As 1.0 nears, developer Funday Games unveils its most exciting new addition. The Vampire Survivors-inspired take on Ghost Ship Games' iconic dwarven mining sim proved a rapid winner, racking up a million sales in just its first month alone. Now, as it prepares to leave early access, Funday gives us an extensive look at how the gear system will give progression a major, Diablo-style upgrade.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is one of the most successful horde-survival games to follow in the footsteps carved by the gargantuan success of Vampire Survivors. It captures the rush of those moments in DRG where swarms of hostiles flood in to disrupt your mining, and condenses that into a fast-paced, auto-shooting single-player game. The new gear system, one of the core inclusions of the incoming 1.0 update, promises to deliver a rewarding long-term upgrade path akin to those you'll find in many of our best games like Diablo.

Gear can drop at random while you're mid mission on Hoxxes, and you'll need to pick it up to claim it. Killing a boss earns you a guaranteed piece, while regular combat has a lower chance to pay out. You can then sort your loadout between missions from a dedicated gear menu. There are a total of six types, and each of them offer various passive bonuses similar to those earned through the meta-upgrades system.

Armor primarily offers defensive stats such as max HP and health regeneration; weapon mods boost the likes of fire rate and critical chance; canisters provide more specialized weapon adjustments like explosion radius and potency; gadgets improve gathering stats including pickup radius and mining speed; tools focus on the likes of reload speed and range; and chips are focused on bettering your sidekick Bosco.

You will, however, find gear with stats crossing into other categories, meaning there's a tremendous potential of combinations to be uncovered. Items can also have 'quirks,' which are more distinctive, build-altering effects. The 'Strange Mixture' canister, for example, awards increasing potency each time you collect a meta resource drop during a run. The legendary 'Flathead Screwdriver' causes the drop pod to wait around for 12 extra seconds.

Every piece of gear has a rarity (from uncommon to legendary) that affects the number of stats it can have, with the top-end drops even offering two quirks in some cases. They also come at a certain level, determining the potency of the stats. Completing certain progression milestones will increase the minimum rank of all future gear drops, with a cap at level 99, so you'll gradually start to see ever-stronger loot appearing the more you play. Find something you truly love, and you can upgrade it up to three times with credits and minerals.

"We do not doubt that some items and builds can scale into the game-breakingly ridiculous," Funday writes. "The addition of gear to Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is the solution to a whole lot of dreams we have had for the game for a long time. It makes milestones more meaningful, it makes crafting materials continue to serve a purpose, and it makes Bosco have a bigger impact on gameplay. We can't wait for you to try it out."

Head here for more glimpses at some of the gear you might get your hands on when the full release arrives.

For now, you could keep blasting your way through our pick of the best action games on PC, or maybe opt for some run-based business with one of our best roguelikes in 2025.

You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We've also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.