Drillers: Fuel Runs Out Before the Treasure Does

Drillers was our first big hit at SPIEL Essen. At the Czech Games Edition booth, a friendly staffer walked us through the game in a few minutes, and five minutes later we had the German edition in our hands. Now it finally hit the table, at four with a couple we’re friends with. Short version: it’s coming back.

What is Drillers?

A deck builder by Adam Španěl and Říman, published by Czech Games Edition. The box says 1 to 4 players, about 30 minutes per player, ages 12 and up.

Each player drives a mech built from old vehicles and drills into a forgotten mine with six levels. Your cards and your fuel give you movement and drilling power. You use them to collect minerals or break through walls to get deeper. Back at the surface, you sell your minerals, refuel, upgrade your mech and buy better cards. When the progress track on your board fills up, the mine collapses. Everyone gets one last turn, and anyone still down below loses points.

The rules aren’t hard. The rulebook is well written, and the player aid really gives you something to hold on to. I watched CGE’s official rules video beforehand. There’s even a German version, though it’s audibly AI-translated: some words and sentences repeat in odd places. It still does the job.

Fuel runs out before the treasure does

At first we thought the hard part would be getting to the minerals at all. It isn’t. The bottleneck is fuel, and early on, cargo space. How far down do I go? Do I have enough fuel to get back? Do I load one more thing, or head up and sell?

That interplay of movement, fuel and drilling power is a lovely combination. In our game we made it all the way to the bottom and dug out everything down there. When the mine started collapsing, we played one more round and all got ourselves back to the surface.

One turn, big payoff

The best thing about Drillers: it feels very rewarding. In a single turn you can drill, collect, ride to the surface, sell and buy new cards. And turns get longer and more powerful toward the end. When someone suddenly pulls a drill with five drilling power at once and chews through half a level, you’re happy to watch.

There were moments when I really wanted my turn to come around, because I already had it planned in my head. Real frustration hardly ever shows up, because it’s rare that nothing works. The setting doesn’t look like it, but Drillers leans toward a cozy game.

Looks like Arnak, but isn’t

Drillers often gets compared to Lost Ruins of Arnak, and at first glance I get it. Ondřej Hrdina and Jiří Kůs illustrated both games, the board with its small tiles feels like Arnak’s temple, and every new level has to be unlocked first, for a bonus. That’s very close to Arnak’s guardians.

Still, I wouldn’t call Drillers an Arnak successor. In Arnak you basically climb a track and take one action per turn. In Drillers you’re constantly on the move with your mech, always checking where to go next, and trying to chain as many moves together as possible. It isn’t worker placement. Lots of similar mechanics, a different feel.

Little interaction, few combos

Time to be honest. There’s almost no interaction in Drillers. Even in classic worker placement games you block each other’s spaces now and then. Here, the most you can do is take minerals that are still lying out. Someone wrecking your plans basically never happens.

And the combos: there are some really good ones. Refueling or reactivating drones is very strong. Or you deliberately take Damage cards and get a ton of movement or drilling power in return. Add a card that repairs Damage cards, and that gets really powerful. But in the end it’s a handful of combos that build on each other. Compared to Arnak or Dune: Imperium – Uprising, that’s a different level. Even in our first game, a good half of the cards or more showed up.

If I could wish for an expansion: more interaction, like blocking each other’s way, and more cards with more cool combos. That would boost the replay value a lot.

The components

The mechs are nice miniatures, family-game quality. You probably wouldn’t paint them. You could, though. Maybe I’ll make the effort one day.

Two small things: the minerals are translucent cubes. We kept them in separate bowls, and then it was fine. But on a colored background they change color, a yellow cube on blue looks green. Not a big deal, you’ll manage. And the plastic insert: the tiles fit nicely, but there’s only one compartment for coins and minerals. If you’re going to the trouble of an insert, everything should fit.

At four, three or two?

At four it worked well, but it takes a while. We spent about an hour on the rules, then had dinner, then played for around three hours. To be fair, we also talked a lot, we hadn’t seen each other in ages.

Downtime wasn’t a problem. Since you can see your draw pile, you can plan your turn while the others play, and then it goes quickly. Unless a certain friend is up.

Three sounds ideal to me. Two should work well too, precisely because there’s so little interaction. We haven’t tried either yet.

With kids

The box says 12+. We haven’t played it with our kids yet. I’d trust kids who are used to tactical games with it from around 8 or 9, though. The big plus: there’s hardly any text, almost everything runs on icons. For kids, lots of text is often the biggest hurdle. The tricky part is the sheer number of decisions: what do I do with my cards, how do I build my turn, how do I handle my deck? Once we’ve played it with our older daughter, we’ll add that here.

What we hear in the community

A lot of it matches our experience. Many people notice the lack of interaction and the limited number of combos. Some feel they’ve seen everything after a few games. The translucent minerals come up again and again, especially for people who have trouble telling colors apart. Some complain about downtime at a full table, especially with players who like to think long. Opinions on the solo mode are split; we haven’t played it yet.

Who is Drillers for?

Anyone who wants an approachable deck builder with long, rewarding turns and would rather tinker with their own machine than get in each other’s way. If you like Arnak, you’ll feel right at home and still play something new.

It’s not for groups that want lots of interaction, or for anyone who expects long combo chains from a deck builder. For that, Dune: Imperium – Uprising is the better pick. More on how we bought it at the fair is in our SPIEL Essen 2026 haul.

And you: how deep do you dare to go with your mech before the fuel runs low?