Games Like Deep Rock Galactic: Mining, Squad Roles and Mission Tradeoffs

The best games like Deep Rock Galactic depend on which part you want back. Choose ASTRONEER for digging and reshaping a world with friends, Helldivers 2 for four-person combat missions and dangerous support weapons, Darktide for first-person class-based horde fighting, or GTFO for carefully planned underground expeditions. None is a complete substitute for DRG's combination of mining, destructible caves and squad combat. Start with the job your crew enjoys, not just the number of enemies on screen.

Official sources and US Steam prices checked October 19, 2026. This is a documented comparison, not a playtest. The table covers Windows Steam versions and base-game purchases; console editions, crossplay combinations and optional extras require separate checks. For the broader directory, see Best Friendslop Games.

A mining job is not just a horde-shooter backdrop

Deep Rock Galactic's official store page combines 1–4-player cooperation, procedurally generated caves, mineral extraction and destructible terrain. Its four classes bring different tools: the Scout has lighting and a grappling hook, the Driller changes routes through terrain, and combat and defensive equipment support the team. Those non-shooting contributions matter when choosing a replacement.

A May 28, 2024 player discussion asks for cooperative alternatives that are not centered entirely on fighting. That is a useful statement of one player's preference, not a survey of all DRG players or proof of another game's features. We checked the candidates against official descriptions instead of treating suggestions as verified mechanics.

Our selection rule: Split your favorite mission into the work and the interruption. Was the work planning a route, reaching a resource or helping somebody navigate, with combat interrupting it? Or was managing enemies the main attraction, with the mining giving everyone a reason to stay together? A recommendation can preserve one half while replacing the other. That is why our list includes a terrain-focused sandbox alongside shooters. Ask each regular player to name one task they would miss if the guns disappeared. If those answers are substantial, do not let a list of cooperative shooters decide for the group before the exploration branch gets considered.

Four alternatives: party size, mode, platform and budget

Prices are US Steam base-game snapshots from October 19, 2026, before tax. Current and regular prices are both shown. All four checked listings offer online cooperation; none lists shared/split-screen co-op. The counts describe the documented arrangements below, not every mod or dedicated-server configuration.

Darktide's four-person mission size is also explicit in Fatshark's April 19, 2024 combat-design article, cross-checked with today's online co-op listing. ASTRONEER's current store advertises 2–4-player cooperation; this table does not claim that number is a universal dedicated-server limit. GTFO's bots do not turn a four-position squad into extra human seats.

ASTRONEER: preserve the terrain work, change the reason to explore

What stays: The official description centers on a Terrain Tool that digs, collects and reshapes the environment. Friends can explore together, gather resources and construct modular bases, including automation and transport infrastructure.

What changes: The shared project is developing and exploring a world, rather than recreating DRG's sequence of hostile mining assignments. There is no promise here of equivalent combat, fixed specialist classes or the same extraction routine. This is ASTRONEER, not the separate STARSEEKER game.

Our fit judgment: Put this first when the Driller's ability to change the route is more exciting to your group than the next swarm. It preserves an important kind of agency: the landscape can become something the group works on, rather than scenery around a fight. The compromise is organizational. A continuing construction project asks the players to agree on what counts as progress and when to stop, instead of relying on a combat assignment to supply the evening's structure. Before buying, propose one concrete group project and ask whether everyone wants to help build it. If half the crew only wants another firefight, a shared shovel is not enough common ground.

Helldivers 2: preserve squad operations, change the toolkit

What stays: The official premise puts up to four players on strategic missions with shared teamwork, customizable equipment and support stratagems. Friendly fire is explicitly part of that premise.

What changes: It is a third-person shooter organized around military objectives, not DRG's first-person mining and cave-navigation tools. Different weapons and support choices are not a one-for-one replacement for Scout, Driller, Engineer and Gunner responsibilities.

Our fit judgment: Choose this branch if your favorite DRG moments are the emergency conversations: who covers whom, when to use a powerful tool, and how not to make a bad situation worse. The shared appeal is coordinating under pressure, not having the same job titles. A player who values being useful without constantly landing shots should inspect the support options rather than assume a favorite mining role transfers intact. The group also needs to agree that mistakes involving friendly fire are part of the evening it wants. “Four players against aliens” describes the cast and opposition; it does not establish that every member will enjoy the new responsibilities.

For a broader comparison of that branch, see the existing games like Helldivers 2 guide.

Darktide: preserve first-person team fighting, emphasize combat roles

What stays: Four people tackle cooperative missions, with classes, ranged weapons and melee combat. Fatshark's design article describes teammates responding to different threats rather than simply producing damage independently. The official store also describes enemies that can incapacitate an isolated player and require help from the team.

What changes: The checked descriptions focus on fighting through Tertium, not digging navigable tunnels or collecting minerals. A class identity here primarily changes how you contribute to a fight; it should not be sold as the return of DRG's terrain-changing jobs.

Our fit judgment: This is the more appropriate shortlist entry for a crew that wants to remain in first person and make coordinated combat its main shared task. Ask whether the group's quieter moments in DRG were welcome exploration or simply the interval before the next encounter. That answer is more useful than counting how many class names both games have. If somebody's favorite contribution was solving a navigation problem with equipment, explain the change before presenting a combat class as an equivalent role. The match is strongest when everyone wants to study threats and protect one another during fights; the mining-oriented member may reasonably prefer the exploration branch instead.

GTFO: preserve expedition dependence, increase the emphasis on planning

What stays: A team descends into an underground facility, chooses equipment, gathers resources and completes expedition objectives. The official description specifies teams of four and bots as a fallback when human teammates are missing.

What changes: Stealth, noise, light and preparation are central to avoiding or surviving encounters. It is presented as cooperative horror, not a promise of DRG's tone or a substitute for destructible mining caves. The ability to fill a seat with a bot is not evidence that every human-party size feels equivalent.

Our fit judgment: Recommend this to friends who specifically want the pre-mission discussion to matter: what each person is bringing, which task they will handle, and what the group will do if a plan breaks. Do not recommend it merely because the corridors are dark. The desired social rhythm is the deciding factor. A crew that enjoys deliberate coordination may welcome the shift, while friends who mostly want to chat through an improvised outing may find that intention mismatched. That is a conditional fit judgment, not a measured difficulty ranking. Talk about willingness to plan and retry rather than promising that a confident DRG player will automatically be comfortable here.

Keep the role you enjoy, not just a four-person headcount

Our group rule: Make a small responsibility list before choosing: navigation, resource work, protection, threat handling and planning. Each person picks the responsibility they most want to keep. Use the official mechanics above to identify which candidate gives that responsibility a meaningful place. This exposes a disagreement that a shared enthusiasm for “co-op” can conceal. If one friend wants to shape the landscape and another wants every decision to be a combat decision, no label will make both priorities identical. Choose an explicit compromise for this session, or keep DRG for the full group and try a different branch with interested friends. Do not disguise splitting the group as preserving its original experience.

Budget four usable seats, then check the extras separately

For four new Windows Steam base-game copies at the checked prices:

• ASTRONEER: 4 × $29.99 = $119.96.
• Helldivers 2: 4 × $39.99 = $159.96.
• Darktide: 4 × $9.99 = $39.96 at the checked sale price; four copies at the listed regular price would be $159.96.
• GTFO: 4 × $39.99 = $159.96.

These are purchase calculations, not estimates of lifetime spending. Tax, hardware, optional DLC, cosmetic purchases, hosted servers and console subscriptions are outside the totals. No membership, bundle or free-weekend access is assumed.

Our budget rule: Use the number of people who actually need a new copy, not the maximum squad size, as the multiplier at checkout. An owner does not need to rebuy the base game just because the rest of the crew is joining. Next, compare that payable total with the kind of session everyone agreed to have. The cheapest table entry is not the cheapest successful evening if somebody buys a combat-focused game expecting collaborative terrain work and stops playing. Treat the sale as a temporary purchasing condition, not as evidence of a stronger mechanical match. Recheck optional content separately instead of silently assuming that the base-game total buys every possible loadout or expansion.

Questions before moving the crew

Which option is closest if I mostly like mining and exploration?

ASTRONEER is the terrain-focused branch here: its official mechanics include digging, shaping, resource collection and construction. It is not a complete DRG replacement because the shared activity changes toward exploration and building rather than the same combat assignments.

Which keeps first-person cooperative shooting?

Darktide keeps first-person team combat with a melee/ranged mix. GTFO emphasizes planned, stealth-conscious expeditions. Neither is recommended here as reproducing the destructible-cave mining system. Helldivers 2 uses a third-person viewpoint instead.

Do these games support four friends on one screen?

The checked Steam listings offer online cooperation and do not list shared/split-screen co-op. Four online seats do not establish four couch seats, and a streaming-to-TV label is not the same as local multiplayer.

Can a missing player be replaced by a bot?

GTFO's official description explicitly documents bots filling missing squad positions. That does not prove the same feature exists in every other game in this table, and it does not guarantee the same experience as four communicating humans.

Our access rule: Confirm the exact gathering, not a generic multiplayer badge: everyone needs a supported device, the intended version and a workable way into the same session. This guide checks Windows Steam access; a console friend changes the question to a specific crossplay combination that must be verified separately. A bot can solve an empty position but cannot satisfy an absent friend's wish to participate. Similarly, an advertised standard co-op count should not be stretched into a promise about modified servers. Keeping these boundaries explicit avoids choosing the right activity and then discovering that the intended crew cannot actually play it together.

Evidence and limits

The linked Steam descriptions and US store data were checked October 19, 2026 for mechanics, platforms, mode labels and prices. Fatshark's dated design article corroborates Darktide's four-person mission structure. The community thread supplies a real preference question, not feature evidence or search-volume data. Comparisons and buying scenarios are our own synthesis; we did not test gameplay, latency, hardware, crossplay, bots or difficulty. No recommendation claims to reproduce every part of Deep Rock Galactic.