WMG / Deep Rock Galactic

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

The "Dwarves" are a Heavy Worlder race, and that's their name in English

We don't know what language they'd use for themselves, as they've long been incorporated into some sort of galactic federation and the ones who work with humans - like Deep Rock Galactic's employees - speak the dominant Human language out of convenience. Mission Control is a human, but since he spends his time on the spacerigs, which are calibrated to Dwarven gravity to keep their strength up, he's developed his own Stout Strength. That's also why the "pointy-eared leaf-levers" aren't seen in person - while they have a managerial stake in DRG, they're light-worlders much like the Na'vi and can barely function under Dwarven gravity.

As for why the dwarves are cheerfully working dangerous jobs for humans, fighting and mining is just what they do; DRG is providing the beer, the dwarves will do the hard work. They a bunch of rabble-rousing drunkards who have occasionally been known to go into the mines blackout drunk, but they're the only ones hardy and mental enough to go mining on Hoxxes, so management puts up with them.

Dwarves who are left behind on missions and wake up in the infirmary aren't being rescued, they're being cloned

It explains everything. It also might explain why you can go on a mission with four of the same dwarf.

• But (besides the obvious reason), it doesn't explain why "cloned" Dwarves retain the same equipment, even if it was high-end, fully upgraded weapons worth thousands of credits and several mining missions worth of upgrade materials instead of being given company standard weapons.
• Maybe the union fought hard for clones to be considered the same person as a deceased dwarf, and entitled to the accounts thereof. That said, they also have lines implying they wake up knowing how a previous mission went wrong, so Deep Rock's flash-cloning is so good they are the same person, anyway.

Hoxxes once had a native civilization that drove itself to extinction through war.

Given that the error cubes are referred to as "Precursor artifacts" in the code, and the fact that a civilization of sapient organisms is really the only thing that can blast apart a planet the way Hoxxes has been, at least without completely obliterating the whole thing like a black hole or colliding planet would. Connections to the Ommoran heartstones and being the reason why Hoxxes' surface is completely barren are also possibilities.

Hoxxes is a Genius Loci

The Ommoran Heartstones are basically nodes in a planet-wide telepathic network. The reason that the local wildlife is so aggressive is that the planetary brain is controlling it to attack you and defend itself.

"Karl" is the reason the planet has a huge chunk blown out of it.

It was the greatest feat of mining engineering, explosive engineering, excavation, and alcoholic consumption ever seen in dwarf-kind. And he could have lived to see the results, too, if it weren't for the local wildlife attacking at the worst possible time. Karl willingly stayed behind to fight off the bugs, so his partners could escape. Hence why he's considered a hero among the dwarves.

• Extremely unlikely. Those planetary chunks have been floating there and giving gravity the finger for so long that it's reshaped the local ecosystem, as there's an overabundance of plant life there due to the (alleged) dearth of Glyphids up there to eat them. Completely overhauling a biome like this would take hundreds of Earth years at minimum, meaning that Karl would simply be a historical figure to the player Dwarves, filed away in the same mental folder as the Empires Of Old; the way they shout "For Karl!" when impaling a Glyphid's head only makes sense if he was someone who was alive within recent memory, at minimum their own lifetimes. EDIT: There's also the fact that the in-universe crew is celebrating their third year in orbit as of this typing, but I didn't find that out until just now as I haven't actually booted the game up in a while.

"Karl" is responsible for killing the Glyphid Queen.

While pure conjecture, it's possible that the legendary Karl may have something to do with the theorized Glyphid Queen. Most sci-fi bugs of this nature tend to have a large Queen type leader and the Dwarves have a common phrase "Die like your mother did!" implying this *was* the case on Hoxxes though no longer applies. The two could likely be connected, especially as the powerful Skull Crusher Ale is rumored to have played a part in his story.

• Hmm. Perhaps those Egg Hunt eggs really are Glyphid eggs after all.
  • Remember how, in a deleted scene from Alien, it's revealed that Xenomorphs can reproduce even without a Queen by turning their victims into eggs ? What if the Glyphids could do the same ? What if those eggs you find on Egg Hunts were actually created from unlucky miners who didn't make it to the Drop Pod in time or failed a solo expedition, and were captured by the Glyphids as a result?

• Perhaps that is why Management orders so many Extermination missions on Hoxxes: They're deeply concerned that any Glyphid Cocoon that is allowed to fully mature will hatch one or more replacement Queens, which possibly means all the Glyphids pull a Tyranid or Zerg in terms of organization and tactics against subsequent mining expeditions, perhaps even stowing aboard Drop Pods to invade the Space Rig. Which would be a huge asset loss to Deep Rock Galactic.

• This may be further supported by the rumoured location of Karl's death; if there was a Glyphid Queen, it would make sense for it to have laired in the Dense Biozone/Fungus Bogs ^note While the Hollow Bough also fits the bill due to being an overgrown, plant-rich area of the kind the Deep Dive quotes imply Karl died in, these two are implied to be Glyphid breeding grounds through the presence of the egg clusters which hatch into Glyphid Swarmers, which are explicitly identified by the game as the larval stage of later Glyphid variants to reproduce and hatch new Glyphids. Karl and some other miners could have been sent in there to destroy the Queen and prevent the above scenarios, only for him to never make it back out after taking down the Glyphid Queen.

Deep Rock Galactic is possibly far in the same timeline as Shadowrun

So far the most plausibly smooth explanation for the existence of Dwarves and Elves who grasp relatively modern human concepts such as Christmas and sandwiches.

Dwarves were amazed by the human invention of sandwiches

Taking meals to work mining probably used to be a cumbersome affair for Dwarves until contact with humans introduced them to the concept of a meal consisting of meat, cheese, vegetables or whatever fillings placed between two slices of bread. Sandwiches revolutionized Dwarven miner worktime meals in terms of space and efficiency to where they are regarded with reverence by Dwarves as hinted in the description of ammo expanding mods and one Dwarven line after unloading gathered minerals. A yet unrevealed section of the Space Rig possibly has a sandwich shop in operation, which would no doubt be a lucrative deal for whichever franchise has the contract with Deep Rock Galactic.

• Someone really needs to introduce them to the concept of Cornish Pasties, a meal that has been popular with Cornish miners for centuries. If they think sandwiches are impressive, pasties will blow their minds.
  • Then again, when so many of the world's cultures have invented this particular wheel by themselves (empanadas, samosas, shaobing and so on), the dwarves probably have theirs already; sandwiches however would be wholly new.

A future enemy faction will be vulnerable to Electrocution.

We first had the Mactera and Naedocytes, both of which were very vulnerable to cold and instantly died upon being frozen. Next, we had the Rival Tech's forces, which were very vulnerable to heat and instantly blew up upon being set ablaze. To complete the Fire, Ice, Lightning triangle, perhaps one of the next enemy factions could have a crippling weakness to electrocution and would instantly die if they stay electrocuted for too long.

• Building on this, Season 5 might introduce a new weapon that deals electrical damage, as shown by a never-seen-before weapon◊ in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor — the TH-O-R Bug Taser.

A future seasonal enemy faction could be the Precursors or something else supernatural

Right now we have two seasonal enemy factions based off the Technological and Physical in the Physical, Mystical, Technological trio, being the Rival Corporation's machines and the Rockpox Lithophage respectively. While there are supernatural occurrences such as the Ommoran Heartstone and the Unknown Horror, those are often few and far-between, and a number are environmental objects like the defense-buffing pillars. Perhaps the Precursors might wake up after all the noise or infestation from the Dwarves, Rival Tech, Rockpox and bugs, and are not happy with the outsiders, becoming a new enemy faction that would be very much supernatural.

The Rival Company really is run by Elves

It's very, very easy to assume, seeing these are dwarves and the game is intent on providing the full Dwarven experience, complete with hatred of pointy-eared leaf lovers. But their comments against the robots aside, it would provide justification for the Rival Tech robots' bizarre weakness to fire: They're made of genetically-engineered or simply magical wood, which despite its incredible resistance to gunfire and corrosion is still wholly flammable.

• Alternatively the rival company is automated all the way through and not run by any organic being. After they slipped the grip of some careless Elves whose pride kept them from consider that their AI would revolt.

Karl is fine

He's on vacation and all the references to him is a practical joke gone out of hand by the dwarves.

Mission Control is only upset by the Dwarves' antics because he's jealous.

All the things Mission Control gets upset at you for are physical actions, like dancing or kicking barrels into the drop pod launch gantry. He's not upset because you're wasting time or destroying company property like he claims, he's upset because that's what he'd rather be doing instead of being Mission Control. You're reminding him of all the fun he's not having and he doesn't like it. Also puts a new spin on the Dwarves' lines that he has a cushy job.

Molly isn't Bigger on the Inside - she's a teleporter platform.

Rather than lug around all the minerals that the Dwarves may collect in a mission (of which, let's be fair, there can be a LOT), Molly insteads utilises an internal teleportation unit to beam them directly back up to the Space Rig for immediate processing. Not only does this explain how Molly can carry so much stuff, but also how a team can spend Nitra on resupply pods - the Nitra's already been sent up to the ammo plant on the Rig and processed into the ammo the team's weapons will need, so it can quickly be loaded into a pod and shot down to the team's location on demand.

This technological innovation is courtesy of the same phenomenon as that which gives Wormhole Special its unique properties. Whether Longbeard Brewery discovered when concocting it or simply utilised it when making the drink, it demonstrates practical and effective teleportation technology is readily available.

But why don't the Dwarves themselves just use this tech to beam up and down to and from the Rig to Hoxxes? It may be that it doesn't work well with organic matter. Beaming up rocks and fossils and the relatively inert plucked plants that get made into beer is fine, but a living system like a Dwarf might introduce dangerous complications to the transit process (it's probably quantum). Being randomly teleported around on the roomy Space Rig is great fun, but trying to do the same in the tight, narrow caverns of Hoxxes might end up with a Dwarf getting Philadelphia Experiment'd into a cave wall or something - not very pleasant.

On the other hand, maybe the team does have teleporter units but they only get used when there's no other option to retrieve them. If a Dwarf misses the Drop Pod launch window or goes down without Bosco being able to resuscitate them, Mission Control finally activates the teleporter and beams the stricken Dwarf back. This may be why they end up in the infirmary: whatever the teleportation process does to the Dwarf that makes it too dangeorus to use in non-emergency circumstances requires intensive medical treatment to put them back together... possibly literally.

• Besides being dangerous, it could also be expensive to safely teleport a living, breathing Dwarf back to the Space Rig. Which would explain why a mission failure will only yield a small fraction of the reward you would have gotten otherwise, even if all the objectives have been completed and you only failed because you didn't make it to the Drop Pod in time or got overwhelmed by angry bugs on the way : the small payout is due to Management using the rest of your reward to cover the cost of extracting you and patching you up. Which is, actually, pretty fair.

The bugs of Hoxxes can 'see' the lower end of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Ever wonder how blind bugs find you? How swarms always manage to navigate to your position? Why Black Boxes and hacker bots and Doretta attract hordes? Simple. They don't perceive light in the visible spectrum, which is in short supply on Hoxxes, but instead have adapted to 'see' other types of natural radiation, including radio waves and microwaves. Why does this matter? Those are the wavelengths used by most electronic equipment. They're not homing on at the sight of a dwarf, they're homing on on their communication equipment. They're not drawn to Hack-C's furious typing, but to his wireless signal. They're not drawn to Dotty because of the big tank making a lot of noise but because of Dotty's navigation system. This could also explain why they don't attack the Rival - The Rival is aware of this and simply changed to a different method of communication that the bugs can't see as well.

A future weapon will utilize the Rockpox Lithophage

Season 2 had the Shard Diffractor, which utilized the Ommoran Heartstone as a power source. Season 3 had the Shredder Swarm grenade, which utilized Rival Tech's Shredder Drones to attack enemies. Considering that management is taking the Plague Hearts for R&D to study, it'll only be a matter of time before the Rockpox itself gets turned into a weapon.

• The weapon could perhaps be a genetically-engineered lithophage that doesn't turn Glyphids into shambling husks or convert rocks, but instead covers things in growths and tumors which then explode for even bigger damage after a bit of time.
• Semi-confirmed; while it's only cosmetic and doesn't affect the way the weapon works in any way (nor does it pose a threat to the Dwarves wielding them), Season 4 introduced the "Infected" framework, which covers the weapon's default framework in pulsating Lithophage biomass.

The Lithophage has been to Hoxxes before.

Some events and developments on Hoxxes seems awfully familiar to the Rockpox infection. The way it infects Glyphids with large growths feels not too far off from the Kursite Infection, though not nearly as hostile. More tellingly, Rockpox larvae flop around and attack almost exactly like the Carnivorous Larvae from the Parasite Mutator. It seems possible that a long time ago, a more benign, or at least less virulent, form of Lithophage had infected the planet, but was either integrated into Hoxxes ecology, or mild enough to at least be worked around. This round is much more deadly, but otherwise has the same origin. And what is that origin?

The Lithophage is the latest attack from a long-over war.

It's already been suggested above that Hoxxes had a civilization that was destroyed through war. Perhaps this Lithophage meteor, which is said to be almost malevolent and intelligent in its infection, is another salvo in a long-forgotten war between two long-dead civilizations. Why it took so long to get here is uncertain, perhaps a forgotten assault that went off course and only now has reached its destination.

The Lithophage meteor is a deliberate attack by the Rival Corporation

Mission Control has already established that the meteors are deliberately hitting the planet, and the Rivals' recent escalation efforts have failed to stop Deep Rock Galactic. Instead of sending in more robots, it could be that they've decided to just engage in a wide scale plague warfare campaign by guiding the Lithopage meteor to Hoxxes, letting the Lithophage kill Deep Rock's miners, and then sending in their armies of robots to clean up and begin mining operations unopposed.

Mission Control used to have another name.

Karl. He used to be exactly as badass as the other miners until a normally career ending injury saw him kicked upstairs into the chair managing teams instead of going out in the field. However his exploits were impressive enough to get passed around, exaggerated, and overstated until eventually they became DRG legend. Management has forbidden him from telling anyone the truth because his reputation is a good recruiting tool. He drinks because it's his history that brings young miners to Hoxxes trying to emulate his glory days only to end up dead.

Season 4 is what happens when a Lithophage Meteor finally makes direct contact with an Omeran

The power of a sentient psychic rock + the virulence of a sedimentary disease = you're so screwed.

• Turns out that the Rockpox Corruptors are neither an Ommoran nor a Korlok Tyrant-Weed, so this might be jossed.

The game takes place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

I'm sure we've all been thinking this, really. Anyway...

• Deep Rock Galactic are an offshoot of the Leagues of Votann who have lost contact with the wider Galaxy. Safely insulated from the grim darkness of the far future, they're just having fun mining and drinking. Bosco, Doretta, and Hacksy are all oddly-shaped Ironkyn.
• The Glyphids are a remnant of a Tyranid Hive Fleet who have adapted to the environment of Hoxxes. Between the lack of any major synapse creatures to guide them and DRG's efforts to keep them under control, they still have yet to grow into a planet-devouring horde
• The "pointy-eared leaf lovers" are Aeldari whose Craftworld has a lot of foliage onboard. DRG has done a little trading with them, but don't like them very much bcause they're self-centred and haughty.
• The "rival corporation" are the Adeptus Mechanicus, and their robots are new designs of servitor and Legio Cybernetica machines that their resident Tech Priests are testing on this captive population of isolated Kyn in the hopes of clearing them out and claim this mineral-rich world for the Imperium.
• Hoxxes IV is such a weird place because it's been corrupted by Chaos at some point.
• The reason no-one has noticed the Great Rift opening up and tearing the Galaxy in half is because all the Space Rig's windows are facing away from it.
• The Rockpox is of course one of Nurgle's several vile plagues, although this one seems more specifically engineered to infect rocks and Tyranids than other races.

The dwarves only recently made it to the Space Age, and Hoxxes is the first planet they're mining.

They refer to their granddads having used real mules back in the day. Even if dwarves have longer lifespans than humans, that's still an awful lot of technological progress for just two generations. It also explains why they're only active on Hoxxes.

The dwarves are racist against elves.

Given that they commonly use "Leaf lover" as an insult and elves are commonly associated with nature, it wouldn't be shocking to think that the dwarves really, really hate elves.