Deep Rock Galactic is preparing for Rival Escalation, the official name of its second season. Since April 28, PC players can already access the new content. Those playing on console can access the new content a week later on May 5. This new update adds more story content, new secondary weapons and enemies, another 100 tiers of the free Performance Pass, and a new array of cosmetic unlocks for hunting. The update is significant, but if you’re new to the game, it feels like a welcoming starting point. Here’s everything you need to know about Season 2 of Deep Rock Galactic.
New weapons
For many players, the headlining detail will be the new weapons. In Season 2, Dwarf Miners added four new secondary weapons to their gear lockers. Class dwarves can choose to customize loadouts using these new toys, with each class receiving a new item suited to their skills. The range includes:
- Nishanka Boltshark X-80: This crossbow can be equipped by the Scout class and pull a wide range of basic or heavy duty bolts such as acid, fire and triple bolts.
- Radiance diffractor: for the group engineer class, the Shard Diffractor fires a powerful beam of energy turning whatever is in front of it into pulverized dust.
- Armskore Spool Gun: The gunner class gets this new spool gun, which is strong enough to pierce rock.
- Colette Wave Cooker: For Dwarfs driller of your squad, this new gun acts like a projectile microwave, cooking targets from the inside out. We assume that, for once, the medium will not remain fixed.
Collectively, these new weapons seem to be aimed at giving each class a taste of the other classes without going so far as to be considered multi-class. You can equip the gun that suits you in the equipment menu of the game’s main hub.
Season 2 Performance Pass
A new season means a new Performance Pass and another 100 tiers of free currencies, cosmetics, and minerals with which you can unlock upgrades and even more cosmetics. This season’s Performance Pass once again highlights the game’s penchant for humor, with some truly absurd beard styles available. In addition to these, there are also a few future favorites up for grabs, such as the Jason Voorhees-style hockey mask or cyberpunk goggles.
In addition to the Performance Pass, some cosmetics can now be purchased with phazyonite, one of the items you will earn during your adventures and in the game’s cosmetic mastery system. Ghost Ship Games said they made this change to allow players to purchase cosmetics without sacrificing beer, bets upgrades and promotions, which previously used some of the same minerals as cosmetic rewards. While it looks like the team is planting seeds to eventually sell phazyonite, they have rather emphatically refuted the idea. “We do not intend to monetize this in any way,” Ghost Ship Games said in a press release.
All of the rewards you weren’t able to claim in the game’s first season can be found in Cargo Crates, Lost Packs, Cosmetic Cores, and The Shop. You can check out all 100 Tiers of the new Season 2 Performance Pass rewards in the image gallery below. But first, here’s a look at the Season 2 cosmetic unlock tree:

Gallery
New missions, enemies and boss battle
A new seasonal event type, or mission type, is coming to DRG in Season 2. The “Rival Signal” event tasks you with going into the mines and shutting down the comms relays set up by the ” unnamed Rivals” that seem to be plotting things in the background of the game’s first two seasons. It involves shutting down the central router, hacking antenna nodes, and stealing data before the system self-destructs to keep secrets intact. As always, it will take close cooperation from all the dwarves to get back to base with all the beards still in the right places.
A new type of enemy swarm also debuts in Season 2, as rival bots can now be found drilling through tunnels just like you and your team would. If those smaller, more plentiful bots aren’t much of a problem, Rival Nemesis’ new boss may. This squid-like robot can drop into your dig site and challenge you for your loot in some of the procedurally generated levels.
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