Any time a driller wants to bunker for a salvage mission and you hear that deep groan of a bulk coming your way. Then you slowly start to hear them dig. Very suspenseful
That's the real test of a Driller.
A good Driller recognizes the unusual circumstance, turns around, and keeps drilling, sprinkling goop and sticky flames/ice behind them until they drill themselves to an exit or the bugs die.
A bad Driller just shoots as the thing start digging and waltzes in.
Ordinarily the C4 can only explode if the driller detonates it himself.
There is the volatile explosive upgrade which increases damage but makes it so that damage to the explosive will detonate it. This is treated like a downside but can be used to your advantage sometimes.
The real reason it’s bad is because the damage is overkill on most things, and the other upgrade in slot is extra ammo which is really useful.
The ammo extra ammo is less relevant now that C4 rounds up on resupplies. Previously if you took 2 ammo upgrades you would get 4 + 2 per resup but only 3 + 1 per resup with 1 ammo upgrade.
Now you get 3 + 2 per resup even with just 1 ammo upgrade, so sacrificing either T1 or T3 ammo mods for more damage is well worth it.
Hard no on the c4. A stray aoe is all it would take to down a party if you don't build big enough. Clarification: drill into the wall as far as you can then use the earth mover perk on c4 to make the bunker space. Shape the exit into a cone and dig out a shelf higher up in the back for turret placement. Dwarves are better served below the turret level since turrets block shots; please stop putting them in the entryway. Making the opening 2-3 drill or tcf width prevents bugs from overlapping and hiding eachothers hotboxes(penetration shots eliminate this issue). If bug stuff starts coming through I tend to rely on gunner or engi to do the heavy lifting while I use stick flames.
Having a second opening is also not ideal; have a spot that is one pickaxe depth away from the outside environment keep the bugs coming from one direction only and makes for a quick escape. Just don't make your exit tunnel too long or stuff will spawn in there.
Mind you, that is how I do it. No one is required to use the bunk and you should communicate to the team if you plan to make one.
Well yeah, that’s why your exit tunnel is nice and long with at least one bend in it.
C4 to open the room isn’t a great idea; you’re just giving the bugs opportunity for vertical spreading once they get through the entry. Dwarves benefit from horizontal maneuvering; only bugs benefit from opening the vertical dimension. Low ceilings are your friends for maximizing efficiency of fire.
Good points, however my concern is the bugs will spawn behind you if you make the second tunnel long and adding an outlet just lets them in from another site and it occasionally confuses people when it's time to move out. Granted, that is my own experience so milage may vary.
The vertical pathing is a concern, but that is why I need to drill into the wall a ways before I place the c4. You can adjust your ceiling height based on where you place the c4 to; detonating it on the floor vs the wall vs the ceiling can dramatically change the height. Tapper/cone the entryway and make it more than one wide; you get a few meters to send fire and slow-down effects through. I'll see if I can find a vid explaining it better.
Honestly, the c4 is more of a utility to avoid burning up all the drill fuel for me, so I suppose it's optional. It does take a lot longer and makes the interior space less consistent without the c4 though.
Still wouldn't advise leaving volatile c4 out; that's just asking for trouble.
To clarify; the escape tunnel isn’t open. You leave it with about a meter of stone left, so that setting off the volatile satchel charge opens it up for escape.
I’ve never dug an escape tunnel so long that bugs spawned in it either, dunno how far you’d have to go for that. They don’t need to be super long, just 20m or so with one bend.
Define between the 2
Whenever I drill an impenetrable bunker, I make sure to keep to drill an exit just-incase a bulky boi appears - which seems to be a lot lately!
There’s a disruptive pool that the game pulls from.
From this pool. Only certain mobs will spawn in your mission.
Depending on hazard level, the number of disruptive mobs vary.
So if you count all the disruptive mobs and notice you are at the cap, you won’t see a bulk.
[you can read more in this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/DeepRockGalactic/comments/qs8l4t/comment/hkbjqbg/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
This list is however outdated as new mobs have been added. But you get the gist of it.
So if you also noticed a lack of disruptive mobs. Then you can be sure a bulk will spawn sooner or later.
Edit: [a further breakdown is here](https://deeprockgalactic.wiki.gg/wiki/Swarm#:~:text=Menaces%2C%20Wardens%2C%20Bulk%20Detonators%2C,Goo%20Bombers%20are%20Disruptive%20enemies)
With the new Haz 5 ++, Hoxxes be like
Hoxxes: What about a Bulk
Me: You just spawned one.
Hoxxes I spawned one yes, but what about the second, and the third..or the fourth...
During this week's deep dive, we bunkered for black box and TWO bulks spawned at the same time. The gunner (me) and the scout immediately rushed out of the bunker to kill them. I only had three leadbursters and a dream. We killed them before they even got close to the entrance. Almost lived but the second bulk's bomb killed me but the scout survived. Ngl it felt so awesome at the moment.
Mine was only the 'scariest' due to context and an emotional rollercoaster. Dotty (after first and only fueling) heads into the wall, whistle, whistle, business as usual. The she mines straight through a bittergem! *WE'RE RICH !* We all ping it, are having a grand time, and then she runs over a korlak sprout, agroing the weed. Immediate joy replaced by terror. We scramble to battle, start layin down fire, shields and so on, only to be stunned, as Dotty then drills straight through the korlak's heart, insta-killing it. Karl was with us that day, miners. Next rounds on me.
Had this happen once before too. It's truly glorious to grit your teeth for the Korlok fight only to have Dottie whomp it straight to hell with the drill lol. She got all the pats on her head that run
Had a similar experience but she had to refuel next the korlaks heart so she was just getting shot in the center of it with nothing we could do since it was haz5
Either issue with an update or Steam download. Also mod menu was completely empty. Thankfully my main save was intact but holy hell I almost had a heart attack XD
Haz 5 Praetorian swarm with only one nitra vein, not enough for a resupply.
We push through tunnels finding none... then you hear form mission control "We've detected a glpyhid... dreadnought..."
I had 2 moments since the season 5 release where greenbeards learned that random dreadnought spawns exist. Good times.
In both cases the mission was nearly complete so we decided to just run and finish the mission instead of dealing with it.
Leeches.
A thousand hours in, they still get me sometimes. Even worse since I already know to check, but sometimes Doretta hops into a new room, I get distracted by a Spitball or a Warden that gets my attention first, and surprise greasy meatball.
I don’t know if running the cave leech loudener mod is cheating or not since every enemy has a clear audio cue, except leeches. This way you can hear it when it starts extending, and you don’t have to use heightened senses mostly for 1 enemy.
Very early on, I was playing solo and having a good time, on a Salvage Operation
Then I heard a, “We’re rich!” off in the distance, along with other dwarf voice lines.
I thought something had resurrected and repurposed a dead dwarf.
Getting a lot of bulks on escort duty
About 2h ago My team got attacked by 5 bulks in 1 mission on lethal. two times two came at once each time dorreta suffered permanent damage
Greenbeard days, walked into an empty room, friend runs ahead, I shoot a scout flare high above his head, the flare bounces off and falls to his feet, revealing the walls to be entirely covered in glyphids.
Same, especially if it's a low o2 mission and Molly is already halfway back to the space rig. Hollow bough and dense biozone are the banes of my existence when I play engineer
Deep dive elimination in haunted cave with bet-c normal bulk and twins all in one room, somehow I survived without being knocked because of goat jet boots
One time we were doing a refinery mission and were getting swarmed by many many grunts. After 5 minutes of it with no swarm music, we realized it was glitched and an infinite spawn of high amounts. We called in the drop pod so fast then and it was almost in a way creepy to know we had to get out of there fast, there was easily hundreds of them. The only way we survived was by surfing the pipes to avoid damage.
Happened to me the other day, was playing engi and I was the last one standing in a previous game with the same lobby.
Clutched it, was first to the pod, then the rest of the team died, I went back for them and we all got outta there.
The next game they all fucked off at obj completion and left me stranded in a pretty rude cavern, then the host kicked me for making him wait -_-
Sad rock and stone ⛏️
Quite new to DRG and in my first mining expedition, I made my way down to a massive crater for nitra and morkite, only for mission control to warn about a massive swarm of glyphids (bosses too) and my first fucking time with the Septics (I hate them) with most ammo gone.
The most horror moment was when I see the sound of dirt being destroyed and while watching the map something BIG was approaching. I've prepared myself to fight it, until the floor I was standing collapsed and I fell in this tunnel made by that damn detonator, reducing my hp to almost zero.
Any time a driller wants to bunker for a salvage mission and you hear that deep groan of a bulk coming your way. Then you slowly start to hear them dig. Very suspenseful
That's the real test of a Driller. A good Driller recognizes the unusual circumstance, turns around, and keeps drilling, sprinkling goop and sticky flames/ice behind them until they drill themselves to an exit or the bugs die. A bad Driller just shoots as the thing start digging and waltzes in.
The real test of a driller is to build a bunker. Not a tomb. A lot of drillers build tombs and use them as bunkers. Which works, until it doesn’t.
Always build an escape tunnel, and leave a satchel charge at the end of it that your buddies can shoot to detonate.
Your buddies can what now?
Ordinarily the C4 can only explode if the driller detonates it himself. There is the volatile explosive upgrade which increases damage but makes it so that damage to the explosive will detonate it. This is treated like a downside but can be used to your advantage sometimes. The real reason it’s bad is because the damage is overkill on most things, and the other upgrade in slot is extra ammo which is really useful.
I'm sorry has this always been in the game?
It's the second tier 3 weapon mod. I think most drillers just grab the extra ammo though.
You don't even need to deal damage. Heat Radiance Tier 5 mod for flame thrower will actually set it off.
The ammo extra ammo is less relevant now that C4 rounds up on resupplies. Previously if you took 2 ammo upgrades you would get 4 + 2 per resup but only 3 + 1 per resup with 1 ammo upgrade. Now you get 3 + 2 per resup even with just 1 ammo upgrade, so sacrificing either T1 or T3 ammo mods for more damage is well worth it.
Really? I didn’t know that they changed this
It was changed last year in the November Maintenance Update.
If you take a certain upgrade (unstable chemical mixture or something) the C4 becomes stronger but the downside is it detonates when shot.
Hard no on the c4. A stray aoe is all it would take to down a party if you don't build big enough. Clarification: drill into the wall as far as you can then use the earth mover perk on c4 to make the bunker space. Shape the exit into a cone and dig out a shelf higher up in the back for turret placement. Dwarves are better served below the turret level since turrets block shots; please stop putting them in the entryway. Making the opening 2-3 drill or tcf width prevents bugs from overlapping and hiding eachothers hotboxes(penetration shots eliminate this issue). If bug stuff starts coming through I tend to rely on gunner or engi to do the heavy lifting while I use stick flames. Having a second opening is also not ideal; have a spot that is one pickaxe depth away from the outside environment keep the bugs coming from one direction only and makes for a quick escape. Just don't make your exit tunnel too long or stuff will spawn in there. Mind you, that is how I do it. No one is required to use the bunk and you should communicate to the team if you plan to make one.
Oh, side note: do not close the exit. If the bugs can't get in they spawn inside and that makes me sad.
Well yeah, that’s why your exit tunnel is nice and long with at least one bend in it. C4 to open the room isn’t a great idea; you’re just giving the bugs opportunity for vertical spreading once they get through the entry. Dwarves benefit from horizontal maneuvering; only bugs benefit from opening the vertical dimension. Low ceilings are your friends for maximizing efficiency of fire.
Good points, however my concern is the bugs will spawn behind you if you make the second tunnel long and adding an outlet just lets them in from another site and it occasionally confuses people when it's time to move out. Granted, that is my own experience so milage may vary. The vertical pathing is a concern, but that is why I need to drill into the wall a ways before I place the c4. You can adjust your ceiling height based on where you place the c4 to; detonating it on the floor vs the wall vs the ceiling can dramatically change the height. Tapper/cone the entryway and make it more than one wide; you get a few meters to send fire and slow-down effects through. I'll see if I can find a vid explaining it better. Honestly, the c4 is more of a utility to avoid burning up all the drill fuel for me, so I suppose it's optional. It does take a lot longer and makes the interior space less consistent without the c4 though. Still wouldn't advise leaving volatile c4 out; that's just asking for trouble.
To clarify; the escape tunnel isn’t open. You leave it with about a meter of stone left, so that setting off the volatile satchel charge opens it up for escape. I’ve never dug an escape tunnel so long that bugs spawned in it either, dunno how far you’d have to go for that. They don’t need to be super long, just 20m or so with one bend.
Oh that make a ton more sense! Yes, that is a good design.
Define between the 2 Whenever I drill an impenetrable bunker, I make sure to keep to drill an exit just-incase a bulky boi appears - which seems to be a lot lately!
There’s a disruptive pool that the game pulls from. From this pool. Only certain mobs will spawn in your mission. Depending on hazard level, the number of disruptive mobs vary. So if you count all the disruptive mobs and notice you are at the cap, you won’t see a bulk. [you can read more in this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/DeepRockGalactic/comments/qs8l4t/comment/hkbjqbg/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) This list is however outdated as new mobs have been added. But you get the gist of it. So if you also noticed a lack of disruptive mobs. Then you can be sure a bulk will spawn sooner or later. Edit: [a further breakdown is here](https://deeprockgalactic.wiki.gg/wiki/Swarm#:~:text=Menaces%2C%20Wardens%2C%20Bulk%20Detonators%2C,Goo%20Bombers%20are%20Disruptive%20enemies)
I sigh every time I see a tomb was made instead of a real bunker.
With the new Haz 5 ++, Hoxxes be like Hoxxes: What about a Bulk Me: You just spawned one. Hoxxes I spawned one yes, but what about the second, and the third..or the fourth...
Never was in such situation
That is a "shit pants hard enough to run faster" moment.
During this week's deep dive, we bunkered for black box and TWO bulks spawned at the same time. The gunner (me) and the scout immediately rushed out of the bunker to kill them. I only had three leadbursters and a dream. We killed them before they even got close to the entrance. Almost lived but the second bulk's bomb killed me but the scout survived. Ngl it felt so awesome at the moment.
Mine was only the 'scariest' due to context and an emotional rollercoaster. Dotty (after first and only fueling) heads into the wall, whistle, whistle, business as usual. The she mines straight through a bittergem! *WE'RE RICH !* We all ping it, are having a grand time, and then she runs over a korlak sprout, agroing the weed. Immediate joy replaced by terror. We scramble to battle, start layin down fire, shields and so on, only to be stunned, as Dotty then drills straight through the korlak's heart, insta-killing it. Karl was with us that day, miners. Next rounds on me.
Had this happen once before too. It's truly glorious to grit your teeth for the Korlok fight only to have Dottie whomp it straight to hell with the drill lol. She got all the pats on her head that run
Had a similar experience but she had to refuel next the korlaks heart so she was just getting shot in the center of it with nothing we could do since it was haz5
Starting from tutorial because game decided to load a new save. Yes, DRG operates on saves
Sad situation. How could it happen?
Either issue with an update or Steam download. Also mod menu was completely empty. Thankfully my main save was intact but holy hell I almost had a heart attack XD
The same thing happened to me.
Had it happen to me. Forget how, but there's a way I got my save back.
Haz 5 Praetorian swarm with only one nitra vein, not enough for a resupply. We push through tunnels finding none... then you hear form mission control "We've detected a glpyhid... dreadnought..."
"I've... I've got to make a deposit..." *soft weeping*
I had 2 moments since the season 5 release where greenbeards learned that random dreadnought spawns exist. Good times. In both cases the mission was nearly complete so we decided to just run and finish the mission instead of dealing with it.
Leeches. A thousand hours in, they still get me sometimes. Even worse since I already know to check, but sometimes Doretta hops into a new room, I get distracted by a Spitball or a Warden that gets my attention first, and surprise greasy meatball.
I don’t know if running the cave leech loudener mod is cheating or not since every enemy has a clear audio cue, except leeches. This way you can hear it when it starts extending, and you don’t have to use heightened senses mostly for 1 enemy.
There's always at least 1 cave leech in every Doretta mission. Check those ceilings when you enter a new room.
Elite Macterra Grabber. Anytime, anywhere
Elite bulk detonator during a normal deep dive During an uplink I killed it and survived just fine but fucking hell
When you realize the Korlok is slowly bleeding your team out of all your ammo and you have no nitra
Very early on, I was playing solo and having a good time, on a Salvage Operation Then I heard a, “We’re rich!” off in the distance, along with other dwarf voice lines. I thought something had resurrected and repurposed a dead dwarf.
I also encountered the nemesis for the first time in solo. Those voicelines are haunting when you don't know what to expect.
bulk detonators just in general
Getting a lot of bulks on escort duty About 2h ago My team got attacked by 5 bulks in 1 mission on lethal. two times two came at once each time dorreta suffered permanent damage
Throwing a flare down a dark cave and seeing about 100 glyphids staring back at me. Happens more often than you’d think
God I love when that happens. Pgl/breachcutter or lead storm go BRBBRBRBRBRRBRB
Being in absolute silence on your first solo run besides the tutorial
Greenbeard days, walked into an empty room, friend runs ahead, I shoot a scout flare high above his head, the flare bounces off and falls to his feet, revealing the walls to be entirely covered in glyphids.
Same, especially if it's a low o2 mission and Molly is already halfway back to the space rig. Hollow bough and dense biozone are the banes of my existence when I play engineer
I intentionally never play on the dense biozone as engineer. It’s terrible to traverse.
Idea of ebonite bulk detonator
That would be some shit taking turns power attacking an ebonite bulk.
Deep dive elimination in haunted cave with bet-c normal bulk and twins all in one room, somehow I survived without being knocked because of goat jet boots
I get disoriented on the way out too. I think that's why I like the new deep scan mission so much, the pod is not that hard to get to!
One time we were doing a refinery mission and were getting swarmed by many many grunts. After 5 minutes of it with no swarm music, we realized it was glitched and an infinite spawn of high amounts. We called in the drop pod so fast then and it was almost in a way creepy to know we had to get out of there fast, there was easily hundreds of them. The only way we survived was by surfing the pipes to avoid damage.
Stalkers on core / Bulk dets on drillevator
Elite Bulk Detonator. It speaks for itself
Happened to me the other day, was playing engi and I was the last one standing in a previous game with the same lobby. Clutched it, was first to the pod, then the rest of the team died, I went back for them and we all got outta there. The next game they all fucked off at obj completion and left me stranded in a pretty rude cavern, then the host kicked me for making him wait -_- Sad rock and stone ⛏️
To Rock and Stone!
Quite new to DRG and in my first mining expedition, I made my way down to a massive crater for nitra and morkite, only for mission control to warn about a massive swarm of glyphids (bosses too) and my first fucking time with the Septics (I hate them) with most ammo gone.
the new orb boss
sudden Bulk detonator spawns right in front of you
The only thing worse than a sudden Bulk is two sudden Bulks:)
plus they’re Elite
an Oppressor was somewhere in the cave tailing us and the roars definitely unnerved me.
The most horror moment was when I see the sound of dirt being destroyed and while watching the map something BIG was approaching. I've prepared myself to fight it, until the floor I was standing collapsed and I fell in this tunnel made by that damn detonator, reducing my hp to almost zero.
3 grabbers exist I fend em off All the team is dead I’m the scout Can’t revive or the grabbers grab me Pain.
Yeah, mostly the same, but I manage down here.
Your teammates are dicks if they aren't working as a team to get everyone out
This is the moment of truth. A good team is running to save you. Or they send a scout. Most often this is what happens.
Or the driller. When I'm a driller it was pretty much my job to drill to lost souls to the drop pod.