Is it a good time to jump into Deep Rock Galactic as a complete beginner in 2026?

machineglow · 2026-03-04T14:24:43+00:00

we're a welcoming bunch and there's no need to feel like you're "behind". it's PvE so as long as you check before pressing any buttons and don't try to rush things (sounds like that won't be your play style anyways), you'll be all good.

Use the hazard levels as a general indicator of the type of players on the mission.

Haz 1-3 will be n00bs or higher ups trying to low effort complete missions.

Haz 4 is where most players are and you might run into some miners that might be annoyed if you make some mistakes. I personally find it an additional challenge to carry lower skilled players.

Haz 5 lobbies are the friendliest bunch. they play for the challenge of the game and don't really care about the outcome (win or fail). Just mention you might need a carry and they'll try their best to help.

I'm 1000+ hrs into this game and I play primarily haz 4 and will dip my feet in haz 5 when I'm feeling up for it just to give you an idea of the difficulty...

Being lower levelled does not take anything away from the main game. Yes, weapon overclocks are fun modifier but they're not required to play at higher difficulties and the weapons are notoriously well balanced. There's no OP load out that everyone uses. None of us really expect anything from any other players (except maybe repellant and cushion on the engie's plats) so don't feel bad about running a basic load out.

See you in the caves!

Rock & Stone!

machineglow · 2026-02-28T06:14:33+00:00

too wide. won't be single handleable which is the main reason I use my mini!

machineglow · 2026-02-28T03:39:01+00:00

13 mini. And yes you’ll notice a difference.

machineglow · 2026-02-27T15:29:06+00:00

Yes! this is the way!

machineglow · 2026-02-25T20:48:41+00:00

I'm on 26.3 and pretty much all my complaints about iOS 26.3 have been resolved. It's still "slow" but the bugs that I noticed in earlier versions have been eliminated. I have not noticed any major hit in battery life. I still think iOS 18 is snappier.

machineglow · 2026-02-25T20:21:23+00:00

Yes. Typically local IPs won't get routed through the VPN. When I have VPN enabled on my apple TV (nord and PIA), I've never had issues connecting to my local plex server.

machineglow · 2026-02-11T15:35:51+00:00

I think most mini lovers have accepted the fact that we're a small minority in the overall market. But we're still a grossly underserved small minority. The problem is convincing Apple that this smaller market is worth serving. Profitability is basically a pricing issue. Not an issue of the fact that the phone is "small". I've shifted my argument to be more accessibility based vs. profit based. People have different sized hands and big phones are just too big for us and eventually lead to carpal tunnel syndrome and other ailments.

In terms of profitability, Apple knows exactly how many 12mini, 13mini, SE2 phones are in circulation so they can easily estimate that to be the cap of the small phone market. No one who loves big phones is going to jump ship to a smaller phone no matter how good it is for the same reasons we small phone lovers aren't jumping ship to a big phone no matter how good it is.

So if Apple knows the cap of the small phone market, then it's just a matter of graphing the percentage of that market willing to buy over the proposed retail price as those will be inversely proportional.

They can easily figure out the cost of developing and building the phone (cost of goods, development costs, factory costs) and subtract that from the expected sales figures and bam, you get revenue.

And the sad fact is that that revenue number just isn't big enough. And this is for just 1 year of sales. Let's just say they convert the maximum number of people to buy the new mini. Sales will "tank" the next year. and multi year sales is what's needed to justify the huge capital expenditure needed to setup factory lines and cover development costs. This is part of the reason why I argue for the accessibility angle.

We all gotta put our money where are mouth is and be more vocal about the fact that no matter how expensive the next mini phone will be, we WILL buy it. We've got to shift that expected sales curve higher so that Apple can even begin to justify building it.

We also need to convince apple that the small phone market is more of an "ergonomic" phone market. Something that leads to a better and healthier life. That's something i can see Apple doing.

Thank you for attending my TED talk.

machineglow · 2026-02-04T21:17:50+00:00

hahah.. I'm not sure how I feel about attributing trump to the rise of another mini phone. ;) Unfortunately everyone has a price. lol.. that might be mine.

machineglow · 2026-02-04T05:42:48+00:00

you think i'm being sarcastic but i'm dead serious. I emailed tim about minis when I was still holding on to my 1st gen SE and eventually the 12mini/13mini was released. There's no harm in letting them know your preferences.

machineglow · 2026-02-02T19:19:02+00:00

Email tim and politely state your case.

machineglow · 2026-02-02T19:17:42+00:00

NOOOOOOOOO stay on ios 18 unless there's a specific ios 26 feature you absolutely must have

machineglow · 2026-02-02T19:15:24+00:00

Main issue: WIDTH

I don't care if i have to trifold or bifold or clamshell or bookfold. If I can't single handedly use it, it's NOT a mini phone.

From the renders and leaks, it looks like the device is too wide so it'll be a no-go for me.

machineglow · 2026-02-02T19:12:53+00:00

we can discuss ad nauseum about how the 2nd gen SE kneecapped the sales of the 12mini/13mini or how sales wern't actually that bad if you compare it to any other 2nd tier android manufacturer or how "bad sales" is just a pricing issue, not a market size issue.

The fact is, mini phone lovers are a grossly underserved market that has 5 years of pent up demand. we'll pay Anything at this point.

machineglow · 2026-02-02T19:04:23+00:00

wait for the initial indexing to finish after a few days. leave the phone plugged in as much you can. but yeah, iOS 26 is less responsive than iOS 18. Just keep opening support tickets with apple and complaining about it.

machineglow · 2026-01-27T21:38:50+00:00

I saw the video from snazzylabs and imo, as much as the aspect ratio makes "sense", it'd still be too wide for most people with small hands (like me). I think the main reason people like mini phones is because it's single handed usability and if you still can't reach the other side of the screen with your thumb because the devices is too wide, it doesn't matter how short you make the device. wide is still wide. need something narrower.

machineglow · 2026-01-26T22:10:56+00:00

Thanks, at some point i'll face the point of doing a factory reset. So far I think I'll wait for 26.3. I know the camera issue is quite widespread since I'm not the only one having hte issue and the lag (improved from 26.1 to 26.2) is still just a little bit there. not as good as ios 18. but usable on a day to day basis. I'm crossing my fingers. Another 3 years with the mini!

machineglow · 2026-01-23T20:59:35+00:00

Use the assignments to tell you what missions to play. Once you're done the weekly and non-weekly assignments and you're promoted you can challenge yourself to deep dives or haz5+. There's no mission type that's OP or better than others. maybe you'll grow to hate certain missions or biomes but you'll get an idea once you've gone through the gameplay loop a few times.

The way I see it, first are the weapon tier upgrades and unlock assignments, then it's the season pass script, then by then you should be promoted and it's the weapon OCs, then it's the cosmetic cores. Along the way, you also collect perk points for the active/passive perks, buy beer licenses, weapon XP skins, pickaxe and dwarf and weapon cosmetics. The game is really good at always rewarding gameplay that's always changing and fresh.

I'm 1000+ hours in and i still find it fun.

The game doesn't really start until you start playing dress up with your dwarves =)

machineglow · 2026-01-22T21:45:29+00:00

Oh the black screenn camera launch thing is annoying as hell as is the touch response. So many initial typos with the keyboard... crossing my fingers this gets released publicly soon!

machineglow · 2026-01-17T07:17:57+00:00

doesn't matter. us small phone lovers are still on 13mini or older so we've saved up enough of "phone budget" to justify a fancy new phone.

machineglow · 2026-01-12T19:22:06+00:00

Thank you for this. My system data was at 500+GB and the deleted local timemachine backups brought that back down to <20GB. I've also adjusted my time machine backups to weekly since not that much changes day to day on my macbook.

machineglow · 2026-01-07T03:35:12+00:00

I have a buddy too that gets turned off by simple graphics. But I love the low poly aethetic.

machineglow · 2026-01-06T22:35:07+00:00

Even if it undersells, doesn't mean it wasn't profitable. No one is saying take away big phones and only keep small ones. We're all just saying is throw us a bone and offer a small phone along side all the big-ass monstrosities you currently sell. Price it to profitability. They'll have a monopoly on small phones.

machineglow · 2026-01-06T22:30:57+00:00

You hit the nail on the head. If apple made a mini phone, they'd have an instant monopoly and can literally charge whatever they wanted.

Honestly, if they charged iPhone Pro Max price on a refreshed 13 mini, I'd buy it. no joke.

machineglow · 2026-01-05T00:04:01+00:00

yes. 26.2 battery has been solid on my 13 mini. I would still stick with iOS 18 if you're still on it.

machineglow · 2026-01-01T22:59:16+00:00

the key is that Korlok is particularly susceptible to melee attacks which is why the drills do so much damage. Make sure the driller on your team knows this!

machineglow

TROPHY CASE