Deep Rock Galactic Rogue Core 01 is live! See the Notes (17th June 2026)

Hello Reclaimers,

We're excited to launch the first major Update for Rogue Core! After much consideration, we have decided to call this first update 'Update 01'.

It's been a busy couple weeks leading up to this. We've been doing a lot of experimenting, tweaking and adjusting, including some big revamps to core game mechanics. We also squeezed in some new content for good measure. There's a lot in here. Mark made (and narrated) a trailer to explain everything, which you can watch via the embedded link above. Otherwise, you'll find the full list of changes and additions down below.

As always, your feedback is integral to our development process, so remember to join our Discord or hop on the Rogue Core subreddit and let us know what you think.

Welcome to Update 01! Let's get right into it.

---

--- GAMEPLAY UPDATES ---

Improved mission timer

We've updated the mission timer's UI to better communicate what's happening during a run.

• Improved timer feedback and readability
• The last segment of the timer is now visually distinct to communicate urgency
• Optional numerical countdown showing exactly when Reaperworms will appear

Assault Pace selection

To accommodate different player preferences for mission pacing, you can now select your preferred Assault Pace directly from the Mission Map. Adjusting the Assault Pace affects the time you have to complete each level and the mission XP rewards. Base reward values have been adjusted to accommodate these changes. We have also added new Tasks in the OpsCom terminal for each Pace.

You can choose from three Assault Pace options:

1. Cautious – Lower time pressure
2. Standard – Current experience
3. Reckless – Higher time pressure

R.E.P.D. upgrade process improvements

Initiating upgrades at the R.E.P.D. has been streamlined, so you no longer need to group up to start the process. This change applies to upgrades from Expenite as well as Spectre Cores.

Here's how it works now:

1. When an upgrade becomes available, a button will appear on the R.E.P.D.
2. Any Reclaimer can press it to initiate the upgrade process.
3. An upgrade link will be established with all Reclaimers on the team, regardless of their location.

Upgrade negotiations rework

We've made several improvements to the shared upgrade negotiation process, to make things more fun and give everyone more choices. We've been having a lot of fun with these changes ourselves, and we're keen to hear what you think.

Here are the key changes to upgrade negotiations:

• When a player selects an upgrade, it is replaced with a new option. This ensures everyone gets the same number of choices.
• The "Skip for Health" option has been removed. (Don't worry, we've made balances to account for this. More on that later.)
• Health upgrades now appear alongside all other upgrades.
• All upgrades within a draft now share the same rarity. Either you all luck out together, or you all pick between common upgrades.

We have also tweaked many of the existing upgrades, changing some of them extensively and removing others to make every choice feel exciting and worthwhile. This will be an ongoing process, so consider this just a first iteration.

---

--- NEW CONTENT ---

New weapons

• Trident : A new weapon from the makers of the DRAK 25, the Trident offers two firing modes: Standard fire is a semi-automatic blast in a triangle shot pattern. Holding down the trigger will charge up a massive barrage for dealing with groups of targets, or inflicting devastating single-target damage.
• Corrosive Sludge Pump : Looks like goop is back on the menu. Offering a mix of crowd control and continuous DoT, the Sludge Pump is a versatile weapon that also excels at melting enemy armor. The weapon can be charged to lob a large projectile saturating an area in corrosive sludge.

New Expenite Upgrades

Besides tweaking existing upgrades, we have also introduced 14 new ones to add more variety and spice to your builds. We are far from finished here, so you can expect ongoing balance tweaks as well as new additions to the upgrade pool in later updates.

New airborne enemy

You'll now have to contend with the Voidkin Drifter, a brand-new flying threat to expand the combat variety. Highly mobile and hard to hit, the Drifter will only stop to charge up its ranged attack. While the Void Bolts it launches may be relatively slow, they pack a heavy punch. So watch out and don’t let yourself get surrounded.

New Risk Vectors

We have added 3 new Risk Vectors to the pool of possible choices, with one being negative and and the other two positive.

1. Drifter Surge : Brings in additional groups of the new Voidkin during your run.
2. Bio-Booster : Adds a second Bio-Booster to the level.
3. Workbench : Adds a second Workbench to the level.

New Core Biome

Our goal is to introduce a unique Core biome for each end boss.

With Update 01, we're adding a new Core biome for the Ramok boss, to give that fight experience a more distinct atmosphere and identity. For now, our friend the Molaktula will also use this biome until its own unique environment arrives in a future update.

New mining constructions

We've implemented 13 new mining constructions to the cave generation system, which ought to bring greater variety to facility exploration.

New OpsCom Deployments and Tasks

We have added 2 new Deployments to the OpsCom terminal. For both, you can progress in these challenges even without achieving total mission success.

• Eliminate Corespawn: Tracked as a team, not individual kills.
• Clear Facility Levels: Sometimes just making it one level deeper is a hard-fought win.

We have also added 3 new Tasks, one for each Assault Pace.

---

--- WEAPON BALANCE ---

We're making a broad pass on weapon balance and weapon selection pools, with the aim of making a more consistent difficulty floor across the game. Changes are as follows:

• All starting weapons are now common, but come with 2 attributes.
• Workbenches now have a chance for offering higher rarity weapons and traversal tools.
• Heavy Weapon Crates now have a wider rarity range.
• Additionally, several harder-to-master weapons (like the Shock Striker and Devastator) have been removed from the starting weapon pool on Depth 1, allowing new players to ease into the experience more naturally. They can still be found in the Workbench, and are still part of the starting pool on all other Depths.

A few individual weapons are getting balance tweaks as well. Tthis will be an ongoing process and feedback is always appreciated:

• Reduced base spread of the Boomstick
• Slightly reduced base damage of the Boomstick, but increased the number of pellets in a shell. This increases the overall damage done by one shot.
• Slightly reduced the max recoil of the Decker SMG
• Slightly increased base damage on the M1000
• Increased the focus speed and added a damage bonus to focus shots on the M1000
• Significantly increased the explosion damage of the PGL and reduced max ammo slightly to compensate
• Set Warthog to be full-auto by default
• Increased base damage on the Warthog slightly

---

--- BUG FIXES AND OPTIMIZATION ---

We've been doing a lot of tinkering to support general performance optimisation, both on the Ramrod and during missions. This includes a lot of specific optimisation for the myriad of particle systems, as these can get pretty hefty.

We also squashed a lot of bugs, including but not limited to:

• Autocannon shells bursting when passing through gas clouds, which caused Reclaimers to flash-bang themselves (lol)
• The Boss Rifts constantly spawning on top of hills, making players reenact the story of Sisyphus
• Players taking the Toolbox with them into the void if they disconnected while holding it
• The tutorial intro video being unskippable
• Players not getting their Ascension rewards if the host rudely disbanded during the ceremony
• Cooper dealing friendly fire damage to solo players (he will now play nice)
• OMEGA not flinching when a beer mug is thrown at his eye

---

--- MISCELLANEOUS ---

• More Munitions Crates have been added to the Facilities to improve ammo economy
• A lot more Red Sugar has been added throughout the caves to help offset the removal of "Skip for Health" option in every negotiation
• New tracks for the Jukebox: Disco, Smooth Soul, Funk, Soul
• New model and animations for beloved maintenance drone MOP-C
• Stacking of Enhancement tiers for a cleaner oerview in Loadout Terminal
• Auto-equipping the highest tier eEnhancements when unlocking new Enhancements
• Adding an Autosprint toggle in Options
• Upon OMEGA's request, Leaf Lovers is now free at the bar

---

--- FREE DLC: 'FIRST RESPONDER' ---

We've put together a little token of our gratitude for all of you who have joined us in these early days of Rogue Core, and helped us shape and sharpen the game. This free DLC is for you. Thanks for being among the first on-site, helping us identify issues, share feedback, and develop the future of Rogue Core.

The FIRST RESPONDER DLC pack is now available for free on Steam. Just head over to the page below to collect it.

---

We're really excited to hear what you think of all the new stuff! We hope you'll have as much fun with it as we've been having. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts along the way — these changes wouldn't be possible without your input.

Now go take back Hoxxes, Reclaimer. Rock and Stone.

With love,

- The Ghost Ship crew