Rock and Stone, as always. Fans of Deep Rock Galactic have had plenty to celebrate throughout the journey of the title through the Early Access program on the Steam platform as the developers at Ghost Ship Games have been astounding transparent and open about the entire process.
With easily browsed road-maps with objectives that the developers managed to consistently hit, time and again, to having frank discussions with their fans about balancing and mechanics, it’s been a breath of fresh air to hop into the deepest mines of Hoxxes with three friends and try to desperately make it out in one piece, completing objectives along the way.
The title has recently reached its 1.0 launch, marking the end of DRG’s Early Access and the beginning of post-launch support that Ghost Ship has stated they’re planning on developing for; true to their word, Update 31 has just recently launched and it’s finally bringing some new secondary objectives for miners to conquer while they’re down there.
Granted, it isn’t the primary objectives that some may argue have grown a bit long in the tooth has players mine endlessly for Morchite, but the silver lining is that there is now a bit more of a shift in terms of what you need to do while you’re down there.
There are three new secondary objectives: the first and second deal with harvesting for seeds from spawning items in the mines. Gunkseeds spawn inside of hanging sacks of icky slime that will need to be popped to get the drop, while Ebonuts are more plant-like that need to be destroyed to pick up seeds. The third objective is pest control, tasking miners with destroying a swarm of small bugs before they multiply.
It ain’t much, but it’s honest work.
Beyond that, we’re looking at mainly clean-up from aspects that were cut while Ghost Ship ensured they could hit the deadline for release; hence the Update being coined as ‘What Was Left Behind’.
Minor bug fixes and some quality of life shifts that won’t directly affect your play, a new beer called Smart Stout, and multiple biomes have been updated to implement new shapes in the cave generation to help mix it up.
If you’re a bit concerned that we don’t have new primary objectives yet, you shouldn’t worry too much about it. Primary objectives are on the road map for upcoming development, and Ghost Ship is tracking the community’s desire to dive deep while not repeating the same tasks ad nauseam.
A small note; there’s a new enemy called the Korlok Tyrant-Weed, and it will break you into pieces time and again. With multiple sprouts that threaten to overwhelm your team, aim for the heart of the beast if you want to make it out alive. Killing this bad boy, and picking up the Tyrant Shards, will net your crew a nice income and XP boost if and when you finish the mission. We’re expecting Tyrant Shards to be playing a bigger role in the future of Deep Rock Galactic. Until that future presents itself, however, it’s Rock and Stone!
