Summary
Deep Rock Galacticis a creative first-person shooter that’s been around for more than 5+ years and is still very much alive due to a dedicated dev team and an entirely wholesome fanbase. It’s a game that relies on players working cooperatively in an attempt to explore distant planets for minerals and other resources while defending against the alien insects that live on them. With plenty of entertaining things to do besides mining ore, it is also important for the player to focus on upgrading their character (this goesfor the new spin-off game,Deep Rock Galactic: Survivoras well)
These optional bonuses can help not only the players themselves but also their co-op partners when facing the dangers across each planet, especially as players can take on these challenges at different difficulties. With nine tiers of Perks to upgrade, there are a wide variety of Perks with both active and passive effects for the player to achieve. These are by far the best Perks forDeep Rock Galacticplayers to invest in.
Updated July 12th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter:Deep Rock Galactic is a truly unique franchise in the way that it’s so wholly beloved by its fanbase, regardless ofthe quality of each season. Whether it’s the classic Deep Rock Galactic or the more recently released Vampire Survivors-like gameDeep Rock Galactic Survivors, fans are happy with the quality of these games. There’s an absurd amount of content in each game, with tons of new things to unlock,new weapons to try out, and new Overclocks to grind for. Perks, in particular, make a huge difference in DRG, regardless of whether you’re playing on a standard level or in a Deep Dive. So, with that in mind, let’s give a complete overview of all the Perks players can obtain in the game.
Disclaimer:In the tables below, the ‘*’ symbol will let players know that these three statistics are based on the Perk’s current Tier level in the Perk Upgrade tree.
13Perk Menu Overview
A Look at a Fully Upgraded Perk Menu
Upgrading your way through the Perk Tree isDeep Rock Galacticis going to take some time, regardless of how good of a dwarf miner you are. It takes a ton of Perk Points, levels, and so on to get the highest level of Perks available, so we’ve attached a video above that hovers over every single Perk at every single stage of it’s upgrades so that any players who don’t have the tree fully decked out yet can get a picture of what it looks like when complete.
Born Ready
Unequipped weapons automatically reload after *15/10/5 seconds.
First up is Born Ready, a Passive Perk that isn’t unlockeduntil the Dwarf in questionreaches the seventh tier of Perks in the tree. Now the function of this Perk is pretty simple, stowed weapons are automatically reloaded after a certain amount of time passes (based on the Tier of the Perk of course).
And, while this certainly is a convenience, it’s not all that noticeable of an effect until Tier 3. Also, for the most part, this is a Perk that is only really useful on one character, the Engineer. A lot of the Engineers' weapons have high damage output but long reload times and low ammo capacity, which is where this Perk comes in handy. Additionally, there’s nothing worse than jumping off a ledge as an Engineer, pulling out the Platform Gun to fire straight down to break the fall, only to find out it needs to be reloaded.
Perk Description
Thorns
Any time an enemy attacks the player’s dwarf with a melee attack it will take *6/12/18/24 damage in return.
Out of all the Perks on here, this is the one that players will probably notice the least mid-combat. That said, it’s still helpful, especially for Swarmers and Naedocyte enemies. With Thorns, players will automatically deal damage to enemies that deal melee damage to them, once per 0.75 seconds.
This means that the Perk isn’t particularly helpful against a swarm of Swarmers due to the lapse of time between each Thorn trigger, but it makes it so that players won’t need to worry about singular Swarmers much at all. Just keep in mind, it’s only worth using on characters who are always in the thick of it like Gunner and Driller, and it needs to be at least Tier 3 as well.
Hover Boots
Active Effect:Allows the player to hover midair for *2/2.5/3/3.5 seconds. Additionally, the jets from the boots can burn any creatures directly underneath the player. Has a *120/105/90/75 second cooldown.
Hover Boots, the first Active Perk in the rankings is pretty much the best overall Perk for new players to use. By far the most dangerous thing inDeep Rock Galactic isfall damage, which is funny to think about since this is a game about Dwarves surviving on a planet full of territorial bug aliens. But, it’s true, players will find themselves needing a revive as a result of a fall because of some slight hole created far more than at the hands of some bug. And,depending on the biome, these are the moments where the Hover Boots truly shine.
This is, once again, a Perk that’s only worth using at the max Tier available for it, but with it, players can save themselves from a potentially fatal fall every 75 seconds just by holding the ‘Crouch’ button mid-air. Additionally, Hover Boots have an extra (slightly hidden) usage on Scouts in particular as these allow Scouts to grapple up to something, let go, hover, quickly mine a ‘pocket’ in the wall for themselves, and grapple into it. But, most people just tend to use their Hover Boots to make the trip back to the extraction pointin this Extraction Shootera bit less precarious.
Deep Pockets
Each of the player’s mineral pouches can now hold *5/10/15 more valuables.
Once players get used to the gameplay loop ofDeep Rock Galactic, actually surviving against the bug creatures is less of a concern, and gathering materials quickly and efficiently becomes the main focus.
And, nothing is more inefficient,especially in multiplayer, than having to constantly go to Molly or call her over to deposit Minerals. With Tier 3 Deep Pockets, the time between deposits actually increases by a noticeable amount. And, in the rare scenarios where players encounter a Crassus Detonator and are suddenly looking at seemingly infinite amounts of minable gold, Deep Pockets is even more of a timesaver.
Heightened Senses
Passive Effect:The player gets an early visual warning when a creature is about to grab them.Active Effect:*1/2/2 times per mission, players can escape after being grabbed by pressing the ‘Use’ input to break free. Will also kill the creature grabbing the player when used. Has an *infinite/90/5 second cooldown.
This next Perk feels almost like it was designed for one specific class, the Scout. Scout players quickly discover inDeep Rock Galacticmultiplayer that they’ll often get separated from their team. Whether this is from staying behind to clear out all the Nitra or from scouting ahead with the Grappling Hook, Scouts are on their own a lot.
And, nothing feels worse than confidently blazing ahead from the team only to getsnagged by a Cave Leechor Mactera Grabber miles away from everyone else. But, with Heightened Senses, this is much less of an issue. With this Perk equipped, players will have this white visual effect (and noise) appear at the borders of their vision when something is about to grab them. Not only that, but they’ll also be able to instantly kill whatever grabbed them up to two times per mission.
Shield Link
Passive Effect:Whenever the user of this Perk is within 4 meters of a teammate, both of their shields will recharge 50 Percent faster.Active Effect:The player can utilize the ‘Use’ input when looking at a teammate to overcharge their shield to 300 Percent for *20/30/30 seconds. Has a *3/3/2 minute cooldown.
In single-player, Shield Link is basically not ever worth using, butDeep Rock Galacticis primarily designed as a multiplayer game. And, while theDRGcommunity is one of the friendliest and most welcoming around, having Perks that are centered around helping others out makes it even easier to get along with new people in random lobbies.
That’s why Shield Link is a perfect Perk to use in these situations, as all players need to do is walk up to an ally who just got out of a combat situation or is out of shields and stand near them so that their shields recharge at a 50 percent faster speed. Additionally, if there’s ever a moment where it looks like an ally is about to be in trouble, players can trigger the active effect of Shield Link to instantly refill their Shields and even give them an over-shield as well. It’s not one of the ‘best’ Perks in the game sure, but this is mostly just because it’s a bit difficult to use consistently and the distance in the Passive is a bit restrictive, so overall it’s still absolutely a great option.
Berzerker
Active Effect:Enter the ‘Berserk’ state for 10 seconds. While in this state, the player gets boosted melee damage, and their Power Attack recharges much faster. Has a *10/8/6/4 minute cooldown.
Moving on to Berzerker, which isyet another Perkthat players probably underestimated at first glance, only to discover its true utility 100+ hours in. Berzerker seems like something that would only work with a melee class, at first, but that’s not entirely true. To elaborate on this ‘true utility’ let’s go over the most important factor for Deep Dives and higher Hazard levels, which is Ammo.
Players will find themselves burning through Ammo at a pretty staggering rate during the harder missions ofDeep Rock Galactic, and smart usage of the Pickaxe Power Attack does a lot to mitigate the ammo usage. The Power Attack truly is the perfect thing to use when completely swarmed with enemies or to take that last little chunk out of a Praetorian’s HP. And, with the Berzerker Perk, players can go into their ‘Berzerker’ state pretty often to basically have unlimited Power Attacks for 10 seconds, which is truly a lot of damage. Not only that, this Perk synergizes so incredibly well with Driller’s Melee-focused attributes as well as the Vampire Perk.
Friendly
The player both takes and deals 50 Percent less friendly fire damage while this Perk is equipped.
Probably the most controversial decision for these rankings is to rank Friendly this high up. But, truly, making it so that friends or even random players don’t need to worry about hurting their allies with gunfire is such a bonus to the overallDRGexperience. With this Perk active, the player not only deals 50 percent less damage to allies, but they also take 50 percent less damage from their allies.
Having this equipped makes it possible for Engineers to play with others and still use something like the Fat Boy Overclock, for Drillers to use their Flamethrower as much as they want, or for Gunners to unload as many explosives as needed to kill enemies. Granted, it doesn’t nullify friendly fire completely, so still keep friendly fire in mind, but it’s very difficult to actually down an ally with this Perk active.
Field Medic
Passive Effect:The player revives teammates *15/20/25/30 Percent faster. At Tier 4, nearby enemies also flee when ally is revived.Active Effect:Once per mission, the player can press the ‘Fire’ input while reviving an ally to instantly revive them.
Out of everything here,Field Medic is the best ‘support’ Perk overall. All that said, there’s a reason it’s still ranked 4th. Well, this is simply due to the fact that the Active component of Field Medic can only be used a maximum of one time per Mission.
To elaborate a bit more, Field Medic makes it so that the player with it equipped will revive their allies 30 percent faster and at Tier 4 reviving an ally will also cause nearby enemies to flee for a short duration. Additionally, it also has an Active that allows players to instantly revive a teammate, but as stated earlier, only once per mission. Still, that 30 percent revive speed buff is instantly noticeable and often makes all the difference in crucial moments when a lobby is about to wipe.
