Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core
Hoxxes IV, the alien mining world from Deep Rock Galactic, returns in Rogue Core as the backdrop for a roguelite first-person shooter. Up to four players descend through a hostile facility one level at a time and assemble their loadout from whatever turns up along the way, with each new attempt starting from scratch.
Compared with the original game’s missions, this spin-off leans harder into combat. Ghost Ship Games describes its cave generation as more linear, with fights staged in and around industrial structures instead of revolving around traversal and terrain work.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
- Builds the squad negotiates together - Upgrades don’t drop into personal inventories. They come from one shared pool, and players draft them in a randomized turn order, one pick at a time, with every card in a round sharing the same rarity. Taking the damage bonus you want can mean handing a teammate the armor perk they had their eye on, and much of a run’s planning happens in that exchange.
- Rock that gets out of the way - Every level can be dug through or blown apart. A blocked corridor turns into a tunnel, a high ledge into a set of steps cut with the pickaxe, and an incoming swarm can be met from a pocket hollowed out of the wall.
- A clock that keeps everyone moving - Exploration pays, but only up to a point:
- side passages often hold extra Expenite and supplies worth the detour;
- every minute spent there is a minute not spent heading for the elevator;
- stay too long and the Reaperworms come hunting.
Story and Lore
The trouble starts with Expenite, a newly discovered mineral valuable enough that Deep Rock Galactic secretly pushed its mining deeper into Hoxxes IV than any previous operation. Then, without warning, all of those dig sites went silent. The company calls the event the Grayout: a vast, temporary disruption that severed communications and sealed the sites off completely.
Conventional crews can’t fix it. The Grayout Barrier knocks out most technology it touches, and the corporation’s answer is the Reclaimers, an elite security unit sent through with minimal kit and orders to salvage the rest. On the other side waits the Corespawn, alien life reaching the facilities through a portal the company has labeled a Rift Gate. Each gate sits at the lowest level of its site, closest to the planet’s core, and destroying it is the measure of success. Survival of the squad, as the official briefing makes clear, is optional.
Longtime players can trace the setup back further. Ghost Ship framed Deep Rock Galactic’s fifth season as a thematic prelude to Rogue Core.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Missions are picked from a terminal aboard the Ramrod, the squad’s ship orbiting above the planet. Depth, rated from 1 to 4, is the main difficulty setting and also raises the payout, while facility length decides how many stages lie between the drop and the bottom.
Loadout
Before deploying, each Reclaimer chooses a Phase Suit with an active ability plus a starting weapon from a small randomized selection. Everything else is found underground. Five slots make up the kit:
- two weapons
- two support tools for mobility and utility
- one grenade
Heavy weapons and extra equipment can turn up in caches, at Workbenches or as rewards tied to Risk Vectors.
Expenite, the in-run economy
- Expenite veins line the cave walls, and mining them is how the team pays for power during a run.
- Ore goes into the R.E.P.D., a processing drone nicknamed Ellis, where it fills a progress bar the whole squad shares.
- The first upgrade unlocks at 120 Expenite. Each one after that costs more than the last.
- Upgrades hold until the run ends and are graded in rarity tiers that top out at Legendary.
- Depositing a Spectercore instead yields an Artifact: a powerful, unstackable modifier that often carries a drawback.
Workbenches appear on each level and can improve a weapon or ability or swap in a new gun. Hacked Bio-Booster containers, for their part, grant personal bonuses separate from the shared pool.
Descent and the Gatekeeper
Each stage ends at an elevator, and there is no way back up. Before the ride down, the team votes on Risk Vector cards whose modifiers stack for the rest of the run; some carry equipment or heavy weapons as compensation.
At the bottom, a Gatekeeper boss defends the Rift Gate. These encounters unfold in phases, and at set points the boss stays invulnerable until the squad throws Gatestones into the rift. Squads after a harder test can also take on Gauntlet missions, a separate and longer format.
Between runs
Back on the Ramrod, progress that outlasts a failed run sits in two systems. Enhancements form a perk tree whose equippable slots grow over time, and Ascensions fill the role Promotions played in Deep Rock Galactic. Character customization also happens on the ship, alongside downtime such as braiding beards and hitting the dance floor.
Characters and Factions
The Reclaimers
Reclaimers are Deep Rock Galactic’s elite corporate security force, and the Early Access roster has five of them:
- Guardian: the team’s protector, specializing in holding ground at close range. Its concussive blasts hurt enemies, and it tops up the squad’s armor.
- Falconer: sends up a drone that shocks enemies with electricity and can even bring a downed teammate back from range.
- Retcon: an aggressive, hologram-themed fighter whose signature trick is jumping back to an earlier point in spacetime to recover health and ammo.
- Spotter: the marksman of the group. Toxin darts mark and weaken targets, enemies show up through walls, and deployable ammo crates keep long firefights supplied.
- Slicer: fights up close with an energy blade that can cut most enemies apart. Speed and agility are what keep it alive.
The roster includes female dwarves, a first for the series. Asked whether they can grow beards, Ghost Ship’s reply was simply that they’re dwarves.
Aboard the Ramrod
The ship has its own resident: Omega, an AI that manages the Ramrod and lends its name to Omega’s Bar & Fitness, where Reclaimers spend their time between deployments.
The Corespawn
The company rates the Corespawn as more aggressive, more resilient and smarter than any other alien life it has met on Hoxxes IV. More than 20 enemy types fill the mines, among them species such as the Rafkan and the Shatterclaw. The Gatekeepers met so far are Gotoorak, Ramok and Molaktula.
Editions
Rogue Core is sold as a single base game, with cosmetic add-ons and two bundles built around it. None of the paid extras affect gameplay or progression.
- Standard Edition: the base game, including access to Early Access updates.
- Supporter Upgrade (DLC): the Stalwart Supporter pickaxe framework and paintjob, a gold-plated armor paintjob for every Reclaimer, gold gym equipment for the Ramrod’s fitness center, a Supporter badge and a gold name in chat. Requires the base game.
- Original Soundtrack (DLC): the game’s score as a separate download.
- Ultimate Reclaimer Bundle: base game, Supporter Upgrade and Original Soundtrack in one package.
- Deep Rock Galactic x Rogue Core Bundle: pairs the spin-off with the original Deep Rock Galactic.
A free First Responder DLC with an armor paintjob and a pickaxe paintjob has also been available to claim on Steam.