DRG Survivor Overclocks — What to Pick at 6, 12 and 18

Author: Verdict Games Editorial Team Last Updated: September 18, 2026

The Bottom Line

Commit to one weapon. Overclocks land at weapon levels 6, 12 and 18, so three weapons at level 5 have none of them while one weapon at level 12 has two. At level 6 take the reliable damage option unless your weapon has a clear magazine or reload problem; at 12 lean into what your build has already become; and at 18 take the Unstable overclock, because a run that reached level 18 is a run that can afford a drawback.

Summary

Overclocks are the real power spikes in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, and they arrive on a fixed schedule — balanced options at weapon level 6 and 12, and a powerful Unstable option at level 18. Everything else you buy is incremental; these are the choices that change how a weapon behaves. This guide covers what to take at each breakpoint, and the single build decision that determines whether you reach them at all.

Who This Is For: Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor players choosing overclocks mid-dive Intermediate

Key Points

Overclocks are chosen at weapon level 6 and 12 (balanced) and at level 18 (a powerful Unstable option).

Only one overclock is active per weapon at a time — the choice replaces rather than stacks.

Spreading shop money across weapons is the most common reason players never see an overclock at all.

Balanced overclocks include straightforward stat picks like A Little More Oomph! (+25% damage, +25% reload) and trade-offs like Bigger Mags (+100% clip size, -10% reload).

Unstable overclocks change how a weapon behaves — Death Spiral gives +200% fire rate and +100% clip size with a spiral firing pattern.

Most of what you buy in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is incremental — a little more damage, a little faster reload. Overclocks are not. They arrive on a fixed schedule and they change what a weapon is, which makes them the three decisions in a dive that are actually worth thinking about.

The breakpoints, and what to take at each

Weapon level	What you get	Default pick	Take something else when
6	A balanced overclock	The clean damage option, such as A Little More Oomph! (+25% damage, +25% reload speed)	Your weapon has an obvious bottleneck. Constant reloading means Bigger Mags (+100% clip size, -10% reload) fixes a real problem
12	A second balanced overclock	Whatever reinforces what your build has already become	You are missing a capability entirely — a damage-type conversion like Acid Dipped Tips can open up enemies you were bouncing off
18	A powerful Unstable overclock	Take it. Reaching level 18 means the dive is going well enough to afford a drawback	Almost never. The drawback is the price of a genuinely run-defining effect

The order matters more than the individual picks. At level 6 you do not yet know what the dive will become, so take the reliable increase. By level 12 you do, so take the option that compounds with it. At level 18 the question is no longer optimisation — it is whether you want the weapon to behave differently, and by then the answer is usually yes.

Only one is active at a time

This is the detail that changes how you should think about the choice. A weapon has several overclocks available to it, but only one is active, based on what you selected at the breakpoint.

You are not collecting overclocks. You are picking the one that defines the weapon for the rest of the dive, and you will pick again at the next breakpoint. That makes the level 6 choice low-stakes and the level 18 choice final.

Overclocks come from weapon levels, not player levels. They are earned by putting shop money and weapon-specific upgrades into one gun.

The decision that determines whether you see any of them

Here is the uncomfortable part: most dives end without a single overclock, and not because of bad luck.

Overclocks sit at weapon levels 6, 12 and 18. If you spend the shop across three weapons, you might finish a five-stage dive with three weapons around level 5 — which is zero overclocks. Spend the same money on one weapon and you finish with that weapon around level 12, holding two.

How you spend	Where you end up	Overclocks held
Evenly across three weapons	Three weapons near level 5	0
Mostly one weapon, a little elsewhere	One weapon near level 12	2
One weapon, committed	One weapon at 18 on a strong run	3, including an Unstable

The pull toward spreading is real — a new weapon feels like more options, and the shop keeps offering interesting things. But in a game where the power spikes are at fixed levels, breadth buys you nothing and depth buys you everything.

Switching to a better weapon mid-dive resets you to the bottom of that weapon's level track. At stage two this usually means arriving at stage five with nothing. The exception is the Tinkerer class mod, whose weapons start at level 3 — the one loadout where a mid-dive pickup is not automatically a setback.

What the tiers actually look like

Balanced overclocks are mostly numeric, often with a trade-off attached. A Little More Oomph! is the archetype — plus 25 percent damage and plus 25 percent reload speed, available on many weapons, with no downside to weigh. Bigger Mags is the other shape: plus 100 percent clip size for minus 10 percent reload speed, which is excellent on a weapon whose problem is running dry and pointless on one that already has a large magazine.

Some balanced picks go further than numbers. Acid Dipped Tips changes the damage type outright, which is less a buff than a different answer to what you are fighting.

Unstable overclocks at level 18 change behaviour:

Death Spiral — plus 200 percent fire rate and plus 100 percent clip size, with a spiral firing pattern
The Favourite — dramatically boosts one weapon's stats while penalising your others
Thick Boy — combines your projectiles into a single powerful shot with bonus range

Notice that all three ask for something back. Death Spiral changes where your bullets go. The Favourite is only correct if you already committed to one weapon — which, if you followed this guide, you did. Thick Boy trades volume of fire for a single heavy projectile, which is a different playstyle rather than a stronger version of yours.

How this connects to your class mod

Two class mods interact with this system directly, and it is worth knowing which.

Tinkerer (Engineer, rank 9) starts weapons at level 3 with plus 10 percent XP gain. Read through the lens of this guide, that is not a stat bonus — it is an overclock timing bonus. It moves level 6 earlier, moves level 12 into reach, and makes level 18 possible on good runs. That is why it tops the class mods tier list.

Interrogator (Driller, rank 9) pushes you toward fire and acid weapons with plus 100 percent status effect damage and minus 30 percent damage. If you take it, your level 12 pick should almost always reinforce status damage rather than raw damage, because raw damage is the half of your kit that the class mod already discounted.

Bringing it together

Three decisions per weapon, at levels 6, 12 and 18. Take the reliable increase first, the build-reinforcing option second, and the Unstable one last — and understand that reaching the second and third depends entirely on a choice you make in the shop rather than on the overclock screen.

Pick one weapon and feed it. Everything else in this system follows from that.

FAQ

At weapon level 6 and 12 you choose from balanced overclocks, and at weapon level 18 you get access to a powerful Unstable overclock. These are weapon levels, not player levels, so they come from putting upgrades into that specific weapon. A dive where you spread purchases across three weapons can end without a single overclock chosen.

A weapon has several overclocks available to it, but only one is active at a time based on what you selected at the breakpoint. The choice replaces rather than stacks, which is why the decision at each level matters more than it looks — you are not collecting overclocks, you are picking the one that defines the weapon for the rest of the dive.

As a default, the straightforward damage option — something like A Little More Oomph!, which gives plus 25 percent damage and plus 25 percent reload speed across many weapons. At level 6 your build has not committed to anything yet, so a clean increase is worth more than a specialisation. The exception is when your weapon has an obvious bottleneck: if you are constantly reloading, Bigger Mags with its plus 100 percent clip size solves a real problem even at minus 10 percent reload speed.

Usually yes, because of when they arrive. Reaching weapon level 18 means the dive is going well and your build is assembled, and that is exactly the situation where a drawback is affordable. Death Spiral, for instance, gives plus 200 percent fire rate and plus 100 percent clip size while changing your firing pattern to a spiral — a real change to how you aim, taken at the point where your damage is already established.

Rarely. A new weapon starts far behind on levels, and the levels are what unlock overclocks. Switching at stage two usually means arriving at stage five with two weapons that never reached level 6. The exception is the Tinkerer class mod, whose weapons start at level 3 — it is the one loadout where picking up something new is not automatically a setback.

Both, depending on the tier. Balanced overclocks at level 6 and 12 are mostly numeric with trade-offs, though some change damage type entirely — Acid Dipped Tips is an example. Unstable overclocks at level 18 tend to change behaviour: Thick Boy combines your projectiles into a single powerful shot with bonus range, which is a different weapon rather than a stronger one.

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