerate or manually update the file.
Archaeology rank unlock levels:
| Rank | Unlock level |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 250 |
| 3 | 350 |
| 4 | 500 |
| 5 | 650 |
| 6 | 750 |
| 7 | 850 |
| 8 | 1000 |
Default treasure table:
| Item | Amt | Drop chance | Min level (default) | Treasure XP | Source blocks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stick | 2 | 2.00 % | 1 | 50 | Mud, Muddy Mangrove Roots |
| Glowstone Dust | 1 | 5.00 % | 5 | 80 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Sand, Red Sand, Mycelium |
| Feather | 3 | 1.00 % | 5 | 50 | Mud |
| Spyglass | 1 | 0.10 % | 7 | 500 | Mud, Dirt |
| Gunpowder | 1 | 10.00 % | 10 | 30 | Gravel |
| Potato | 1 | 3.00 % | 10 | 50 | Dirt, Mud |
| Slime Ball | 1 | 5.00 % | 15 | 100 | Clay |
| Bone | 1 | 10.00 % | 20 | 30 | Gravel, Mud |
| Apple | 1 | 0.10 % | 25 | 100 | Grass Block, Mycelium |
| Egg | 1 | 1.00 % | 25 | 100 | Grass Block |
| String | 1 | 5.00 % | 25 | 200 | Clay |
| Music Disc 13 | 1 | 0.05 % | 25 | 3000 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Sand, Red Sand, Gravel, Clay, Mycelium, Soul Sand, Soul Soil |
| Music Disc Cat | 1 | 0.05 % | 25 | 3000 | Same as Music Disc 13 |
| Name Tag | 1 | 0.05 % | 25 | 3000 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Sand, Red Sand, Gravel, Clay, Mycelium, Soul Sand, Soul Soil |
| Cocoa Beans | 1 | 1.33 % | 35 | 100 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Mycelium, Mud |
| Diamond | 1 | 0.13 % | 35 | 1000 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Sand, Red Sand, Gravel, Clay, Mycelium, Soul Sand, Soul Soil, Mud |
| Trident | 1 | 0.02 % | 40 | 100 | Mud, Clay, Muddy Mangrove Roots |
| Red Mushroom | 1 | 0.50 % | 50 | 80 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Mycelium, Mud |
| Brown Mushroom | 1 | 0.50 % | 50 | 80 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Mycelium, Mud |
| Bucket | 1 | 0.10 % | 50 | 100 | Clay |
| Clock | 1 | 0.10 % | 50 | 100 | Clay |
| Soul Sand (item) | 1 | 0.50 % | 65 | 80 | Sand, Red Sand |
| Cake | 1 | 0.05 % | 75 | 3000 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Sand, Red Sand, Gravel, Clay, Mycelium, Soul Sand, Soul Soil |
| Cobweb | 1 | 5.00 % | 75 | 150 | Clay |
| Quartz | 1 | 0.50 % | 85 | 100 | Dirt, Coarse Dirt, Podzol, Grass Block, Sand, Red Sand, Gravel, Mycelium, Soul Sand, Soul Soil |
| Netherrack | 1 | 0.50 % | 85 | 30 | Gravel |
| Heart of the Sea | 1 | 0.01 % | 90 | 9999 | Mud |
Ranks: 1, Unlocks at level 50
Giga Drill Breaker is an active ability that dramatically boosts your digging speed and treasure finds. To activate it, right-click with a shovel while holding it to enter the "ready" state, then break any compatible Excavation block.
While active:
Duration formula: 2 + floor(min(skillLevel, 1000) / 50) seconds. A player at level 50 gets 3 seconds; the maximum at level 1000 is 22 seconds.
| Skill level | Duration |
|---|---|
| 50 | 3 s |
| 250 | 7 s |
| 500 | 12 s |
| 750 | 17 s |
| 1000 | 22 s |
After the ability ends, the tool's temporary enchant is removed and the ability enters a cooldown. The cooldown duration is shared across the dig-speed ability family and is configurable in config.yml under Abilities.Cooldowns.Giga_Drill_Breaker (default: 240 seconds).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Unlock level | 50 |
| EnchantBuff (Efficiency bonus) | Skills.General.Ability.EnchantBuff (default: 5) |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
/excavation |
Display your Excavation skill stats and sub-skill information. |
/mctop excavation |
View the Excavation leaderboard. |
/mcrank |
Show your rank on every skill leaderboard. |