Best Class In Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor

Highlights

Engineer class in Deep Rock Galactic excels with turrets and innovative weapons for crowd control and traversal during bug extermination.
Driller class specializes in up-close combat with unique acid and flame weapons, making him ideal for dealing with hordes of enemies.
Gunner class is a heavy hitter with high ammo capacity weapons, making him effective in taking out bugs but vulnerable during reloads.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor features a quirky group of ragtag space dwarves that are more than capable of mining precious ores, and even more gung-ho about blasting alien bugs to kingdom come. Similar to Deep Rock Galactic, players choose between four dwarf classes before setting off to deal with the pesky and hulking dreadnought and the other multi-legged menace in each biome.

But which among the four classes is the best at taking out the bugs? What does each class bring to the excursions to make the bug extermination and mining operation easier? Here is every class in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor ranked from worst to best.

Deep Rock Galactic promo art featuring all four dwarf classes (left), Gunner fighting Glyphid Bulk Detonator in a sandy cave (top right), BET-C bestiary art (bottom right)

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4 Engineer

Gadgets and Gizmos Aplenty

The Engineer class in the original Deep Rock Galactic specializes in building turrets and other kinds of innovative weapons that aid the team with some zoning, crowd control, and traversal. In Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, the Engineer’s playstyle stays the same. The Engineer’s main weapon is the turret that he places near enemies as soon as it’s available. This allows him to focus on completing side missions or mining precious ore and resources, since the turrets can keep the rampaging bugs at bay.

As players level up the Engineer and unlock more weapons, those weapons become more and more eccentric. The Voltaic Shock Fence, Breach Cutter, and the LOK-1 Smart Rifle provide more diversity in terms of the Engineer’s damage output. The Engineer’s elemental weapon upgrades are typically Electrical in nature, which are effective against clusters of enemies because they chain damage to as many targets as possible.

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As far as class mods, the different Engineer mods vastly mix up his playstyle. Maintenance Worker is the first mod that equips the Engineer with the LMG Gun Platform, which needs to be placed nearby to secure the perimeter. The Tinkerer mod has him start with an automatic shotgun, which allows players to hit enemies in front of him. Meanwhile, the Demolitionist has him brandishing a grenade launcher, which is exceptionally effective against swaths of enemies.

Playing as the Engineer is the hardest among the four available classes, because the weapons are unconventional. Typical runs with Engineers begin with planning out a path, usually towards side missions or precious ore nodes, while waiting for the turret placement to establish an effective perimeter around the Engineer.

3 Driller

Whirlwind of Destruction

Most dwarf classes in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor rely on keeping a fair distance between themselves and the voracious bugs in order for them to unleash their arsenal. This isn’t the case for the Driller. The Driller specializes in getting as up close and personal with the bugs as he takes them out with his unconventional weaponry. Unlike the other classes, the Driller’s weapons revolve around flame and acid-laden equipment. This includes flamethrowers, mounted flamethrowers, acid spewers and grenades.

The acid-powered weapons severely weaken any enemy that they touch. Meanwhile, the flame weapons deal damage over time on top of their ramping damage to targets, so long as they keep them in the stream of fire. This unconventional assortment of weapons makes the Driller’s playstyle unique. His weapons have limited range, and must be close to targets to burn them effectively. Once players have access to his third class mod, Strong Armed, all his weapons gain longer range. This means the flames and acid-spewing weapons can reach enemies at safer distances.

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When playing with the Interrogator class mod, the Driller becomes even better at dealing with large crowds. Positioning and pathing are important for players to keep in mind when playing this class. That said, Drillers require a nice clear area when facing the Dreadnought, since the flame and acid jets from his weapons rotate around the Driller’s body.

Another thing that sets the Driller apart from the other classes in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is that his starting class mod, the Foreman, enables him to drill through rock and precious ores faster than any other class. This makes him a great option for people who want to complete ore-collecting tasks. It's especially handy when players need to mine for Morkite, a precious ore that is notoriously hard to mine and demands players to keep their dwarves stationary to extract them.

2 Gunner

Master of Bullet Hell

The Gunner class in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is one of the burlier classes. One of its class mods allows him to increase his defenses whenever he reloads his weapon. As his name suggests, the Gunner specializes in various types of Kinetic-powered guns. These range from his classic “Leadstorm” Minigun and “Bulldog” Heavy Revolver, to the heavy-hitters like the “Thunderhead” Auto-Cannon and “Hurricane” Guided Rocket System.

Once a Gunner has his main weapon primed and leveled up, he can lay waste to legions of bugs, whether in the open, or through carefully-pathed murder corridors. His weapons have high ammo capacity, and can be fully unloaded onto enemies to take them out up close or from a safe distance.

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That said, Gunners struggle when reloading their heavy firearms. They have the slowest reload times, and players need to keep an eye on their weapons, especially when they are about to run out of ammo and need to reload. Gunners are vulnerable when they aren’t firing at enemies.

As far as movement, the Gunner is rather slow, since he’s lugging such heavy weaponry. This makes him susceptible to being swarmed if players aren’t careful. However, this can be remedied by picking movement speed buffs whenever players level up. Players can also pick the Juggernaut class mod to have more survivability in between reloads.

1 Scout

The King of Keep Away

As the first class players access to in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, the Scout is the best class for learning all the in-game mechanics. The Scout is the fastest among the dwarven classes. Its starting class mod, Classic Scout, grants players additional movement speed from the get-go. This allows players, especially those new to the game, the chance to get acclimated to how each stage ramps up in difficulty, and how getting away from hazards is a key mechanic to survive.

The Scout predominantly arms himself with light to medium weapons that have great to excellent range. He typically starts with a Kinetic-powered weapon like Deepcore GK2, Zhukov Nuk17, or M1000 Classic. These weapons allow the Scout to hit enemies from safe distances, and teach players proper spacing in between shots and reload times.

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His Recon Scout class mod grants him even more elusiveness, since he gets a passive that increases his dodge chance. When the Scout successfully dodges an enemy, he gains +35% movement and reload speed for 5 seconds. This is more than enough for players to get away from dicey situations, load up, and create separation while pelting enemies with bullets.

The Sharpshooter class mod of the Scout is hands-down one of the strongest in the game. When players choose this, the Scout starts the dive with the M1000 Classic sniper rifle. This weapon is extremely powerful, since its bullet can pierce through multiple enemies. A maxed out M1000 is deadly. It synergizes well with the Sharpshooter’s passive, which gives +15% Critical Strike Chance and +50% Critical Strike Damage. It also causes a shrapnel to be shot and explode whenever the player deals overkill damage.

For elemental damage, the Scout uses mainly Electrical and Cold damage. Electric-powered weapons give their bullets the ability to bounce off additional enemies and deal damage. Meanwhile, Cold-powered weapons have a chance to freeze enemies for a few seconds.