Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor Ditches the Pickaxe on November 17 as the Knockout Expansion Unleashes the Steel-Fisted Brawler
No armored vehicle, no pickaxe, and zero concept of personal safety: Danish studio Funday Games and publisher Ghost Ship Publishing have unveiled the official class trailer for the Brawler, the fifth playable dwarf joining Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor. This bad-tempered close-combat specialist headlines the paid Knockout Expansion on November 17, 2026 for PC (via Steam) and Xbox Series X|S, launching alongside a free content update for all players.
Just weeks after its surprise 60 FPS shadow-drop on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, the multi-million-selling auto-shooter spin-off is overhauling how players tackle the alien swarms of Hoxxes IV up close.
A Portable Morkite Reactor and 11 Close-Quarters Weapons
Unlike the Scout, Gunner, Engineer, and Driller, the Brawler leaves standard mining tools behind. Instead, he punches straight through solid rock veins and Glyphid armor with bare steel fists powered by a portable Morkite reactor strapped to his back.
Sent down to Hoxxes as much for corporate profit as for everyone else's safety on the space rig, the Brawler brings 11 new short-range weapons requisitioned by R&D:
- Shockwave-emitting war hammers built to flatten entire packs of bugs with ground-shattering slams.
- Rocket-propelled fist bombs and heavy crushing gauntlets designed to punch through dense swarm walls.
- Pulsar-launching wrist gadgets and short-range ion firearms that keep surrounding threats at bay.
- Three distinct combat approaches tailored for aggressive in-your-face brawling, fast hit-and-run skirmishes, or oppressive stone-walling defense.
Thanks to the game's weapon tag system, all 11 new weapons can also be unlocked and equipped by the four original classes during their dives.
Sandblasted Corridors, Mineral Twisters, and Brood Harvest
Beyond the new fighter, the Knockout Expansion opens up the harsh Sandblasted Corridors biome. Immense Sand Twisters constantly roam this arid desert, reshaping the terrain in real time, leaving mineral-rich sand trails behind them, and scrambling dwarf map equipment if players wander too close.
The local flora is equally hostile, featuring Stabber Vines that chase and trap miners alongside regenerating explosive spore bulbs. Funday Games confirmed that the biome joins the mission pool without raising progression requirements.
Facing the Dreadnought Empress on Stage Four
The expansion also introduces Brood Harvest, a four-stage mission where R&D tasks miners with hunting down cowardly Broodlings to extract samples of Kytoplasm, a valuable non-Newtonian substance.
Every supply drop earned from Kytoplasm extraction enrages the local swarm further, and unlike standard dives, the threat meter never cools down between stages. Miners who survive to the fourth and final floor will enter a full-stage boss arena inside the hive of the Dreadnought Empress, a defensive monstrosity that hurls waves of her own brood directly at the player.
At a busy moment for the bullet-heaven genre following the November 10 launch of Warhammer Survivors on Xbox Game Pass, Ghost Ship Publishing has also launched an interactive Personnel Assessment quiz to help miners find their ideal class before stepping into the ring on November 17.
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