[Update #2]: The day has finally come - Deep Rock Galactic has now been unleashed from Steam Early Access!

[Update]: Deep Rock Galactic will be digging its way out of Steam Early Access this May 13th!

As previously announced, Deep Rock Galactic will be officially released from Steam Early Access in the second quarter of 2020. In order to ensure everything goes according to plan, as well as to polish up the new-player experience, Ghost Ship Games have now revealed that there will be one more major update before launch.

Update 29 will feature a whole bunch of under-the-hood optimization and improvements, the most obvious of which will be the visual overhaul of your trusty Drop Pod. Also, if you're a fan of making your gear as ridiculously over-the-top as possible, you'll be glad to hear your pickaxe will be getting a full visual customization system.

You can also expect to see a variety of balance changes guided by community feedback from Update 28, as well as a new "Miner's Manual" that serves as an in-game repository of information about pretty much everything in Deep Rock Galactic. Last but not least, the tutorial will be getting a complete overhaul in order to better teach new players all of the core mechanics and controls.

Afterwards, the developers will be focusing entirely on the launch version and its accompanying update. While this one will be fairly light on new content, it will bring with it a brand new batch of bugfixes, optimizations and probably even balance tweaks. There will also be an extra hour of music to listen to, as well as new Promotion Ranks and associated rewards to chase after.

"One thing we KNOW we will focus on right after launch, however, is a return to the real meat and bones of the gameplay," continues the developer update. "We've devoted a ton of necessary work on fleshing out the game's surrounding systems for a long time now, but it's high time we turn our eyes back on the caves themselves. You can at the very least expect more Mission Types after launch, since that's something we rate very very highly on our list of wishes."

Once Update 29 arrives I'll make sure to let you know, but until then I wish you the best of luck with both mining and not-dying to space bugs!