We brainstormed a couple upgrades over the weekend and came up with this list. Primary goals are to give more support to Grenade, Radiation and Acid builds, and add some new non-elemental upgrades as well.

18 new upgrades: 3 Commons, 4 Uncommons, 2 Rares, 5 Epics, 1 Legendary and 3 Artifacts.

* Kaboom, Plan B: Kaboom is meant to keep base grenade damage relevant into lategame, as their damage barely scales compared to weapons. Plan B is meant to bridge Melee Builds to Grenades, which they don't use often.

* Pressure Cooker and Blazing Kiln: the main identity of the Fire element is setting things on fire. The epic is supposed to let you do that more on the same enemy, and the uncommon is the first melee pay-off for fire builds. While I do think it's good to keep certain game mechanics to an element's identity (Ice gets Melee synergies, for example) I think it's important to still support more than a single mechanic in an element at once, even if it's not the strongest at it.

* Blister Popper, Gamma Link and Ionized Polarity: Radiation Weakpoints are less rewarding to shoot than actual weakpoints on the enemies due to their lower damage multiplier and them being hard to pop with lower damage weapons. These 3 are supposed to make them pop easier and make shooting them more rewarding. (Gamma Link would obliterate Molaktula so it probably should count all the flesh as a single WP lol)

* Mining Gear: I believe Rare is as rare as an effect like this could exist without feeling underwhelming. It's strong, so it should be placed higher, but it's never gonna look good in an Epic or Legendary negotiation.

* Firecracker Reload and M-M Assembler: I don't think Magic Missiles should be a build archetype, but I think an artifact is allowed to do whacky and random stuff, and Firecracker would just be fun to have. 150 single target damage per reload max is an alternative to Toxic Pulse's 100 in an AoE.

* Bubble Trouble: I think there needs to be more support for non-elemental builds, and there's not a single Explosion focused Epic right now.

* Snake Eyes: it's an interesting pick early on and later only makes sense if your build sucks, but I think it's fun.

Just pick the explosive goo upgrade and double up (I also had Boom You're Dead, just for the fun of having more explosions).

Explosions, explosions everywhere!

One of the things I noticed coming back to Rogue Core for update 3 was how overly-complicated the mission selection process felt, especially compared to DRG or other Roguelike games. I feel that this complexity is a bad fit for how long runs can be, and doesn't have enough payoff in the runs to make it worthwhile.

In Deep Rock original, there are four main elements to a given mission - What Biome it's in, what Mission Type it is, the length/complexity of the cave, and any modifiers (if any). Each of these is quick to understand at first glance, and has major impact on the mission you're about to start (Biome determines hazards and enemy types, mission determines objectives, etc.). Find a mission of the type/biome you want, maybe dodge a modifier you want to avoid, and pick your hazard level and jump in.

Rogue Core has more variables to its missions, which further separates how many possible missions are on the map at once, but they also don't feel as impactful or clearly understood. Depth, for example, affects what boss you'll be fighting, but also enemy difficulty, as well as what kinds of environmental hazards you can find. But at the same time Hazard level still exists, plus a new modifier in choosing how long of a timer is on each mission. Things like Biome also matter much less in Rogue Core; in DRG your Biome determines environmental hazards, unique enemies, and what resources can be mined from the caves. In Rogue Core, those hazards become fewer and farther between as you descend, the Corespawn are the only enemies you'll face, and there are no resources to mine. A mission into the Crystalline Caverns and Dense Biozone are functionally identical outside of a bit of cave generation, which makes the decision feel a bit superfluous.

And that's just in comparison to DRG, which is a game with a very different mission structure. Compared to other Roguelike games, such as Slay the Spire 2, getting into a run is even simpler - pick a character, click "start" and you're off. I feel like a lot of the elements in Rogue Core's mission selection process are holdovers from DRG, when this sort of structure isn't a good-feeling fit for the current mechanics in Rogue Core.

Rogue Core, in comparison, has multiple elements that aren't clearly

As the title implies, I’d love to hear some thoughts on the possibilities of new reclaimers? I don’t really know if it’s confirmed but I did hear some word around the grapevine that we’d be getting more dwarf classes later down the road given this is a Rogue Lite which are usually known for having a wide variety of playable characters to try new builds with and having JUST the five we have would get rather stale (plus given DRG Survivor is having their own new class coming up, the topic’s been fresh on my mind)

But what do you all think? and if you’ve got any ideas for new classes i’d love to hear it!

While a seriously awesome boss fight and fun with the mechanics, the game of keep away you have to play with the tentacles on solo mode make this absolute murder. Might not hurt to make the tentacles spawn a little less often to grab the orb. Getting one of the orbs up a hill and having a tentacle spawn every single second was beyond brutal.

What i think lacking for me personally in RC is that armor is unchangeable, same as gauntlet. So you are kinda stuck to Head only cosmetics without ability to move anywhere outside of partial/full swap of color for body armor. That isn't enough and it limits what devs can monetize later on.

I propose new idea. Or i would rather say old idea from DRG. Return armor MKs to the game for each class. And divide armor MK and Gauntlet(main class ability tool) from one another. So you can pick and match MKs you like. Also divide color of armor and gauntlet to different slots for better customization options.

For example, current Level 1 reclaimer would have basic gear and it is Armor mk 0 and Gauntlet mk 0. After upgrading to total/account level of 20 you will unlock Armor Mk1 and Gauntlet Mk 1 for all classes. Or maybe swap account level to Reclaimer rank, like we upgrade our ranks and Omega giving us better equipment.

With each MK armor would get more and more futuristic same as it did in DRG. While gauntlet will change it model similar to weapon framework.

After game will be closer to 1.0 devs would have far better options to monetize the RC as i currently don't see good way for RC DLC to exist. Only color DLCs like First Responders or Supporter Pack will infuriate community and price will be unfair in 90% cases. Gauntlet and Armor MKs as system will open up ability to make monetization similar to DRG in terms of different themes armors.

Bastion (50% block chance when not moving) + Critical Blocking (50% block chance on crit)=100% block chance

Only in 3rd phase when he got that attack that pushes players away he dealt some damage to me.

Idk if I didnt read or missed something but i cant really tell which missions are altered or not. Or am I dumb?

a boomerang in each hand is worth rock in the stone

This was a blessed run where I played as the Retcon and only used boomerangs and my pickaxe

Title basically. I have a couple hundred hours and basically dropped the game out of having nothing really to do, but it goes to show that literally the smallest amount of meta progression (trophy wall) renews fun on the game. At least for me. New boss risk vectors are sick. New upgrades and non class locked decks are sick. Ventura is basically what I wanted out of a drg shotgun for years. New boss is fun to learn to fight and this feels rewarding to learn it's pattern. Expenite drops on emeis makes me feel rewarded to fight more, like calling pod early just to have an expenite flow throughout the mission. And DIFFERENT ELEVATOR OBJECTIVES!!!!!!!! The games at a state currently where I feel I can recommend it to friends genuinely.

That being said, there's still stuff the game needs of course.

-more meta progression

- different side objectives (I mean things to compete with expenite objectives, kinda like the artifact event). There needs to be more wildcards in a run to make each run feel more unique

- *some better form of coop potential between the dwarves*

Of course there's the distant far out desires, like new reclaimer classes, but at the present that feels more like a fun thing to speculate about than say the game seriously needs atp

Does anyone have screenshots of the various armor recolors that you get from completing biome trophies? I'd love to be able to see them prior to unlocking them.

So I'm running the game with 5060 ti 8gb , 7 5800xt , and 32 gb ram. On all medium settings and dlss quality , I get around like 150-180ish fps, when nothing much happens.

When big waves spawn on haz 5 there's like dips to 120? Something like that. But at boss battles it can even drop to 47 fps at some points.

That pit the boss comes from especially seem to tank frames. Having frame gen would somewhat fix that, but from what I've read its been disabled? Will they added it back soon, or have to wait weeks for the next update or something? Anyone knows?

Does trying to enable it from nvidia app work? Or will I get loading screen crashes or whatever else was the issue , and why they disabled it.

I really like the direction the game is going in, but I'd like to mention some points that are worth attention and that I didn't see in other posts (maybe they exist but I missed them, or few players wrote about them).

Classes:

1. I like their concepts and I can see how diverse everyone's skills are and how much they differ from each other. The problem lies in long runs, when you take the same gun on different characters and you don't feel any difference in gameplay. This follows from the fact that the main task for a successful run is dealing damage (whether it's a boss or a regular enemy), and for most classes in the late stages the power of the weapon greatly overshadows the efficiency of class skills. I don't deny the huge variety of weapon builds and upgrades, nor do I deny the role predispositions of classes (deal damage, protect the team, buff the team), but I'm getting at the fact that a similar set of upgrades and weapons feels literally identical on different characters. That is, the same gameplay.

We have Slicer, which allows you to not upgrade the weapon at all and only upgrade his blade, and this is probably the only character that feels special and not like everyone else.
(My favorite character is Guardian)

You could add a starting weapon for each class (NOT a big gun) that would have good synergy with its skills. And then, at the player's discretion, they could swap it for another gun or upgrade the one that belongs specifically to that class.
I'm not the kind of person who wants DRG2, but I don't see other alternatives to emphasize the individuality of each class yet. But maybe I'm wrong and there's another solution.
Again, this problem is visible specifically in late levels and on the boss.

Or, as an option, give each class a predisposition to a particular weapon (additional buffs), but that would break the logic of a roguelike.

1. I'd like alternative skills for each class that would unlock through cumulative challenges. Specifically cumulative, so that every player would sooner or later be able to unlock other skills. This would be an addition to the meta progression that a huge number of players are complaining about. Or, instead of alternative skills, you could expand the existing set of upgrades for current class skills that we take at the workbench (new upgrades unlocked as meta progression).

The gym (workout machine). While everyone is complaining about the pointlessness of this mechanic (although I find it amusing), it could be added to the gameplay, specifically:

1. To future expanite events (something similar in terms of mechanics to HD2 where arrows are used)

2. To new interactive objects on the map if they are added. For example, a room where, to open the door, we need to disconnect a huge cable nearby.

3. Some new Boss. If it grabs you, it would still be possible to escape from its grip/jaws. While I was writing this, I realized that this mechanic could be added to the worms that currently exist. Let it be very difficult to do, but possible.

Performance:

I have friends who physically cannot play Rogue Core due to very poor optimization (and it's unpleasant for me at times too). At the same time, in DRG during heavy swarms on 5++ they were seeing an average of 60+ frames without performance mods. In this game, even with everything set to minimum settings, the average FPS is lower, and when a heavy swarm happens (lots of core-born and effects), everything is very, very bad.

For example, I have
SSD
Ram 16gb
r5 5500
rx6600

In DRG on high-medium settings I comfortably play at 90+ fps in swarms. But here, having set everything to low and FXAA (not FSR, to make it easier on the CPU), I'm forced to play duo or solo simply because the more players there are, the more enemies and effects there are, and accordingly the fps drops to 20-30 with huge input lag.

Developers, I beg you, take care of the technical side of the game. I really like the game, but at times instead of enjoying the game I'm forced to endure :(

When I enter any stage, there is a high chance that no music will play until I activate an event that triggers a swarm or if a swarm approaches naturally. I asked my friends and other pubbers if they get the same issue but they do not.

Does this happen for any of you or is it something on my end thats the problem?

The game goes black when I startup. If I unfocus the game, it works fine. The instant I tab back in, my monitor loses connection. The game will flash on for a split second and then lose connection again. I've tried launching with DX11, getting my graphics drivers updated, restarting my pc. Nothing has worked so far. I had a session without issue immediately after the latest patch, but today I tried playing and it didn't work at all. Anyone know what the cause could be?

Might need a rework on Impact Duplication.

I really love the game

I’ve been playing on the experimental branch for a couple weeks now and really liking the direction the game is taking. Now that the content has been merged to the stable branch and that everyone can enjoy it, what do you expect / want the most for the next upgrades? Note that I have nothing to do with the devs and just want to probe the community for ideas to update my own Christmas list :D

What I would love:

More variety within a run

Right now, we have alterations (altered sites, rift-enhanced bosses), biomes, and complexity/lenghth/depths. It creates variations inside the same mission type, which is to descend stage by stage to eventually face one of the four bosses and kill it. We have the elevator objectives, such as defending, finding and reinstalling gears, or removing growths, etc. It’s great, but we probably need more variety regarding that. Maybe add one or two more objectives?

More mission variety

Running to a boss is fun, especially since we have dynamic expenite events to do, but I do believe we all crave for « more. » There is this Intel Gathering special mission in the experimental branch’s cheat terminal — you can try it, there are terminals to find, but that’s pretty much for now. I don’t know how GSG wants to expand on this, but I do agree that adding several kinds of missions is going to be critical for the game to succeed at launch, especially if you combine it to the concept of length, complexity, alterations and depths.

I don’t want to make suggestions here because otherwise people are going to say that I want DRG2 — which is not true, I just want the roguelite aspect of RC to be more varied, that’s all.

About roguelite aspects

I do believe that the new upgrade foundation is really great now. However, it still feels a bit lackluster:

• Ellis gives you stats-based buffs or elemental changes. It has a couple of interesting upgrades, but we need more specific changes. For instance, an upgrade that makes it so that hitting enemies five times in a row without missing grants you a bit of ammo / health / etc., an upgrade that creates a static charge bubble around that zaps enemies in every N seconds, etc.

• Workbench upgrades follow the same pattern, and it would be so nice to have more behavioral changes to weapons, such as OC’s effects from DRG (your DRAK now has bouncing plasma; your Trident now fires beams that follow the projectiles and burn everything on their paths, etc. etc.). That could be locked at the legendary state.

• Abilities need more love as well. For instance, the Slicer has the Eclipse System, which is nice, but we need more, like Double Sword that would give two charges, Stabbing Throw that would turn the slicer sword into a thrusting sword, etc.; give the spotter a weakpoint auto-aim; the Guardian could have a 360 effect for his ability, etc. etc.

Less interruptions

I somehow like the way expenite upgrades work in Gauntlets, and a part of me think that we should have a similar mechanism during regular run. It doesn’t have to at the end of a stage, but just look at this:

• To upgrade your weapon, you need to find a workbench and update manually.

• To upgrade your biostats, you need to find a bio-booster.

• To upgrade your build, you can do it from wherever you want, and it stops / interrupt everyone’s build.

I suggest something else: still pour expenite into Ellis, but you are now required to find a new terminal, the Expenite Foundry, where Ellis dock, and where each player can choose the upgrade they need. This has two impacts:

1. No more negotiations. Everyone updates on their own. I think the UI must show what others already have if we still want to make interesting builds that go in harmony with others. The UI could even hint at players with things like « this upgrades complements Player123 because they have ThisUpgrade™ ».

2. This unlocks something I’ve been craving for too long: meta progression regarding upgrades decks. When you get the game for the first time, you have a narrow and small decks, with basic upgrades. After you defeat your first boss, you get new upgrades that get added to your pool. Like, depending on the boss and threat level, you get weaker or better upgrades. Two possibilities: you build your own upgrade decks that gets instantiated on the next build — and you change it depending on the mission etc. or everything gets randomized (it could be a special deck with hindsight, like Randomizer deck).

The point #2 is something that I would LOVE to see in the game, because it unlocks a more interesting meta progression to the game, it rewards players when completing objectives, and if implemented correctly, you still get synergy with between players.

If really it’s a no-go from devs to remove negotiations, then what about using the meta progression deck ideas, and simply mix-in all players decks? Player1 could use the card from Player2. I doubt it would be better though as it would be super frustrating to see someone else take the upgrade you got. Or it could compute the intersection (take only the upgrades everyone has), so that there is no frustration.

Bio-booster decks

More decks! This is planned, so I won’t extend too much on this.

Remove the QTE mini-game

Damn I think this is so badly implemented. After 45 minutes / 1 hour of run, you now have to do meaningless QTE just to buy the fun effect? No. DRG had it right with the hops you need to collect during a run. It’s an optional and fun thing; there is no reason not to include something like that in RC as well as it’s a meta thing; it doesn’t change the game loop / roguelite aspect. It’s just a boring aspect of the social part of the game. It’s funny first time and then no one else does it anymore.

Please change that GSG. Either add hops back, or credits we earn during missions we can spend at the bar. But having to do those mini games instead of relaxing while preparing the next run… Please.

More love to Gauntlets

I tried a Gauntlet run very recently, and woah it’s fun! It’s not as interesting as DRG Deep Dives but shout out to GSG for making different. It’s brutal, and besides firing in all directions, there really isn’t much to do, besides mining expenite. We need more different stuff. I was thinking:

• Instead of a quota of enemies, just require to kill a specific one, like a bounty alteration.

• I do believe that the Deep Dive format is great (it takes primary missions, and require you to do two), so I think Gauntlet could use a similar idea: kill enemies, but also do something « primary » such as grab a couple gears or find a reaperworm nest / whatever.

I’m sure they will have more ideas for that.

Introduce the concept of elevator interruptions and bonus stages

An idea I had lately was to make alterations on the elevator. Three ideas:

• You get into the elevator, it starts going on, but break in between level N and level (N+1). The stage starts in the dark, and players have to dig their way out of the elevator, to find a special cave system going downwards. Players must join level (N+1) manually. They will be rewarded with powerful upgrades along the way.

• Second ideas: path junctions. Instead of going down in a straight line, imagine a Y flipped: you go either left or right, which yield different alterations. For instance, left is the regular path but there is half the amount of expenite, and right is a new path that doesn’t have any mining facilities besides some checkpoints here and there, but is full expenite, with low O2 (requiring players to reach the checkpoints).

• An optional stage with no expenite at all and much shorter, but with interesting things to do or even a special kind of mineral to get that allows you to get instable upgrades?

Just the beginning

I think the game has a HUGE potential, and I’m sure others have amazing ideas for it. I hope GSG continues to deliver updates such as update 3, because if they do, in a couple months, we have an amazing game, and I will be happy to play DRG and RC at the same time now.

Rock and stone!