Deep Rock Galactic: Rogue Core Spotter is an essential class when looking to take on greater difficulties. While not as flashy as the other dwarves in the team, they do one primary job and do it so well that they’ve made themselves indispensable. It also helps that his other two abilities are useful.
Playing Rogue Core Spotter is a responsibility since you’ll need to be the first to find priority targets and open them up for the team. If you’re interested in laying down a barrage of crits and carrying the mission with raw aim, this Spotter guide will help you reach your full potential.
How does the Rogue Core Spotter play?
The Rogue Core Spotter’s main job is to quickly mark priority targets and take them down as fast as possible. He plays like a hybrid support-focused marksman whose build paths can let him lean harder into damage or crowd control. The Spotter needs to control specials like the long-range Edgestalker or the armored Clamorhead before they run over the team.
First, let’s break down his abilities:
Crit Dart — This is the Rogue Core Spotter’s signature ability. It has three charges with separate cooldowns and shoots a dart that marks enemies, causing the team to have guaranteed hits when damaging them. Players can either directly shoot the target to track them or shoot the ground to mark a radius.
Scanner — This ability adds a unique heads-up display to the Spotter’s HUD, scanning for enemies and allies in a large radius. It also has an active component that would Sonar Scan the room, highlighting enemies and supplies.
Ranger’s Pocket — The Spotter carries a personal Ammo Resupply Pack. He can deploy it on the ground for himself or the team. Additionally, the Spotter will recharge this ability after resupplying.
The first habit to learn to get better as a Rogue Core Spotter is to shoot the ground with the Crit Dart in the path of the intended target. This will create a radius that lasts longer than sticking to an enemy, plus there are also upgrades that increase its radius and field duration. While this is the best use case scenario for most fights, good Spotters will need to Crit Dart faster targets like Edgestalkers and Gatekeepers.
Coordinate this ability beforehand so your teammates can make quick work of the exposed target. Marking a target for the Slicer class to burst is a simple yet highly effective combo to delete a Corespawn from the run.
As for the Rogue Core Spotter’s other two abilities, use his Scanner every time you enter a new room. Not only will this highlight important crates, but it will also scan for annoying Cave Leeches hiding in the ceiling. During combat, use it every time it’s off cooldown to help your teammates see enemies better.
His personal ammo pack is a matter of remembering to use it before a resupply. Since you can drop it anywhere, you can place it ahead of time near events or elevators for an emergency refill.
Rogue Core Spotter Builds
Unlike more flexible classes like the Retcon, Rogue Core Spotter builds are more streamlined since his identity is so heavily tied to Crits. Generally, Spotter wants enhancements that increase crit damage and weapon efficiency:
- Deadeye
- Marksman
- Steady Aim
- Resupplier
- Unstoppable
- Ammo Pouch
These six enhancements are a great baseline for the Rogue Core Spotter. It’s recommended to stack Crit Damage on Spotter for even more firepower. However, if survivability is still the most important factor here.
Next, the Rogue Core Spotter’s choice of weapon largely depends on your aim confidence. Ideally, Spotters will want high-damage weapons for Weakpoint Damage, like the MM-4 Charger, Shock Striker, M1000 Classic, or Bulldog Heavy Revolver. These guns allow the Spotter to fully dedicate himself to sniping specials and boss killing, leaving horde clearing to the specialists. However, a safer alternative would be Assault Rifles like the Deepcore GK2, Bolt-Tec Silverback, and the Drak-25 Plasma Rifle.
Additionally, the Rogue Core Spotter is the best candidate to carry the Flare Gun. Without Rogue Core mods for brightness, the Flare Gun is a natural way to illuminate and draw attention to an area. This, coupled with your scan and dart, ensures the team will never miss a key target.
Before looking at the main Rogue Core Spotter build and a slight variation, let’s take a look at upgrades that are generally good for the class.
| Upgrade | Type | Effect |
| Improved Criticals | Bio Booster | Increases Critical Damage by 30%. |
| Lucky Shot | Bio Booster | Weapon has a chance to recover ammo on Critical Hit. |
| Potent Dart | Workbench | Additional Crit Dart effect and field duration. |
| Cool Precision | Expenite Upgrade | Weakpoints hits reduce active ability and power attack cooldowns. |
| Critical Recharge | Expenite Upgrade | Critical Hits reduces active ability and power attack cooldowns. |
| Repositioning | Expenite Upgrade | Burst of movement speed for a short duration on reload. |
Anything that interacts with crits and weakpoints damage is a good pick-up for the Rogue Core Spotter. However, don’t forget survivability options, too, like generating red sugar.
Hotshot
This Rogue Core Spotter build is a variation of the standard Crit Dart build. This leverages the fire element and burning status effect to deal even more damage on top of the crit. For this strat, build the standard Crit Dart Spotter, but supplement it with Incendiary grenades and the fire element. This build is great for giving Spotter the extra edge for clearing swarms.
| Upgrade | Type | Effect |
| Burning Propagation | Expenite Upgrade | Damage you deal to burning enemies is applied as fire damage around the target. |
| Fire Leech | Expenite Upgrade | Ability and power attack recharge rate increases per burning enemy within 10m. |
| Volatile Combustion | Expenite Upgrade | Killing a burning enemy deals significant fire damage within a small radius. |
| Boom! You’re Dead! | Expenite Upgrade | Killing enemies makes them explode, dealing explosive damage equal to kill damage in a radius. |
As you can imagine, killing a burning enemy triggers a cascade of fire and explosions. Additionally, marking the ground with Crit Dart ensures that this additional damage would also crit and cause more chain explosions.
Blitzkrieg
This Rogue Core Spotter build is so fun, as it focuses on running around the caves while keeping enemies stunlocked with crits. This build is dependent on the Spotter’s bio booster upgrade that stuns enemies on critical hits, yet it also uses the Spotter’s other bio deck that gives him mobility.
This Spotter build works best with an SMG, since it has the fastest firing rate. However, the Devastator Blaster Pistol is also a great pick for its AoE damage. It’s like being a less reliable but mobile Guardian.
| Upgrade | Type | Effect |
| Vital Impact | Bio Booster | Critical hits stun enemies for two seconds. |
| Critical Focus | Bio Booster | Increased crit chance. |
| Quick Shot | Bio Booster | Reduces the spread penalty from moving. |
| Fish In A Barrel | Expenite Upgrade | More damage against stunned targets. |
| Stunning Recharge | Expenite Upgrade | Stunning an enemy reduces your ability and power attack cooldowns. |
| Adhesive Snare | Expenite Upgrade | Chance to spawn an Adhesive Snare on kill that does massive slow. |
This Rogue Core Spotter build is still about marking priority enemies with Crit Dart, but this time, you’re using crits to keep them stunned. You’ll be surprised by how fast his abilities come back online due to the synergy with Stunning Recharge.
Since the Spotter is all about raw damage and stats, it can take a while before these builds start feeling good. It’s best to start working on your Reclaimer points by finding Data Terminals and Security Cameras during missions.
