maybe they brought some kind of nuclear armament, and what remains is the Exclusion Zone, the Glacial Strata is that part of the planet that got blown off, and the Magma Core got exposed because of it
@@dencilm5888 drg probably nuked the area that karl died at from anger and sadness. to avenge karl, if you will. because whatever was dangerous enough to put karl on his knees, must have been too dangerous to be left alive
My two personal theories for the identity of Karl are 1. Karl is both a real individual, and term used by the miners of DRG referring to the dwarves who met their ends in the depths of Hoxxes, calling upon them with the name of a legendary hero as a way of honoring their bravery 2. Karl met his end pickaxing a fully-developed Dreadnaught to death, because that’s badass
I feel like Karl is the subject of many tall tales, sometimes literally after all, haven't you heard? He's as tall as a man, strong as rock, and beat the glyphid queen to death with his bare hands and a pickaxe
Imagine if you find him, after a set of assignments (or a special deep dive), a new part of the map opens up and karl becomes an npc you can interact with. Perhaps he would give you exclusive cosmetics or become a new gameplay feature
Calling it, this game will have an entire storyline with a comic akin to TF2 after the "Soldier vs Demoman" update, without the corporate greed destroying it part.
would be nice but not on multiplayer, as most of end-game players would just unlock and use that 5th class everytime, making it as common as other classes and make superior Karl as common as other dwarfs
If they were to make a 5th dwarf, they have to make a melee class. I imagine Karl wielding two pickaxes with a very fast swing speed, slightly faster, and slight jump height. His grenades can be all rechargeable throwable items that can mark enemies when it hits them with a overclock of taming a creature when hit with a certain throwable, making Karl the only class that can have two bugs tamed. His maneuver weapon/ability would just be his ability to climb and scale any wall by using both his pickaxes to scale a wall. His class can also gain an 100% additional effect from drinking beer.
"Die like your mother did!" that quote is played whenever you kill a Glyphid with a pickaxe and that's the quote that really got me thinking. Karl would have had to do something incredible to be the icon he is today and the Glyphid being an insect species it wouldn't be too far fetched to say they had a queen at one point, a queen that Karl killed with his pixace. That's my theory.
Same theory too, it wasn't mentioned in the video.. What if he did destroy the queen (or A queen) to the knowledge of the dwarves but disappeared in an explosion. His favourite biome is littered with explosive flora after all. They must have another queen or numerous queens for there to still be so many creatures. Maybe those machines had something to do with it??
Personally, I like the idea that Karl isn't actually some legendary hero who died in a badass way, but actually he was just a regular miner exactly like the ones you play as, but in one way or another he died and his body was left on Hoxxes, and the other miners now all swear to never leave another dwarf behind.
Karl is a bulk detonator that the dwarves were able to tame. They had to leave him behind due to the no glyphid policy for the space rig. Now he haunts the caves as the ghost bulk detonator on haunted missions.
This is the only game that I have played where the only bad memories are when we leave a dwarf behind. I think this story of Karl is exactly what has made this game’s community so strong.
During a deep dive to Black Crag, the dwarves encountered the Glyphid Queen. After drinking 50 Pints of Skull Crusher Ale, Karl held her back with nothing but a pickaxe as his friends escaped. The last thing the dwarves saw before the Drop Pod left, was Karl making the killing blow that sent a huge chunk of Hoxxes into orbit. Karl was never seen again.
Never seen again? thats cause he made an emergency droppod out of the Glyphid queens shell and dropped to his homebase on Hoxxes 3 (which he mined alone before DRG corp arrived)
I believe that Karl is still fighting down there. But one thing I would like to know about Carl is what class he was. Was he a gunner? Or maybe a driller? Engineer maybe. Scout possibly.
You forgot the most important part about Karl. He is the one who killed the mother of all bugs, it's thanks to him we even stand a chance against the horde!
Maybe gotta think something big gets mad when you steal eggs the big screech afterwards warrants that the queen .ay have survived or there might have been more than one
@@mightiaskwhy5926 this would help my theory that he was a melee focused dwarf and that's why the beer that caused his downfall gives you more melee damage
Not exactly ecstatic, I’d argue more frantic and panicked, as if though he knows that the realisation of Karl’s whereabouts is slowly slipping from his mind, as the drink wears off and he forgets what he was even talking about :0
I have a theory. Those new Rival Nemesis robots have either voice recordings or voice synthesized audio lines of a dwarf in need of help or having found something. What if Karl had been captured by the rival company? What if they now prey upon his comrades with recorded lines from his distress hoping that it would illicit both panic and frantic behavior in nearby dwarves who’d try to save him.
I had a slightly different idea just before watching the video. In addition to your point about the idle voice lines mimic voice lines of the dwarves, the death voice lines are spoken in the same voice but are entirely new, such as "I feel so cold" or "Why is it so dark?" The only way I can really think of those lines being on there is if they were recorded by a dwarf. What if Karl's bitter about being left behind, and all this time of isolation on such a harsh planet led Karl to join up with the Rivals when they got to the planet and found him.
@@samoclese6435 If the lines of the Nemesis are Karl, than that makes the "I thought we were friends" death line much more saddening. What if that was one of Karl's last words before the pod left him behind?
all while either torturing him for info on DRG, or pulling that thing from clone wars and hooking him up to something to essentially give all their robots a vet miner's knowledge base and lived in skillset. that is horrific and i love it.
@@samoclese6435 nah, many of the death lines are famous quotes said specifically by robots, including Roy Batty's death monolog from _Blade Runner_ They're jokes that the big evil robot was actually a sentient being capable of feeling, and you just murdered it. The rest of the voice lines are distorted versions of in-game quotes, or full on murder robot lines. It's a fun theory, but the clear implication is that the Rivals recorded the dwarves' in-game voice lines during in Season 1, made a sentient AI that would mimic their voices and try to kill them, and then sent them out in Season 2.
My favorite Karl theory: Karl is responsible for the huge chunk of the crust of Hoxxes that has separated from the larger mass. He somehow did it using explosives in a battle with a Glyphid queen.
Wait, I just hit player level 80, and under the Black Crag + Gloomstalker Mask Mk3 reward, there is a line of text that says "Black Crag - That place we no longer speak of, but all carry in our hearts. Honour. Courage. Death." Karl?
maybe karl's pure badassery was too powerful for Black Crag and that's the huge section of the planet that's blown off, Hoxxes just couldn't handle Karl
I'm positive Karl is still in Hollow Bough, on very rare occasions in Hollow Bough, you can find these small dug up spaces of wood, it is not smooth like a cave, but rough, like it was mined with a pickaxe.
ive actualy seen one of those on a point extraction, looked like a little hut, too smooth to be player made, like it was made by someone with more time/skill than the players
found one as well. it was like a small, cylindrical pit that opened out at the bottom. there was nothing down there but two errant chunks of red sugar. had to weather a swarm down there, praetorian clouds were only just avoided. unfortunately, I had to ruin the cylindrical hole in order to gain purchase to get out as I'm an engi main.
@@wardenkarn1664 him returning alive seems unlikely but then again karl is a badass so him probably being some glyphoidion Rambo whould be an interesting image to see
My favorite theory is that Karl stayed behind to take on a Glyphid Queen for his team to escape. Not even the playable dwarves, but simply an unrelated group. He was so well known within the company, everyone regarded him as a friend. His fate is unknown, we have no body of his.
For me Karl is the promoted and high level dwarf that helps new players with their missions. He always comes back for you when you go down and always gives a "Rock and Stone!" when you get back to the drop pod. But he inevitably disappears when the mission is over. Eventually we also become Karl and help new players when we become experts in the game. Helping those in memory of those who helped us.
holy shit then karl is a propaganda. Management knows Karl is alive. When the entire team go down, Karl is sent to their locations to help retrieve them back into the mining pod, hence why we end up in the sick bay each time. Maybe Karl is just left down on Hoxxes because he got some debt to pay, and it's a long debt.
I know this is out there, but I love to imagine that Karl was presumed dead after being left behind on a mission, but is actually still alive down there on Hoxxes. He's established an enclave of left-behind Bosco and BET-C units and continues to thrive down there to this day, the Lost King of Hoxxes.
My theory is that he's the reason that Hoxxes has a giant hole on its side. Skull Crusher Ale's description says that it was a part of what made Karl so legendary. Skull Crusher Ale increases your pickaxe damage, which means that it is entirely possible that Karl chugged like 20 thousand of them and smashed Hoxxes in half. He wouldn't have passed out from the drunkenness, because he is known to also have been a legendary drinker who could withstand just about any amount of beer. He might have been part of the only operation that DRG sent to explore the core, but the drop pod was destroyed by creatures far more dangerous than what we see, and DRG was forced to leave Karl behind.
One theory I've heard get tossed around that I didn't hear in the video was that Karl sacrificed himself in taking down some sort of Glyphid Queen, referring to the "Die like your mother did!" voiceline I believe GSG has already stated they don't want to actually add a proper queen into the game, so who knows
Aye, 'tis true that I knew Karl, but only barely. I was there, on the Space Rig, on that fateful day. The day we lost Karl. Have ye ever noticed how there's a big chunk of Hoxxes just floating there in space? Thanks to all his favorite brew, Skull Crusher ale, 'twas by Karl's mighty pickaxe he split Hoxxes in twain! Karl was part of the security detail escorting the survey team at the time. Keeping mind, this was in the early days! This was before we got that newfangled restitution-machinery in the med at and such! It seemed like a regular routine mission, with a few stray bugs here and there. But then all of a sudden, they were swarmed! It was almost like the beasts had been waiting to ambush the poor blokes! Karl and the others bravely stood their ground, until... She arrived! The Glyphid Queen herself attacked the group, but Karl was able to keep her at bay just long enough for the rest of the team to make good their escape. "I'll hold her off brothers, but this is good-bye!" he cried. The last thing we saw was Karl swinging his pickaxe into the Queens jaw with all of his might! That's when the very ground shook and we were forced to take off! We all mourned Karl that day, and haven't stopped since! He truly was the greatest of us. We never recovered Karl's body. Some true believers say he's still alive down there, somehow. Most of us have lost hope. We never recovered the body of the Queen either... Some say she's retreated to the depths. Waiting, watching, plotting her revenge... They say a dwarf dies twice. Once when his heart stops beating, and again when he's forgotten. As long as we remember him and tell his story, he will live on forever! ROCK & STONE
this theory is actualy quiet accurate... there is an existing in-game model for an acid spitter queen and it spawns in a lot of acid spitters... i think there are videos on yt
There's a theory that Karl was a "Generic Hero", not in the sense that he was a literal generic hero of his day though. Back in the early builds of DRG, there was a Dev class known as "Generic Hero", which was equipped with every Class weapon and tool for testing purposes primarily. However, the existence of Generic Hero's concept lends credence to the idea that Karl's effectiveness as a Miner could be attributed to such feats hypothetically.
there's a cut dwarf voice line saying "Don't leave me like you left karl!", the string can still be found but I swear I heard it in-game... I just can't seem to find it anymore.
Jeez that's exactly what they've done to Kerrigan in Starcraft II - left her alone on a mission. I wonder if Karl went deeper into the planet than anyone ever before and found out something, that he shouldn't have, and then was left alone to his death by the management. Then they probably came up with some heroic story on how Karl died to tell it to other dwarfs.
@@maxgrouch9706 why do I have a feeling that thing he shouldn’t have found was something like a DRG glyphid incubator to kill the dwarves? Idk just speculation
I like to think Karl hasn’t died because dwarfs never die. He’s still down there and I like to think he tamed a swarm of bugs and rides a dreadnought to battle.
*"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts. And I looked, and behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed him."*
This is a quote combining half of verses 6 and 8 from revelation chapter 6 of the Bible, can i ask why you took and combined these verses and then decided to comment them here?
@@flowepower3000 It's also the last spoken line after a Johnny Cash song. ( 'The Man comes around' to be specific.)That's where I recognized it from. (since it's two separate verses.) Edit: link ua-cam.com/video/jifaNxq7IG8/v-deo.html
Imagine in Season Four, there’s a new mission called Search and Rescue, basically Salvage but you have to find a lost dwarf instead of mini mules. Mission completion voicelines like “We’ll find you Karl!”.
@@vejaskunigelis1263 how would it ruin the atmosphere or vibe, also it makes sense, who knows how many dwarves have been left behind or failed to get to the drop pod, and maybe their suit sensors can be seen by mission control every so often or there can generally be high hopes that a dwarf who was left behind is alive and they send you to rescue them etc the only way itd ruin the vibe is if the dwarf you find can shoot and make it so you have a 5th dwarf which is obviously not meant to be, but they can just make him unarmed (since they lost their gear, and the players cant lend theirs) or something
@@vejaskunigelis1263how would it be hard to program? As far as I know you could take the mini mules search and replace the mini mules with the dwarf, which could just be a model of the first version of any of the classes. As well, you have the dwarf act like bosco where it will follow you and help you mine, but couldn’t help you in fighting, like a protect NPC in an open world rpg game. The hard part would be getting voice acting.
I'd like to think that sometimes instead of a dwarf it turns out being a skeleton, and then the completion for the primary objective ends right there and you can call the drop pod.
@@xjammy3315I sort of agree that it ruins the atmosphere But I kind of like the idea, only instead of the awake Dwarf following you, it's a knocked out dwarf the team has to carry on the shoulder all the way to the drop pod (a la Doretta head style)+(maybe get the drop pod near or give extended time for the mission) That would also work for the humor of the game Imagine the laughs of throwing a knocked out dwarf at each other 😅
@@Germinator08 ikr? Also can you imagine if Karl could just appear in missions like the mysterious stranger from fallout? Imagine a pissed off dwarf just stage diving one of your objectives when you aren't looking. Like a Dreadnought egg on the other side of the map is just completed out of nowhere, with just destruction left behind. Dwarves never die.
@@TheTrashman9 imagine if during a deep dive your objective is to retrieve all the missing parts that karl died with during a mission And all the while you were being haunted by Karl's ghost
@@TheTrashman9 Imagine mission control announces a swarm/dread and before it hits he congratulates you for killing them so fast of gets confused as blips just vanish nowhere near you. Hell even finding caverns with green blood and scorch marks everywhere would be cool.
There are lines about how it would be really bad if any of the Dreadnoaughts managed to develope past larval stage, but we never see any of these beasts, almost as if they were killed off. There's also the line "Die like your mother did". And the distant roars that echo through the caverns when you seperate an egg from it's incubation during egg missions. My theory is that Karl straight up sacrificed himself to kill the Glyphid Queen.
to add to the theory, the glyphid eggs we steal cant be for regular glyphids as there arent enough, they arent for dreadnoughts cause the organic material surrounding it is not blue and the egg is smaller. the eggs we steal, with no information as to why they are wanted (even management doesnt know) are most likely glyphid queen candidate eggs.
@@petrusv8752 There is actually an implication that the Glyphid eggs are used for omelets in the cafeteria. It's also possible that we only see different stages of egg development, with the colors shifting from pink and green to blue and brownish-red, almost like the ripening of fruit. Although, one counterargument to this would be the cluster sizes. Dreadnought eggs come in a range of around 1-3, whereas the delivery eggs come in groups around 4-6. Perhaps the green eggs are for Praetorians.
@@arvidhansen5892 That would actually make the most sense, since typically breaking open an egg before it fully develops would just kill the creature inside, but we see that dreadnoughts do just fine after being forced out
I hope Karl is still down there alive, just like some powerful dwarf mining hermit. Waiting for the day his brothers eventually find him and bring him back. Rock and Stone
I once overheard an old beard at the bar speak of Karl. Said something about how hes down there making something of an army with all the lost BET-C's DRG has left abandoned down there, taking the fight to the bugs as he marches toward the core. Just a rumor im afraid, but i wouldn't put it past him.
@@windbeneathmywings4884 I'm really curious who the bet-c dives with. I'm no greenbeard and I've never had one go down with me. So who do they go with ?
@@niuskay2nd590 Well for food, he does have the bugs, I bet you can so something with that. And for water he could just melt the ice and purify the water in the glacial strata. Am could be found in lost packs or he could have an improvised bow made from materials in other biomes. On paper, he could have everything he needs to survive, it's just a question of "is it enough?"
I always interpreted "all beat your record this time" as being about Karl. My personal theory is that Karl was an early member of DRG who went back to save a teammate but didn't get back to the shuttle. Considering what a bad ass he is, I could see him still being alive somewhere on the planet, especially considering how many materials are left behind by the Dwarves and Rival tech.
I kinda wish there was a theory that the mission control announcer guy was one of Karls friends and when he returned from a mission once without Karl. He decided to make a more permanent version of the smart stout... in order to forget the pain of loosing his friend. The reason for his grumpy behaviour being the fact that Karl was just like the rest of the dwarfs and always liked to mess around with not only the mission control and other staff that doesn't work on-field, but also to kill time, while waiting for a new mission.
I'm betting he was the first dwarf to start his own underground Burger King and when getting trapped on the planet he went on to create delicious Burger King meals for other dwarfs left behind. He's living his dreams out there on Hoxxes.
or even better and lore friendly, and dont fuck up the cuntinuity to maybe retrieve his remains with a plot twist at the end? (some random ideas like he was the one who after getting lost found the rival-incursion guys, or he was behind it or idk, really anything alond these lines would be nice)
I absolutely love little lore bits like this. Things that are referenced in the background but aren't ever officially explained. Leads to a lot of interesting community discussion
a small detail you left out is that, rarely, you can find small bunkers carved into the rock with a few red sugar crystals lying inside, suggesting somebody is still 'living rent free' in Hoxxes. As well, the Glyphids are seemingly scattered, as they wander around in swarms, and the dwarves say "die like ya motha did!" when they kill a glyphid with their pickaxe
Another one for that propaganda one; there is a deposit voice line that is along the lines of “I swear I’ll beat your record this time” which would fit the idea that Karl gained fame by doing unnatural amounts of mining, since no matter how many things the player mines they will still say that line
I love to think that Karl was a Steeve, maybe the first. The mining team refused to let him go and brought him on the space rig, much to management's annoyance (hence why there aren't any bugs allowed on the space rig). I would imagine the dwarves would give Karl beer, like the slayer stout, making him incredibly powerful. Also it sort-of explains how dwarves under the effects of smart stout know where he is, because he would still have the instincts of other bugs and could possibly be tracked following stuff like migration patterns and he would survive much longer than dwarves being an inhabitant of Hoxxes.
My most desired theory is that Karl is alive, and eats Glyphid omelets to keep himself going, and that we'll be able to start hunting him down in rescue missions. They would always turn up fruitless of course, but the Interplanetary Miners Union demands that DRG start searching for survivors, Karl included. This is a close second.
I've wondered if Karl came before Steeve too! Wondered if the first bond was the strongest. That losing him was the hardest. That Steeving is different, is less ...
Imagine a future season comes along, and Karl returns from Hoxxes alive. He doesn’t appear in-game, but the intel he brought back tells of a great threat, perhaps a fully developed dreadnaught hiding in the depths
I feel like Karl is a dwarf because if you look at the memorial hall there are 5 dwarfs. Scout, Driller, Engineer, and Gunner, then theres a 5th one that looks like the scout but has the engineer shotgun. Back in early versions of the game there was a 5th dwarf for the devs that had all the equipment that the dwarves had. This dwarf had everything but then they stopped using it after a while. I have a feeling that when they stopped using this dwarf who might be named a Karl they added in the voice lines for the dwarvs remembering Karl. Then also the random lost mining gear you find in caves that has cosmetics, Karl had drip and I feel like this lost mining gear was stuff he had. It all makes sence that Karl was a dev tool and the fact he was such a great worker was probably from having access to everyones gear. Just my own theory tho.
Interesting theory, but doesn't seem very plausible. I don't think it's very likely that the devs added a voice line specifically for this dev-dwarf they used for testing purposes or whatnot, they likely just had the voice lines made on the spot and it ended up being turned into a whole thing
I really like the mystery and legend of Karl, what few pieces we do have. I hope that the devs expand on it, but also that the mystery is never "solved". Karl is just this amazing super-dwarf somewhere on Hoxxes, probably making beer out of dreadnaught piss and breeder eggs. Edit: Maybe Karl is why we find beer materials growing all over the different biomes
We hear the same question often repeated: "Who was Karl?", "What happened to him?", "What did he do?". We ought not remember Karl for who he was nor for what he accomplished. As that would not be like him. Nor should we ever remember the fallen for their fall. We ought to remember Karl for what he stood for.
Actually I have some things to say about Karl Being Mission Control My theory is that Karl was indeed lost for a while but was recovered by the higher ups and was rapidly promoted for his efficiency. Karl was overjoyed about this and would want to tell the rest, but seeing how much his "Death" changed Deep Rock for the better. He made the tough decision of dawning a façade. The higher ups agree it's better for their image (Both Karl and Deep Rock's). He actively tells the group off for goofing around the station (Maybe afraid that they'll grow reckless and end up like him) He never grows to despise the group despite them showing a disliking to Mission Control. He gets a bit worried when a swarm arrives. He gives speeches for the crew when they get promotions (He's really proud). He sounds morel like a parent scolding their child when barrels are kicked around. The reason they don't recognize Karl is mixture of a few things. 1. They think Karl has been long dead, so no point in asking 2. The radio causes enough distortion for his voice to sound different enough. 3. Karl is speaking differently. Of course all just hypothesizing. It's a lot more likely that Karl is just some fake dude that they made up so the dwarves feel like they have something worth fighting for.
6:10 here's what I think happened: Karl and his team were strapped for ammo and were making their way through extraction. His team was in danger of being killed, so he decided to stay behind on purpose to fight off the glyphids for as long as he could to buy the rest of his crew time to escape
Imo Karl was one of the first dwarves to dive into hoxxies (in this theory im assuming DRG existed pretty much as we know it before going to hoxxies), on one of the early missions him and his team encounter a fully grown dreadnaught (or possibly a gliphid queen) Karl after a few skull crusher ales managed to defeat the colossal threat in melee combat, buying his team time to escape but in so doing sacrificed himself. As for how the playable dwarves know Karl i dont think they actually met him, but instead heard stories from older dwarves about him and his exploits. this would explain the idealised view the dwarves have of him, as well as his position as somewhat of a folk hero among the dwarves. the reason i dont think the dwarves were present for Karls exploits is the deep dive description "This is the kind of place *they say* we lost Karl" the uncertainty here subjects that the dwarves (who seem to be the ones passing comment on the biomes in the descriptions from their more casual tone) only heard of Karls' story rather than witnessing it themselves.
I would love a story assignement in drg where we meet the dwarves that were with karl during his final mission like one was a new employee when it happened and now is obsessed with finding him like hes his idol, one of them quit drg after the incident and now drinks till hes k.o to cope with the lost of Karl (he was his best friend) and the others i dunno
Karl probs thought the buff beers stacked and drank like 10 and went alone on a elimination and never came back making drg require to let you know they don't stack
The theory I like the most is on a mission down to hollow bough Karl stumbled upon an odd cave. Non of the dwarves had ever seen any cave like it. It looked like a sort of nest that was big enough to be it’s own separate cave system. The others remained focused on the mission first while Karl being a legend decided to go into the cave to see if he could discover what made it so odd looking. Little did he know he was about to change missions (and hoxxes) forever causing dwarves to have to arm themselves like it was D-day if they wanted to survive a mission. Upon entering he discovers a glyphid that was just absolutely huge! We’re talking bigger then a caretaker or any dreadnought you’ve ever scene. Maybe even as big as the space rig itself. The brood mother. She was not happy to see an invader in her nest. She began to hunt Karl down like a blood hound. Karl ran as fast as he can firing back whenever he had an extra second or two to spare. He ran back to the others while shouting “CALL IN THE DROP POD!!!” The others scared out of their minds wondering why a legend like Karl would be so scared to want to call the drop pod early. Without a second thought scout relayed a message to mission control (using his AR headset) telling mission control to send down the drop pod. Mission control at first said not until the mission is done but then he heard the brood mother roaring in the back ground. Without thinking twice he immediately ordered an emergency drop pod to be sent at once for immediate evacuation. Karl regrouped with the others and they began taking turns hitting the brood mother where it hurts. After about four minutes the drop pod finally arrives. First driller gets to the drop pod. Then engineer after packing his shit in. Then gunner starts firing on the brood mother while getting in the drop pod. Gunner yells to scout and Karl to get in. Karl sees that the brood mother is getting weak but scout doesn’t. Karl continues to fight right as a swarm of almost every glyphid and mactera you’ve ever scene arrives. Thousands of them coming in through the ceiling begin to swarm to Karl. Scout gets scared and grapples to the drop pod and lands against the others. When scout comes to a few seconds after he sees Karl beginning to run out of bullets. Scouts shouts to Karl to get to the drop pod but Karl refuses. He knows he can kill the brood mother. After about 10 seconds the drop pod starts getting attacked by glyphids and they begin to damage it. Mission control sees that they can’t leave the pod there any longer and pulls the four out of there… leaving Karl behind. Right as the exterior door begins to close scout sees Karl wind up his pickaxe to finish her off and right when he connects there’s a large explosion. And right before the door fully shuts something of Karl’s flys through the grate hitting scout in the face. A single gold chunk said to be used in making the gold pickaxe in his statue. Scout is traumatized by what he saw which is why he’s more scared when diving into a mission then the others. They were still knocked out from scout hitting them so they never saw what happened. After the death of the brood mother the glyphids become more and more hostile after most of them being awoken from there slumber. Forcing dwarves to better arm themselves with advanced and unstable weaponry. Hoxxes would never be the same. With the body never being found due to a cave in which was caused by the explosion there’s no telling if Karl is alive or dead. His armour was said to be the toughest amour in existence being capable of withstanding just about anything. Allowing him to go toe to toe with bulks even. With this said he could still be alive. At times in various caves if you’re lucky enough you can find pieces of scarp that Karl may have used to try and survive down there. Maybe he’s still in the nest. But may he forever be in our hearts.
Aye, 'tis true that I knew Karl, but only barely. I was there, on the Space Rig, on that fateful day. The day we lost Karl. Have ye ever noticed how there's a big chunk of Hoxxes just floating there in space? Thanks to all his favorite brew, Skull Crusher ale, 'twas by Karl's mighty pickaxe he split Hoxxes in twain! Karl was part of the security detail escorting the survey team at the time. Keeping mind, this was in the early days! This was before we got that newfangled restitution-machinery in the med at and such! It seemed like a regular routine mission, with a few stray bugs here and there. But then all of a sudden, they were swarmed! It was almost like the beasts had been waiting to ambush the poor blokes! Karl and the others bravely stood their ground, until... She arrived! The Glyphid Queen herself attacked the group, but Karl was able to keep her at bay just long enough for the rest of the team to make good their escape. "I'll hold her off brothers, but this is good-bye!" he cried. The last thing we saw was Karl swinging his pickaxe into the Queens jaw with all of his might! That's when the very ground shook and we were forced to take off! We all mourned Karl that day, and haven't stopped since! He truly was the greatest of us. We never recovered Karl's body. Some true believers say he's still alive down there, somehow. Most of us have lost hope. We never recovered the body of the Queen either... Some say she's retreated to the depths. Waiting, watching, plotting her revenge... They say a dwarf dies twice. Once when his heart stops beating, and again when he's forgotten. As long as we remember him and tell his story, he will live on forever! ROCK & STONE
OH SHIT I just remembered the dwarves do yell “Die like your mother did!” which REALLY could mean Karl met his fate killing *the* queen, I always just imagined it like ant colonies with multiple queens. Hoxxes is a full planet so that queen must’ve been Godzilla-sized. Maybe one day we’ll get a DLC to re-live Karl’s final mission, some sort of nuke escort followed by a last stand.
My theory is that Karl is the reason that Hoxxes has a giant hole on its side. Skull Crusher Ale's description says that it was a part of what made Karl so legendary. Skull Crusher Ale increases your pickaxe damage, which means that it is entirely possible that Karl chugged like 20 thousand of them and smashed Hoxxes in half. He wouldn't have passed out from the drunkenness, because he is known to also have been a legendary drinker who could withstand just about any amount of beer. He might have been part of the only operation that DRG sent to explore the core, but the drop pod was destroyed by creatures far more dangerous than what we see, and DRG was forced to leave Karl behind.
I hope they start adding little things to the missions to hint at him recently being there, maybe a couple already dead bugs and a camp site, or even little footprints.
@@spectralaria8648 Na it should be a sad ending, where he dies, or something similar, to save your team, so every time your dwarves mention him, it's sad
@@sketchpad7116 maybe he sacrifices himself by exploding a nuke on the (previous) biggest bug infestation on the planet (maybe a massive nest) and have it be revealed that that said infestation later became the massive chunk of rock that exploded from hoxxes.
I think Karl was the first ever dwarf who died or got left behind on Hoxxes, sacrificing himself for his team as they barely made it away from the unknown danger in the caves, and he is the dwarf in the middle of the hall of remembrance.
I personally think it would be really cool of the devs were to implement a giant community event where some sort of queen or fully developed dreadnought had to be fought and the just went wild for the max player count, like 50 or something for that mission and the last phase of the boss you have to use the pickaxe to break its shell or something but then there is a massive wave of damage but you hear a very distinct "ROCK AND STONE" and Karl pops out of the depths to deliver the final blow
what makes you think the game can support up to 50 simultaneous players? heck even 10 players are too much. the idea sounds kinda cheesy and breaks the whole mystery surrounding Karl.
My theory is that Karl went back to save his team, only to have the extraction pod slam its door shut before he could get on himself. So no one actually saw him die, but management left him behind.
My theory has always been the Karl was part of one of the first missions, and that he killed the Glyphyd Queen. The line "Die like your mother did" seems to confirm that she's dead, and Karl being the one who killed her in a self-sacrifice, maybe with an antimatter bomb that ripped off a chunk of Hoxxes, is too cool not to believe. Maybe he survived, maybe he didn't - and the Dwarves raise their pickaxes so in the off-chance that Karl hears their voices echoing through the caves, he may finally find a way home.
I'd like to imagine he was just a normal ass dwarf that enlisted, and ended up blowing a chunk off of Hoxxes IV out of sheer force of will while fighting some huge monster
Aye, 'tis true that I knew Karl, but only barely. I was there, on the Space Rig, on that fateful day. The day we lost Karl. Have ye ever noticed how there's a big chunk of Hoxxes just floating there in space? Thanks to all his favorite brew, Skull Crusher ale, 'twas by Karl's mighty pickaxe he split Hoxxes in twain! Karl was part of the security detail escorting the survey team at the time. Keeping mind, this was in the early days! This was before we got that newfangled restitution-machinery in the med at and such! It seemed like a regular routine mission, with a few stray bugs here and there. But then all of a sudden, they were swarmed! It was almost like the beasts had been waiting to ambush the poor blokes! Karl and the others bravely stood their ground, until... She arrived! The Glyphid Queen herself attacked the group, but Karl was able to keep her at bay just long enough for the rest of the team to make good their escape. "I'll hold her off brothers, but this is good-bye!" he cried. The last thing we saw was Karl swinging his pickaxe into the Queens jaw with all of his might! That's when the very ground shook and we were forced to take off! We all mourned Karl that day, and haven't stopped since! He truly was the greatest of us. We never recovered Karl's body. Some true believers say he's still alive down there, somehow. Most of us have lost hope. We never recovered the body of the Queen either... Some say she's retreated to the depths. Waiting, watching, plotting her revenge... They say a dwarf dies twice. Once when his heart stops beating, and again when he's forgotten. As long as we remember him and tell his story, he will live on forever! ROCK & STONE
Skull Crusher Ale's description says that it was part of what made Karl so legendary, and it increases your pickaxe damage, so it's entirely possible that Karl chugged like 20 thousand of them and smashed Hoxxes in half.
Had a deep dive in the salt pits that read "Leave no dwarf behind." stems from this biome. So if Karl really was the first on Hoxxes AND the first to be left behind (though not very presumable), his last known location would be there.
I'd like to think that Karl is still alive and is now basically wandering through the caverns of Hoxxes, living off of the carcasses of dead creatures and plants and having adopted a couple Glyphids as pets. Maybe he tamed a dreadnought and is using it as a sort of horse that can dig. Would honestly be in line with his description.
I think that Karl is the statue in the center of the memorial hall. He is obviously a fallen dwarf, but in the list of fallen dwarves, the closest thing to his name is Karl9, who is obviously a player. As he is a pretty epic dwarf, the reason he isn't on the list may be because they built him a statue instead.
Perhaps Karl wasn't some legendary dwarf, but simply a good friend of everyone at DRG, and met his end in Hoxxes. And everyone does what they're doing for him.
I would LOVE if somehow Karl was still alive down there in Hoxxes' core. Maybe in the future the devs could leave salvaged encampment remains and clues about Karl's whereabouts in new biomes to give clues about his story
0:28 just in case any of the younger people watching wanna know, most schools lie and say we don’t know what happened to her that’s not true. They found her body getting eaten by crabs on some beach. She most definitly died in a crash.
Def one of my favorites you've made so far! I love it when games take a small piece of lore and keep it open ended so it can grow as a legend. Also I'm all for more brief history lessons with sniss.
Great video man! ROCK AND STONE! I have a feeling that Karl may have played a mentoring role to the playable dwarves when they first started diving into Hoxxes IV. I bet he was, like you said in the video, part of (and maybe the last of) the first teams that went down there. They looked up to him and his skill and in turn he got more and more confidant in showing off during missions, as you do as a dwarf with all the sick moves. That's what led to the unfortunate Skull Crusher Ale incident. He bit off a bit more than he could chew and got swamped during an escape sequence. I don't think they would willingly leave him behind but when that timer runs out, not even Karl got an exception. "No Dwarf Left Behind" and the constant toasts are a reminder to never let that happen again. If management wont wait for us than we get each other back one way or another, like Karl would have wanted! My little added theory is that Karl was a Gunner and the player character in the tutorial is the recent replacement for Karl's former team.
Karl is the lost miner, change my mind. No one else could justify leaving behind so much gear in every damn cave on the planet, or could be so legendary to just be leaving cosmetics on the ground.
Theory: Karl was a friend of the DEVs who never believed the game would be finished and hence avoided getting involved in game development. Or has passed away.
Note that the Hollow Bough description says that is the kind of place that they lost Karl, not that that was where he actually met his end. It could be that there's a biome that Deep Rock refuses to send miners to anymore, perhaps some kind of toxic hellscape like the cancelled Caustic Mire. I also think that this dangerous zone contains something that could actually KILL a dwarf, not just down them. Dwarves that fail missions still show up at the medical bay, implying that they got dragged out by a Bosco or something. Karl clearly wasn't, though.
Tbh I love the theory about dwarves being cloned from Karl, because it instantly makes me think of how the leagues of votann from warhammer 40k procreate, even though it's slightly different.
I have a theory that relates to Karl but is focused on something else. One of the dwarves was a replacement for Karl. In the drop pod there are four seats, not five, indicating that after Karl's disappearance they made a replacement to fill the squad. Maybe Gunner is the replacement and the more recent dwarf of the crew since you start with him in the tutorial.
I think Karl is the hidden unlockable 5th playable dwarf class. He is a melee combatant with an increased shield. His mode of transportation are two pickaxes which he uses to climb on any surface and reach difficult places and mine minerals while hanging from one axe. A classic dwarf in every sense of the word.
Love how you explored in depth the different theories. I initially thought that Karl was a dwarven deity/legend, explaining why they all shout For Karl all the time. But since the devs clearly hint at him being a part of the crew & clearly appear to have died on hoxxes IV that seems unlikely. Thanks for your dope video
I think it's an acronym. Killed And Remains Left. Gives it a POW/MIA feel that is very fitting. It's for all the dwarves killed that don't get their bodies recovered. It's not one dwarf.
My personal theory was disproved when they added smart stout (which confirms they never found him), but I'll tell the story anyway just for fun. I always imagined that at some point the dwarves had all gotten absolutely blasted on skull crushers and started raring for a fight. They headed down to Hoxxes and had a grand old time squishing a few bugs, but they were so drunk that they actually extracted without Karl, since he was so damn good that it never occurred to them to watch his back; they just assumed he'd be fine. That's my interpretation of the "Skull Crusher ale is at least partly to blame" line - the others were wasted too, not just Karl. Maybe on the way up, or once they got back, they realized Karl wasn't with them, and immediately went into full panic mode, demanding to be sent back down to rescue him. Now obviously that goes against policy ("Deep Rock Galactic thanks you for your good work - drop pod will leave with or without you"), but Mission Control was finally able to swing it after a delay (Personally I think the dwarves might still resent him for that lost time, even though they know he did his best). When they got back down, they found enough spent shell casings to know that Karl had run out of ammo a long time ago, and green blood-spatters covering every wall, floor, and ceiling. When they finally found Karl's body, he was neck-deep in dozens, maybe hundreds of enemy dead, every last one of them bearing a wound from a pickaxe. A glorious death to be sure, but the sight of Karl's End never really left their minds. "Leave No Dwarf Behind" Shame it got disproved, I like glorious last stands haha.
Beautiful ending Maybe your theory could be improved, that they found thousands dead glyphid bodies, but there was no dwarf among them? That implies that Karl is out there's somewhere on Hoxxes
The earbud tangle mystery can be explained by a set of equations formulated by scientists who were pissed and confounded by that exact issue! It's stupid, but I love it. Apparently, after as short as 1 minute of walking or rather, carefully engineered 'jostling', headphone cords will almost inevitably become tangled
I like to think that one day a dwarf made up a story about an imaginary hero named Karl, and everyone else just went along with it and it’s all just a big inside joke
That is some SICK scout gameplay! Not since a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon have I seen someone throw something really hard forward, and the move fast enough to be there and catch it when it comes down! Rock and Stone, brother!!
A few words about Aleksey Stakhanov. Didn`t expect to hear about him in this video, that was a nice touch. I have some rumors about him from my grandfather who was a miner in Donetsk. As he said, Aleksey was just lucky enough to mine a big soft seam of coal so it didn`t took too long to overdo his daily plan. Obviously, he also worked with the team (and yes, his achievment isn`t a propaganda) Also we talked about stakhanovites. (bit funny to hear this pronouncement, in russian it sounds like "Stahanovtsi" (Стахановцы)) He mentioned there was no anvy in the working teams. Most of the stakhanovites spent a decent part of their raised salary for their teams buying anything they needed for the moment, from radios to drinks. So, there is it. Thank you, sniss, for the vodeo, and thank YOU for reading this comment.
Cannot wait for a limited time event mission where we rescue karl from the hollow bow, only to discover he's been living off of bug meat for the last 10 years in a makeshift bunker.
My favourite theory involving Karl is that before the incident involving him, Hoxxes didn't have that huge section of the planet broken off.
maybe they brought some kind of nuclear armament, and what remains is the Exclusion Zone, the Glacial Strata is that part of the planet that got blown off, and the Magma Core got exposed because of it
Holy shit tf did he do
@@dencilm5888 drg probably nuked the area that karl died at from anger and sadness. to avenge karl, if you will. because whatever was dangerous enough to put karl on his knees, must have been too dangerous to be left alive
i think that the section formed after karl tore a bloody ravine through thousands of bulks.
@@dencilm5888 Mined till he died
My two personal theories for the identity of Karl are
1. Karl is both a real individual, and term used by the miners of DRG referring to the dwarves who met their ends in the depths of Hoxxes, calling upon them with the name of a legendary hero as a way of honoring their bravery
2. Karl met his end pickaxing a fully-developed Dreadnaught to death, because that’s badass
Kinda like John doe.
I feel like Karl is the subject of many tall tales, sometimes literally
after all, haven't you heard? He's as tall as a man, strong as rock, and beat the glyphid queen to death with his bare hands and a pickaxe
I like to believe he is the reason why we say "No Dwarf Left Behind" he died to buying time for his crew to escape against a Swarm with a Pickaxe.
... or perhaps drunkenly pickaxing a bulk detonator to death 😅
davy jones locker style perhaps?
in the sense that those who die in Hoxxes become a part of "Karl"
Karl once told me my beard was at its best.
what an honor
Yooo it's funny dwarf
Amazing
Outstanding
It’s a shame I had to leave him behind.
Can’t wait for the “search for Karl” season. That’s gonna be a doozy
If they made a quest line where we got to look for karl that be cool
saving dwarf Karl
@@madflam3192 like it
Imagine if you find him, after a set of assignments (or a special deep dive), a new part of the map opens up and karl becomes an npc you can interact with. Perhaps he would give you exclusive cosmetics or become a new gameplay feature
Calling it, this game will have an entire storyline with a comic akin to TF2 after the "Soldier vs Demoman" update, without the corporate greed destroying it part.
Imagine how incredibly sick it would be if one day we get to rescue Karl and have a 5th playable character.
Dude, would be cool, he gets all items. And is only unlockable after you promote the dwarves to max.
would be nice but not on multiplayer, as most of end-game players would just unlock and use that 5th class everytime, making it as common as other classes and make superior Karl as common as other dwarfs
If they were to make a 5th dwarf, they have to make a melee class. I imagine Karl wielding two pickaxes with a very fast swing speed, slightly faster, and slight jump height. His grenades can be all rechargeable throwable items that can mark enemies when it hits them with a overclock of taming a creature when hit with a certain throwable, making Karl the only class that can have two bugs tamed. His maneuver weapon/ability would just be his ability to climb and scale any wall by using both his pickaxes to scale a wall. His class can also gain an 100% additional effect from drinking beer.
@@Unchainedful the 5th class has to be really niche for the game to not lose its balance
no guns, no utility, only pickaxe.
rock and stone, rip and tear
"Die like your mother did!" that quote is played whenever you kill a Glyphid with a pickaxe and that's the quote that really got me thinking. Karl would have had to do something incredible to be the icon he is today and the Glyphid being an insect species it wouldn't be too far fetched to say they had a queen at one point, a queen that Karl killed with his pixace. That's my theory.
Karl the patron dwarf Saint of the Pickaxe
I live this one! Nice
Same theory too, it wasn't mentioned in the video..
What if he did destroy the queen (or A queen) to the knowledge of the dwarves but disappeared in an explosion. His favourite biome is littered with explosive flora after all. They must have another queen or numerous queens for there to still be so many creatures.
Maybe those machines had something to do with it??
@@mattlawn3792 what biome is his fav?
...with a pickaxe.
the absolute legend.
Personally, I like the idea that Karl isn't actually some legendary hero who died in a badass way, but actually he was just a regular miner exactly like the ones you play as, but in one way or another he died and his body was left on Hoxxes, and the other miners now all swear to never leave another dwarf behind.
The tomb of the unknown miner
That's boring
@@cheezburgir2330 But more realistic.
That's actually more realistic, as people have a tendency to exaggerate the qualities of deceased ones they loved.
@@AngryCaesCorporation no one plays deep rock galactic for realism
"Who the hell is Karl?"
"Ligma balls"
*Driller teamkills Gunner with a satchel charge*
i can see this comment in my head
send s̶u̶p̶p̶l̶y̶ ̶p̶o̶d̶ help
@@MagicalBreeze *orders supply pod* gotchu brother of the mine :D
@@vladgabrielmatei9128 aye my names also Vlad
@@MagicalBreeze cheers brother!
I can hear this joke 😂
Karl is a bulk detonator that the dwarves were able to tame. They had to leave him behind due to the no glyphid policy for the space rig. Now he haunts the caves as the ghost bulk detonator on haunted missions.
This is the best theory. Fight me.
Love this theory
@@mrbones9332
One hole in it though.
Dwarves: (sees Ghost "Karl")
Dwarves Pick Axe in hand: FOR KARL
i was about to mention that due to the haunted caves we may be able to see a "ghost carl" but the ghost bulk detonator may be ghost carl
@@dogf421Who tf is "Carl"?
This is the only game that I have played where the only bad memories are when we leave a dwarf behind. I think this story of Karl is exactly what has made this game’s community so strong.
dude ive bought the game last week and i played a lot (A LOT) this weekend... rock and stone forevah brother
ROCK AND STONE!
Rockety, rock and stone!
ROCK. AND. STONE.
Don’t forget when you leave Steve behind😭
During a deep dive to Black Crag, the dwarves encountered the Glyphid Queen. After drinking 50 Pints of Skull Crusher Ale, Karl held her back with nothing but a pickaxe as his friends escaped. The last thing the dwarves saw before the Drop Pod left, was Karl making the killing blow that sent a huge chunk of Hoxxes into orbit. Karl was never seen again.
All the pieces have come together
Never seen again? thats cause he made an emergency droppod out of the Glyphid queens shell and dropped to his homebase on Hoxxes 3 (which he mined alone before DRG corp arrived)
@@FireCrack83 not meant to be rude, but could I have a source? I'd like to see if I can figure anything out myself
I believe that Karl is still fighting down there. But one thing I would like to know about Carl is what class he was. Was he a gunner? Or maybe a driller? Engineer maybe. Scout possibly.
@@v4rtexclaw karl was karl
You forgot the most important part about Karl.
He is the one who killed the mother of all bugs, it's thanks to him we even stand a chance against the horde!
the messiah!
He also likely did it shitfaced if the description of skullcrusher ale is to be believed.
Maybe gotta think something big gets mad when you steal eggs the big screech afterwards warrants that the queen .ay have survived or there might have been more than one
The "die like your mother did" hint Karl prolly killed a glyphid queen or smth
@@Anarkopsykotik THE Glyphid Queen.
I hope we get an ultra rare skin at some point called "Karl's axe" where instead of being a pick, it's a full blown hammer-axe combo
There is a back blade called the "obsidian mallet" I think that is exactly what you're looking for.
@@mightiaskwhy5926 this would help my theory that he was a melee focused dwarf and that's why the beer that caused his downfall gives you more melee damage
That sounds badass
I hope if in a new update you can in the hollow burrow your could find Karl
Or Karl could still be soldiering on through the caves going full blown bear grills and going on a pickaxe rampage
Poor scout when he drank the beer, he just realized where their long lost friend was and was so ecstatic about it. Then the effect wore off
He what??
@@xanmontes8715 7:44
Not exactly ecstatic, I’d argue more frantic and panicked, as if though he knows that the realisation of Karl’s whereabouts is slowly slipping from his mind, as the drink wears off and he forgets what he was even talking about :0
I have a theory. Those new Rival Nemesis robots have either voice recordings or voice synthesized audio lines of a dwarf in need of help or having found something. What if Karl had been captured by the rival company? What if they now prey upon his comrades with recorded lines from his distress hoping that it would illicit both panic and frantic behavior in nearby dwarves who’d try to save him.
*_Yes!_* I I thought the same thing! Maybe they're using him for their own purposes on Hoxxes!
I had a slightly different idea just before watching the video. In addition to your point about the idle voice lines mimic voice lines of the dwarves, the death voice lines are spoken in the same voice but are entirely new, such as "I feel so cold" or "Why is it so dark?" The only way I can really think of those lines being on there is if they were recorded by a dwarf.
What if Karl's bitter about being left behind, and all this time of isolation on such a harsh planet led Karl to join up with the Rivals when they got to the planet and found him.
@@samoclese6435 If the lines of the Nemesis are Karl, than that makes the "I thought we were friends" death line much more saddening. What if that was one of Karl's last words before the pod left him behind?
all while either torturing him for info on DRG, or pulling that thing from clone wars and hooking him up to something to essentially give all their robots a vet miner's knowledge base and lived in skillset.
that is horrific and i love it.
@@samoclese6435 nah, many of the death lines are famous quotes said specifically by robots, including Roy Batty's death monolog from _Blade Runner_
They're jokes that the big evil robot was actually a sentient being capable of feeling, and you just murdered it.
The rest of the voice lines are distorted versions of in-game quotes, or full on murder robot lines.
It's a fun theory, but the clear implication is that the Rivals recorded the dwarves' in-game voice lines during in Season 1, made a sentient AI that would mimic their voices and try to kill them, and then sent them out in Season 2.
My favorite Karl theory: Karl is responsible for the huge chunk of the crust of Hoxxes that has separated from the larger mass. He somehow did it using explosives in a battle with a Glyphid queen.
What if the crazy little guy mined that chunk of straight off of the Hoxxes
I heard that Karl killed 5 detonators at once with just his pickaxe... Drunk
@@TKOfromJohn probably regular ones and they probably had to surround him and he did some kind of spinning attack or some shit but yeah seems legit
@@TKOfromJohn I headed he did it after drinking a blackout stout
And then he came back for seconds!
He probably put them on his hand like batman in Arkham Island while he fights joker.
Wait, I just hit player level 80, and under the Black Crag + Gloomstalker Mask Mk3 reward, there is a line of text that says "Black Crag - That place we no longer speak of, but all carry in our hearts. Honour. Courage. Death."
Karl?
That's cool. Could be a future biome.
Now that is really interesting
It may have been that the place was so bloody that management sealed it off and karl was the last one miner to die there?
maybe karl's pure badassery was too powerful for Black Crag and that's the huge section of the planet that's blown off, Hoxxes just couldn't handle Karl
Now with the "something" approaching Hoxxes, maybe Black Crag can be a new biome or something
I'm positive Karl is still in Hollow Bough, on very rare occasions in Hollow Bough, you can find these small dug up spaces of wood, it is not smooth like a cave, but rough, like it was mined with a pickaxe.
ive actualy seen one of those on a point extraction, looked like a little hut, too smooth to be player made, like it was made by someone with more time/skill than the players
found one as well. it was like a small, cylindrical pit that opened out at the bottom. there was nothing down there but two errant chunks of red sugar. had to weather a swarm down there, praetorian clouds were only just avoided. unfortunately, I had to ruin the cylindrical hole in order to gain purchase to get out as I'm an engi main.
every time i've seen one of these, there's been two pieces of red sugar as well
Maybe in a future season we find either his remains or he comes home
@@wardenkarn1664 him returning alive seems unlikely but then again karl is a badass so him probably being some glyphoidion Rambo whould be an interesting image to see
My favorite theory is that Karl stayed behind to take on a Glyphid Queen for his team to escape. Not even the playable dwarves, but simply an unrelated group. He was so well known within the company, everyone regarded him as a friend. His fate is unknown, we have no body of his.
For me Karl is the promoted and high level dwarf that helps new players with their missions. He always comes back for you when you go down and always gives a "Rock and Stone!" when you get back to the drop pod. But he inevitably disappears when the mission is over. Eventually we also become Karl and help new players when we become experts in the game. Helping those in memory of those who helped us.
like a spiritual collection of players who learn the ropes with the greats before them until they help the new players as the greats themselves
holy shit then karl is a propaganda. Management knows Karl is alive. When the entire team go down, Karl is sent to their locations to help retrieve them back into the mining pod, hence why we end up in the sick bay each time. Maybe Karl is just left down on Hoxxes because he got some debt to pay, and it's a long debt.
Maybe the REAL Karl were the friends we made along the way.
There's an achievement that says "Karl WOULD be proud" based on that, i think Karl already passed away.
@@danielgoertz8962 i was gunna say this LOL thank you
I know this is out there, but I love to imagine that Karl was presumed dead after being left behind on a mission, but is actually still alive down there on Hoxxes. He's established an enclave of left-behind Bosco and BET-C units and continues to thrive down there to this day, the Lost King of Hoxxes.
He would probably have to leech off of resupplys teams leave behind to have enough ammo.
just eating the fungi in fungus bogs for years and years
@@marcotruschel9427 MMMM glyphid omelettes and red salt
@@spectralaria8648 Karl was rumored to only use his pickaxe, so maybe he just eats glyphid grunts and hunts praetorians for fun.
My theory is that he's the reason that Hoxxes has a giant hole on its side. Skull Crusher Ale's description says that it was a part of what made Karl so legendary. Skull Crusher Ale increases your pickaxe damage, which means that it is entirely possible that Karl chugged like 20 thousand of them and smashed Hoxxes in half. He wouldn't have passed out from the drunkenness, because he is known to also have been a legendary drinker who could withstand just about any amount of beer. He might have been part of the only operation that DRG sent to explore the core, but the drop pod was destroyed by creatures far more dangerous than what we see, and DRG was forced to leave Karl behind.
One theory I've heard get tossed around that I didn't hear in the video was that Karl sacrificed himself in taking down some sort of Glyphid Queen, referring to the "Die like your mother did!" voiceline
I believe GSG has already stated they don't want to actually add a proper queen into the game, so who knows
Aye, 'tis true that I knew Karl, but only barely.
I was there, on the Space Rig, on that fateful day. The day we lost Karl.
Have ye ever noticed how there's a big chunk of Hoxxes just floating there in space?
Thanks to all his favorite brew, Skull Crusher ale, 'twas by Karl's mighty pickaxe he split Hoxxes in twain!
Karl was part of the security detail escorting the survey team at the time. Keeping mind, this was in the early days! This was before we got that newfangled restitution-machinery in the med at and such!
It seemed like a regular routine mission, with a few stray bugs here and there.
But then all of a sudden, they were swarmed! It was almost like the beasts had been waiting to ambush the poor blokes! Karl and the others bravely stood their ground, until... She arrived!
The Glyphid Queen herself attacked the group, but Karl was able to keep her at bay just long enough for the rest of the team to make good their escape. "I'll hold her off brothers, but this is good-bye!" he cried.
The last thing we saw was Karl swinging his pickaxe into the Queens jaw with all of his might!
That's when the very ground shook and we were forced to take off!
We all mourned Karl that day, and haven't stopped since! He truly was the greatest of us.
We never recovered Karl's body. Some true believers say he's still alive down there, somehow.
Most of us have lost hope.
We never recovered the body of the Queen either... Some say she's retreated to the depths. Waiting, watching, plotting her revenge...
They say a dwarf dies twice. Once when his heart stops beating, and again when he's forgotten. As long as we remember him and tell his story, he will live on forever!
ROCK & STONE
this theory is actualy quiet accurate... there is an existing in-game model for an acid spitter queen and it spawns in a lot of acid spitters... i think there are videos on yt
aw but a glyphid queen fight would be so cool!
@@vizthex imagine of the rival company takes data from the queens corpse and makes a copy? would be neat.
Queen would be too strong, only an 8 man team with Karl at the head could ensure this.
There's a theory that Karl was a "Generic Hero", not in the sense that he was a literal generic hero of his day though. Back in the early builds of DRG, there was a Dev class known as "Generic Hero", which was equipped with every Class weapon and tool for testing purposes primarily. However, the existence of Generic Hero's concept lends credence to the idea that Karl's effectiveness as a Miner could be attributed to such feats hypothetically.
I like to believe Karl is the guy who sorts the minerals when Molly gets back
Funniest headcanon
"Every monster they kill is in revenge of *a* Karl"
Karl can refer to fallen brothers, as well as the man himself
In any case, grudges requires to be settled.
And there are many grudges at large
there's a cut dwarf voice line saying "Don't leave me like you left karl!", the string can still be found but I swear I heard it in-game... I just can't seem to find it anymore.
Jeez that's exactly what they've done to Kerrigan in Starcraft II - left her alone on a mission. I wonder if Karl went deeper into the planet than anyone ever before and found out something, that he shouldn't have, and then was left alone to his death by the management. Then they probably came up with some heroic story on how Karl died to tell it to other dwarfs.
@@maxgrouch9706 why do I have a feeling that thing he shouldn’t have found was something like a DRG glyphid incubator to kill the dwarves? Idk just speculation
@@declicitous1763 "The company needs eggs. Alien eggs. Don't ask why."
He found the glyphid queen. Management were deliberately feeding her dwarves in the form of miners so she could breed.
@@karagongro-malog Next season will be "Glyphid Prime" and will be heavily inspired by a certain Nintendo franchise.
I like to think Karl hasn’t died because dwarfs never die. He’s still down there and I like to think he tamed a swarm of bugs and rides a dreadnought to battle.
He takes care of all the steeves left behind by the dwarves
@@sethonslow7579I have separation anxiety whenever I tame one
Dwarfs never die they just go MIA
So he became the Doom Slayer
*"And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts. And I looked, and behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed him."*
Actually his name was Karl.
Close enough.
This is a quote combining half of verses 6 and 8 from revelation chapter 6 of the Bible, can i ask why you took and combined these verses and then decided to comment them here?
@@surotto4321 ... It's the description of mk4 gunner armor
@@flowepower3000 oh, my bad G
@@flowepower3000 It's also the last spoken line after a Johnny Cash song. ( 'The Man comes around' to be specific.)That's where I recognized it from. (since it's two separate verses.)
Edit: link ua-cam.com/video/jifaNxq7IG8/v-deo.html
I was always told that Karl was an homage to a real life fan that was terminally ill. Guess the legend goes even deeper than I thought
Imagine in Season Four, there’s a new mission called Search and Rescue, basically Salvage but you have to find a lost dwarf instead of mini mules. Mission completion voicelines like “We’ll find you Karl!”.
Fun but not sense making.
Hard to program and would ruin the games atmosphere and vibe.
@@vejaskunigelis1263 how would it ruin the atmosphere or vibe, also it makes sense, who knows how many dwarves have been left behind or failed to get to the drop pod, and maybe their suit sensors can be seen by mission control every so often or there can generally be high hopes that a dwarf who was left behind is alive and they send you to rescue them etc
the only way itd ruin the vibe is if the dwarf you find can shoot and make it so you have a 5th dwarf which is obviously not meant to be, but they can just make him unarmed (since they lost their gear, and the players cant lend theirs) or something
@@vejaskunigelis1263how would it be hard to program?
As far as I know you could take the mini mules search and replace the mini mules with the dwarf, which could just be a model of the first version of any of the classes. As well, you have the dwarf act like bosco where it will follow you and help you mine, but couldn’t help you in fighting, like a protect NPC in an open world rpg game.
The hard part would be getting voice acting.
I'd like to think that sometimes instead of a dwarf it turns out being a skeleton, and then the completion for the primary objective ends right there and you can call the drop pod.
@@xjammy3315I sort of agree that it ruins the atmosphere
But I kind of like the idea, only instead of the awake Dwarf following you, it's a knocked out dwarf the team has to carry on the shoulder all the way to the drop pod (a la Doretta head style)+(maybe get the drop pod near or give extended time for the mission)
That would also work for the humor of the game
Imagine the laughs of throwing a knocked out dwarf at each other 😅
That Jacob sounds like a funny guy.
Also, can't wait for the follow-up "The mystery of Unkarr".
Literally the official ghost ship games comments on this video AND NOONE IS TALKING ABOUT IT
@@Germinator08 ikr? Also can you imagine if Karl could just appear in missions like the mysterious stranger from fallout? Imagine a pissed off dwarf just stage diving one of your objectives when you aren't looking. Like a Dreadnought egg on the other side of the map is just completed out of nowhere, with just destruction left behind. Dwarves never die.
@@TheTrashman9 imagine if during a deep dive your objective is to retrieve all the missing parts that karl died with during a mission
And all the while you were being haunted by Karl's ghost
@@TheTrashman9 Imagine mission control announces a swarm/dread and before it hits he congratulates you for killing them so fast of gets confused as blips just vanish nowhere near you.
Hell even finding caverns with green blood and scorch marks everywhere would be cool.
@@Shoxic666 yea, you should never actually see Karl. Just see where he's been
There are lines about how it would be really bad if any of the Dreadnoaughts managed to develope past larval stage, but we never see any of these beasts, almost as if they were killed off. There's also the line "Die like your mother did". And the distant roars that echo through the caverns when you seperate an egg from it's incubation during egg missions. My theory is that Karl straight up sacrificed himself to kill the Glyphid Queen.
to add to the theory, the glyphid eggs we steal cant be for regular glyphids as there arent enough, they arent for dreadnoughts cause the organic material surrounding it is not blue and the egg is smaller. the eggs we steal, with no information as to why they are wanted (even management doesnt know) are most likely glyphid queen candidate eggs.
@@petrusv8752 There is actually an implication that the Glyphid eggs are used for omelets in the cafeteria. It's also possible that we only see different stages of egg development, with the colors shifting from pink and green to blue and brownish-red, almost like the ripening of fruit.
Although, one counterargument to this would be the cluster sizes. Dreadnought eggs come in a range of around 1-3, whereas the delivery eggs come in groups around 4-6. Perhaps the green eggs are for Praetorians.
@@SollidnitrogeN or maybe eggs hatch at different points in growth due to some reason.
@@arvidhansen5892 That would actually make the most sense, since typically breaking open an egg before it fully develops would just kill the creature inside, but we see that dreadnoughts do just fine after being forced out
Pretty solid theory
I hope Karl is still down there alive, just like some powerful dwarf mining hermit. Waiting for the day his brothers eventually find him and bring him back. Rock and Stone
I once overheard an old beard at the bar speak of Karl. Said something about how hes down there making something of an army with all the lost BET-C's DRG has left abandoned down there, taking the fight to the bugs as he marches toward the core. Just a rumor im afraid, but i wouldn't put it past him.
@@windbeneathmywings4884 I'm really curious who the bet-c dives with. I'm no greenbeard and I've never had one go down with me. So who do they go with ?
I don't think Karl is alive, how could he fight endless waves of bugs without ammo and survive without food/water?
@@niuskay2nd590 Karl is the best of us. I know you doubt him but even then he will be with you. What would Karl say?
@@niuskay2nd590 Well for food, he does have the bugs, I bet you can so something with that. And for water he could just melt the ice and purify the water in the glacial strata. Am could be found in lost packs or he could have an improvised bow made from materials in other biomes. On paper, he could have everything he needs to survive, it's just a question of "is it enough?"
I always interpreted "all beat your record this time" as being about Karl. My personal theory is that Karl was an early member of DRG who went back to save a teammate but didn't get back to the shuttle. Considering what a bad ass he is, I could see him still being alive somewhere on the planet, especially considering how many materials are left behind by the Dwarves and Rival tech.
I kinda wish there was a theory that the mission control announcer guy was one of Karls friends and when he returned from a mission once without Karl. He decided to make a more permanent version of the smart stout... in order to forget the pain of loosing his friend. The reason for his grumpy behaviour being the fact that Karl was just like the rest of the dwarfs and always liked to mess around with not only the mission control and other staff that doesn't work on-field, but also to kill time, while waiting for a new mission.
Karl would approve of this video.
DEEP ROCK GALACTIC(us miners) thanks you for your service. Though we are all brothers on the surface of Hoaaxes, is Karl your brother?
I'm betting he was the first dwarf to start his own underground Burger King and when getting trapped on the planet he went on to create delicious Burger King meals for other dwarfs left behind. He's living his dreams out there on Hoxxes.
this could be a crazy in game event one day, like an elite dive to save karl
Yeah but then it’d kinda ruin the whole Karl voicelines
@@TheCatIsAMonster Dunno, "For Karl!" Stops being for revenge, and starts being a declaration of victory instead.
a massive 20 man operation to save karl
I think a good troll is a pro player in bug armor joining random games in progress with the name 'Karl'.
or even better and lore friendly, and dont fuck up the cuntinuity to maybe retrieve his remains with a plot twist at the end? (some random ideas like he was the one who after getting lost found the rival-incursion guys, or he was behind it or idk, really anything alond these lines would be nice)
I absolutely love little lore bits like this. Things that are referenced in the background but aren't ever officially explained. Leads to a lot of interesting community discussion
a small detail you left out is that, rarely, you can find small bunkers carved into the rock with a few red sugar crystals lying inside, suggesting somebody is still 'living rent free' in Hoxxes. As well, the Glyphids are seemingly scattered, as they wander around in swarms, and the dwarves say "die like ya motha did!" when they kill a glyphid with their pickaxe
Another one for that propaganda one; there is a deposit voice line that is along the lines of “I swear I’ll beat your record this time” which would fit the idea that Karl gained fame by doing unnatural amounts of mining, since no matter how many things the player mines they will still say that line
Hes the one who mined all the gold with no pick axe
@@Shad0wBoxxer Fucking *_what_*
I love to think that Karl was a Steeve, maybe the first. The mining team refused to let him go and brought him on the space rig, much to management's annoyance (hence why there aren't any bugs allowed on the space rig). I would imagine the dwarves would give Karl beer, like the slayer stout, making him incredibly powerful. Also it sort-of explains how dwarves under the effects of smart stout know where he is, because he would still have the instincts of other bugs and could possibly be tracked following stuff like migration patterns and he would survive much longer than dwarves being an inhabitant of Hoxxes.
That's actually an interesting theory.
My most desired theory is that Karl is alive, and eats Glyphid omelets to keep himself going, and that we'll be able to start hunting him down in rescue missions. They would always turn up fruitless of course, but the Interplanetary Miners Union demands that DRG start searching for survivors, Karl included.
This is a close second.
I've wondered if Karl came before Steeve too! Wondered if the first bond was the strongest. That losing him was the hardest. That Steeving is different, is less ...
I’m doubtful because he’s refered as a colleague and someone who wore clothing n stuff.
@@DuelingFrog you can put hats on dogs you could more or likely do so to bugs
You didn’t mention a super important part. The deep dive flavour text for the salt pits can say that “leave no dwarf behind” originated from there
Bringing the 'true crime video essay' vibe to deep rock is a bold move and i'm very here for it
Imagine a future season comes along, and Karl returns from Hoxxes alive. He doesn’t appear in-game, but the intel he brought back tells of a great threat, perhaps a fully developed dreadnaught hiding in the depths
I feel like Karl is a dwarf because if you look at the memorial hall there are 5 dwarfs. Scout, Driller, Engineer, and Gunner, then theres a 5th one that looks like the scout but has the engineer shotgun. Back in early versions of the game there was a 5th dwarf for the devs that had all the equipment that the dwarves had. This dwarf had everything but then they stopped using it after a while. I have a feeling that when they stopped using this dwarf who might be named a Karl they added in the voice lines for the dwarvs remembering Karl. Then also the random lost mining gear you find in caves that has cosmetics, Karl had drip and I feel like this lost mining gear was stuff he had. It all makes sence that Karl was a dev tool and the fact he was such a great worker was probably from having access to everyones gear. Just my own theory tho.
Interesting theory, but doesn't seem very plausible. I don't think it's very likely that the devs added a voice line specifically for this dev-dwarf they used for testing purposes or whatnot, they likely just had the voice lines made on the spot and it ended up being turned into a whole thing
I really like the mystery and legend of Karl, what few pieces we do have. I hope that the devs expand on it, but also that the mystery is never "solved". Karl is just this amazing super-dwarf somewhere on Hoxxes, probably making beer out of dreadnaught piss and breeder eggs.
Edit: Maybe Karl is why we find beer materials growing all over the different biomes
Karl Starchnut...
Leaving a trail deeper into the planet.
nah. Cultivating plants is a knife-ear activity, fermentable or no. Karl would never do that.
@@thomasfoster4370 how would we make the fine dwarven beer without a bit of gardening
We hear the same question often repeated: "Who was Karl?", "What happened to him?", "What did he do?".
We ought not remember Karl for who he was nor for what he accomplished. As that would not be like him. Nor should we ever remember the fallen for their fall.
We ought to remember Karl for what he stood for.
Actually I have some things to say about Karl Being Mission Control
My theory is that Karl was indeed lost for a while but was recovered by the higher ups and was rapidly promoted for his efficiency.
Karl was overjoyed about this and would want to tell the rest, but seeing how much his "Death" changed Deep Rock for the better.
He made the tough decision of dawning a façade. The higher ups agree it's better for their image (Both Karl and Deep Rock's).
He actively tells the group off for goofing around the station (Maybe afraid that they'll grow reckless and end up like him)
He never grows to despise the group despite them showing a disliking to Mission Control.
He gets a bit worried when a swarm arrives.
He gives speeches for the crew when they get promotions (He's really proud).
He sounds morel like a parent scolding their child when barrels are kicked around.
The reason they don't recognize Karl is mixture of a few things.
1. They think Karl has been long dead, so no point in asking
2. The radio causes enough distortion for his voice to sound different enough.
3. Karl is speaking differently.
Of course all just hypothesizing.
It's a lot more likely that Karl is just some fake dude that they made up so the dwarves feel like they have something worth fighting for.
Considering that the dwarves knew Karl personally the idea that hes made up makes zero sense
6:10 here's what I think happened: Karl and his team were strapped for ammo and were making their way through extraction. His team was in danger of being killed, so he decided to stay behind on purpose to fight off the glyphids for as long as he could to buy the rest of his crew time to escape
Imo Karl was one of the first dwarves to dive into hoxxies (in this theory im assuming DRG existed pretty much as we know it before going to hoxxies), on one of the early missions him and his team encounter a fully grown dreadnaught (or possibly a gliphid queen) Karl after a few skull crusher ales managed to defeat the colossal threat in melee combat, buying his team time to escape but in so doing sacrificed himself. As for how the playable dwarves know Karl i dont think they actually met him, but instead heard stories from older dwarves about him and his exploits. this would explain the idealised view the dwarves have of him, as well as his position as somewhat of a folk hero among the dwarves. the reason i dont think the dwarves were present for Karls exploits is the deep dive description "This is the kind of place *they say* we lost Karl" the uncertainty here subjects that the dwarves (who seem to be the ones passing comment on the biomes in the descriptions from their more casual tone) only heard of Karls' story rather than witnessing it themselves.
Sounds reasonable.
Don’t forget the dwarves we play have been hired recently by DRG after the tutorial mission
I would love a story assignement in drg where we meet the dwarves that were with karl during his final mission like one was a new employee when it happened and now is obsessed with finding him like hes his idol, one of them quit drg after the incident and now drinks till hes k.o to cope with the lost of Karl (he was his best friend) and the others i dunno
@@motivatedman9730the third one just keeps throwing himself into the thick of swarms, trying to take as many bugs as he can in retribution for Karl.
Karl probs thought the buff beers stacked and drank like 10 and went alone on a elimination and never came back making drg require to let you know they don't stack
I’ve heard the dwarves say their grandparents “used actual mules” so I’m hoping for a line that says “my grandpa knew Karl!” Or something like that.
that's the reference to project dwarka
@@robbanks7483 reference to your mom
I think the reason why everyone loves Karl so much is because he was playing the role of a medic
FINALY ANOTHER PERSON WITH THIS THEORY
The theory I like the most is on a mission down to hollow bough Karl stumbled upon an odd cave. Non of the dwarves had ever seen any cave like it. It looked like a sort of nest that was big enough to be it’s own separate cave system. The others remained focused on the mission first while Karl being a legend decided to go into the cave to see if he could discover what made it so odd looking. Little did he know he was about to change missions (and hoxxes) forever causing dwarves to have to arm themselves like it was D-day if they wanted to survive a mission. Upon entering he discovers a glyphid that was just absolutely huge! We’re talking bigger then a caretaker or any dreadnought you’ve ever scene. Maybe even as big as the space rig itself. The brood mother. She was not happy to see an invader in her nest. She began to hunt Karl down like a blood hound. Karl ran as fast as he can firing back whenever he had an extra second or two to spare. He ran back to the others while shouting “CALL IN THE DROP POD!!!” The others scared out of their minds wondering why a legend like Karl would be so scared to want to call the drop pod early. Without a second thought scout relayed a message to mission control (using his AR headset) telling mission control to send down the drop pod. Mission control at first said not until the mission is done but then he heard the brood mother roaring in the back ground. Without thinking twice he immediately ordered an emergency drop pod to be sent at once for immediate evacuation. Karl regrouped with the others and they began taking turns hitting the brood mother where it hurts. After about four minutes the drop pod finally arrives. First driller gets to the drop pod. Then engineer after packing his shit in. Then gunner starts firing on the brood mother while getting in the drop pod. Gunner yells to scout and Karl to get in. Karl sees that the brood mother is getting weak but scout doesn’t. Karl continues to fight right as a swarm of almost every glyphid and mactera you’ve ever scene arrives. Thousands of them coming in through the ceiling begin to swarm to Karl. Scout gets scared and grapples to the drop pod and lands against the others. When scout comes to a few seconds after he sees Karl beginning to run out of bullets. Scouts shouts to Karl to get to the drop pod but Karl refuses. He knows he can kill the brood mother. After about 10 seconds the drop pod starts getting attacked by glyphids and they begin to damage it. Mission control sees that they can’t leave the pod there any longer and pulls the four out of there… leaving Karl behind. Right as the exterior door begins to close scout sees Karl wind up his pickaxe to finish her off and right when he connects there’s a large explosion. And right before the door fully shuts something of Karl’s flys through the grate hitting scout in the face. A single gold chunk said to be used in making the gold pickaxe in his statue. Scout is traumatized by what he saw which is why he’s more scared when diving into a mission then the others. They were still knocked out from scout hitting them so they never saw what happened. After the death of the brood mother the glyphids become more and more hostile after most of them being awoken from there slumber. Forcing dwarves to better arm themselves with advanced and unstable weaponry. Hoxxes would never be the same. With the body never being found due to a cave in which was caused by the explosion there’s no telling if Karl is alive or dead. His armour was said to be the toughest amour in existence being capable of withstanding just about anything. Allowing him to go toe to toe with bulks even. With this said he could still be alive. At times in various caves if you’re lucky enough you can find pieces of scarp that Karl may have used to try and survive down there. Maybe he’s still in the nest. But may he forever be in our hearts.
beautiful story
Rock and stone my brother
Rock and stone🫡
Some say the exploded part of Hoxxes was caused by the final showdown between Karl and 3 different queens. Others say it was 5 queens.
Other theory would be that Karl make the crater of hoxxes while fighting those dreadnought.
Aye, 'tis true that I knew Karl, but only barely.
I was there, on the Space Rig, on that fateful day. The day we lost Karl.
Have ye ever noticed how there's a big chunk of Hoxxes just floating there in space?
Thanks to all his favorite brew, Skull Crusher ale, 'twas by Karl's mighty pickaxe he split Hoxxes in twain!
Karl was part of the security detail escorting the survey team at the time. Keeping mind, this was in the early days! This was before we got that newfangled restitution-machinery in the med at and such!
It seemed like a regular routine mission, with a few stray bugs here and there.
But then all of a sudden, they were swarmed! It was almost like the beasts had been waiting to ambush the poor blokes! Karl and the others bravely stood their ground, until... She arrived!
The Glyphid Queen herself attacked the group, but Karl was able to keep her at bay just long enough for the rest of the team to make good their escape. "I'll hold her off brothers, but this is good-bye!" he cried.
The last thing we saw was Karl swinging his pickaxe into the Queens jaw with all of his might!
That's when the very ground shook and we were forced to take off!
We all mourned Karl that day, and haven't stopped since! He truly was the greatest of us.
We never recovered Karl's body. Some true believers say he's still alive down there, somehow.
Most of us have lost hope.
We never recovered the body of the Queen either... Some say she's retreated to the depths. Waiting, watching, plotting her revenge...
They say a dwarf dies twice. Once when his heart stops beating, and again when he's forgotten. As long as we remember him and tell his story, he will live on forever!
ROCK & STONE
OH SHIT I just remembered the dwarves do yell “Die like your mother did!” which REALLY could mean Karl met his fate killing *the* queen, I always just imagined it like ant colonies with multiple queens. Hoxxes is a full planet so that queen must’ve been Godzilla-sized.
Maybe one day we’ll get a DLC to re-live Karl’s final mission, some sort of nuke escort followed by a last stand.
@@zombieranger3410 i feel like this theory is most likely to be true out of all the ones ive read under this comment section
My theory is that Karl is the reason that Hoxxes has a giant hole on its side. Skull Crusher Ale's description says that it was a part of what made Karl so legendary. Skull Crusher Ale increases your pickaxe damage, which means that it is entirely possible that Karl chugged like 20 thousand of them and smashed Hoxxes in half. He wouldn't have passed out from the drunkenness, because he is known to also have been a legendary drinker who could withstand just about any amount of beer. He might have been part of the only operation that DRG sent to explore the core, but the drop pod was destroyed by creatures far more dangerous than what we see, and DRG was forced to leave Karl behind.
I hope they start adding little things to the missions to hint at him recently being there, maybe a couple already dead bugs and a camp site, or even little footprints.
That would be sick
if DRG gets a campaign Karl would have to be the protagonist
And in the end he betrays you and tries to stop DRG from exploiting the planet (which is making the bugs angry)
@@spectralaria8648 gay
@@spectralaria8648 Na it should be a sad ending, where he dies, or something similar, to save your team, so every time your dwarves mention him, it's sad
@@sketchpad7116 maybe he sacrifices himself by exploding a nuke on the (previous) biggest bug infestation on the planet (maybe a massive nest) and have it be revealed that that said infestation later became the massive chunk of rock that exploded from hoxxes.
@@sketchpad7116 similar to Bill from Left 4 dead
Karl was just a homie I love it. I just started playing this 2 weeks ago and I've rarely set it down. What a masterpiece
I think Karl was the first ever dwarf who died or got left behind on Hoxxes, sacrificing himself for his team as they barely made it away from the unknown danger in the caves, and he is the dwarf in the middle of the hall of remembrance.
I personally think it would be really cool of the devs were to implement a giant community event where some sort of queen or fully developed dreadnought had to be fought and the just went wild for the max player count, like 50 or something for that mission and the last phase of the boss you have to use the pickaxe to break its shell or something but then there is a massive wave of damage but you hear a very distinct "ROCK AND STONE" and Karl pops out of the depths to deliver the final blow
Dope idea
Or he emerges midfight and you fight alongside him
what makes you think the game can support up to 50 simultaneous players? heck even 10 players are too much. the idea sounds kinda cheesy and breaks the whole mystery surrounding Karl.
ok
@@hishamjalal9078 You can't say that fighting a giant boss with a company of players doesn't sound awesome tho
My theory is that Karl went back to save his team, only to have the extraction pod slam its door shut before he could get on himself. So no one actually saw him die, but management left him behind.
My theory has always been the Karl was part of one of the first missions, and that he killed the Glyphyd Queen. The line "Die like your mother did" seems to confirm that she's dead, and Karl being the one who killed her in a self-sacrifice, maybe with an antimatter bomb that ripped off a chunk of Hoxxes, is too cool not to believe.
Maybe he survived, maybe he didn't - and the Dwarves raise their pickaxes so in the off-chance that Karl hears their voices echoing through the caves, he may finally find a way home.
I really like to think that Karl was a knife ear, but was such a good miner and could handle his beer so well, DRG just let him work for them
There's a dwarf fortress story that goes something like that
I love deep rock galactic soooooo much, great video
super cool vid 😎
deep rock galactic is so cool
My dream is to find Karl and get 1000 hours in drg
I'd like to imagine he was just a normal ass dwarf that enlisted, and ended up blowing a chunk off of Hoxxes IV out of sheer force of will while fighting some huge monster
Aye, 'tis true that I knew Karl, but only barely.
I was there, on the Space Rig, on that fateful day. The day we lost Karl.
Have ye ever noticed how there's a big chunk of Hoxxes just floating there in space?
Thanks to all his favorite brew, Skull Crusher ale, 'twas by Karl's mighty pickaxe he split Hoxxes in twain!
Karl was part of the security detail escorting the survey team at the time. Keeping mind, this was in the early days! This was before we got that newfangled restitution-machinery in the med at and such!
It seemed like a regular routine mission, with a few stray bugs here and there.
But then all of a sudden, they were swarmed! It was almost like the beasts had been waiting to ambush the poor blokes! Karl and the others bravely stood their ground, until... She arrived!
The Glyphid Queen herself attacked the group, but Karl was able to keep her at bay just long enough for the rest of the team to make good their escape. "I'll hold her off brothers, but this is good-bye!" he cried.
The last thing we saw was Karl swinging his pickaxe into the Queens jaw with all of his might!
That's when the very ground shook and we were forced to take off!
We all mourned Karl that day, and haven't stopped since! He truly was the greatest of us.
We never recovered Karl's body. Some true believers say he's still alive down there, somehow.
Most of us have lost hope.
We never recovered the body of the Queen either... Some say she's retreated to the depths. Waiting, watching, plotting her revenge...
They say a dwarf dies twice. Once when his heart stops beating, and again when he's forgotten. As long as we remember him and tell his story, he will live on forever!
ROCK & STONE
Or he mined a chunk of hoxxes out of existence and then got killed by a glyphid
edit: there's a chunk of hoxxes floating in space so i'm guessing not
The Doom slayer of dwarves
Skull Crusher Ale's description says that it was part of what made Karl so legendary, and it increases your pickaxe damage, so it's entirely possible that Karl chugged like 20 thousand of them and smashed Hoxxes in half.
Even I knew Karl, what a dwarf he was!
the ultimate crossover.
Had a deep dive in the salt pits that read "Leave no dwarf behind." stems from this biome. So if Karl really was the first on Hoxxes AND the first to be left behind (though not very presumable), his last known location would be there.
I'd like to think that Karl is still alive and is now basically wandering through the caverns of Hoxxes, living off of the carcasses of dead creatures and plants and having adopted a couple Glyphids as pets. Maybe he tamed a dreadnought and is using it as a sort of horse that can dig. Would honestly be in line with his description.
I think that Karl is the statue in the center of the memorial hall. He is obviously a fallen dwarf, but in the list of fallen dwarves, the closest thing to his name is Karl9, who is obviously a player. As he is a pretty epic dwarf, the reason he isn't on the list may be because they built him a statue instead.
The look on my customers face when they ask me "what's that for" and I say "it's for Karl"
Priceless
Perhaps Karl wasn't some legendary dwarf, but simply a good friend of everyone at DRG, and met his end in Hoxxes. And everyone does what they're doing for him.
The mystery of the machine pressed burger king chicken fries
true
H A M B U R G E R C H E E S E B U R G E R B I G M A C W H O P P E R
@@crazylegs299
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• New crispy chicken fries at Burger King. 。 .
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I would LOVE if somehow Karl was still alive down there in Hoxxes' core. Maybe in the future the devs could leave salvaged encampment remains and clues about Karl's whereabouts in new biomes to give clues about his story
0:28 just in case any of the younger people watching wanna know, most schools lie and say we don’t know what happened to her that’s not true. They found her body getting eaten by crabs on some beach. She most definitly died in a crash.
Def one of my favorites you've made so far! I love it when games take a small piece of lore and keep it open ended so it can grow as a legend. Also I'm all for more brief history lessons with sniss.
Great video man! ROCK AND STONE!
I have a feeling that Karl may have played a mentoring role to the playable dwarves when they first started diving into Hoxxes IV. I bet he was, like you said in the video, part of (and maybe the last of) the first teams that went down there. They looked up to him and his skill and in turn he got more and more confidant in showing off during missions, as you do as a dwarf with all the sick moves. That's what led to the unfortunate Skull Crusher Ale incident. He bit off a bit more than he could chew and got swamped during an escape sequence. I don't think they would willingly leave him behind but when that timer runs out, not even Karl got an exception. "No Dwarf Left Behind" and the constant toasts are a reminder to never let that happen again. If management wont wait for us than we get each other back one way or another, like Karl would have wanted!
My little added theory is that Karl was a Gunner and the player character in the tutorial is the recent replacement for Karl's former team.
Karl is the lost miner, change my mind.
No one else could justify leaving behind so much gear in every damn cave on the planet, or could be so legendary to just be leaving cosmetics on the ground.
Karl is running around naked canon confirmed
Karl will never die so long as he is remembered. He's the badass dwarf that dwells within all of us. Rock and stone, brothers!
Theory: Karl was a friend of the DEVs who never believed the game would be finished and hence avoided getting involved in game development. Or has passed away.
i like the idea of it :D
Note that the Hollow Bough description says that is the kind of place that they lost Karl, not that that was where he actually met his end. It could be that there's a biome that Deep Rock refuses to send miners to anymore, perhaps some kind of toxic hellscape like the cancelled Caustic Mire.
I also think that this dangerous zone contains something that could actually KILL a dwarf, not just down them. Dwarves that fail missions still show up at the medical bay, implying that they got dragged out by a Bosco or something. Karl clearly wasn't, though.
I like to think Karl killed the Acid Spitter Queen, which is why we never see it in game.
Acid and web spitters are very related, correct?
Tbh I love the theory about dwarves being cloned from Karl, because it instantly makes me think of how the leagues of votann from warhammer 40k procreate, even though it's slightly different.
my friends just got me incredibly hooked onto DRG, so seeing this and wanting to watch more of ANYTHING about it, is so awesome, so thanks
I have a theory that relates to Karl but is focused on something else. One of the dwarves was a replacement for Karl. In the drop pod there are four seats, not five, indicating that after Karl's disappearance they made a replacement to fill the squad. Maybe Gunner is the replacement and the more recent dwarf of the crew since you start with him in the tutorial.
But doesn't he also say the same lines as the rest of them?
Yeah, that makes sense it's like he's just got hired and their giving him on site training to ready him for the hell of the missions
That... actully makes sense
I think Karl is the hidden unlockable 5th playable dwarf class.
He is a melee combatant with an increased shield.
His mode of transportation are two pickaxes which he uses to climb on any surface and reach difficult places and mine minerals while hanging from one axe.
A classic dwarf in every sense of the word.
Love how you explored in depth the different theories.
I initially thought that Karl was a dwarven deity/legend, explaining why they all shout For Karl all the time.
But since the devs clearly hint at him being a part of the crew & clearly appear to have died on hoxxes IV that seems unlikely. Thanks for your dope video
I think it's an acronym. Killed And Remains Left.
Gives it a POW/MIA feel that is very fitting. It's for all the dwarves killed that don't get their bodies recovered. It's not one dwarf.
Karl could've had the helmet you can find in mission as the "Lost Helmet", with which you can get resources and a cosmetic
Some of the voicelines after discovering the equipment imply it was a greenbeard who died.
Plus he'd need to have a lot of helmets if it's all Karl's.
Karl was a janitor on the space rig, I thought this was common knowledge
BLASPHEMY!!
Only the bravest and most suicidal will volunteer to clean the toilets after mactera brew night
Source?
@@MartianMoon got it from the river 200m that way - - - - >
@@armintor2826 or ‘the incident’
My personal theory was disproved when they added smart stout (which confirms they never found him), but I'll tell the story anyway just for fun.
I always imagined that at some point the dwarves had all gotten absolutely blasted on skull crushers and started raring for a fight. They headed down to Hoxxes and had a grand old time squishing a few bugs, but they were so drunk that they actually extracted without Karl, since he was so damn good that it never occurred to them to watch his back; they just assumed he'd be fine. That's my interpretation of the "Skull Crusher ale is at least partly to blame" line - the others were wasted too, not just Karl.
Maybe on the way up, or once they got back, they realized Karl wasn't with them, and immediately went into full panic mode, demanding to be sent back down to rescue him. Now obviously that goes against policy ("Deep Rock Galactic thanks you for your good work - drop pod will leave with or without you"), but Mission Control was finally able to swing it after a delay (Personally I think the dwarves might still resent him for that lost time, even though they know he did his best).
When they got back down, they found enough spent shell casings to know that Karl had run out of ammo a long time ago, and green blood-spatters covering every wall, floor, and ceiling. When they finally found Karl's body, he was neck-deep in dozens, maybe hundreds of enemy dead, every last one of them bearing a wound from a pickaxe. A glorious death to be sure, but the sight of Karl's End never really left their minds.
"Leave No Dwarf Behind"
Shame it got disproved, I like glorious last stands haha.
Beautiful ending
Maybe your theory could be improved, that they found thousands dead glyphid bodies, but there was no dwarf among them? That implies that Karl is out there's somewhere on Hoxxes
My little theory is that Karl is somehow related to the "die like your mother did" voice line implying that he killed something big before going down.
The earbud tangle mystery can be explained by a set of equations formulated by scientists who were pissed and confounded by that exact issue!
It's stupid, but I love it. Apparently, after as short as 1 minute of walking or rather, carefully engineered 'jostling', headphone cords will almost inevitably become tangled
Karl is down there somewhere.
That's why I always leave as many brand new supply pods before I leave, he might need it.
I like to think that one day a dwarf made up a story about an imaginary hero named Karl, and everyone else just went along with it and it’s all just a big inside joke
That is some SICK scout gameplay! Not since a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon have I seen someone throw something really hard forward, and the move fast enough to be there and catch it when it comes down!
Rock and Stone, brother!!
Karl is a loot bug farmer that keeps all the loot bugs alive. He’s a good guy. Rock and stone everyone!!!
A few words about Aleksey Stakhanov. Didn`t expect to hear about him in this video, that was a nice touch. I have some rumors about him from my grandfather who was a miner in Donetsk. As he said, Aleksey was just lucky enough to mine a big soft seam of coal so it didn`t took too long to overdo his daily plan. Obviously, he also worked with the team (and yes, his achievment isn`t a propaganda)
Also we talked about stakhanovites. (bit funny to hear this pronouncement, in russian it sounds like "Stahanovtsi" (Стахановцы)) He mentioned there was no anvy in the working teams. Most of the stakhanovites spent a decent part of their raised salary for their teams buying anything they needed for the moment, from radios to drinks.
So, there is it. Thank you, sniss, for the vodeo, and thank YOU for reading this comment.
I like to believe that Karl and his Crew had a run in with a matured Dreadnought and Karl stayed behind to fend it off so his team could escape.
Cannot wait for a limited time event mission where we rescue karl from the hollow bow, only to discover he's been living off of bug meat for the last 10 years in a makeshift bunker.