Patch Notes 4.2 and Community Q&A

Hello Miners,

Last week, we dropped some tough news about ECS and Update 5. Your response? Surprisingly positive. You asked smart questions, gave thoughtful feedback, and kept the discussion productive.

To keep that momentum going, we opened a dedicated Discord channel for community questions. A lot of good ones came in, so we’re bringing some of the highlights here in a cleaned-up Q&A format. The answers come straight from Jacob, thour producer on Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor.

But first…

Patch 4.2 is out now!

This one turned into a proper meaty patch. A big balance pass, more overclocks, and one of the most requested bug fixes finally landed. Here are the highlights:

• Save system overhaul - crashes and power outages should no longer wipe your progress. We’ve implemented a new multi-file system with more fail-safes.
• Loot crates from end-of-level elites - extra rewards from finishing strong!
• Dozens of overclock buffs and new overclocks added - some of the drone overclocks have been buffed by biblical proportions.
• Some specialist Gunner love - minigun should be easier to aim, and his passive now scales with upgrades.

Features

• End-of-level Elites now drop loot crates, the faster you kill them, the better the reward.
• New Anomaly: Company Man - Just stick to your job and you’ll be alright.
• Vanilla Hazard 3 is open for business
• Save system overhaul:
  • New save system with rolling saves in 4 files.
  • Save files are new kept in a \Users\YourUser\AppData\LocalLow\Funday Games\DRG Survivor\steam\YourSteamID\ subfolder
  • Old saves should be automatically migrated to the new system. The old save file is not deleted.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where players could lose all their saved data if the computer lost power while playing
• Fixed an issue where the drop pod sometimes forced the player off the ramp when the timer hit 0
• Fixed a black screen issue that could sometimes occur when the dwarf auto-entered the drop pod
• Fixed an issue where clicking the weapons during drop pod interaction, could get you soft-locked in the weapon details screen
• Fixed a black screen issue that could occur if you leveled up while in the drop pod
• Fixed an issue where the input system would sometimes fire a submit event twice when using a controller. This may have been the cause of some messy UI screens and black screen issues
• Fixed an issue where HAZ5 achievements were not achievable. You will have to complete a new HAZ 5 run to get the achievement
• Maybe fixed an issue with the Axtender milestone (Axe in Face achievement) sometimes unlocking, even though the level was not cleared. Let us know if it still happens
• Fixed an issue where aborting a mission didn’t award progress, now it saves progress and goes to the end screen
• Fixed an issue where some mutators that should not be combined were combined, resulting in soft locks. (Looking at you Specialist and Just Pick One)
• Fixed an issue where the core pause screen could lose controller interaction when opening/closing/opening it fast
• Fixed an issue where loot crates from Huuli Hoarders could spawn off the map if the hoarder was knocked back
• Fixed an issue with Drones’ audio lingering
• Fixed an issue where the Storm E-Mag overclock would not count projectiles toward Weapon Specialist passive
• Fixed wonky d-pad navigation
• Fixed an issue where the Dreadnought’s ground spikes could kill ghosts. Totally not realistic
• Fixed an issue where the -15 accuracy on LMG Unstable OC Overload, would not apply if the damage type had already been changed (Electrical/Plasma OC)
• Fixed an issue where the Breachcutter beam would not apply status effects
• The Armskore Coilgun now displays lifetime and the VFX is shown for the entire lifetime
• The Armskore Coilgun VFX now properly scales with lifetime
• Wave Cooker stats now also show weapon range
• Fixed an issue with Nishanka Boltshark X-80 Payload not always sticking to valid targets
• Fixed an issue where the ground zone from Krakatoa Protocol Unstable OC would not do damage, but only apply stacks
• Impact Axe now properly supports Explosion Radius
• Improved the input legend to show controller icons, and fixed an issue where keyboard shortcuts would show up on Steam Deck

Improvements

• Added Loading Tips. If you don’t like the loading screen waiting for a key press, it can be disabled in settings
• Added gameplay tips in the menus
• Red Vines in Hollow Bough now do damage when you are too close, instead of when mining them
• Red Vines in Hollow Bough no longer regrow when near the drop pod
• Added new Weapon icons
• Added new end-screen layout
• Added weapon damage tracking to the weapon inspect screen
• Added a mailing list button in the quit pop-up - sign up for DRG:S news to your inbox!
• You no longer have to be quite as close to the drop pod to see through it
• There never were secret levels and there certainly aren’t more now

Balance changes

• Class Rank XP and credit gain boosted by ~10%
• Supply Pod now does less damage to elites and bosses at higher hazard levels (Elite 100/90/80/65/50%) (Boss 33/30/27/24/20%)
• Enemies move faster on higher hazards
  • ~+2% enemy move speed on haz3
  • ~+4% enemy move speed on haz4
  • ~+6% enemy move speed on haz5

• Reduced the enemy speed bonus when enemies grow stronger (8% -> 5%)
  
• Enemy HP has been buffed about 5% on stages 2-5 to compensate for the added power creep of elite loot crates and overclock buffs
  
• Wardens lingering shield duration is lowered from 2 sec to 0.5 sec
  
• Mini Exploders
  • Base HP is now 200 (was 210)
  • Base Damage is now 12 (was 15)

• Deploying turrets when standing still is now a lot faster!
  
• After level 100 it requires more XP to level up
  
• Some scaling artifacts now have max stacks
  • Pay2Win Console has been nerfed to 2.5% damage pr. reroll instead of 3%. Also been capped to 100 max stacks
  • Gold Scanner - stops working after 1500 gold mined per scanner
  • Nitra Scanner - stops working after 1000 Nitra mined per scanner

• You will no longer receive speed upgrades after hitting +100% speed in the skill category (not counting artifacts and meta)
  
• You will no longer receive mining upgrades after hitting +150% mining speed in the skill category (not counting artifacts and meta)
  
• Knockback now has diminishing returns. When enough knockback has been applied the enemy will be knockback immune for 1.2 seconds

SCOUT

• Ark-Tek Cryo Guard
  • Crisis Protocol:
    • Now gives +25% damage and +25% potency

  • Disposable Tech (redesign):
    • Now reverses the effects of the lifetime stat (+Lifetime = short drone lifespan)
    • Drones drop ground zones that scale positively with lifetime!
    • +100% lifetime (was -20%)
    • +40% Reload Speed (was +30%)

  • Personal Space Invaders:
    • Increased range reduction to -65% (was -50%)

• Cryo Grenade
  • The Favourite:
    • -20% reload speed and -20% potency to all other weapons (was -30% reload speed and -30% potency to all other weapons)

• Deepcore GK2
  • Big Game Hunter:
    • +10% crit damage
    • +10% crit chance

• Drak-25 Plasma Carbine
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Storm E-Mag:
    • Now fires 36 bullets (was 18)

• Jury-Rigged Boomstick
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Mini Pellets:
    • Reduced damage penalty to -10% damage (was -20%)

  • Thick Boy
    • +200% Piercing
    • +200% Weapon Range
    • Potency now also scales with clip size

• M1000 Classic
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Thick Boy:
    • Potency now also scales with clip size

• Nishanka Boltshark X-80
  • Payload:
    • Damage scale on explosion increased to +100% (was +50%)

• TH-0R Bug Taser
  • Explosive Reload:
    • Greater explosion radius
    • 50% stronger knockback

  • Sidearm:
    • -20% damage to this weapon (was -25%)

• Voltaic Stun Sweeper
  • NEW OC: Potent Juice:
    • +35% Potency

  • Big Game Hunter:
    • +10% crit damage
    • +10% crit chance

  • High Velocity Bullets is now called Lightweight Alloy:
    • Weapon Range reduced to +30% (was +50%)
    • Reload Speed +15%

  • Sidearm:
    • -20% damage to this weapon (was -25%)

• Zhukov NUK17
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Explosive Reload:
    • Greater explosion radius
    • 50% stronger knockback

  • Omni Barrel:
    • Reload speed reduced to +100% (was +200%)
    • Damage increased to +50% (was +30%)
    • Piercing +50%

GUNNER

• Weapon Specialist Passive now scales (50%) with global damage upgrades as well as projectile and kinetic tag upgrades
• ArmsKore Coil Gun
  • The Armskore Coilgun now has the [LASTING] tag to show that the beam scales with lifetime.
  • NEW OC: Spliced Emitter:
    • +50% lifetime
    • +50% weapon range
    • +30% damage

  • Explosive Reload:
    • Greater explosion radius
    • 50% stronger knockback

• BRT7 Burst Fire Gun
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Omni Barrel:
    • Reload speed reduced to +100% (was +200%)
    • Damage increased to +50% (was +30%)
    • Piercing +50%

  • Sidearm:
    • -20% damage to this weapon (was -25%)

• “Bulldog” Heavy Revolver
  • NEW UOC: Super Reload Shield
    • +100% armor while reloading
    • +75% Damage
    • +50% Fire Rate
    • -25% Reload Speed

  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Reload Shield:
    • +25% Fire Rate

• Firefly Hunter Drone
  • Behaviour Chip: Defensive:
    • +2 extra drones
    • -10% Weapon range

  • Disposable Tech (redesign):
    • Now reverses the effects of the lifetime stat (+Lifetime = short drone lifespan)
    • Drones drop ground zones that scale positively with lifetime!
    • +100% lifetime (was -20%)
    • +40% Reload Speed (was +30%)

  • Drone Mining Damage:
    • Increased mining damage by 100%

  • Fuel Leak:
    • +20% Potency

• Incendiary Grenade
  • Feedback Harness:
    • Cooldown reduced to 10 sec (was 15)
    • Throws 1 more grenade

  • Potent Juice:
    • No longer gives -10% damage

  • Tape Some Nails to It:
    • +10% Damage

• “Lead Storm” Powered Minigun
  • Spread reduced to 8 (was 15)
  • Firing cone increased to 150 degrees (was 120)
  • Damage increased to 18 (was 16)
  • Base potency increased to 7 (was 6)
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Reload Shield:
    • +25% Fire Rate

• Seismic Repulsor
  • Disposable Tech:
    • +100% Reload Speed (was +30%)
    • -50% Lifetime (was -20%)

• Tactical Lead Burster
  • NEW OC: Fusion Turbines:
    • +20% Lifetime

  • Tape Some Nails to It:
    • +10% Damage

• “Thunderhead” Heavy Autocannon
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • The Tightest of Springs:
    • 125% fire rate (was 150%)

ENGINEER

• Breach Cutter
  • New UOC: Experimental Cluster Projectiles
    • Splits into smaller plasma projectiles

• Deepcore PGL
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

• Hi-Volt Thunderbird
  • NEW OC: Potent Juice:
    • +35% Potency

  • NEW UOC: More Drones
    • +3 drones

  • Crisis Protocol:
    • Now gives +25% damage and +25% potency

  • Disposable Tech (redesign):
    • Now reverses the effects of the lifetime stat (+Lifetime = short drone lifespan)
    • Drones drop ground zones that scale positively with lifetime!
    • +100% lifetime (was -20%)
    • +40% Reload Speed (was +30%)

• LOK-1 Smart Rifle
  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

• LMG Gun Platform
  • Base damage increased to 20 (was 18)
  • OC Extra Capacity:
    • +1 Turret
    • +10% Damage

  • UOC Extra Capacity:
    • +3 Turrets
    • +10% Damage

  • LMG Overload:
    • Fire rate reduced to +100% (was +150%)

  • Removed: Disposable Tech
• Plasma Burster
  • Tape Some Nails to It:
    • +10% Damage

• “Stubby” Voltaic SMG
  • Explosive Reload:
    • Greater explosion radius
    • 50% stronger knockback

  • Impact Punch:
    • Removed the -10% potency penalty

  • Sidearm:
    • -20% damage to this weapon (was -25%)

  • Storm E-Mag:
    • Now fires 36 bullets (was 24)

• Shredder Swarm Grenade
  • NEW OC: Electrified Dispenser:
    • Drones tether to the grenade with an electrical arc

  • NEW OC: Tape some Ice to it!
    • Adds a cryo explosion to the grenade

• Voltaic Shock Fence
  • NEW UOC: Rapid Deployment
    • Deploys all turrets at once

  • Disposable Tech:
    • Leaves an electrical ground zone
    • Reload speed reduced to +20% (was +30%)

  • OC Extra Capacity:
    • +1 Turret
    • -10% Weapon Range

  • UOC Extra Capacity:
    • +3 Turrets
    • -30% Weapon Range

• “Warthog” Auto 210
  • Mini Pellets:
    • Reduced damage penalty to -10% damage (was -20%)

DRILLER

• C.R.S.P.R. Flamethrower
  • Spliced Emitter
    • Damage +50% (was +30%)
    • Potency +50%

• Colette Wave Cooker
  • NEW OC: Centralized Reflector:
    • Adds an additional beam in the opposite direction

• Corrosive Sludge Pump
  • NEW UOC: Top-Shelf Sludge
    • Adds electricity to the ground zone

  • Impact Punch:
    • Removed the -10% potency penalty

• Cryo Cannon
  • Potent Juice:
    • No longer gives -10% damage

  • Spliced Emitter:
    • Damage +50% (was +30%)
    • Potency +50%

• High Explosive Grenade
  • Feedback Harness:
    • Cooldown reduced to 10 sec (was 15)
    • Throws 1 more grenade

• Impact Axe
  • NEW UOC: Colossal Twinblade
    • Larger axe

  • NEW UOC: Fan of Axes
    • 3 smaller axes

  • Removed: More Axes
• K1-P Viper Drone
  • Behaviour Chip: Defensive:
    • +2 extra drones
    • -10% Weapon range

  • Crisis Protocol:
    • Now gives +25% damage and +25% potency

  • Disposable Tech (redesign):
    • Now reverses the effects of the lifetime stat (+Lifetime = short drone lifespan)
    • Drones drop ground zones that scale positively with lifetime!
    • +100% lifetime (was -20%)
    • +40% Reload Speed (was +30%)

• Krakatoa Sentinel
  • Extra Capacity:
    • +10% Weapon range

  • Krakatoa Protocol:
    • Now also spawns an electrical ground zone

  • Removed: Disposable Tech
• Neurotoxin Grenade
  • Feedback Harness:
    • Cooldown reduced to 10 sec (was 15)
    • Throws 1 more grenade

  • Potent Juice:
    • No longer gives -10% damage

  • Tape Some Nails to It:
    • +10% Damage

• Subata 120
  • Akimbo:
    • Fire rate +15%
    • Potency +15%

  • Bigger Mags:
    • Reload Speed -10% (was -20%)

  • Sidearm:
    • -20% damage to this weapon (was -25%)

Now, for the Q&A part:

This Q&A started in our Discord, where the team first answered these questions directly. What you’re reading here is a cleaned-up version. Same core answers, just a bit more structured, with some extra context where it helped.
If you want the raw, unfiltered version, it’s still up in the #what-happened-to-update-5 channel on Discord.

Q: Why did the team pursue ECS in the first place?

ECS (Entity Component System) is an optional system in the Unity game engine that changes how we structure games. Instead of being object-oriented, it’s data-oriented, which makes it far more efficient at scale.

It’s powerful, but there’s a reason it’s not the default. ECS forces you to structure the game more like a computer handles data than how a human thinks about objects.

For a game like Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, where there are unlimited objects and players constantly push the limits of what’s possible, that kind of performance boost felt worth chasing.

It wasn’t an easy shift. It required rewriting the core game from scratch. But we believed the long-term gains would justify the effort.

Q: What happened? Why did you decide to postpone it now, after months of work?

The short version is: We tried to make it work. We really did.

We were proud of what we’d built, and we still are. But chasing ECS meant putting off everything else we wanted to do. We kept running into the same dilemma: keep rewriting, or support the live game players were enjoying.

But by the time we had a playable ECS build, it was clear how much was still missing: biomes, bosses and even a few core systems.

Meanwhile, the team was split. Designers started feeling guilty just for designing. Every new feature added to the to-do list for the ECS rewrite. You either pushed forward and made things worse, or you held back and felt useless. Which in turn made the devs working on it feel guilty for blocking the rest of the team, completing a stressful loop that was far removed from how we used to work.

It wore people down. Features we were excited to build started feeling like problems and we kept having to compromise on our ambitions.

Something had to give.

We had some tough conversations internally and with Ghost Ship - who, by the way, have been incredibly supportive through this whole thing, their empathy and comradery has been a massive support. In the end we had to make the call to delay ECS and Endless mode with it.

When we finally made the call to postpone ECS, it unblocked the whole team and we could immediately start working on the same game again.

Since then, the mood has changed dramatically. Designers are pitching again, developers are adding to the game again and we are getting in touch with what we have, a game we are massively proud of with an amazing community that we want to see flourish.

We are getting back to what worked for the first 4 updates. An iterative process where we build and add one thing at a time, as a team, while we play and have fun making the best damn Survivor-like we can.

We hope you'll feel that shift in Patch 4.2.

Q: Why not just delay the update a little longer and finish ECS first?

That was the original plan. We kept hoping we’d make it. But by the end of Q1, we still had months of work left just to rebuild what we already had.

Pushing ECS further would’ve meant more waiting and even less momentum. And more importantly, the rest of the team was already stuck, not by choice, but because the systems they needed weren’t ready.

Postponing ECS lets us work together again.

Q: Is ECS scrapped completely, or is it just postponed?

It’s postponed, not scrapped. We still believe in ECS. For a game like ours, where the number of objects on screen can grow fast, it’s still the right long-term solution.

But we want to return to it when, and in a way, where it isn't dependent on others and it wont block progress or create friction across the team. And that way, give it the time it needs to be done properly.

Full Explanation from our Lead Programmer, Martin (If you can't see the "Show More" button - try opening the patch notes in a browser):

Q: Will it be harder to switch to ECS later, once more content has been added?

Yes, it’ll take longer. There’ll be more content to migrate when we pick it back up. But the core systems are already in place, and most of what’s left is repetitive implementation, not new design work.

Q: Can the work done so far still be used later?

Yes. It won’t be starting from scratch again. But we don’t expect to come back to it at full speed on day one either. It’ll take time to ramp up again once we decide it’s the right time.

Q: Will the performance improvements happen after 1.0, or as part of it?

After. We want to decouple 1.0 from ECS so that performance refactoring doesn’t block other features. That pressure, on both the ECS devs and everyone else, is what led to this pivot in the first place. We’ll return to performance upgrades when we can do them right.

Q: With endless mode being postponed, does this mean other updates will be pushed ahead of it? Bosco, more bosses, etc?

It might. With ECS postponed, we have the developer bandwidth to make a 1.0 that lives up to our ambitions. What comes after isn’t set in stone, but we may adjust the order of future updates depending on which features create the least friction when ECS returns.

We’ll share more roadmap updates after 4.2. But honestly, we try not to lock things down too early. Focusing on the current update before committing to the next one has worked well for us so far. It lets us adjust our perception of what the game needs based on the current state and not some abstract expectation made months in advance. This way we stay agile and responsive to player sentiment and our own ambitions for the game.

Q: How does this affect the 1.0 release?

It lets us focus on building a 1.0 with some features we are really excited to make and share.

What happens after 1.0 isn’t locked in yet, but we’ll prioritise features that won’t need to be redone once ECS returns.

Q: What’s next after 4.2? Is 1.0 the next update?

Not set in (rock &) stone yet. We're going to share a new roadmap that explains what's next soon.

Q: Will anything be reset when 1.0 comes out? (Progress, upgrades, masteries?)

No. Patch 4.2 won’t reset anything, and we don’t currently have plans to reset anything for 1.0 either.