| On-site Refining | |
|---|---|
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| Mission Details | |
| Cave Type | Non-linear |
| Deposit Type | Refinery |
| Objective(s) | Refine Liquid Morkite |
| XP Payout |  1750
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On-site Refining is a mission type in Deep Rock Galactic.
Management has detected Liquid Morkite Wells on Hoxxes, and have sent in the Dwarves alongside a Mobile Refinery to collect and process the Liquid Morkite directly on Hoxxes before sending it back to the Space Rig. On-site Refining is the second unlockable mission type, following Egg Hunt.
The Liquid Morkite Well
The Pumpjack which extracts the Liquid Morkite
The Mobile Refinery
The Refinery[]
Once the Drop Pod has landed, the Mobile Refinery will soon follow, its location being marked by a semi-transparent pale blue hologram. It is a large construct similar to the Mine Head in size and appearance, with several moving parts and structures. A rocket is found in the center attached to a spherical storage tank on top, which is used to store the refined product. Unlike the Minehead, the Refinery does not have any defensive utility besides floodlights, though it is not vulnerable to any kind of attack.
Pipeline Construction[]
In On-Site Refining missions, three different Liquid Morkite Wells are located throughout the map. They can be identified by the sound of spurting liquid, glowing blue exhausts, and circular dark blue spots along the floors similar to the presence of a rock-embeded gemstones (such as Aquarq or Jadiz). The well itself is a dark cyan color and spurts a murky, dark turquoise liquid constantly, similar to solid Morkite. Upon locating a well, it will show up on the Terrain Scanner.
When a Well is located, the dwarves can call in a pumpjack, which Mission Control will deploy on top of the Well. From there, a Pipeline must be constructed to connect the Refinery to the individual pumpjacks. Pipelines start at the Refinery and are constructed by placing nodes which automatically form pipeline frames between themselves when placed. In order to place a node, press the [INTERACT] key on either one of the Refinery's pipeline starting points or an existing node to bring up a hologram of where the node can be placed. The hologram will shine blue when a node is ready to be placed, and red if the input is invalid. Other players are able to see this hologram while you are placing a node. Tools and weapons cannot be used while placing a node, with the exception of throwing flares.
These nodes must adhere to several rules in order to connect to each other and to the Pumpjack; they must be placed on solid ground (though they will support themselves if the terrain they stand on is broken), they must be within nine meters of one another, must not exceed thirty degrees in angle, and cannot be blocked by any kind of terrain (however, nodes will automatically clear out non-intrusive space alongside them when placed successfully). Pipelines can intersect each other. Nodes can also be removed by striking them twice with a pickaxe, which will delete the node and wind the Pipeline back to the previous node. Pipelines are immune to friendly fire.
Pipeline nodes are constructed by holding the [USE] key over a pipeline node, which "builds" the pipeline over the frame and connects it to the next node. This process is repeated until the pipeline is fully constructed up to the Pumpjack itself, marking the Pumpjack as ready to siphon the Liquid Morkite to the Refinery for processing. Once a pipeline connects to the Pumpjack, the pipeline's position is considered permanent and cannot be changed.
The pipelines between nodes, whether they are frames or fully constructed, can be rode upon by standing on top of a Pipeline and pressing the [INTERACT] key. This allows a dwarf to "grind" along the pipeline through a special board which is automatically equipped. While grinding. dwarves will automatically move along the pipe trail at a set speed slightly faster than walking, though they can look around and fire weapons freely. The angle of a pipeline can influence the speed at which a grinding dwarf moves. Grinding along the pipelines provides a significant mobility boost, and as such it may be worth considering placing Pipes in such a way as to build up maximum speed when grinding in one direction. Obstacles on a pipeline (like a crossing Silicate Harvester) can cause the grind movement to abruptly stop. Pipelines that intersect at the same level, however, do not impede grinding.
Pumpjack requests, pipeline node placement, and pipeline construction may all be conducted independently of one another, allowing a team of dwarves to be flexible in their approach to completing the mission. Dwarves are free to focus on one pipeline at a time, or may opt to spread out and build all three at once. A fully constructed pipeline is required for each Morkite Well located in the cave. Once this is achieved, the refining can begin.
Refining Stage[]
Once all three Pipelines are constructed, the Refinery is able to be started up by pressing a button on its control panel. The noise produced by the Refinery will attract Creatures, triggering multiple Swarms to attack the dwarves until the end of the mission (even after the Refinery stops). This segment plays out similarly to other "survival" segments found in gamemodes (such as Salvage Operation and Point Extraction), in which the dwarves must wait for the Refinery to completely process all Morkite siphoned out of the wells. The progress of this period is measured by a percentage UI on the top right of the screen - processing is complete when it reaches 100%.
Occasionally, some of the nodes on at least two Pipelines will leak, interrupting the refining progress. Mission Control will alert the Dwarves when this happens. Despite being called leaks, they will not cause any loss of progress when they happen, and dwarves can take as long as they need to repair them. A leaking pipeline can be identified by the red glow it emits, the liquid spurting out, and the low beeping noise emitted. The Terrain Scanner can also be used to locate which nodes are leaking by the dark red orbs placed along the Pipelines. To repair a pipeline, simply stand over it and hold the [USE] key until it is fixed, but beware that there are often creatures attacking the pipeline (that do not need to be killed for the repair to be successful).
The frequency of the leakages and how many nodes are affected depends on the player count as well as the Hazard Level. With just one or two players, only two pipelines will leak and there will only be a few leaking nodes. With a full team, all three pipelines will leak and will have several broken nodes. The Hazard Level primarily influences how often the pipes break - playing on lower levels will usually only result in two leakages, while higher levels will often cause three.
Pipeline leakages are inevitable and are pre-set to occur at specific intervals during the refining process. The amount of enemies killed does not affect when or where leakages happen. Despite enemies appearing to attack the nodes, this is purely a cosmetic effect to stop players from easily repairing broken nodes.
Extraction Phase[]
After the refining has been completed, the control panel button will activate again. Pressing it will launch the Refinery's Cargo Rocket, completing the primary objective. Unlike the Minehead rocket's return to the Space Rig, there is no countdown timer; the Drop Pod will arrive the moment the Refinery's Rocket leaves the planet. Similar to Point Extraction, dwarves have three minutes to make it inside the Drop Pod.
Enemy Spawning[]
- Main article: Swarm
Enemies can spawn upon mission start, or randomly throughout the mission. Every few minutes, a Swarm will occur, which will be announced by Mission Control, and will cause Dwarves to be attacked by an increased number of enemies. When the refining process starts, the Dwarves will face a single constant Swarm instead of periodic swarms..
Cave[]
Cave generation in On-site Refining missions is similar to those in Point Extraction in terms of structure, being smaller, non-linear and generally spherical with a few small off-shoots which eventually wrap around back to the main cave. The Refinery will land either in the center or the edge of the map, while the Liquid Morkite Wells will spawn in randomized locations. Depending on the Cave Complexity level, the wells will be found in harder-to-reach spots, which will require use of the dwarves' support tools to create a suitable path for the Pipelines. Depending on the Mission Length level, the wells will be found further away from the Mobile Refinery.
Objective and cave length and complexity ideas[]
| Length | Complexity | Objective | Cave Size | Primary Payout | Secondary Payout |
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Tiny | 500 | 250 |
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Small-Medium | 675 | 375 |
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Large | ||
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Small-Medium | ||
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Medium | ||
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Large-Giant | ||
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Large | ||
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Giant-Gigantic | ||
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Refine Liquid Morkite | Absolutely Insane | 3750 | 1680 |
Primary Objective[]
- Locate three Liquid Morkite wells and request a pumpjack on each
- Connect and build pipelines to each pumpjack
- Start the refining process
- Periodically repair damaged pipes
- Summon escape pod
Secondary Objective[]
Unlike all other mission types besides Point Extraction, On-Site Refinery missions feature Dystrum as a possible secondary objective.
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Trivia[]
- The On-Site Refining mission type was added in Update 32: Roughnecks At Work.
- A significantly larger amount of Loot Bugs are spawned during level generation than in other mission types.
- Similar to repairing the Drilldozer on Escort Duty missions, constructing and repairing pipelines uses unique tools instead of the typical hammer used when constructing/repairing objects, including a pipe wrench and an oil can.
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On-site Refining • 
