Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core Beginners Tips and Tricks

Rock and Stone miner!

The long-awaited release of DRG Rogue Core is here, and with that, a ton of content, a ton of new players, and lots of difficulties await us on Hoxxus.

Our goal is to help returning players and greenbeards alike to either freshen up, learn new things, and generally be better prepared before dropping into your first mission.

When entering Hoxxus on DRG, solo mode is pretty easy, and only becomes hard on hazard 5. On DRG Rogue Core, it's hard on the easiest complexity. There are a couple of things that factor into this:

• Much more enemies to deal with on your own. It feels like the enemies between solo and multiplayer aren't that much different, meaning you have a lot more to kill on your own.
• Ammo Problems. Because you are alone and you have more to shoot, you run out of ammo much more easily. This becomes especially problematic once you face the boss and there are not enough restock machines near you.
• Bosco still sucks. Even though they improved Bosco massively compared to DRG, he still isn't that good, and his only real values are: Mining high places, Rockets on groups, and Reviving. And the second point is up for debate, if it's even doing much.
• Wrong weapon choices can impact the rest of your run. If you happen to choose fast-firing weapons or close-up weapons but have no weapons that target weak spots, good luck facing elites or bosses cause they just became 100% harder.

So to deal with these problems, I do have some tips to make it a tad bit easier. Some I will mention here, some later as singular points:

• Do not use restock machines immediately. Instead, wait until you are below half ammo on both guns if you have 2, that way you use it for its full value.
• Never use Restock machines purely for armor.
• Use Bosco to mine, but keep your eyes peeled yourself, not counting on him to save you with gunfire.
• ALWAYS take a weapon that can target weak spots, even if the weapon isn't the best itself, you will notice a big damage drop without them.

Armor and Health are vital to survival in both single-player and multiplayer. Just because someone is playing Guardian doesn't mean you shouldn't take armor either.

Monsters hit very hard in this game, especially once you go deeper and modifiers are added to the mission. That's when they really start to hurt.

Unless you see a pivotal upgrade, try getting some HP and some Armor early in the run. You will thank me later.

Before you start a mission, you will notice in the mission select menu on the left a small screen with some tasks. These should be your priority at all times. Completing these will net you points that upgrade your level, which in turn gives you more security clearance to explore more areas, unlock more side events, etc.

You don't need to lose a mission over them, but keep them in mind so that you can complete them over time and unlock more of the game!

There is this little thing DRG players developed over the years, it's called ethics.

When you find a reload pod, there are 4 slots, each serving giving 50% armor + 50% ammo. 4 slots = 1 for every player if you play with 4.

You can always ask to double-dip if you want to in case maybe someone doesn't need any. But don't just take it, it's a fast ticket to get a bullet to the face from your teammates. And trust me, talking from experience.

Communication is key in a game like this. Keeping everyone on the same page is crucial to completing a mission. And let's face it, getting your teammates agitated is not a way to accomplish that.

It's a tip that almost seems trivial if you think about it, but in all the shooting and chaos, it's easy to forget your character has abilities.

Each character has a primary ability, a secondary, and their ultimate.

Let's take the Guardian, for example:

• Guardian has 2 points to spend on his Primary ability and Secondary, his primary costing 1, his secondary costing 2.
  His primary shoots bullets that don't do too much damage but push people away.
  His secondary, meanwhile, creates a zone around him, dealing a little bit of damage each second but most importantly, pushing enemies away.
• Guardian's Ultimate creates a zone in which armor is regenerated slowly over time for all allies and himself.

From this description alone, you can see Guardian is a support at heart (it's in the name, really) and if you currently use your abilities, he can create a ton of zone control and support to keep your teammates alive longer.

The cooldowns are there, but just keep in mind to use them to begin with.

Expenite is gonna be your lifesource. Once you deposit enough, you get an upgrade, almost like you level up. It's scattered around each of the 4 stages, and it becomes more expensive to level up each time.

This, however, does not mean to slack off once you reach a certain point. Specific upgrades can be game-changing and keep you alive for much longer if allowed.

There are also other ways to gather Expenite:

• Kicking over buckets filled with Expenite
• Killing Test Subject enemies in their corresponding event
• Doing the Giant Drill event where you wind up a drill to smash into a giant Expenite Crystal

You should easily be able to acquire 6-7 upgrades per run this way.

After completing missions, you will earn tokens to spend in your skill tree. This is found on your ship near the mission select screen.

These upgrades can then be attached to your characters, with a limit of 8 currently being in place. The upgrades may seem small, but they stack up, making you much stronger if you even stack a couple of them.

Between each level, you will see a screen to select 1 hazard and 1 upside to it. Some of these upsides are game-changing.

One of the best ones, for example, increases your luck rolling upgrades for the rest of the run. Often, luck is about a 3% increase and is super forgettable, but you notice this being active, and it is definitely worth the risk.

This goes for multiple upgrades. The downsides may seem bad, but they are nothing compared to the upside.

Compared to DRG, in Rogue Core, your team matters a lot more. In DRG, you could easily get away with running 4 scouts, 4 drillers, or anything. But that's because they were designed in a very selfish way. In Rogue Core, that's very different. Each character has a purpose, and to fully realize that purpose, they need allies to act upon it.

For example, take the Spotter. The Spotter can shoot a dart that marks an enemy, making it take more damage, but he doesn't have abilities himself to act upon that besides shooting. So, imagine now you have a Slicer that dashes towards that enemy and uses its melee attack. The value of your ability just now doubled.

Workbenches can be game changers. They allow you to upgrade your weapon or add a new one to your arsenal. All you need to do is find the toolbox to complete it. Interacting with the Workbench will mark the toolbox, making it much easier to find.

These upgrades can go anywhere from extra damage to extra ammo, and even a new damage type on your bullets.

There are no small upgrades, every single one matters.