Introduction

There may be buried treasure down there, hogs. Let's get digging!

Overview

The pick hammer is a terrain deformation utility used for digging holes in a generally downward direction. Some callous hedgehogs may also use this as a weapon to knock other hogs out of their way or to perform acrobatic stunts.

Properties

• Maximum damage per hit: 6
• Charge to shoot: No
• Affected by wind: No
• Can be used mid-air: Yes
• Can be cancelled: Yes
• Duration: 4s
• Can collect crates
• Doesn't pause turn timer when used in “infinite attacks” mode
• Ends turn: Yes
• Retreat time: 0s
• Crate type: Weapon

How to use

Pressing the Attack key (default: space bar) will activate the pick hammer and your hog will start digging a hole downwards. While excavation is underway, you may steer your hog slightly left or right to create a slanted tunnel by pressing the left and right keys (default: left/right cursor keys). If desired, pressing the Attack key again will cancel digging. This is useful if you don't want to dig out of a cavern or into water, for example.

Hints

• Jump on the side of a hog's head and then activate this utility to knock them to the side. This can be very effective as it let's you push a hog standing on the edge of a cliff into water, and then allows you to tunnel to safety where the same process cannot be repeated on you.
• Sometimes, digging down is a double edged sword. Lurking in a hole can give you some protection from aerial assaults, but it may also make you vulnerable to flames (e.g. from molotov cocktails) or controlled explosions (e.g. clusters from a cluster bomb).
• Similarly to shoryuken, the pick hammer may be used instead of a parachute to avoid fall damage. Simply activate the utility before you hit the ground and when you hit the ground, you will start tunneling into it. This strategy is particularly effective on infinite attack modes where other utilities like parachute may be limited: e.g. Highlander.
• The pick hammer can be used to deform terrain even if the "indestructible land" game modifier is set. However, if terrain is masked as "invincible" using a mask.png (→Terrain), this is impossible.

Trivia

• “Pick hammer” is a bit of an odd and long name, (it's really more of a pneumatic drill or jackhammer) and so often the weapon is just called the "drill". Because of this when someone says "use the drill" or "drill that guy!" it is unclear if they are talking about the pick hammer, drill rocket or drill strike.

History

• I don't know, I just work here.