Honestly, there is nothing quite as stressful—or as rewarding—as that final tile in a Monopoly GO dig event. You’ve got three pickaxes left. The treasure is a 2x2 square. You tap the corner. Clink. Nothing but dirt. Your heart sinks because you know those pickaxes are getting harder to find as the tournament clock winds down.
We’ve all been there.
The dig event, often called the Treasures or Excavation event, is widely considered the "best" mini-game in Monopoly GO because it’s the only one where you actually feel like you have some agency. Unlike the Peg-E machine, which feels like it’s actively fighting your gravity, the dig event is a logic puzzle. But if you're just clicking randomly, you're flushing thousands of dice down the drain.
Why the Dig Event is the Holy Grail of Rewards
Currently, we are seeing a massive shift in how Scopely handles these. In the latest Harry Potter themed season—which has brought us events like Roll Treasures and the Hogwarts Treasures excavation—the stakes have shifted. We aren't just looking for random coins anymore; we're hunting for specialized artifacts that lead to the elusive Wild Sticker.
If you’re sitting on a gold-locked album, the dig event is basically your only hope. Most players chase the 2,500 dice at the end, but the real prize is that Wild Sticker at Level 20. It allows you to pick any card you're missing. Any. Of. Them.
The Math of the "Wait to Finish" Strategy
There is a huge debate in the community: do you finish the event as soon as you have the axes, or do you wait?
Here’s the deal. Once you uncover the final treasure on the final level, the event is over. Any pickaxes you earn after that are useless. However, any pickaxes you have in your inventory when the event officially ends get converted into dice. Historically, this has been a 3:1 ratio.
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- Scenario A: You finish early. You get your rewards. You keep playing the game, but the milestones in the side tournaments that would have given you pickaxes now give you small amounts of cash or low-level sticker packs.
- Scenario B: You get to the very last treasure. You leave it buried. You keep playing the game, accumulating hundreds of pickaxes from Quick Wins, 8-hour gifts, and tournaments. Then, ten minutes before the event ends, you dig up that last item.
If you have 100 extra pickaxes, that’s 300 "free" dice. For many, that’s a better ROI than the meager cash rewards you get for finishing early.
How to Actually Find Treasures Without Wasting Axes
Most people treat the grid like a lottery. It’s not. It’s a grid-based deduction game, similar to Battleship.
The treasures have specific dimensions. A "scroll" or "wand" might be 1x3. A "shield" might be 2x2. A "coin" is 1x1.
Stop digging in the corners immediately. If you are looking for a 3x3 object, and you dig in a spot that only has two empty squares next to it, you’ve mathematically wasted an axe. You should be "checkerboarding" your digs. By hitting every other square in a diagonal pattern, you can cover the maximum amount of "surface area" while using the minimum number of pickaxes. If you hit a blank spot, you’ve ruled out a huge section of the grid where a large treasure could fit.
Look for the Moles
In recent iterations like the Roll Treasures event we saw in early January 2026, Scopely has been adding "moles" or "super-tiles." When you hit one of these, it clears a whole row or a surrounding 3x3 area. These are lifesavers. If you see a mole, your priority shifts. You don't care about the treasure anymore; you care about triggering that mole to save yourself five or six axes.
Where the Pickaxes Hide
You can't win a Monopoly GO dig event without a steady supply of axes. They don't just fall from the sky. Well, technically they do, but you have to work for them.
- The Banner Event (Top Center): This is your main source. These usually last 2-3 days. The first few milestones are easy. The middle milestones are "the grind." If you see the next reward is 30 pickaxes but it requires 2,000 points, and you only have 500 dice left, stop. You are going to go dice-negative.
- The Side Tournament (Right Side): These reset every 24 hours (or 48). The best strategy is to wait for a new tournament to start before you go on a rolling spree.
- Quick Wins: Do not claim your Quick Wins until the dig event has actually started. If you claim them at 8:00 AM and the event starts at 10:00 AM, you get zero axes. This is the most common mistake players make.
- The Shop Gift: Every eight hours, there’s a free box in the shop. During a dig event, this usually contains 2-3 axes. It sounds small, but over four days, that’s 24-36 axes. That’s an entire level’s worth of digging for free.
The "Predetermined" Controversy
We have to talk about the elephant in the room. There’s a lot of chatter on Reddit and Discord about whether the dig event is "rigged." Some players using Airplane Mode (APM) have claimed that the treasures aren't actually under specific tiles until you click them—or rather, that the game decides when you find an item regardless of where you click.
While the "Battleship logic" usually holds true, many veteran players have noticed that the 1x1 items (the tiny ones) often seem to appear on the very last possible square you check.
Is it rigged? Maybe. But even if it is, the checkerboard strategy still forces the game to "give up" the larger items faster. Even if the game is trying to sink your dice, playing efficiently limits the damage.
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
I see people rolling at 100x multiplier trying to get axes. Unless you are "parking" on a lucky streak or using a High Roller boost, this is a fast way to go broke. The dig event is a marathon.
Also, watch out for the Stone Blocks. In the newer 2026 maps, some tiles are reinforced. They take two hits to break. These are absolute axe-killers. If you see a stone block, try to deduce if a treasure must be under it before you commit. If there’s enough open space elsewhere on the board to fit all the required treasures, leave the stone blocks for last.
Actionable Strategy for Your Next Dig
If you want to actually finish the next Monopoly GO dig event without spending real money, here is your roadmap:
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- Hoard your dice now. If an event is 48 hours away, stop rolling. You need a bank of at least 2,000-3,000 dice to comfortably finish a 20-level dig.
- Check the rewards list. Sites like the Monopoly GO Wiki post the milestone rewards early. Look for where the "pockets" of axes are. If there's a huge gap between axe rewards, that’s where you stop rolling for the day.
- Use the "Last Day" logic. Only complete the final level in the final hours of the event. This maximizes your dice conversion from leftover axes.
- Prioritize the Wild Sticker. If you have to choose between finishing a side tournament and getting five more axes to reach the next dig level, choose the axes. The Wild Sticker is worth more than any 4-star pack you'll get from a leaderboard.
The dig event is basically the only time Monopoly GO feels like a game of skill rather than just a game of "how many times can I tap the red button." Use your head, count your tiles, and for the love of Mr. Monopoly, stop clicking the corners first.