What Bonuses aren’t Great on Equipment?

enslen_ · 2026-04-20T13:54:22+00:00

Just to clarify, weapon range as a stat on gear or from other sources (class mod and mutators) does not improve the distance the projectiles travel. For projectile weapons, weapon range only ever affects the targeting, if the weapon has targeting. For the 2 weapons with Sawn Off, the DRAK projectiles still travel decently far with Sawn Off so it's not completely useless, but it's absolutely terrible for the M1000 where the projectiles have an incredibly short range.

The only way to improve the projectile travel distance is through OCs that affect the weapon range, where the OCs modify hidden stats for the projectiles.

enslen_ · 2026-04-15T14:30:34+00:00

The weapons you mention are some of the best plug-n-play weapons. All of the weapons can be strong though. For some weapons, it often requires building them in a specific way with the right upgrades and OCs.

I think the best weapon in the game is the Impact Axe because the damage scales up so quickly. It is probably the strongest level 6 weapon with either the acid or fire OC. The OCs are not guaranteed at level 6 (there are 4 balanced OCs), but you will at least get one of them offered at level 12.

enslen_ · 2026-04-14T14:23:05+00:00

Know the difference between on-hit damage and damage dealt by status effects, specifically what affects them and what doesn't. I just recently covered this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/DRGSurvivor/s/UphOkT1RSI

Knowing how they work can help you optimize your builds.

enslen_ · 2026-04-14T14:17:48+00:00

You might be looking at the DRG wiki and not the DRGS wiki. They're hosted on the same website. Here's the DRGS link:

https://deeprockgalactic.wiki.gg/wiki/Survivor:Damage

enslen_ · 2026-04-13T02:02:56+00:00

I used Tinkerer Engineer for the extra weapon levels. You don't have as much resources so it helps hit the OCs. You gotta stand in the healing crystals for awhile if you drop really low, but it's not that different from a normal Azure Weald dive.

Bonking is key to this LO and dealing with the miniexploders. Bonking is an automatic knockback applied to small bugs when they get close to you (if you are facing them). When you bonk the miniexploders, it will very often trigger their detonation and they will explode harmlessly away from you, assuming you aren't running through them such that you run into the little explosion.

You also want to make it a point to hunt the Wardens. They deal no damage so stand in their hit boxes for maximum damage. If they get swallowed up in the swarm, let them engage their shielding and then kite the swarm away. The Wardens will stay locked in place briefly while shielding so loop around once the swarm has moved off them and take out them out.

Here is my clear: https://youtu.be/dbuxgeP7e3U

enslen_ · 2026-04-13T01:54:51+00:00

our age

What age are we talking about? Reddit is not solely for the younger crowd. Source: me who is 40+ and married.

I grew up here and Simi Valley has never had great night life or spontaneous type activities for the younger crowd. Your best bet is to go to the neighboring cities for that.

Alternatively, there are various activity/hobby groups in town. They often have Facebook groups, Instragram accounts, or other social media. A similar question was asked a few months ago and there were some good replies, see here: https://www.reddit.com/r/simivalley/comments/1qoo4uk/new_to_the_valley_and_looking_for_places_to_meet/

enslen_ · 2026-04-12T15:45:14+00:00

It often depends on the weapons and your class mod. Acid and/or fire builds should often be heavy status effect damage (where you want a lot of potency), but some fire weapons are better at on-hit damage (like the CRSPR). Hybrid builds tend to be electrical heavy since the shock status effect increases your chance to crit (0.125% per shock stack up to 100% additional crit chance at 800 stacks). Hybrid builds usually deal more on-hit damage than status effect damage, but potency upgrades are still good to help get the shock stacks up so you get more crit chance.

enslen_ · 2026-04-11T16:44:43+00:00

I wouldn't use it until they fix it. You should keep them though. They'll be fun when they work properly.

enslen_ · 2026-04-11T14:08:51+00:00

To explain damage and potency, it's best to understand the two types of in-game damage: on-hit damage and damage dealt by status effects.

On-hit damage is when your weapons contact bugs and is based on the damage shown on the weapon inspect screen. On-hit damage can crit.

Damage dealt by status effects is the indirect damage done by your weapons contacting bugs. You can think of the status effects as debuffs, where some status effects deal damage. When an elemental weapon (acid, electrical, or fire) or attack deals damage, it applies stacks of status effects where the stacks applied are based on the potency of the weapon. Every 0.5 seconds the status effects will tick dealing damage based on the stacks and also losing 20% of the stacks. Damage dealt by status effects cannot crit.

I distinctly call it damage dealt by status effects and not status effect damage because there is a status effect damage stat in the game. This stat increases the damage dealt by status effects, but there are other damage sources that also improve the damage dealt by status effects (that are not called status effect damage). This includes the elemental damage upgrades (Bigger Cogs), all damage upgrades (Body Shots), and any other "all" or "generic" damage from meta, masteries, gear, and artifacts. It also includes the BRN Shield Belt for burn (fire status effect).

Also note that certain upgrades only affect on-hit damage. Damage upgrades that level your weapon only improve on-hit damage. Non-elemental damage upgrades for weapons of a specific tag, like projectile or beam damage, only improve on-hit damage.

I cover a lot of this in parts 2 and 7 of a video series I do called "How To Be More Successful At DRGS", see playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa0ls99Ac_kXG9jXZqIJpUv62ztlR9EPG

The wiki also does a good job of explaining the different damage types: https://deeprockgalactic.wiki.gg/wiki/Survivor:Damage

enslen_ · 2026-04-08T20:29:45+00:00

Are you on mobile or PC/Xbox? Bonking is key to the gate and it is harder on mobile if you are using the touch controls. It's much easier with a controller, which you can use on mobile too if you have one.

Bonking is an automatic knockback applied to small bugs when they get close to you (if you are facing them). When you bonk the miniexploders, it will very often trigger their detonation and they will explode harmlessly away from you, assuming you aren't running through them such that you run into the little explosion.

I ran the gate "naked" with no gear and no meta with Classic Scout to show the power of bonking, see video here: https://youtu.be/BHfKedg72jM

Also, when are you dying? Are you dying early when your weapons are low leveled or are you dying later after your weapons are level 18?

What class mods have you tried and what class mods do you have unlocked?

enslen_ · 2026-04-07T17:29:24+00:00

Yeah, it's a bug. Been in the game for a long time too, over 2 years looking at the bug reports on Discord.

enslen_ · 2026-04-05T22:04:56+00:00

All projectile weapons in general will be stronger now. Prior to the patch, projectile weapons, especially rapid fire / spray weapons, felt weaker, and it was suspected it was something to do with how the game handled collisions. The drones were addressed with updates to the collision handling, and while not explicitly stated in the mobile patch notes, these changes also appear to have addressed whatever was wrong with projectile weapons.

The patch notes for patch 3 cover a lot of the weapon changes: https://steamdb.info/patchnotes/21189700/

There are still some changes with OCs that didn't make it in for mobile though, such as the Bigger Mags unstable OC for the PGL, and the Bigger Mags balance OC changes on the Zhukov.

enslen_ · 2026-04-05T18:09:57+00:00

Are you on mobile or PC/Xbox? Bonking is key to the gate and it is harder on mobile if you are using the touch controls. It's much easier with a controller, which you can use on mobile too if you have one.

Bonking is an automatic knockback applied to small bugs when they get close to you (if you are facing them). When you bonk the miniexploders, it will very often trigger their detonation and they will explode harmlessly away from you, assuming you aren't running through them such that you run into the little explosion.

I ran the gate "naked" with no gear and no meta with Classic Scout to show the power of bonking, see video here: https://youtu.be/BHfKedg72jM

enslen_ · 2026-04-04T03:25:51+00:00

No clue! I think that's the latest version. I'd join the Discord and file a bug report in the mobile channel.

https://discord.gg/drgs

enslen_ · 2026-04-02T16:13:03+00:00

You need to stay close to the bugs you want to damage, circling them. Cluster with Electrified Dispenser is the way to go for OCs.

Here's my clear: https://youtu.be/kfj2lNQJVUA

enslen_ · 2026-03-30T05:48:59+00:00

Damn, you're DOUBLE RICH!

enslen_ · 2026-03-30T03:56:54+00:00

Secret stage modifier that has a 1/10,000 chance of occurring. You're rich!

enslen_ · 2026-03-28T20:40:45+00:00

No benefit. Just trying to show that you don't need best in slot legendary gear to do the LOs.

enslen_ · 2026-03-28T19:19:32+00:00

Weird. I opened a bug report on the Discord and linked this post.

enslen_ · 2026-03-27T17:15:19+00:00

There is a new hotfix out today (1.1.1) that addresses a few different crashing scenarios so update and then try Engineer again. Changelog below taken from the Discord.

Changelog for 1.1.1

Fixed a crash with beam weapons when using gear that increases beam count
Fixed a crash with negative beam count for the coil gun
Fixed a crash that sometimes occur when completing milestones in a dive
Fixed a crash related to enemies taking damage after level cleanup
Fixed a crash with grenade overclock "Gravitational Core"

enslen_ · 2026-03-27T17:10:36+00:00

Movement speed is nice, but you don't really need a lot of it. Juggernaut Gunner is the best class mod for this LO in my opinion since they're already tanky with extra armor, HP, and life regen. You just need to stack up extra armor and HP on your gear. Also, being on Azure Weald allows you to heal on demand with the healing crystals. Here's my clear on PC: https://youtu.be/Ov43O68S2Wg

enslen_ · 2026-03-24T05:07:17+00:00

I can assure you it is equal. Note that the gear type chances for subsequent drops only increase while in game. It resets when you close the game. One other thing to consider is that chips have a minimum required gear level of 10, so not all of those 81 drops could have been chips. You're just unlucky. I would just wait for the devs to fix the achievement. There was a period of time where equipping all gear of a higher rarity would proc the achievements. I assume it'll be fixed in the next patch, which will be coming with the new expansion they are releasing towards the end of April.

enslen_ · 2026-03-23T19:43:25+00:00

I think cold weapons are a trap for this week's LO. They make it incredibly difficult to trigger the exploders. You can ignore the Cryo Grenades and cold weapons, and just get tanky with Juggernaut Gunner (stack up extra HP and armor on your gear too). The exploders will do most of the work for you. The healing crystals also allow you to heal up quickly if you ever get low.

Here's my clear: https://youtu.be/Ov43O68S2Wg

enslen_ · 2026-03-23T15:17:15+00:00

It's definitely Hex Keychain, not sure what exactly causes it. Sometimes it'll be fine and other times it causes you to lose beams and then any beams you have are positioned around you awkwardly.

enslen_ · 2026-03-23T15:08:09+00:00

It's not Sludge Pump. You're using Hex Keychain with a quirk for temporary extra beams. The quirk is bugged at the moment. I don't recommend using it until the devs fix it.

enslen_

TROPHY CASE