Deep Rock Galactic

You are a space dwarf employed by a mining corporation with no safety standards. A drop pod fires you into a procedurally generated cave, you do a job, and the pod comes back to get you if you survive long enough to reach it.

The thing that makes it special is that the caves are fully destructible. There is no cover system and no arena design, because you can dig through any wall, floor or ceiling. Getting to the objective is a traversal puzzle your team solves with its own tools, and every route is one somebody carved.

• Four classes, each with a unique traversal tool: Engineer (platforms), Gunner (ziplines), Scout (grappling hook), Driller (tunnels).
• Mission types vary: mine a mineral, collect eggs, escort a drill, defend a point, hunt a boss.
• Hazard levels 1 to 5 set the difficulty, and the game is honest about which ones are for learning.
• Nothing is competitive. There is no PvP, no scoreboard shaming, and the community is famously kind.

Class choice is the biggest decision you make, and a team of four different classes is enormously stronger than four of the same.

• Engineer. Builds platforms to reach ore and turrets to hold a room. The infrastructure dwarf, and the friendliest starting class.
• Gunner. Heavy weapons, a shield bubble that saves the whole team, and ziplines across chasms. The anchor.
• Scout. Flare gun that lights the cave, grappling hook that reaches anything. The team is blind and slow without one.
• Driller. Digs straight through rock, and carries the strongest crowd clear. The shortcut dwarf.

1. 1

   Start on Hazard 2, with the tutorial done

   Hazard 3 is the standard difficulty. Learn on 2 and you will not embarrass yourself on 3.

2. 2

   Learn to call the resupply

   Resupply pods cost nitra, which you mine as you go. Call one when the team is low, not when it is empty.

3. 3

   Mine the mission objective FIRST

   Secondary objectives and gold are lovely and they do not complete the mission.

4. 4

   Stay in shouting distance

   Split dwarves die. The team lives and dies as a room, especially in swarms.

5. 5

   Revive everything

   Downed dwarves are picked up instantly, and there is no cost to it. Never walk past a friend.

6. 6

   Get to the drop pod

   When the mission ends you have a timer. Traversal tools exist for exactly this moment.

• Each class levels separately and unlocks weapon mods, overclocks and cosmetics.
• Overclocks are the deep customisation: they change how a weapon behaves rather than adding a number.
• Promotions reset a class's level for prestige and unlock harder content, including Deep Dives.
• Deep Dives are three-stage missions on one health and resource pool, refreshed weekly. They are the real test.
• Seasons add events, cosmetics and a performance pass, all earned in-game.

The story is corporate satire with real teeth. Deep Rock Galactic is a mining company that treats dwarves as an expendable line item, Mission Control is cheerfully indifferent, and Hoxxes IV is a planet where every living thing wants you off it.

• The Glyphid swarms are ecology, not evil: you are strip-mining their home and they respond accordingly.
• Lore arrives in mission briefings, in the space rig, and in the increasingly alarming things Management says.
• The dwarves themselves are the heart of it: drinking, singing, and shouting Rock and Stone at each other for morale.
• Nothing about the setting is grim in play. It is one of the most good-natured games in the genre.

• Rock and Stone. It is a greeting, an agreement and a morale system, and yes it does something.
• Ping ore with the laser pointer. Everyone benefits, nobody has to ask.
• Do not hoard nitra. It is the team's resupply, not your score.
• Wait at the drop pod for stragglers if the timer allows.
• Newer dwarves are welcome everywhere. Explain, do not scold. That norm is why this community has the reputation it has.

• The official site and season patch notes.
• The community wiki for overclock lists, enemy behaviours and mission modifiers.
• Ask in our Discord. A four-dwarf team is easy to fill and the game holds up for hundreds of hours.