Deep Rock Galactic: Can you play solo or do you need a team?
Last Updated on: 26th June 2022, 07:55 pm
Deep Rock Galactic is a great COOP horde shooter, but can you still play it alone in solo mode and have fun without a team?
Can you play Deep Rock Galactic as a Solo player?
Despite being most often enjoyed as a team game, Deep Rock Galactic can also be played in a dedicated Solo mode, where you play alongside a helpful drone known as Bosco, which can be customised to your preference and replaces teammates. Unlike teammates, you only get one Bosco, but you’ll only need one Bosco.
Bosco can be given commands at any time to deal with certain tasks for you. If you want to focus on searching the area, you can task Bosco to dig up nearby resources. If you’re out of flares, you can direct Bosco to light up an area.
Bosco makes for a versatile ally and is even capable of reviving you. What exactly this dangerous drone can manage depends on what customisations and upgrades you select for it at a dedicated terminal in the space rig. Available upgrades include missiles, extra revives and more potent lights, increased mining speed and a chance to electrocute enemies Bosco shoots.
Of particular note; Bosco is capable of tedious tasks such as the construction of pipelines by default. This enables you to focus on the layout exclusively while Bosco puts them together.
Bosco can’t totally replace the mechanics of other Dwarves though. He doesn’t have the incredibly useful flaregun of the Scout, the rapid tunnelling of the Driller, the ziplines of the Gunner or the terrain creation of the Engineer. Still, this drone makes for a handy ally in Solo missions, so making sure to give commands to it is essential.
When playing in Solo you will encounter some issues around not having access to certain mechanics provided by the other Dwarves. Playing without a Scout will mean the world is darker for example because without the incredibly useful Flare Gun, you’re relying on your flashlight and basic flares.
Engineer for example packs a sentry turret to aid him which sounds very useful in Solo as it’ll help prevent you from being overwhelmed but is possibly the least-mobile class in the entire game. His platform gun can help him navigate his way up and down large areas, but it will burn through ammo to do so as he’ll need to jump across multiple platforms at a time, and its time consuming to get around this way.
All four of the classes will encounter some kind of issue similar to this.
Scout packs some very powerful guns but doesn’t really have an ammo-efficient way to handle many smaller enemies. Driller doesn’t really bring himself any mobility if he doesn’t have anything to drill into and may need to resort to explosives for larger enemies. Gunner packs plenty of firepower but takes a while to get anywhere and burns through ammo quickly.
This is part of the experience though. Not every Dwarf is ideal for every task. In solo play, that means you’ll come up against challenges that you may need to get creative to resolve, but that’s also part of the charm of Deep rock Galactic.
The overall gameplay loop is still great fun, and Bosco is such a useful ally you’ll find yourself wishing you could take him into COOP missions even with a full team.
In summary, while Deep rock is designed for a group of Dwarves to wander off into the alien darkness trying to find various mission objectives without being brutally murdered by the native wildlife, it can be just as fun in its Solo mode. Just make sure to keep your health topped off and your ammo reserves up.
You may find additional challenges to work around though, due to the intended teamplay design of the game and how the different Dwarves were meant to interact with each other, but you gain the ever-useful assistance of Bosco, the customisable all-purpose drone. Provided you’re willing to get a bit creative, Solo mode is every bit as fun as the multiplayer missions are.
