Fathom: Only light things may rise
Dig anywhere in a drowned world of clay, but only light things rise. Everything you dig is weight in the hold, and the deeper you dig, the more it is worth.
How to play
Your submarine obeys one law: heavy things sink and light things rise. There is no engine that lifts you. Hold down to flood the tanks and sink, hold up to blow them and rise, and thrust left or right to steer. Hold a direction against rock and the drill cuts it away.
- The verb: dig anywhere you can reach. Tunnels flood behind you and stay dug between sessions, so the shaft you cut today is the way down tomorrow.
- The feedback: the cargo bar counts kilograms, because every kilogram is subtracted from the lift that has to carry you home. Fill it and you stop rising altogether.
- The goal: surface with the richest haul you can still lift, then spend it on a better boat. Banked money is safe forever.
- DROP CARGO: sheds your heaviest item instantly. It always works, and it is a tool rather than a defeat.
Why it is clever
The hull displaces 1000 kg of water and weighs 700 kg dry, so you have exactly 300 kg of lift and never any more. Cargo comes out of that same 300. At half a hold you climb at half speed; at a full hold you do not climb at all, and the shaft you dug greedily becomes the throat you cannot float back up.
That one rule turns every grab into a bargain with the trip home. Near the surface the rock gives up iron and copper: heavy, cheap, and easy to fill a hold with. Deeper you reach tungsten and silver, then gold and platinum, and at the very bottom neodymium — each lighter per piece and worth far more per kilogram. Rarer still are the emeralds, rubies and diamonds scattered one at a time through the rock, and the deeper the stone, the more it is worth. A hold full of iron is an anchor you dug for yourself. The whole game is deciding what is worth the climb, and the answer changes with every metre you go down.
Tips
- Read the dollars per kilogram, not the dollars. Filling the hold is the losing strategy by design.
- Around 180 kg is the sweet spot, not 300 — and it stays 180 kg however deep you go.
- Iron has a second use: carry it down as diving weight, then drop it the moment you find something better.
- The deep is where the money is. Gold is worth thirteen times iron by the piece and over forty times by the kilogram.
- Always take a precious stone. None weighs more than 3 kg, and a diamond from the Foundry is worth $6,000.
- Magma damages the hull, and the hull is the one meter that never refills. Go around.
Frequently asked questions
Is Fathom free? Yes, completely free to play, with no account or download, in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop.
Does it work on mobile? Yes. Fathom is built for touch as well as mouse, with two control schemes to choose from.
How do I win? Surface with your haul: everything you carry up is banked, and only what you bank is safe. Money buys better submarines, and a better drill is what opens ground you could not cut before.
Can I get stuck at the bottom? No. Dropping cargo always sheds enough weight to rise, and the cargo bar shows you how close to the limit you are.
Do my tunnels stay dug? Yes. The world remembers every cell you cut, so the deep gets easier to reach the more you work it.
Stuck? Read the Fathom strategy guide
Enjoy a good thinking puzzle? Try Bloom or Kaleido, or browse all Zamborin games.