Shovel It Quests Walkthrough

Quests turn Shovel It! from a pure clicker into a mapped adventure. NPCs ask for snow counts, lost belongings, ladders, and rare digs—and the rewards include luck, unique shovels, and access to characters you cannot reach on day one. This walkthrough covers Scarp (Skarp), Tired Tim, the Secret Agent on the crane, Lumber, the Farmer Lost Shovel route, and Grandma, with one golden rule repeated often: do not sell quest items.

New players should skim Getting Started first so codes, selling, and blessings are already online. Shovel upgrades that make volume quests sane are ranked on the Shovels Tier List. For creators and community links while you grind, see Players.

Universal quest rules

1. Talk to the NPC, accept the task, then dig the named snow type or hunt the named item.
2. Keep objective items in inventory until hand-in. Ladders, old gloves, hats, boots, story books, Farmer pieces—none of these belong in a panic sell.
3. Stack quests when they share a snow type. Sidewalk tasks from Scarp and Grandma can overlap. Construction volume for Tired Tim pairs with ladder scouting in the same district.
4. Revisit NPCs after every major hand-in. Dialogue often unlocks the next step only after you report success.
5. Stronger shovels and drills shorten count quests dramatically. Buy dig power before you resign yourself to hours of weak clears.

Video guide

Scarp / Skarp — the early spine

Scarp (chat sometimes spells it Skarp) is the quest hub most beginners meet first. Expect a mix of:

• Sidewalk snow collection goals
• Coin earnings milestones
• Item retrieval for Grandma and other flavor beats
• Luck rewards that immediately improve future digs

Treat Scarp as mandatory, not optional flavor. Community routes note that talking through Scarp’s chain is part of unlocking later conversations with the Secret Agent. Even when a step looks trivial—earn a set coin amount, clear a small sidewalk quota—finish it. Luck bonuses from Scarp compound with codes and blessings from your first hour.

When Scarp asks for Grandma’s lost sidewalk items (old boot, glove, hat, story book, and similar), dig sidewalk snow methodically and stop selling anything that looks like an “old” personal item until the quest completes.

Tired Tim — helmet, construction snow, 22 ladders

Tired Tim lives on the construction fantasy. Early steps may ask for safety gear such as a helmet under frozen or construction-adjacent snow, then escalate into large construction snow clears (community runs frequently cite huge volume goals). After the volume work comes the signature ask: find 22 ladders so the site can finish the job.

Ladder hunting tips:

• Sweep the outer perimeter of the map, not only the obvious worksite.
• Check roofs, ledges, and odd vertical spots—players regularly find ladders above ground level.
• Combine ladder routes with other exploration so the search does not feel like empty walking.
• Keep every ladder until Tim’s counter is satisfied; do not sell “extras.”

Finishing Tired Tim’s ladder quest is the practical key to the crane. Without the ladders, you will not have the setup players use to reach the Secret Agent above the site.

Secret Agent — crane access after Scarp and Tim

The Secret Agent sits up on the crane area. Community guidance is consistent: complete Scarp’s relevant progression so you are allowed to engage the Agent, then finish Tired Tim’s ladder collection so you can actually get on top of the crane. If you can see the Agent but cannot interact or cannot reach the platform, double-check both prerequisites instead of assuming a bug.

Bring inventory space and a ready shovel before you climb. Once you can talk to the Agent, follow the dialogue and objectives they give—this is mid-game content gated behind the earlier NPC homework on purpose.

Lumber — road snow into the Lumber Shovel

The Lumber questline leans on road snow volume and related site tasks. Players working toward the Lumber Shovel should expect sustained road clears (community examples mention objectives on the order of hundreds of road snow blocks in a single step). Use drills on road patches when you need AFK progress, and keep selling non-quest clutter so you can still afford shovel upgrades mid-grind.

The Lumber Shovel is a meaningful tool unlock, not a cosmetic footnote. When you finish the chain, compare it against your current digger on the Shovels Tier List and switch if the stats win for your active snow type.

Farmer — Lost Shovel and the black/red sky orb

The Farmer questline culminates in the Lost Shovel, one of the most searched unlocks in Shovel It. The late step that confuses people is the dig location. Community tip confirmed in video comments: look around the sky during the Lost Shovel stage for a black and red orb, then dig in the snow under or around that orb’s position.

Practical approach:

1. Progress Farmer dialogue until the Lost Shovel objective is active.
2. Scan the sky for the distinct black/red orb marker.
3. Move under it and dig thoroughly in that footprint—do not dig half the map at random.
4. Keep any special drops until the NPC confirms completion.

Players who ignore the orb waste hours. Players who dig under it often finish far faster than expected.

Grandma — sidewalk kindness quests

Grandma’s asks usually sit on sidewalk snow: clear enough blocks for her to walk, or recover old personal items she lost. These quests are easy to underestimate because the counts can be large, but they overlap cleanly with Scarp sidewalk farming. Batch them. Every sidewalk dig can serve coins, Scarp, and Grandma at once if you plan inventory correctly.

Optional chase context while questing

While you run NPCs, you may hear about Thor’s Hammer, a legendary ice find with extreme rarity (~1/25k style community odds). It is not a quest hand-in in the same sense as ladders, but ice sessions between quest steps can chase it. Likewise, inviting three friends for the Ice Age shovel skin is an account/social unlock parallel to NPC work—nice to know, separate from Scarp’s checklist.

Suggested quest order

1. Scarp early chain + overlapping Grandma sidewalk tasks
2. Tired Tim helmet and construction volume
3. Tired Tim 22 ladders while exploring the full map
4. Secret Agent via crane once Scarp and Tim gates are done
5. Lumber road snow toward Lumber Shovel
6. Farmer line through to Lost Shovel using the orb tip

Adjust if an NPC is unavailable until a prior flag is set—always re-talk Scarp and Tim when stuck.

Inventory discipline checklist

Before any bulk sell, ask:

• Am I mid-ladder count for Tired Tim?
• Does Grandma still need an old item?
• Is Farmer’s Lost Shovel step active?
• Did Scarp just name a specific object?

If yes to any, sell only obvious trash. Quest softlocks from selling are avoidable with ten seconds of caution.

Clear the NPCs in order, protect the items they name, and use the orb tip when the Farmer asks for the Lost Shovel. That is the Shovel It quest fantasy from first sidewalk clear to signature tool unlocks.