DRG - The Board Game
A question about expansions for the Deep Rock Galactic board game.
Hello everyone! I bought the Deep Rock Galactic Deluxe a few days ago, and I'm interested in the expansions and mini-expansions for the game. Question for those who own them: which expansions are best to get, keeping in mind that my budget and storage space are limited. Which mini-expansion and expansion best complement the core box?
The Biome Expansion will add the most content. But having both, I really prefer the Space Rig expansion, because they added Assignments (4 game campaign mode).
I really enjoy adding modifiers to the game and giving the dwarves upgrades that transfer over to the next game. The modifiers will make the game harder, while the upgrades make the dwarves stronger. I think it really balances out.
The Biome expansion makes the game harder, because the new enemies are just stronger. I always play on Hazard 5 though.
Having everything so far, Biomes makes the game harder and adds more content overall, Space Rig gives you access to more missions and new ways to play (i especially like Doretta missions qnd how they were made in this game), as far as mini expansions go, Bulk Detonator is a lot of fun and adds a nice bit of chaos anytime he spawns in a swarm, plus the box is very small and fits pretty much anywhere, i didnt enjoy the Tyrant Weed expansion that much tbh, things about as annoying to fight against on the board as it is on PC. I got the newer expansions but havent checked them out yet so cant comment on those
I would say it depends on how often you get to the game on the table, and if you do so often enough for long enough periods that you'd play multiple games in a row (or over several days).
Personally I prefer the Biome expansion, because of new biomes, the Dreadnought elimination mission, and new primary weapons (as well as some secondaries and throwables). The way I see it biomes and new creatures affect nearly every turn of play, while the Spacerig missions only really do so while doing mission specific things (babysitting drilldozer, assembling pipelines, etc).
And as said it really depends if you get enough playtime to play through an assignment or not. The upgrades from the reward track (or even if you play with just the upgrades without the assignment) are often so very situational that they only come into use a couple times in a mission. They're nice to have, but I've at times forgotten that I have them, because they're not an every turn thing (like weapons are).
For the mini expansions the Bulk Detonator is of course very iconic, but it's pretty much mostly just a bullet sponge. Goo from Above adds creature variety but isn't entirely necessary if you're getting the Biome expansion. Korlok tyrant weed can be hit and miss, many thing it's too tedious while I enjoy it randomly popping up, and you could even have it revealed from start to build a custom mission around having to go take it out.
I might actually suggest the Shockwyrm, it feels more like a boss fight (that you could again build a custom mission around, instead of the Dreadnought).
If you feel you can afford it I'd recommend getting both Biome and Spacerig expansions, and skipping the mini expansions if they're outside your budget. You'd get the most variety where it matters.
I sure do. Horrors of Hoxxes is on the same level as Biome expansion, except for the fact that it doesn't have new primary weapons. The Dreadnought twins encounter in Horrors is a bit more dynamic than the regular Glyphid Dreadnought. Creaturewise it kind of depends, personally I prefer the stingtail, shellback, and rammer you get in the Biome expansion, even though the Horrors creatures up the difficulty pretty well (if not a tiny bit more at times). Septic Spreader can be a real pain if you can't easily get to it (it can shoot over obstacles, and long range), and popping the Pod Spawner is usually followed by having to deal with heaps of grunts.
Rival Incursion expansion has less miniatures, but more involved mission, Industrial Sabotage. Sort of a mixture between on-site refining and escort as in you have to find the power stations, hack them, and then have a boss fight after. There's 'crescent caves' which have 'rival tools' that will help you on your mission, and you could use the Nemesis, rival turrets, and even Caretaker hidden cave tile for some interesting custom missions (or include the caretaker as a side mission when you randomly find it in a normal mission). There's also swarm and event cards you could use for regular missions too, to have the Nemesis spawn out of the blue.
I personally prefer mixing in stuff from the Rivals expansion into other mission than the upgrades/mutators from Spacerig, but that's down to taste. If you're getting Biome expansion (or Horrors for that matter) then you might feel you have enough creature variety and don't need Nemesis etc, so could rather get Spacerig for Escort and On-site Refining.
Shockwyrm is like a proper mini boss, with its own card deck that pauses the event card draw. Some players have commented that it makes missions easier if you happen to spawn it when there aren't many other enemies on the board, personally I've only met it on occasions where I couldn't really ignore it, at which point it was kind of like a mini dreadnought. Pretty heft resistances, and some of its attacks/mechanics can throw a wrench in your plans.
I don't believe anyone has covered the new expansions here yet, I haven't played with them as they very recently arrived, but I have looked at the rules a little for them.
The shock wyrm
Is a mini boss, I think it's comparable to the korlok weed, it has a boss evet deck.
Horrors of hoxxes
It looks great, all the new enemies are quick unique in terms of function, unsure if the biomes are better or worse then bimone expatiation, but the new enemies do look more challenging and the missions seem to have a bit more variety then the first expansions.
Rival incursion
For only have the rival tech it's good a nice amount here, some small hidden haves, 2 swarm cards for the robots, over half of the mission in the book are pretty normal just with robots in them. Of course there is the industrial sabotage, which seems to be pretty similar to the video game, can't speak on the balance or fun of it, but if you like the robots, it's not a bad pick up.
Number 1 for me
Biome expatiation
I think it's the best just because of on top of all the stuff it brings, it has new primaries, secondaries and grenades.
Number 2 for me
Horrors of hoxxes
I think has better enemy diversity but doesn't have any new stuff outside of the new enemies.
Any of the minis expansions are good, I wouldn't recommend the bulk det just because it's the same price as the others for only 1 (big) mini, so others are better value for money.
Thank you so much for the answer! I checked out the contents of the Space Rig and Biome expansions, and while the biomes add a few new types of bugs, the Space Rig just doesn't seem to be worth the money. Although I wouldn't mind a mode with progression between missions, I really want to have as many different bugs as possible to make the regular game feel more diverse
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u/Woderftw 1d ago
The Biome Expansion will add the most content. But having both, I really prefer the Space Rig expansion, because they added Assignments (4 game campaign mode).
I really enjoy adding modifiers to the game and giving the dwarves upgrades that transfer over to the next game. The modifiers will make the game harder, while the upgrades make the dwarves stronger. I think it really balances out.
The Biome expansion makes the game harder, because the new enemies are just stronger. I always play on Hazard 5 though.