Deep Rock Galactic Season 6 – Inside the Ossuary Depths and the Relics of Hoxxes

Deep Rock Galactic has always thrived on repetition that never quite feels repetitive. The rhythms are familiar, but no two dives into Hoxxes play the same. Season 6, Relics of Hoxxes, leans hard into that strength, digging into the planet’s ancient past and layering new threats and objectives over the game’s battle-tested co-op formula.

With the Ossuary Depths biome, the Ossiran enemy faction, and the new Heavy Excavation mission type, Season 6 is less about upheaval and more about deepening what already works. For returning dwarves who have drilled through every cavern and cleared every warning mutator, this update aims to make the familiar strange again.

A graveyard beneath Hoxxes: the Ossuary Depths

Season 6’s headline addition is the Ossuary Depths, a new biome that sits visually and mechanically apart from the existing cave types. Where the Fungus Bogs and Sandblasted Corridors feel like hostile geology, the Ossuary Depths feel like a tomb.

According to Ghost Ship’s reveal and the early breakdowns, this region is effectively a colossal bone yard under Hoxxes. Caverns are threaded with fossilized ribcages and skulls the size of drop pods. Resinite, the new mission-critical resource, glows out of skeletal formations and ancient strata, giving navigational landmarks that are as unsettling as they are useful.

This visual shift has gameplay teeth. The Ossuary Depths are described as tighter and more vertically fragmented than many biomes, with bony arches, narrow choke points and jagged protrusions that interfere with line of sight. For gunners and engineers, sightlines that used to be predictable now kink and curve around fossil mounds. Scouts get more value from their flare guns, since the bone textures and deep shadow create dense pockets of darkness where enemies blend into the scenery.

Environmental hazards also sound like a twist on what veterans expect. Instead of simple explosive plants or radioactive pools, the Ossuary Depths lean into the “ancient tomb” fantasy. Crumbling ledges, bone spires that can snag dwarves mid-fall, and relic structures that can collapse if over-mined all contribute to a sense that the level itself is as much a threat as the swarm.

For returning players who know every corner of the Magma Core, just reading a terrain layout at a glance becomes more demanding in the Ossuary Depths. It slows down the usual sprint to the objective and forces squads to treat each new chamber as an unknown rather than another reskinned cave.

Heavy Excavation: Resinite runs under pressure

Season 6’s new mission type, Heavy Excavation, threads that biome fiction directly into moment-to-moment play. These missions revolve around Resinite Mass deposits, a highly valuable resource tied to Hoxxes’ ancient history. Instead of simply mining quota numbers off walls, crews are tasked with locating these concentrated masses, digging them out, and shipping them off-world as fast as possible.

Structurally, Heavy Excavation sits somewhere between Point Extraction and On-site Refining. Squads push into the Ossuary Depths, track down multiple Resinite nodes using scanning gear, and then commit to extended dig jobs at each site. The “heavy” in the name is not just about the material, but about the time pressure and exposure that come from hunkering down in semi-open dig pits.

Where Point Extraction lets you stay mobile as you scoop up Aquarqs, Heavy Excavation encourages set-piece firefights. Once drills hit a Resinite Mass, enemy waves ramp up in intensity. Ossirans, the new faction introduced this season, are explicitly described as guardians of these relics. Combined with regular Glyphid swarms, the mission flow rhythmically alternates between exploration, fortification, and desperate holds.

This structure plays to Deep Rock’s co-op strengths. Gunner shields and ziplines suddenly matter more as tools for anchoring a defensive perimeter around dig sites. Engineers can turn bone outcroppings into bunkers, scaffolding turrets across brittle ledges and chiseled platforms. Drillers have a clear macro job: carve safe fallback tunnels and escape routes before the swarm hits. For veteran squads that have fallen into autopilot on standard Mining Expeditions, the layered objectives and heavier defensive segments restore that early-game tension where every choice of tunnel and turret mattered.

Ossirans: a new kind of guardian to disrupt your habits

While Glyphids remain the workhorse threat across Season 6, the Ossiran enemies are positioned as the signature addition. Lore-wise they are tied to Hoxxes’ ancient past and the relics buried in the Ossuary Depths. Practically, they are there to break up familiar combat patterns.

From early previews and press descriptions, Ossirans are less like reskinned bugs and more like a distinct defense force with their own behaviors. Expect units that prioritize Resinite sites and relic structures, reacting aggressively when dwarves disturb them. Where Glyphids tend to swarm on beelines, Ossirans are described more like territorial guardians that can pressure flanks, hold ground around key objectives, and punish static teams.

For returning players this means that tried-and-true defensive habits are no longer always optimal. Holing up in a tight chokepoint might be less effective if Ossiran threats can bypass or counter those positions. The addition of a faction that interacts with the environment and objectives, rather than simply your bodies, is a subtle but important change that nudges you into experimenting with different team comps and positioning.

The Ossirans also deepen the fantasy of Hoxxes as a living, storied world. Their presence in the Ossuary Depths links seasonal mechanics to the wider fiction of the planet’s past, rather than feeling like a disconnected seasonal gimmick.

Seasonal structure and rewards: Relics as a long-term hook

Like previous seasons, Relics of Hoxxes arrives with a full suite of seasonal progression. That means a new performance pass, cosmetic track and event structure layered on top of the permanent additions of biome, enemies and mission type.

The season pivots away from Season 5’s corporate drill aesthetic and embraces a relic-hunter fantasy. The Relic Raider DLC pack doubles down on that, dressing dwarves up as hard-bitten archaeologists, complete with wide-brimmed hats, expedition jackets and themed weapon skins. Importantly, the cosmetics sit cleanly within Deep Rock’s tradition of optional flair; the gameplay impact comes from the content, not the outfits.

Because the core additions of Season 6 are systemic rather than purely event-based, they continue to enrich Deep Rock beyond the end of the performance pass. Ossuary Depths levels can roll into the regular mission rotation, Heavy Excavation contracts become part of the long-term mission pool, and Ossiran encounters stay relevant as part of the standard enemy mix.

This is crucial for lapsed players wondering if it is worth coming back for more than a quick battle pass sprint. Season 6 is built so that even months later, a random assignment can still send you into the bone caverns to drill out Resinite under Ossiran assault.

Keeping Deep Rock fresh for veteran miners

Six seasons in, the risk for any live co-op game is stagnation. Deep Rock Galactic avoids that trap in Relics of Hoxxes by matching the scale of its additions to the way players actually engage with the game.

The Ossuary Depths are not just a different color palette. Their layout quirks and environmental hazards push you to slow down, scout more carefully and rethink your traversal tools. Heavy Excavation does not overwrite existing mission types but injects a more deliberate, defense-oriented pacing that rewards coordinated squads and makes every class feel necessary again. The Ossirans do not replace the Glyphids, but they torque the combat meta just enough that old muscle memory is not always enough.

For returning dwarves, that combination is powerful. You can slot back into the comforting loop of prepping your loadout, dropping from orbit and yelling at Molly, yet still encounter new decision points. Do you burn resources building a turret-laced bunker around a Resinite pit, or stay mobile and risk being caught in the open by an Ossiran push? Does your usual Scout-and-Gunner duo need an Engineer now that the terrain is so much more jagged and vertical?

Relics of Hoxxes also signals something about Deep Rock’s future. With Invisible Walls collaborating on content while Ghost Ship focuses on Rogue Core, Season 6 feels like a test case for how the original game can keep evolving alongside its spin-offs. If Ossuary Depths and Heavy Excavation land well, they set a template for future seasons that respect what long-time players love while still nudging them into unfamiliar territory.

For now, the message to lapsed miners is clear: Hoxxes still has secrets worth digging up. The caves are darker, the bones are bigger, and there is always more Resinite to haul for the company.

Rock and Stone.