Deep Rock Galactic gets its first major post-launch update in October

(Image credit: Ghost Ship Games)

Update: Ghost Ship Games has pushed the release of the update back by a couple of weeks, to October 22, in order to allow for "a bit more refinement."

"We’re just about to hit a public school holiday here in Denmark, which means that some of our key crew will be unavailable for a week, and launching a big update like this without them isn’t viable," the studio said. "This, together with increased COVID-19 precautions and our refusal to engage in crunch-time at Ghost Ship Games has led to us postponing the update two weeks."

The good news is that the delay will give the team more time to collect and adjust to feedback on the update that's currently available in the experimental branch.

The new On-Site Refining mission type will require players to fill on-site refineries with liquid Morkite, which will require that they be hooked up to Industrial Pumpjacks via "huge, winding pipelines." Escort Duty, the other new mission type, is a high-risk, high-reward quest for the Ommoran Heartstone. The only way to get it is with the Drilldozer, an autonomous machine capable of piercing the outer shell of the Ommoran—your job is to keep the machine safe and gassed up while it grinds away.

Developer Ghost Ship Games posted a handful of short gameplay videos teasing the new mission types, including this one, which I assume is meant to show off just how huge and winding those On-Site Refining pipelines can get:

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Update 32: Roughnecks at Work, as it's technically called, will also include "an array of weapon balances, new milestones and achievements, and new dwarf-shouts to keep the party motivated." And there will be a new Roughnecks at Works Assignment that will explain how to complete these new mission types, hopefully without dying horribly.

Players who don't want to wait for the update to go fully live on October 8 will be able to jump into it on September 29 by way of the Deep Rock Galactic experimental branch, a kind of "Early Early Access" for upcoming additions to the game. Do note, however, that the experimental branch may have incomplete features, weird bugs, and be prone to crashing, among other things.

If you don't think that sounds like a good time, you can get a safer look at what's coming tomorrow, September 25, during a Twitch livestream of the On-Site Refining mission that will begin at 6 am PT/9 am ET. A second livestream, showcasing the Escort Duty mission, will run at the same time on September 29, and for the benefit of those who don't feel like getting up quite that early, both sessions will also be posted to the Ghost Ship YouTube channel.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.