- For more information, see the dedicated Motherload Wiki.
Motherload title screen
Motherload is made by XGen Studios.
Plot[]
Gather resources and buy upgrades to dig as far as you can. You have to dig ores and sell them to earn cash which you use to buy fuel, digger upgrades, explosives, and other supplies. You can only sell ore and buy items at the surface. If you run out of fuel, your digger explodes and you die (game over). There are more valuable (and heavier) ores as you go deeper into the mine. There are several types of alien artifacts which are of considerable value and appear randomly throughout the mine (below 950 feet).
Depth guide[]
[In progress]
Resource List[]
Throughout the game, the following resources can be found, which can be sold at the Mineral Processor 3000 on the surface.
| Mineral | Value ($) | Weight (kg) | Depth (ft) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ironium | 30 | 10 | — |
| Bronzium | 60 | 10 | — |
| Silverium | 100 | 10 | — |
| Goldium | 250 | 20 | — |
| Platinium | 750 | 30 | 750 |
| Einsteinium | 2,000 | 40 | 1562 |
| Emerald | 5,000 | 60 | 2375 |
| Ruby | 20,000 | 80 | 3187 |
| Diamond | 100,000 | 100 | 4000 |
| Amazonite | 500,000 | 120 | 4812 |
There are also various miscellaneous valuables which provide cash immediately when mined, rather than filling cargo space. These can only be found starting at a depth of 950 feet.
- Dinosaur Bones ($1000)
- Treasure Chest ($5000)
- Martian Skeleton ($10,000)
- Religious Symbol ($50,000)
Upgrades List (Goldium Edition)[]
The highest level upgrades (Besides the MultiDrill) are automatically applied after finding the Ancient Scroll corresponding to it, which only appear between -3,700ft. and -7,300ft. Each time you start a new game or load a previous save, a random Ancient Scroll will appear. The upgrade will be saved with your game until you defeat Mr. Natas and start a new level, however the MultiDrill is permanent, as long as you didn't quit the game between getting the multi-drill and beating the boss.
Drills[]
Better Drills allow you to drill faster. Rocks, however, can only be drilled through with the MultiDrill.
| Name | ft/s | Cost |
| Stock Drill | 20 | - |
| Silvide Drill | 28 | 750 |
| Goldium Drill | 40 | 2,000 |
| Emerald Drill | 50 | 5,000 |
| Ruby Drill | 70 | 20,000 |
| Diamond Drill | 95 | 100,000 |
| Amazonite Drill | 120 | 500,000 |
Hulls[]
Better Hulls grant more health before dying.
| Name | Health | Cost |
| Stock Hull | 10 | - |
| Ironium Hull | 17 | 750 |
| Bronzium Hull | 30 | 2,000 |
| Steel Hull | 50 | 5,000 |
| Platinium Hull | 80 | 20,000 |
| Einsteinium Hull | 120 | 100,000 |
| Energy-Shielded Hull | 180 | 500,000 |
| Regenerative Hull | 180 | N/A |
Engines[]
Better Engines allow faster movement and the ability to fly upwards with more weight (minerals).
The Hyper-Drive gives you infinite free teleports to the surface (press M)
| Name | Horse Power | Cost |
| Stock Engine | 150 | - |
| V4 1600 cc | 160 | 750 |
| V4 2.0 Ltr Turbo | 170 | 2,000 |
| V6 3.8 Ltr | 180 | 5,000 |
| V8 Supercharged 5.0 Ltr | 190 | 20,000 |
| V12 6.0 Ltr | 200 | 100,000 |
| V16 Jag Engine | 210 | 500,000 |
| Hyper Drive | ? | N/A |
Fuel Tanks[]
Fuel Tanks allow you to go longer without re-fueling.
The Fuel Integrator turns Gas Pockets into fuel.
Radiators[]
Radiators decrease damage done by drilling into Lava and Gas pockets.
The magma converter gives you ~$500 every time you mine a lava pocket.
| Name | Effectiveness | Cost |
| Stock Fan | 0 % | - |
| Dual Fans | 10 % | 2,000 |
| Single Turbine | 25 % | 5,000 |
| Dual Turbine | 40 % | 20,000 |
| Puron Cooling | 60 % | 100,000 |
| Tri-Turbine Freon Array | 80 % | 500,000 |
| Magma Converter | 80 % | N/A |
Cargo Bays[]
Better Cargo Bays allow you to store more minerals before you have to either dump them or return to surface to sell them.
The Portable Wormhole stores an infinite amount of minerals. Materials "teleported" still have weight.
| Name | Cubic ft | Cost |
| Micro Bay | 10 | - |
| Medium Bay | 15 | 750 |
| Huge Bay | 25 | 2,000 |
| Gigantic Bay | 40 | 5,000 |
| Titanic Bay | 70 | 20,000 |
| Leviathan Bay | 120 | 100,000 |
| Portable Wormhole | ∞ | N/A |
Special Items[]
| Name | Effect | Cost | Hotkey |
| Reserve Fuel Tank | Refuels 25 Liters to your fuel tank | 2,000 | F |
| Hull Repair Nanobots | Repairs 30 HP of hull damage. | 7,500 | R |
| Dynamite | Blows up a 3x3 square around your pod. | 2,000 | X |
| Plastic Explosive | Blows up a 5x5 square around your pod. | 5,000 | C |
| Quantum Teleporter | Teleports and launches you up or down near the surface. | 2,000 | Q |
| Matter Transmitter | Teleports you safely next to the Fuel Station. | 10,000 | M |
- You can buy more than one of any item at any time and it will not weigh your pod down.
- Dynamite, Plastic Explosives, Quantum Teleporter, and Matter Transmitter can only be used if you are touching the ground.
You can play Motherload 98 more times after you defeated the Devil aka Mr. Natas in levels. You also get a Devil's head for each time you kill him. So there are in total 99 levels.
Challenges[]
Challenges are, as the name suggests, levels where you have a target to achieve. Every time a challenge is completed, fuel is refilled, and hull is repaired. Also, every few challenges, you get better equipment to make goal reachable. Completing all 12 gives a Multi-Drill if you start a new game.
| # | Target | Time limit |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 Ironium | 1:00 |
| 2 | 3 Ironium and 3 Bronzium | 1:20 |
| 3 | 3 Silverium | 2:00 |
| 4 | Reach 600 feet | 1:00 |
| 5 | Reach 1400 feet | 2:00 |
| 6 | Reach 2400 feet and 5 Goldium | 3:00 |
| 7 | Reach 2500 feet and 5 Platinium | 2:00 |
| 8 | 5 more Platinium | 2:00 |
| 9 | Destroy the rock layer at 2560 feet with dynamite | 1:00 |
| 10 | Navigate through 1st maze | 1:00 |
| 11 | Navigate through 2nd maze | 2:00 |
| 12 | Navigate through 3rd maze | 5:00 |
motherload death glitch-o11y217
Trivia[]
- The pod cannot drill vertically.
- If you fly in a twelve-feet-high horizontal shaft, or anywhere with a ceiling, the height is raised +2ft, or in other words, -10ft below the soil above, but the propeller seems to penetrate the soil above.
- Gas Pockets seem to take impact after digging exactly 5 ft into it. (e.g. surface -5500, effect -5505)
- Lava Pockets actually deal damage TWO times separately, meaning that if you press 'R' in between, there's a chance to survive it with a weaker hull(e.g. Bronzium). The total damage of the two 'sessions' is complete in one dig, which is explained in the article Dangers in game 'Motherload'.
- The Stock Fan's efficiency is 0%.
- It is safer to drill through lava, when near the core, than it is to dig through blank soil, as they are almost always gas pockets.
- A rare glitch can be seen sometimes where a block of soil appears to be irregular, and once you get near or at it, it is revealed to be a mineral, or normal soil. Sometimes, it is just empty space.
- The earliest possible spawn point for a gas pocket is -4,950 ft.
- If you die while fighting the boss, sometimes it will start all over again. The pod will be invisible, but smoke trails might be seen. If you take additional damage, you die naturally with the game over screen.
- If you enter the fighting arena, but do not beat the boss, the game might think it is still in fight mode, and the health bar will remain there, and the ground will shake with an evil laugh from Mr. Natas. You cannot check inventory. If you save, load again, then receive another message, this might happen again, and there is no way to fix this without beating the boss and loading a new level. This was later fixed and you can leave the boss area and go back to normal mode.
- There is an extremely rare glitch where, you beat the boss and the screen turns gold, but it wouldn't freeze and give you money for selling bits of the devil's parts. When this happens, you have to re-start the battle all over again.
- Motherload uses a round-down basis, which means Ironium becomes worth $0 after Level 31.
- The altimeter depth limit is not actually -5812 ft. It is -5812.5 ft, and since the game uses a round-down basis (as mentioned above), it is possible to see '-5813 ft' in the altimeter when you hover just below the -5812 mark. The actual depth of Hell is -7187 feet, i.e. one level less than -7200 feet, the roof of Hell.
- A rare glitch can be found where the game lags whilst mining a block and instead goes through the block with the intent to mine and ends up underneath.
- Flying upward into the sky results in no additional special events after the message from Mr. Dog at 10,000ft.: The background colors cycle through various shades and levels of brightness of blue (from white to black, then back again), but no irregular or special events happen. (In just a matter of minutes, this user achieved an altitude of greater than +100000 ft in the sky and there was no altimeter malfunction throughout the flight; and note that this value is beyond the absolute value of the -66666 at which Satan is found.) <-- There is a message at 100k ft that says you have too much time on your hands
- The maximum altitude, should you go there, is 27,850,000 feet, after which you unalterably transition to an abyss below Hell (from which you can only escape, in a hacked version, by flying another 27 million feet up to the floor of Hell, which can be penetrated at hacked upward speeds of 20,000 feet per minute).