Deep Rock Galactic is a pulse-pounding title that pits players against the dangerous depths of procedurally generated planets full of valuable resources begging to be exhumed. The action of Deep Rock Galactic is often harrowing and that will leave players scrambling to formulate a plan that will leave their dwarf alive and kicking at the end of any given play session.

This focus on action can hide the robust system of customization and optimization from players that tend to rush. There are a lot of different perks you can equip that support and buff any dwarf around. Only the best perks in Deep Rock Galactic will get you far. The difference between success and failure lies behind these perks and finding the perfect combination will make each run that much easier. This list is in no particular order.

Updated December 31, 2021 By William Quick: Good gear can only get you so far so it’s smart to have a nice selection of perks for an extra edge. We’ve revisited this piece to buff out the selection of perks we’re putting under the microscope!

16 Field Medic Perk

The Field Medic perk allows players to instantly revive fallen teammates without having to wait for the revive progress bar to fill up. This can only be used once per mission by a dwarf.

This is a very important perk to use for harder modes because when the team becomes overwhelmed with enemies and multiple people are down, you don’t want to sit there reviving for minutes upon minutes. You want to get your dwarves on their feet and get to it already. This perk skips the progress bar completely and props your teammate up at once.

15 Dash

Like most mining games, Deep Rock Galactic is fraught with danger. Mix that in with the sci-fi setting and you’re just begging for red alerts to go off on a regular basis. Because of this, sometimes the best thing you can do when you find yourself in danger is to get out of it as soon as you can.

The Dash perk does what you think it would — it allows you to quickly dash out of harm’s way. It’s especially handy if you’ve been hit with multiple debuffs designed to slow you down since Dash completely ignores them. It’s a handy ability to have that has a progressively lower cooldown time as you unlock higher tiers.

14 Iron Will Perk

If you go down during a mission, you’re allowed to immediately get back up as if nothing happened with this perk. Not only that, but all your weapons will be automatically reloaded and you become overpowered for a short amount of time.

You can move faster, do more damage, and are resistant to enemy passives that may slow you down with Iron Will. This is all active for only a short amount of time, as a means to keep you surviving a little while longer so everyone can escape and finish the job. Iron Will can only be used once per mission for that last push.

13 Born Ready

Deep Rock Galactic has a lot to keep track of, even when you don’t have hordes of monsters bearing down on you. It’s very easy to get so absorbed in a task that you forget to do things that should be as natural as saving a project every few minutes.

If you equip the Born Ready Perk, you’ll never be caught off-guard as it makes your character automatically reload their unequipped weapon after a few seconds. The highest tier reloads them in only five seconds, so it’s good to have this one in your belt to help stay prepared.

12 Berzerker Perk

The Berzerker Perk allows you to do extra melee damage. You can upgrade your pickaxe to have a melee Power Attack while at the Equipment terminal. This is then activated by pressing left-click as you hold down right-click on an enemy. Power Attack comes in at crucial moments when you may be cornered and don’t have time to reload against smaller enemies. But what about when your Power Attack is recharging?

With Berzerker, while your main Power Attack is recharging you can activate this perk to do even more melee damage. By pressing left and right click with your pickaxe, your Power Attack starts to recharge faster and you get boosted melee damage.

11 Vampire

There’s a lot you can do to keep yourself safe and healthy while mining in space. However, with technology having reached the point where resources can be harvested throughout the cosmos, the usual life-threatening problems are compounded by a few new ones.

This is a very fancy way of saying that it’s very easy to take damage in Deep Rock Galactic. So it makes sense to have as many ways to recover as possible. The Vampire perk allows you to do this through combat by restoring a solid chunk of health every time you kill a medium to large-sized creature.

10 New Perk Slot

When you first start out in Deep Rock Galactic, you can only use up to two perks. There are perks you can unlock at your room’s computer that allows you to equip even more. The icon for them is a star, and they’re called New Passive Perk Slot or New Active Perk Slot.

These aren’t actually perks, but mere upgrades for more slots at your Equipment terminal. New Perk Slot perks allow you to equip up to five perks instead of just two. These are by far the best perks in Deep Rock Galactic for this reason. The catch is that you have to work your way through the different tiers of perks to be able to unlock them.

9 See You In Hell Perk

This one is a blessing for miners who like to get up close and personal. A driller making the most out of their class is going to love abusing this incredible perk. See You In Hell is both a passive perk and an active perk, depending on what slot you put it in. The passive version bestows a brief boost to a player’s melee damage after taking melee damage from an enemy.

This paired with perks that grant increased cooldown while in the fray will quickly make a competent driller the perfect offensive unit. The active version of this perk will unleash a massive explosion when a dwarf falls. It’s tempting to default to the active slot, but the boost to melee damage nearly triples a dwarf’s output, so choose wisely.

8 Sweet Tooth

Though many different resources can be found throughout Deep Rock Galactic, there aren’t many that can be applied for personal or medical use. One that has been discovered is known as Red Sugar — you can consume it as a last resort if you’re running low on health and it will keep you going, though it can take a lot to top off more serious wounds.

This all changes by equipping the Sweet Tooth perk — it improves the amount of health restored by consuming Red Sugar, with tier 3 giving you a 30% increase as well as a temporary speed boost.

7 Hover Boots Perk

The Hover Boots are exactly what it says on the tin. This perk gives the player’s dwarf a pair of hover boots that not only increase their longevity and grant them greater mobility, but they also torch enemies underneath the boots during the activation window. These boots take a little getting used to, but once players get used to becoming a hovering salvo of doom, it becomes hard to imagine life without them.

Scouts and their high mobility will benefit from these greatly. Using the Hover Boots in conjunction with the grappling hook will allow for longer and further solo exploration by lessening fall damage a ton. To use the Hover Boots, you must hold down C while falling. You can let go of C after they are activated and you’ll still be hovering for the remaining time left, so you should decide where you want to go next.

6 Deep Pockets

As with all resource-gathering games, gathering is the name of the game. You’ll be equipped with various gear and tools all made with the express purpose of helping you harvest and gather as many materials and minerals as you possibly carry. After playing a bit, you’ll quickly realize that your inventory is smaller than you’d like.

Thankfully, the Deep Pockets perk offers a quick fix to this issue by directly improving all the mineral pouches you’ll be taking down with you. It expands each of them to hold more valuables with each tier, reaching up to a maximum of 15 additional slots.

5 Heightened Senses Perk

Heightened Senses is ironically the best when used as an active perk. The ability to blow away a captor several times during a mission is a must-have. The active version allows you to escape when being grabbed by an enemy once per mission. While breaking free, the perk allows you to kill the enemy in the process for an instant getaway.

The passive version just gives you a warning before you get grabbed by an enemy so you can think fast. The passive effect is nice to have, but it can be just as easily replaced by a comfortable player’s awareness and tight teamwork.

The ability to eliminate a threat while in a tight spot, however, will grant peace of mind and totally turn around a game when the chips are down. It’s hard to guarantee something like that can come from a player’s teammates or experience alone. And in a game with tons of action and potential horror, you need all the legs up you can get.

4 Beast Master Perk

Charm effects are often lackluster in games, but Beast Master comes with a damage boost for an enemy’s redirected aggression. This damage boost means more avenues of protection and an increased ability to blow foes off the map.

With this perk, you can charm a Glyphid Grunt who will then attack other bugs and enemies for you. To charm one, you must go up to an enemy grunt and hold down E until it’s charmed. Your pet beast will be susceptible to friendly fire.

Beast Master is an active ability that will protect players better than most other perk options. It also shouldn’t be understated how satisfying it is to turn an enemy into a tool, clearing away an aggressor and gaining an ally all at once.

3 Shield Link Perk

Shield Link puts an even heavier emphasis on teamwork. This ability will make a player an even more integral part of their team than before. The passive version of this perk will grant an increased rate of recharge to a teammate’s shield just from being in proximity with each other. This makes it an excellent passive to pair with the Gunner’s Shield Generator.

The active version of this perk allows a player to overcharge their teammate’s shields to 300% at its maximum level. This overcharge only lasts for a limited amount of time, but using it in a pinch will get players and their teammates out of trouble quite often.

2 Second Wind Perk

Confident players will reap the bounties of Second Wind easily. This perk activates on its own after running for a set amount of time, giving you a sprint boost. A skilled Scout or Engineer will be able to dash around the map at incredible speeds and come to their teammate’s aid in no time flat as long as they keep up the speed with their other support tools.

This ability ends as soon as a player stops running however so it can easily become a double-edged sword in the hands of reckless or timid players. While good for solo players, it’s essential for co-op teams and that’s how this game is best experienced anyway.

1 Veteran Depositor Perk

Veteran Depositor will shine brightest in Low Oxygen missions. The constant proximity to the supply points required by the low oxygen conditions will give players with this perk a near-constant damage reduction throughout the mission.

At tier four, the perk allows you to deposit minerals up to 50% faster and you get a 30% damage reduction while near a deposit station. This perk also makes it easy to pump the deposit stations, like the liquid Morkite refineries, with the resources they’ve gathered and it gets them back into action quickly, making them more useful to their team overall.

NEXT: Deep Rock Galactic: Every Support Tool And The Best Upgrades For Them