Deep Rock Galactic – Tips for Maining Scout

Tips for Newcomer Scout

Be careful about joining other people’s games, the scout’s grapple can be a little sensitive to lag. I can do much crazier and more precise things with the grapple when I host a game than when I join a game. Anything over about 90ms lag and I’d forget it. Remember that the grapple will stop if you release the button. What this means is, when there is lag, trying to grapple onto, say nitra, and power hit to create a space is almost impossible.

Also remember your role, your job is to collect minerals and light up the area. You work mostly with the engy since he gives you platforms.

Your job is also to literally scout out the area, for example you should be at the front and the first into new rooms. Your job is not to fight every enemy that you meet, I’ll often just ignore enemies to get to the next room and light it up ready for the team to arrive. Your priority should always be nitra, if the team has no ammo they aren’t shooting anything.

When a swarm comes your role is then to pick off distant enemies and keep enemies away from the big hitters like the gunner. The more teammates you have though the less you should be doing in swarm combat, keep back and watch for threats, use your pointer to mark big enemies and keep things like spitters and mactera at bay. You have the best support grenades in the game so learn how to use them for the benefit of the team.

On the run back to the pod it’s your job to illuminate the tunnels and route for the rest of the team and to ensure everyone gets there safely. As a scout you have the best mobility so you can literally batman your way out of trouble, the rest of the team can’t so you can help rearguard to stop teammates getting overwhelmed. Remember there is no elf in team.

As others have said, it’s worthwhile trying the other classes but don’t worry about maining a class, it’s fine as long as you know how the other classes work and what their needs are.

You’re a single target class that will spend most his time mining minerals, getting objectives and rescuing team mates in weird spots (yes never catch a break, yes you’re just doing everything your team don’t feel like doing cause you do it faster, yes people like when you use your flaregun, no people hate when you refuse to use your flaregun cause “ammo conserving” after being asked to use it, yes I will call you the light of my life if you actually use the flaregun, yes please use the flaregun, yes your objective is to make the mission go fast, yes in the beginning you will die some very strange spots that gunner will have to help you out of, yes you are the only class I recommend trains on haz4 instead of 5.

And remember… you don’t need engie, pickaxe strike the wall as you hit it and you’ll sit nicely… also if you land on a team mate you take no fall damage, so requesting someone to stand under you as you make a suicide jump is a great tactic.

More Tips:

• Remember that you have a flare gun. It provides a lot of light in a large area. Being able to see things is kind of nice to do. Use it when searching fresh caves, or put one nearby when fighting breaks out.
• Remember that you’re the most mobile on the team with your grappling hook. Mark hard-to-reach resources for your engi to place a platform under it (assuming there’s one in the party), and gather those resources.
• Remember you have a flare gun. Please use it.
• If a durable enemy is targeting you, grapple behind it and get it to turn its vulnerable butt to your teammates. Don’t try to spin it around over and over, though. That just makes it hard to target anything on it. (This is general advice for all classes, really)
• Are you aware that the scout has a flare gun? All non-scouts do, but most scouts don’t.

General Tips:

• Have fun, this game isn’t meant to be played like Mobas/looter shooters/Battle royals. It’s purely PVE co-op. Don’t feel stuck in a class. I learned more about class synergies by trying them all out and getting proficient at them.
• Pay attention to chat. You can change chat size and length of time it stays up.
• Ping minerals/secondary objectives up high so the Engi knows where to put platforms. Other players will probably ping minerals with platforms so you know it’s ready for you
• Playing on low Haz (1 or 2) likely means whatever Engi you’re with doesn’t know they’re supposed to put platforms up for you. A friendly reminder to the Engi in chat might be helpful. Though it seems a lot of new players ignore chat.
• Be aware of etiquette, as in don’t call in a resupply unless everyone is at half pips. Also, only 1 resupply “tray” per person. That’s just a general rule, obviously that’s flexible depending on available Nitra and the situation.
• Avoid servers with “conditions” like “lvl 100 and up only”. This is a pretty good sign the host will want to micro-manage every aspect of your game and that is no fun.
• If you have any weapon build questions, just search Mark, The devour or the specific weapon your curious about in the forums. Lots of build discussions there. Don’t feel like you have to meta. It’s your game and play it how you want. Karl.gg is a great resource if you’d like more information on some of the vague stats in DRG

Scout Specific Tips:

• So I forgot this, but Cress reminded me about the most basic scout mechanic. Use your flare gun please. Try to keep the caves lit. I like to work in sections instead of just illuminating the whole cave at once. 1 or 2 to get one side lit up, mark stuff, mine, repeat.
• I prefer the grappling hook stat priority of reach>recharge>grapple speed. This makes it easier to find a grapple point and zip away without having to spend any extra time trying to find one. Starting out it might be better to go recharge>reach>less fall damage.
• If you get the Special powder OC for the shotgun, it’s a great crutch until you’ve mastered the grappling or if you want to have fun zipping around by shotgun shots alone.
• Be mobile. You can’t face tank like other classes. Zip away if a bug/s is within 10 m of you.
• Scouts do great single target damage, so they’re good for taking out acid spitters, web shooters, gaurds, slashers. Also great at getting behind Praetorians and oppressors to hit their weak spot. Just be mindful you’re not getting in the way of others already shooting at it. Again, search the weapon you want to use in the forum for builds.
• Scouts are great combat medics. I suggest getting the perk that reduces rez time and has 1 insta rez.