I would say that there definitely is a skill gap between greenbeards and greybeards in the game. But the great thing about DRG is that you wont notice it so much on the lower hazard levels. I had around 150 hours headstart in DRG when i played with my teammates during covid and there was a noticable difference in skill level when doing hazard 3-4, but on hazard 2 everyone could follow along and it was somewhat of a challenge for me because low skill players dont kill aliens that efficiently and the amount of aliens scale with the amount of players you are.

Indeed. And yeah, after the first 8 mission opener assignment, everyone is free to pursue their own assignments and just round robin who’s assignment is getting progress next mission. Sometimes it works out so more than one person has the same mission, too.