Ghost Ship Games has released the second major update for roguelike first-person shooter Deep Rock Galaxy: Rogue Core, currently in early access. Its main innovation is the threat level system, with five difficulties. It adjusts the number of enemies, the frequency of the wave, the enemy’s health and speed, the aggressiveness, the speed of the projectile and the damage dealt, respectively. The depth parameter is now only responsible for the progress of the game content and no longer affects the difficulty of the mission.
The developers have also removed most of the server browser restrictions. Players can now join missions in depths and biomes they have not yet unlocked on their own. To create your own tasks, you still need to discover the corresponding depth.
At the fourth and fifth threat levels, the mechanics of combo waves appear. Previously, due to a bug, multiple waves could overlap each other, but the developers have now implemented this behavior as part of increased difficulty. Boss fights have also changed. The invincibility phase, which is triggered after taking a lot of damage in a short period of time, has been removed from the game. Instead, bosses use short-range blocks or defenses that can be bypassed through precision shooting, area destruction, or changing position.
The Armory has been replenished with seven cost improvements and an artifact. These include modifiers for electric, ice, and radiation damage, effects that freeze and stun enemies, and nuclear optics, which deal 30 units of radiation damage per second to enemies in the flashlight beam. A new Artifact event has appeared, during which players will have to initiate a classified experiment and attempt to complete the work of the research department that was previously forced to leave the project.
Four new modifiers are also available in missions:
- “High risk” will increase your luck in obtaining equipment and upgrades, but reduce consumption.
- Siege Engines double the speed and health of normal enemies.
- “Headhunter” removes consumables from caves, but forces all enemies to leave the resource upon death.
- Death Mitosis causes the normal core spawn to split into two smaller enemies upon death, while reducing the health of the remaining enemies.
The Engineer LOK-1 Intelligence Rifle from the original Deep Rock Galaxy has been added to the standard weapons set. The developers have tweaked its automatic target acquisition system to match Rogue Core’s improvements and damage mechanics.
The Voidkin Dominator has been added to the enemy list. This is a stronger version of the Flying Drifter that appeared in the last update. It attacks from a distance using powerful projectiles that leave a trail of unstable rift energy on impact. Upon death, it releases its accumulated energy and explodes.
The cave generation system adds four new entrance rooms and 15 new underground structures. The developers also redesigned the algorithm for connecting various parts of the cave. The boss Molaktula Gatekeeper now has his own biome with elements related to explosions and gravity changes. Each of the three gatekeepers now has a separate biome in its own depth. Players can also get automatic Alpha playthrough on Intel systems. As a result, new players will no longer be unable to trigger the Expenite event or open the grenade cabinet in their first mission.
Finally, the developers recorded hundreds of new lines. In particular, the laser pointer received voice commentary for nearly all mission- and gameplay-relevant objects, as well as other objects and environmental elements. Many balance changes and bug fixes have also been made.