While it looks just as warm and welcoming as Deep Rock Galactic, Rogue Core can be surprisingly ruthless - even on the early difficulties. So before you dig in, here's what you need to know to avoid having your butt chewed off.

1) Can You Play Solo?

Starting with an important question: can you play solo? Yes, and more importantly, it's not any harder than multiplayer. If anything, it's a lot more chill since you don't have to worry about coordinating upgrades or being held hostage by one guy who's allergic to leveling up.

Instead, it's just you and your handy robot companion Cooper going around and blasting aliens. Cooper can also mine resources for you or light up dark areas - just point him at something with your scanner and he'll handle the rest. He really is a good boy. So if you're not in the mood for people constantly shooting you in the back, solo is still a great way to play the game.

Video version of this guide (~12 minutes)

2) Timer

Unlike Deep Rock Galactic where you can stripmine the caves until there's only dirt left, Rogue Core has a timer that's constantly ticking in the background. If it runs out you'll be hit by progressively harder waves of enemies, until eventually you get the honor of meeting the giant worms. They are completely invincible. You can only push them back for a brief moment, and you'll definitely need to as they can straight up abduct people.

As such, speed and efficiency matters. Prioritize the Bio Booster, Workbench and level-specific upgrades like the Heavy Weapons Crate. Expedite - the mineral that serves as your experience - is nice to have, but if you're tight on time don't risk your life for 1/5 of a level-up. It's just not worth it, and unfortunately, I know that from experience.

That said, running out of time is not instant doom. You can hold off the rampaging hordes for a little while, so if there's something critical you need to get, grab it and then run for the elevator like your beard is on fire - because it's soon going to be.

3) Finding Your Way

Even though you have a scanner showing you the lay of the land, Rogue Core's map layouts can be so complex that you can easily get lost anyway. The official solution to this problem is to follow the wire on the floor - the flashing lights will guide you in the direction of the elevator.

That works... if you can actually find the wire. But, I found a much better trick - go north! Every map is oriented south-to-north, which means the elevator is always roughly north of your starting position. So you don't need to look for a wire or even bring up your scanner - just walk north and you'll be golden. It's a simple tip, but it's an absolute lifesaver on the more complicated maps.

The terrain scanner is great, but it's a bit too cumbersome to use on the run

4) Spread Out

The best way to avoid timing out - especially in multiplayer - is to spread out. Keep relatively close to at least one person just in case someone gets intimate with a leech, but otherwise scatter across the cavern and do your own thing. You don't need four people assembling a workbench, or two people supervising someone mining Expedite. It just slows everyone down.

And most crucially - you don't need to level up the moment it becomes available. Just finish clearing out the area, and then when you naturally group up for an event or the elevator, that's when you should level up. A lot of new players aren't aware of this, however, so try to teach them before the run starts. It'll save you a ton of time... and prevent you from going insane.

5) Fight Together

As a counter-point to this, whenever a fight breaks out - huddle up. It doesn't matter if it's a timed horde, an event or the elevator - group up with your team. A lot of perks and class abilities only benefit players within a short range. And since enemies really love chewing on people's butts, having someone watch yours will massively reduce your underwear budget.

That said, 'group up' doesn't mean 'stand on top of each other'. Getting a bit too cozy with your fellow players will only cause tons of friendly fire as it's hard to keep track of everything during a hectic fight. So stay close, but not close enough that you can taste another Dwarf's aroma.

Big fights can be a complete mess, so try not to zap your allies like me here

6) Use Melee

Ammo in Rogue Core is a precious resource, especially for rapid-fire weapons. If you're not careful you can run dry before you're halfway through a level, and that's not a pleasant situation to be in.

So use your melee attacks. Both the basic strike and the power attack can crush all low-tier enemies - which also happen to be the most numerous ones. So if you ever get rushed by a couple of swarmers, or one or two crawlers, give them a lovetap right to the head.

And if you invest into melee through perks and upgrades, it can scale into being a genuine monster. A Slicer can just rip and tear through hordes while barely taking any damage. So don't treat melee as your last resort - it deserves so, so much more.

7) Abilities

But it's not just melee that can save you ammo. Abilities in Rogue Core are absurdly powerful, and anything that lets you spam them more is worth its weight in gold. So if you see a perk that gives you cooldown recharge, grab that over a generic damage upgrade. Every ability you throw out is ammo saved - for you and your team.

Same thing with workbench upgrades. I know something like +0.5 range on the Slicer's slice might sound suuuuuuper boring compared to extra shooty-shooty bang-bang, but that little upgrade lets you annihilate entire waves of enemies if you can catch them in a chokepoint. So lean into your abilities. All of them are amazing.

If you can barely see your screen, you're using your abilities correctly!

8) Healing

All of my failed runs have been caused by the same problem - a lack of healing. Red sugar crystals found throughout the levels are handy for the occasional boo-boo, but there's simply not enough of them to heal a full team after a nasty fight. And at the final boss? You get basically no healing at all.

So whenever you see a perk that gives you health or creates red sugar - grab it! All of them are top tier, 10/10s, must-haves. You can compensate for low damage by just shooting a little longer, but if you're dead your DPS is always going to be zero. So much like real life, take care of your health, and you'll never have to stop shooting transdimensional demons.

9) Safety First

When it comes to reviving people - don't be a hero. I know it sucks watching your friend roll around on the floor screaming for help, but if you rush over there the only thing you'll achieve is add another body to the pile. I've done this more times than I'm comfortable admitting.

The correct move is to clear all of the enemies around them, and then double-check to ensure there's nobody else coming. Revives take a while, and getting torn up while doing it isn't going to help anyone, because now you'll both be at death's door.

So if you're getting swarmed, just forget about it. Keep yourself alive, and then come back for them later. For boss fights specifically, you're better off pushing for the next phase as that will stun the boss for a while, instead of mounting a heroic rescue. Because if you're the last man standing, the boss isn't going to watch you revive everyone. It's going to eat your face. So save yourself first, then save everyone else. In that order!

Don't add more bodies to the pile. Keep yourself safe!

10) Weapons

While this will hopefully change in time, right now not all starter weapons are made equal. Some like the charge pistol are insanely powerful and can basically one-shot the final boss. Others, like the wave projector gun, do so little damage they're best repurposed as a backscratcher.

So if you start with a good gun, don't swap off it unless you find something truly amazing. Just keep pumping upgrades into it and it'll carry you through the whole run.

But if you get saddled with some stinker that fires blanks, don't try to fix it through upgrades. Right now the upgrades are pretty straightforward stat increases, so a bad weapon is not going to suddenly become amazing. So cut your losses and swap it for something else at the first workbench, or if you're feeling brave, when you get a heavy weapons crate as a level reward. It's the riskier option, but getting a minigun as a primary is an absolute blast!

11) Perks

Rogue Core's perks are currently a bit hit and miss. Some of them are highly, highly situational - stuff that gives you small buffs if you twirl a cat around your head during a full moon kind of situational.

So here's a brief rundown of what sort of perks you should prioritize when leveling up, in no strict order:

- Anything that generates red sugar or heals you is a top pick.
- After that, look for stuff that has major synergy with your build - electricity, melee, big damage bonuses, etc.
- Then go for cooldown reduction as your abilities can carry even a bad weapon.
- After that I like taking generic damage upgrades. They're rarely exciting, but they add up over time.
- And finally I like taking defensive options like freezing attackers or extra armor. Or just the safe and consistent pick - extra health and a full heal.

This doesn't mean that everything outside that list is useless, or that you should follow it religiously. It's just that a lot of the non-epic perks are so situational that they might do literally nothing in your current run. So if you're deviating from the plan, make sure you've got a good reason - and not just because the icon looked shiny!

Got Any Questions?

And that's the lot. Eleven simple tips that will hopefully make your first journey through Rogue Core a lot less fatal than mine. If you have any questions, about the guide or Rogue Core in general, drop them in the video's comments. I'll do my best to help you out. Cheers!