Hole Diggers is a Minecraft Let's Play series by the Yogscast.
After the somewhat disastrous end of Jaffaquest, Lewis, Simon and Duncan move to a new location, taking all their supplies with them to start afresh.
Hole Diggers contains examples of:
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Zig-Zagged Trope with the Robot Buddy that Lewis builds, since it has some uses, but is useless at following around the players, which is what it would be most useful for.
- Simon builds a beautiful sphere at one point for the satellite dishes... but forgets to build an entrance.
- Duncan's golf course causes the server to lag when he flattens part of the ground. It's only for a second, but it proves rather impractical for their progress. Add to the fact that Duncan has not thought of a way to play golf.
- Their giant human building has some functionality, but as it's not finished it becomes difficult to travel through.
- The cloning system itself is alright, but they choose to build it in the one part of the Dwarf Star that isn't sealed. Clones promptly begin suffocating. On top of that, Duncan actually almost flushes his original out into space.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Duncan starts suffocating in-game, Lewis rushes to his rescue in real life, actually running to Duncan's office and helping him find a way to survive.
- Black Comedy: At one point, Duncan asks if their human-building is going to resemble Gary Glitter, a convicted paedophile. He then says "he was our mascot, now he's our building". Lewis and Simon react with disgust and laughter.
- Boring, but Practical: The gang have said many times that their building is meant to resemble a factory, and thus they go for more mundane materials, which are more plentiful.
- Darkness Equals Death: What happens if you step into the dark part of the Deep Dark and do not get out quickly enough. On top of that, mobs still spawn.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- In Episode 19, fittingly titled "Duncan Can't Breathe", Lewis accuses Duncan of not thinking through anything after he fails to prepare for his return trip from the Moon to the overworld.
- At one point in "Dirty Business", Lewis muses that he's unsure how they'll play golf. Duncan, the guy most in favour of the plan, as well as the architect of the course no less, also has no idea. Simon invokes the trope by name.
- The cloning system that Duncan and Lewis design for the Dwarf Star is itself alright, but since the room is not sealed and the clones don't have oxygen gear and start suffocating, forcing Lewis to Mercy Kill one of them. In their hasty efforts to fix the problem, Duncan flushes his original self out into space.
- Disproportionate Retribution: At one point, Duncan ignores Simon's mission briefing and keeps bringing up the golf course, which has not been one of the easy parts of their mission. Simon's response is to go ape and deliver a One-Hit Kill to Duncan via Atomic Disassembler, offhandedly mentioning that someone in the comments brought it up.
- Distressed Dude: Duncan ends up stuck in one small part of the moonbase, after his oxygen nearly runs out and he almost suffocates to death. He gets rescued not long afterwards.
- Dug Too Deep: Their first goal, owing to their name? Do what Dwarves to best and dig deeply and greedily. Coincidentally, there's an item that lets you teleport to something called "The Deep Dark", which Simon excitedly begins working towards.
- Godzilla Threshold: Upon Duncan's near-suffocation in the game, Lewis runs to his office to sort out the problem. It works, barely.
- History Repeats: The series is a sequel to MoonQuest, which ended with Simon accidentally destroying the Jaffa Factory / museum by launching a rocket inside it. In the final episode, Simon destroys the Dwarf Star space station by putting cheese in the nuclear reactor for no readily explainable reason.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Subverted. Upon discovery of something called "The Deep Dark", Simon is eager to get there, since he reckons there will be dwarves there. Double subverted when it turns out there aren't, and he soon becomes terrified.
- I Know Madden Kombat: In Episode 20, Duncan claims that he's right about a return trip to Earth from the Moon requiring less fuel, having played Kerbal Space Program. Simon isn't assured by this one bit, claiming to have seen Duncan's videos and acknowledging that Duncan killed quite a few Kerbals. Duncan nonchalantly agrees, saying it was around a hundred.
- Made of Explodium: The ingots needed to craft the portal to the Deep Dark explode after ten seconds, so the process is rather tricky. The guys die at least five times trying to get through that stage.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Duncan's efforts at fixing the cloning station result in his original body almost being flushed out into space, and him unable to reuse it.
- No Indoor Voice: Simon, once again, although he actually parodies Barry Scott, the star of the infamous Cillit Bang commercials.
- Nothing Is Scarier: Upon getting into the Deep Dark, Simon freaks out when something keeps hitting him and he can't see what it is. He later find out that it's the darkness, after it kills him.
- Oh, Crap!:
- The gang all have this reaction, Duncan in particular, after Duncan begins running out of oxygen and the moonbase's power fails. It gets so bad that Lewis physically runs to Duncan's office to try and sort it out.
- Simon realises that the Deep Dark does not contain dwarves, but instead kills anyone that goes into an unlit area.
- Duncan has this reaction after almost flushing his main body out into space.
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Joked about when Duncan and Simon claim that dwarves lay eggs that have to be fertilised.
- Robot Buddy: Lewis builds one in Episode 14. They later dub it "Cheesebot".
- Simple, yet Awesome:
- Simon's teleportation system between Craggy Island and Lovely Island comes in handy quite a few times.
- The Jetpack that Simon builds certainly helps him get around quicker.
- While the gang initially are reluctant to use the Digital Miner, they concede it to be this after it gets them more resources. It doesn't mine any cobblestone, but this isn't an issue since Lewis will just make a cobblestone generator.
- Their solution for generating cobblestone is to extract some lava from a volcano and then set up some machines to pump water and generate it automatically. After the initial stage, there is no danger in the process.
- The mining station is actually relatively efficient and starts getting them resources from other dimensions.
- Sixth Ranger: Sips and Sjin show up at different stages, both helping out in their own way but not joining the crew full time.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: While this is usual for the Yogs and Team Jaffa in particular, Sips shows up in "Dirty Business" and begins rubbing in the fact that the Jaffa Factory is destroyed, causing Simon to snark back.
- Technician Versus Performer: Again, Duncan and Lewis are more focused on the technical side of things. Simon is more helpful than usual, but he does take the piss more. When Sips turns up, Simon looks downright productive.
- That Came Out Wrong: Lewis at one point mentions "slopes" in the context of their architecture, and Duncan and Simon immediately joke about him using a racial term of abuse. They (jokingly) refer to him as essentially being like Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson. note .
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: There is a volcano in the middle of the ocean, but none of the guys pay much attention to it. When Sips shows up and asks a few questions, they casually point it out and say it looks nice, then ignore it
- Wham Episode: The Finale reveals, essentially, the origination of every Yogscast Minecraft Series, from Shadow of Israphel to Tekkit to Yog Labs to Holediggers itself, in a roundabout time-loop way.
- What the Hell, Hero?: In Episode 19, Lewis calls out Duncan for not thinking through his return to Earth, as Duncan forgot to pack a parachute; he then goes on to bash him for not thinking through anything. Simon then calls out Duncan and Lewis, saying that while he's been busy building a few two-storey buildings which they need, the pair have been messing about.
