Deep Rock Galactic Season 6 Relics of Hoxxes: Everything New Explained

Combat Summary

• Deep Rock Galactic Season 6, titled Relics of Hoxxes, launched on PC on January 29, 2026, and on consoles on February 12, 2026 (Official). It adds a new tomb-like biome, a new mission type, three new creatures, a free Performance Pass, and a paid cosmetic pack. If you only learn one thing before dropping in, learn this: the new mission is about moving a heavy load out of a carved shaft, not about killing everything in the cave.
• The new biome is Ossuary Depths, a burial ground of giant bones. The new mission is Heavy Extraction, in which your team locates a Resinite Mass, digs it out, fits four lift thrusters, carves a path with a laser, and extracts it by orbit. The new creatures are the Ossirans: the flying Ossiran Scrab, the ambushing Ossiran Pit Jaw, and the fleeing Bone Collector.
• The Performance Pass is free, and the paid pack is the Relic Raiders Pack, a set of armor cosmetics. No season end date has been announced by the developers, so this guide does not give one.

What Season 6 actually adds

Season 6 is a content season, not a rework of the core loop. Mining, combat, and promotion progression stay where they were, and the new material sits on top of them. That matters for returning players: you do not need to relearn Deep Rock Galactic to enjoy Relics of Hoxxes, but you do need to learn the new biome, the new mission flow, and the new creatures before your first run goes sideways.

The headline additions are easy to list and harder to master. Ossuary Depths changes how a cave reads at a glance, because bone structures block sight lines and create ambush pockets. Heavy Extraction changes the end of a mission from a sprint to the drop pod into a staged lift operation, with distinct jobs that must happen in order. The Ossirans change target priority, because one of them flees, one of them waits underground, and one of them swarms in numbers. The Performance Pass gives free progression rewards for playing, while the Relic Raiders Pack is purely cosmetic armor for players who want the season look.

For players coming back after a break, the safest first session is one ordinary mission in the new biome, then one Heavy Extraction run with a full team. That order teaches the terrain before it teaches the mission, and it keeps the first lift operation from also being your first look at the new caves.

Ossuary Depths: the new biome

Ossuary Depths is a tomb-styled biome built around oversized skeletal remains. Giant bones arch over tunnels, rib-like structures divide open chambers, and bone piles mark the ground where the new creatures live. Visually it is one of the most distinct biomes in the game, and that distinction has a gameplay cost: it is harder to read at distance than an open cavern, and enemies can use bone cover as well as you can.

Treat the biome as a close-quarters space even when a chamber looks large. Keep lights up, check bone piles before walking past them, and do not assume a clear chamber is an empty chamber. The Pit Jaw, covered below, is built for exactly that mistake. Teams that move as a loose group, with one player watching the rear, will have fewer surprises than teams that scatter to mine every wall at once.

The biome also rewards the usual Deep Rock Galactic habits. Mine the walls you pass, mark minerals for the team, and keep an eye on the cave ceiling, because flying enemies in this biome use height. If you are used to scanning a cave in seconds, slow down here for your first few runs until the bone shapes stop hiding threats from you.

Heavy Extraction: how the new mission works

Heavy Extraction is the centerpiece mission of Season 6. Some coverage outside the official news writes the name as Heavy Excavation, but the official Steam news name is Heavy Extraction, and this guide uses the official name throughout. The job, in order, is: find the Resinite Mass, excavate it, attach four lift thrusters, carve an extraction path with a laser, and lift the mass out by orbit.

The first phase is a search. Move through the cave until you locate the Resinite Mass, clear the immediate area, and set up a defensible position around it. Do not start digging while enemies are still pouring in from an uncleared side tunnel, because the later phases need the whole team in place and the area around the mass becomes the center of the fight.

The second phase is excavation and fitting. Dig the mass free, then fit four lift thrusters to it. This is team work by design: one player digging while the rest hold the perimeter is slower but safer than four players digging while nothing watches the tunnels. Talk about who is on defense before anyone starts fitting thrusters, because a thruster phase interrupted by a swarm costs more time than a planned defense costs in patience.

The third phase is the laser-carved path and the orbital lift. The laser cuts the shaft the mass will travel through, and the extraction itself is the payoff for the work before it. Stay alert during the lift rather than treating it as a cutscene: the mission is not over until the mass is out, and a team that relaxes early is a team that gets caught by a late wave. When the lift completes, move to extraction as a group and leave together.

The Ossirans: three new creatures

The Ossirans are the new creature family of Season 6, and the three members demand three different responses. Learning them separately is the fastest way to stop dying to them.

The Ossiran Scrab is a flying scavenger that appears in groups. Alone, a Scrab is a minor threat. In a group, Scrabs punish a player who stands still, a player who is separated from the team, and a player who is busy mining. Deal with them as a group problem: call them out, focus fire, and do not chase a single Scrab into an uncleared tunnel while the rest of the group is still behind you.

The Ossiran Pit Jaw waits underground and ambushes from below. It is the reason the biome advice above says to check bone piles and to keep moving as a group. A lone player crossing open ground is the ideal target for a Pit Jaw, and a team that spreads out gives it a choice of victims. Keep spacing tight enough that a teammate can respond when a Pit Jaw surfaces, and be ready to move the moment it appears rather than standing your ground on top of it.

The Bone Collector is the odd one out. When discovered, it flees back toward its nest, and chasing it is part of the seasonal event. The Bone Collector belongs to the Ossium Raid seasonal event: track the fleeing creature, follow it to its cache, and claim the crystallized Ossium stored there. Do not treat the Bone Collector as a combat target to kill on sight. Treat it as a trail to follow, and bring the team with you, because the path back to its nest can cross ground you have not cleared yet.

Performance Pass and Relic Raiders Pack

The Season 6 Performance Pass is free. Playing missions earns progress through it, and its rewards are the standard season track for active players. There is no purchase needed to take part in the season content itself: the biome, the mission, and the creatures are part of the season for everyone.

The paid addition is the Relic Raiders Pack, a DLC armor pack. It is cosmetic. It does not change damage, health, mining speed, or mission rewards, and no part of Heavy Extraction or Ossuary Depths requires it. Buy it if you like the look and want to support the season; skip it if you only care about gameplay, because you will miss nothing mechanical by skipping it.

That split is worth stating plainly, because season launches always generate the same confusion. Free pass means progression rewards for playing. Paid armor pack means looks only. Neither one gates the new biome, the new mission, or the new creatures from any player.

What to do on your first Season 6 session

Start with the basics, in this order. First, run one mission in Ossuary Depths without worrying about the new mission type, and learn how the bone terrain hides enemies. Second, run one Heavy Extraction mission with a full team, and assign defense before anyone starts fitting thrusters. Third, practice the Bone Collector chase once, so the Ossium Raid event stops being a surprise and becomes a planned detour.

Common early mistakes are predictable. Teams dig the Resinite Mass before clearing the area, then lose the thruster phase to a swarm they could have prevented. Players chase a single Scrab away from the group and get surrounded. Players treat the Bone Collector as a kill target and lose the trail to its cache. Players buy the Relic Raiders Pack expecting gameplay content and feel misled, when the pack was always armor only. Avoid those four mistakes and your first Season 6 sessions will be smoother than most launch-week runs.

For related seasonal reading, see the Deep Rock Galactic Halloween 2026 event guide, and for the gear system that still governs your builds, see the overclocks guide.

Verification note

Official facts in this guide are the PC launch date of January 29, 2026, the console launch date of February 12, 2026, the Ossuary Depths biome, the Heavy Extraction mission flow of locating and excavating a Resinite Mass, fitting four lift thrusters, laser-carving a path, and orbital extraction, the three Ossirans creatures and their behaviors, the Ossium Raid seasonal event and crystallized Ossium caches, the free Performance Pass, and the Relic Raiders Pack as a paid armor pack. Mission tactics, team roles, and first-session advice are community-tested guidance built on those official facts. No season end date is given, because none has been announced.