How to play Deep Rock Galactic

GasBandit

Staff member
I did a write up for L4D2 and Killing Floor 2, so I think I've been remiss not making one of these for DRG.

Deep Rock Galactic is a cooperative 4-player first-person-shooter with light horror elements. The game involves four dwarven miners who work for the titular mining company being sent on procedurally generated "missions" to the mineral-rich but extremely dangerous planet of Hoxxes, which is overrun by swarms of aggressive alien fauna (and flora).

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Each player can pick a "class" of dwarf to play (and multiple players can play the same class), switching classes at will between missions. Each class has a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, a traversal tool, and a special ability. Weapons can be upgraded as you level up, and new weapons can be unlocked. Cosmetics and weapon modifications called "overclocks" can also be found and even crafted.

Every class can use their pickaxe by holding right-click. The pickaxe can destroy terrain and harvest minerals. Minerals must then be "deposited" into either the Mule, the Minehead, or the Escape Pod. (More on this later)

Every class also carries 4 chemical flares they can throw to provide limited light to an area. These flares regenerate over time, so even if you use them all, you'll get more eventually.

Each mission consists of being inserted into one of the subterranean biome regions of the planet, performing a task (and potentially a secondary task and other bonus tasks) and then extracting via an escape pod that is sent once the primary mission objective is completed. The levels are all procedurally generated, so you'll get a new map every single time you play.



1) Classes

The Engineer:
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The Engineer is a more tactically-oriented class for those who favor defensive postures and entrenchment.

His primary weapon is a pump action shotgun which does low medium-range damage and good short-range damage.

His secondary weapon is a grenade launcher which does moderate damage to an area.

His traversal tool is a "platform gun" which fires foam balls that explode on contact into a flat platform. The platform can later be upgraded to reduce fall damage if you land on it, and that can be important.

His special ability is to build a turret. The engineer only has one turret to start, though he can purchase an upgrade later after levelling up to get two. If the engineer does not remember to pack up his turret when he moves, he will have to wait for it to "hover" to him to catch up to the new placement when he tries to built. The turret does moderate damage at all ranges and serves as an excellent early warning/overwatch system for incoming enemies, especially grabbers and other sneaky types.

The engineer excels at guarding chokepoints and providing security in areas where "grabber" type enemies are a threat. He struggles with enemies at long range, however, and his turret is not smart enough to pick the best targets at all times, nor does it particularly aim for vulnerable spots. The shotgun is an excellent weapon at close range, but for best effect, headshots are a must - the shotgun can 1-shot most common enemies at point blank range if you aim for the mouth.

The Driller:
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The Driller is a short range powerhouse which makes any given mission much easier. Most groups will find their lives much easier with a good driller among them.

His primary weapon is a flamethrower that does good damage at short range, and can be upgraded to do moderate damage at medium range. It can also be used to set the ground on fire, which causes damage to enemies that run through the fire. This weapon can also be upgraded to a "Freeze-thrower" after leveling up, which does light damage but is an immense help - it can freeze enemies solid, which makes them take extra damage from all physical attacks, negates armor, and is an instant-kill against flying enemies as they shatter when their frozen body hits the ground from any height. The flamethrower, however, can be used to ignite poison gas, burning it into harmlessness (abarring the explosive combustion effect).

His secondary weapon is a semiautomatic pistol that does low damage at all ranges. While not a particularly good weapon, it at least allows him SOME manner of long range attack, and is a fallback weapon for when the flamethrower runs out of ammo. It can later be upgraded to a charged plasma pistol that fires somewhat slower-moving projectiles that do AOE damage on impact, but I've found it to only be marginally more useful because it is extremely difficult to hit a moving target at range.

His traversal tool is his drill arms. The environment of Hoxxes is 100% destructable. Any class can use their pickaxe, but the drill arms are IMMENSELY faster. Simply by walking with his drills on, the driller can create a large tunnel through terrain, though he must be careful not to let his drills overheat (takes about 10 seconds) or they will be rendered unusable for a little while.

His special ability is remote-detonated C4 satchel charges. These bombs do immense damage at short to medium range (and range and damage can be upgraded), and also destroy terrain, but must be used carefully - the charges can easily kill the driller or his friends.

One of the nicest things about the driller is that he makes extraction to the escape pod simple - no longer do you have to run panicked through mazelike corridors hoping to make it to the pod before time runs out - the driller can just point in the pod's direction and start drilling.

The Scout:
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The Scout
The Scout is a high mobility class that can really make life easier for his teammates, but is also very dependent upon them for survival.

His primary weapon is a fully automatic assault rifle that does medium damage at all ranges. It's an excellent workhorse weapon for all situations.

His secondary weapon is a double barreled shotgun. Similar to the Engineer's primary weapon, this does good damage at close range but quickly becomes useless the farther away the target is. Since it is double barrel, he can fire twice in quick succession (or with a later upgrade, fire both barrels at once), but the reload time is longer than the Engineer's pump action per-shot.

His traversal tool is a grappling gun. Using the grapple, the scout can move himself almost anywhere, at rapid speed. Paired up with an engineer, this makes grabbing minerals or other items off the ceiling of a cavern much easier and faster. However, the scout cannot use his other weapons (not even his pickaxe) while the grappling gun is deployed, so many novice scouts frequently fall to their death from high ceilings since they didn't realize they couldn't dig themselves a handhold once they got there.

His special ability is a flaregun. While everyone gets throwable chemical flares, the light from the Scout's flare gun is MUCH brighter, lasts MUCH longer, and has the advantage of being stuck into whatever terrain the scout shoots it at. The underground tunnels of Hoxxes are a dark and there are enemies everywhere. It makes everything much easier if you can see them coming. For fighting a swarm in a large cavern, a couple shots from the flare gun makes everything MUCH less dangerous.

The Gunner
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The Gunner is a high-damage "tank" class whose specialty is dealing out punishment and protecting the others in the group. He's much more limited utility in situations that don't call for shooting things, but when a skittering horde of alien bugs comes swarming down a corridor, you'll be glad for his minigun.

His primary weapon is a minigun that does low damage per shot but fires VERY quickly. Fortunately he also carries lots of ammo for it. It does good damage at all ranges, though accuracy at long range can be a problem. This weapon can later be upgraded to an Autocannon which fires slower but does more damage per shot and also destroys a small amount of terrain.

His secondary weapon is a revolver which does good damage at all ranges, but fires very slowly and must be reloaded often. Many gunners like to use the revolver to snipe at long range, as headshots or other weapoint shots with the revolver deals excellent damage.

His traversal tool is a zipline launcher. Sort of a poor-man's grappling gun, but it becomes a permanent fixture - it creates a zipline from where the Gunner is standing to where he is aiming, and any member of the team can then use the zipline. Good for reaching distant ledges or crossing gaps, or keeping off the floor when it's covered in alien teeth and claws. However, ammunition is fairly limited and the angle of inclination at which it can be fired is very limited.

His special ability is a throwable shield generator. This generator creates a temporary "bubble" of shield that dwarves can enter but enemies cannot. This can often be a lifesaver if a swarm is overrunning your team, because it will push them back and give you room to breathe. The duration per use starts out pretty short, but can be upgraded as you level up.

By far the most straightforward class of the four, but many argue also the least essential. If having a gunner means you miss out on having an engineer or driller, than it might not be a good deal - and the scout can put out almost as much damage with much more mobility and utility. But don't discount that shield generator... it can really save your bacon when things are going sideways.

Every class also can carry grenades, whose effects vary by class. There are regular Frag grenades, throwing axes (which do no AOE but large single target damage), freeze grenades, decoy grenades, and the list goes on and on.

2) Enemies
Glyphids are the most common enemies, they are shelled ground-based enemies that can climb any terrain surface, and come in various flavors:

Glyphid Spawn
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These are newly spawned glyphids, fresh out of the egg. They are extremely weak and mostly an annoyance. A single hit from any weapon can dispatch them, even the pickaxe. They bite to attack.

Glyphid Swarmers
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Swarmers are basically the same as spawn, except you usually run into them in large groups. While individually weak, 10 or 20 of them might be a problem, especially if they show up when you're already fighting something larger/more dangerous.

Glyphid Grunt
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By far the most common enemy. Grunts are found everywhere, and frequently attack in numbers. They have a light armor carapace, but their mouth is their weak spot - aiming there will often result in a one-shot kill. They bite and use their claws to melee.

Glyphid Grunt Slasher
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A specialized type of Grunt with more HP and dealing more damage. They are more rare than common grunts, however. They move slightly faster, but have the same armor and weak spot as a regular grunt.

Glyphid Grunt Guard
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A much more irritating version of the Grunt, the Guard is heavily armored, and has MUCH more HP. Aiming for the mouth is a must - but upon taking damage, the Guard will try to protect his mouth with his heavily armored forelegs. Thankfully they are also rarer, like the Slasher.

Glyphid Praetorian
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An extremely large, heavily armored Glyphid that can both melee and use a short to medium ranged attack - usually a form of "breath" whose composition follows the area, and can be Toxic, Freezing, or Radioactive. While the Praetorian's mouth is not as armored as the rest of its body, its true weak spot is the glowing abdomen. Dealing a large amount of damage at once (IE, a shotgun blast) to either the mouth or abdomen can stagger the Praetorian, making it sway dizzily for a few seconds. Upon death, the Praetorian will release a toxic cloud that will damage any Dwarf in it, but will dissipate after a dozen or so seconds.

Glyphid Web Spitter
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Instead of scuttling up to claw and bite you, webspitters prefer to hang back (usually on the ceiling) and, well, spit webs at you. The webs don't really do damage, but they do make it so you can barely move and barely see (think L4D boomer bile). Since they usually show up as part of a wave of multiple enemies, their long-range fire support can often make you take more damage from the regular Glyphids than you otherwise would have. Fortunately, the web spitter has very low hp and light armor, usually even a shotgun body shot will take them out with 1 hit at medium range.

Glyphid Acid Spitter
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Same as above, but instead of webs, they spit acid, which do worrying damage. Two acid spitters stand a very decent chance of taking out a dwarf who doesn't deal with them quickly.

Glyphid Warden
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A special kind of Glyphid that doesn't actually attack in and of itself - rather, it "buffs" any nearby other glyphids to make them nearly impervious to damage. In a swarm of enemies, taking out the Warden is definitely the top priority. Its weak spot is the glowing ball on its back.

Glyphid Menace
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This guy. What an asshole. The menace will try to stay at long range and pelt you with rapid-fire damaging spit. If it starts to take too much damage, it will burrow into the wall and resurface somewhere else. A very high priority target.

Glyphid Oppressor
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Sort of a "mini-boss" glyphid, the oppressor is a suped up Praetorian on steroids. Its mouth is no longer a weak point, and its armor is unbreakable. The only place it can take damage is his glowing tail. A dangerous enemy, but has a tendency to show up alone, letting the team deal with it without too much difficulty.

Glyphid Exploder
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While extremely weak, exploders can do huge amounts of damage if they explode next to you. They are also very quiet, and will sneak up to you to do so. Shooting one will trigger its explosion, unless you get it in the head/mouth for an instant kill. Exploders exploding will also damage other enemies if they are close, but not to the extent they would damage a Dwarf. Frequently attack in pairs or trios.

Glyphid Detonator
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It's as big as a Dreadnought and FAR more dangerous - not only does it have more health, unbreakable armor, and attacks that set you on fire, but when one dies, the explosion is so violent it has been known to wipe out entire parties by itself. This jerkface CANNOT be underestimated if you want to live. The glowing tumors around its body are its weak point, but make sure you stay clear of the explosion. There are two varieties of Detonator - Bulk, and Crassus. The Crassus are slightly tougher, but when they explode, the crater their explosion creates will be lined with gold - you'll be rich if you survive.
Mactera are flying insects, and are very dangerous. All three varieties need to be taken out ASAP.

Mactera Spawn
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Spawn frequently show up in numbers, and fire projectiles at the team for high damage. Their weak spot is their glowing belly pouch.

Mactera Grabber
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This asshole tries to swoop in and carry off a dwarf, usually somewhere up high, where it will then drop him to his death. They make a very distinct "battle cry" when they're about to grab someone, so once you know what to listen for, you'll know what to be on the lookout for. Their weak spot is the glowing tip of their abdomen.

Mactera Goo-Bomber.
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While not particularly damaging, the goo that the Goo-Bomber drops reduces your movement speed to a crawl and covers a wide area in the slime. Its weak points are the two glowing tips at its bottom end. If you don't destroy both of them before it dies, its death throws will spray huge amounts of goo all over every surface around it. Very inconvenient.
Nayaka Trawler
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AKA "Sand Shark." In the sand biome, these swim through the terrain like water, and snatch away dwarves like a grabber, frequently dropping them far from their friends, and surrounded by enemies. Its glowing abdomen is its weak point, but it is hard to hit while it is submerged.

Q'Ronar Shellback
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ALA "Roly Polies." These insectoid creatures have a tendency to roll up in a torus and careen around the terrain doing damage. Their shell is heavily armored, but can be chipped away with damage, or when they stop to unfurl and look around, their soft underbelly becomes exposed.

Q'Ronar Youngling
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Same as above, but smaller and less dangerous.

Naedocyte Breeder
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These icky things float around in large caverns dropping Naedocyte Roe, which are basically egg sacs that will burst open into small flying creatures that, like swarmers, are individually insignificant but can overwhelm you in numbers or assist larger creatures in taking you down. The breeders are important to kill fast.

Cave Leech
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Remember those things from half-life that grab you and suck you to the ceiling, killing you? These are those, but more dangerous - they don't leave their stalk dangling as an obvious warning sign, and they can reach at up to a 30 degree angle from straight down to grab you and haul you up to the ceiling, where it will kill you if your friends don't rescue you quick enough.

Spitball Infector
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Gigantic stationary enemies that fire excruciating spitballs at you when they wake up. They have glowing segments that are their week spots.

Glyphid Brood Nexus
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A big sack of blob that slowly spawns Glyphid spawn. Annoying, and soaks a lot of damage, but is a low priority target. The glowy eye things are its weak spot.

Deeptora Honeycomb
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If you go too close to a Honeycomb, swarms of Deeptora will come out and attack you. The swarms themselves are made of insects too small to shoot, but destroying the hive causes them to disperse.
Glyphid Dreadnought
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Even more pumped up than the Oppressor, the Dreadnought is a genuine "boss" creature, the focus of its own particular mission ("Extermination") where the entire goal is to focus on ridding an area of several of these dangerous foes. Dreadnoughts have unbreakable armor, and their weak glowing tail "grows" armor over itself that you must break before you can actually damage its health, and even then, only briefly before it grows back. Additionally, its melee attacks are devastating and can fling you far across a large cavern, and it also spits fireballs that do heavy damage and marks you with pheromones that make lesser enemies focus on attacking you. Fighting a Dreadnought means the whole team has to cooperate, and a special area is usually selected to fight it in - preferably one that is both open but has sources of cover. Fighting a Dreadnought in a corridor is suicide.

Xynarch Charge-sucker
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While the sucker itself has no attack or defense, the problem is it comes attached to a BET-C robot tank that it has "possessed." Each BET-C will have two Charge-suckers attached to it, and when they notice you, they will make the tank attack you. The BET-C itself is completely indestructible, your only hope is to kill both the charge suckers with precision fire, and they have a lot of HP. If you manage to do so, the BET-C will recognize you as its master, and follow and defend you for the rest of the mission.

Korlok Tyrant-weed
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This plant-thing grows several sprouts and healing pods to defend itself. Taking down a tyrant-weed is a long, drawn out process that involves killing all its sprouts and pods so that it will open up its invulnerable armor to let you shoot the weak spot concealed within. If you manage to defeat the weed, you will get Tyrant shards, which are worth lots of XP and money.
Lootbugs
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Cute little harmless bugs that wobble around the terrain making soft coo-ing noises. They pose absolutely no threat, and only a coward or psychopath would.... just kidding. Beat these to death with your pickaxe, and they'll explode into precious, precious minerals.

Golden Lootbugs
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A rare variant of the lootbug that drops LOTS of gold when killed. Twice as much HP, but still doesn't fight back or even try to run.

Huuli Hoarders
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Probably the most annoying creature that poses no threat to you at all. While Lootbugs drop gold and nitra, Huuli Hoarders will drop almost every other kind of crafting mineral - but they have WAY more HP and when they detect you they will flee shrieking. It takes a lot to take them down, but it'll be worth it if you can kill them before they get away.


3) Gameplay

You'll start off on the Space Rig, the home base and hub level for the game. Here you can adjust your loadout, upgrade and configure your weapons, craft overclocks, buy and equip cosmetics, purchase beer, select a mission, and various other fluff-piece activities.

Buying beer costs Barley Bulbs, which you will usually find on missions. The various kinds of beer give you various buffs which will last the duration of your next mission.

The central console will let you select a mission by location and difficulty. The Default difficulty is 2. 3 is a challenge, 4 is hard, and you have to complete a special mission quest chain to unlock difficulty 5.
The locations are:
  • Crystalline Caverns - as the name suggests, this area is full of glowing crystals - frequently generating electrostatic shocks. Watch for that.
  • Dense Biozone - a difficult to navigate underground bog full of toxic and dangerous life, both flora and fauna.
  • Fungus Bogs - Similar to the dense biozone, but not as punishing in my opinion.
  • Glacial Strata - A frozen area with dangerous temperatures that threaten to freeze you solid. The Praetorians here breathe ice instead of toxins.
  • Magma Core - Conversely, this is a scorchingly hot area full of volcanic and seizmic activity. Probably the most dangerous biome of them all.
  • Radioactive Exclusion Zone - similar to the Crystalline Caverns, but the crystals (and Praetorians) are radioactive instead of electric/toxic.
  • Salt Pits - An area of brittle red crystal and rock, otherwise not so awful.
  • Sandblasted Corridors - soft sandstone walls make digging easy, but there's lots of sand sharks, macterra grabbers, and cave leeches waiting for you...
Each mission will have a primary and secondary objective, chosen at random (though it will tell you before you confirm selection of the mission). Once your primary mission is accomplished, you can call the drop pod to come and extract you. The pod, however, will only stay 5 minutes, before you are left behind to die.

Possible primary objectives:
  • Mining Expedition - Procure a given amont of Morkite, a blue crystalline mineral, and deposit it in the Mule, a 4-legged robotic minecart that will follow you around but cannot fight.
  • Egg Hunt - find a given number of Alien Eggs and deposit them into the Mule. Plucking an egg from its nest will generally attract a lot of unfriendly attention....
  • Salvage Operation - Other Dwarves don't always make it back. Your job here is to repair their mules and their drop pod, then bring everything home yourself (or die trying).
  • Point Extraction - Large, rare gems called Aquarqs are clustered in some areas. Dig them out and deposit them into a special minehead. No mule this time, but the minehead has defense turrets, so long as its ammo lasts...
  • Elimination - Take out a number of Glyphid Dreadnoughts in the area, then come home in one piece.
  • Two more mission modes coming October 8th
Possible secondary objectives - grab a number of:

  • Alien Fossils
  • Apoca Bloom flowers
  • Boolo Cap mushrooms
  • Dystrum mineral
  • Ebonuts
  • Gunk Seeds
  • Hollomite Crystals
  • or kill a number of Fester Fleas
There are also possible bonus objectives you can unlock once you've gotten a high enough level.

4: Minerals

  • Morkite - used to satisfy the Mining Expedition objective. Light blue in color
  • Nitra - To get a supply reload drop sent to you takes 80 nitra. This is your only source of ammo. Dark red in color.
  • Gold - bringing back gold gets you extra credits to spend on cosmetics, upgrades, and other things at the Space Rig.
  • Red Sugar - this glowing red crystal will replenish your health if you are wounded.
  • Dystrum - satisfies that particular secondary objective (Point extraction missions only)
  • Crafting materials (biome specific) - substances like Enor Pearl, Croppa, Bismor, and so on are used as ingredients to craft upgrades and overclocks back on the space rig.
There's also a variety of items that can just be gathered (like those for the secondary objectives) as well as Barley Bulbs, Malt Stars, Starch Nuts, and Yeast Cones, which are used to buy and unlock various kinds of beer.

5: Perks

Additionally, achieving certain milestones (such as number of successful missions) will unlock perk points which you can use to buy passive and active perks which enhance your character. You can have three passive perks and one active perk (until you are promoted).

There are a lot of different perks, and they can help you in ways such as making you revive teammates faster, reflect some damage back to your attacker, take and dish out less friendly fire damage, or get advanced warning when a "grabber" type enemy is about to attack you. Scouts in particular will probably like the rocket boots active perk, as it can save your ass if you grapple to a ceiling and then fall a long way.

6: Promotions

Level a class all the way to 25, and you can take a special set of missions to be granted a promotion. Taking a promotion resets your level back to 1, but you keep all your upgrades, perks, gear, cosmetics, etc. And even better, it unlocks an extra active perk slot for that class, and you are then allowed to take that class on special missions called Deep Dives. You can promote a class as often as you want, but only the first promotion unlocks anything (at this point), so the rest are just for more "stars" over your avatar... IE, bragging rights.

7: Deep Dives

A deep dive is a special kind of mission that is three missions in one, with each mission having TWO primary objectives. The rewards for completing a deep dive are much greater (usually in crafting blueprints called cores). Additionally, Nitra you stock up in the early stages of a deep dive are kept for the subsequent missions, so you can build up a stockpile. Which is always a good idea. Can't have too much ammo.

To be continued...
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I'm always down to play some DRG with whoever, so just give me a shout on steam if you want to get into it.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Does this have a single-player mode?
Yes! If you play alone, the game will assign you a flying robot companion named Bosko who will try to defend you and help you mine as best he can, though he's not spectacular.

He can also revive you 3 times if you die.
 
Thinking about getting this game.
Correction: got the game. Figured it was on a pretty good sale so why not?
Sent you a friend request on steam as well, Gas.
 
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GasBandit

Staff member
I was playing today with a friend on difficulty level 4 (which is the second highest there is, one shy of "impossible" basically), and his internet cut out right as a swarm of Glyphids descended. And I had to fight it all by myself (well, Bosco helped some). It was also extra hairy because there was an "enemies regenerate" status modifier on this particular mission, so any enemy I didn't completely kill regenerated back to full health.

Also apparently my OBS was set to use the wrong mic so my voice recording sounds a little crappy. Fixed that later, but oh well.

 
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