Buried in Time - Game Introduction
Welcome the Buried in Time walkthrough on Gamezebo. Buried in Time is a strategy time management game created by I-Play. This walkthrough includes tips and tricks, helpful hints, and a strategy guide on how to complete Buried in Time.
The Basics
You will first be taken through a little tutorial in which you’re taught the basic actions. You can explore the map either by clicking and dragging, or by moving your cursor to the edge of the screen.

At the top left of the main window is your character quick find menu. Characters are organized according to skill. If you want to, say, find an excavator, hover your mouse over the image of Bingham (your main excavator) and a drop down menu will appear showing all characters with the excavating skill – both primary and secondary.
At the top of the window you will also see your current goal you are working towards, and recent notifications. Clicking on the notification will take you to the character or location relating to the notification. Only the most recent notification is shown. If you’ve missed any, click on the arrow button to the left of the notification bar to see other recent notifications.
To the right of the goals and notifications, you see a list of the grants you are currently working on. It will show you how many items need to be found to complete a grant and how many of these items you’ve currently found. Hover your cursor over your grants list to get more information.

At the bottom of your screen you will see the status bar of your currently selected character. In the middle it shows your character’s primary and secondary skill, and at what level they are for each skill (count the diamonds). To the left of the skills are your character’s energy and food bars. Too the right you will see if they are currently in love.
On the far bottom right of the main window is a little overview map. You can click anywhere on that map to be taken to that area instantly.
Next to the overview map is your journal button. Click on the journal button to get information on the storyline and your current collections of artifacts. In the journal menu you can also hire new archeologists and buy and upgrade tents.
On the far left you have your main menu button, where you can go to exit the game or change your sound volumes. Above the menu button is a speed toggle, which allows you to switch between normal game speed and fast speed.
Character Skills
Your characters will wander aimlessly around the map, very occasionally doing some work if they feel like it. Generally, you will need to tell them what to do. Set your characters to work by picking them up and dragging them to the place where you want them to work.
Clicking on a character will show you their status bar at the bottom of the screen. The middle of the status bar shows the kind of work your character can do. Each character has two skills, a primary and a secondary, which can be surveying (indicated by a blue and red dial), excavating (a spade), brushing (a brush), analyzing (a magnifying glass) or cooking (a knife and fork).
Doing the same work repeatedly will increase a character’s skill level. The tutorial says that you will find a character’s secondary skill when they reach level 3 in their primary skill, but for characters you can hire later on in the game this may be at a higher level.
Working will slowly decrease a character’s energy and food bars. When the energy bar drops below 25%, a little blue lightning bolt will appear over your character’s head, indicating they’re getting tired. However, you can make them work until their energy bar reaches 0%, after which they refuse to continue until you make them rest.
You can make characters rest by dragging them to one of your sleeping tents. They will then disappear for a bit until they are fully reenergized. If you don’t want them to disappear but you want to be able to disturb them during their rest, you can drop them on one of the sleeping mats outside instead. You can do this at any time, even if their energy is still higher than 25%. However, they are only able to reenergize to 80% when you do.
Characters will also refuse to work if they are hungry. When the food bar reaches 0%, a little knife and fork will appear over the character’s head, and you will get a notification at the top of the screen that one of your archeologists is hungry. Drop them on the food tent on the bottom right of the map to get them to eat.
They can only eat when there is food in the kitchen, which is indicated on a little banner on the food tent. Initially, only Jack the cook is providing the food, and he is a bit slow and can only have 2 lots of food in his tent at once. Later on you will be able to hire more cooks, who will be a lot faster and produce more food. The first cook will set up another kitchen tent. Drag the cooks to the kitchen tent to get them to prepare food. Drag your characters to Jack’s original food tent to get them to eat.
Occasionally you will be notified that a character is thinking of someone. When they do, drop them on one of the flower pots and they will pick a flower (provided the pots have flowers in them). Then drop them in the vicinity of the person they are thinking of, and if they’re lucky they will fall in love. Other times they will get their heart broken. When they’re in love, they won’t get tired or hungry! Nice! However, the archeologists are fickle, and love only lasts a few minutes.
Uncovering Artifacts
The basic premise of the game is to uncover artifacts that are hidden in the sand. This is done in 4 steps:
1: First, you need to get your surveyors to scan the sand for hidden items. The blue progress bar in the character’s status bar will show you how far along the character is in their task. When the surveyor finds something, they will place a red flag on it.
Although many areas have more than one artifact hidden in them, your surveyors will only be able to find one artifact per scan. Therefore, you may have to scan one area multiple times to find all hidden items. If you click on the button with the compass sign on it in the bottom right of the window you will be taken to a little overview map. Areas that have been scanned and entirely depleted of artifacts are shown in red, so keep scanning until all areas are red.
2: Once a red flag has been placed, drop one of your excavators on the flag and they will start digging to find the artifact. If you leave them to their own devices, they will then start bringing the artifact to the brushing tent. If you’re in a hurry, you can pick them up and drop them on the brushing tent yourself.
3: The third step is to brush the artifact. If there are any artifacts waiting to be brushed, a little banner will appear on the brushing tent indicating how many items are waiting to be brushed. Drop a brusher on the brushing tent to get them to start work.
4: Finally, when the artifacts are brushed, they need to be analyzed. Brushed items will automatically be moved from the brushing tent to the analyzing tent, and a banner will appear on the analyzing tent. Drag one of your analyzers to the tent to get them to work. When an artifact is fully analyzed, you will be notified at the top of your screen.
Your characters can only work on artifacts that are at their skill level or below. The only time when you can find out the skill level of an artifact is when an excavation flag is placed on it.
Some artifacts are required for the puzzles to get you to the next level (see below), but most are part of collections for the museum. When you complete a collection, the museum will give you grant money which will allow you to hire more archeologists or upgrade your tents. Information on your collections can be found at the top right of the main window, next to the notifications bar, and in the collections tab of your journal.
Buildings and Puzzles
This game consists of 9 levels, each of which is divided into two stages. First you will need to uncover new buildings. Apart from the first building (The King’s Gate), uncovering buildings is done in the same 4 steps as uncovering artifacts. The area first needs to be surveyed, then excavated, then the building needs to be brushed and finally analyzed.
A little banner on the building tells you what needs to be done next. You can find out what skill level is required for this building by hovering your mouse over the banner. For example, the building in the image below requires 1 level 1 surveyor.
