Clear the Avalanche Dig Rescue How to Rescue Houses

Rescuing houses is the narrative win condition of Clear the Avalanche: Dig & Rescue. Coins and shovel tiers are tools; a cleared village is the goal. This guide explains how to spot buried structures, dig around them without collapsing your own access, and turn each rescue into a new area unlock.

If you are still learning the sell loop, finish Getting Started and How to Dig Efficiently first. Strong tools from the shovels tier list make house clears dramatically faster.

How houses appear under the avalanche

Buried homes show as silhouettes, rooftop edges, chimneys, or wall lines once you remove enough surface snow. Do not expect a glowing quest marker on every structure — scanning while you dig is part of the skill. Work in wide trenches rather than needle holes so you can walk around a house while finishing the last ice.

Step-by-step rescue flow

1. Spot a silhouette from a high or cleared vantage near camp.
2. Dig a straight access corridor from camp or from an existing lane.
3. Widen the corridor into a work trench along one wall of the house.
4. Clear snow from the roof and sides until the structure is free.
5. Break remaining ice with upgraded tools if soft snow is gone.
6. Confirm the house counts as rescued, then look for the next cluster or unlocked area.
7. Sell any full backpack before starting the next corridor.

Why trench shape matters

A vertical shaft onto a rooftop looks fast and often traps you. You fall in, fill the backpack with low-value debris, and climb out slowly. A side trench lets you shove snow downhill (or toward empty space), keep camera vision on the house, and escape quickly when a snowstorm starts. In co-op, one player can dig the trench while another clears the roof — see the Co-op Guide.

Ice shells around later houses

Deeper homes often sit behind thicker ice. If your shovel feels stuck, pause and check whether a gear upgrade or the next shovel tier is cheaper than ten more minutes of chip damage. The gear upgrades tier list highlights tools that help on ice shells. Use code gems from the Codes Hub when you are one upgrade away from a breakthrough.

Opening new areas

Freeing houses is tied to village progress and new dig zones. After each rescue, scout for newly reachable slopes, blocked paths that now open, or denser snow fields that were previously out of reach. Update your mental map: camp → known spokes → freed houses → next silhouette. Efficient players treat the village like a checklist, not a random dig sandbox.

Team rescue tactics

With up to four rescuers:

• Assign one scout to find the next silhouette while others finish the current house.
• Keep one player on sell duty during coin rain so diggers never stand full.
• Call storms early and rotate to the nearest fire barrel as a group.
• Avoid four people mining the same wall tile — split roof, left wall, right wall, and debris clear.

Common rescue failures

• Giving up on a house that only needs one more widened trench
• Digging under foundations until you soft-lock your exit
• Ignoring storms mid-rescue and losing positioning
• Spending all coins on cosmetics before ice-capable tools
• Forgetting to sell, then walking to a distant house with no backpack space

After the first few houses

Revisit upgrade priority on the Players Hub and Tier List Hub. Check Updates for new areas or house types after patches. Keep official links on the Links Hub. Each rescued home should leave behind a clean spoke you can reuse — that reuse is what turns a buried village into a solved map.

Automation cannot replace map sense. Even if you later try tools from the Scripts hub, house spotting and trench discipline still decide how fast the village comes back to life.