“Season…6…” I gasp by means of a parched throat and unwashed beard. “Want…season 6…of well-liked subterranean co-op shooter Deep Rock Galactic, developed by Ghost Ship Video games…”
Mr. Ghost Ship himself stands over my skeletal physique, knees and elbows shredded to the sinew from almost a 12 months and a half of crawling by means of the replace desert. “How about Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor’s current 1.0 launch, or our upcoming, if sadly delayed, roguelike spin-off Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core?”
“I imply…they’re alright,” I croak. “However season…siiiiiiiiiix…”
“Okay, okay,” he concedes. “It’s referred to as Relics of Hoxxes and it’s out in Q1 2026, which in English is between January and March.”
“Ah…good.”
Good certainly. OG Deep Rock’s season 5 left the sci-fi dwarf delver in good condition earlier than its builders shifted focus to getting Rogue Core prepared for an early entry launch. However, an unexpectedly prolonged funding within the latter has in flip pushed again a return to DRG Prime’s seasonal schedule. Ghost Ship have now introduced that whereas Rogue Core is being delayed additional to Q2 (April to June) 2026, season 6 – which was initially going to launch after the spinoff – is as a substitute coming first, having been put collectively underneath supervision by fellow Danish studio and Neighbours: Suburban Warfare devs Invisible Partitions.
Outsourcing is a dangerous enterprise, however I’m liking how meaty Relics of Hoxxes seems. Set after your mineral-hungry employers tunnelled into the unexplored pits of bugworld Hoxxes IV, it provides the primary new biome in years: Ossuary Depths, an eery, decaying cave realm the place the bones of the lifeless litter the bottom like McDonald’s wrappers on Woolwich excessive road. Yours would possibly be part of them, in case your mining group falls foul of the brand new breed of Ossiran enemies. In distinction to the spider-like Glyphids, the Ossiran come bearing bitey, stag beetle-ish pincers; confirmed variants embrace the pesky flying Scrab and the Pit Jaw, who lies in wait underground earlier than chomping on intruders like a hungry landmine. We’ve been kindly supplied with these behind-the-scenes pictures displaying how, exactly, they’ll fuck up a Driller.
Step 1: Don’t do that.
Step 2: No, fool, you probably did this.
There’s additionally the Bone Collector, a cowardly type who’ll flee into Ossiran-dug side-tunnels when noticed. You possibly can monitor them again to their nests and loot their hoard of invaluable minerals, offered you possibly can survive any counter-ambush by the bugs whose dwelling you’ve simply ransacked.
A brand new mission sort is a part of the season 6 bundle, too. Heavy Extraction excursions see your crew finding and digging out an enormous chunk of amber someplace on the map, earlier than strapping it with rocket boosters to ship it hovering again as much as the House Rig. It doesn’t sound as intricate or as dramatic as, say, season 5’s Deep Scan missions, which crescendoed with a silly-fun experience on an enormous drilling platform, however look, it’s been seventeen months. A dwarf’s gotta eat. Heavy Extractions will instantly begin showing within the weekly Deep Dives too, as soon as the brand new season lands.
“We’ve labored carefully with our buddies at Invisible Partitions to assist form season 6 into the very best expertise for our group,” Ghost Ship recreation director Mikkel Martin Pedersen stated in a press release. “After six months of working collectively and exploring totally different ideas for DRG expansions, we’re assured within the group’s imaginative and prescient for the upcoming season, whereas we work onerous on the way forward for the Deep Rock Galactic franchise and Rogue Core.”
On the subject of Rogue Core, a delay to mid-2026 means it’s lacking its authentic 2025 window. I feel that’s for the perfect – I’ve performed a few of the present closed alpha and it’s promising, significantly in a “Hey, this truly does really feel totally different to common Deep Rock” type of method, which I didn’t count on upon its reveal in 2023. However it’s additionally, fairly clearly, nonetheless working itself out. The synergy between lessons isn’t as enjoyably tight as in DRG, and whereas I see the essential attraction of a extra harmful, action-heavy method, the builds I’ve performed have up to now felt barely too sweaty for me to see myself placing one other…Christ, 553 hours into Rogue Core like I’ve with the unique recreation.
In equity, an alpha is however an alpha, and it’s nonetheless getting substantial updates. Simply final week, Alpha Replace 04 added a model new dwarf class: Retcon, a time-rewinding trickster who can revert to an earlier state to realize again well being and ammo, and even salvage a run if the entire group will get downed without delay. I’m clearly extra determined for the nourishment of season 6, however I’ll be checking in Rogue Core’s continued progress.
