Hello Reclaimers,
In case you missed last week’s On the Horizon livestream, the Pre-Alpha Teaser Trailer for Rogue Core is now live. Take a look above!
We spent a good hour of the stream discussing all sorts of different details about Rogue Core, so we figured we’d summarize all of that in this post. We'll have the full discussion as a clip down below, and timestamps for more specific segments.
Rogue Core is still in a Pre-Alpha state of development. Everything we’re showing and discussing here is a work in progress, and could change before the game’s final release.
What's Rogue Core all about?
If you’re just now joining us, here’s the deal: Rogue Core is a first-person, four player co-op shooter.
We’re still on Hoxxes IV. The Deep Rock Galactic company has has discovered the precious mineral Expenite deeper down in the core, and naturally, they want to harvest it. However, all contact was lost to these deep-depth mining facilities in an anomaly event known as the Grayout. Now, it’s up to the elite Reclaimers to push through the Grayout barrier and confront the unknown horrors in the core of Hoxxes.
Rogue Core is based on the skeleton of Deep Rock Galactic, but it’s all stripped down and rebuilt as a darker, more difficult, fast-paced roguelike. You’re still dwarves, but you’re not Miners – you’re Reclaimers. You’re the ones sent in when the mining crews can’t handle the job.
The biomes of Rogue Core
In Rogue Core, you’re fighting through mining facilities set up by the Deep Rock Galactic company. While cave layouts will still be procedurally generated, you can expect new set pieces to give the feeling that the caverns you’re exploring were once operational worksites. Catwalks and walkways, cranes, floodlights and excavators, etc…
With cave generation in Deep Rock Galactic, we only had to account for natural forms and organic life. In Rogue Core, it’s a programming challenge to make procedurally generated levels, where manmade (or rather, dwarfmade) mining equipment is loaded alongside the landscape, in a way that looks convincing and deliberate each time.
Down in these perilous depths, these deep-level biomes need to feel distinct, more sinister, from the parts of Hoxxess you’re used to. Right now, our model is to create a central “Core” biome – a unique landscape that represents the absolute core of the planet. Then, we inject elements of this into existing biomes, to create a visual effect where the Core appears to be ‘invading’ Hoxxes’ more familiar biomes as you venture further down. As you get deeper into a run in Rogue Core, the biome becomes more and more dominated by the Core.
You can see all the screenshots and details about biomes at the 1 : 26 : 43 timestamp of the full OtH livestream.
Upgrading your Reclaimer
In contrast to Deep Rock Galactic, where you start a mission fully kitted out, Rogue Core sees you gathering and upgrading your gear as you progress through a run. It’s impossible to bring advanced technology through the Greyout Barrier, so Reclaimers deploy to the mission zone with only a pickaxe. But after crossing the barrier, you’ll soon find an entrance room, where you can pick the first pieces of salvaged weaponry and traversal tools for your mission.
Right now, the gear selection (and upgrade) mechanics are a co-op process – all players take their picks from the same pool of options. Throughout a run, players take turns having the first pick of upgrades, as you and your fellow Reclaimers discuss which gear selections make the most sense. It’s sort of like a drafting system.
You’ll encounter (and earn) many upgrades during a run – some through upgrade rooms, others through abandoned caches and boosters scattered through the caves. Some might trigger a fight, so you and your team will have to decide whether the risk is worth the reward. And of course, you’ll also be able to turn the wunder-mineral Expenite into upgrades. That’s where Ellis comes in.
Ellis is an R.E.P.D. – Remote Expenite Processing Drone. Imagine if Molly the M.U.L.E. could fly, and you’ve got Ellis. Deposit your mined Expenite as you go, and when you’ve gathered enough, Ellis will open up for another round of upgrade selections.
Catch the full discussion of the upgrade system starting at the 1 : 31 : 51 timestamp of the OtH stream.
Aboard the RV-09 Ramrod
In Rogue Core, your ‘hub’ area isn’t Space Rig 17 – it’s the good ship Ramrod. The RV-09 Ramrod is still under construction, as you'll see in the preview footage, but we've got the general direction of where we want to take it.
Building a space ship is a different architectural challenge than a space rig. Space Rig 17 is quite spacious, with big tall ceilings and most of the experience centered around a big central room. The Ramrod will likely feature lower ceilings and a more compartmentalized layout, to really distinguish the feeling of a spacefaring vessel.
We’re also experimenting with how this hub space can reflect the culture of the Reclaimers. They’re no mere miners – and their ideas of recreation might be different than the DRG dwarves. How does the ship and its set dressing reflect these new dwarves, their interests and their values? So far, we’ve added a gym, and due to popular demand, have also added toilets.
The rest of the Ramrod is still taking shape. Perhaps we’ll do a ‘Below Decks’ on the Ramrod soon? Let us know in the comments if that sounds interesting.
See some sneak previews of the Ramrod (including the Toilet Reveal) starting at the 1 : 41 : 29 timestamp.
Know your enemies
During the stream, we took it over to Art Director Jacek Oczki to give a live in-engine preview of the fiends we’ve been working on. In Rogue Core, you won’t be seeing any more Glyphids. At this depth in Hoxxes, we’re finding a new breed of enemy – a faster, more lethal, and nastier foe.
It’s worth checking out that live demo at the 1 : 44 : 14 timestamp of the full OtH stream, to see all the creatures in action. But here’s a quick run-down of the new creatures, just in case:
- Corespawn Crawler: You’ll recognize this from DRG Season 05 – an agile, powerful quadruped, able to close the distance and deliver heavy melee hits.
- Corespawn Creeper: The smaller sibling of the Crawler, and the more ‘vanilla’ variant. If the Crawler is the Glyphid Grunt Guard, this one is the standard Grunt.
- Corespawn Scorcher: This fast-moving ranged unit prefers to keep at a medium distance, harassing you with fireball attacks. Not the tankiest enemy, but a hazard in significant numbers.
- Corespawn Clamorhead: Akin to a Glyphid Praetorian, this slow-moving beast does huge damage with its claw swipes, and has a broad-ranged sonic attack that can damage multiple players at once. Consider a high priority target.
- Corespawn Edgestalker: The ‘sniper’ unit of the family, this enemy came from an idea to bring gunfight mechanics to the horde. Thankfully, this one is a rarer spawn – but its fast strafing movement, high health and aggressive ranged attacks make them a major threat.
- Rafkan Thrasher: A new family of creatures, these flying units barrel toward you with a melee ramming attack. Sidestep to dodge its charges, and punish the weak points. Easily dispatched on its own, but can be a game-ender in the middle of a wave.
- Rafkan Rammer: The Thrasher’s bully big brother. This larger version boasts unbreakable armor, a high health pool, and the ability to plow through terrain. Disruptive, dangerous and aggressive. Reclaimer teams will need to work together and prioritize the Rammer if they expect to survive the encounter.
We’re of course working on plenty more creatures, which we’ll be revealing in due time. But you can consider these the ‘base’ army in Rogue Core, sort of like the Glyphid family in DRG.
Playable classes in Rogue Core
Rogue Core brings new playable classes – more than four of them, to be exact. Right now we’re working on five classes, but we’re still working on testing and prototyping them. There will probably be even more than five, but we’re a long way from having them set in stone. For now, we’re ready to show off two classes.
Here are the two classes we’re workshopping:
- The Slicer. Equipped with a devastating arm-mounted plasma blade, the Slicer offers extreme close-range crowd clearing with this signature melee attack. The blade cuts clean through terrain, too. We’re still workshopping the pool of possible upgrades that will allow you to experiment with a proper melee build on this one.
- The Falconeer. This Reclaimer brings a wrist-mounted flying shock drone, which you can send into battle to deliver shock attacks to enemies. It’s your elemental battle companion, able to help with single-target or crowd-control builds alike. We’re also experimenting with how you can upgrade this drone – could you get it to do remote revives?
As it stands now, a class is defined by its special ability. These abilities stem from some equipment mounted on the Reclaimer’s left arm, often some form of wearable tech or cybernetic implant. Most (if not all) will work on a cooldown timer, and may come with a range of class-specific perks to support your ability. During your run, you can expect to come across upgrades that will supercharge your ability, and really let your class choice shine.
See the two classes in action at the 2:00:13 timestamp of the full On the Horizon stream.
Fan Q&A about Rogue Core
At the end of the livestream, we took some questions from the chat. Here are those Q’s and A’s collected all together:
Q: How come this is a standalone game, and not just an expansion DLC to Deep Rock Galactic?
A: It started out as an expansion. But as we got deeper into working on it, we found that we wanted to do a lot of stuff that felt way beyond the theme and feel of DRG. In other words, we felt more creative and excited when we didn’t have to keep making sure every idea for Rogue Core fit with the DRG legacy. Another big factor was Early Access – that’s a big way for us to get community feedback and fine-tune everything, and you can’t do that with DLC.
Q: How long will one ‘run’ in Rogue Core last, on average?
A: We’re still playing around with that. At the moment, we’re considering having several possible lengths for a run, sort of like you can have with missions in DRG. At the moment, Rogue Core runs are a little longer than DRG missions. But they’re also harder, so you die more often. This one’s still a bit mushy, and very likely subject to change. Going with a tactical “it depends” on this.
Q: Can runs last forever, or can you ‘win’ each one?
A: Right now, the runs have a definite endpoint, after which you’ve ‘beat’ it and have successfully reclaimed the mining site. Again, though, it’s too early to say anything for sure here.
Q: Will the dwarves have the same voices as in Deep Rock Galactic?
A: That’s the plan right now, yes.
Q: What will the Rogue Core price point be? Will there be a bundle, or discount for existing Deep Rock Galactic?
A: Too early to say for sure here. But the intention is to put it at a similar price as comparable games, like Deep Rock Galactic.
Q: Will ammo be more limited in Rogue Core? How will resupplying work?
A: Right now it’s more limited, compared to base DRG. We don’t have Nitra in this game – instead, you’ll be able to find ammo crates throughout the run. But we’re also playing with other ways to top up, like skipping an upgrade in favor of an ammo refill, or getting an ammo crate consumable as equipment. We’re looking at a similar approach to healing, although there will still be Red Sugar.
Q: How big a role will terrain manipulation play in Rogue Core?
A: Cave traversal is still a big part of Rogue Core. But the pacing in this game will be different, so you’re likely to be moving more quickly and not staying in the same spot. But you can expect all the familiar DRG traversal tools to make a return.
Q: Since this is a roguelike, what kind of power progression can we expect to keep between runs? Is it class- or account-based?
A: Rogue Core will have permanent progression. Some of that will be upgrades that benefit all classes, and some will likely also be tied to specific classes and items. But this is an area that we really haven’t dug too deeply into yet, so we don’t have anything too big or specific we can promise here.
Q: With the co-op upgrade system you’ve proposed, are you worried about it causing infighting between players in random matchmaking?
A: We’ve considered that, yeah. It does have the possibility to generate friction – but that’s also the point. Hopefully, folks will be able to use the system for the whole team’s benefit, and share upgrades in a way that best boosts each player’s own build. Sometimes, that might mean you pass on the best upgrade, so that it can give an even bigger benefit to your teammate who might get more from it. You’ve got to win as a team, so it doesn’t make sense for any one player to hog all the goods.
All that said, this system is a work in progress, like all the rest of the game. Depending on how the game shapes up, and the feedback we get from internal playtesting and the Closed Alpha, it may also get some tweaks and improvements.
Q: Are you doing seasons for Rogue Core, or is it a one-and-done type of game?
A: We can’t say for sure right now. If you look back at Deep Rock Galactic, we never intended it to be a sort of live service game. It only became that after we experienced all the positive feedback, and demand for something like that. With Rogue Core, we’re taking the same approach – we’re just trying to make a fun game right now.
Q: Will there be boss fights in Rogue Core?
A: Oh yeah. We’re working on a couple of ‘em right now.
Q: Do the runs in Rogue Core get more difficult based on time, or by depth?
A: Right now, both. It gets tougher based on how long you stick around, and also how far you progress through the run.
Q: Will there be neutral wildlife in Rogue Core, considering how hostile these depths appear to be?
A: Not now, no. But that also might change.
Q: How dependent is the gameplay on getting upgrades? Is it feasible to make it through a run without upgrading?
A: No – or at least, it’s not designed to be. We’re designing this gameplay loop to focus around earning and selecting upgrades. That said, we’re always blown away by how good some players are, so somebody’s probably going to figure out a way to beat this using just their pickaxe.
Q: Will there be cosmetic packs? How will you handle that?
A: Probably? But again, too early to say. We just want to focus on making a good game first, we’ll think about this stuff after.
Q: Will stages of each run have the chance to have mutators and modifiers, like in DRG?
A: Yes, and we’re working on some new ones.
Q: Can we expect cross-progression between DRG and Rogue Core?
A: No.
Q: Will there be beer in the game?
A: Most likely. I mean, they’re dwarves.
Q: When are we gonna have Early Access for Rogue Core?
A: Right now, the plan is Q4 2025. So, in a year. We also need to plan for a Closed Alpha, and that’s slated for Q2 2025.
That’s the scoop on Rogue Core for now!
You can expect more news and details in the months to come. In the meanwhile, if you’ve got any burning questions, feel free to drop by one of our weekly Ghost Ship dev streams to ask us. You can catch us on Twitch and Youtube every Tuesday and Thursday at 13:00 CET.
With love,
-The Ghost Ship Crew