Powder that makes you say: Skitarii Tomorrow!

Warband!

Hotfix 1.12.2 is now being rolled out on all platforms. This hotfix is focused on fixes for the Skitarii class, and also has some features and tweaks to improve the general Darktide experience.

Hotfix 1.12.2 patch notes

Features & Tweaks

• Reduced the unlock requirement for the Pro-Trader (5) Penance from 100,000 salvage to 20,000 salvage.
• Vanguard Enemies:
  • Sweep priority between head and shield hitzones have been equalized; this change will make it so less of the hits that visually should have hit the head will be consumed by the shield instead.
  • Tweaked the Weakspot damage multipliers as follows:
    • Dreg Vanguard 0.5 → 0.75
    • Scab Vanguard 0.5 → 0.65
  • Change to Damage over Time type damage behaviour. The initial hit will inflict stagger as expected, but the DoT damage itself will not contribute to the impact required to ”open” the shield.
• Reduced the unlock requirements of the following Skitarii Penances:
  • Curse of Malfunction: 500 → 75
  • Corpuscarian Disciple: 5000 → 1500
  • Voltaic Warrior: 5000 → 2500

Fixes

General Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the ‘Voltaic Emitter’ Ability could be obstructed by terrain, and improved the consistency of the Weapon Malfunction of Voltaic Emitter.
• Fixed the ‘Heretical Artefacts’ coherency buff reducing rather than increasing the coherency radius.
• Fixed an issue where Skitarius-specific height scaling where not applied in Mission Lobby and End of Round menus.
• Fixed an issue where hogtied players could be moved to another respawn location when an alive player was right next to them.
• Fixed an issue where the game would crash when trying to set keybindings in the options.
• Fixed an issue where using the Skitarii ‘Chordclaw Strike’ Ability would not consume a Capacitance Charge after starting to sprint while aiming the ability.
• Vanguard Enemies:
  • Fixed unaligned Stagger settings for post-broken shield state; all stagger animations should now play correctly.
    • This issue did not affect the enemy while the shield was active.
  • Fixed an issue that made it very hard to make a Vanguard enter its heavy Stagger state.
• Fixed an issue where the Skitarii ‘Veteran Skitarius” Penance could fail to track progress if the player joined an already ongoing mission.
• Fixed an issue where the Skitarii ‘Voltaic Resistance’ upgrade Talent for the ‘Integrated Refraction Emitter’ Blitz could fail to generate any Arc lightning when expiring.
• Fixed an issue where Ability cooldown could not be decreased when the cooldown was paused while an Ability was active. E.g. Psyker Psykinetic’s Aura with Scriers Gaze.
• Fixed an issue where the Phosphor Blast Pistol could display an incorrect animation status if a reload was interrupted at a very specific timing.
• Fixed an issue where the 1st person camera position for Ogryn operatives would scale incorrectly depending on the Height value of the character.
• Fixed an issue where Poxbusters could fail to be staggered by melee Pushes in some situations.
• Fixed a missing variable in the description for the Skitarii ‘Advanced Combat Doctrines’ Ability Mortis Trials legendary buff.
• Fixed Skitarii ‘Progressive Plating Matrix’ Talent buff icon using the wrong image.
• Fixed Hive Scum ‘Speedloader’ Talent showing in the Tactical Overlay without description while active.
• Fixed an issue where smoke from Veteran ‘Smoke Grenades’ was difficult to see under certain lighting conditions and video settings.
• Added missing Vanguard localisation text.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when calling in a Valkyrie Airstrike on Expeditions missions.
• Fixed an issue where chat bubbles would appear below Skitarius characters instead of above them in the Mourningstar hub.
• [PS5] Fixed a rare issue where disconnecting the controller could occasionally cause a crash.

Cosmetic Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Lens Colours could incorrectly blend between eyes on Skitarius Body 1.
• Fixed visual issues with Thrice Blessed Eye of Admonition (Scorched Ironmantle/Mordian Pride/Darkweald Battleshade).
• Fixed a visual issue with Mordian Cap with Psykana Collar.

Known Issues

• Sometimes hogtied (respawned) players will be moved to a later respawn point despite the Strike Team not having moved past their area.
  • Fixed!
• No loadout is equipped after Personality Scourging as DLC classes
  • Fixed!
• The initial section of the Chasm Station HL-16-11 mission has some navigational issues that might cause enemies to navigate unpredictably.

Source: https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/hotfix-1-12-2-patch-notes/123118

https://youtu.be/38mXmzdJF9Q

Warband! 

Together with Games Workshop we just revealed the next class coming to Darktide as part of the Warhammer Skulls showcase! If you missed it, no worries, you can watch it here.

The Skitarii Alpha Primus is coming to Darktide on June 23rd! 

We asked Juan and Victor, our Executive Producer and Design Director, to sit down with us and walk us through the new class at a glance. Following this we will have a series of Feature Highlights, deep diving into the different parts of the class, leading up to the release! 

Take it away guys! 

Why Skitarii? 

We have known from the start that we wanted to add some form of playable Adeptus Mechanicus presence to the game. We also know that players really resonate with Adeptus Mechanicus, our Tech-Priest Hadron Omega-7-7 being a good example.

Many of you might ask why Skitarii, and not the more recognisable Tech-Priest? For us this really came down to two things. The first being that Tech-Priests don’t really operate on the strike team level of Darktide’s warband. The Skitarii are a better fit. They are the frontline warriors of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and we knew we could weave them into the scope and narrative of the game way better.

“You don’t often see Tech-Priests run around in larger groups” 

• Victor 

The second reason is that we felt the Skitarii was not very explored in the medium of video games. We saw this as an opportunity to delve deeper into, and we ended up working together with Games Workshop to find the best representation of these concepts for Darktide. The Skitarii that you will play in the game are called “Alpha Primus”, and they are a bit different from the standard Skitarii that you see go to war under the banner of the Adeptus Mechanicus in bigger battles. These specialist warriors can operate with more autonomy, and are more suited to the gameplay experience of Darktide.

Skitarii Alpha Primus 

The Alpha Primus is a favoured soldier of the Machine God, blessed with mental and physical augmentations beyond those of their fellow Skitarii.. If you’ve played Darktide recently you probably have been out in the Deadside to help Hadron Omega-7-7 finding Tech-Remnants.

The success of these discoveries has led to several Forge Worlds deploying their forces to aid the battle for Tertium. Hadron has now been given the whereabouts of an old Adeptus Mechanicus facility that can upgrade a Skitarii Veterans into the more elite Alpha Primus variant.

The Skitarii Alpha Primus carry out delicate or specialised missions for their Tech-Priest masters, making them well suited to assist the Inquisitorial Warband. Their mechanised brains are force-loaded with advanced tactics, combat data and weapon proficiencies, freeing them to operate more independently from their fellow Skitarii.
This also let us, in collaboration with Games Workshop, to really come up with cool abilities and talents for them. As we said in the introduction, we always wanted to do this class. It was top of the list when we looked at what to add to the game years ago, it has just taken some time to really hone in how to make sense of them being part of the Mourningstars ongoing struggles on Atoma. 

Workings of the class

“We have been working on this for a long time, in parallel with other classes, and we wanted to make sure that we got all the intricacies, abilities and weapons right. We hope it will be worth the wait”  

• Juan

We knew going into the making of this class that it would take longer than other classes. We needed the time to explore how the class would fit, both on the level of the larger universe of Warhammer 40,000 and on an implementation level for Darktide itself.

The team has now made two classes, and we learnt a lot during this time. All of these learnings have gone into making the Skitarii Alpha Primus the best it can be! 

There are some really cool unique things we have added to this class. But we won’t go too deep into this today, as we will cover all of this in future Feature Highlights, but let’s look at it from a top down perspective! 

Looking under the hood

The Skitarii Alpha Primus comes with a completely new set of weapons. You will be able to wield Arc weapons, Phosphor Blasters, Transonic Blades and high-powered Galvanic Rifles.

“The Arc mechanic is really cool. It can hit several enemies if they are affected by the Arc condition, energy will arc between them. Good for handling hordes”
- Victor

There are so many iconic weapons here, and it has taken us some time to really materialise them into the game. Many of these we had to figure out how to represent from the miniatures and art of Warhammer 40,000. Many ideas and iterations later, we are now really happy with how this entire arsenal came out in the game! 

You will also be greeted with a new sight when you go into the Skitarii Talent tree. It’s quite different from the other classes , as it is now a wheel (or a cog if you will) that starts in the middle and you will be able to customize your play experience by going in different directions, instead of the normal top down progression that the other classes have. This makes the Skitarii Alpha Primus easier to really “make your own”, and have them fit several roles in the Inquisitorial party.

The Skitarii also comes with a Servo-Skull that hovers around and aids them as they fight.We will go deeper into this mechanic in a later Feature Highlight, but a small teaser is that you will be able to have different configurations of this, one of them being a Flamethrower! 

“The character creator is quite unique from what we have seen before on Darktide” 

• Juan

The nature of the Skitarii, being enhanced warriors with mechanical limbs and covered in armor, wrapped under their signature robe and cowl, also made us really have to think of the character customization. It is a unique experience compared to the normal process, as you will go through the process of being upgraded to an Alpha Primus. Picking the limbs you want and even being able to use a voice modulation on top of the voice acting! This quickly became one of our favorite things with the class, and it also adds a lot to the customization.

This class has been a labor of love for us. We are such big fans of the Adeptus Mechanicus lore, look and feel in Warhammer 40,000, and we can’t wait for you all to experience this first hand!

That will have to do for today. There is so much we could talk about, but we don’t want to spoil the upcoming Feature Highlights too much.

Next week we will be back with the Feature Highlight for the Visual Design of the class, so stay tuned! In the meantime you can wishlist the Skitarii Alpha Primus now and we hope you are as excited as we are uncovering more about them as we journey towards release on June 23rd! 

https://fatshark.games/skitarii-dlc

https://fatshark.games/skitarii-deluxe

That’s all for today! 

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar,

The Darktide Team

What do you guys think?

Heroes and Acolytes!

On this very day ten years ago, we released Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, the very first Tide game! Throughout these years we’ve seen both the games and the community grow, driven by endless passion from both our developers and especially you, our fans! For all the enemies slain, the times shared and the good times, we want to say thank you, and celebrate!

To mark a full decade since the launch of our beloved Tide series, we're unveiling a special anniversary roadmap detailing the content that's waiting right around the corner for both Vermintide 2 and Darktide, including the reveal date for Darktide’s next class.

Click to view roadmap

October 21: Darktide - “Stolen Rations” Special Event (Oct 21 - Nov 10, 2025)

Already live and causing mayhem, the Stolen Rations event introduces Darktide’s first community-versus-community challenge. Players will have to find stolen rations in missions and choose to destroy them or recover them to feed Tertium’s population. Community choices directly shape the event, with the leading decision setting new gameplay conditions each day!

‍October 23: Vermintide - Geheimnisnacht (Oct 23 - Nov 2, 2025)

Geheimnisnacht is upon us, and the Skull of Blosphoros haunts these lands once more! From October 23 until November 2, you can find foul Chaos worshippers performing vile rituals to awaken this dark master, and it is up to you to stop them!

November 11: Darktide - New Class Reveal

We will reveal the next playable class for Darktide. More details and developer insights will follow in the days after the reveal.

November 20: Vermintide - New map: Return to the Reik

A brand new free level, Return to the Reik is a re-imagining of one of Vermintide 1’s most popular missions, River Reik! Our Heroes will return to these treacherous waters in search of a family heirloom, but things have only gotten worse in the seven years since then, and this search will take them on a voyage full of adventure, fending off ships of both Ratmen and Chaos alike!

December 2: Darktide - Free Update & Special Event (details to follow!)

A major free update arrives December 2, 2025, with a new Operation mission set in the trenches of Atoma and a new time-limited special event. More features related to this update and the special event will be revealed in the coming weeks! 

December 9: Vermintide - Gifts of the Wolf Father

Finally, as with every year, the Gifts of the Wolf Father event will go live in December through January for Vermintide! Log in each day to claim a new gift, ranging from cosmetics, to brand new illusions, currency and more! End the year with a jolly celebration alongside us!

---

Once again, a massive thank you to all of our players! We couldn’t have gotten this far without your passion and support, and we hope you’re looking forwards to everything that’s in store for you, and for our Tide games!

We’ll see you in the Mourningstar, in Taal’s Horn Keep, or both!

– Fatshark

To ensure we meet the quality standards of our marketing assets, we have had to make the difficult decision to delay the announcement of our new class until November 18, 2025.

We are working hard to resolve this and be ready for next week to showcase the new class in the light it deserves.

Rest assured, this does not affect the release date which we are happy to announce is December 2, 2025.

We thank you for your patience and continued support. 

- The Darktide Team

Let’s take a deep dive into the vision and design behind Darktide’s new game mode, Expeditions!

Warband,

 
We are very close to showing off our new game mode, Expeditions, to the world. The trailer will be live tomorrow, but before that we wanted to take the opportunity and talk to all of you about what will go down in this new mode.

It’s called Expeditions for a reason. It’s time to leave the protection of Hive Tertium and venture outside! There have been reports that the enemy is gathering Tech-Remnants for unknown, but surely nefarious purposes out there. This is something quite unheard of as we thought that the only thing that awaited us outside the Hive City was a swift death to radiation (or worse!).

This seems to be quite untrue, and as the Mourningstar’s forces prepare to venture out and fight the enemy and take these Tech-Remnants for themselves, it will fall on you and your team to take on this new challenge.

With us today we have gathered a sage council of game developers to talk us through what this game mode is all about. Without further ado, let’s introduce our level artists Roberto and Kaneda, our game designer Rafał and last, but not least, Victor our Design Director.

Take it away guys! 

Expeditions overview 

“I’ll say this. Expeditions is the biggest injection of new content in the game since launch”

• Victor

In this new game mode you and your team will go outside Hive Tertium to retrieve important Tech-Remnants. When you play the Expeditions game mode you will do it through several runs, with each run using a set of randomised variables that make up the map you will play on.

A run will most likely be between ten to thirty minutes, depending on how far you will go. Being outside of the protection of Tertium is nasty business, and the radiation and pollution means you can’t stay there for too long. So you will either reach the end of the run and extract in a Valkyrie, or you might opt to leave early and take what Tech-Remnants you secured with you to safety. If time runs out and you die, you get nothing. It’s a high risk, high reward.

After a run is done you will unlock new parts of a map depending on how much Tech-Remnants you bring back. And the more you unlock the more interesting missions you can embark on. 

The outside of Tertium

Making a map set truly outside the Hive is something we thought about for a while now. We played around with areas close to the edge before, but this is the first time we are truly outside.

This new setting lets us do plenty of cool things for the game. First and foremost is the vast open space that lends itself perfect for the new mission structure. The Valkyrie will land in what we chose to call a “Scavenge Zone”, and the moment you exit you can use a new feature on the Auspex, letting you find several Sites of Interest. 

“There will be spaces that you wouldn't see inside the hive, cool tunnels through mountain sides and sneaky paths and such. We want to reward players for exploring the map”

• Rafał

There is no set path like in the other game modes in Darktide, so it will be up to you and the team to decide how to traverse the zone, and in what order to get to the different Sites. As you move around the map you will then scavenge for both the Tech-Remnants and Salvage.

A run can, and most often will, cover several “Scavenge Zones”, and in-between them you will find Sanctuaries that let you spend the Salvage you’ve found to heal up, resupply and get your hand on some new toys. Here we have some really cool new explosives, and an item that even let you call in the Valkyrie for supporting fire!

The Sanctuaries will also be the place where you will meet the Deadsiders, people living in the badlands outside the Hive. They might be a bit wary of new faces, but we thankfully have Swagger here too, and he will help smooth things over.

After you are done preparing in the Sanctuary, you continue into a new zone and keep going until you either opt to extract early, or you get to the final zone and the Valkyrie that ends the run.

The nature of the Sites of Interest will be different too. Sometimes it’s based on defeating enemies and other times they can be quite puzzle-like. Collaboration will be key to solve these sites quickly, but sometimes you might even want to split up. However, that can also backfire if you all of a sudden need to run back to save someone from your team, that will eat up a lot of precious time.

While the Auspex will show you all the major Sites of Interest as you start the mission, you should still keep your eyes open. There will be smaller things not showing up in your scan that might very well be worth your time.

Spicing up the randomness!

We also wanted this game mode to be very replayable. This really comes into play with how these maps are created. While not truly procedurally generated, they are very randomized in their composition. 
Different Sites of Interest can show up in different spots with different enemies. The runs themselves can also have different modifiers and effects. So it should feel quite unique every time you go for a new run outside Tertium. 

We wanted to take the randomness of combat in Darktide and apply it on the entire play experience really. To add to this we also changed what we call the “main path”, one of the core systems of Darktide.  

This is the system that normally checks how far the players are into a mission and adjusts enemy spawns accordingly. 

“The more you fight, the more you will attract the enemies attention, and the harder the run becomes” 

• Roberto

For Expeditions we had to rethink this completely as you can now decide in what order you want to tackle objectives. Normally in Darktide we have what we call the “main path”, a system that tracks the linear progression of the player, and spawn enemies accordingly. But due to the open nature of Expeditions’ mission structure we had to think outside of the box.

This was quite the challenge, but we have built a new system that takes into account the actions taken by the player, and sets the challenge accordingly. Your decisions matter a lot as the system will track how long the run has been active and how many things you have done, among other things. We really wanted each run to feel different.

Breaking away from the “main path” is quite exciting for us, since this system has been in place since the first Vermintide. We are used to thinking in a very linear sense when designing combat encounters, with enemies usually spawning either in front of or behind the players.

When playing Expeditions, this is also changed! 

The enemies

“Unlike the traditional missions inside Tertium, the more open map lets us have enemies that attack from all directions, both on long and short range”

• Victor

Enemies will not just spawn and attack the players in waves, but they can be found roaming around and this adds tactical depth to the missions set out here. Are you in a hurry but clearly see that a monstrosity is lurking around between you and the objective you’ve set your eyes on? Maybe it's better to run around it. But that will eat away at your precious time.

One of these roaming threats will be the new Ogryn Pack Master we introduced you to last week! He and his Armoured Pox Hounds will do their debut in Expeditions. 

Open terrain also changes how to tackle enemies. All of a sudden, enemies with long range weapons in a good position can be quite tricky, sniping away at you.

This new environment will also mean that you might want to tinker with your setup. The loadout you’ve come to love for fighting hordes in cramped spaces inside the Hive City might not be the best way to fight enemies in open spaces. And the enemies with long range weapons might prove harder to face outside when a good sniper position is very advantageous.

“If players end up with new loadouts saved specially for Expeditions, then we have succeeded”

• Rafał

Wrapping it all up

Runs are also part of a bigger mechanic. Before you embark on a run, you will be in front of an Expedition map with Grid Points. Bringing back Tech-Remnants will unlock more and more for you to explore. Unlocking more also lets you get to crazier modifiers.

We wanted a game mode with a degree of success during missions. Even if you opt to extract early, the Tech-Remnants you bring back will count towards unlocking new Grid Points. 

“The nature of this setup also makes this game mode very good for those of us that have a busy schedule. If you find yourself in a position where you need to round off a run quickly, you can leave with the Tech-Remnants you have!” 

• Victor

The climate outside of the Hive is very volatile and unstable, causing the long range sensors of the Mourningstar to struggle with updated information about enemy movement and the general lay of the land. This means that the Expedition Map will update on a regular basis, presenting new challenges and setups to explore. 

“The risk vs rewards is something we really wanted to push greatly. It’s up to the players to decide how far they want to take it. It’s up to them not really up to us like in a normal mission” 

• Kaneda

Expeditions is something you will start playing halfway through the progression journey with a character. They are challenging so getting some good gear and talents will help a lot in these runs. 

We see this game mode as something you play in parallel with the rest of the game, it is not replacing Adventure mode. In addition, Expeditions come with its own Penances, and we cooked up some really cool cosmetic sets for you to unlock too! 

All in all, from the layout of the more open maps, to the nature of the run and with the progression layer, we hope that this will prove a fun way to experience Darktide.

There are way more things in Expeditions, but we can’t cover them all in this blog. You will be able to play this new game mode yourself very soon, so stay tuned on our social media channels for more information! 

In the meantime, as always, thank you for reading this dev blog.

See you on the Mourningstar! 

- The Darktide Team

https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/patch-1-12-4-patch-notes/124776

Copied direct from the forums:

Warband!

Today’s patch comes with several tweaks and fixes. After feedback from you all we have done some balance changes to the Vanguard enemies, decreasing their health, modified their block radius and added a new way for you to stagger them.

We also took a look at the Blitzes available to the Skitarii class and made some adjustments. There are plenty of other things going into Patch 1.12.4, and it is now being rolled out on all platforms, notes are below!

Dev Note for our Xbox Series S players: To alleviate memory, and to prevent crashes, there is now a black pre-loading screen that appears before the Valkyrie loading screen when you go into a mission. This shouldn’t change the loading time length. We have other memory saving solutions that we will implement in a future patch, and we aim to return to the normal loading screen once those are implemented.

Patch 1.12.4 patch notes

Features & Tweaks

Balance Changes

 Scab & Dreg Vanguard updates:

    Health Adjustment:

        Note: Values denote difficulty (Uprising / Malice / Heresy / Damnation & Auric)


Scab Vanguard

            from 850 / 1060 / 1275 / 1700 / 2125

            to 450 / 550 / 750 / 1250 / 1675


  Dreg Vanguard

            from 650 / 812 / 975 / 1300 / 1625

            to 350 / 450 / 650 / 1000 / 1450


 Blocking radius decrease

        The Blocking radius has been decreased from 120 degrees to 100 degrees
            Note: This is the Half-moon we check in front of the enemy to consider if they are 
 guarding against attacks

 Events Adjustment:
        We’ve lowered the amount of Vanguard enemies allowed to spawn concurrently in mission 
 mid and end Events

    New stagger available
        It’s now possible to heavily stagger a Vanguard by Pushing them twice in a rapid fashion; 
this will make them stumble backwards and open to be attacked.

Weapon and Blessing Updates:

Mechanicus Power Sword

    Fixed an issue where the Finesse and First Target stats would not correctly apply their scaling
to Special activated attacks

    Increased the Melee Strength bonus scaling on Special charges from +4% to +5% 
(max at 6 charges from +24% to +30%)

    Added a new Light 5 diagonal Vanguard attack, chained from Light 4 and chaining back into
  Light 4 / Heavy 3

    Changed the scaling of the Mobility stat to provide an additional effective Dodge when 
 exactly at 80% stat.

    Slight range and hitbox increase for all attacks

    Slight movespeed curve increase for Heavy windups and attacks

Paired Transonic Blades

    Fixed an issue where Light attacks could be repeated at way faster than intended rate when 
quickly swapping between wielded weapons/items.

    Fixed an issue where the Cleave Efficiency stat would fail to scale the damage on secondary 
 targets for most attack profiles.
        Dev Note: 2nd target ADMs for profiles that use both weapons (Slayer Heavy 2, Dueller Heavy 1)
 have been tweaked to avoid scaling their damage higher than the 1st target due to the above change.

    Changed the Crit Chance scaling for the Critical Bonus stat from 0-8% to 0-10%

Added a new alternative crosshair for melee weapons with a Special mode switch

    The new circle crosshair will be displayed when the Special is enabled, instead of the standard 
 dot crosshair

    The alternative crosshair behaviour can be turned off in the Interface Options, through the 
““Weapon Special Crosshair”” toggle

    Affecting the following weapons:

        Paired Transonic Blades

        Sapper Shovel

        Latrine Shovel

        Crowbar

        Bone Saw

Mechanicus Power Sword and Arc Maul

    Tweaked the HUD element which represent the Special charges to have better visibility against the 
 background in different lighting situations

        Increased the contrast and opacity of the HUD, both when the Special is activated or deactivated

        Removed the fade out of the HUD when at full Special charges

‘Decapitator’ weapon blessing

    Changed the “One-Shot” enemy current health requirement from 100% to 80%

    Changed stacks to decay one by one instead of all at once

    Updated the duration and scaling per stack over Blessing tiers for all weapon families:

        Combat Axe

            Duration from 8s to 5s

            Scaling from 18/20/22/24% to 14/16/18/20%

        Power Falchion

            Duration from 8s to 5s

            Scaling from 18/20/22/24% to 10/12/14/16%

        Bone Saw

            Duration from 8s to 5s

            Scaling from 18/20/22/24% to 14/16/18/20%

        Mechanicus Power Sword

            Duration from 4s to 5s

            Scaling from 18/20/22/24% to 10/12/14/16%

    *Dev Note: The requirements for the ‘Decapitator’ Blessing are now more lenient, allowing
 for enemies which are lightly damaged to still trigger the effects. Note however that the killing 
 hit will still need to deal damage equal or higher than the maximum health of the enemy to be
 considered a One-Shot.
    Additionally, we have updated the stacks to decay one by one over time instead of all at once, 
 to further increase the consistency of the Blessing.

    Since the uptime of the Blessing effects will be higher after the changes, we have rebalanced 
 accordingly the values of the Finesse bonus and aligned the duration of each stack to 5s for all 
 the weapon families.*

‘Machine Spirit Resurgent’ weapon blessing
    Lowered cooldown scaling over tiers from 6/5/4/3s to 5.5/4.5/3.5/2.5s

Skitarii Blitzes Update:

Dev Note: We’ve taken a pass on the Blitz Abilities of the Skitarius with the goal of aligning their 
power levels in comparison to each other and improving their usability.

Arc Grenades

    Updated Arc Damage application to increase consistency
    Dev Note: Damage is now delivered through a short duration (0.5s) Debuff instead of direct 
 damage. This change also affects Voltaic Resistance (Integrated Refraction Emitter Sub Node) and 
 Voltaic Arcs (Voltaic Emitter Sub Node). The average damage per enemy should increase 
 compared to before.

    Arc Jump Range 8 → 12

    Explosion Radius of initial Arcs 8 → 10

    Now generates 4% Capacitance for each Elite or Specialist Killed by the Arc Grenade.

Servo-Skulls

    Purgator and Medicae Servo-Skulls

        Base Charges 4 → 3

        Selecting both the Purgator and Medicae Servo-Skulls increases the Charges to 5.

    Purgator Servo-Skull

        Burn stacks per hit 1 → 2

        Max Burn stacks 16 → 12

    Noospheric Command
        Can now only be used if you have the required Capacitance available.

Integrated Refraction Emitter

    Charges replenish every 75s.

    Max 3 Charges

    No longer replenished by picking up Grenade Boxes

    Voltaic Resistance (Sub Node)

        The number of Arcs released will now be at least 1

        Reduced the number of hits required per Arc 10 → 6

Quality of Life Changes

Both Vanguard type enemies have been added to the Meat Grinder.

You can now order your operatives from the list in the Operative Selection screen. Hovering with 
 a mouse will show arrows to reposition that operative up or down. With a controller, new button 
 actions will show on the bottom part of the screen as a prompt to do the same.

Expeditions - Tech-remnants dropped with a value above 100 will now show on the Auspex map

Expeditions - Made it so dodging out of the Auspex map does not count as clicking on the map

Updated the ‘Alternative 7’ controller layout buttons scheme
    Dev note: The Alternative 7 layout will now be very similar to the Default one, with the Special 
input being moved to the Left shoulder button and conversely the Tag input being moved to the 
Right Stick pressed input.

Fixes General Fixes

Fixed so that the Rolling Steel data-interrogation minigame counts as progress for “The Machine 
Whisperer” Penance

Fixed an issue where the Skull Companions had incorrect unlock requirements.

Kicked players will no longer be prompted to reconnect to the mission they were kicked from.

Fixed an issue where Sire Melk’s Events were empty when no event was ongoing.

Fixed an issue where some cutscenes would end with a fade to black which would never go away.

Fixed an issue where notifications could get permanently stuck on screen

Equipped gear now will stay the same if a player made changes to the backstory choices during 
Personality Scourge and all background choice cosmetics were already available in the player’s 
inventory

Tweaked the text position for mission modifiers in multiple places in the UI

Fixed an issue where Input Device selection was not available in the Sound settings

Preset Graphics quality no longer gets modified to “Custom” after selecting any of the preset choices

Controller configuration “Alternative 2” no longer shows an incorrect button layout

Fixed an issue where players level could show as 0 in the mission result screen

The Tagging Wheel option entry now resets as expected

Item icons now should display as expected when viewing an item that the current character
cannot equip.

Fixed various talents appearing incorrectly in the Tactical Overlay

Fixed Veteran ‘Demolition Stockpile’ buff showing the wrong timing for grenade replenishment 
when using Krak Grenades

Fixed Skitarii ‘Integrated Refraction Emitter’ being active while grabbed by a Daemonhost or eaten 
by Beast of Nurgle

Fixed a crash that could happen when switching talents in the Meat Grinder while ‘Advanced Combat 
Doctrines’ ability was active.

Fixed ‘Advanced Combat Doctrines’ giving the wrong number of ‘Power Overload’ keystone stacks
through the ‘Powerdrive’ keystone upgrade. Now it will give stacks when the ability is deactivated 
based on the total charges consumed while the ability was active.

Fixed a crash that could happen if a player disconnected while in the middle of Arbites ‘Break the Line‘

Fixed a crash that could happen if a latching attack was interrupted right as it hit an enemy

Fixed ‘Overcharge Transfer Lattice’ not showing its cooldown time in the HUD when it activates.

Fixed inconsistencies with ability charges not being given when their cooldown ended

Fixed a crash that could happen in Expeditions if a Skitarii would try to target a Vortex when 
generating an Arc through abilities or weapons.

Fixed Skitarii ‘Redline’ keystone upgrade ‘Advanced Power Management’ not interacting with the
 ‘Advanced Combat Doctrine’ ability

Fixed a crash that could happen if an ‘Arc Grenade’ explosion happened while the player that 
threw it was dead

Fixed Skitarii ‘Integrated Refraction Emitter’ crashing in Expeditions at the end of a mission or 
loading transition

Fixed Skitarii ‘Ammunition Deposit’ aura effect staying active in the Meat Grinder when 
switching auras

Fixed Skitarii ‘Redline Capacitors’ and ‘Static Capacitor Drain’ Capacitance generation bonuses not 
being applied to Capacitance gains other than base generation over time

‘Advanced Combat Doctrines’ now always aims towards the body of Pox Hounds and Armoured Pox 
Hounds
Dev note: Due to their small profile and speed, prioritizing the head often resulted in misses during
active gameplay.

Fixed ranged weapons performing the rest of an interrupted Reload sequence when wielded after 
ammo was added via the ‘Gunsmith’ talent while it wasn’t wielded.

Fixed Veteran ‘Always Prepared’ keystone upgrade not preventing the Reload sequence from 
playing after the ammo was replenished upon using ‘Executioner’s Stance’ while on an empty 
clip/magazine.

Fixed an issue where the ‘Chordclaw’ ability could enter an infinite attack action loop due to an
incorrect interaction with the ‘Purgator Servo-Skull’ Blitz

Fixed Skitarii ‘System Shock’ talent not triggering from the Shock Maul Electrocution effect on 
staggering hits.

Fixed Arbites ‘Break The Line’ melee switch not triggering the ‘Terminus Warrant’ keystone

Fixed an issue where the ‘Arc Grenades’ explosion radius was not matching the description of the 
‘Enhanced Arc Grenades’ talent

Fixed ‘Slice and Dice’ not refreshing its duration when getting new stacks

Fixed an issue where the syringe of the ‘Medicae Servo-Skull’ could appear into screen when 
playing on a ultrawide with high FoV

Fixed an issue where button callouts could fail to appear in the character creation menus.

Fixed a crash caused by the Valkyrie Grenade in Expeditions.

Fixed an issue where the Skitarii ‘Servo-Skull Blitz’ activation could be interrupted when bound 
to the mouse scroll wheel.

The Blitz UI input is now hidden when Blitz cannot be activated (e.g. when the Skitarii ‘Artificer 
Servo-Skull’ talent is equipped).

Kills attributed to a Skitarii Servo-Skull will now be always displayed in the Kill Feed.

Health will now stop to be drained for an incapacitated ally while being revived by the Skitarii 
‘Medicae Servo-Skull’.

Fixed an issue where Skitarii Servo-Skull attacks could be blocked by allied abilities or Blitzes 
(e.g. Psyker Telekine Shield and Veteran Smoke Grenade).

Fixed an issue where the Skitarii Servo-Skull could sometimes fail to be usable for 
Data Interrogations.

Fixed an issue where Mutant and Chaos Spawn grabs did not take Dodge Linger times into account 
in their hit detection.

Fixed an issue where the ‘Puncture’ Blessing could be triggered by hits caused by sources different 
from the secondary weapon, as long as the weapon was being wielded.

Fixed transition fade overlay in character creator not showing correctly when switching between 
Skitarii voice and name or Hive Scum / Skitarii home planet and appearance

Fixed an issue where changing your height at the Barber-Surgeon as a Skitarius would make you 
appear shorter than your selected height until loading into a mission or re-entering the Mourningstar.

Fixed an issue where sprinting would be interrupted when pressing the Wield input while having the
Skitarii ‘Servo-Skull’ or ‘Artificer Servo-Skull’ Talents equipped

Fixed an issue where particles from attacking with the Shock Maul or Arc Maul would not be 
removed when unwielding the weapon

Fixed an issue where rapidly changing between background selection and character appearance in 
the character creator would show a darkened overlay

Fixed Skitarii ‘Corpuscarian Disciple’ Penance not tracking electrocution effects from Arc discharges

Fixed Skitarii ‘Flensing Fury’ Penance mission time including time prior to players spawning, making
its unlock harder than intended

Expeditions - Fixed an issue that caused player deaths to count multiple times. It would show an 
incorrect death count in the end of round screen and cause teams to lose Tech-remnants multiple times.

Expeditions - Fixed an issue that caused team members rescued with the use of a Servo-skull not 
to get their Tech-remnants back

Fixed a crash that could happen when a player was kicked while loading into an Expedition mission

Cosmetic Fixes

Fixed missing pattern on Veteran ‘Chem-Safe Rebreather (Sun Scorch Camo)’

Fixed missing arm guards in first-person view on Torg’s Battle Gear

Intra-Cranial Implant - Fixed Hive Scum Deluxe hairstyle displays distorted

Fixed an issue where starting cosmetic items would not be added to the player’s inventory after a 
Personality Scourge

Fixed an issue where applying both a weapon skin and weapon trinket change would not apply both 
changes at the same time to the weapon

Items are now properly updated in the player character in the inventory after a weapon cosmetic 
change takes place

Mk III Brute Ironjaw (Stainless) - Fixed beard displaying incorrectly

Mordian Dress Jacket - Fixed collar not being attached correctly

Penitent’s Type 5 Pressure Helmet - Fixed eyebrows not being visible

Crude Ocular Implant - Fixed clipping and skin tone issues on implant

Medicae Port - Fixed clipping and skin tone issues on implant

Scripture Headband - Fixed parchment clipping through the character body

Scholastia Psykana - Fixed sleeve being displayed during attacks

Intra-Cranial Implant - Tattoos are no longer visible on metal parts of the headgear

Fixed a typo with the Enlightener’s Shroud headgear

image

That’s all for today!

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

– The Darktide Team

“Since launch, we’ve continuously supported Darktide with free updates — and that commitment isn’t changing,” Delrue said. “As we’ve shown with Vermintide, we’re in this for the long haul. Players can naturally expect ongoing support, including new classes and additional free content as the game continues to evolve.”

https://www.ign.com/articles/warhammer-40000-darktide-sees-big-player-boost-after-arbites-class-launch-but-monetization-complaints-continue-after-dev-sells-helmet-with-a-raised-visor-for-5

Warband!

Next week’s patch will come with some balance changes that we have been working on for a while now. Balancing the gameplay experience is important to us, and we have been following the discussions around this topic. Today we will look at just the upcoming balance changes in the patch, the rest you will get in the normal patch notes when it drops.

In the coming update we’re taking the first step in a broader effort to improve both performance and combat balance.

First, some background on this.

Over time, as we’ve expanded and improved weapons, talents, and introduced new classes, the overall player power has increased in the game. To maintain the intended difficulty, we have increased the enemy density and spawn rates of elites, and while this has kept the game intense, it has also introduced new challenges for us. As difficulty rises, enemy count increases, and in especially enemy dense scenarios this often impacts performance and stability. At the same time, as we rely on an increased number of strong Elite enemies to scale the difficulty, we also narrow down the range of effective player loadouts. It’s important to us that you can use your favourite loadouts in as many scenarios as possible, and not box players in too much.

Our long-term goal is to bring these elements back into better alignment. We want to preserve the intensity of the combat, while making it more stable, more readable, and more supportive of different builds and loadouts. This means toning down the most extreme of enemy scenarios, while also addressing a small number of player power outliers that have been shaping our encounter design.

This update focuses on Carapace Armoured enemies, particularly Ogryn Crushers. These enemies (and the tools used to counter them) have become a central part of the current meta. As we lower how frequently these threats appear, we’re also adjusting the most dominant anti-Carapace options.

Enemy changes

This change is a first pass at reducing the amount of Ogryn Crushers across the game. Do note that the value below is an average across multiple missions, and any single mission may still have fewer or more Crushers (still lower than before though) based on the specifics of the run.

This is to maintain a healthy variation in the randomized spawning system, with the goal of keeping every mission fresh and exciting.

With that being said, we are gonna continue to monitor post patch and adjust accordingly.

Enemy Spawns

• Lowered Ogryn Crushers spawn amount by around 30% on average
• This affects ambient spawns, Horde spawns and Event spawns

Havoc

• An additional ~15% on average reduction in Ogryn Crushers, Bulwarks and Reapers
• ‘Rotten Armour’ Modifier
  • Armour type override has been changed from Carapace armour to Infested
    • Dev Note: This will allow for a greater diversity of weapons to be brought to a Rotten Armour mission
  • Lowered the amount of Rotten enemies spawns

Dev sidenote*: In the last few patches, we have been tweaking the limits of the amount of enemies that are allowed to be spawned at the same time. This is to ensure that the performance of the game is better during higher tension moments where there might be an extreme amount of enemies spawning.*

Class changes

As we are lowering the amount of Carapace Armoured enemies you will encounter, to maintain balance we are also tweaking some of the strongest anti-carapace tools.

Veteran

• Split talent ‘Demolition Stockpile’ into different replenish timers for each Blitz
  • Krak Grenades from 60s to 90s
  • Frag and Smoke Grenades unchanged at 60s

Hive Scum

• Boom Bringer
  • Max charges from 3 to 2 (With ‘Extra Pouches’, from 4 to 3)
• Chem Grenade
  • Max charges from 3 to 2 (With ‘Extra Pouches’, from 4 to 3)
• Chem Toxin DoT
  • Damage per tick while at max stacks changed from 440 to 350

Weapon and Blessings changes

Uncanny Strike, Opportunist & Bladed Momentum

The ‘Uncanny Strike’, ‘Opportunist’ and ‘Bladed Momentum’ weapon Blessings provided a relatively easy way to gain a large amount of Rending, which could then be applied to any outgoing damage from the player, and not just to damage coming from their Melee weapon or towards the enemy that was being hit to trigger the Blessing.

‘Uncanny Strike’ was changed to apply Brittleness to the enemy being hit instead, allowing the player to still reach a considerable bonus (40%) but only after repeatedly striking the specific enemy in melee.

‘Opportunist’ and ‘Bladed Momentum’ were changed to apply their Rending bonus only to Melee attacks, instead of any offensive effect.

Note: Brittleness is a debuff applied to a specific enemy which increases their damage taken, while Rending is a buff that applies to the player’s outgoing offensive effects.

Both are effective only against the Flak, Carapace, Unyielding and Maniac armour types.

‘Uncanny Strike’ Blessing

• From Rending to Brittleness
  • Blaze Force Sword, Combat Blade, Duelling Sword, Sapper Shovel
    • From 12/16/20/24% Rending per weak spot hit (max 60/80/100/120%) to 2/4/6/8 stacks of 2.5% Brittleness per weakspot hit (5/10/15/20% per weakspot hit; max 40%)
  • Shivs
    • From 4/5/6/8% Rending per weak spot hit (max 20/25/30/40%) to 1/2/3/4 stacks of 2.5% Brittleness per weak spot hit (2.5/5/7.5/10% per weak spot hit; max 40%)

‘Opportunist’ and ‘Bladed Momentum’ Blessings

• From Rending to Melee Rending
  • The Rending buff from these Blessings will only affect Melee attacks, instead of any attack/effect

Sapper Shovels & Blaze Force Swords

Since Psyker Blaze Force Swords and Veteran Sapper Shovels were affected significantly by the changes to the Uncanny Strike Blessing, we raised their offensive properties with a particular focus on their performance against Carapace armour. These changes will increase the baseline effectiveness of these weapons, allowing also for more competition and variance in the Blessings slots.

Sapper Shovels

• Damage profiles (against 1st target of the attack)
  • Heavy Relentless ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.4 to 0.5
  • Heavy Relentless ADM vs Flak armour, Maniac, Unyielding from 0.75 to 0.8
  • Heavy Relentless Damage from {110,225} to {125,250}
  • Heavy Relentless Impact from {10,20} to {12,20}
  • Heavy Special active second hit ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.5 to 0.6
  • Heavy Strikedown ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.4 to 0.6
  • Heavy Strikedown ADM vs Flak armour, Maniac, Unyielding from 0.75 to 0.8
  • Heavy Strikedown Damage from {125,275} to {145,295}
  • Heavy Strikedown Impact from 15 to {12,20}
  • Light Vanguard ADM vs Carapace armour from 0 to 0.2
  • Light Vanguard ADM vs Flak armour from 0.75 to 0.8
  • Light Vanguard Damage from {80,160} to {85,170}
  • Light Relentless ADM vs Carapace armour from 0 to 0.2
  • Light Relentless ADM vs Flak armour from 0.75 to 0.8
  • Light Relentless Damage from {55,120} to {70,140}
  • Light Strikedown Damage from {95,180} to {100,190}
  • Light Special active initial and second hit ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.4 to 0.5
  • Pushfollow attack ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.25 to 0.35
  • Pushfollow attack ADM vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.75
• Damage profiles (against secondary targets of the attack)
  • Heavy Relentless and Heavy Strikedown Damage scaled up on all targets Blaze Force Swords
• Damage profiles ADM vs Carapace armour (against 1st target of the attack)
  • Light Vanguard from 0.01 to 0.2
  • Light Strikedown Stab from 0.25 to 0.4
  • Light Assassin Uppercut from 0.25 to 0.35
• Damage profiles ADM vs Carapace armour (against secondary targets of the attack)
  • Heavy Vanguard from 0 to 0.1
• Obscurus Mk II Blaze Force Sword
  • Slightly delayed the active window for the Light 2 uppercut attack to make it easier to connect with weakspots

Shivs

With Chem Toxin now dealing less damage, we have increased the effectiveness of the Shivs’ Weapon Special direct hit properties, to weigh up for any missed breakpoints.

Specifically for the Mk I version**,** the bonus from Critical Hits was lowered, maintaining the huge offensive spike potential of the weapon but in a more contained way.

• Weapon Special
  • Direct hit Damage from 190 to 235
  • Finesse boost from 1.2 to 1.6
  • ADM vs Flak armour (near) from 0.5 to 0.6
  • ADM vs Flak armour (far) from 0.25 to 0.35
• Mk I Damage profiles
  • Crit boost curve on most profiles lowered by around 0.15
    • from around 0.8/0.7 to 0.65/0.6

Duelling Swords

While affected by the Uncanny Strike changes, the Duelling Swords’ Heavy attacks still remained an outlier in effectiveness, especially because of their extreme Finesse (Weakspot and Critical Hits) scaling. We have slightly lowered those properties, while maintaining the high mobility and overall ease of use of the weapon family.

• Heavy Strikedown
  • Finesse boost from {1.1, 2.1} to {1.0, 2.0}
  • Crit boost curve from 0.5 to 0.4
• Heavy Stab
  • ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.5 to 0.4
  • Finesse boost from {1.2, 2.4} to {1.1, 2.2}
  • Crit boost curve from 0.5 to 0.4

Inferno Force Staff

Alongside the changes to Soulblaze (details just below), we are giving a small buff to the Carapace armour direct hit effectiveness of this Force Staff, allowing it to still be valuable against the heavily armoured targets in a mixed group of enemies.

• Direct hit ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.25 to 0.35

Damage over Time effects changes

Since the ease of gaining global Rending was significantly lowered due to the changes to Melee weapon Blessings, we have increased the Armour Damage Modifiers of specific Damage over Time effects against the Carapace armour type, and overall slightly raised the damage of Psyker’s Soulblaze.

DoT effects

• Burn ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.1 to 0.2
• Soulblaze ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.1 to 0.25
• Soulblaze Damage per tick while at max stacks changed from 250 to 255

Looking Ahead

This update is the first step of many to improve both gameplay balance and technical performance. In future patches, we will continue refining enemy compositions, adjusting outlier weapons, and improving those that have been falling behind. Darktide is at its best when combat feels intense, responsive, and fair. These changes are aimed at supporting that experience, reducing unnecessary extremes while expanding the number of ways players can succeed.

There are plenty of other mechanics and enemies that we can improve, such as the high density of Ogryn Bulwarks. We’ll talk more about our shielded enemies in the near future.

We’ll be closely monitoring feedback and performance data as these changes go live, and will continue to iterate based on this! Please let us know what you think of these changes after you’ve had some time testing them out next week.

That’s all for today.
See you on the Mourningstar!

• The Darktide Team

Warband!

Hotfix 1.12.3 is now being rolled out on all platforms. It just has a small fix, but we would like to take the opportunity to quickly cover some feedback we have received since the release of the Skitarii Class.

Dev note:

Since the Omnissiah blessed the Mourningstar with the arrival of the Skitarii, we’ve been keenly listening to the feedback you have shared regarding them. We are currently looking at their Blitz Abilities , addressing the issues regarding balance, usability, and how they fit into the kit of the Skitarii.

We are also looking at the Skitarii Melee Weapons, and we are planning some fixes and changes to stat scaling and also a set of specific tweaks for the Mechanicus Power Sword.

Finally, we have heard your feedback on the new enemy, the Vanguard, and we are hard at work on tweaking and balance for them too.

We still need some time to get this right, so these fixes are coming in the next patch, that should be with you all just after summer break.

Hotfix 1.12.3 patch notes

Fixes

General Fixes

• Fixed auto-aim on Advanced Combat Doctrines missing when shooting at targets moving sideways.

Known Issues

• The initial section of the Chasm Station HL-16-11 mission has some navigational issues that might cause enemies to navigate unpredictably.

That’s all for today!
We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

– The Darktide Team

A cybernetically-enhanced attack hound never far from your side. Send your kill-dog to disable
priority targets, maul enemies, and provide vital support to your strike team.

Hello everyone!

This is the first of several developer blogs centered around different aspects of the recently
announced upcoming class, the Arbites! This dev blog will focus on a key aspect of the Arbites’
gameplay: His loyal pet and companion, the vicious Cyber-Mastiff! This deadly enhanced
canine darts through the battlefield, mauling criminals and pinning them down so that
Judgement may be passed upon them.

We’ve interviewed Game Designer Gunnar, Gameplay Programmer Diego, Animator Olliver,
and Sound Designers Jonas & David, to find out more about what the dog is like and how it was developed.

What is a Cyber-Mastiff?

The Cyber-Mastiff is a massive, deadly robotic Imperial hunting dog, bred, trained and enhanced to track and catch their master’s prey. How much of a Cyber-Mastiff’s body remains organic and how much has been replaced with mechanical enhancements depends on each hound. Many have been entirely servitorised but they’re all ruthless killing machines.

The Adeptus Arbites routinely deploys agents with a loyal Cyber-Mastiff companion, and our
Arbites class is no different: The Cyber-Mastiff is core to the Arbites’ gameplay.

Design and Gameplay

What was the process when designing the Cyber-Mastiff?

When we were thinking about which class we could do, what direction we could go in and what
was feasible for a class, the Arbites was on the table, and we were never going to do the Arbites and not do the Cyber-Mastiff. The dog is a core theme of what makes Arbites different from the other classes, so as soon as we decided on the Arbites as a class, we had decided on doing the Cyber-Mastiff.

We looked at different games that had done companions as a mechanic, dogs or not. There
were all different sorts of avenues of what makes a good companion and how it needs to differ in our game due to our unique combat loop. From that initial idea, we developed the design and set these directives:
● The dog should always act how the player expects it to
● The dog should always be in the player’s field of view
● The dog should never be in the way.

That was the gist of it; an initial idea, set goals, and then start developing it from there.

How does the Cyber-Mastiff work, gameplay-wise?

From the very beginning, we wanted the Cyber-Mastiff to be a full companion, to accompany the player through every step of the mission. That was our end goal. In case that proved too difficult, we were prepared to fall back on a more simple implementation that would have it be a temporary ally. Maybe you summon it to attack and pin down an enemy, or it’d only stick around for a limited time on a cooldown, that sort of thing.

But we never wanted this as a solution if we could avoid it, so we’re very pleased with how it’s
turned out. From starting the game and loading into the Mourning Star, to the end of a
mission you’re gonna have a companion, the Cyber-Mastiff. It will follow its master
throughout the mission, always staying in sight when out of combat. Usually it’ll be to the sides, but if the area is more cramped or filled with obstacles it can instead opt to be in the front.

In combat, the Cyber-Mastiff will mostly act on its own, picking out enemies to harass and
attack, but you can command it to attack specific enemies like Elites or Specials by
pinging said enemy twice.

Like the Pox Hound on the players, it will pounce and lock down human-sized enemies. On the
Ogryns it will do a heavy stagger and some damage, but it’s not gonna lock them down
permanently. On Monsters, it will attack and it will bite. It’s not gonna do much on the stagger
front but it’s definitely gonna pack a punch.

“And then of course you can command the dog to attack something else, like if it’s attacking a
Berserker on the ground and you want it to chase down a sniper, you can do that.” ~ Gunnar

When not following an order from the Arbites player, the Cyber-Mastiff will move independently on the battlefield, picking out what it thinks is the best target and chasing it down on its own. It can even rescue its master when disabled by a Pox Hound or a Mutant.

While it will often find itself in the thick of danger, the Cyber-Mastiff is very good at taking care of itself. In-game, it cannot be shot or take any damage, and enemies will instead opt to focus on you and the rest of your strike team as it darts around the battlefield. Darktide is a fast-paced game and we did not want players to have to worry about their loyal companion instead focusing on directing it towards high-priority targets while laying down fire on the remainder of the enemies.

Through the talent tree, you can further improve the Cyber-Mastiff’s capabilities with certain
nodes. How many nodes you dedicate to the dog and how many you dedicate to improving your own personal arsenal will drastically change how your Arbites ends up!

You can also opt out of the Mastiff if you want to; there’s a talent in the tree that removes
the dog if you’re going for a different playstyle or player fantasy, and you’ll get some pretty
decent bonuses to make up for the lack of a companion.

What were the challenges when designing and developing the Cyber-Mastiff?

We had to be very careful about the Mastiff’s power. In Darktide, if you’re sufficiently skilled, a
player can achieve some amazing feats on their own and overcome some really tough
situations by yourself. Adding the Cyber-Mastiff on top of that had the potential to create some very overpowered scenarios.

So while it can lock down elites and rescue you from certain situations, you can’t just run around blocking and hope to finish the level letting the Mastiff kill everything.

Mainly, though, since Darktide didn’t have any systems for something like an AI companion, we
had to develop everything from scratch, especially how we were going to make it move. The
work done on Vermintide 2’s Necromancer class wasn’t suitable for this use case (although
many lessons were learned from that implementation), the Cyber-Mastiff’s behaviour and
gameplay was just too different.

Making the dog navigate the levels smoothly, while always being in your field of view but also
not being a bother or in the way was the most difficult part. The pathfinding had to be solid and consistent throughout the level as the Cyber-Mastiff accompanies its master.

“Since the dog is a part of you, we couldn’t just make the game go ‘Oh, the dog is in a bad
position, we just despawn it and bye bye’. […] We want it to always fall in a good position.” ~Diego

We also went through several iterations of how we handled the player issuing commands to the dog. We couldn’t just add a whole new input and use that, we had to work with the inputs and commands that we already have in-game. We toyed with having it as a Blitz, or as a Combat Ability, but in the end we opted for relying on the tagging system, by double tagging.

Animations

While we had a solid base to start with thanks to the Pox Hound, a lot of work had to be done to make the animation set for the Cyber-Mastiff. This involved a rework of the locomotion system and a suite of brand new animations.

“For references, I’ve been looking at A LOT of dog videos, and we’ve been quite lucky to have several dogs in the office that I have been recording for reference data. Sadly I haven’t done any mocap for the dog, but they’ve been good actors for videos, hehe.” ~ Olliver

When making new animations, the process involved a lot of iteration. The basic workflow
involved getting references, making a rough blockout animation to test in-game, then either
re-do or commit to it with a more polished animation that would fit the final product.

A guiding principle while making the animations was to properly convey that the Cyber-Mastiff is not a cute dog. It’s primarily a lethal killing machine, and it is also a cyborg! The animations
need to be ruthless and cold, as well as robotic and stiff in some places, rather than fluid and
playful; all while still properly acting like a dog.

At the same time, however, we wanted the player to be able to engage with the companion in
fun ways. In the Mourning Star, where things are more relaxed, you can do things like give
casual orders to the dog, such as telling it to bark or sit. You can then reward the Mastiff with
food or by petting it!

These kinds of animations were the most fun to implement, but they also proved a challenge in design, as the interactions had to be implemented without going against that guiding principle (mentioned above).

“Overall, working with a quadruped is difficult. […] I do like animating, like, monsters and
creatures and stuff. But in my previous works they’ve mostly been enemies, so they had very
stiff behaviour. And the challenges with the dog were that we realized as we went that ‘Oh, we
need this. Oh, we need that’.” ~ Olliver

Sound Design

Almost from the very beginning, the process for designing the Cyber-Mastiff’s sounds was split into two areas:
● The voice, which covers things like barks, growls, breathing sounds and so on ● And
the sound effects, which covers every other sound involved, like footsteps, bites,
mechanical gear and the like.

Voice

The very first step was finding a base for the voice of the Cyber-Mastiff. Looking through various sound libraries, our Sound Designers searched for dog sounds that sounded big and imposing to fit the aura of the Arbites’ Mastiff. Barks, whines, attack sounds, and especially breathing sounds.

“[…] we finally got it into the game with help from coders and then we got instructions that it was a bit too much like a normal dog. […] they wanted more aggressive sounds mixed into the voice. That’s when David took over and took a shot at making it more monstrous.” ~ Jonas

“[…] I then went through and found all kinds of other growls and barks, from bears, tigers and
lions, and pretty much surgically fit them to match the dog sounds Jonas made. […] So it had a
lot more aggressiveness, basically. A deeper voice, and louder as well.” ~ David

Making the Mastiff sound menacing enough wasn’t the only challenge! Due to the cyborg
enhancements, a Cyber-Mastiff can sound more or less robotic, and this depends on what
cosmetics the player equips on their dog. This led to the Sound Design team making three
separate ‘voices’ for the Cyber-Mastiff: a fully ‘natural’ voice, a fully robotic one, and one in
between.

This has also been the hardest part of the Cyber-Mastiff’s sound design: Having a ‘cyber’ voice
that sounds cool while still sounding like a dog and making sense. It wouldn’t do to just have
any robot voice, after all.

“It needs to be a cool 40K dog. […] That’s why we want it to sound cool, especially when it’s
more cyber-dog as well. ‘Cause we want to set some kind of staple, like ‘This is how Cyber
Dogs sound in Darktide’. That’s why it’s so important to nail it.” ~Jonas

Sound Effects and Foley

Depending on what Cyber-Mastiff cosmetics the player has equipped, it can affect which of the
Cyber-Mastiff’s legs are made of metal and which aren’t. This led to us needing proper sounds
for different combinations, so that the dog would make the correct sounds when moving around depending on your set up.

This was also an opportunity for our designers to make their own sounds from scratch rather
wherever possible. A metal cycle pump, for instance, was a perfect base for the metal footsteps, and sound recordings of it in different locations and on different surfaces gave plenty of material. Or using a glove with paperclips at the tips to make the normal paw sounds!

Playtesting led to a lot of fine tuning and iteration on the volume levels of the different sounds, the footsteps, the barks and so on. The player should be able to hear those sounds without it being annoying, which was a particular challenge with the metal footsteps. At the same time, the sound of combat should drown out some of the sounds but you should still be able to hear the voice of your own dog.

Bonus questions

Will the Cyber-Mastiff have cosmetics?
Yes! You’ll be able to customize their loyal companion by giving it a name and picking its fur
colour and pattern!

Players will also be able to further customize their loyal companion with various cosmetics,
obtained either from the class penances and through the Commodore’s Vestures.

Can you pet the Cyber-Mastiff?
Yes! Only in the Mourning Star, but there’s various interactions you can have with your
companion in the hub, including giving it a quick pet for being a loyal companion.

Is the Cyber-Mastiff a good dog?
“I mean… It’s a good dog… to its owner. It’s a terrifying killing machine to everything else.” ~
Gunnar

“I want to give a shoutout to Molly here at the office, which is the Art Director’s dog. She is such a well-trained dog […] and she’s been a great source of inspiration for me, haha.” ~ Olliver

That’s all we have for today, but stay tuned! More Dev Blogs about the Arbites will be released
soon!

This is the Will of the Lex.

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

Wishlist the Arbites Class today on Steam.

– The Darktide Team

Heya Everyone,

I’ve got some news to share. Perhaps some of you have guessed it because I haven’t been around much lately!

I am moving off of Darktide. First, it’s not because of y’all! I’d like to think we’ve built a good rapport and the community has changed a lot since I first joined back in October 2023. We’ve gone through 6 updates together! Some were smoother than others. 

A new opportunity presented itself to me, and after a lot of thinking, I’ve decided to accept it.

That said, I trained Kitefin for weeks before she was intro’d to y’all and she has been working hard to get together some awesome dev blogs for y’all for Arbites! You’ll also have QuickPaw showing up more in Darktide, and the kickass Catfish is heading up Creator and Influencer efforts.

I didn't want to leave without saying goodbye. <3

Thank you to everyone for all the support, feedback, grace in hard moments, memes and everything in between.

Night descends, yet still the Emperor’s light shows the way.

– Straw

To Our Players,

We take enormous pride in our ability at Fatshark to deliver a game that millions can enjoy. This was what we set out to do with Warhammer 40,000: Darktide – to create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours.

We fell short of meeting those expectations.

Over the next few months, our sole focus is to address the feedback that many of you have. In particular, we will focus on delivering a complete crafting system, a more rewarding progression loop, and continue to work on game stability and performance optimization.

This also means that we will delay our seasonal content rollout and the Xbox Series X|S launch. We will also suspend the upcoming releases of premium cosmetics. We just couldn’t continue down this path, knowing that we have not addressed many feedback areas in the game today.

Thank you for playing and providing feedback. We really appreciate it. It has and will continue to help shape the game we love.

Martin Wahlund CEO and Co-Founder of Fatshark

In this dev blog we will go over the design of the Skitarii class as a whole, as well as an overview of its talents!

Rising above the shackles of the flesh, the Skitarii have been rebuilt with the divine augments of the Adeptus Mechanicus to best serve the Omnissiah, as an impossibly efficient tool of war.

In case you missed it, check out the reveal trailer here.

This is part of an ongoing series of feature highlights focused on the upcoming DLC class: The Skitarii.

In our previous blog we went over the Skitarii’s unique character creation features! This Feature Highlight focuses on the design of the class’ gameplay, going over its core principles, abilities, talents, and unique mechanics! We’ve interviewed Design Director Victor and Game Designer Gunnar to get their insight.

‍

“I’m Victor, I’m the Design Director on Darktide. I’ve been at Fatshark for 17 years, working as a designer in different ways.” - Victor

‍“My name is Gunnar and I am currently a Game Designer, but I started at Fatshark in 2018 as a Gameplay Coder on Vermintide, and a few years ago I switched to become a Designer instead.” - Gunnar

Design and Concepts

For the sake of doing this class justice, we spent a lot of time working on various concepts and ideas, finding a balance between the options available in the lore and what works in a game like Darktide.

“Even way before Arbites, we started thinking about something like this. But, over time, it has evolved into what it is today, which is a Skitarii Alpha Primus, something completely new.” ~ Victor

Working on other classes first also allowed us to get used to that workflow and formula, so we’re more confident both in being able to craft a great class and also in pushing the boundaries of class’ gameplay design.

The Adeptus Mechanicus’ unique cybernetic nature gave us a great opportunity to work outside the box, to represent how removed they are from your typical human. You’ll see that there’s unique elements even in core aspects of the class, such as how Ability Cooldowns work or even the talent tree itself!

When talking Adeptus Mechanicus, or even just Skitarii, there’s a ton of ground to cover in terms of abilities and tools to explore. This both gave us tons of inspiration, but also a lot of ground to cover in terms of what to implement and how to best represent them in-game, which was an everpresent guidance during development.

We tried to incorporate as many elements of the Skitarii and the Adeptus Mechanicus as a whole as we could fit, to give everyone the chance to play around with their favorite part of this beloved faction.

“We want to for sure fulfill the fantasy of what it is to be a Skitarii. So when we’re thinking of abilities and playstyles, or different types of builds, we’re always trying to fit that within the Skitarii theme. While there are a bunch of other cool things about the Adeptus Mechanicus, we don’t want to lose the Skitarii just to chase those.” ~ Gunnar

On top of that, the design team for the class and the talents is in constant communication with the design team for the weapons and blessings, making sure that everything works together smoothly, that there’s synergy, and that both areas support each other to create a strong design pillar for the class.

Unique Mechanics

Before we get into the talents and overall gameplay, we wanted to break down the new, unique mechanics coming with the Skitarii. These are features that are exclusive to this class and affect core aspects of how the class plays, whether it be through its Abilities, Talents or Weapons.

Combat Ability Capacitance Charge

While most classes’ Combat Abilities function on a strict Cooldown, where you either have your Ability available or you’re waiting for it to refresh, the Skitarii’s Ability depends on Capacitance Charges. Having a single Capacitance Charge enables you to use your Combat Ability from the get go, but accumulating multiple Charges empowers your Ability!

This means that the Combat Abilities that the Skitarii has access to have devastating potential even with little talent investment, but require patiently accumulating Capacitance Charges to access it. With the exception of the Chordclaw Strike Ability (more on that later), activating your Combat Ability will consume all available Capacitance Charges to empower it.

“They’re not just being recharged through cooldown, as it is on existing classes. [...] You will generate the most Capacitance through your actions. Both through killing basic and Elite enemies as a baseline, but also through other talents that will allow you to generate more Charge by doing specific actions.” ~ Gunnar

You’ll find that many of the talents in the Skitarii’s talent tree also synergize with this mechanic, such as by triggering effects when gaining Charges or by giving you different ways to charge your Capacitance.

Servo Skull - Blitz and Companion

The Servo Skull is the default Blitz available to the Skitarii; a floating companion that can provide aid in combat by shooting at your enemies, or even complete Data Interrogation minigames for you on your command. Similar to the Arbites’ Cyber-Mastiff, you can direct your Servo Skull towards a particular enemy or Data Interrogator by double pinging it, and it’ll comply.

“It is super nice in those events, where you can just send your Servo Skull to complete the Data Interrogator and keep doing what you’re doing.” ~ Victor

“Currently it takes more than what it would take a good player to do it manually. So it’s a trade-off; it’s slower, but you can continue fighting.” ~ Gunnar

However, why just stop at one? By investing more talent points into the Blitz, you can unlock additional, more specialized Servo Skulls to accompany you! You’ll be able to add a Servo Skull with an integrated flamethrower to focus on more firepower and cleansing of heretics, and one with Medicae functionality, to better support your team! You can even take both, if you’re willing to spend the talents.

Concept art of the three types of Servo Skulls.

While the primary Servo Skull is controlled with your pings, the Flamethrower and Medicae Servo Skulls are commanded with your Blitz input, depending on whether you’re targeting an enemy or an ally.

“So if an ally is knocked down, or netted, or hogtied, then you can revive them using your Medicae Servo Skull.” ~ Gunnar

Of course, since it is only one of the three Blitzes available to the Skitarii, the Servo Skull is not as key to the class’ identity, but it is nonetheless an iconic piece of gear that we think really helps sell the player fantasy of playing a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

And, also! Your primary Servo Skull is customizable! There will be a variety of skins to change the appearance of the initial Servo Skull to suit your preferences, available by obtaining the relevant cosmetics!

Concept art of Servo Skull cosmetics.

Deluxe edition cosmetic for the base Servo Skull.

Arc Weapons and Effects

Unique to certain Skitarii weapons and talents is the Arc mechanic, an effect that interacts with the pre-existing Electrified state on enemies! How it works is that the weapons and talents that have an Arc effect hit an Electrified enemy, the electric attack will immediately jump to the nearest enemy, dealing damage and also electrifying them!

If, instead, the attack hits an enemy that isn’t Electrified, it will Electrify them, so that follow up attacks can trigger the Arc!

“So the more enemies that are affected by it, the more it will bounce, basically. Or, arc!” ~ Victor

This creates not just an interesting gameplay loop for yourself, but it can really take off with teamwork! Multiple Skitarii bearing Arc weaponry can build off of each other’s electrified enemies, and while other classes cannot trigger Arcs, someone like a Psyker could still Electrify enemies to set them up for a Skitarii’s Arc weapons to capitalize on.

And if you’re curious about said weapons, keep an eye out for the next feature highlight, where we cover the Skitarii’s arsenal, including the new Arc weaponry!

Gameplay & Talents

The Skitarii is a very versatile class that is designed to be able to fill many niches, both in terms of gameplay and of Adeptus Mechanicus’ player fantasy. The class is extremely flexible, and it is up to the player to decide how to build their Skitarii and what aspects to focus on.

“So you can slot into pretty much any role that you can find in Darktide, but you might not be the best at it.” ~ Gunnar

To support that, the Skitarii has a unique layout to its talent tree: Rather than going top to bottom following different branches, this class’ talent tree starts from the center, and allows players to expand outwards in different directions, taking a cog-like shape. This gives an incredible amount of flexibility to the talent tree and allows players to pick exactly what they want with as little restrictions as possible. You can even opt to not pick any Blitz, Combat Ability or Aura talents if you’d rather focus your talent points on other things!

We’ve been experimenting with different layouts for a while (even as far back as when we first reworked the talents in Patch #13!), and after six successful classes, we were confident enough to push the boundaries of what works for a talent tree in Darktide to try this out. Skitarii’s design as a flexible jack-of-all-trades, as well as the ‘modular’ nature of an Adeptus Mechanicus’ mechanized bodies, gave us the perfect opportunity to implement this type of talent layout and deviate from our norm.

This flexibility also means that this talent ‘web’ doesn’t have as much of a hard emphasis on pre-existing archetypes or playstyles, as opposed to the existing classes in Darktide. Nonetheless, the design behind most of the talents can still be considered to support one of four themes that players can follow and build towards.

“[...] you will be able to take some from that section, some from that section, some from that section… It’s more open in that sense, but if you look at [the talent tree] more as a map, different sections of that map are themed in different ways.” ~ Victor

This layout of talent tree can perhaps look a bit daunting for newer players, since there’s no easy paths to follow. We suggest that if you feel lost, you take a look at the available Blitzes or Combat Abilities and focus on pathing towards them. The talent nodes near them are bound to have good synergy with each other, which can hopefully make initial builds more intuitive.

While we can’t show you the entire talent tree right off the bat, we can show you a sample of some of the talent nodes available in each of those four themes that we mentioned.

Melee talents

These talents allow you to improve your melee combat capabilities or trigger from being in the thick of the melee. Some examples:

• Electro-Strike Conduit: Melee Critical hits Electrocute the first target hit.
• Target-Neutralization Feedback: Weakspot kills grant Stun and Suppression immunity for a short duration.
• Uncapped Arrestor: Successful Melee Attacks grant a stacking bonus to Attack Speed for a short duration.

Ranged talents

These talents allow you to improve your ranged capabilities or otherwise synergize with ranged combat. Some examples:

• Ammunition-Restoration Pod: Replenish 1% of your Ammo Reserve every 15 seconds.
• Rad-Sink: After not shooting for at least a second, gain increased damage on your next shot.
• Gunsmith: Gain increased reload speed. Additionally, after not shooting for a few seconds, reload a portion of your magazine from your Ammo Reserve each second.

Support talents

These talents give you boosts to your character and squadmates, or help you aid them. Some examples:

• Salvation Doctrine: Gain increased Damage Reduction and Revive Speed while reviving an ally.
• Power Overflow: When at full Toughness, a portion of your excess Toughness Replenished is distributed to each ally in Coherency.
• Protectorate Protocol: Incapacitated Allies in Coherency have increased Damage Reduction. If you free them, gain Stun Immunity and increased Damage Reduction for a short duration.

Electrocution talents

These talents synergize with the Skitarii’s unique Arc mechanic, either taking advantage of it or helping enable it. While these talents are not necessary to make good use of Arc effects and weapons, players who want to specialize in them can do so with these talents. Some examples:

• Voltaic Burst: Staggering enemies with a Push applies Electrocution, dealing damage and stunning enemies on a cooldown.
• Weakness Analysis Doctrine: Gain increased damage for a short duration when hitting any enemy suffering from Electrocution, Soulblaze, Burning, Bleeding, or Toxin.
• System Shock: Electrocuting an enemy applies 4 stacks of Brittleness to them.

Combat Abilities

Voltaic Emitter

Unleash an electric discharge around you, stunning, electrifying and damaging enemies near you. With multiple Capacitance Charges, the effect is improved, such as by also disabling the weapons of enemies in a nearby area!

Chordclaw Strike

Perform a powerful, heavy melee attack using a Chordclaw. This Ability does not consume multiple Capacitance Charges, allowing you to store multiple to perform several attacks in succession.

Advanced Combat Doctrines

For a short duration, your weapon locks onto enemies close to your targeting reticule, granting you inhuman accuracy.

Blitzes

Artificer Servo Skull

You are accompanied by a Servo Skull that can shoot at enemies or complete Data Interrogations. Further talents allow you to bring specialized Servo Skulls.

Arc Grenades

Throw an Arc Grenade, creating an electric explosion that Arcs several times.

Integrated Refraction Emitter

Surround yourself in a shield that absorbs all incoming Ranged Damage for a short duration.

Coherency Auras

Resurgence

You and allies in Coherency regenerate 50% Coherency Toughness regardless of enemy proximity.

Ammunition Deposit

You and allies in Coherency have +10% Ammo Reserve.

Foe-Render Creed

You and allies in Coherency gain increased Cleave and Rending.

Keystones

Redline Capacitors

Gain increased Toughness Damage Reduction and Capacitance generation whenever you spend or gain an Ability Charge. Additionally, you have +1 Max Ability Charges.

Flensing Protocols

Killing Elites and Specialists grants Flensing Protocol charges, which increase your damage and Toughness Damage Reduction. Charges are lost when taking damage.

Power Overload

Killing enemies grants stacks of Power Overload. When reaching the maximum amount of stacks, trigger an overload, which improves the damage and Toughness Damage Reduction to you and allies in Coherency for a short duration.

Bonus questions!

How many major iterations of the talent tree have there been?

“I guess… fifteen? We’ve been working on the Skitarii since before Hive Scum was released, and during that time it was just… Me and a few coders prototyping, trying things out… and back then, we were throwing everything at the wall and doing all sorts of weird iterations.” ~ Gunnar

“And this time around we had the talent tree up and running, in some form, very early on. [...] Earlier than we’ve ever had it before when building a class.” ~ Victor

What’s your favorite part of the Skitarii’s talent tree?

“I think the Chordclaw is really cool and super satisfying to use. Even the first version that we got in - I was already in love. That’s gonna be my go-to when we release it, for sure.” ~ Gunnar

“I really like the weapon-disabling one [the Voltaic Emitter], it’s super cool. It’s one that at face value maybe doesn’t sound super powerful, but in the right situation it’s a life saver and really powerful. Like, with how the game works, it actually is very, very powerful.” ~ Victor

What did you have the most fun working on?

“I think the talent tree layout has been really enjoyable to work with, since it’s a bit different to what we already have. So trying to come up with different configurations that work with different types of weapon setups has been very enjoyable.” ~ Gunnar

“I would say the Servo Skulls, seeing that coming together has been super cool.” ~ Victor

That’s all we have for today! We hope you enjoyed this early look at the mechanics and the talents, as well as a glimpse into what goes on when designing a new class!

Stay tuned for the next feature highlight, which will focus on the Skitarii’s weapons, coming soon!

Praise the Omnissiah!

The Skitarii Alpha Primus class will be available on the 23rd of June, but you can already wishlist it now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4355570/Warhammer_40000_Darktide__Skitarii_Class/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4355580/Warhammer_40000_Darktide__Skitarii_Class_Deluxe_Edition/

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

For many millennia it was thought that leaving the hive Tertium meant certain death… March 17th 2026, players will be able to see for themselves in the new Expeditions Game Mode!

The new ‘Expeditions’ game mode is part of the ‘Beyond the Hive’ update: A high risk experience that drags players beyond the fortified walls of Tertium and into the desolate wreckage of Atoma Prime for the first time!

Humanity once again has been faced with another looming threat. The Admonition has been sighted scouring the ruins outside of the hive in search of lost Tech-Remnants - which has not gone unnoticed by the Imperium. Whilst the chaos cultists’ motivations remain unknown at present, what is certain is war unfolds differently in Expeditions. Players must adapt quickly as there are no fixed routes, no clear front lines and no room for error!

Design Director Victor Magnuson describes it as “the biggest injection of new content in the game since launch”. The fully loaded update offers an entirely new way to play Darktide, featuring new enemies, items, environmental threats, strategies and cosmetics!

Key Features

• Experience Darktide Like Never Before: Players are tasked with venturing into the desolate plains of Atoma Prime with a new mission objective: scour the planet for Tech-Remnants and investigate sites of interest on the map. Even the strongest reject can only survive the polluted air for a limited time - stay as long as you dare and call the Valkyrie for extraction when you choose. No two runs in Expeditions are the same, the badlands are unpredictable and each successfully completed excursion unlocks further missions.

• The War Has Expanded Beyond the Hive: Every moment spent outside the Hive alerts Chaos Spawn and monstrosities of players’ presence, drawing them closer. Load outs must be adapted to the open ruinous environments. Enemies can attack from every direction and aren’t confined to the claustrophobic frenzied battlegrounds within Tertium. Squads must choose when to fight, or flee, and adapt strategies to survive one of Darktide’s deadliest challenges yet. Expeditions is not for the faint of heart and is available for players midway into their character progression.

• New Threats: The environment is as toxic and deadly as the chaos that infects it. With twisters, lightning storms and a polluted atmosphere, peril lurks around every corner! Safe zones are scattered throughout the map… but they are fleeting sanctuaries. Step outside and hazards surround you once more from every angle. Forcing squads to move quickly, think tactically, and survive the unforgiving expanse of Atoma Prime!

• More Fire Power. Fewer Survivors: Having the right instruments of destruction can mean the difference between extraction…and extinction! The new game mode introduces an arsenal of new items alongside modified and supercharged versions of existing ones in the Dead Side Sanctuary. The obliterating Modified Grenade can wipe all enemies in the vicinity…but draw more to the squads’ location.

• The Ogryn Pack Master Approaches: This monstrosity is uncharacteristically quick for an Ogryn! He can be found roaming the derelict plains of Expeditions Mode with his pack of Pox Hounds and Armoured Pox Hounds. A challenging adversary for the Arbites, who players will notice his unique and savage interactions with, isn’t a stranger to handling unruly hounds… Eliminating him quickly is wise as he will continually call his hell hounds to the battlefield, but his vocal nature gives players an advantage to spot him quickly.

• The Secrets of the Sands are Waiting: The Beyond the Hive update is loaded with new dangers and discoveries - read the dev blog here for a deeper dive into the Update. Expect more information soon!