Extra points are also awarded for dropping rocks on enemies in order to eliminate them rather than inflating them. Additionally, Fygars are worth double points if exploded horizontally, since they can only breathe fire horizontally in the direction they are facing. More points will be awarded for exploding an enemy further down in the dirt (the levels are color-coded). The last enemy in a round will try to escape off the top left of the screen. The monsters normally crawl through the tunnels in the dirt but can turn into ghostly eyes and travel slowly through the dirt. The player can also pass through the enemy while it is deflating. A partially inflated monster will deflate and recover after a few seconds, but half-inflating is a useful way to stun an enemy for a few moments, especially to make sure it remains in the path of a falling rock. It takes four (three in some versions) 'pumps' with the player's action button to inflate a monster until it pops. Dig Dug will be killed if he is caught by either a Pooka or a Fygar, burned by a Fygar's fire, or crushed by a rock. The player's character is the eponymous Dig Dug, dressed in white and blue and able to dig tunnels through dirt. There are two kinds of enemies in the game: 'Pookas' (a race of cute round red monsters, said to be modeled after tomatoes, that wear yellow goggles) and 'Fygars' (a race of green dragons that can breathe fire while their wings flash). The objective of Dig Dug is to eliminate underground-dwelling monsters by inflating them with an air pump until they explode, or by dropping rocks on them.

Dig dug arrangement sprites