Deep Rock Galactic: How To Play The Scout Class

Deep Rock Galactic is a co-op PvE FPS about dwarves being sent underground to extract materials from the planet Hoxxes IV. The planet will fight back to complicate this process with waves of the planet’s local wildlife. Deep Rock Galactic is currently in its second season with season three plans announced. Teamwork is crucial for mission success as each class has niche abilities that are much stronger together than individually. There are four classes to choose from and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. This guide will go over the Scout and discuss the various roles and responsibilities this class has as well as how to play correctly to provide the most benefit to the team and ensure everyone gets out alive.

Synergies With Other Classes

• The Scout can reach resources high up but requires the Engineer to build platforms to mine the goodies without falling and losing a chunk of health. Ping resources that are high up and ask an Engineer for a platform to stand on and grapple hook up to harvest the materials more efficiently than any other class.
• Scout can use cryo grenades to freeze high-threat targets or hordes of enemies and have a Gunner shatter them with their minigun or explosives.
• The Scout’s knack for recon makes them a Driller’s best friend as they can find loose dirt to dig through to get to the next area, as well as find objectives that need digging up.

Weapons

The Scout class comes equipped Deepcore GK2 assault rifle and a Jury-Rigged Boomstick double-barrel shotgun by default. This weapon combination is ideal for squishier targets at all ranges but across the board is very solid for staying alive while scouting ahead of the group. Other classes have heavy weapons that are great for the more dangerous targets but they can be easily overwhelmed. The weapons Scout has are focused on long-range picks, and up close. There are other unlockable weapons to choose from to customize for personal preference.

The options that Scout has for grenades further cement the Scout as a support role with the grenade options lacking any sort of big explosive damage. Instead, the Scout is given various crowd control options with a slow field grenade to slow bugs in an area, cryo grenades to freeze and shatter high-priority targets, and pheromone grenades to have the bugs turn on each other. Cryo grenades are the strongest choice as they help take out swarms of enemies for half the ammo and time normally required.

Gadgets

The Grappling Hook is the Scout’s best tool for traversing around caves quickly. It can be used to search for objectives, harvest out-of-the-way resources, avoid death, or easily get to downed allies. The Scout can easily get to areas and explore much faster than any other class with the grappling hook as well as collect materials that other classes would have great difficulty reaching. It can also be used to avoid fall damage as grappling towards the ground does no fall damage. Mastery of grappling movement and the intricacies it presents is crucial to success for the Scout class and since it has infinite ammo is limitlessly helpful.

The Scout also has a Flare Gun, which helps illuminate large cavernous areas making enemies and resources visible. A good Scout player makes sure the team always has a light and that the right spots are always lit. Since the flares are very bright and stick to where they are shot they light up cavernous areas easily. Since enemies often crawl on walls this can be the only way to see bugs coming from far away. Without flares, it can be tricky to spot where threats are coming from until it is too late.

Perks

• Hover Boots: Cancelling momentum to cancel fall damage can be life-saving. When it gets high enough level to last three seconds there is enough time for the grapple hook to recharge. Before that point, they are only really helpful for canceling fall damage on an unfortunately high cooldown.
• Field Medic: This perk decreases the time it takes to revive downed allies and grants one instant revive per mission. Very helpful for clutch situations to save the mission.
• Second Wind: Speed is the name of the game and an increased sprint speed helps with both exploration and kiting enemies in combat.
• Deep Pockets: Being able to hold more resources per trip increases overall efficiency.

The Purpose On The Team

There are many threats in the darkness of the caves so one of the roles of the Scout is to light up areas of importance during waves so that the other classes can easily mow down the bugs before they get too close. It is also their job to scout ahead for dangers, and light up huge caverns so that threats can be seen before everyone blindly runs in. Scouts should always keep important areas lit and be on the lookout for resources, or optional events

The Scout’s role is visual in many ways and mainly focuses on supporting the team by locating objectives and by gathering resources. There are many threats in the darkness of the caves so making sure that areas are safe and that the team has ammo falls primarily on the Scout. Keeping the Nitra stash topped off so the team has enough ammo is something a good Scout always has in mind since if the team runs out of ammo things can get rocky really fast.

Role In Combat

The Scout’s default assault rifle is effective at all ranges and excels at killing the smaller unarmored bug and struggles with the armored ones without hitting a weak spot. Leaving the armored bugs to the other classes is more ammo efficient and saves a lot of time. The cryo grenade is the Scout’s best method for bursting down tougher foes quickly as freezing them makes hitting weak spots easier as well as makes them more fragile.

Positioning is key to hitting weak spots as well as staying out of the line of fire. The mobility of the grappling hook makes positioning super fun to use as well as master. The grapple hooks mobility makes the Scout one of the most effective medics for the team when things go south. The Scout is also usually looking at things from high up so getting into the habit of pinging high-threat targets helps teammates become aware of incoming threats.