Diving Games
Deep Sea Diver
An endless descent. Steer past kelp and urchins, catch air pockets to keep breathing, and see how deep you can get.
Ocean Treasure Hunt
Diving Games MediumA dive-and-return loop across a playfield two and a half screens deep. Deeper chests are worth more, carrying them slows you down, and oxygen drains faster the deeper you go. Every dive is the same question: one more chest, or turn back now?
Play Ocean Treasure Hunt
Score0Carrying0Depth0To clear0Air–
Tip: turning your device to landscape gives this game a wider playfield.
Category
Difficulty
Medium
Controls
Arrows / WASD / drag
Session
2–5 minutes
Published
24 January 2026
Game description
Objective. Bank enough treasure value at the surface to clear each depth level, without letting your oxygen reach zero.
The playfield is roughly two and a half screens deep, with a vertical camera that follows the diver. The bright band across the top is the safe zone: everything above that dashed line refills your air at 42% per second and automatically banks whatever you are carrying.
Chests are scattered through the lower two thirds. Each one has its value printed underneath, and that value is set by depth — a chest at the seabed is worth roughly twice one at the top of the chest field, and every level multiplies the whole scale by a further 25%.
You can carry three chests at a time. Each one you pick up makes the diver 13% slower and noticeably heavier, so a full load turns the swim back up into genuine work. Nothing is scored until you cross the surface line — a diver who runs out of air while carrying three chests banks nothing at all.
Oxygen drains between 3.4% and 8.6% per second depending on how deep you are. Drifting purple urchins cost 11% of your air on contact and push you away, but they never end the dive directly; running the meter to zero is the only failure state.
Clear the level's banked-value target and the next depth opens: more chests, more urchins, a full air refill and a target 70% higher than the last one.
Scoring
- Chest values run from about 55 points at the top of the chest field to about 110 at the seabed, multiplied by 1 + 0.25 per level beyond the first.
- Value only counts once you cross the surface line carrying it. Drowning with a full load banks nothing.
- Score, chest count and the highest level reached are tracked as separate personal bests.
Game mechanics
- Vertical camera across a world 2.4 screens tall.
- Depth-scaled oxygen drain and depth-scaled chest value.
- Carry limit of three, with a movement penalty per chest carried.
- Bank-on-surface scoring: nothing counts until you return.
- Urchins cost air and apply knockback; they are never lethal by themselves.
- Level targets scale by 1.7x each time, with a full air refill on level up.
How to play Ocean Treasure Hunt
- Press Start dive. You begin in the safe zone at the surface with full air.
- Swim downward using the arrow keys, W A S D, or by dragging on the stage.
- Swim into a chest to pick it up. The number under each chest is what it is worth — deeper chests pay far more.
- You can carry three chests. Each one makes you slower and heavier on the way up.
- Swim back above the dashed surface line to bank everything you are carrying and refill your air.
- Avoid the drifting purple urchins. They cost 11% of your oxygen and knock you off course, but they cannot end the dive on their own.
- Bank enough total value to hit the level target and a deeper, richer level opens with your air fully restored.
Controls
Desktop
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys or W A S D | Swim in eight directions |
| Hold left mouse button | Swim toward the pointer |
| P or Esc | Pause and resume |
| Space or Enter | Start or restart |
Mobile and touch
| Gesture | Action |
|---|---|
| Drag anywhere | The diver swims toward your finger |
| On-screen D-pad | Fixed-direction swimming |
| Tap Dive again | Restart |
Every game on this site also pauses with P or Esc, and pauses itself if you switch browser tabs mid-run. For a comparison of which input suits which game, see the underwater game controls guide.
Tips & strategies
Two chests is usually the right number
The third chest adds a further movement penalty on the longest part of the swim. Unless the third is close and deep, banking two and coming straight back down is faster in total than hauling three.
Plan the ascent before the descent
Decide which chests you are taking on the way down. Hunting for a third while already carrying two — slow, heavy and burning air twice as fast at depth — is how most runs end.
The urchins are an air tax, not a threat
Eleven percent of your oxygen is roughly two seconds of deep-water time. Sometimes taking the hit and swimming straight through is cheaper than the detour around.
Bank early on a new level
A level-up refills your air completely, so the first dive of each level is your longest. Spend it going deep — that is when the expensive chests are cheapest to reach.
Watch the depth gauge, not the chests
The gauge on the right edge tells you the swim distance home in one glance. Below about 45 m with a full load, turn around regardless of what you can see.
A chest you cannot bank is worth zero
This is the one rule that decides the whole game. Twenty percent air and a long way down is not a gamble with a small downside — it is the entire run.
Game features
- Two-and-a-half-screen dive site with a following vertical camera
- Depth-scaled chest values — risk is priced into the reward
- Three-chest carry limit with a real movement penalty
- Bank-at-the-surface scoring that makes the return swim matter
- Oxygen drain that accelerates with depth
- Non-lethal hazards that cost air rather than ending the dive
- Level progression with rising targets and richer wrecks
- Depth gauge, oxygen meter and carry counter in the HUD
Ocean Treasure Hunt — frequently asked questions
Why did my treasure disappear when I ran out of air?
Chests only score once you carry them across the surface line. Running out of air while loaded banks nothing — that is the central risk of the game, and the reason the carry limit exists.
How do I refill oxygen?
Swim above the dashed line at the top of the dive site. Air refills at 42% per second there, so a full recharge takes a little over two seconds.
Do deeper chests really pay more?
Yes, substantially. Value scales with depth from roughly 55 points at the top of the chest field to roughly 110 at the seabed, and the whole scale multiplies by a further 25% per level.
Can the urchins kill me?
No. They cost oxygen and knock you off course, but only an empty air meter ends a dive. Nothing in this game depicts injury.
Is this based on real diving?
No. Real diving involves decompression, gas mixes and buddy procedures that the game deliberately ignores, and the air model here is an arcade timer. Nothing in this game should be read as diving instruction.
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Related guides
- Diving Game Air Management: When to Turn Back — A simple rule for the turn-back point, the maths behind it, and the three situations where the rule should be broken.
- Underwater Exploration Strategy: Search Patterns That Work — Four search patterns, when each one is right, and why holding the centre beats sweeping the edges in almost every open-water game.
Related reading
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