In Deep Rock Galactic, you can upgrade your guns, character’s abilities, overclocks, pickaxes, and more. But have you ever wondered how to boost your dwarf furthermore?
In this article, we’ll introduce you to the definitive perks guide in Deep Rock Galactic so you can better understand them and choose the best perks for your playstyle!
Recommended Read: Best Classes to Play in Deep Rock Galactic
Currently, there are a total of 23 different perks divided into 9 tiers in Deep Rock Galactic. Each perk has a maximum of 4 levels (some perks only have one). To get perks, you have to complete specific milestones to earn Perk Points and use them to purchase the perks at the Key Performance Indicator terminal. You can then equip the perks at the Equipment Terminal to use them in missions later on.
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Ultimate Perks Guide in Deep Rock Galactic
Not so many dwarves know about perks in Deep Rock Galactic, so first, let’s see what they are and how they can help you beat any mission easier.
What Are Perks
Perks in Deep Rock Galactic are character upgrades or special abilities that can be used to increase your survivability, improve your quality of life, or help you complete missions faster.
Like other RPG games, you have to purchase perks and equip them. Each character will have different loadouts so you can flexibly switch between them to try new perks without worrying too much.
Even though there are over 20 perks in DRG, you can only equip 2 active perks and 3 passive perks at the same time to join in any mission. This is why picking the perks that suit your playstyle is important!
How to Earn Perk Points
You need to earn perk points in order to purchase the perks.
At the starter cabin, look for a hanging sign that display “Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Terminal”. This is where you can keep track of several statistics as well as milestones.
Milestones are some kind of challenges that can be done once or multiple times to earn perk points. By completing a milestone, you will get 2-5 perk points.
Some milestones examples and how many perk points they give:
- Gain levels as the Gunner/Scout/Engineer/Driller: 5 perk points
- Complete 10-30 mission/secondary objectives: 3 perk points
- Other milestones: 2 perk points
- Complete a specific amount of one of the eight missions
- Complete specific numbers of secondary objectives
- Complete missions with Hazard 3, 4, or 5
- Complete missions within specific biomes
- Complete missions with anomalies/warnings
- And a lot more!
You don’t need to complete all the milestones to purchase all the perks. In fact, doing 3/4 of them is enough to purchase a whole perk tree in Deep Rock Galactic!
So what’s the perk tree?
How the Perk Tree Works
The perk tree is the list of perks divided into 9 different tiers. The higher the tier is, the better bonus the perk can provide.
You can access the perk tree by interacting with the Key Performance Indicator Terminal, then going to the Perks tab.
Here, you can see how many perk points you have, indicated by the numbers next to the yellow star in the top left corner. To the right is the perk tree.
By hovering on any icons, you can see the perk’s description. Read first! Then if you’re satisfied with what the perk does, let’s purchase it by left-clicking on it.
There are 2 types of perks in DRG: active (cyan color) and passive (red color).
At first glance, it seems like there are way too many perks for you to choose from, right?
Sometimes, higher tiers will contain new perks. But most of the time, perks in higher tiers are basically the upgraded version of themself in lower tiers.
To proceed to the next perk tree tier, you have to purchase a specific number of perks in the current tier first. This can be seen by looking at the yellow arrows between the tiers. For example, to purchase perks in tier 2, you have to buy 3 perks in tier 1 first.
That’s all about the perk tree! Let’s buy what you need, and we’ll show you how to use them.
How to Use Perk Points
To equip your purchased perks, head to the Equipment Terminal right outside of your cabin.
You will see 3 red slots and 2 cyan slots on the left side, near your primary and secondary weapon slots. Simply click on them to equip your perks!
If this is your first time playing DRG, you can only equip 1 active and 1 passive perk for now.
The second active perk slot can be unlocked after your first promotion.
The other two passive perk slots can be unlocked by purchasing the New Passive Perk Slot perk in Tier 4 and 9 of the perk tree.
You only have to do this once for one character, and all 3 passive perk slots will be unlocked for other characters as well. For the second active perk slot, you have to promote individual dwarf.
Passive perks will be applied immediately after you equipped them. While active perks require you to press a specific key to activate them.
What Perks Are the Best
Depending on your playstyle and the class you choose, you may find other perks useful, but here are the top 5 best perks in Deep Rock Galactic voted by the community:
- Field Medic (Active)
Field Medic has 4 tiers and provides a direct 15% revival speed when you revive your teammate in any mission. This number is increased by 5% with each tier, up to 30% in tier 4.
Besides the passive effect, Field Medic provides 1 instant revive in a mission or 3 in a single Deep Dive. This is really important if you’re in a dangerous situation or in a middle of a boss fight.
To use Field Medic, simply press the Fire key (left-click) while reviving teammates.
You can buy Field Medic for 3 perk points and upgrade it to tier 4 later for 24 more perk points.
- Iron Will (Active)
You may have been in a situation where your entire team is down, especially in higher Hazard missions.
Failure missions can still give you experience points and minerals, but you only get 25% of Credits and can’t make progress in your assignment. This is where Iron Will comes to play!
Only 1 time in each mission, when you’re down, you can hold the Jump key (Space Bar) to get back to your feet!
In this state, you’re immune to damage, run 20% faster, deal 150% more pickaxe damage and power attack cooldown is 3 times faster, reduce the slowness effect by 30%, and instantly reload all of your weapons.
This perk is extremely useful and powerful if you time it right!
- Born Ready (Passive)
If you use guns a lot, this perk is the best since it will automatically reload your unequipped weapons after 15, 10, and 5 seconds with Tier 1, 2, and 3, respectively.
Born Ready is quite cheap! You can buy the first tier for only 2 perk points and upgrade it to Tier 3 with 11 more points.
Say no more to manually reloading!
- Elemental Insulation (Passive)
Elemental damage in DRG can be a huge problem. Whether it’s fire, frost, electricity, poison, or radiation, you may want a perk that can reduce those types of damage.
That’s what Elemental Insulation exactly does! With only 2 perk points, you can have a great shield that can reduce 20% of the upcoming elemental damage.
You can upgrade Elemental Insulation to tier 3 for 11 more perk points to have a solid 30% elemental damage resistance. No more afraid of the toxic mushrooms!
- Thorn (Passive)
Finally, if you don’t have a good gun to clear small waves of bugs like the Scout, this perk is super useful.
With 4 tiers and cost a total of 26 perk points, Thorn can deal 6, 12, 18, and 24 damage to any enemy that hit you with a melee attack.
This is extremely good if you’re facing Glyphid Swarmer, Naedocyte Hatchling, or Naedocyte Shocker since you can one-shot them while standing still.
Some More Perk Options
Besides the best 5 Deep Rock Galactic perks above, you can consider using any perks below to fit your playstyle better.
Active perks:
- Beast Master: tame a Glyphid Grunt, Glyphid Grunt Slasher, or Glyphid Grunt Guard to follow and fight for you. The bug can deal up to 300% more damage at tier 4.
- Dash: this perk is good for dashing out of dangerous enemies or quickly running back to the Drop Pod. Useful for all classes except Scout.
- Heightened Senses: a useful perk for Scout, especially if you usually go first to explore and light up the caves. This perk can get you out of any captors like the Cave Leech, Mactera Grabber, Nemesis, and Nayaka Trawler.
Passive perks:
- Friendly: if you “accidentally” hit your friends a lot, this perk is just beyond good since it will reduce friendly fire damage by 50%.
- Resupplier: this perk helps you get the resupply rack faster by 20-50% and regen 10-25% more extra health. Quite convenient if you have to get the resupply pod in the middle of the combat.
- Deep Pockets: Really useful for Scout or any dwarfs who want to travel alone. This perk gives 5-15 more slots in your bag to contain more minerals.
That’s everything you need to know about Perks in Deep Rock Galactic!
Let’s pick the best set of perks to make your dwarf unstoppable, miners!
