What level do you need to promote in Deep Rock Galactic?

Class level 25 — the red number under the dwarf portrait, not your blue player rank. At 25 the class stops earning XP entirely until you promote it.

Do I have to play the Promotion Assignment on the class I am promoting?

No, and you should not. The wiki states the Promotion Assignment can be completed on any class. Since a level 25 class earns zero XP, running those four missions on your capped dwarf wastes every point of it.

How many missions is the Promotion Assignment?

Four. The wiki describes it as a 4-mission-long assignment, one per class (Promotion Qualification - Driller / Engineer / Gunner / Scout), with the mission types picked randomly.

How much does the first promotion cost?

Promoting all four classes once costs 35,681 Credits plus Croppa 128, Jadiz 135, Magnite 128, Umanite 131, Enor Pearl 126 and Bismor 131. That averages about 8,920 Credits per class.

What does the first promotion unlock?

Account-wide and permanent: Machine Event activation, the Breach The Core and Weekly Core Hunt assignments, and the Forge. For that class only: Deep Dives, one extra active perk slot, and one Honor Badge.

How do I promote a character in Deep Rock Galactic?

Get that class to level 25, complete its [4-mission Promotion Qualification assignment](/deep-rock-galactic/missions-guide/) at the Assignment Terminal, then pay the Credit and mineral fee at the Promotion Terminal in the Memorial Hall. The class resets to level 1 with a star on its portrait.

Why can't I promote? / Why is there no promote button?

Two separate gates have to clear. The class must be at level 25 and its Promotion Assignment must be finished — completing the assignment only makes you *eligible*; the promotion itself is paid for at the terminal. You also need enough Credits and minerals on hand.

Should I promote all four classes?

Promote one class first, because the account-wide systems (Machine Events, Forge, Breach The Core, Weekly Core Hunt) unlock from that single promotion. After that, each further promotion on any class pays out a Blank Core, an Overclock Infused Core and a Cosmetic Infused Core, plus it is the only way to push player rank past 33.

Does promotion reset my weapons and upgrades?

No. Only the class level returns to 1. Unlocked items and upgrades are kept — that has been true since Update 19 replaced Retirement.

What is the point of promoting past the first time?

Three things: the Honor Badge tier, an extra active perk slot was only the *first* promotion, and each subsequent promotion grants one Overclock Infused Matrix Core. It is also the only route past player rank 33.

Deep Rock Galactic: How to Promote — Level 25, the 4-Mission Assignment, Real Costs

Promote your least-played dwarf first

The instinct is to promote your main. The numbers say the opposite, for three reasons that stack:

A class at level 25 stops earning XP completely. Every mission you run on a capped dwarf is XP thrown away.
The Promotion Assignment does not have to be run on the class being promoted. The official wiki states this outright: “The Promotion Assignment doesn’t have to be done on the class that is being promoted. The player may choose to undertake the required missions on any class.”
The important unlocks are account-wide and trigger on your very first promotion of any class. One promotion anywhere on your account permanently unlocks Machine Events, the Forge, Breach The Core and the Weekly Core Hunt — for all four dwarves.

So the efficient order is: whichever dwarf hits 25 first, take its Promotion Qualification assignment, run those four missions on a different class that still needs XP, then pay and promote. You lose no XP and all four classes gain the endgame systems.

The second reason to promote early: you cannot pass player rank 33 without it. Rank 33 is the ceiling if all four classes sit at level 25. Promotion is the only way past it, and cosmetic Prestige Assignments stretch out to rank 100.

The promotion checklist

Step	Requirement	Where
1	Reach class level 25 (red number, not blue player rank)	Any mission
2	Complete Promotion Qualification — : a 4-mission-long assignment, mission types picked randomly, one assignment per class	Assignment Terminal
3	Pay Credits + crafting minerals	Promotion Terminal, Memorial Hall (elevator near the Equipment Terminal)
4	Class resets to level 1	—

Unlocked weapons, upgrades and items are not reset. Only the class level goes back to 1. Promotion has been a prestige reset since Update 19 — the older Retirement system (Update 18) did wipe unlocked class items.

What one promotion actually unlocks

Unlock	Scope	Notes
Activate Machine Events in caves	Account-wide, permanent	Includes the Core Infuser that turns Blank Cores into Infused ones
Breach The Core assignment	Account-wide	9 missions, awards 6 Infused Matrix Cores, unlocks Weekly Core Hunt
Weekly Core Hunt assignment	Account-wide	3 missions, resets 11:00 UTC Thursdays
The Forge	Account-wide	Where Infused Cores become overclocks
Deep Dives	First promotion, that class only	—
+1 active perk slot	First promotion, that class only	—
+1 Honor Badge	Every promotion	Bronze → Silver → Gold → Platinum → Diamond → Legendary
1 Blank + 1 Overclock Infused + 1 Cosmetic Infused Matrix Core	Every promotion after the first	—

That last row is why repeat promotions matter: from the second promotion onward, each one hands you an Overclock Infused Core directly.

Honor Badge: what each promotion costs in XP

Every promotion adds 25 effective class levels and 315,000 XP to the running total. The wiki lists cumulative XP, not per-promotion XP — the per-promotion figure is that constant 315,000, and you can check it against any two adjacent rows.

Promotion	Honor Badge	Effective level	Cumulative XP
1	Bronze I	26	315,000
2	Bronze II	51	630,000
3	Bronze III	76	945,000
4	Silver I	101	1,260,000
5	Silver II	126	1,575,000
6	Silver III	151	1,890,000
7	Gold I	176	2,205,000
8	Gold II	201	2,520,000
9	Gold III	226	2,835,000
10	Platinum I	251	3,150,000
11	Platinum II	276	3,465,000
12	Platinum III	301	3,780,000
13	Diamond I	326	4,095,000
14	Diamond II	351	4,410,000
15	Diamond III	376	4,725,000
16	Legendary I	401	5,040,000
17	Legendary II	426	5,355,000
18	Legendary III	451	5,670,000
19+	Legendary IV (with counter)	476, then +25 each	+315,000 each

Legendary IV is unlimited: each further promotion adds 25 levels and 315,000 XP, and costs the same resources as promoting to Legendary III.

Promotion costs

The wiki states costs rise linearly with each promotion, tracked separately per class — promoting your Scout 18 times does not make your Gunner more expensive. The per-class tracking is exactly right; the word “linear” is not, and the table below shows why.

Scope	Croppa	Jadiz	Magnite	Umanite	Enor Pearl	Bismor	Credits
First promotion of all four classes	128	135	128	131	126	131	35,681
Legendary III on all four (18 promotions each)	15,342	16,181	15,340	15,702	15,104	15,703	5,472,040

The two aggregate rows divide cleanly, and the per-class numbers behind them are published in full. The wiki’s per-promotion table lists each of the 18 ranks for all four classes; the Credit column below is the Driller row read straight off that table (the other three classes differ by a few Credits per rank, never by more than 50):

#	Badge	Credits	Change vs previous
1	Bronze I	8,919	—
2	Bronze II	11,595	×1.30
3	Bronze III	15,162	×1.31
4	Silver I	19,622	×1.29
5	Silver II	25,508	×1.30
6	Silver III	33,179	×1.30
7	Gold I	42,990	×1.30
8	Gold II	56,011	×1.30
9	Gold III	69,390	×1.24
10	Platinum I	83,839	×1.21
11	Platinum II	96,325	×1.15
12	Platinum III	107,028	×1.11
13	Diamond I	115,947	×1.08
14	Diamond II	123,974	×1.07
15	Diamond III	131,109	×1.06
16	Legendary I	137,353	×1.05
17	Legendary II	142,704	×1.04
18	Legendary III	147,164	×1.03

Read that “Change” column before you trust the word “linear.” The wiki says costs rise linearly; the published Credits do not. For the first eight promotions the multiplier is a near-constant ×1.30 — that is compound growth, not a flat increment — and only from Gold III onward does the multiplier decay, from ×1.24 down to ×1.03 by Legendary III. Your first promotion costs 8,919 Credits; your eighth costs 56,011; your eighteenth costs 147,164. Promotion 1→8 alone is 6.3× the price for 7 extra levels.

That decay is the practical finding: early promotions get expensive fast, then the curve flattens into a long, slow grind. So the cheap promotions are the ones you take immediately, and a class you promote twice is already most of the way to the expensive part of its curve. Budget for the first three (8,919 + 11,595 + 15,162 = 35,676 Credits) as the real early commitment, and treat everything past Gold as a long-term sink rather than a goal you rush.

Two caveats worth keeping: the minerals are not evenly split across classes, so the 128÷4-style averages above are averages, not per-class quotes — the wiki’s own Gunner Bronze I entry is 8,921 Credits with 66 Magnite, 63 Bismor and 66 Umanite. And because costs are tracked per class, promoting one dwarf 18 times leaves the other three at Bronze I prices.

Where promotion sits in the wider progression

Promotion is the gate on almost everything past the campaign: overclocks need the Forge, the Forge needs a promotion, and Machine Events are the only way to convert Blank Matrix Cores. If you are picking which systems to learn first, start with the classes you enjoy and the equipment you already own — the promotion fee is paid in the same minerals you are already mining, listed in the resources guide.