Deep Rock Galactic - How to Use Overclocks

This guide provides some guidelines for analyzing and utilizing Overclocks for your weapons to the greatest affect. Learn how to cater to your playstyle and the situation to reap the most advantages for your Overclock.

Guide To Overclocks

What Are Overclocks?

Overclocks are craftable weapon augments that become available to players after they promote their first Dwarf class. They have a variety of effects and can be used to better accommodate a player's needs depending on the loadout they want to go for. Overclocks can also add new functions to a weapon, usually at the cost of other stats, changing the way you use your weapon entirely. There are three different types of Overclocks in the game:

These Overclocks are the most basic types. They offer small, minimal boosts in performance without compromising other stats. These Overclocks are generally the safest to use, and don't have any negative implications for a weapon's functionality. They can be used to top off a weapon's performance with already-viable loadouts. Clean Overclocks will not be detailed in this guide.

These Overclocks are more specialized and should be used with caution. Balanced Overclocks will provide larger stat boosts to weapons than Clean ones, but at the cost of another stat or two. Players should not use these before considering the implications of their functions.

These are the most specialized Overclocks available, drastically altering the weapon's functions and playstyle. They offer both significant performance boosts in one area and significant stat reductions in others. These Overclocks should only be used with very specific strategies or playstyles in mind. You will want to weigh the pros and cons of these Overclocks very carefully before using them!

Overclocks can be acquired by creating them at the Forge or earning them in Deep Dives or the weekly Core Hunt Assignment.

When To Use Overclocks

Overclocks expand a weapon's functionality by modifying a weapon to better fit one's own playstyle, either in general or in a specific application, such as dealing with huge swarms or working with status effects. When planning on adding an Overclock, one should take some time to consider the implications of its affects on their weapon, especially when working with Balanced or Unstable Overclocks.

Balanced and Unstable Overclocks can be frightening to new players due to the prospect of stat reductions. Running out of ammo at the wrong time or not killing your target(s) quickly enough can be devastating in the wrong situations! This is understandable, but depending on your playstyle, certain stats may not be quite as important can could be easily sacrificed for other boosts where they are needed. To better explain this concept, let's take a look at some examples of where certain stats would be more important than others:

Glyphid Grunts are usually easy to kill, but they love ganging up on unwary Dwarves in large packs. Weapons like the Gunner's "Lead Storm" Powered Minigun have an excellent Rate of Fire and ammo capacity for taking on so many enemies at once. When dealing with so many Grunts, you can fire in bursts to deal with hostiles so as not to waste ammo. This means that you won't need as much max ammo or even weapon cooling efficiency to keep using your gun (Magazine size does not apply to the minigun.).

Alternatively, weapons like the Engineer's Deepcore 40mm PGL can be used to pick off clumps of enemies at a time with their considerable Area of Effect damage. You may opt to lob a grenade into the horde to thin out their ranks and use your shotgun to take care of any stragglers. In this case, you won't need as high of a magazine size to deal with such hostiles and can loosen up on the direct damage dealt.

Glyphid Oppressors are known for their ability to soak up damage; their armor is virtually impenetrable from the front and sides, but its abdomen is exposed at its rear flank. As such, you will want to focus on one of two goals: dealing direct damage to the abdomen, or cramming in a lot of shots to bring the Oppressor down as quickly as possible. The Scout's Deepcore GK2 is an excellent example of this concept in action. With that sort of a weapon, you can focus on either one of those options. If you're focusing purely on direct damage, you will not have to pay as much attention to rate of fire, and vice versa. Additionally, a focus on direct damage may not rely so much on magazine capacity with certain strategies, while a focus on rate of fire can mean less reliance on accuracy at closer ranges.

Analyzing Overclocks

Making the best use of an Overclock will require close analysis of how it will affect your weapon and your playstyle. This means weighing its pros and cons to figure out whether or not an Overclock is right for you or useful overall to you in regards to your intended strategies. Let's look at a few Overclocks and analyze their overall tactical implications:

Stats

• Weapon: "Thunderhead" Heavy Autocannon (Gunner)
• Type: Unstable
• Effects: Pros: +12 Damage, x0.7 Base Spread; Cons: x0.5 Magazine Size, -110 Max Ammo, -1.5 Rate of Fire

In my case, I like to use the Autocannon in a semi-automatic fashion against my targets. It lets me better deal out more focused damage and even helps me keep from wasting my ammo on accident after the target is down. Let's look at the pros first. Upping the damage is great for this weapon because it already deals massive direct damage on its own. The reduced base spread is also a fantastic addon because it lets me hit targets from longer ranges. What about the cons? The lowered magazine size isn't a big issue for me because I don't use my rounds too often. This also means that the max ammo isn't too troublesome for me as well. Finally, the lower rate of fire isn't a problem due to my strategy of semi-automatic fire, where RoF wouldn't be relevant to me in the first place. This would have to be my favorite Overclock overall as it best fits and compliments the way I use the already-powerful Autocannon.

Stats

• Weapon: Breach Cutter (Engineer)
• Type: Unstable
• Stats: Pros: Weapon inflicts massive fire DoT; Cons: -175 Beam DPS, -6 Max Ammo, x0.25 Armor Breaking

This Overclock essentially turns the formidable Breach Cutter into an indirect fire support weapon. Looking at the pros, having a good source of fire DoT works well when supporting your fellow Dwarves; the extra damage can be helpful for helping your teammates deal with a bigger target. Alternatively, certain Overclocks can deal extra damage to targets with status effects, which makes this a great tool for support-oriented strategies. Of course, you will also need to take the cons into consideration as well. The lowered DPS of the beam itself means that the weapon can't be used offensively as well anymore. Having less ammo means that you will need to use your weapon only when you need to. Losing the armor breaking factor is self-explanatory. In general, the Inferno Overclock turns the Breach Cutter into a good support tool to assist your fellow Dwarves with.

Stats

• Weapon: Deepcore GK2 (Scout)
• Type: Balanced
• Stats: Pros: +3 Rate of Fire; Cons: x2.5 Recoil

For the pros, the heightened rate of fire is self-explanatory. As for the cons, the extra recoil has two implications: it will be harder to use the rifle for extended periods of time and it will become impractical to use this rifle against targets at longer ranges. This Overclock can be useful for better capitalizing on the rifle's precision perks against targets at closer ranges.

Stats

• Weapon: Deepcore 40mm PGL (Engineer)
• Type: Balanced
• Stats: Pros: Use the grenade's recoil to propel yourself and your teammates; Cons: -25 Area Damage

This Overclock essentially turns the Engineer's grenade launcher into a versatile traversal tool. The reduction in area damage is essential to facilitate the usage of the grenade launcher in such a context. If you want to increase your overall mobility in the field, or if you don't have any other use for the grenade launcher, the RJ250 Compound Overclock can be a great addition to your loadout.

As you can see, each Overclock has its own pros and cons, depending on the scenario in which you want to use your weapon in. Try looking at that one random Overclock you have and determine for yourself how useful it could be in certain situations!

Source: https://gameplay.tips/guides/9922-deep-rock-galactic.html					

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