Deep Rock Galactic – 4 Best Driller Builds: Overclocks, Perks, Loadouts

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There are many possible ways to play Deep Rock Galactic. Whether you want to fly across the map like the Scout, build your own bunker like the Engineer, or be the last man standing like the Gunner. Nothing is better than some explosions from the most challenging Driller class.

In this article, let’s take a look at some best Driller builds in Deep Rock Galactic.

Recommended Read: Deep Rock Galactic – Best Engineer Builds

Since Driller’s weapons primarily have elemental damage, we will introduce a strong fire build to instantly smelt your enemies into pieces, a freezing bullet build so you can freeze anything you like, a slow build with high DPS, and an AoE build for clearing out waves of bugs.


Table of Contents


Driller Playstyle

Driller is well-known for his deadly explosive C4 and a pair of drills attached to each hand. Unlike other classes, Driller travels underground or in the wall most of the time.

Driller has all types of weapons you’d ask for besides explosion. From a flamethrower to a freezing cannon, you can burn your enemies alive, freeze them mid-air, then use your C4 or grenades to explode them into thousands of pieces.

Driller’s primary weapon:

  • CRSPR Flamethrower
  • Cryo Cannon
  • Corrosive Sludge Pump

Driller’s secondary weapon:

  • Subata 120
  • Experimental Plasma Charger
  • Colette Wave Cooker

If you have the Driller on your team in some missions, it’s easier to drill a straight line to the Drop Pod instead of figuring out the way in the complex cave. That said, Driller is extremely good for missions in the Radioactive zone.

Fall damage is lethal to the Driller. So before digging somewhere, ensure you’ve carefully looked at the minimap by pressing the “Tab” or “M” key.


What Overclocks to Use for Driller

You may think clean overclocks work best because they only have positive effects without any penalties. But that’s not the case since you must sacrifice something to get a new overpowered mechanic.

So, let’s see what overclocks to use for the Driller.

1. Cryo Cannon – Tuned Cooler

The Cryo Cannon has many fun overclocks to play with, but Tuned Cooler is the best if you want to freeze your enemies quicker.

We have a detailed build with this overclock right below.

2. Subata 120 – Explosive Reload

At first glance, you may think the Explosive Reload is not worth it since it reduces your overall ammo and clip size by 50%.

However, with the new explosive reload mechanic, each bullet from the Subata 120 can deal additional 42 damage. And they stack!

If you do it right, you can deal more than 300 damage for each weapon reload.

3. Corrosive Sludge Pump – Volatile Impact Mixture

This overclock doubles damage for both standard and charged shoots while sacrificing the puddles’ duration and reducing the damage over time.

With a significant boost on the damage, you can melt down those large creatures quite easily in Deep Rock Galactic.

4. CRSPR Flamethrower – Face Melter/Sticky Fuel

You can choose between the Face Smelter and Sticky Fuel overclock for the Flamethrower.

Face Smelter tends to increase the overall damage and reduce the fire distance. While the Sticky Fuel overclock gives +10 sticky damage and +6s sticky duration. However, your tank size and max fuel are slightly reduced.

5. Experimental Plasma Charger – Persistent Plasma

If you enjoy mining minerals with the Experimental Plasma Charger, consider using the Cooling Unit overclock.

Otherwise, Persistent Plasma overclock is good since it leaves a plasma trail for 7 seconds. The trail deal 8 damage per 0.2 – 0.25 seconds to any enemies within a 3 meters radius.

It’s all up to you to decide which overclock to use. Based on your playstyle, you may find some overclocks better than others. Or if you’re a completionist, clean overclocks are the way to go.


What Perks to Use for Driller

Here are some excellent perks for the Driller class in Deep Rock Galactic.

1. Iron Will

Iron Will is a perfect perk for almost every class in Deep Rock Galactic. And with the Driller, Iron Will is a must-have perk.

Once per mission, after you die, you can stand up again with all guns reloaded, move faster, and deal more damage with the pickaxe. Combined with the Vampire perk, you can quickly return to the battle as if nothing happened.

2. Dash

Since the Driller has no travel tool, Dash can help in some deadly situations.

For 1.5 seconds, your movement speed is increased by x2.2 times. Although you can’t compete with the Scout, rushing through the waves of bugs with Dash is an incredible experience.

3. Vampire

With every medium or large bug killed with a melee attack, you can gain up to 5 health points.

With the Cryo Cannon, the Driller can quickly freeze any enemy. And while on the frozen stage, the bugs receive more melee damage from all sources.

That’s where you can use your pickaxe, a pair of drills, and the damage increase from the Iron Will perk to regain some health.

4. Elemental Insulation

Elemental Insulation perk gives you a 30% resistance to elemental damage such as poison, radiation, acid, fire, frost, electric, and corrosive.

5. Friendly

If you love explosion, we are sure that you’ve exploded your fellow dwarves before. And that’s not good at all.

With the Friendly perk, the friendly damage is reduced by 50%.

Other perks such as Field Medic, Deep Pockets, Resupplier, Strong Arm, and Thorns are also good for the Driller. So we’d recommend you try various perks and find your best ones.


4 Best Driller Builds & Weapon Loadouts

Here are the four best builds for the Driller in Deep Rock Galactic.

Driller Best Build #1: Face Smelter

The first best build on the list is pretty easy to use. With the flamethrower and the Face Smelter overclock, you can deal significant damage per second within a short amount of time.

Plus, this build causes fire damage, so it’s extremely useful for missions in the Glacial Strata biome or the Mactera creatures since these bugs have almost no fire resistance.

Primary Weapon: CRSPR Flamethrower

  • Overclock: Face Smelter
    • +4 Damage
    • +30% Fuel Flow Rate
    • -3m Flame Reach
    • -15 Tank Size
  • Modifications:
    • 1 – High Capacity Tanks
    • 1 – Unfiltered Fuel
    • 3 – More Fuel
    • 3 – More Fuel
    • 2 – Targets Explode

Secondary Weapon: Subata 120

  • Overclock: Explosive Reload
    • Explosive Reload
    • -120 Max Ammo
    • -6 Magazine Size
  • Modifications:
    • 3 – Quickfire Ejector
    • 1 – Expanded Ammo Bags
    • 3 – Expanded Ammo Bags
    • 1 – Hollow-Point Bullets
    • 2 – Acid-tipped bullets

The Face Smelter build doesn’t require any special tactic to use. You only need to press the Fire button and flame everything up.

The only disadvantage of this build is the short range. But with the secondary weapon, you can snipe long-range enemies and explode them far away.

Driller Best Build #2: Freezing Bullets

While the Face Smelter build focuses on fire damage, Freezing Bullets improves cold damage.

This build is handy for missions in the Magma Core biome, especially for those lava bugs. It helps you freeze enemies faster and instantly kill flying bugs within a second.

You can quickly freeze the Dreadnoughts to make them vulnerable, so your team can deal massive damage to these boss creatures.

Primary Weapon: Cryo Cannon

  • Overclock: Tuned Cooler
    • +1 Freezing Power
    • +10% Flow Rate
    • +0.2 Chargeup Time
    • -88% Pressure Gain Rate
  • Modifications:
    • 2 – Faster Turbine Spinup
    • 2 – Overclocked Ejection Turbine
    • 2 – Increased Flow Volume
    • 3 – Larger Reserve Tank
    • 2 – Cold Radiance

Secondary Weapon: Colette Wave Cooker

  • Overclock: Mega Power Supply
    • +100 Magazine Size
    • +3 Rate of Fire
    • -50% Cooling Rate
    • +1s Overheat Duration
  • Modifications:
    • 2 – Magnetron Tube
    • 1 – Heat Sink
    • 1 – Densification Ray
    • 1 – Wide Lens Add-on
    • 3 – Exothermic Reactor

On the other hand, the Cryo Cannon is also suitable for large waves of bugs, especially when facing swarmers, explorers, and shredders.

Like the Face Smelter build, the Cryo Cannon isn’t helpful when fighting long-range enemies. That’s why we have the Wave Cooker as a secondary weapon.

Driller Best Build #3: Volatile Goo

Now let’s look at the build for fighting with large and armored enemies such as Empressors, Praetorians, and Dreadnoughts.

Since we focus on the damage, this build reduces the AoE damage of the Corrosive Sludge Pump. Also, as with other Driller builds, the third build isn’t good at long-range either.

Primary Weapon: Corrosive Sludge Pump

  • Overclock: Volatile Impact Mixture
    • +16 Regular Shot Area Damage
    • +48 Charged Shot Area Damage
    • -3 Corrosive DoT Duration
    • -4 Sludge Puddle Duration
  • Modifications:
    • 1 – High Capacity Tanks
    • 3 – Potent Goo Mix
    • 2 – More Goo Canisters
    • 2 – Improved Spooling Mechanism
    • 2 – Fluoroantimonic Acid

Secondary Weapon: Colette Wave Cooker

  • Overclock: Gamma Contamination
    • 25% Chance to irradiate an enemy on hit
    • -1 Beam Damage
    • -50 Magazine Size
    • -50 Shot Width
  • Modifications:
    • 2 – Magnetron Tube
    • 1 – Heat Sink
    • 1 – Densification Ray
    • 1 – Wide Lens Add-on
    • 1 – Contagion Transmitter

To fight the Spitball Infector or the Menace, we pick the Wave Cooker.

Overall, this is a good build that can slow your enemy and deal high DPS. So, if you want to watch the bugs suffer, try this one out!

Driller Best Build #4: Wave Clearer

Finally, we have a modified build based on the Volatile build above.

This time, we focus on improving the AoE and increasing the fragments of the Corrosive Sludge Pump. With an insanely slow effect, this build is superior for clearing out large waves of bugs.

Primary Weapon: Corrosive Sludge Pump

  • Overclock: Disperser Compound
    • +6 Charged Shot Fragments
    • +4 Fragment Area Damage
    • -24 Charged Shot Area Damage
  • Modifications:
    • 3 – Air Sensitive Compound
    • 2 – Atomizer Nozzle
    • 2 – More Goo Canisters
    • 1 – Spillback Extension
    • 1 – Protein Disruption Mix

Secondary Weapon: Experimental Plasma Charger

  • Overclock: Persistent Plasma
    • +Persistent Plasma
    • -15 Charged Damage
    • -15 Area Damage
  • Modifications:
    • 2 – Larger Battery
    • 2 – Overcharged Plasma Accelerator
    • 1 – Improved Charge Efficiency
    • 2 – High Density Battery
    • 2 – Thin Containment Field

With the corrosive puddles and slow effect from the primary weapon, you can use the Plasma Charger with the Persistent Plasma overclock to increase your DPS even more.


Those are the best 4 Deep Rock Galactic Driller builds!

What’s your favorite build? Let us know in the comment below.

Binh Tran

As a game writer, my goal is to craft engaging, informative, and concise articles. Whether it's diving into the latest gaming trends or writing game guides, I'm always excited to share my insights with others.

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