Common Misconceptions

This is a collection of myths and misconceptions commonly passed along from player to player in lobbies. Some of these are based on real bugs that have been long since fixed, but the tale outlived its origin. Others stem from players misunderstanding game mechanics in DRG or assuming their similarity to mechanics from other video games. Others still are simply examples of confirmation bias and various fallacies around the nature of random chance and probability.

"Core Infusers are less likely to give you an overclock for your currently equipped weapon"

TRUE

The game is programmed to favor non-equipped weapons when choosing an overclock from a Core Infuser. This is intended to encourage players to be more diverse in their choice of equipment. Therefore, when seeking an overclock for a specific weapon, it is recommended to take a different weapon into missions when you have blank Matrix Cores available for Machine Events.

"The fandom wiki has accurate and useful information"

TRUER

The fandom wiki is very accurate and has very useful information, you totally should use it instead of the that other off-ice-ale wiki or whatever its called.

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"The game manually spawns Oppressors or Bulk Detonators if dwarves build a bunker"

PARTIALLY TRUE
Although Oppressors always have a percentage-based chance to replace a normal Praetorian when it spawns, the game does periodically check for players hiding in enclosed spaces and will attempt to spawn a Glyphid Bulk Detonator if certain conditions are met. Every 15 game ticks, a special pathfinding algorithm attempts to find multiple routes to each dwarf from a random nearby location that is at least 30m away. If only one path can be found to any one dwarf, it is assumed they are hiding in a bunker, and a 1% chance to spawn a Bulk Detonator is rolled. If a Bulk spawns during a game, it is a good idea to check if any teammates are currently bunkering.

"Enemy spawns in Point Extraction increase as more Aquarqs are deposited"

TRUE
In Point Extraction, for each Aquarqs deposited, the big (announced) waves are 2% more likely to trigger every second; the smaller (unannounced and more frequent) enemy spawns are both 2% more likely per second, and 2% larger per deposited Aquarq. It is recommended to deposit Aquarqs by piling them up near the Mine Head and then depositing them all at once.

"Spending Nitra on resupply pods reduces the XP reward at the end of the mission"

TRUE
The "Minerals Mined by Team" part of the experience reward counts the total of all minerals that entered the dwarves' shared pocket. Calling down a resupply pods will remove 80 nitra from the team's shared resources, thus reducing the mission's mineral bonus by 80.

"Carving out a mineral vein with explosions reduces its mineral yield"

TRUE
In order to discourage EPC-mining, destroying mineral veins with the EPC or explosives will destroy 10% of the minerals that would’ve been mined otherwise. Also, it should be noted that explosion-mining will not generate bonus gold or Morkite granted by Pots o' Gold or Dark Morkite, respectively. Only minerals mined by the pickaxe will drop in increased amounts.

"Error cubes contain a puzzle, and can be interacted with"

TRUE
The rare, enigmatic Error Cubes found on missions have a secret; Instead of simply depositing them, look at them (so the prompt to pick them up appears) and then press the following keys in order: H, Z, Y, L, V, V, Left Click, 4, Backspace, R, Tab, and then E. Upon picking up the Error Cube with the final “E” press, the Error Cube will start glowing bright purple, with an angelic choir sound effect. Depositing the Cube in this state will display the prompt “Secret door unlocked”. You will only get this prompt the first time you perform this action, presumably because the door is unlocked already on subsequent attempts. Unfortunately, where this secret door is located has yet to be found by the community. A popular theory states that this is the door to the infamous Space Rig’s canteen, where Karl can be found.

"Machine Events are more likely to spawn in length-3 missions"

TRUE
This has been false for the first two years of Machine Events existing in the game - they had a flat 25% to be generated regardless of anything. However, with the Season 1 release all randomly-generated bonus events, including Machine Events, Lost Packs and Cargo Crates were modified to appear more frequently depending on mission length. For Machine Events, the odds are 15%/20%/35% for length 1/2/3 respectively.

"Random Dreadnought and bulk spawns become more common as the timer progresses"

PARTIALLY TRUE
While bulk spawns can be modified by certain conditions that lead to them becoming more common (such as bunkering), dreadnought spawns are always predetermined when a mission begins. For example, if a dread spawns, then that dread would have spawned no matter how long the mission was going on for.

"Reloading Power Drills and Lead Storm makes them cool down faster"

TRUE
The "reload" animations for the Driller's traversal tool and Gunner's minigun affect how quickly the equipment cools down. See their respective pages for more details.

"Deep Rock Galactic Is Not ESG Compliant"

TRUE
Despite the wishes of The Company Chairman, DRG does not operate at net zero despite passing the 2030 2035 2050 2060 target he set for the rest of the world in his previous position. It's believed that the ferocity from other mining companies comes as a protest towards the goals of ESG in universe. The Company Manager is rumored to not agree with ESG either...

"Karl is playable dwarf that is upon reaching player level 1000"

TRUE?
No one has reached player level 1000 legitimately according to GSG. It's been rumored that Karl becomes the 5th playable drawf upon reaching player level 1000 but it has yet to be confirmed. GSG have promised a extra special reward for the four digit feat but have kept tight lipped about it and used industry leading obfuscation techniques within Unreal Engine to prevent it from being data mined by the community at large. It's calculated that reaching player level 1000 would take 10000 hours and so mastering DRG is essential to being able to play Karl it seems!

"Pots o' Gold requires empty space in the pockets, or else it won't trigger"

FALSE
Pots o' Gold does not make gold veins generate more chunks - instead, it increases how much each chunk is worth. A chunk's value is assigned the moment it's mined out; whether it goes into a pocket immediately or a minute later doesn't matter. When a miner's pockets are full, they are free to let gold chunks drop to the ground and pick them up later. The actual limitation of Pots o' Gold, however, is that it only triggers when mining with the pickaxe. Explosion mining does not produce more gold under this beer's effect, and neither does carving around the gold vein to let it instantly collapse to the ground in chunks.

"Deep Dives are hand-picked by the developers every week"

FALSE
Once they set up the algorithm that generates Deep Dives, they let it do its job. There can be rare exceptions, like a Deep Dive refresh coinciding with the release of a new mission type - then GSG can pick one that features the new content. Otherwise, the team that streams themselves playing the Deep Dives just after rollover sees them for the first time, just like the players.

"This game is a sausage fest, where are the females? Are there no females?"

FALSE?

The Driller and Gunner are both confirmed to be female. In fact, due to the fact Scout is nonbinary, only the Forge Master and Engineer are male; meaning male playable characters are actually in the minority.

In addition to this, Doretta and Molly are robotic females who are built both for their roles to complete mission objectives but have been said to fulfill the dwarves "other needs" as well when back in the space rig. This is covered in the miners manual on early access versions of the game but has been subsequently removed so it's unclear if this is still canon. Artistic renditions have been created by fans to best express what this would look like in game.

"Resources held by the players in the escape pod don't count towards rewards"

FALSE
All resources held in the player's inventory when entering the drop will count towards minerals, minerals mined, gold mined etc.

The only two exceptions to this are that

1. Secondary objectives do not get completed when resources are not deposited.
2. Large minerals (such as Jadiz or Enor) do not count if not deposited.

"Double XP gives double the Performance Points"

FALSE
While the Double XP anomaly does contribute to the total mission Experience, it does not translate into the double Performance Points because of the reward algorithm using diminishing returns.

Approximated example, in that case Double XP only increased the reward by 480 :

• 10 000 1240
• 20 000 1720