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.

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

Mission progress has no effect on enemy spawns in Point Extractions. The big (announced) waves come at regular intervals; the smaller (unannounced and more frequent) enemy spawns increase in size - but not in frequency - as time goes on. Since growing mini-waves take longer and longer to clear, the miners will have less and less breathing room between big swarms, eventually reaching a point of constant onslaught. It makes no difference whether dwarves deposit Aquarqs as they find them or pile them up near the Mine Head to deposit them all at once.

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

The "Minerals Mined by Team" part of the experience reward counts the total maximum of all minerals that entered the dwarves' shared pocket. Calling down no resupply pods at all and spending every bit of Nitra on resupplies will have the same result as far as minerals mined are concerned.

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

This myth is directly related to the technique of EPC-mining, but is often extrapolated to Satchel Charges and the Engineer's grenade launcher. There used to be a bug like this introduced with one of the updates, but it was switfly patched out in a hotfix update. No matter the mining method, a mineral vein will always drop the same amount.

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.

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

Neither mission length nor cave complexity are considered by the game when rolling for a Machine Event. It is generated with a constant 25% chance for any mission. A common counterpoint is that larger cave systems have more spots for Machine Events to spawn, and therefore are still more beneficial for someone looking to "farm" them. This is hardly relevant, however, since ME installations are not at all picky about where they spawn, sometimes hanging halfway off a steep cliff, residing on top of hazardous terrain (e.g. lava geysers) or carving a flat circular area for themselves if the randomly-assigned space wasn't big enough.

False: "The game is more likely to award overclocks for classes you're playing the least to discourage "maining" a class"

Which overclock is awarded from assignments and Deep Dives is completely random. It might seem like you never get cores for who you are currently playing, but this is simply how probability works. There are four classes, meaning a 25% chance for each of them to be picked for a core drop. Therefore, when you are playing any class, there is a 25% chance for the reward to match it and a 75% chance for the reward to be for a class you're not currently playing.

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

The "reload" animations for the Driller's traversal tool and Gunner's minigun are just that - animations. They do not affect how quickly the equipment cools down.

False: "The "Exploder Infestation" warning makes Bulk Detonators more likely to spawn"

It may seem logical that there would be a connection between "Exploder Infestation" and those creatures' much bigger relative, but in reality there is nothing in the game files to signify that this is anything more than confirmation bias.

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

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.

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

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.

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

There doesn't seem to be any code in the game capable of recongizing and reacting to player tactics. Although Bulk Detonators are indeed drawn from a special spawn pool, it doesn't depend on the presence of bunkers. Oppressors have a percentage-based chance to replace normal Praetorians in a wave and do not reuse the special spawn pool rules. Neither of those enemies are more or less likely to appear in response to how the players approach combat.

False: "Doretta's health goes up faster if several dwarves are repairing her"

While the drilldozer's speed depends on how many dwarves (and enemies) are in close vicinity, this is not the case for repair speed. Only one player has to be repairing the damaged sides, and Doretta's health does not replenish faster with more dwarves repairing.