¶ Digging
Untold treasures await beneath the shifting sands at the upper end of the Beach. Grab some shovels and get to excavating, then enjoy the substantial rewards!
The Dig Site is located at the uppermost section of the Beach area. You can get there very quickly from your Home by first traveling to the Beach, which will put you at the lower exit by Corale. Then, teleport to the Kingdom, where you will be at the exit by the Mark Shop. Just walk to the left and you will be at Jafar's doorstep!
There are two NPCs who manage the Dig Site. Jafar crafts Sand Shovels and Sand Drills at his shop, and buys back any treasures you find for Coins. Digby monitors the site itself, and gives you tips on how to best excavate. Get yourself a tool, then enter the grid to begin digging.
¶ Digging Tools
The primary tool you will use is the Sand Shovel, which uncovers a single square in the grid. It is slightly cheaper than a Fishing Rod, at 2 Wood and 1 Stone each, but has a lower stock of 50 pieces. The Toolshed building you can add to your Home Island does not increase the number of shovels per restock, and the Workbench Restock option does not replenish digging tools. To make up for that, the free daily restock includes 5 shovels, and the cost to restock only shovels and drills is a paltry 5 Gems. This will let you keep excavating without affecting the rest of your farm stock.
The other tool you can craft is the Sand Drill, which digs up a 2x2 area in the grid. It is useful, but rather expensive, requiring Oil, Crimstone, Wood, and Leather. There are also only 10 in a restock, but you may find some through rewards or chests, so use them when you have them.
¶ Dig Site
The digging area itself is a 10x10 grid of squares, which you can enter through a gap in the fence on the left or right sides, near Old Salty or Digby, respectively. While you may see other farmers trying their luck at digging also, don't worry about them getting in your way, as Pharaoh cast an ancient spell that gives you exclusive access to the sands. All other players will move to the edges of the fence as soon as you enter, and reappear where they actually are as soon as you leave. Powerful magic indeed, but very useful!
Every space in the grid contains something valuable in some way. Even Sand, which you will get a lot of, can be sold for Coins or saved up to unlock rare treasures at the shop. Like with Fishing, there is no real junk or any useless items.
The basic rule when digging is that if you find a Crab, there is another treasure orthogonally adjacent to it. That's a fancy way of saying that there is something else above, below, or to the left or right of the Crab. If you find Sand, there is nothing orthogonally adjacent other than more sand.
So, if you find a Crab, dig around it. If you find Sand, dig somewhere else.
The magic that gives every player their own unrestricted access to the dig site also means that the location of the treasures is unique to each digger. If you're lucky enough to find a Pearl or other great item, you can't tell your friends about it because it (probably) won't be there for them if they dig in the same spot.
¶ Treasures
Everything that you can see under the Sell tab at Jafar's shop is something you can potentially dig up at the site. Some items you may recognize as fishing treasures also. Just because you can sell it, though, doesn't mean that you should. Many items are requested for deliveries, and others may be put up on the Mega Bounty Board, so you'll want to hang on to a few of each. That said, digging items are an excellent source of Coins, even considering the costs to excavate them.
An important type of treasure is the Chapter Artifact, which changes at the beginning of each Chapter. You'll see past Artifacts in the shop list, and may see the next Chapter's when the current one nears its end. Keep as many of these as you can, and turn them in at the Megastore. Only sell them when their Chapter ends.
¶ Digby's Clues
Digby surveys the site each day and can provide some clues as to where to find different treasures, but he has an eye out for the Chapter Artifacts specifically. By talking to him, clicking the “New Dig Site!” button on the bottom of the screen, or visiting the Treasures tab of https://sfl.world/land/ (enter your Farm ID), you'll get some clues as to what to look for. Once you find all of the items in a pattern, it will be checked off the list.
The patterns are consistent and recurring, for example you'll always find two vases with a hieroglyph underneath the left vase, three sea cucumbers in a row with a pipi at the far right, and so on. This will make digging easier as you learn the patterns and can recognize them as you go. You may also find other items that are not shown in the patterns, so keep digging!
If you can unearth all three of the Artifacts in a single day, Digby will give you a bonus prize (you don't have to find the camel bones also). This will include a fourth Artifact, as well as another item, randomly determined. By building up a daily streak, you can get even better rewards. Find all of the Desert Streaks at https://sfl.world/info/chests
¶ Dig Limit
Like with many tasks in the game, there is a limit as to how many times you can dig in a day. This can be increased through several different items, one of which you can trade with Jafar for, and the rest you can find on the marketplace. There are currently no skills that affect digging in any way. Dig chances reset at midnight UTC along with many other things.
If you're really desperate, you can also convince Digby to give you a few extra chances in exchange for some of your precious Gems.
Contributors to this page
librophagus - primary content
iSPANK - tagging