Turmoil: Deeper Underground DLC launches July 14 on Xbox with petrol, dynamite, and deep-drill challenges

Turmoil's next DLC, Deeper Underground, hits Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and the Microsoft Store on July 14. Creative director Jos Bouman sat down with journalist René Klok to break down what's new — and how the game got here.

The headline addition is petrol, a refined substance more valuable than raw oil that players produce by combining new resources: water, dynamite, and rubies. Building a petrol operation is the core loop of the new campaign, which Bouman describes as more challenging than anything in the base game or previous expansions. Alongside that, Deeper Underground introduces Deep Mode levels — standalone challenges where the goal is simply to drill as far down as possible using limited resources and careful planning. These are deliberately separate from the standard oil-field maps. Bouman explains why: adding more vertical depth to the main levels would break one of Turmoil's core design principles — keeping everything visible on a single screen so players can balance underground drilling with surface management simultaneously. The Deep Mode levels came directly from fan requests, and Bouman acknowledges the community's influence openly. Some players treat them as a fun side diversion; others have made them the main attraction.

Turmoil is a 2D real-time strategy sim from Dutch studio Gamious, and it has quietly become a genuine success story — millions of copies sold across PC, mobile, and consoles. The base game was followed by The Heat Is On DLC, which is bundled with the Xbox version, and a substantial free multiplayer expansion. Bouman says the team's small size meant new mechanics had to wait until ports and multiplayer were fully shipped before prototyping could begin. Once the Deeper Underground concepts proved fun in testing, building a full campaign around them became the obvious next step.

Bouman says the game's longevity and the sheer number of platforms it reached still surprises him, even if the core appeal was always something the team believed in after months of playtesting. With Deeper Underground now arriving on Xbox, the game continues to expand well beyond its original PC roots.