Objective

Let's quickly go over the objective of Driller Night!

You will need to find the Tool Store by mining through some Dirt and Loose Rock walls. After that you will need to collect 5 energy crystals.

I hope you already know where the Tool Store is before reading this guide.

Crystal spawns

These are all the crystal spawn locations that need to be carefully considered before doing a speedrun.

Finding the Tool Store

The Tool Store is in its own cavern, with a lot of energy crystals around it. I really hope you know where the Tool Store is by now.

To get to the Tool Store there are a few paths to consider.

As you can see in the image above, there are 2 Loose Rock walls in the way. Eventually when you mine wall 6, 2 energy crystals will be exposed at the entrence of the next cavern.

Note that I used this path in my 0:44 run, but this is NOT the fastest method. As you can see in the images above, mining is not done in a straight line; there is a way to optimize mining by changing directions in a zig-zag pattern that I will talk about later.

Finding the Tool Store even faster!

I did some testing after the 0:44 run, and it is actually faster to mine straight through all the Dirt walls. This is the current and fastest method, as of writing this guide.

Zig-zag pattern optimization

There is a small optimization technique when mining in a zig-zag pattern. All you need to do is hover over the Rock Raiders and the wall that needs to be mined next. As soon as the current wall explodes you release the mouse to select the Rock Raiders and now you click on the next wall to mine it.

NOTE that I used the Action Stations! button while using this technique. I only used this as a sound cue, so that you aren't dependent on reacting to the wall exploding. This is optional but made the run slightly faster for me.

Collecting 5 energy crystals

We will need to carefully consider which crystals we want to collect to make the run faster.

As you can see in the image above, there are 4 crystal spawns where mining is needed. The wall on the far right should only be mined directly after the wall explodes and the Tool Store cavern is revealed.

In my run I used this order to collect the crystals:

The first 2 Rock Raiders will collect the 2 free energy crystals.
The 3rd Rock Raider will mine the wall in front of the Tool Store.
The 4th spawned Rock Raider will mine the wall in front of the Tool Store as well.
The 5th spawned Rock Raider will mine the wall next to the Tool Store (left on the image above).
Depending on the Rock Raiders who are carrying the free crystals, either one of them or both will deposit the crystals on time. If only one arrives on time, that Rock Raider will also mine the left wall. You can delete or select the Rock Raider depositing the other free crystal to make sure he doesn't get assigned to collect any of the crystals. If both of them arrive on time, you can assign both to mine the left wall, giving you a total of 3 Rock Raiders mining the left wall.
All needed crystals will be deposited.

Using first person for optimization

Using the first person mode will optimize the time it takes to pick up a crystal and deposit it. In my run, I used first person for the Rock Raider furthest away from the Tool Store and the Rock Raider that is the last to deposit its crystal.

NOTE that you shouldn't step on rubble (only slightly), since this will greatly reduce the run time.

In my run I walked along the rubble to pick up the crystal.

The 0:44 second run

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I used most of this run to write the guide.

Conclusion

So do you finally know where the Tool Store is?

And will there be a faster run someday?

As you might have noticed, I didn't use the most optimal path to get to the Tool Store, so this will already be an improvement ones implemented.

Also in my run I did get really lucky with crystal spawns, but I didn't get perfect luck. If litterally all 5 crystals spawned in the perfect spot the run might be slightly faster, but note that the last Rock Raider depositing its crystal decides the final time. If the 2 free crystals spawn closer to the Tool Store, those two Rock Raiders could mine the left wall, speeding up the mining of the last wall. This happens only rarely.

I did learn a lot and improved on a lot of small details while grinding this level. I got more comfortable swapping between Rock Raiders in first person mode. Sometimes we look too much at our misstakes, but don't forget to look at all the things you have learned!