Deep Rock Galactic

I did two weapon assignments to unlock those newly released secondary weapons that didn't register on my play stats. So my stat board is forever cursed to have a deficit of two weapon assignments completed across my dwarf classes even though I've unlocked them all.

...I honestly didn't even realize that was a stat. I don't think they have a tech support section so I don't think there's an easy way for you to solve that aside from deciding to not care.

I mean yeah, it's a difficulty setting where you rarely have to ask "is an AoE weapon justified here?" But combat feels very different. Through Haz 3 you can generally stand your ground against a horde like in Left 4 Dead, and Haz 4 might require you to reposition or backpedal. But Haz 5 feels a lot like Half-Life runner-gunner gameplay because you absolutely can't let the bugs touch you. So you're either hip-firing as the other classes, or alternating between shooting and Dashing as the Gunner.

Which is perfectly fine and a valid gameplay experience, it's just not necessarily what I'm looking for. Sometimes I like equipping a mohawk, dying my hair red, and abusing Vampire and See You In Hell to tank a bunch of Glyphids in melee. "I heal faster than you can kill me, bugs!"

Abruptly changing subject to another story about joining greenbeards.

I drop in on a routine 1-1 Haz 2 Mining Mission in the Salt Pits, and hear distant chuckles and groaning metal, and sure enough there's a Crassus in the next big cave. The team retreats while shooting, kills it in a tunnel, so we spend the next 15 minutes digging all the gold out of the new spherical cave's walls. The greenbeards are thrilled, they've never seen one before, they're gonna make so much money! Then I hear distant chuckling again, and the intermittent sound of shattering rock. The Bulk Det digs up to us in the Crassus sphere, kills the Driller, while the rest of us are able to backpedal and take it down. Now we have two overlapping spherical caves in the middle of what was once a straight tunnel.

And then, just as everyone's on their feet again, Mission Control speaks up: "Confirmed scan - Glyphid Dreadnought on intercept course. Get ready, team." I inform the greenbeards we're about to have a surprise boss battle, and try to plat up the double-sphere to make it usable. It's a damned Hiveguard, and it comes up through the Bulk shaft. At some point the Driller goes down and falls all the way into the lower chamber. Me and the Gunner do most of the fighting while the Scout grapples past to rez the Driller, the Gunner goes down at one point and I run out of Hyper-Propellant rounds, but the Dread dies.

From there, the mission is an anticlimax, though the Gunner gets lost during extraction after Molly decides to climb up and out of the Bulk shaft, so I get to double back and lead them out. But after we make it back to the Space Rig, I explain to our Scout host that a Crassus is very rare, having a normal Bulk spawn after that is at least theoretically possible, but having those two things happen in succession followed by a Dreadnought spawning on a Mining Mission is something I hadn't seen happen in the year I've been playing. The Scout is actually encouraged, and decides they've used up all their bad luck in one mission.

And at that point, there's really nothing to do but drink a Flintlocke's, followed by a Wormhole Special, followed by a Blackout Stout. The best part was three unconscious dwarfs on the floor at the bar urging the Driller to drink the last mug instead of reviving anyone.

I've actually worn a red mohawk and beard on my Driller as well as using Impact Axes since I could buy them.

The most important part of your story was, naturally, that no Dwarf was left behind oT

Did the Bulk Detonator break out the Crassus' gold? Part of it was, I'm supposing, because you said it was overlapping?

Oh, that would have been ideal, but the damned thing showed up when there was only a few patches of gold left on the floor, well after we'd painstakingly mined out the upper dome. But really, it was enough to have a Crassus happen on a mission with a MULE instead of a minehead.

Had to leave a dwarf behind the other night. The Scout decided to ride the refinery up the entrance shaft, found a place to stand halfway up, but got downed by bugs, and none of us had Fat Boys to blast him out of the ceiling. He was at least a good sport about it, laughing in group chat.

That's always a bit of a primal fear of mine when playing Scout: Getting downed in a spot where nobody can help me, and I don't use Iron Will anymore.

How to make your community Rock and Stone

Jet boots and Flappy Bird.

Seriously.

Edited by VutherA on Jun 1st 2023 at 5:53:29 AM

And they finally added blue hair! ...As a level 98 Season Pass unlock, but still. If it were me, I'd have patched that in immediately when I heard the Asian vtubers were playing the game, but better late than never. Now to see if they decide to sneak in pink hair before the end of Pride Month.

The Randoweisser beer was a pleasant surprise. I'd already been hitting "random" in the wardrobe when playing with my group, just to see what fashion disasters I could unleash upon them (my favorite was my Broccoli Gunner). Doing the same with my loadout should spice up routine missions, maybe break me out of my Hoverclock addiction. Though it'd be nice to be able to randomize the weapon cosmetics while leaving the upgrades and overclocks intact.

According to my achievements page, I completed my first DRG mission on Feb 16, 2022. On May 20, 2023, I acquired every cosmetic item from the in-game store, cosmetic cores and seasonal events, when all of my classes were two-star sapphires. So I'm obviously excited to get more cosmetics to add to the hoard this coming season. And once that's done, it'll be back to farming minerals to afford promotions, wondering if the Bolted Marauder will ever become available (legitimately) again, and feeling "Car Pool"'s absence on my achievement list like a missing tooth.

I have played DRG for over 1000 hours and my lack of 4 achievements still brings shame to my ancestors

I don't think I'll ever drink that Randoweisser; I grow too attached to my current loadouts and use nothing else, not to mention how I modeled my dwarves after the Super Mario Bros.

If I'm reading it correctly, the beer's effects only last for the duration of the mission, so hopefully the game is smart enough to revert to your saved loadout for that slot once you get back to the Space Rig?

If not, I've got five other loadout slots. I can afford to sacrifice one to RNGesus for the sake of a laugh.

Just a shame the greenbeards won't get much use out of the beer. Wish it would give you random upgrades and overclocks even if you didn't have them yourself, let some new guys play with a Fat Boy... on second thought, no, let's not do that. I play with Friendly equipped on Haz 2's for a reason.

The season 4 update has been released.

I dropped over 200 credits just to beat Lloyd's high score on Jetty Boots, and it was totally worth it.

Also, if you want to mess around with the new jetboots module before finding it in the field, check the upper deck of the Space Rig.

Karl approves of this.

Just four missions in as of yet, but loving the update. Haven't come across any jetboots in the wild or the Stingtail, but the Septic Spreader made one hell of a first impression by saturating the passage into a cavern while we were fighting a dozen other bugs, forcing the team to scatter and take some hits we wouldn't have. Then they bombarded us during the Uplink phase of the Salvage mission, spraying us from behind the cover of a ridge like proper artillery. My group's already calling them "Mortars." They're also pretty good at hitting a Gunner firing from a zipline.

The Rockpox has definitely been buffed, it feels like I'm getting entrapped by the stuff much faster now. And while you used to just get a single Rockpox Praetorian or two Rockpox Grunts in the process of clearing a Contagion Spike on Haz 3, now I'm getting hit by waves of varied Rockpox enemies - and getting my ass kicked. The Rockpox Exploders immobilized me, then the Rockpox Acid Spitters finished me off while I was struggling to break free. It's hell of a lot harder to solo the Contagion Spike objective now.

Only fought one Harold, and... well, I was going to say "It wasn't that hard," then I remembered the Engie going down and them and the Gunner limping away with a sliver of health. Definitely a more challenging way to get those Plague Hearts than the rockcracker event. And I hate to think what it's like to solo one.

Oh, and a PSA - check the Lost Packs and Cargo Crates, even if you think you've gotten everything from them. That's where the original paint schemes from the latest DLC ended up.

I kinda noticed I was having a bit of a hard time finding enough of the rockbox blisters with the two missions I did unlike before, usually if I can't foam them all that easy, the stuff will at least be obviously high in the air. Did you find that at all?

Not so far, cave gen has been nice - the most intricate map of the day was in the Weald, and there wasn't a Rockpox warning for it. I can think of a few times in the past when the Rockpox was spread out over a convoluted area and hard to find, usually if the Contagion Spike generated one wall or floor away from a tunnel or side room, or just general Biozone bullshittery. Maybe you're getting your bad luck out of the way early?

Yeah you're probably right, it might have just done something unfortunate I didn't notice like spawning on the other end of a wall I couldn't see.

Holy crap, jetboots are awesome!

Dropped into a Complexity 3 On-Site Refining in the Biozone at its most Biozonest, a twisted multi-terraced hellscape with the worst well placement I've ever seen for the biome - one was on the top of the map in a way I usually expect in the Sandbox. While I was trying to put up ziplines in sensible locations, I heard an odd beeping, and was able to run a cable to a ledge overlooking the drop area (Scout, do your job!) and there it was, the crate. Only took two tries to unlock thanks to all that Jetty Boots practice.

Suddenly we go from struggling just to walk across the map to effortlessly picking up every Nitra vein and Ebonut high on the walls, and any slip from the pipelines during the refining phase was easily recovered from. Then during extraction, we were able to jump across chasms to get to the pod, which landed high on a terrace with its ramp facing a sheer drop. And in my case, I fell into a Supply Pod entry hole but was able to quickly arrest my fall and get out of it.

I really hope the things spawn a short distance from where the Drop Pod lands at the start of the mission, because I'd hate to slog through a 3-3 Mining mission or something and find the jetboots crate in the last room.

I would like to present to the Space Rig, footage of a Dwarf emulating Karl.

The ancients understood the efficacy of spamming right-click rather than holding it down and cycling through the mining/melee animation.

My latest gimmick: veteran greenbeard loadouts. Set up a default appearance for the class, then try to "age" it - the Chipped Shadow paintjob on the MkI Driller suit to make it look faded and weathered, the Bald Spot rather than Businesslike haircut for the Gunner, the Flowing Fork beard rather than the Massive Chinstrap for the Scout, the Field Repairs: Goggles & Skullplate rather than the Goggle Cap for the Engie, etc. Similarly, use the default weapons with their default skins, but a paintjob like Trusty Rusty to make them look worn, and your favorite overclocks to make them more effective.

Then you jump into the caves like a dwarven Q-Ship, looking at first glance like another unpromoted greenbeard playing their first weekend, except there's something different about you even before you start displaying your hard-won combat mining skills. Not that the other players can't see your portrait frame and player level indicating your actual experience, but still.

I'm also finding it quite a challenge to play with the Scout's default primary, secondary and grenades, not to mention grappling around without the Hoverclock airbrake. I can't get Fossils and awkward ore veins on my own, I have to hope the Engie knows about their cheese gun.

Here's God in Adventures of God clearly about to play Deep Rock GalacticCavernous Stone Space.

Hey...what if DRG was a roguelike? Because that is a game they are making.

I mean, I can sympathize with wanting to branch out onto other projects after sinking so many hours into a major work, and am interested to see what the devs do with other genres. But Season 5 being projected to come out in nine months? That's... pretty disheartening. The foundation of a game like DRG is its players, and telling those players that they'll be waiting a year for the next big content update isn't going to encourage them to stick around. I've pretty much stopped jumping on with randos since completing the season pass, and the few times I have, I've noticed how many fewer lobbies were available than there were shortly after Season 4 started.

And his especially isn't going over well after some of the vocal discontentment with the Rockpox stuff. I was never bothered by it, but I'll admit, I'm not looking forward to seeing the gunk on the Space Rig for the next year.

Maybe there'll be a "mid-season" event that cleans up the station and turns the Rockpox content down a notch, so we have a period of normalcy before whatever Season 5 brings us. Which will hopefully be a nice, juicy update to make up for the months-long dry spell.