Hazard Levels Deep Rock Galactic: Difficulty and Scaling Guide

The hazard levels in Deep Rock Galactic are mission difficulty settings that change enemy strength, spawn pressure, environmental damage, friendly fire, and several player-survival values. Higher hazards also provide a larger Hazard Bonus, which increases the rewards earned when the mission ends. The exact scaling depends on both the selected hazard and the number of players.

Mission type, mutators, random events, and other mission-specific factors can also affect difficulty, but they are separate from the core Hazard Level scaling. The figures below are based on the Difficulty Scaling reference page.

Hazard levels explained

Regular missions use five main Hazard Levels:

Hazard Level is selected when choosing a mission. It does more than increase enemy health. The difficulty system can alter enemy damage, enemy attack speed, projectile speed, movement speed, resistance, spawn counts, wave timing, environmental damage, friendly fire, and the amount of health received after a revive.

At Hazard 5 and above, maximum health regeneration is reduced from 15% to 10%. This makes damage recovery less forgiving even before accounting for the stronger enemies.

What changes as Hazard Level increases?

Hazard scaling affects several broad categories.

Enemy damage and behavior

Enemies deal more damage as hazard increases. Enemy attack cooldowns, movement speed, and projectile speed can also change, making attacks more difficult to avoid or respond to. Environmental damage and friendly fire are adjusted as well, so hazards can punish mistakes from both enemies and teammates.

The enemy population changes too. Higher hazards increase the overall enemy count and the difficulty points used for encounters, stationary enemies, and normal waves. Normal waves arrive with less time between them, while Point Extraction missions increase their enemy pressure over time.

Enemy caps can also be increased by the Hazard 5+ More Enemies modifier.

Enemy resistance

Enemy resistance is a multiplier applied to damage taken by enemies. The reference describes the calculation as:

Damage dealt to enemy = base damage ÷ enemy damage resistance

It can also be understood through effective health:

Effective enemy health = base health × enemy damage resistance

This means resistance values above 1 make an enemy effectively tougher, while values below 1 make it take more damage than its base value would suggest. Resistance also varies according to the enemy category and the number of players.

The scaling categories use these alternative names in some contexts:

• Normal scaling: Common
• Large scaling: Special
• Extra Large scaling: Boss
• Extra Large 2 scaling: Korlok
• Extra Large 3 scaling: Omen

Loot Bugs, Golden Loot Bugs, Maggots, Silicate Harvesters, Cave Vines, Naedocyte Cave Cruisers, Stabber Vines, and Bha Barnacles are listed as neutral or non-scaling creatures. They do not receive this hazard-based resistance scaling.

Many common enemies, including Grunts, Slashers, Guards, Exploders, Spitters, Stingtails, Mactera, Cave Leeches, Naedocytes, and several Rival enemies, use normal scaling. Rockpox boils have their own resistance scaling based on normal enemy scaling, even when the creature carrying them uses a different category.

Elite enemies can have an additional Elite Resistance value. This resistance is independent of Hazard Level and multiplies with the regular hazard resistance scaling.

Enemy count by hazard and team size

The following enemy-count multipliers are listed for regular missions. Each sequence is ordered as solo, two players, three players, and four players.

The increase from solo to two players is intentionally small in the listed scaling because solo missions include Bosco. Larger teams receive greater enemy-count scaling.

Hazard 5+ modifiers

Hazard 5 and above can use additional difficulty modifiers. The values below are relative to Hazard 5 rather than the base game values. For example, the first Aggressive Enemies tier adds another 1.1 multiplier to projectile speed on top of the Hazard 5 value.

The second More Enemies tier also adds one special enemy to the pool, two disruptive enemies, and a 1.15 veteran chance multiplier. The first tier adds one disruptive enemy but does not add a special enemy or veteran chance multiplier. Tough Enemies 2 additionally applies a ×1.33 multiplier to normal enemy resistance.

Deep Dive hazard levels

Deep Dives use three additional custom difficulty settings: 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5. These numbers are shorthand for comparing Deep Dive stages with regular mission hazards; they are not described as standard internal Hazard Level names.

Deep Dive resistance scaling also increases by stage. At 3.5, normal enemy resistance is 1.10; at 4.5 and 5.5, it is 1.20. Large-enemy resistance rises from 0.85 / 0.95 / 1.10 / 1.20 at 3.5 to 1.30 / 1.30 / 1.50 / 1.60 at 5.5, ordered from solo through four players.

Practical reading of the system

Hazard Level is therefore a combined pressure setting rather than a simple enemy-health slider. A higher setting can mean more enemies, faster attacks, stronger projectiles, harsher environmental damage, reduced recovery, and tougher enemy categories at the same time. Team size matters because both enemy counts and resistance values use player-count-specific scaling.

For exact values not shown in the tables above, consult the full Difficulty Scaling reference. Game version and platform details are not independently confirmed by the supplied material.

FAQ

Does Hazard Level affect mission rewards?

Yes. The selected Hazard Level contributes to the Hazard Bonus, which determines the amount of rewards received at mission completion. The supplied table confirms +25% for Hazard 1 and +50% for Hazard 2.

Does Hazard Level change friendly fire?

Yes. Friendly fire is one of the values affected by difficulty scaling. It can also receive additional increases from the Hazard 5+ Player Vulnerability modifier.

Are Deep Dive hazards the same as regular Hazard Levels?

Not exactly. Deep Dives use custom settings commonly described as 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5. These numbers are useful comparisons, but the reference identifies them as shorthand rather than regular internal difficulty names.

Does every creature scale with Hazard Level?

No. Some creatures are listed as neutral or non-scaling, while others use normal, large, extra-large, or elite resistance categories.