About Blade of the Spade

A daily metal detecting game you play in your browser – on your phone or your computer.

🚧 The game is an early alpha and still in development. Things will change, and your feedback really helps.

What is it?

Every day there is one new site to search. It is the same field for every player in the world: the same finds, buried in the same places, at the same depths. You don't play against others in real time – everyone searches on their own, and at the end of the day the leaderboard shows who did best.

A new site opens every day at midnight UTC. Whatever you don't dig up by then stays in the ground.

Blade of the Spade started as a PC metal detecting simulator. The project has since moved to the web: this browser game is Blade of the Spade now, built around the same idea of a detector that behaves like a real one.

How to play

1. Walk and sweep. Move across the site and swing the detector coil from side to side. Long sweeps cover more ground, short ones help you work a small spot.
2. Listen to the signal. When the coil passes over metal, the detector beeps. Different metals sound different, and small or deep objects give only a weak, short signal.
3. Pinpoint. Switch on pinpoint mode – the tone turns continuous and gets stronger the closer you are. Move the green target circle to where it is loudest.
4. Dig. Dig in the target circle. If nothing is there, you lose time and a few points, so don't dig blindly.
5. Identify your find. Clear the clumps of dirt off the object and guess its period, material and type. The sooner you get them right, the more points you earn.

Points depend on how rare the find is, how deep it was, how accurately you pinpointed it and how well you identified it. Each find then goes into your collection, with real photos and a short description. A short tutorial will teach you the controls before your first day.

A detector that behaves like a real one

The game is made by a hobby metal detectorist, and the detector in it is meant to behave like the real thing: a coin near the surface gives a loud, clear signal, a small button twenty centimetres down is just a faint blip, and iron junk is everywhere. The finds are real archaeological and everyday objects – coins, buckles, brooches, buttons, tools and plenty of junk – from prehistory to the present day.

Free, in your browser

Blade of the Spade is free and runs in any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer. There is nothing to install and you don't need an account. Your progress and collection are saved in your browser.

Have an idea, found a bug, or just want to talk detecting? Join us on Discord.