Welcome To Darktide
Glorious Title Screen
What is Darktide all about?Darktide is a first-person shooter (FPS) and cooperative (PvE) “horde shooter” game set in the grimdark Warhammer 40,000 universe and developed by Fatshark. The game follows in the footsteps of Left 4 Dead, where up to 4-players work as a team to hack, slash, shoot, and blast their way through hordes of different enemies and through a variety of haunting levels and environments.
Like other Left 4 Dead successors, including Fatshark’s prior games Vermintide and Vermintide 2, Darktide features character progression, crafting, and cosmetic systems. Resources and experience earned during missions are used to purchase, upgrade, and craft new weapons and gear as well as unlock new abilities and talents for the game’s four different character classes.
Platform AvailabilityDarktide is available on Steam and Microsoft GamePass (for both PC and XBOX). The game features cross play, allowing Steam and Gamepass players to play together. It is an Online only multiplayer game with no solo-only gameplay mode. You can queue up private games, use the match-making system, or queue into matches with your friends.
DLC & Premium CurrencyThe game utilizes a premium currency ("Aquillas") that is ONLY used for purchasing premium cosmetics from a rotating cosmetic shop. All gameplay-related features are completely separate from the premium currency (no pay to win here, thankfully). Gameplay related content is provided as part of free upgrades. There is no DLC required.
Crushers, armored foees, chaotic battles oh my...
What’s the overall appeal of the game?The ‘Tide series of games (Vermintide and Darktide both) features some of the best melee combat gameplay of any FPS game. Darktide builds on this by also having solid ranged combat gameplay. Darktide is set in a sprawling Hive city, which provides the perfect environment for this hybrid combat system. From an appeal standpoint, fans of the game love Darktide for its visceral, deep, and intricate combat mechanics (more on this later) and the degree of teamwork that is needed to take on the game’s biggest challenges.
There is a high skill ceiling to the game, and climbing up the skill curve is a satisfying journey as the top difficulties provide constant, high-pressure action. There are five base difficulty levels with numerous modifiers that further increase the challenge (as well as the rewards for completion). The game gets tenser and more gripping the higher the difficulty, as the intoxicating depth of Darktide's combat system really shines at the highest difficulties.
Adding to this is the huge number of weapons and equipment that can be acquired, combined with four different playable classes, each with a large distinct skill (aka Talent) tree, and dozens of enemy types. This all adds up to provide a diversity of play styles and character “builds” to experiment with, adding significantly to Darktide's replayability. In some respects, Darktide feels like an Action RPG in terms of abilities and play style diversity, but structured as a first person shooter (FPS) game.
Primary Gameplay & Combat System
The crew readying up for battle
What makes the cooperative combat gameplay so compelling?Darktide has a nuanced and engrossing combat system - and among the best melee combat systems of any FPS game. While it may appear initially straight forward (left click attack, right click block or aiming down the sights, etc.) there is a surprising amount of depth and intricacy, hence the high skill ceiling. The game has five difficulty levels plus a host of modifiers that add to the challenge - and excelling at the highest levels requires a high degree of mechanical skill, situational awareness, game knowledge, and teamwork.
The heavy chainsword is a bountiful decapitator
Melee CombatWhen it comes to melee combat, there are a few things to point out.
Every melee weapon and weapon variant has a different attack pattern and types of strikes. You can click for a light attack or click-and-hold for a heavy attack. Depending on how you switch between light and heavy attacks you can chain different attack patterns together to deal with different situations: wide arcing swings to cleave through hordes or piercing strikes to deal with armored single targets for example.
Weapons also have a “special attack” button that further adds to the attack-set. When you are blocking (holding the right mouse button), you can tap the attack button to “push” enemies back (which consumes your stamina), but you can also attack and hold to perform a “push attack” maneuver. This consumes stamina but can be quite a strong attack on certain weapons.
If this all sounds complicated, well… it kind of is. At lower difficulties it doesn’t really matter much and you can just mindlessly spam your basic attack button all the way through the mission. But on higher difficulties when there are a lot more enemies and elite armored foes, you need to think tactically about what patterns of attacks to use, when to switch to more defensive play, when to get aggressive, all the while balancing your reserve of stamina.
Stamina and MovementDifferent weapons and classes provide you with a different size stamina pool. Stamina is used for blocking, but also sprinting to close ground quickly. If your stamina is depleted you can’t block enemy attacks or push enemies, so it’s important to balance its use. When sprinting you can also tap the couch button to perform slide moves. There is also a gentle parkour-like system allowing you to vault over low railings and hop onto boxes/ledges/etc.
In addition to sprinting, there is a dodge mechanic in the game. Enemy attacks (and even your own) are simulated at a very high level of detail. Where a melee weapon is positioned on your screen is exactly where it is from a hitbox standpoint, so you can time your movement accordingly and dodge enemy attacks. The dodge button lets you take a hop to the side or backwards. Like stamina, dodging is limited however, and you can only dodge so many times in a row before becoming sluggish and unable to effectively dodge. It’s another lever to balance during combat.
The lasgun (laser) weapons are quite enjoyable in capable hands
Ranged CombatRanged combat is more straightforward. Weapons shoot, you can aim down the sights, reload, etc. Most weapons also have a special function, which can range from doing a melee bash / stab attack with your weapon to turning on a flashlight.
There is a suppression system in the game, where shots that hit enemies or are near-misses can send enemies ducking for cover. This suppression system also impacts the player, and taking hits when trying to aim will throw off your aim for a moment. There is a large number of range weapons at your disposal, from pin-point accurate lasguns (lasers), to rapid fire autoguns, plasma guns, pistols, and Warhammer 40,000’s iconic “Bolter” weapon that shoots explosive bullets. Yes, it’s wild.
Health and DamageIn terms of health and damage mitigation, players have both a health meter and a toughness meter. Hits chip away at your toughness, with ranged attacks being fully absorbed by toughness before damaging your health. On the other hand, when taking a melee hit, toughness prevents health damage based on the percentage of toughness you have when you take the hit. At 100% toughness the hit won’t damage your health, at 50% toughness half the damage will hit your toughness and the other half passes through to your health.
Staying a max toughness during melee encounters is critical. Toughness automatically regenerates overtime when you’re in coherency with your teammates (i.e. close to them). Additionally, every class has a number of talent options for how to restore toughness outside of what is provided by coherency. Managing your toughness is vitally important to your survival.
A player’s health bar is further divided into evenly-sized segments called “wounds.” When you lose are your health, you are “downed” and a teammate needs to pick you back up. Your health will be restored but minus one “wound” worth of life. If all your wounds are gone, instead of going down you’ll just die (but fear now, you’ll respawn further ahead somewhere in the map and can be rescued by your team - assuming they make it to you). The difficulty level you choose affects how many starting wounds you have as a player, but equipment and certain talents also affect your wounds.
Character Progression & Crafting
The team strutting their stuff or overconfident?
What is character creation and progression like?You build your own custom characters from scratch, picking their visual characteristics and backstory (no gameplay impact) and class (huge gameplay impact). About the classes:
The “Veteran” class focuses more on ranged combat, team support abilities, and some flanking. The “Zealot” is more melee oriented and combines strong close range damage-dealing, fast movement and durability. The enormous “Ogryn” class is a hulking brute, able to fill both a tank and balanced damage dealer or fire support role. Last, the “Psyker” is a wizard-warrior type class, utilizing psionic Force weapons (and conventional weapons) to provide a host of devastating attacks and abilities (but with the risk of blowing yourself up!). You have up to five character slots, so you can make one character in each class and still have a slot left over. If you don't like details about your characters look or backstory that you choose during character creation, you can change this later on at the "barber" for a minimal cost.
Skill tree examples showing three main "tracks" you can move between
Skill (Talent) TreeReally, all the classes can be geared to emphasize melee or shooting, being tankier or more of a glass cannon. Each character class has a choice of three different “Blitz” abilities (like different grenades or special actions), three different “Auras” that give bonuses to your teammates when in coherency (ie being in close proximity), three different “Class Abilities” (ultimate-like actions that are on a cooldown timer) and three different “Keystones” that give special conditional bonuses for adopting certain playstyles. These four aspects (Blitz, Aura, Ability, and Keystone) can be mixed and matched in different ways to create a range of playstyles.
There is a lot of flexibility in your talents and you can freely respec your talents whenever you want. You can even save different loadouts and character builds to quickly switch things up between matches. It's a solid system and gives you plenty to tinker with.
LevelingIn terms of progression, characters progress from level 1 to level 30, with each level granting a new talent point to spend across the skill trees. Each class will take about 30 hours to fully level up. In addition to earning talent points at each level, the maximum quality of gear and equipment you can find also increases as you level up, with the best gear showing up in the games shops and as mission rewards the closer you get to level 30.
Armory Exchange where you can purchase new gear with your hard earned cash
What about item progression and crafting?As you level up you'll unlock access to new weapons from the game’s armory. Competing missions earns you Dockets (the normal currency in-game) that you can use to purchase equipment from the armory. When you complete a mission you'll also be rewarded with a random weapon. The stats of a given weapon are randomized to a moderate degree, so there's some hunting involved to find above average weapons with the right balance of stats that you might want to then upgrade.
During missions you'll find crafting materials (Plasteel and Diamantine) that kept when the mission is completed. These material resources are used to upgrade acquired equipment to higher rarity levels, eventually capping out at level 5 (Orange tier). Each of your characters will also have access to range of weekly assignments. As you complete these assignments, you'll earn special credits you can use to purchase more upgraded weapons with a variety of perks and blessings (see below).
Crafting menu for upgrading weapons with new perks and blessings
Crafting SystemNote: A crafting system revamp on September 24, 2024 changed many aspects of how weapons are upgraded, which is described below.
Each weapon has five base stats that affect things like damage, armor penetration, mobility, etc depending on the weapon type. These base stats are randomly assigned on acquired weapons, and each has a maximum possible value of 80, These stats can be upgraded through the revised crafting system, but the weapon itself is limited to a maximum of 380 total base stat points, meaning it's impossible to get a perfectly maxed weapon. The random nature of it also means that there be a continuous item hunt for base items that have better stat distributions.
In addition to the stats, each weapon has two “perk” slots and two “blessing” slots, which provide a variety of damage modifiers and other effects for the weapon. Different combinations of blessings and perks can dramatically change the capabilities of a weapon, and the same weapon can be configured for notably different roles, depending on how you want to tailor it. The revised crafting system (called "Mastery") gives you experience for using a given class (or family) of weapons which you will use to unlock blessings and perks that you can then apply to any specific weapons in that family. While it requires a bit of a grind to get full mastery for a weapon, this system does allow you to focus on unlocking specific combinations of perks and blessings to experiment with.
Cosmetic interface and character customization
What about cosmetics and personalizing your character?You can customize the look of your character by specifying their gender, height, hairstyle, skin tone, facial hair, scars, tatoos, etc. You specify this all during character creation, and can modify it later on at the “barber shop” if you want. It’s a merely okay implementation of character customization and doesn't give you super fine control over your look (i..e exact facial features).
In terms of clothing and gear, there are cosmetic slots for your head, upper body, lower body, backpacks, portrait frame and insignia badge, and trinkets (little doodads that hang off your weapons). You can also apply different weapon skins you earn.
There is a premium currency that is ONLY used in the premium cosmetic shop, which has a rotating set of cosmetics on offer.
The rest of the (non-premium) cosmetics are earned by purchasing them from the non-premium cosmetic shop or by completing many of the hundreds of different penances (i.e. achievements) in the game. There is a pretty good range of cosmetics you can earn for free, but many of the more distinctive looks are tied to premium cosmetics (obviously). But even if you don't spend a dime, completing penances will keep you going for a while.
Missions, Enemies, & Challenges
Yes, the game is mostly about kill, kill, kill
So what do you actually DO in the game? Tell me more about the missions and challenges.At the time of writing, there are 19 different missions spread across five different “zones” that represent different parts of the enormous Hive City of Tertium. To be honest, a lot of these zones look fairly similar. They are all combinations of industrial feeling sewer tunnel-like spaces. Sure, some zones have more of a shanty-town vibe and others more gothic cathedral, but it kinda blends together (with the exception of the sandy exterior hourglass zone). Some missions in a zone also repeat certain areas (often traversing in a different way). That said, the visual design of the environments is frequently jaw-dropping. There are some amazing looking set pieces you'll encounter.
As for the missions themselves, they are all fairly linear and static (no major procedural generation or anything like that). You'll progress from one end of the mission to the other, completing one or two special tasks along the way and then having some sort of final battle at the end.
Mission Tasks & EventsThe mission tasks and finales involve things like hacking different computer terminals, collecting/depositing cargo/power containers, scanning for different targets, defending a zone, assassinating a special “boss” and other similar tasks. None of these tasks are very remarkable on their own and they are all pretty simple. But it can be challenging to perform them when there are hordes of enemies pressing down on your team from all directions. You really do need teamwork to progress through these challenges.
As you progress along the level, you’ll continue to fight roaming packs of enemies and hordes, get ambushed by elite packs and monsters, and all the while search for ammo, health, crafting materials, and other pickups along the way. Missions have a nice balance and pace overall and on the higher difficulties there is rarely a dull moment. The “AI Director” does a good job keeping pressure on the players and punishing teams that get spread out and cut off from one another.
A wave of horde enemies surging towards the team
What about the enemies you face?Darktide pits players against a range of enemy types, which creates a variety of combat scenarios that can unfold.
Horde / Trash MobsAt a basic level, you have weak horde enemies, cannon fodder if you will, that can press on the team and overwhelm them if not adequately dealt with. Main line enemies come in the form of ranged shooters or melee fighters and are tougher than the horde mobs. Ranged enemies will duck behind cover and take shots at you, and return fire can suppress them. Darktide isn't a “cover shooter” in the traditional sense though.
Elite EnemiesThen there are the wide variety of elite enemies you'll face, often in large deadly packs on the higher difficulties. Elites likewise come as melee attackers (think of armored berserkers running at you) or ranged enemies wielding rapid fire heavy weapons or high impact shotguns. There are also the much larger Ogryn-sized elites that bear even larger guns, huge shields, or carapace armor that can be difficult to dislodge.
To win the combat, you must be the combat. Enter the flow state.
Special EnemiesLike other horde shooters (eg Left 4 Dead), there are also a number of different specialist enemies. These range from “disablers” like pouncing pox hounds that pin you down to trappers armed with net guns that will disable you until a teammate sets you free. Charging mutants, enemy snipers, bombers lobbing flame or poison gas grenades, maniacs armed with flame throwers. Enemies provide a lot of ways for encounters to get tricky and challenging to deal with.
Bosses/MonstersLast, the game also features a number of giant monstrous boss-type creatures that can barge their way into your team unexpectedly. Dealing with these monsters, like the Plague Ogryn and Chaos Spawn requires a solid amount of teamwork, especially where then is also horde pressing you, and a pack of elites… and disablers… and…. You get the idea.
Narrative & Replay Factor
Environmental design IS amazing in Darktide
Is there a story or narrative? What about in-game events?Yes and no. There IS a story, which has to do with the Hive City of Tertium being taken over by a rebel imperial guard legion that turned to darkside of Chaos - the god of pestilence and decay “Nurgle” specifically - and teamed up with corrupted citizens in the Hive in an attempt to take it over. Inquisition forces, dedicated to finding and purging heretical and chaos-tainted forces are leading an operation to cleanse the city. So far so good.
The player characters (which you customize to your own tastes) begin the story on a prison ship of all things (a familiar trope by now) and during an attack by enemy forces you’re inadvertently freed (imagine that), and end up “proving your worth” to the Imperium by helping the imperial forces survive the attack. This is all in the opening prologue sequence. Fast forward a bit, and now you’re a fresh meat recruit for Inquisition.
As you conduct missions and level up, you’ll unlock new NPC characters that operate various vendor booths, and cut-scenes will give some backstory and context for what that person is all about. At key milestone levels there will be a bigger story cut-scene revealing more of the narrative situation to the player.
Honestly, the connection between the game’s story and gameplay is quite tenuous. This missions themselves are not presented in a defined sequence that follows any coherent plotline. The missions have a minor narrative setup explaining what you’re supposed to be doing, but it can pretty much all be ignored. It’s flavoring rather than a deep storyline.
Everyone's favorite NPC: The snarky, bitter, techpriest Hadron
In-Game EventsThere have been a few special events that take place that are tied more to story elements (there is a special boss fight mission for example that wraps up a story arc about a pair of two twin generals of the enemy forces). But these are pretty inconsequential to the experience. If you’re looking for an interesting story arc that the player actively participates in, Darktide is not that. The story is far more passively presented and kept at an arm’s distance from the player.
Social Hub (Mourningstar)In between missions there is a “social hub” area called the Mounringstar that serves as your base of operations. From here, you can access your inventory and character loadouts, assign skills, visit vendors and the crafting bench, consult the mission board, and team up with others. It’s serviceable as far as in-game hubs go, but not much more.
So… What Drives the Replayability of Darktide?At its core, Darktide is all about the nail-biting, visceral, moment-to-moment combat experience. There is real depth in the combat gameplay. It’s one of those games where you can enter a flow-state of total immersion as you battle your way through tough encounters. If you’re coming to the game expecting to take part in storyline narrative, see a diversity of locations, interact with other characters…this is not it.
Climbing the Skill CurveIf you want to stay engaged long-term, you have to want to climb the skill ceiling. This in turn means figuring out more of the nuances of the mechanics, which only come to bear at higher difficulty levels, in order to get the most out of the gameplay. If you just blitz through every mission the first time you play on the lowest difficulty, you’re missing the bigger picture of why people like the game (as an aside - the starter difficulties are sooooo easy that I think it turns some people off and makes the game feel a bit boring. The mid-level difficulties are much better to get a sense for the gameplay depth).
There are hundreds of penances (i.e. achievements) to work towards - many of which unlock cosmetics
Progression & Achievement SystemtAside from the combat gameplay, the item progression system also drives people to play. The itemization rework sets a clear framework for maxing out your capabilities for each family of weapons, and gives a good target to work towards. In addition, there is an extensive penance (i.e. achievement) system with hundreds of feat-based or time/grind based achievements. These all grant progress along a penance track that rewards cosmetics and other non-gameplay perks, and many of the achievements themselves also directly unlock unique cosmetics. It all gives you some tangible things to work towards.
ConclusionAll in all, Darktide isn’t going to be for everyone. There is a lot of depth and nuance to the combat mechanics, much of it not very well explained in-game, leading to a lot of learning by trial (and/or reading out-of-game guides). Some people won’t care for this. But between the challenges presented in-game, the huge diversity of character builds and playstyles, and the high skill ceiling to climb towards, the game can become intoxicating for those wanting to dig into how it all works and challenge themselves.
I'm Ready! How Do I Get Started?
Make your choice, begin the journey
Create your first character and jump in!Making a character takes about 15 minutes and then you'll need to work through the prologue sequence (about 30 minutes) and then complete a series of training exercises in the "Psykanium" test chamber (another 20 minutes). You only need to do this once and can skip it when makign subsequent characters. The training exercises cover some basic mechanical details. Plan for about 90-minutes when you first play to get through the in-game onboarding before you hop into your first match.
What character should I play?Honestly, pick which ever one you gravitate towards. All the classes can be tailored excel in a range of playstyles. A few caveats. The Ogryn is BIG your camera view is elevated in kind. It's a little different perspective playing Ogryn than the other classes. The Psyker has a unique "Peril" mechanic (like an energy bar) that needs to be managed when using psychic powers. If you max out the bar, you'll explode and kill yourself (and need to be revived) so if you don't want that added pressure maybe pick another class.
If you REALLY want a recommendation, I'd go with Zealot starting off. Zealot gets access to a broad range of ranged weapons (lots of overlap there between what the Veteran and Psyker have access to), but also some fun unique weapons (heavy chainsword / eviscerator for example). Talent / skill wise, the Zealot can be built to be very tanky and durable, or focus more on damage dealing, or even with a stealth build that focuses on flanking and backstabbing. Melee combat is the hallmark of Darktide and Zealot really leans nicely into that.
Fear not the dark
Any beginner tips?There is a lot to learn about Darktide, but below are my top five suggestions as you're getting your feat wet:
#1 Prioritize staying alive and minimizing the damage you take You can't help your team if you're dead. Use the lower difficulties to practice dodging, blocking attacks, pushing enemies, thinking about where you're fighting so you don't get flanked, etc..
#2 Listen for the "Whoosh" This is a subtle but important point. When you are about to be attacked by an enemy melee attack that is outside of your field of vision, the game plays a "Whoosh" sound a moment before you're attacked. Once you hear it you'll start to pick up on it. When you hear the woosh, if you immediately hold block (and also dodge) you'll block the hit. Blocking works in 360-degrees, so this is a key way to avoid damage.
#3 Strick together and be a team player Coherency is important for restoring toughness and for stacking aura benefits from classes. If you get cut off from your team, you're at greater risk for being downed, and its harder for your team to get back and pick you up. Be aware of when teammates are running low on ammo or grenades and leave some for others to pickup. Don't be a hog. Last, tag enemy elites and specialists so your whole team can be aware of them.
#4 Don't get hung up on weapon ratings A weapon's total rating is the sum of its stat bars plus the value of its perks and blessings. The rating doesn't really matter. What matters are having good stats in key stat areas (like damage, ammo, penetration) and effective blessings and perks. As you level up, you'll gain access to higher level blessings you can apply to your weapons. Some blessings are incredibly impactful and dramatically change the effectiveness of weapons. So focus on what the weapon does, not what it's rating is.
#5 Reflect on your losses As you climb the difficulty curve, you'll start failing runs more often. Reflect on your losses. What could you have done better? What caused things to go off the rails? What will you try differently next time. If you take a self-reflective attitude, your skills will improve.
If you want more detailed gameplay guidance, check out my other guide below to help you on your road to Damnation (i.e. the highest difficulty level).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2973174310
Author's Note
At the time of writing I have approximately 650 hours in Darktide. Enough to know what I'm doing but certainly not up to the level of experience of many other players.
Additionally, you may note that many of the screen shots seen in this guide vary slightly from normal. I'm playing the game on PC and running a variety of mods. Mods have sanctioned support from Fatshark to be used, outside of those mods that directly impact other users, bypass cosmetics, or affect server data.
If you're curious about mods, my other guide below might be a good place to start.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2964086851
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3314458060
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