As you may have seen in our post about the first details for Season 05, one of the new features we’re working on is giving everyone the ability to re-activate previous seasons and play through them at your leisure.

Implementing a system like this involves a few structural changes, and we’re here to share some details about that.

If you’re thinking, “Eek! Big changes!”, don’t worry. You’ll still be able to play with everyone as usual, and all the seasonal cosmetic items are still earnable for free, just like always. Nothing’s going away! Deep breaths.

We put together this Q&A to give you more details on how this season reactivation feature will work, and so you know what to expect once we get it up and running.

Let’s get into it!

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How’s the season reactivation thing going to work?

Here it is in a nutshell:

• In the Season Terminal, there will be a new tab called ‘Season Selection’. You’ll use this to pick any available DRG season and activate it.
  
• When you select a season, that’ll kick any party members and reload the Space Rig, just like when you disband a lobby.
  
• Then you can invite friends back in, or make your lobby public. Party members don’t need to have the same season active in order to join you.
  
• As part of this, we’re replacing the “Disable Season Content” option with a season simply called Vanilla. This option has no associated Performance Pass, and a balanced chance to spawn Events and Warnings from all seasons.

Here's a (work in progress) version of the Season Selection screen.

Can I still play with other people if they’ve got a different season selected?

Yes! Everyone can still play with each other, no matter which season they’ve got selected. Because the Mission Terminal reflects the host’s selected season, though, it’s possible that a few individual missions might not show up for other players if they’ve got a different season active than the host. But not to worry – you can still join any lobby on any season through the server browser.

Will I be able to see which season people have selected when I browse through the server list?

Yup.

If I join a game where the host has a different season active, what happens?

You’ll progress on the season that you’ve got active, and the host will progress on the season they’ve got active. Everybody wins.

Will seasons still have enemies and events from other seasons?

Yes, this is just like the game is now. Even though we’re on Season 04 at the moment, you can still come across enemies and events from past seasons on some missions. With this new system, these probabilities will be adjusted to reflect the focus of each season. So Season 02, for example, will have a comparatively higher chance of Rival Tech encounters and Rival Presence warnings, but there’s still a chance that a Corruptor could pop up.

Will season-specific assignments be available again, for those who didn’t play them?

No, season-specific assignments (like Season 03’s Part I: A Critical Situation, for example) won’t be coming back. However, a new assignment for Season 05 will be available for everybody.

What’s happening to all the cosmetics from previous seasons that have been moved into the game?

We’re moving all those items back to their original spots in their respective seasons’ Performance Passes and Cosmetic Trees. So for example, a weapon framework like Waster (from Season 01) is going to be put back into Season 01’s Cosmetic Tree, which is where it originally appeared. You’ll then be able to unlock all those frameworks by progressing through that Cosmetic Tree. The same applies for headgear and paintjobs.

If I played a previous season before, will the game remember my progress?

Yes. Each season’s Performance Pass and Cosmetic Tree will be set to wherever you left off. If you were at Level 87 when the season originally ended, it’ll still be at Level 87 when you re-activate it. If you never played a certain season, progress on its Performance Pass and Cosmetic Tree will be at zero.

What if I’m playing through an old season, and encounter a cosmetic reward I’ve already unlocked?

If you reach a node in a Performance Pass or Cosmetic Tree that contains an item you already own, we’ll reward you with some credits instead. Credits can be exchanged for goods and services.

What happens to the seasonal cosmetic Matrix Cores I’ve got?

If you’ve got Matrix Cores infused with any seasonal cosmetics, those will be removed from your inventory and placed back into their respective Performance Passes and Cosmetic Trees when Season 05 launches. In return, we’ll give you a different Matrix Core, this one infused with a non-seasonal cosmetic item. If you’ve already unlocked and forged ALL non-seasonal cosmetics, you’ll get some crafting resources instead.

What about the seasonal stuff in the shop and cargo crates?

Any cosmetics that were originally part of a season will also no longer be available via The Shop, Cargo Crates, or Lost Packs once the season reactivation system launches. Again, they’re not disappearing – you just have to go through a season’s Performance Pass or Cosmetic Tree to unlock them. This means you can unlock these seasonal cosmetics directly, rather than relying on getting lucky with Cargo Crate / Lost Pack RNG.

This also cuts down on loot pool bloat, meaning you’ll have higher odds of rolling everything else that does stay in the Crates and Packs.

So… do I need to do anything before Season 05 launches?

No, not really. Like we said above, nothing’s going away here. You’ll still be able to play with anyone you like, and every single item is still going to be unlockable for free. The only situation where you might want to do something is if there’s some seasonal cosmetic in The Shop you’ve been eyeing, or if you’ve got one in an unforged Matrix Core. You might want to scoop those up before Season 05, otherwise you’ll just have to unlock them in a different way.

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Hopefully this helps clarify some things about how this system works, and what it will mean for your beloved friends and cosmetics. If you’ve got any other burning questions about this system, feel free to drop them in the comments. If we see certain questions popping up a lot, we’ll try our best to address them and update this post with the reply.

Again, all this takes effect when Season 05 launches in June. Speaking of that, we’ll have some more to share about Season 05 later this month. :)

Oh also! In case you haven't heard, the indie game world is putting something cool together: the triple-i initiative digital showcase. We can't give away too many details, but Ghost Ship Publishing is very proud to be part of it, and we hope you'll tune in to watch it debut live! The whole thing kicks off on April 10th at 7 PM CEST.



That's all for now! Hope everybody's doing well.

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

We’re back with another installment in our 'Below Decks' series, to give you a peek behind the scenes at Ghost Ship Games. This time we’re following Arvid, an intern at GSG, to learn about his work as the company’s official Loot Bug Keeper. Enjoy!


It’s a cold gray Monday in March, and Arvid’s feeding the loot bug.

If you’ve played Deep Rock Galactic, you know the loot bug: It’s the passive critter that populates the caves of Hoxxes, rooting around for chunks of gold and Nitra to gobble up. In the six years since DRG launched, the loot bug has become something of an in-joke among players, dividing the pacifist loot bug preservationists from those who see the creature as an easy source of extra resources.

But what most people don’t know is that the in-game loot bug is directly inspired by a real-life creature. It lives at the Ghost Ship office in Copenhagen, and it’s actually older than the game itself. Taking care of the creature is a full-time job, and it's one of few positions at the studio not directly connected to game development.

This task is left to Arvid Aspeborg, an intern at Ghost Ship Games and the company’s newest Loot Bug Keeper.

Before joining Ghost Ship Games, Arvid spent a year as a student worker at the Skånes Djurpark zoo in Sweden, where he cleaned the bird enclosures. But he'd never worked directly with animals like he does now, especially one like this.

“I was a huge fan of Deep Rock Galactic before I started working here, so it kind of blew my mind that the loot bug from the game actually exists,” he says. “But it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting.”


Arvid enjoys a spirited interaction with the loot bug during the start of his shift.

Arvid’s day starts with a 4:30 AM alarm, so he can make it to the office and finish the loot bug’s morning care routine before anyone else arrives.

Most of this routine focuses on regular hygiene. The creature hates water, but a daily cleaning is necessary to prevent it from producing a sulfur smell that overpowers the office. Arvid uses an industrial pressure washer for this, but also has to use his hands to clean in between the creature’s folds.

“I wish they’d told me to bring gloves on my first day,” he laughs. “That was the only time I ever touched it with my bare skin, and I still can’t get the smell off. It felt like that hand was like, really sunburned for a long time after too.”

In real life, the loot bug is about the size of a child’s bean bag chair, and it weighs around 90 kilograms (200 pounds). Compared to the in-game depiction, the real creature is almost completely sedentary, which means that Arvid needs to reposition the creature throughout the day to prevent pressure ulcers from forming. As he points out, another big difference from the in-game version is the noise that it makes.

“I get why they gave the loot bug a different noise in Deep Rock Galactic, because it sounds totally weird in real life. That threw me off a lot when I started, because I couldn’t really place the noise. But after a few weeks, I realized it actually sounds a lot like a grown man weeping,” he says.

In the afternoon, Arvid engages the loot bug in a series of enrichment activities. Most often, this means reading aloud from The Lesser Key of Solomon, or playing recordings from recovered aircraft black boxes. Arvid typically leaves the office around 8 or 9 PM, though he’s technically on call around the clock via satellite radio, in case the loot bug causes another Contamination Incident.


Undated photograph of a creature similar to the loot bug under examination by researchers at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

Phillip Mygind, co-founder of Ghost Ship Games, received the loot bug in 2016 as a gag present from his cousin, who worked on a fishing vessel in the North Sea. The cousin claimed to have dredged it up just offshore from the Barsebäck Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden.

Back then, the loot bug was just known as “Elefantfoden” (Danish for ‘The Elephant’s Foot’). Philip kept the creature in his garage for a few days, before his family insisted it had to go.

“I didn’t want it either, but I really couldn’t get rid of it. I tried driving it out into the countryside and leaving it there, but it was back in my house when I woke up the next morning. Same thing happened when I tried throwing it in the harbor,” he says. “It was a really difficult period. For all the time it lived in my house, my whole family would wake up feeling sick.”

At one point, Phillip got so tired of the creature that he tried having it euthanized with a captive bolt pistol, the type used to kill cattle at a slaughterhouse.

“It didn’t seem to do anything. The bolt just punched down through its skin and crunched into something, but it was like the loot bug didn’t even feel it. I’ll never forget the noise it made," he says. "I expected it to bleed, but all that came out was this sort of milky mucus. I don’t know why, but I feel like it got some sort of pleasure from it. I hate it more than anything.”

Since then, the loot bug has been kept in an underground enclosure at the Ghost Ship offices. The company officially denies any knowledge of the creature's history before it came into Phillip's possession.


Illustration from the Dictionnaire Infernal (second edition, 1825) depicting a tribute to the deity Moloch.

Every two weeks, Ghost Ship Games receives an 80-liter plastic barrel from a hospital in Poland.

This is Arvid’s cue to take care of the loot bug’s bimonthly feeding. He considers this to be the most difficult part of his job. The drum contains around 65 kilograms of biomedical waste, mostly organic tissue from amputations and other surgeries.

Just like in Deep Rock Galactic, the loot bug is a scavenger, and eats directly off the ground. Unlike the game, however, the real-life loot bug sprays its food with corrosive enzymes that dissolve the meat proteins into a drinkable slurry. This aspect was omitted from the game due to content age rating concerns, and its diet was changed to mineral chunks instead.

“The first time I saw it eating, it made me throw up. Now when I have to feed it, I just dump the barrel out and leave the room as fast as I can. I wear earplugs too, so I can’t hear when it starts to eat,” Arvid says.

Once the creature finishes eating, it enters a hibernation-like state for several days. As Ghost Ship’s employees quickly learn, disturbing it in this condition isn’t a good idea.

“One time I tried entering the enclosure the day after it ate, just to check up on it, but it completely freaked out,” Arvid explains. “It let out this huge scream, like a man in pain but way deeper, and it just kept going. I remember the air started smelling like burnt electronics, and I could feel my lungs vibrating because it was so loud. After that, my nose kept bleeding for like a week. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

The creature's strong reaction in this state was actually the inspiration for the “It’s a Bug Thing” perk in Deep Rock Galactic.


Arvid (left) pours out a meal for the loot bug (right).

In Arvid’s own words, working as the loot bug keeper comes with its ups and downs.

"It's cool to see all the memes and stuff about loot bugs, and to know I'm working with the actual creature that inspired all of it," he says. "But being around it also makes me feel weird sometimes. I get headaches and nausea a lot, and lately I've been bruising more easily for some reason. I noticed some of my hair falls out when I shower too, but I guess that could be anything."

With five months of experience, Arvid is the longest-lasting loot bug keeper in the company's history. Ghost Ship Games has always had this position as an internship, and only ever hired Swedes for the job.

For Arvid, it’s been an exciting opportunity to start in the video game industry. Plus, he says, the nature of the role allows him to learn new skills, and share some fun jokes with the rest of the Ghost Ship Games team.

“I basically had to learn everything from scratch,” he says. “Ghost Ship didn’t tell me much about the job beforehand, and I’m not allowed to contact the other interns who used to do it. I once heard someone say that all of them left on sick leave, but that was probably just to mess with me.”

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Are you Ghost Ship Games’ next loot bug keeper? Comment "ME NEXT" below so we can reach out in case something happens to Arvid. Thanks for reading!

The Great Egg Hunt is officially live in Deep Rock Galactic! And it runs until Thursday, April 4th at 13:00 CET.

You can catch the full breakdown in the preview post – but in an eggshell, here’s what’s coming:

• Snag the new Basket Case seasonal cosmetic by completing a limited-time assignment.
  
• Expand your seasonal hat collection even further via the Last Year’s Spring Fashion assignment, granting hats from Egg Hunts past.
  
• Catch a Double Performance Pass Bonus by depositing a Mechanical Spring Bunny during your missions.
  
• Experience the thrill of pollen allergies aboard the Space Rig because we filled it with flowers.

Speaking of holiday celebrations, the Ghost Ship offices are closed for bank holidays for a good chunk of next week. That mostly just means we won’t be doing our usual dev streams on Thursday and Friday. But don’t worry, the game’s still gonna be running and everything.

Oh also – we’d like to say a big shiny congratulations to our friends at Funday Games.
Last week, they officially marked one million copies sold of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor! Great work gang.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2321470/view/6273023611533844316?l=english

Alright, that's all for now. Hope everybody's doing well!

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

I hope you are hungry for EGGS because it is almost EGG TIME

That’s right! The Great Egg Hunt returns for 2024, and the forecast calls for a 100 percent chance of eggs. But that’s not all! Deep Rock Galactic employees will also receive the unique opportunity to complete extra unpaid work on behalf of the company.

The eggstravaganza begins on Thursday, March 21st at 13:00 CET.

Let’s crack it open and see what’s inside:


They say you’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelette. But what they don’t want you to know is that you don’t have to break any eggs to make a fun hat.

During the event, you’ll have access to the limited-time Great Egg Hunt assignment. Get that done and you’ll earn yourself a cash reward, crafting resources, and the new Basket Case headpiece!


Were you absent during previous Egg Hunts, and unable to collect their seasonal styles? Fret not. We’re bringing back a veritable goodie basket of vintage Egg Hunt looks, available through the Last Year’s Spring Fashion assignment. Complete it, and the whole lot's yours forever.

Some nincompoop at Longbeard Freight has fumbled a shipment of Mechanical Spring Bunnies, and now they’re scattered throughout the caves of Hoxxes. Management wants them back. Why, you ask? Not relevant. You’re paid to dig, not ask questions. Deposit one during a mission, and Management will reward your whole team with a Double Performance Pass Bonus.

It wouldn’t be The Great Egg Hunt if the Space Rig wasn’t looking like the very picture of springtime festivities.

Once the event starts, you’ll find the Rig dressed up with charming pastel-tinted lights, darling paper bunny garlands, inflatable carrots, and many eggs. Please observe the eggs from a respectful distance. We’re also shipping up a dazzling assortment of springtime blossoms! Any blossom-related allergies are the employee’s individual responsibility, as we had to cancel sick leave payouts to pay for all the eggs.


It all starts on March 21st at 13:00 CET. See you soon!

With Eggs,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

In case you missed our anniversary stream yesterday, we revealed the first details of what’s coming in Season 05!

And we packaged those details into a lovely JPEG, just for you. Here it is:


Like it says on the picture, this isn’t an exhaustive list of every single thing that’s coming in Season 05. This is just the stuff that we’re ready to share right now. You can expect more news and further details in the months to come!

Development’s coming along well, and we’re still on track to launch Season 05 in June. We’re really excited, and we hope you are too.

Hope everybody’s doing well out there!

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

The 'Six Years in Orbit' Anniversary Celebration is now live in Deep Rock Galactic!

You can get the full details in the preview post – but at a glance, here’s what’s up:

• The brand new MK6 Armor Set is available for a limited time only! Complete the 'MK6 Armor Experimental Trials' assignment to unlock it.
  
• Snag the delightfully inflatable Year Six Party Hat through the Anniversary Bonus assignment.
  
• We’ve added a countdown monitor near the Assignment Board, to help keep track of when seasonal events end.
  
• A juicy Double Performance Pass Bonus is available for any dwarf who deposits a Year Six Anniversary Trophy during a mission.
  
• Free beers at the Abyss Bar! You should still tip Lloyd, though.
  
• The Space Rig is looking very fancy.

The celebrations run until March 14th at 13:00 CET.


ALSO – tomorrow, Ghost Ship Games is going live for our anniversary developer stream!

We’re doing something a little different this year. Instead of the usual setup, we’re putting more emphasis on the community. We’re bringing in some of the biggest Deep Rock Galactic content creators to our office in Copenhagen, where they’ll join us for the live broadcast. You can expect to hear from sniss, LazyMaybe, Explorian (fka DRG Historian), and a few other special guests. The chat’s open for your questions, too!

Plus, we’ll be revealing the updated roadmap for Deep Rock Galactic, with fresh new details on what’s coming in Season 5.

The anniversary stream kicks off tomorrow (Thursday, February 29th) at 13:00 CET, and you can tune in from Twitch and YouTube. We’ll have a recording available after, in case you can't catch it live.

Hope you can join us!

With love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

Deep Rock Galactic is turning six years old!

It seems like just yesterday that we watched our little game take its first steps. Just a blink of an eye, and the years whizz past... now, we’ll watch from the window with teary eyes, as our six-year-old game hops on the bus all by itself for its very first day at school.

Anyway, we’re throwing a party! The 'Six Years in Orbit' Anniversary Celebrations kick off on February 28th at 13:00 CET, and the event will run until March 14th at 13:00 CET.

Let's check out what the party’s packin’.


After six years of trials, R&D has officially cleared the new MK6 Armor Set for limited field testing. And as part of this Anniversary celebration, you’ll have the unique opportunity to earn this cutting-edge new armor, months ahead of schedule!

The MK6 Armor Experimental Trials assignment will give you permanent access to the MK6 suit for all four classes.

This assignment is time-limited, however – if you don’t complete it by the time the celebration ends, you won’t be able to snag the MK6 armor until it rolls out for general release in Season 05! At that point, it'll become available in the Accessory Shop, like the other armors.

A good party requires party hats. And a party hat requires an assignment, because Deep Rock Galactic is a business, not a charity. Complete the Anniversary Bonus assignment, and you’ll unlock the delightfully wobbly Party Hat - Year Six balloon top hat. As with all our anniversary hats, this one is a rare time-limited opportunity.


Left over from Mission Control’s nephew’s 6th birthday party. Keep it away from anything pointy.

We’re adding a little monitor over by the Assignment Board that displays a countdown until a current seasonal event ends. This should make it easier for everybody to check how much time’s left to complete some assignments, or enjoy the decorations!

We’ll be keeping this monitor for all future time-limited events.

Ignore the date displayed on the screen there, that was just for a test. We’re not running this event for a year and a half.

As usual, you’ll have the opportunity to earn a Double Performance Pass Bonus! Collect the glittering Year 6 Anniversary Trophy while you’re down in the caves, and your whole crew will earn double experience for that mission.

After a long negotiation process, the Interplanetary Miner’s Union has reached an agreement with Management to run an open tab at the Abyss Bar for the entirety of this event.

You read that right: Two weeks of free beer.

This policy represents a significant financial risk to the company, as every beer poured puts a dent in the next corporate earnings report. Management requests that all dwarves drink responsibly.


The Space Rig’s got to look the part for this momentous occasion, so we’re giving it the full celebrity treatment. Expect tinsel, confetti, sparklers, champagne towers, chandeliers (borrowed from the estate of Mission Control’s grandmother), and a black marble dance floor at the Abyss Bar. You’ll think they sent a Waldorf Astoria to space. Black tie attire optional.


The celebrations start on Wednesday, February 28th at 13:00 CET. See you there!

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew

Patch Notes: S04.15 (96589 - 20/02/2024)


Due to demands from the Miners Union, Hunters can now Rock and Stone during prop hunt. We also fixed a pretty bad crash caused by losing a mission with bare arms, how humiliating!

With Love,
The Ghost Ship Crew

- Options: Added more space for percentage text for volume sliders
- Fixed a bug that caused Boomstick mod ‘Improved Shockwave’ tooltip showing 0 damage.
- Prop Hunt: Hunters can now rock & stone
- Prop Hunt: Fixed a bug that caused the bio tank prop to hover above the floor
- Removed a visible box surrounding Engineers Lure Grenade
- Fixed a crash when failing a mission while wearing sleeveless armor

Happy February Maintenance Update day! For this one, we’ve focused on the bugs and issues that got the most community upvotes in our PleaseFix portal. In case you haven’t heard of that, it’s the best way to report and document bugs you come across in the game.

Okay, enough chit-chat. Let’s dive into the patch notes.

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew




Fun stuff first: We’ve got a brand new brew up in the Abyss Bar!

Next time you mosey on over to the bar, you’ll find that Lloyd is ready to pour up a round of delicious Hidden Dwarf Double IPA.

After teasing it last week, it's been fun to see everybody’s speculations on what this beer does.

Some people speculated that it gives you Barrel Armor. This is not the case.
Others guessed that it transforms you into a barrel. This is partially correct.
A few thought they’d heard the Hydengözik Brewery name before. They have. Sort of.

So how can we describe this tantalizing new beverage? Well, to best experience the transformative flavor of Hidden Dwarf, we recommend you gather a few pals and order a round together.

You’ll find that it starts a prop hunt mode on the Space Rig. :)



- Fixed Hyper Propellant OC working incorrectly with T4A Homebrew Explosive mod. This mod was only supposed to affect the actual explosion, therefore these changes have been made to make it more clear:

• The ‘Homebrew Explosive‘ mode has been changed to only affect radial damage on the weapon’s projectile.
  
• Therefore, it should no longer affect upgrades that do direct damage, such as the Spiky Grenade modification or the direct damage of the Hyper Propellant OC.
  
• Prior to the change, Homebrew Explosive had no effect on neither direct nor area damage of Hyper Propellant.

- Fixed a bug with the Cryo Cannon's T5A ‘Fragile’ mod, where shattered enemies didn’t die as expected on higher hazards
- Fixed a bug causing the Shard Diffractor’s ‘Bio-Mass Converter’ mod to not work for clients
- Fixed a bug with the Turret Arc OC where the electric damage bonus from Gemini turrets didn’t cause any additional damage when used with some other weapons
- Fixed a bug causing Turret EM Discharge OC to not proc at certain angles
- Fixed a bug that caused the Stubby’s ‘Upgraded Capacitors’ mod to roll two proc attempts with a 25% chance, instead of one roll with a 50% chance to proc. Basically, now there’s a higher chance to proc the electric effect



As discussed in the preview post, we’ve cooked up a few tweaks to make enemy armor behave more consistently, and give more incentive to pick the ‘Armor Breaking’ modification on your weapons.

- Fixed a bug where projectiles for the Deepcore 40mm PGL, DRAK-25, and Hurricane could hit an enemy and break the armor, but not damage the enemy in the same hit. This is a big day for Hyper Propellant enjoyers
- Fixed a longstanding bug where Heavy Armor (as found on the Praetorian) did not scale in accordance with Hazard level.
- Fixed a bug where the Boomstick’s ‘Improved Blast Wave’ mod did not deal damage to armor. The shockwave now uses radial damage instead of custom damage, so it should work against armor now.



- Fixed a bug that caused Nayaka Trawlers (AKA sand sharks) to not target players unless damaged by players
- Fixed a bug that let players spam-deposit the same Kursite chunk over and over again, cheesing the Kursite Grinder event
- Fixed that Dreadnoughts were teleporting for clients in certain situations
- Fixed that Molly’s escape button would not appear in Industrial Sabotage missions if you completed the Contagion Spike cleaning objective last
- Fixed an issue where some AoE attacks themselves could be affected by status effects
- Fixed an issue that sometimes caused sleeves to not match the player’s loadout when displayed in the mission end screen
- Fixed a bug with doors on the Space Rig getting de-synced between players
- Fixed a bug where Mission Control would repeat On-Site Refining objective voiceline
- Fixed that the Grappling Hook would immediately pull Scout (ignoring the ‘casting’ time) when using Jet Boots
- Fixed a bug with the server list that caused Hazard 5 missions to always appear even when they should be locked, leading to new players accidentally joining Hazard 5 (lol)
- Fixed a bug that caused Bosco skins and frameworks to appear in Cargo Crates instead of the Lost Packs as intended.



- Experience earned for Weapon Maintenance skin rewards now carries over to other unlock levels. Now you can earn everything without having to check in and ‘redeem’ stuff you’ve already unlocked. A more detailed description is available in the preview post
- Reorganized the audio options, so there’s a stronger visual indicator that the ‘Character’ & ‘Mission Control’ volume sliders are both subject to the ‘Sound Effects’ volume slider
- The menu’s Audio tab now has a ‘Steam settings’ button for easier access to Steam’s own audio settings
- Renamed the Merch tab in the menu to “DRG Universe” and added a new module for Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor
- Got the Miner Community terminal's Discord integration to work more consistently (still can be a bit wonky, but at least it's better)
- Adding a small monitor near the Assignment Board that displays a countdown until a current seasonal event ends. This will first be visible during this year’s Anniversary Event. More on that real soon!



- Fixed some, probably made some new ones

Holy Hoxxes, how the months fly by! It’s nearly time for the next maintenance update for Deep Rock Galactic.

When we published our roadmap update in October 2023, we scheduled this second maintenance update for March 2024. But it’s done early! So we’re launching it here in February instead. And in a stroke of unprecedented creative genius, we’re calling it the February Maintenance Update.

We’ve been monitoring the bug reports on our PleaseFix portal, and for this update we've prioritized the issues that had the most community upvotes in there. Just like last time, we’re looking to fix and improve some features in the game – but we also couldn’t resist throwing in a fun little something extra. :)

The February Maintenance Update goes live on Monday, February 19th at 13:00 CET.

In this post, we'll take a look at some of the update's highlights!

We're also doing a live preview of the update, including a read-through of the complete patch notes, on our official Twitch channel on Thursday, February 15th starting at 13:00 CET. The recording will be available after, in case you're not able to tune in. We'll also share the full patch notes here on Steam when the update lands on the 19th.

Please keep in mind: this is not an exhaustive list of everything that's coming. There will be plenty more smaller tweaks and fixes beyond what we're mentioning here. This is just some of the bigger stuff.


One big focus for this update is enemy armor properties, and the armor breaking mechanic.
Don’t tell anybody, but this hasn’t actually worked quite as we intended since the game launched. hehe



This is a fix in two parts:

1. We're making it so the strength of Heavy Armor (like that on Praetorians) now scales properly with Hazard level. It never used to do this -- so the Heavy Armor on a Haz 2 Praetorian would be just as strong as it is on a Haz 5 Praetorian, for example. Light Armor has always scaled properly, though. But now the same works for Heavy Armor, so the beefy boys are getting a bit of beef back.
   
2. We've taken a look at the 'Armor Breaking' modification, as it's been inconsistent on some weapons. This mostly affected projectile weapons like the Deepcore 40mm PGL, or the Hurricane Guided Rocket System (which fire an actual physical object, unlike most other weapons in DRG, which are just hitscan). Now, when those projectiles strike a piece of armor and deal enough damage to destroy it, they will do so -- and, they will also deal full damage to the squishy bug meat underneath. This wasn't the case previously, and projectile weapons without the 'Armor Breaking' mod won't get that same advantage.

TL;DR - This will make it so Heavy Armor is a little more difficult to break on higher Hazard levels, but it will also mean that it behaves more consistently across all difficulties, and in response to different weapons. Plus, it creates more of an incentive to pick 'Armor Breaking' modifications on your weapons.


Another thing we've seen quite often on our PleaseFix portal is the issue with teleporting Dreadnoughts. Basically, a Dreadnought can sometimes zap to another location during a fight, making you miss your shots or teleporting the thing right in your face without warning. Either way, not ideal.

It basically only happens on the client end, and often depends on your latency with the host. So while this issue may have been rare for some of you, it's been aggravatingly frequent for others.

Anyway, we've spent a good chunk of time addressing this, so the days of the Surprise Dreadnought will soon be a thing of the past. Hopefully.


When we added the Weapon Maintenance system in November, the XP tracker would only reset to the next unlock level once you went in and claimed the weapon skin reward that you earned.

Some miners pointed out that this creates some possibilities to "waste" or miss out on earned XP that should otherwise have counted toward further progress. Fair point! We're fixing it.


We're making it so that the Weapon Maintenance system will count XP up to the maximum of what it'd take to claim all paintjobs for all weapons. This means that in theory, you'll now be able to unlock every single paintjob for every weapon, without ever checking the terminal, then go in and claim them all in one go. If you earned enough XP for that, of course.

A note here - The terminal will only track XP up to what's needed to unlock all existing paintjobs. So if you unlock everything, you can't "bank" all the XP you earn after that. When Season 05 arrives and the new Weapon Maintenance paintjobs come with it, you'll still need to earn those like usual.


For some time now, the Miner Community terminal on the Space Rig hasn't really worked so well. This made it very difficult to join the a chapter of the Interplanetary Miner’s Union, organize with other unionized miners on Discord, and collect union benefits.

While Management was very pleased with this situation, the Interplanetary Miner’s Union has threatened to strike. To avoid this, we've rolled up our sleeves to get the machine working again. We actually did this a few weeks ago, but it seemed relevant to mention it here.



Now, the terminal should more reliably allow you to join a union chapter, receive the chapter tag on our Discord, and check in to collect rewards for completing community milestones. You’ll need to have Discord running while you’re playing, though.

The terminal may still run into a hiccup now and again, because when we set it up, we didn't expect several hundred thousand people joining our Discord. It's a good problem to have, though. If your terminal still isn't working, please reach out to your union chapter representative.


For those who want more communication options than the ‘V’ key (though we can’t imagine why), we’re making it easier to access Steam’s general settings from within DRG’s own settings menu. That'll make it easier to get to the voice options and tinker with them.

Nothing groundbreaking here, just some simple QoL stuff. We hope it’ll be helpful for those of you that like to use it.


There’s a new beer coming to the Abyss Bar!

It’s called Hidden Dwarf Double IPA. We haven’t got the kegs shipped up to the Space Rig quite yet, so we haven’t had a chance to taste it. But we’re able to share a picture of the label, plus a description from the vendor:



Side note: this week also marks the Early Access launch of Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and SpellRogue!

These were developed by Funday Games and Guidelight Games respectively, and published via Ghost Ship Publishing. We’re very proud to help bring these games out into the world, and we’re super excited to hear what you think.

You can check out both games down below:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2321470/Deep_Rock_Galactic_Survivor/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1990110/SpellRogue/

Both games' developers will be joining us live on Twitch this week! Funday Games will join us on Thursday the 15th, and Guidelight Games will be there on Friday the 16th. We'll go live at 13:00 CET on both days.

That’s all for now! Hope everybody’s doing well.
We’ll be back real soon with the full patch notes, plus some more fun stuff to share. :)

With Love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew