Depth Incremental Beginner Guide: Your First Run and First Purchases

Depth Incremental opens with a tutorial that walks you through the first purchases of the early loop: buy a few steps to head down into the pit, then spend Cash to open the room that holds your upgrades. This guide covers that opening order and the milestone that follows.

Quick answer

Buy a few steps when the tutorial asks, then buy the Upgrades room — the door sign in the opening tutorial reads 'Upgrades, 250 Cash' — and follow the room's 'Buy your first upgrade' prompt. In one opening tutorial run, Faster Cash at 250 Cash ended the tutorial and opened More Cash and Walk Speed.

What to buy first, in order

Checklist

• Buy a few steps

  The opening tutorial starts with step purchases.

• Buy the Upgrades room

  The door sign reads 'Upgrades, 250 Cash' with a green Buy control, and the prompt says 'Buy the Upgrades room'.

• Buy your first upgrade

  The CASH UPGRADES room prompt reads 'Buy your first upgrade'.

• Add More Cash or Walk Speed

  Both headings are on the same board with Buy and Max controls once the tutorial ends.

• Build toward 2,000 Cash

  Reaching 2,000 Cash is what unlocks Fossils.

Getting down the pit

Every step takes you deeper into the pit, and every layer hides something new and dangerous. The tutorial begins with a few step purchases. Steps cost more the deeper you go, so a step lower down the staircase costs more than one nearer the top. Falling off the stairs puts you back where you fell, so a slip does not undo your descent.

The Upgrades room and the CASH UPGRADES board

In the opening tutorial, the Upgrades room door sign reads 'Upgrades, 250 Cash' and carries a green Buy control; the prompt at the door says 'Buy the Upgrades room.' Buying it opens the CASH UPGRADES room.

Inside, the board lists three headings — More Cash, Faster Cash and Walk Speed — each with Buy and Max controls. A separate green panel is labeled 2x Cash, and the room's tutorial prompt reads 'Buy your first upgrade.'

In one opening tutorial run on the UPD3 build, the first purchase made after the room was Faster Cash for 250 Cash. It ended the tutorial and let the player start upgrades such as More Cash and Walk Speed. Once the tutorial is done, those two headings are available from the same board, so your next Cash can go into either.

Fossils unlock at 2,000 Cash

The next milestone is 2,000 Cash, because that is when Fossils unlock. The DIRT FOSSILS room is where you dig. Look for the large fossil skull display, the yellow-bordered digging area and the Dirt Fossils collection board, with the character holding a shovel inside the bordered area. The FOSSIL UPGRADES board beside it lists More Fossils, Faster Digs and Fossil Luck.

What comes after your first purchases

Past the opening, the run widens: dig up Fossils and hunt rare Shinies, expand many different upgrade trees, defeat the bosses guarding each layer, and rebirth to grow stronger and dive deeper.

If Cash is your bottleneck early, keep putting it into the CASH UPGRADES board's More Cash and Faster Cash headings. For the bigger picture, see the progression guide and layers guide. For codes, see the Depth Incremental codes page.