Morkite can appear in more than crystal form in Deep Rock Galactic. In some large open caverns, morkite spews forth as a liquid, and the corporation wants it…all of it. That’s where On-Site Refinement missions come in. The dwarves are dropped into a cavern, it’s their job to collect the stuff. But saying is easier than doing, and On-Site Refinements are one of the most complex mission types in Deep Rock Galactic.
These missions are a multi-step process that involves finding geysers of liquid morkite, prepping for extraction, extracting the valuable resource, and of course fighting off hordes of nasty spider monsters. These missions can be extremely difficult if players don’t know the best way to approach them.
How to Complete On-Site Refinements in Deep Rock Galactic
As usual, the dwarves start off in a Drop Pod, digging their way into the heart of Hoxxes IV. Exiting the ship, the team will see that they’re in a large open space with not a lot of smaller rooms. There are always three geysers to be tapped, and the first step is to track them down. As players navigate around the space, they should look for spouts of blue flames. This is the clue that liquid morkite is nearby.
Each of these locations gives players the ability to install a Pumpjack, which drills down and self-installs over a geyser. Once all three Pumpjacks have been installed, it’s time to run the pipe from the Refiner to each of the Pumpjacks. Conveniently, the Refiner has three ports, interacting with one will produce a length of pipe, which the player must place on acceptable terrain. The outline of the pipe will glow blue if it can be placed. Each length of pipe will only reach so far, several connection points will have to be made on the way to each Pumpjack.
After all three Pumpjacks have been connected, it’s time to get to refining. Pressing the button on the Refiner will start the process. Unfortunately, the noise draws in some very unwelcome guests. For the remainder of the mission, as the Refiner does its work, players will need to defend against a never-ending onslaught of monsters, who sometimes seem to care more about destroying the morkite pipelines than they do killing the dwarves. The natural inhabitants of the planet attack the junction points in the pipeline, and players will need to go repair them, all while fending off the attacking monsters.
The amount of morkite to be refined depends on the cavern size and the hazard level, but there will always be three locations to look for. Once all of the morkite is safely onboard the Refiner, it will bore its way out of the planet. A Drop Pod will appear shortly after, and the dwarves will have three minutes to make their escape.
On-Site Refinement is a complex process and can be nail-bitingly tense at times. But as far as mission types are concerned, it may be Deep Rock Galactic at its very best.
Deep Rock Galactic is available on PC and Xbox One.