Abstract: Directional rock fracture technique, with its strong controllability and minimal rock disturbance, has become an indispensable and crucial requirement in deep underground engineering such as resource extraction, space creation, and surrounding rock control. Based on a summary of relevant literature, this study analyzes the engineering background, mechanisms, and characteristics of directional rock fracture techniques. This analysis further examines their crack initiation mechanisms, propagation behaviors, and influencing factors, and compares the rock fracture time, strain rate, effective fracturing range, advantages and disadvantages, as well as applicable engineering conditions among various technologies. Finally, the study outlines prospects for future research on efficient directional rock-breaking technology in deep underground engineering. From the perspectives of investigating mechanical properties of deep rock masses and directional rock-breaking mechanisms, enhancing existing techniques, and combining multiple methods to improve rock-breaking effectiveness, it is pointed out that the current bottleneck in directional rock-breaking techniques is the safety, efficiency, and directional fracturing of non-explosive methods. A key direction for breaking through the existing bottleneck is the development of green and efficient non-explosive slitting agents.