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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

A Day At The Theatre!


Sefoni's new training protocols whisk you off to the Theatres of Mortification. Unleash carnage in the Mortis Trials.

To make progress in the event, complete 4 consecutive waves in the Mortis Trials. Each set of 4 waves completed grants 1 event progress point. It is possible to earn up to a total of 3 progress points per completed Mortis Trial run.

This event will start on Tuesday, March 25. The rewards will be Ordo dockets, Plasteel and Diamantine. Those who complete the last tier of the event will receive a cosmetic insignia.

Nightmares & Visions - OUT NOW!




Hey Everyone,



One of our favourite times of year: releasing a new update for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide…

Nightmares & Visions has already begun to roll out across our platforms. Keep reading to see what’s waiting for you on the Mourningstar.

We are trying something new with patch notes.

From now on, we’ll be listing the patch notes in FULL on our website ONLY. This is because as the game grows, it’s often between 40-50 pages each major update. When trying to format these across three platforms (each with their own formatting)...please think of our poor CM. (Yes, I wrote this. - Straw)

You can read about the rest of the update on our website.



Mortis Trials


Sefoni has a new challenge for you, rejects. The Theatres of Mortification contain the Mortis Trials. A fiendish new addition to Sefoni's training regime. Enter the Psykhanium and Sefoni will pit you against waves of enemies, but she'll also provide what she calls Indulgences (ability enhancements well beyond the powers of an average fighter) to help you in your endeavour. You can begin the trials in the usual way, by visiting the Psykhanium, but for a quicker entry, check out the new terminal near the mission board.

There is a lot to unpack in Mortis Trials, but we don’t want to spoil the fun that awaits. You can read our latest dev blog to learn more about it, or dive right into it once you’ve downloaded the update.



New In-Game Event: A Day At The Theatre!


Sefoni's new training protocols whisk you off to the Theatres of Mortification. Unleash carnage in the Mortis Trials.

To make progress in the event, complete 4 consecutive waves in the Mortis Trials. Each set of 4 waves completed grants 1 event progress point. It is possible to earn up to a total of 3 progress points per completed Mortis Trial run.

This event will start on Tuesday, March 25. The rewards will be Ordo dockets, Plasteel and Diamantine. Those who complete the last tier of the event will receive a cosmetic insignia.



Reminder of Havoc Maintenance Announcement



With Havoc Campaigns, we’ll be introducing new balancing to the game mode. Ahead of Nightmares & Visions, Havoc has been “off-campaign” and unavailable to play from Sunday, March 23 until today, the day of release on March 25.

During this off-time and to reflect the balance changes made, we’ve reset everyone to their nearest threshold depending on the highest they reached the previous Havoc Campaign period. (Please see the chart below.)





Updates to Havoc


As we previewed in our earlier dev blog on Updates to Havoc, there are some structural changes and more coming to Havoc with this release.

Rank Overhaul


Starting with Nightmares & Visions, ranking in Havoc will change. All players who participated in the mission will rank up their order (up to three ranks) depending on eligibility. To be eligible you need to have an order of equal or lower rank.



  • A gap greater than or equal to 10 gives an increase of (3) Clearance Levels.
  • A gap between 6 and 9 gives an increase of (2) Clearance Levels.
  • A gap of less than or equal to 5 gives an increase of (1) Clearance Levels.

Based on feedback received, players' new order next week will no longer be equivalent to the highest played the previous week, rather we’ve opted to roll over the current order rank.

Dev note: The inactivity decay is still active and it only triggers upon no interaction with the Havoc system.


Havoc Campaigns


With this update, we’re introducing Campaigns to Havoc. Our intention is to release a new Campaign with different mutators and a rotating mission pool, alongside our major updates to Darktide.

Havoc Campaigns is what we’ve opted to call the rotation of the mission pool and mutators within Havoc. We want players to be able to learn and adapt to these combinations, while also changing things up over the period of the current Havoc Campaign. We will share more information on our plans for this in a few weeks.

New Mission Pool


The previous missions from Havoc have been rotated out with the start of this new Campaign. The following missions are a part of this latest Campaign:

  • Enclavum Baross
  • Clandestium Gloriana
  • Dark Communion
  • Vigil Station Oblivium
  • Hab Dreyko
  • Power Matrix HL-17-36
  • Magistrati Oubliette TM8-707
  • Ascension Riser 31
  • Relay Station TRS-150
  • Comms-Plex 154/2f

New Mutators



Heinous Rituals

  • Reports indicate that the Admonition has begun creating more Daemonhosts in this area, stop these rituals before it's too late.
  • Based on the mission length X amount of rituals will spawn. These rituals are composed of 8 Dreg ritualists trying to summon forth a new Daemonhost. Kill them all before time runs out or face the wrath of the newly created Daemonhost.

The Encroaching Garden

  • Marked Enemies, blessed by the Lord of Pestilence, will heal affected allies in proximity. 
  • If these enemies are not dealt with quickly, they will rapidly regenerate the enemy forces. 
  • Select enemies will be marked, and while these enemies are alive they will heal allies at a rate of 1200HP/s within a 5 meter radius. 

Enraging Elites

  • Elite enemies fall into rage when under 50% HP left, increasing their attack speed, damage caused and rendering them immune to crowd control.

Rampaging Enemies

  • Enemies in this sector are rampaging. They gain increased defence against attacks upon witnessing the death of an ally.
  • When an afflicted enemy dies, allied enemies in a 4 meters radius around are buffed up to 5 stacks, each stack providing damage reduction.

Havoc Balance Tweaks 


Emperor’s Fading Light

  • Removed the increased shooting time from ranged enemies.
Dev Note: This was removed in response to the lack of build diversity where players felt forced to bring abilities like Psyker Telekine Shield or Zealot Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude.

  • Added in Moebian Lieutenants that have a 80% chance to spawn throughout the mission.
Dev Note: The Lieutenants are derived from the Twins and based on players' sentiment that they were “stuck” in their special assignment. We felt it fitting to bring out enemies that feel familiar.

  • Weakened Monstrosities will have a low chance of spawning throughout the mission.

Horde Pacing

  • Changed horde spawn frequency from being based primarily on distance traveled through the level, to relying on timers. Please note that the amount of hordes allowed is still calculated based on main path traversal.
Dev Note: This change was made as backtracking too far turned off hordes. Also it was changed to combat being able to predict roughly where hordes show up.

New Horde Compositions

  • New coordinated horde strike type: “Blockade sandwich”.
Dev Note:This strike may happen if the strike team tries to backtrack too far.

Roamers

  • Removed density type “none” from Havoc. This change was made to make the mission feel more oppressive with less chances for breaks.
Dev Note: Density type decides on how many roamers we spawn in a given area during regular and Auric missions.
  • Changed spawn population of roamers to be more balanced between melee and ranged, instead of being primarily one or the other.
Dev Note: This change will on average lower the spawn amount of gunner-esque enemies by 20%; this change is subject to be introduced during regular and Auric missions depending on the reception.

Specials

  • Increased coordinated strike and surge frequency.

General


  • Increased Havoc Challenge rating. 
Dev Note: Challenge rating is a rough measure of the "challenge" the players are encountering, this value is part of defining the allowed limits of enemies spawned concurrently.

Miscellaneous

  • Mission accept/reject popup for Havoc missions will now show chevrons that indicate how many rankups you will gain for your own Havoc order if successful.




Quality of Life Change for Havoc





Party Finder Notification Change



When the player is in a mission, the party finder invite popups are replaced by notifications that no longer block gameplay.

Dev Note: We wanted to give a little extra shout out to Badwindt on nexusmods.com for pointing us in the right direction! When we were looking to implement a fix for this, the mod gave us an idea of where to look. 

Quality of Life Changes


DLSS 4 Support Added to Darktide



Support for DLSS 4 has been added, featuring Multi Frame Generation for GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics cards. This technology generates up to three times more frames per traditionally rendered frame, significantly boosting FPS. Additionally, DLSS 4 offers faster single Frame Generation with lower memory usage for both RTX 50 and 40 Series. Additionally users can now choose between the CNN model or the new Transformer model for DLSS Super Resolution on all GeForce RTX graphics cards.

Class Changes



Ogryn Talent Tree Rework


Our favorite Abhuman is getting his Talent Tree revamped! We had a few clear goals we wanted to achieve with the rework that all boiled down to one point: Providing more Build opportunities.

We released a dev blog about the Ogryn Talent Tree changes and since then we’ve made a few more tweaks. You can read about them in full on our website.



Don’t forget, we partnered with Games Lantern to get the new Ogryn Talent Tree up on their build simulator so players can test out their new builds.

Weapon Balance Changes & Tweaks



In this update, we are addressing some of the outliers in the Darktide arsenal, whether over or under-performing.

We approached this objective by tweaking values, but also by adding new features and attack chains, or by shifting the power budget of the weapons, with the goal of giving each of them clear strengths and weaknesses.

In all cases, we made sure that the fantasy of each weapon was maintained or even reinforced by the changes.

Blessing Description Updates 


Dev Note: We have changed the underlying system which is used to present the values used in Weapon Blessings. It will now pull values directly from the data used for the Blessing, instead of these values being hard coded separately.

What this means for you as players is that nothing has changed. But there might be instances of Blessings that look like they have been rebalanced now. In reality, it means that the Blessings will be showing the values that are defined in the game code. This is purely a visual change. 

Known Issue from Nightmares & Visions
  • There is an issue with Psyker’s talent “Mettle” where the game client will crash if the talent reaches 31 stacks of movement speed buff. 
Dev Note: This will be fixed with Hotfix #63 (1.7.1).

You can read about the rest of the update on our website.





Thank you for reading about our latest update, Nightmares & Visions. We’ve worked hard on this update for our community. It’s exciting to finally be able to share it with all of you.

And this is only the beginning of what we’ve got in store for you this year.

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

– The Darktide Team




Introduction: Mortis Trials - Dev Blog


Hello Everyone! 



As promised, we are back this week with another dev blog for the next update for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Nightmares & Visions, which releases next week on March 25, 2025. 

This week, we’re focusing on new content coming to the game in the form of Mortis Trials. This feature has been designed to be a unique, replayable activity whereby players will mash through waves of enemies in visions induced by Sefoni, the Mourningstar’s mysterious Psyker. 

With the arrival of Commissar’s Moebian 53rd and the escalation of the Battle for Tertium, Rannick has grudgingly decided that they need to step up the Rejects’ training regime from, well, nothing, to something. 

With resources tight and the warband’s operatives more than a little… varied in their approach to combat, he and Morrow have turned the matter over to Sefoni. Which makes sense, given that she’s the creator and maintainer of the Mourningstar’s Meat Grinder - a psychically generated oubliette where Rejects can familiarise themselves with new weaponry. 

To make this possible, she’s manifested a new nightmarescape that Morrow calls Sefoni’s Reverie.



What is Mortis Trials?



Unlocked from Trust Level 13, Mortis Trials is a new activity in Darktide where players can experience something they wouldn’t encounter in normal missions, something with crazy wave compositions and roguelike elements. The fickle nature of these psychic manifestations has ensured that no two trials are alike, and only those who adapt will prevail. By accessing Sefoni’s Reverie on the Mourningstar, players will be transported to the Theatres of Mortification. These are the arenas where players will face the challenges Sefoni has created for them.  

At the end of a successfully completed trial, players will return to Sefoni’s Reverie.

Havoc is a game mode with multipliers upon multipliers, and stacked mutators; which has been designed for late-game players to face a challenge. The experience of an activity like Mortis Trials is designed to be chaotic, with easy access for immediate fun. That said, players will face horrors in these theatres, where there is no escape or surrender. Only by standing your ground and fighting with unwavering determination will players emerge with victory. 



What will the game play loop look like for Mortis Trials?


Unlike some other experiences in Darktide, Mortis Trials offers more modular pacing rather than non-stop action. Pacing is key, with the difficulty increasing over time in a fun and expandable way. 

Each trial consists of 12 waves of heretics to clear. These waves will be broken into three waves of three, and then a final set of three heretical-filled waves straight from Sefoni herself. 

When launching Mortis Trials, players will first select the difficulty level they wish to try. From there, the players will assemble in a central theatre. 

Before facing the initial wave, players will receive a small buff. The buff they receive is based on the “indulgence” that is chosen before this first wave begins. 

Each indulgence has a specialization which will define the type of small buffs player will get during the play through. These include:

  • Pyrokinetic: This Indulgence Archetype specialises in dealing fire damage, or improving combat effectiveness while attacking burning targets.
  • Voltaic: This Indulgence Archetype specialises in dealing electric damage, or improving combat effectiveness while attacking electrocuted targets.
  • Fulminator: This Indulgence Archetype combines elements from both Pyrokinetic and Voltaic disciplines. It applies both electric and fire effects on enemies and can improve combat effectiveness when fighting electrocuted or burning enemies.
  • Death Dealer: This Indulgence Archetype specialises in close-quarters shooting and melee. Quick swapping between weapons and quicker reloads.
  • Colossus: This Indulgence Archetype specialises in survivability, focused on close-quarters melee combat.

Based on the archetype selected, the players will receive another small buff for the second wave. Every third wave, the players will be required to move around the arena and complete a designated task. These are the “objective” waves, which happen on the 3rd, 6th and 9th waves.

Upon completing the objective, Rejects are granted a cache of ammunition and supplies to aid in the trials. Further, players will then pick an additional stronger buff. This buff, along with the others, will continue to stack after each wave is successfully cleared. After each objective wave, players will pick an additional stronger buff. (These buffs are often amplifying player abilities, grenades, etc.) Only the most devout and blessed will survive.

After the last objective wave is completed (i.e. wave number 9), Rejects must endure a final set of three waves surging with enemies.  These are the waves where the players are the strongest. We want to give them plenty of time to enjoy their power to the fullest.

After successfully completing one round of the Mortis Trials, players must return the Mortis Relic to Sefoni in her Reverie. The strain of these Trials pushes her to her limit, causing stray thoughts and memories to slip out of her head. Attentive players might glean unintended insights into key members of the Mourningstar crew, so you better pay attention.

Repeated playthroughs of the Mortis Trials promise different play experiences, with new Indulgences to try and new conversations to unlock.



Narrative Focus: Mortis Trials



To learn more about Mortis Trials from a narrative perspective we are handing the dev blog over to our Narrative Lead, Michael Knight and our Lead Writer, Matthew Ward.

Sefoni’s one of the first characters a new Reject meets, but we don’t know much about her. Is that about to change?

Michael Knight: Yes and no. Sefoni’s delighted that she’s got new playthings to torment - the Rejects probably treat her better than most of the rest of the warband - but she’s also very secretive. That said, generating the Trials of Mortification places Sefoni under enormous pressure, and fragments of her past have a tendency to manifest without her knowing.

MW: Not just her past.

MK: I’m pretty sure that we’re not supposed to talk about that. Grendyl wouldn’t like it. Safe to say, the Trials of Mortification offer the Rejects the opportunity to learn a lot more than Rannick intends. That probably won’t end well for Sefoni, but again, I doubt she cares.

How do the Rejects complete a Trial?

MK: Each Trial of Mortification is effectively a beefed-up exercise in a section of the Meat Grinder. The Rejects need to defeat the waves of enemies being projected by Sefoni, accomplishing tasks along the way. If they win, they’ll unlock a relic and get one step closer to being initiated into the Mourningstar’s elite cadre of Mortis Operatives. Fail, and… you can guess the rest.  

MW: But Sefoni isn’t entirely heartless. The Meat Grinder’s her world. It follows her rules, so she’s prepared to offer the Rejects a series of indulgences (in-game buffs) that will help them meet the challenge.

MK: Rannick isn't going to like that.

MW: There’s definitely a sense that she’s not answering to Rannick any more, if she ever did.

You said something earlier about the Rejects having a chance to learn things that Rannick doesn’t want them to know. Can you tell us a little more about that?

MK: Well … Sefoni’s a psyker, a pretty rare and formidable one. And she’s been with Grendyl a long time. She’s overheard a lot over the years. Chances are, she knows a lot more about the warband than even Rannick. How far that goes - and how deep it goes - remains to be seen.

MW: One thing’s for sure… As time goes on, she’s going to get bolder.

MK: Unless Rannick catches her.

MW: Unless that, yes.

Hmm…there is a lot to be unpacked there. I’ll leave that for the community theory crafters.



Thank you for reading our dev blog on Mortis Trials, part of the new content coming alongside the Nightmares & Visions update slotted for release next week on March 25, 2025. We’ll be looking out for any questions over the weekend and we’ll make sure we answer them in the patch notes.

Remember, the Emperor protects. But He also demands sacrifice.

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

– The Darktide Team

Updates to Havoc - Dev Blog


Hey Everyone,


When Havoc Mode was first released at the end of 2024, we mentioned it would be a system we’d continue to hone with community feedback.

Over the last couple of months, we’ve been reading tons of input from the community on Havoc through player comments, threads, videos, memes, etc.

Now as the first dev blog for our next update, Nightmares and Visions, we’d like to tell players all about the work we’ve been doing on Havoc and the changes we’re bringing to the game mode in March.

First of all, we upped the pacing a bit to keep things fresh. Players might notice there is less time to regroup than there was before. There are other larger changes we’d like to touch on in this blog, though.



Rank Overhaul



One of the biggest points of feedback we received had to do with progressing through different Havoc Assignment Ranks. 

(As a quick refresher, Havoc Assignment Rank is the current Havoc Assignment a player has access to play in the game; Havoc Clearance Level refers to the highest Assignment a player has completed. 

A player’s Havoc Assignment Rank currently changes after each mission or after each weekly reset. It can go down if a player only plays lower Assignment Rank missions that week. However, a player’s Havoc Clearance Level only goes up over time as a player completes higher Assignment Ranks.)


As it stands in the game now, before playing a game of Havoc, the party needs to choose which player’s Havoc Assignment they’d like to attempt to complete. After finishing the game, only the owner of that Havoc Assignment would see their own Clearance Level go up. The remaining players would need to wait until the following week to see their Havoc Clearance Level go up. We read the feedback saying this part of Havoc was frustrating and unclear.

Further, there were worries of “boosting” other players through the initial system we laid out. 

We’ve made some changes. 

With this update, we’ve changed it so everyone who participates in a Havoc game will rank up their Assignment Rank. That is, upon winning the mission, all the players of equal or lower Assignment Rank to the chosen mission will be ranked up. 

All players who participate get the mission reward, as well.

To make it fair, everyone who participates in a mission for Havoc will be eligible to be penalized upon failure (i.e. lose a charge), too.

These changes were made to ensure everyone who participates in Havoc will feel rewarded post-mission. 

How do we determine how many ranks a player will climb after completing a Havoc mission? 

It is determined by the difference between the player's Assignment Rank and the Assignment Rank being played (shown in the chart below).



  • A gap of less than or equal to 5 gives an increase of (1) Clearance Levels.
  • A gap between 6 and 9 gives an increase of (2) Clearance Levels.
  • A gap greater than or equal to 10 gives an increase of (3) Clearance Levels.

A player’s Assignment Rank is no longer determined by the highest completed Havoc Assignment Rank from the previous week. Instead, as long as a player is active each week, the player will retain their current Assignment Rank. (A player is considered “active” as long as they attempt at least (1) Havoc mission in a week. The player does not need to win the game in order to be considered an active player.)

Now, the only way for a player’s Assignment Rank to go down is if they lose all three charges or they are inactive for a certain period of time (i.e. a player does not play at least (1) Havoc mission after a weekly reset).



Havoc Campaigns



Along with Nightmares and Visions, we are introducing something to Havoc called Havoc Campaigns.

Havoc Campaigns is what we’ve opted to call the rotation of the mission pool and mutators within Havoc, we want players to be able to learn and adapt to these combinations while also changing things up over the period of the current Havoc Campaign. It’ll begin from this update!

Maintenance Announcement: With Havoc Campaigns, we’ll be introducing new balancing to the game mode. Ahead of Nightmares & Visions, Havoc will be “off-Campaign” and unavailable to play from the Sunday, March 23 until the day of release on March 25.

During this off-time and to reflect the balance changes made, we’ll reset everyone to their nearest threshold depending on the highest they reached the previous Havoc Campaign period. (Please see the chart below.)




New Mutators



Heinous Rituals: 
Reports indicate that the Admonition has begun creating more Daemonhosts in this area, disrupt these rituals before it’s too late.



The Encroaching Garden:
Marked Enemies will heal affected allies in proximity.
If these enemies are not dealt with quickly, they will rapidly regenerate the enemy forces. 

Rampaging Enemies: 
Enemies in this sector are rampaging. They grow emboldened upon witnessing the death of another of their kind gaining increased defence against attacks.

Enraging Elites: 
Elite enemies will upon taking critical damage become enraged, increasing their attack speed, movement speed, and give them complete CC (crowd control) immunity. 

These four mutators will replace the current four mutators in Havoc. 




This summarizes the first wave of changes we’re bringing to Havoc for 2025. We still have more ideas we’d like to explore and bring to the game mode this year.

We’ll be reading the comments across our platforms in response to this blog, so please join the conversation and let us know what you think!

Thank you for reading and playing.

– The Darktide Team


Nightmares & Visions - Early Balance Look - Dev Blog Pt. 1

Hey Everyone,


Ahead of our Unlocked and Loaded update last year (aka Itemization), we released the intended balancing changes ahead of the rest of the patch notes. The idea was to give players a sneak peek ahead of time, and to allow the players time to give their feedback.

We’re doing it again.



For Nightmares and Visions, we will be including a rework to the Ogryn Talent Tree and a series of Weapon balance changes.

  • Part 1 (Ogryn Talent Tree Rework)
  • Part 2 (Ogryn Weaponry Balancing)
  • Part 3 (Additional Weapon Changes and Tweaks)

To tell us more about our proposed changes, we’ve brought along two developers who assisted with the work: Gunnar (Ogryn) and Matteo (Weapons).

Without further ado, we’ll pass the dev blog over to Gunnar to talk about the…

Ogryn Talent Tree Rework



Left Branch / Skullbreaker
The Left part of the Tree has been very focused on the use of Heavy Attacks. While we do think that Heavy Attacks are thematic to the Ogryn, it should not be the only viable Melee focused Build.

We’ve removed the ‘Heavy’ restrictions on some Talents, added new Melee focused Talents without it, and reworked some Talents to provide different bonuses depending on if you’re using Light, or Heavy, attacks.

Middle Branch / Bodyguard
We’ve felt that the Ogryn has been lacking interesting options for the Bodyguard playstyle, and have added many new Talents that allow you to explore both Tank Builds, as well as Supportive Builds.

Right Branch / Gun Lugger
We’re updating the Burst Limiter Override Keystone to be better overall for any Ranged Build, along with its modifiers. We’ve also added nodes that flesh out a few Ranged Builds, focusing on critical hits, explosives or sustained fire.



Note: This is a WIP. We have not finished all the icons for this tree, etc. A final version will be included with the patch notes at release.

Existing Passives


Base Toughness
 We've removed some Toughness from the Tree, and to make up for it we bumped the Base Toughness.
  • Toughness: 50 to 75.
Thick Skin
We've removed a few Defensive nodes from the Tree, and to make up for it we’ve given the Ogryn a bump to his innate Tank Passive.
  • Toughness Damage Reduction: 20% to 25%.


New Passives


Outta My Way!
The large hitbox of the Ogryn could get in its way on more than one occasion. Pox Hounds and Trappers were more difficult to avoid while not dodging, and even when dodging he could get stuck on nearby Horde Enemies, abruptly canceling the dodge and leaving him vulnerable.

We’re giving the Ogryn a new passive ability that should make his Dodges more consistent, while also doubling down on the theme of our Brutish friend.
  • Dodging staggers nearby Non Elite/Special, human-sized, enemies, knocking them out of the way. The effect is reduced on consecutive dodges.


Combat Ability Changes


Loyal Protector
 “Removed ‘Big Lungs’ talent, increased base value to make up for it.”
  • Radius Increased - 8 to 12.
Bull Rush
“Will protect you from Flying Dogs, Nets, and Bullets.”
  • You now count as Dodging during Charge.
Point Blank-Barrage
“Lowered the Reload Speed slightly to make room for new 'Keep Shooting Talent'.”
  • Reload Speed - 70% to 65%.


New Combat Ability Talents


Loyal Protector
No Pain!
“Should provide some good defense against the newly taunted enemies.”
  • Loyal Protector Replenishes 25% Toughness and an additional 0.5% Toughness Replenished each 1s per enemy affected, to a maximum of 10%, for 10s.


Blitz Ability Changes


Big Box of Hurt
“Should let you be less stingy about when to use it.”
  • Charges: 2 to 3.
Big Friendly Rock
“Should make it feel more reactive and incentivise weaving it in between weapon attacks more often.”
  • Wield Time: 1s to 0.5s.
  • Chain Times: 0.6s to 0.4s.


New Blitz Ability Changes


Big Friendly Rock
That One Didn't Count
“For those with either great or poor precision…”
  • Big Friendly Rock Replenishes a Charge if you hit an enemy Weakspot or hit no enemies. 5s Cooldown.
Big Box of Hurt
Bigger Box of Hurt
“To make the Box a greater Crowd Control option.”
  • +3 Grenades Released.


Coherency Changes


Stay Close!
“Toughness gained through Coherency is less reliable, this should make the Coherency a lot more useful in a majority of situations.”
  • 25% Coherency Toughness Replenishment to 15% All Toughness Replenishment.
Coward Culling
“We’ve removed the +25% Suppression State Node, but still wanted to keep the effect in the Ranged Ogryn Builds.”
  • New Effect: +25% Suppression to you.


Keystone Changes


Heavy Hitter - Keystone


“Heavy Hitter has been too focused on Heavy Attacks. We want to open it up more for Light Attacks, but still keep some of the incentives to go for the Heavies.”
  • 5% Melee Damage to 3% Melee Damage.
  • Stacks 5 to 8.
  • On Heavy Attack Hit to On Melee Attack Hit.
  • Heavy Attacks grant 2 Stacks.
Modifier Changes - Heavy Hitter

Just Getting Started
“To match the increased Max Stacks of the Base Talent.”
  • Stacks: 5 to 8.
Unstoppable
“It didn’t feel necessary to limit the bonus behind Max Stacks. Also increasing the max output.”
  • 100% Melee Toughness at 5 Stacks to 15% Melee Toughness Per Stack.
Brutish Momentum
“Obsolete with the reworked Base Talent.”
  • Removed.
New Nodes - Heavy Hitter

Don't Feel a Thing
“As an alternative to ‘Unstoppable’.”
  • Heavy Hitter also grants 1.5% Toughness Damage Reduction for each stack.
Great Cleaver
“An additional choice of customization for Heavy Hitter.”
  • Heavy Hitter also grants 15% Cleave for each stack.
Impactful
“An additional choice of customization for Heavy Hitter.”
  • Heavy Hitter also grants 10% Impact for each stack.

Feel No Pain - Keystone


“Coherency Toughness regeneration was simply not impactful enough.”
  • 2.5% Coherency Toughness Replenishment to 2.5% All Toughness Replenishment.

Modifier Changes - Feel No Pain

Pained Outburst
“Getting a small boost of 20% Toughness once at 0 stacks, felt like it was too little, too late. Bumping the Toughness and lowering the activation requirements.”
  • Reaching Zero stacks to Falling to, or below, 5 stacks. Toughness Replenished: 20% to 50%.
Toughest!
“See Base Talent note..”
  • 2.5% Coherency Toughness Replenishment to 2.5% All Toughness Replenishment.

Burst Limiter Override - Keystone


“Burst Limiter Override was both too weak and uninteresting. We’re giving it a baseline ranged power bonus that isn’t dependent on Chance, while also giving you a bit more control over when it's activated.”
  • Chance to Proc: 8% to 15%.
  • Now also grants 2% Ranged Damage. 10 Max Stacks, 10s Duration.

Modifier Changes - Burst Limiter Override

Maximum Firepower
“Other than simply being too strong when paired with High Rate of Fire weapons, it was also quite poor on slower weapons. This will hopefully make it more balanced."
  • Ability Cooldown Reduction: 200% to 100%.
  • Duration 2s to 4s.
More Burst Limiter Overrides!
“We’ve increased the base chance of activation, and replaced this with more interesting choices.”
  • Removed.

New Nodes - Burst Limiter Override

Back Off!
“Should pair well with more of a Hybrid Combat playstyle, and also with the Weapon Special Actions of your Ranged Weapons.”
  • Lucky Bullet has a +10% chance to trigger after a Killing Melee Attack, stacking 10 times.
Heat of Battle
“To double down on the Hybrid Combat playstyle.”
  • Burst Limiter Override also grants 1.5% Fire Rate per Stack.
Bulletstorm
“For those who want to share in the Ogryn’s newfound talents”.
  • 15% Ranged Damage to you and Allies in Coherency on Lucky Bullet. Lasts 8s.


Talent Changes


Slam
“Slam needs some love now that it has a new place in the Tree. The bonus stamina should go well with the Tanky playstyles of the central branch.”
  • New effect: Staggering Melee Attacks replenish 5% Stamina. 1s Cooldown.

Furious
“Light Attack Ogryns rise up. Loosening up on the theme of only using Heavy Attacks.”
  • Heavy Melee Attack to Melee Attack.

The Best Defence
“Light Attack Ogryns rise up.”
  • Toughness on Heavy Melee Attack 20% to 15%. Now also replenishes 5% Toughness on Non-Heavy Melee Attack.

Smash 'Em!
“Light Attack Ogryns rise up.”
  • Toughness on Heavy Melee Attack 20% to 15%. Now also replenishes 5% Toughness on Non-Heavy Melee Attack.

Batter
“Light Attack Ogryns rise up.”
  • Now also applies 2 Stacks of Bleed on Non-Heavy Melee Attacks.

Soften Them Up
  • Description changed to specify that it only applies to Melee (previous Description was Wrong).

Payback Time
“To make it a bonus you are more in control over, but reducing the effectiveness to make up for a higher uptime.”
  • Damage: 20% to 15%.
  • Now also triggers on Successful Dodge.

Hail of Fire
“30% was in some situations a gamebreakingly high bonus. We’re lowering the Rending bonus, but giving it a bump towards Ranged Damage as a substitute.”
  • Rending 30% to 15%.
  • Now also grants 15% Ranged Damage.

Light 'em Up
“Reaching 32 stacks in virtually no time at all with some weapons was way too powerful; we’ve increased the stacks per to make it a better talent for slower weapons, but capped the Maximum stacks at 16.”
  • Stacks applied 2 to 4. Now only applies stacks up to 16.

Hard Knocks
“We like the theme of stagger, but we want to lean more into the Bodyguard / Support themes.”
  • Old functionality removed.
  • New: Enemies staggered by you take +15% more Damage for 5s.

No Stopping Me!
“No Stopping Me from towering through like a battering ram.”
  • New effect: Reduced Movement Speed Penalty while charging Heavy Melee Attacks by 100%.

Bruiser
“Giving it the same treatment as Zealot’s Invocation of Death, for the sake of Balance.”
  • 4% Combat Ability Cooldown Reduction Instantly to 100% Ability Cooldown Regeneration for 3s.

Pacemaker
“Updating the reload mechanic and hit requirements to make it more reliable. Lowering the Reload Speed a bit since you’ll have more alternatives to increase it.”
  • 25% for 5s to 15% on your next Reload.
  • Hit Requirement: 5 to 3.

Unstoppable Momentum
“Increased the duration to gain more use out of it as it previously felt too short.”
  • Duration 2s to 3s.

Massacre
“Increasing the Crit Chance bonus as it didn’t feel impactful enough, and also increased the Duration to make it easier to maintain.”
  • Critical Chance: 1% to 1.5%.
  • Duration: 10s to 12s.

Crunch
“It became increasingly difficult to fully charge an attack on our higher difficulties. This should give you some great benefit even if not fully charged.”
  • Now works similar to the Thrust blessing, granting the bonus based on charge time.
  • Maximum Impact: 40% to 30%.
  • Maximum Damage: 40% to 15%.


New Talents


For the Lil'Uns
  • On Ally getting Toughness Broken, gain 10% Strength, and 25% Toughness Damage Reduction for 10s. 30s Cooldown.
  • On Ally getting Knocked Down, gain Stun Immunity, and 25% Revive Speed for 10s.

No Hurting Friends
  • 2.5% Strength on Health Damage Taken by you or Allies in Coherency. 5 Max Stacks. Lasts 10s. 15% Toughness Damage Reduction on Max Stacks.

Focused Fighter
  • 4% Damage Resistance from Melee Attacks on Successful Melee Attack. Stacks 5 times. Stacks are removed upon taking Damage from a Melee Attack.

Strongman
  • 10% Damage Resistance on Elite Kill or Special Kill. Lasts 5s.

Can't Hit Me... Again
  • 20% Damage Resistance vs Ranged for 2.5s after getting hit by a Ranged Attack. 4s Cooldown.

Keep Shooting
  • 15% Reload Speed when reloading an Empty Clip.

Strike True
  • 15% Melee Weakspot Strength.

Beat Them Back
  • 15% Melee Damage on Successful Heavy Melee Attack. Lasts 5s.

Pumped Up
  • 15% Damage Resistance while above 75% Stamina.

Brutish Strength
  • 2 Stacks of Brittleness on Push.

Simple Minded
  • 30% Corruption Resistance.

Unbreakable
  • Your Perfect blocks can block all Melee Attacks. On Perfect Block gain 20% Melee Damage on next Attack.

Concentrate
  • 60% Sway Reduction, 20% Spread Reduction, 15% Recoil Reduction, while bracing your Ranged Weapon, but lose 0.75 Stamina per second.

Fire Away
  • Your Explosions apply 1 Stack(s) of Burn, increased to 2 Stack(s) on close explosion. Max Stacks 12.

Frenzied Blows
  • 2% Melee Attack Speed on Chained Hit for 5s. Stacks 5 times.

Bash and Blast
  • 2.5% Ranged Damage on Melee Kill. Lasts 8s. Max Stacks 6.

Dedicated Practice
  • 20% Swap Speed.

Spray and Slay
  • 15% Melee Damage and 7.5% Melee Attack Speed for 6s after emptying your Clip.

Lucky Streak
  • 25% Critical Strike Damage.


Stat Node Changes


In the previous version of the Talent Tree, many of the Stat Nodes served a purpose to extend the length of the branches and clusters. Now that we’ve added a lot of new Talent Nodes, many of the Stat Nodes have been either replaced or removed.



Continue on to Part 2 in order to read about the upcoming Weapon Balancing and Tweaks for Nightmares & Visons!

Nightmares & Visions - Early Balance Look - Dev Blog Pt. 2

Hey Everyone,



Welcome back to part two of our Early Balance Look for our upcoming release, Nightmares & Visions (coming out March 25, 2025).



In case you missed Pt. 1, you can read about the Ogryn Talent Tree rework on this previous post.

Now to pass the mic over to Matteo to discuss some other Balances and Tweaks coming in the upcoming patch.

  • Part 1 (Ogryn Talent Tree Rework)
  • Part 2 (Ogryn Weaponry Balancing)
  • Part 3 (Additional Weapon Changes and Tweaks)




Weapon Balance Changes



In this upcoming update, we are looking to address some of the outliers in the Darktide arsenal, whether over or under-performing.

We approached this objective by tweaking values, but also by adding new features and attack chains, or by shifting the power budget of the weapons, with the goal of giving each of them clear strengths and weaknesses.

In all cases, we made sure that the fantasy of each weapon was maintained or even reinforced by the changes.

Ogryn Weaponry



“Otherwise? –
Otthr… Otews… Or! We get mad, Sah!”


Alongside the giant Talent tree rework, we looked at the weapon selection available to the Ogryn class to spice up some of those that fell a bit out of vogue.

Blastoom Mk III Grenadier Gauntlet



The Ogryn Grenadier Gauntlet melee move-set was often not powerful enough to fulfill its role in this hybrid weapon type.

Conversely, on the ranged side, the ammo magazine and reserves became very punishing in target-rich environments, especially when paired with the longer-than-average reload speed.

We significantly increased the damage potential of the Strikedown melee attacks, while also changing the attack chained after the Light > Heavy string to Light 1 / Heavy 1 to add an easy-to-use Relentless combo.

We also significantly raised the ammo reserves of the weapon and brought the ammo in the magazine up from 4 to 5, and slightly sped up the reload timing.

We slightly raised the fuse timer of the grenade to increase the effective range on longer distances, and made the projectiles ignore the damage reduction multiplier when hitting an enemy on a limb.

Finally, we increased the offensive properties of the Special attack, both for the direct punch hit and the following explosion.

Detailed Changes - Blastoom Mk III Grenadier Gauntlet



Melee
  • Melee attack chains
    • Light > Heavy > … chain from Light 3 / Heavy 2 to Light 1 / Heavy 1.
  • Reduced chain time from Wield to Start Attack from 0.9 to 0.8.
  • Melee Light Strikedown damage profile
    • adm vs Carapace from 0.2 to 0.5
    • Finesse multiplier 1.0 on the 1st target
    • Finesse multiplier 0.5 on the 2nd target
    • Impact distribution from 12 to (6,10) on default target.
  • Melee Heavy Strikedown damage profile
    • attack distribution from (130,250) to (175,350) on 1st target.
Ranged
  • Projectile direct hit damage profile
    • added ignore_hitzone_multipliers = true.
  • Grenadier Gauntlet projectile template
    • fuse_time from 0.75 to 1.00.
  • Added time scale 1.05 to the Reload action (sped up).
Ammo
  • Ammo magazine
    • from 4 to 5.
  • Ammo reserves
    • from (lerp_basic = 3*6, lerp_perfect = 5*8) to (lerp_basic = 4*8, lerp_perfect = 5*11).
    • from 35 to 50 at 80% Ammo stat.
Special
  • Added ignore stagger reduction to the Special punch attack.
  • Changed the damage profile of the Special punch attack from Relentless to Strikedown.
Dev Note: More damage on the direct hit of the Special attack, even when out of ammo.
  • Special Explosion close range damage profile.
    • adm vs Unarmoured from 1 to 1.25.
  • The Special Explosion radius now scales with the Blast Size stat.

Cleavers



We significantly increased the damage of the Special punch, meaning it can now be used as an actual attack in combos, opening up effectively new attack chains.

While the damage against more heavily armoured enemies remains low, the Special uppercut will still be a reliable tool to stagger any target due to its high Impact values.

For all three marks, we fine-tuned the chain timings of different actions and increased the offensive properties of the Strikedown and Vanguard profiles.

We also slightly improved the dodge distance and speed and the timings related to Block and Push to make the weapon snappier.

For the Krourk Mk VI, we changed the Light 2 damage profile from Strikedown to Vanguard, which gave a small speed increase to the Heavy attacks, but also added a bespoke Heavy Strikedown attack chained only from Push.

This attack chains into Light 3  / Heavy 1, granting the weapon a new short but useful single target combo.

For the Bull Butcher Mk III, we changed the Pushfollow attack damage profile from Light Vanguard to Light Strikedown and added a unique Light Strikedown Stab chained only from the Pushfollow attack.

The new Light Strikedown Stab has a power level multiplier of 550 and chains into Light 1 / Heavy 1, for a quick and easy to use single target combo.

The Krourk Mk IV was already in a good spot after the overall changes to the weapon family, so we only slightly increased the power level multiplier of the Pushfollow attack to make it more useful as the opener for a horde control combo.

Detailed Changes - Cleavers



Damage Profiles
  • Special Uppercut 
    • 1st target
      • damage from (30,70) to (190,290).
    • Removed 4th target.
    • Added adm table for targets 1 to 3:
      • adm vs Flak from 0.75 to 0.6
      • adm vs Unyielding from 1.0 to 0.2
      • adm vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.7
      • adm vs Carapace from 0.1 to 0.05
      • adm vs Void shield from 1.5 to 1.0.
    • Added Impact armour mod table for targets 1 to 3:
      • mod vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.7
      • mod vs Void shield from 1.5 to 1.0
    • Ragdoll push force from 400 to 500.
  • Light Strikedown
    • Cleave from (2,8) to double_cleave ((2.0,4.0)).
    • 1st target
      • Damage from (100,200) to (120,240)
      • adm vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.8
      • adm vs Carapace from 0.05 to 0.25
      • Finesse boost vs Unarmoured from 0.5 to 0.6.
    • 2nd target
      • adm vs Carapace from no.damage to 0.1
      • Damage from (40,80) to (50,100).
  • Light Strikedown Stab
    • Cleave from (2,8) to double_cleave ((2.0,4.0)).
    • 1st target
      • adm vs Unarmoured from 1.0 to 1.25
      • adm vs Maniac from 0.75 to 0.8.
    • 2nd target
      • adm vs Carapace from no.damage to 0.1
      • Damage from (40,80) to (50,100).
  • Heavy Strikedown
    • 1st target
      • Damage from (200,400) to (210,410).
      • Finesse multiplier from 0.25 to 0.55
        • Finesse boost vs Unarmoured from 0.1 to 0.9
        • Finesse boost vs Flak from 0.5 to 0.35
        • Finesse boost vs Unyielding from 0.1 to 0.5
        • Finesse boost vs Maniac from 0.1 to 1.0
        • Finesse boost vs Carapace from 0.1 to 0.35
        • Finesse boost vs Infested from 0.25 to 1.0.
  • Light Vanguard
    • 1st target
      • Finesse multiplier from 0.25 to 0.55.
  • Heavy Vanguard
    • 1st target
      • Adm vs Maniac from 0.75 to 0.8.
      • Adm vs Carapace from 0.2 to 0.3.
      • Finesse multiplier from 0.25 to 1.0; added finesse boost tweaks:
        • Finesse boost vs Unarmoured 1.0
        • Finesse boost vs Flak armour 0.3
        • Finesse boost vs Unyielding 0.4
        • Finesse boost vs Maniac 1.2
        • Finesse boost vs Carapace armour 1.1
        • Finesse boost vs Infested 0.7
        • Finesse boost vs Void shield 0.25.

All Marks
  • Improved dodge template
    • distance scale from (0.8,1.0) to (0.8,1.1)
    • speed modifier from (0.9,0.9) to (0.9,1.0).
  • Block action minimum hold time from 0.3 to 0.2.
  • Push chain time from Block from 0.25 to 0.15.
  • Added buffer time 0.3 for the Wield input.
  • Wield action total time from 0.1 to 0.2.
  • Removed chain to Special from Wield action.
  • Start attack chain time from Wield from 0 to 0.1.
  • Start attack chain time from Special from 0.7 to 0.6.
  • Unwield chain time from Special from 0 to 0.6.
  • Block chain time from Special from 0.55 to 0.7.
  • Added Allowed during sprint to most attacks.
  • Added Special uppercut hitstop animation.
  • Updated attack gestalts in the Inspect menu.

Krourk Mk VI Cleaver
  • Added new attack start chain from Push, chaining into Light 1 / bespoke vertical Heavy Strikedown.
    • The new Heavy Strikedown has power level multiplier 550 and chains into Light 3  / Heavy 1.
  • Heavy 1 windup from 0.65 to 0.55.
  • Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 time scale from 1.2 to 1.3 (sped up).
  • Slightly increased the Heavy 2 damage window end timing.
  • Light 2 damage profile from Strikedown to Vanguard.
  • Start attack and Block chain times from Pushfollow from 0.7 to 0.6.
  • Pushfollow hitbox slightly lowered to be more aligned with animation and crosshair.
  • Start attack chain time from Push from 0.5 to 0.45.

Bull Butcher Mk III Cleaver
  • Pushfollow attack damage profile from light Vanguard to light Strikedown.
    • Pushfollow attack power level multiplier 450.
  • Added a new attack start chain from Pushfollow attack, chaining into bespoke Light Strikedown Stab / Heavy 2.
    • The new Light Strikedown Stab has power level multiplier 550 and chains into Light 1 / Heavy 1.
  • Start attack chain time from Pushfollow attack from 0.4 to 0.45.
  • Block chain time from Pushfollow attack from 1.05 to 0.75.

Krourk Mk IV Cleaver
  • Block chain time from Pushfollow attack from 0.85 to 0.75.
Added power level multiplier 525 to the Pushfollow attack.

Brute-Brainer Latrine Shovels



The Ogryn Latrine Shovels needed some tweaks to remove excessive clunkiness and to give players encouragement to fully utilize their moveset, so the changes on this weapon family will be mainly related to rebalancing action chain times and the different attack profiles.

For all marks, we lowered the chain times to Block for most Light attacks to 0.1s, meaning that now the Block action will be more responsive (but also that the attacks will be canceled before entering the attack window if not careful).

We rebalanced the cleave values for Light Relentless and Light Vanguard attacks to better diversify the profiles, and increased the offensive properties of the Strikedown profiles.

We significantly lowered the chain times after performing the Special attacks of the folding marks (Mk XIX and Mk V), especially for the Light version to increase its use cases.

For the Mk III, we added a bespoke Light Strikedown attack chaining only from Heavy 1 and chaining back to Light 3 / Heavy 1.

We also significantly increased the offensive potential of the Special punch, while tweaking its reach and hitbox to better match the animation.

These changes will give the mark easier but also more interesting decisions when chaining together attacks for single target combos.

We also slightly increased the power level multiplier for the Light 3 attack, as it was further into the attack chain structure, and improved the offensive properties of the Pushfollow attack.

For the Mk XIX, we increased the power level multiplier of the Heavy 2 and Light 3 / Light 4 attacks, to incentivize their use instead of resetting the combo by Block or swap canceling.

The Mk V didn’t need a lot of targeted changes, so we limited ourselves to a small bump to the Pushfollow attack.

Detailed Changes - Brute-Brainer Latrine Shovels



Damage Profiles
  • Light Relentless
    • Cleave from medium (4.0,9.0) to large (5.5,10.5)
    • Increased attack power distribution slightly on targets 2, 3, 4
    • Increased Impact power distribution slightly on targets 2, 3, default.
  • Light Vanguard
    • Cleave from large (5.5,10.5) to medium (4.0,9.0)
    • Lowered Impact power distribution slightly on all targets
    • Raised attack power distribution slightly on default target.
  • Light Strikedown
    • 1st target
      • adm vs Carapace from 0.1 to 0.25
      • finesse boost vs Unarmoured from 0.1 to 0.6
      • finesse boost vs Unyielding from 0.1 to 0.5
      • finesse boost vs Maniac from 0.1 to 0.2
      • finesse boost vs Infested from 0.25 to 0.5.
  • Light Strikedown Special
    • Added ignore stagger reduction
    • Changed stagger category from sticky to melee.
Dev Note: It also inherits the changes to Light Strikedown.
  • Heavy Strikedown
    • 1st target
      • Finesse multiplier from 0.25 to 0.5
      • finesse boost vs Unarmoured from 0.1 to 0.9
      • finesse boost vs Unyielding from 0.1 to 0.5
      • finesse boost vs Maniac from 0.1 to 0.5
      • finesse boost vs Infested from 0.25 to 0.7.
  • Heavy Strikedown Special
Dev Note: It inherits the finesse boost changes to Heavy Strikedown.
  • Special uppercut
    • 1st target
      • damage from (30,60) to (100,200)
      • Rebalanced down damage adm values, especially against Flak armour, Carapace armour and Unyielding
      • Rebalanced up Impact adm values.
    • Added 2nd target.
    • Slightly shortened the active window.
    • Reduced the hitbox and reach.

All Marks
  • Lowered chain time to Block for all Light attacks to 0.1.
  • Added 0.3 Wield buffer time.

Brute-Brainer Mk III
  • Added a new bespoke Light Strikedown attack, chaining only from Heavy 1 and chaining to Light 3 / Heavy 1.
  • Heavy 1 chain time to Wield from 0.17 to 0.4.
  • Heavy 2 chain time to Wield from 0 to 0.4.
  • Heavy 2 chain time to Block from 0.46 to 0.4.
  • Light 3 time scale from 1.0 to 1.1 (sped up).
  • Light 3 chain time to Special from 0.5 to 0.7.
  • Added power level multiplier 525 to Light 3.
  • Special chain time to Wield from 0 to 0.6.
  • Special chain time to Block from 0.9 to 0.6.
  • Special chain time to Special from 1.0 to 0.9.
  • Changed the Pushfollow attack damage profile to standard Light Relentless.
  • Added power level multiplier 550 to Pushfollow attack.
  • Added Uninterruptible to Pushfollow attack.
  • Push chain time to Pushfollow attack from 0.45 to 0.35.

Brute-Brainer Mk XIX
  • Light Special attack chain times:
    • to Blitz from 0.8 to 0.7
    • to Wield from 0.8 to 0.7
    • to Start Attack from 1.3 to 0.7
    • to Start Special Attack from 1.3 to 0.8
    • to Block from 0.8 to 0.7.
  • Heavy Special attack chain times
    • to Wield from 1.3 to 0.9
    • to Start Attack from 1.5 to 1.32
    • to Start Special Attack from 1.95 to 1.45
    • to Block from 1.1 to 0.9.
  • Heavy 1 chain time to Wield from 0.17 to 0.4.
  • Heavy 2 chain time to Wield from 0 to 0.4.
  • Heavy 2 chain time to Block from 0.46 to 0.4.
  • Added power level multiplier 525 to Heavy 2.
  • Added power level multiplier 530 to Light 3 and Light 4.
  • Tweaked Light 1 and Heavy 1 hitboxes to better match the animation.

Brute-Brainer Mk V
  • Light Special attack chain times:
    • to Blitz from 0.8 to 0.7
    • to Wield from 0.8 to 0.7
    • to Start Attack from 1.3 to 0.7
    • to Start Special Attack from 1.3 to 0.8
    • to Block from 0.8 to 0.7.
  • Heavy Special attack chain times
    • to Wield from 1.3 to 0.9
    • to Start Attack from 1.5 to 1.32
    • to Start Special Attack from 1.95 to 1.45
    • to Block from 1.1 to 0.9.
  • Changed the Pushfollow attack damage profile to standard Light Relentless.
  • Added power level multiplier 550 to Pushfollow attack.
  • Added Uninterruptible to Pushfollow attack.
  • Tweaked Light 3, Heavy 2, Pushfollow attack hitboxes to better match the animation.

Foe-Rend Ripper Guns



In order to improve the consistency of the Ripper Guns, we normalized the minimum pellet count (the amount of shotgun pellets that are always considered hitting an enemy, even if they were actually hit by a lower amount of pellets) between the Hipfire and Braced fire modes for all marks.

We then increased the speed of the Brace action to make it faster to transition to Braced shooting.

Before, shooting in Braced mode was often less effective than just Hipfiring, especially from mid range and further.

After the changes, the choice between the mobile Hipfire mode and the less agile but more controllable Braced mode will be more engaging.

We also increased the ammo reserves of the weapon and slightly increased its ranged cleave values for all marks.

Finally, we significantly increased the offensive properties of Special bayonet attack and reduced the movement speed penalty when shooting in Hipfire mode, to further enhance the “assault” theme of the weapon.

For the Mk VI, we increased its default pellet count and raised the Finesse multiplier, improving the reliability of the shots while also rewarding precise aiming.

We also slightly lowered the move speed reduction when in Braced stance and tightened the Braced spread profile to be more horizontal and less scattered overall, to further differentiate the Hipfire and Braced modes for this mark.

Detailed Changes - Foe-Rend Ripper Guns



Ammo
  • Ammunition reserves from (12*6,24*7) to (12*6,24*8).
    • from 148 to 168 at 80% Ammo stat.

Special attack 
  • 1st target
    • attack power distribution from 200 to 300
    • Impact power distribution from 25 to 30
    • Finesse multiplier from 0.5 to 1.2
    • Finesse boost vs Unarmoured from 0.1 to 0.25
    • Finesse boost vs Maniac from 0.1 to 0.2.
  • 2nd target
    • Impact power distribution from 6 to 12.
  • Added buffer time 0.3 for the Special input.

All marks
  • Aligned minimum pellet count between Hipfire and Braced fire modes.
  • Ranged Cleave from 2 to double_cleave (2.0,4.0).
  • Slightly lowered the move speed reduction when shooting in Hipfire mode.
  • Added 1.3 time scale to the Brace action (sped up).

Mk II
  • Braced min num hits vs Unyielding from 4 to 5.

Mk V
  • Braced min num hits vs any armour type but Carapace from 3 to 5.
  • Aligned the Moving, Crouch and Crouch Moving values to the Still values for the Hipfire and Braced Recoil profiles.

Mk VI
  • Hipfire and Braced num pellets from 5 to 7.
  • Hipfire and Braced min num hits vs any armour type but Carapace from 2 to 3.
  • Hipfire and Braced damage profiles Finesse multiplier from 0.5 to 1.5.
  • Tightened the Braced spread profile to be more horizontal.
  • Slightly lowered the move speed reduction when in Braced stance.

Bully Clubs



To enhance the “brutal beatdown” identity of the Ogryn Clubs, we took a pass on all the attack profiles and increased the base damage of the Light Strikedown, Heavy Strikedown, Light Vanguard, Heavy Relentless profiles.

We rebalanced the armour modifiers against specific armour types, in particular lowering the Unyielding modifiers (which were extremely high on some profiles) and raising the Carapace armour and traitor Captain Conversion Field ones.

We then tweaked the damage and Impact falloff on secondary targets, removing damage caps while still maintaining a curve skewed towards the first targets.

For the Special Slap, we increased the damage of the attack and rebalanced its Stagger properties, lowering the weakspot bonus but increasing the base Impact values. We also greatly improved the chain timings to the Block action.

We also tweaked the chain timings on all marks, often lowering the values to make actions flow better into each other, but also adding more commitment when performing Heavy attacks.

For the "Brunt Special" Mk I, we added a new Heavy Strikedown attack chaining only from Heavy 1 and chaining back into Light 3 / Heavy 1, to introduce a very easy to perform Strikedown combo to the weapon.
The previous Heavy 2 Relentless attack will still be chainable from Light 1, but it will also be available now after a Push action.

Additionally, the weapon will chain into Light 1 / Heavy 1 instead of Light 3 / Heavy 1 after a Pushfollow attack, granting a fast Vanguard combo when controlling enemy crowds.

For the "Brunt's Pride" Mk II, we significantly enhanced the properties of the unique Light Punch performed after any Special attack, to more easily follow up after having staggered an enemy with a Slap.

We also increased the power of the Light 4 attack, and made it more reachable through new combo chains from Light Punch and Heavy 2 > Light 3.

Since the "Brunt's Basher" Mk IIIb Heavy Relentless attack loop is now slightly less performant against single targets, we reworked the combos of this weapon to introduce additional routes.

We added a new Heavy Strikedown attack chaining only from Light 3 and chaining back to Light 1 / Heavy 1, and we changed the chain after Heavy 2 to go into Light 3 / Heavy 1. Building on the already existing Pushfollow attack > Light 3 combo, this will add more opportunities to perform Strikedown attack strings to dispatch any foe.

We also increased the power of the Light 4 attack, as it was otherwise hard to utilize being very far into the Light attack chain.

Finally, we added a minimum time of 0.3s to the Block action to align the weapon to the other two marks.

Detailed Changes - Bully Clubs



Damage Profiles
  • Light Relentless
    • Tweaked adm values vs most armour types.
    • Added 4th and 5th targets.
    • Smoothed damage falloff on secondary targets.
    • Decreased Impact on 2nd and default targets.
  • Heavy Relentless
    • Tweaked adm values vs most armour types
      • Particularly, 1st target adm vs Unyielding from 3 to 1.
    • 1st target damage from (135,275) to (150,310).
    • Smoothed damage falloff on secondary targets
      • Particularly, damage on default target from (0,0) to (20,40).
    • Decreased Impact on default target.
  • Light Strikedown
    • Tweaked adm values vs most armour types.
    • 1st target damage from (150,300) to (185,370).
    • 1st target Finesse multiplier from 0.25 to 0.35.
    • 1st target Finesse boost from 0.1 to 0.5 vs most armoury types.
  • Heavy Strikedown
    • Cleave from single_cleave to double_cleave.
    • Tweaked adm values vs most armour types.
    • 1st target damage from (200,400) to (250,500).
    • 1st target finesse multiplier from 0.25 to 0.35.
    • 1st target finesse boost from 0.1 to 0.5 vs most armoury types.
    • Increased damage on 2nd and default targets.
  • Light Vanguard
    • Tweaked adm values vs most armour types.
    • 1st target damage from (90,180) to (100,210).
    • 1st target Impact from (15,30) to (10,20).
    • 1st target Finesse multiplier from 0.25 to 0.35.
    • Added 4th and 5th targets.
    • Smoothed damage falloff on secondary targets.
  • Light Vanguard pushfollow
    • 1st target damage from (90,180) to (110,220).
  • Special Slap
    • Weakspot stagger resistance modifier from 0.1 to 0.4.
    • Tweaked adm values vs most armour types.
    • Tweaked Impact modifier values vs most armour types.
    • 1st target damage from (5,10) to (45,90).
    • 1st target Impact from 4 to 10.
    • Default target damage from (5,10) to (20,40).
    • Default target Impact from 2 to 4.
  • Light Punch
    • See Ogryn Cleaver Special Uppercut damage profile.

All marks
  • Added 0.3 buffer time for the Unwield action.
  • Special 1 chain to Block from 0.8 to 0.6.
  • Special 2 chain to Block from 1.2 to 0.6.

"Brunt Special" Mk I
  • Heavy 1 chain to Unwield from 0.17 to 0.4.
  • Heavy 1 chain to Block from 0.15 to 0.4.
  • Heavy 2 chain to Unwield and Block from 0 to 0.45.
  • Special 2 chain to Start attack from 0.7 to 0.4.
  • Pushfollow chain time to Start attack, Block and Special from 0.65 to 0.55.
  • Heavy 1 windup from secondary starts from 0.75 to 0.65.
  • Light 1 time scale from 0.9 to 1 (sped up).
  • Light 3 time scale from 1.1 to 1 (slowed down).
  • Added a new Heavy Strikedown attack, chaining from Heavy 1 and to Light 3 / Heavy 1.
  • Changed chain from Push from Light 1 / Heavy 1 to Light 2 / Heavy 2.
  • Changed chain from Pushfollow attack from Light 3 / Heavy 1 to Light 1 / Heavy 1.

"Brunt's Pride" Mk II
  • Push chain to Start attack from 0.4 to 0.3.
  • Punch chain to Start attack from 0.75 to 0.55.
  • Heavy 1 windup from Special 1 or Special 2 from 0.75 to 0.5.
  • Changed chain from Heavy 2 from Light 1 / Heavy 1 to Light 3 / Heavy 1.
  • Changed chain from Punch from Light 2 / Heavy 2 to Light 4 / Heavy 2.
  • Light 4 time scale from 1 to 1.1 (sped up).
  • Added power level 550 to Light 4.
  • Tweaked stagger direction for Light 4.
  • Changed damage profile for Punch from Light Relentless to Light Punch.

"Brunt's Basher" Mk IIIb
  • Heavy 1 chain to Unwield from 0.17 to 0.4.
  • Heavy 1 chain to Block from 0.15 to 0.45.
  • Heavy 2 chain to Unwield from 0 to 0.6.
  • Heavy 2 chain to Block from 0 to 0.65.
  • Heavy 2 chain to Start attack from 0.85 to 0.75.
  • Push chain to Pushfollow attack from 0.3 to 0.2.
  • Heavy 1 windup from Special 1 or Special 2 from 0.75 to 0.5.
  • Added power level 550 to Light 4.
  • Changed chain from Heavy 2 from Light 1 / Heavy 1 to Light 3 / Heavy 1.
  • Added a new Heavy Strikedown attack, chaining from Light 3 and to Light 1 / Heavy 1.
  • Added minimum hold time 0.3 to Block (same as the other marks).



Alright, we still have a bit of notes to share, and this post is already quite long!

Let’s end pt. 2 here (which focused on Ogryn Weaponry), and we’ll continue on in pt.3 with Other Weapon Changes and Tweaks.

See y’all there!

Nightmares & Visions - Early Balance Look - Dev Blog Pt. 3

Hey Everyone,


Welcome back to part THREE of our Early Balance Look for our upcoming release, Nightmares & Visions (coming out March 25, 2025).



In case you missed our previous parts or you want to go back and check:

  • Part 1 (Ogryn Talent Tree Rework)
  • Part 2 (Ogryn Weaponry Balancing)
  • Part 3 (Additional Weapon Changes and Tweaks)


Let's dive into the rest of the changes.



Other Weapon Changes and Tweaks



Catachan "Devil's Claw" Swords



We performed some tweaks on the Devil’s Claw swords to improve their overall gameplay experience and enhance their niche as safe, reliable weapons.

We aligned the Block duration (the period of time in which the player is still considered blocking) for the Push action and the Riposte attack, but also the Stamina profile between the three marks.

For the Mk I, we lowered the windup timing for the Heavy 1 attack and added a chain opportunity from the Riposte attack to the Special Parry.

For the Mk VII, we lowered the windup timing for the Heavy 1 attack and slightly increased the speed of the Light 2 attack, improving its base horde clear combo.

Detailed Changes - Catachan "Devil's Claw" Swords



All Marks
  • Aligned Stamina profiles
    • Block cost (inner) from (1.5,0.5) to (1.0,0.5).
    • Sprint cost per second from (1.5,0.5) to (1.25,0.75).
Mk I
  • Heavy 1 windup from 0.75 to 0.65.
  • Block duration for the Riposte attack from 0.2 to 0.5.
  • Added chain from Riposte attack to Special Parry (0.45 timing).
Dev Note: The chain from Riposte attack to Special Parry is already present on the other two marks.

Mk IV
  • Block duration for Push action from 0.2 to 0.5.
Mk VII
  • Heavy 1 windup from 0.75 to 0.65.
  • Added time scale 1.1 to Light 2 (sped up).
  • Block duration for the Riposte attack from 0.2 to 0.5.

Ius Mk IV Shredder Autopistol



After the power of the Pinning Fire blessing was decreased, the Autopistol lost most of its attractiveness, being often outgunned by alternatives and feeling overall very underwhelming.

To reinforce the weapon’s niche as an assault, “spray n pray” SMG, we tweaked the movement speed curve when shooting in Hipfire mode: the move speed will be slightly slower when starting to fire, but will be significantly faster on prolonged shooting compared to before.

Additionally, we increased the damage and the Finesse multiplier in both Hipfire and Braced fire modes to bring up the baseline performance of the weapon.

Detailed Changes - Ius Mk IV Shredder Autopistol



Hipfire Mode
  • Adjusted the movement speed curve to be slightly slower when starting to shoot, but significantly faster on prolonged shooting.
Hipfire & Braced Fire Modes
  • Attack power distribution from (40,80) to (50,95).
  • Finesse multiplier from (0.3,0.9) to (0.5,1.5).


Force Staves Quell Canceling



When using Psyker Force Staves, the Quell action could be immediately ended by tapping and releasing its input.

However, this meant that the Quell action could be used to bypass the default chain times of other actions, and particularly allowed to chain the Primary fire action into another Primary fire action at a speed that was not intended.

We added a short minimum hold time period for the Quell action, meaning that the action will be performed for the specified amount of time even if the input is released earlier. This change will also guarantee that the first “tick” of Peril quelling will be reached by the Quell action, even when the action is interrupted at the earliest possible timing.

Alongside this, we slightly raised the chain time from Primary fire to the Quell action.

These two changes together will mean that it won’t be possible anymore to fire Primary shots faster than the intended chain timing.

Detailed Changes - Force Staves Quell Canceling



Equinox Mk III Voidblast / Equinox Mk IV Voidstrike / Nomanus Mk VI Electrokinetic
  • Added minimum hold time 0.26 to the Quell action.
  • Chain time from Primary fire to Quell from 0.2 to 0.29.
Rifthaven Mk II Inferno
  • Added minimum hold time 0.3 to the Quell action.
  • Chain time Primary fire to Quell from 0.3 to 0.4.


Special Activations Reset By Stun



Several weapons which have a Special action activation could have their activation state reset after being stunned (including when hit by a melee attack).

While the behavior was originally intended to balance the always-available nature of these powerful Special actions, player feedback indicated that this mechanic was not perceived as engaging, leading often to frustrating moments.

Given also the increased intensity of fights and enemy spawns in harder difficulties, we decided to allow for the affected weapons to keep the Special active after being stunned, as being hit is usually enough punishment by itself.

Dev Note:The change will not affect situations where the player fully stops wielding the weapon, such as stuns and dislocations from explosions or specific Monstrosity attacks.

Detailed Changes - Special Activations Reset by Stun


Special Action
  • Allowed the following weapons to remain active after a stun:
    • Scandar Mk III Power Sword
    • Achlys Mk VI Power Sword
    • Crucis Mk II Thunder Hammer
    • Ironhelm Mk IV Thunder Hammer
    • Indignatus Mk IVe Crusher
    • Achlys Mk I Power Maul
    • Covenant Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword
    • Covenant Mk VIII Blaze Force Greatsword.
    • Tigrus Mk III Heavy Eviscerator.
Dev Note: The Tigrus Mk XV Heavy Eviscerator was already not affected by the behavior.


Special Activations Reset by Vaulting



All weapons which have a Special action activation will no longer have their activation state reset after vaulting over tall terrain or railings.

Detailed Changes - Special Activations Reset by Vaulting



Special Action
  • Allowed the following weapons to remain active after vaulting:
    • Scandar Mk III Power Sword
    • Achlys Mk VI Power Sword
    • Crucis Mk II Thunder Hammer
    • Ironhelm Mk IV Thunder Hammer
    • Cadia Mk IV Assault Chainsword
    • Cadia Mk XIIIg Assault Chainsword
    • Orestes Mk IV Assault Chainaxe
    • Orestes Mk XII Assault Chainaxe
    • Tigrus Mk III Heavy Eviscerator
    • Tigrus Mk XV Heavy Eviscerator
    • Indignatus Mk IVe Crusher
    • Obscurus Mk II Blaze Force Sword
    • Deimos Mk IV Blaze Force Sword
    • Illisi Mk V Blaze Force Sword
    • Achlys Mk I Power Maul.



Attack Speed Buffs for Melee Attacks on Secondary Weapons



Attack speed and melee attack speed buffs were not applied to most melee attacks performed with Secondary weapons (e.g. bash Special attacks), making their use often very niche.

To incentivize experimenting with them, we changed so that attack speed buffs will now affect these Special melee attacks.

Specifically for the MK IIIa and MK V Helbore Lasguns, we slightly increased the chain timings for the Special bayonet Light stab, as the attack was already very fast to repeat.

Detailed Changes - Attack Speed Buffs for Melee Attacks on Secondary Weapons



All Secondary Weapons
  • Allowed for Attack Speed buffs to affect melee attacks.
Lucius MK IIIa Helbore Lasgun / Lucius MK V Helbore Lasgun
  • Minimum windup time from Start Special attack to Special Light Stab from 0 to 0.1.
  • Chain time from Special Light Stab to Start Special attack from 0.575 to 0.635.




Almost forty pages later….and we’ve gotten through the upcoming Ogryn Talent Tree rework and some upcoming balancing changes for our next patch, Nightmares and Visions. It’s a lot!

Give this a read and let us know your thoughts in the comments below! We’ll be reading the comments and feedback to our plans.

See you on the Mourningstar.

– The Darktide Team



Announcing Nightmares & Visions - Releasing March 25, 2025

Hey Everyone,


At the end of last year, we told players we’d be bringing out four main updates to Warhammer 40,000: Darktide in 2025. It’s time to announce our first release – Nightmares & Visions – will be released across all our platforms on March 25, 2025!





What can players look forward to for Nightmares & Visions?

As part of expanding content in Darktide, we’re introducing a new activity for players prepared by the enigmatic Sefoni. Similar to Havoc, we’ve got a dev blog typed up to share with everyone.
  • New game activity - Mortis Trials: mash through waves of enemies in visions induced by the ship’s Psyker. Each time you venture into the Sefoni’s visions, you will be able to build new and exciting playstyles by selecting between abilities and buffs for the duration of the trial. By overcoming the Mortis Trials, players will unlock secret information on some characters present on the Mourningstar.
For the last few updates, players might’ve noticed we always include an event to go out with a new Darktide update. For Nightmares & Visions, we designed an event to celebrate Mortis Trials.
  • Time-Limited Special Event: following the release of Nightmares & Visions, Darktide will be hosting a special event focusing on playing Mortis Trials.
We mentioned we would be continuing to work on Havoc, and that’s part of the work we’ve included for this update. The process included going through a lot of player feedback. For this first update to Havoc, the difficulty for Havoc has been upped and we reassessed the ranking system. A dev blog to outline the changes is on the way!
  • Havoc mode gets a refresh: the end-game experience testing the resolve of the most seasoned operative reaches a new juncture with improvements and new daunting challenges in the form of four new mutators.
Since the update at the end of last year, we’ve heard it from the fans of the Big Guy. We’ve reworked the Ogryn Talent Tree, in addition to tweaking a few of his weapons. A preview dev blog has been put together to share off the planned changes, like we did before the Unlocked & Loaded update. Players can expect this preview dev blog to be shared at the end of this week!
  • And more! The Ogryn class is getting his Talent Tree revamped, giving players more build opportunities. We will also be bringing a few balancing changes as well as general improvements made to the game.



To wrap up, Nightmares & Visions is our next major update rolling out across our platforms on March 25, 2025.

We’ve got more information to come and dev blogs lined up! The Ogryn Talent Tree Rework blog is first (this week - we’re talking 37 pages of notes), and we’ll follow up with more blogs talking about the upcoming changes to Havoc and a proper introduction to Mortis Trials, too. We’re also working on some dev streams!

We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

– The Darktide Team

Hotfix #62 (1.6.9) - Patch Notes


Hey Everyone,



We’ve got another quick one this week to smooth out a few bugs. The hotfix is currently rolling out across our platforms and it’ll be available today.
  • Fixed a crash which could happen when moving the analog stick on controller during certain transitions in the Havoc menu.
  • Fixed an issue where the coloration of a few cosmetic items had accidentally been swapped from a forest/military green to teal
  • Fixed an issue where the description of the Ogryn “Payback Time” Talent appeared as undefined text.

Return of the Unrelenting Hordes - Special Event
The fan-favorite Unrelenting Hordes Special event returns to Warhammer 40,000: Darktide! A platoon of Moebian 21st soldiers has been infected by the Blight. Their armour will make them harder to deal with than the usual hordes you encounter.

We thought we'd stopped this mess after that trouble at the cathedral. Well, you know what to do.

Play missions with a set of Special Conditions, “Infected Moebian 21st”, and as a team collect Grimoires or Scriptures to earn rewards. This condition will only be available during the event and will appear on both the Standard and Auric mission terminals. Similar to past events, the progress will be shared across all members of the strike team.

This event will start on Thursday, February 20, 2025. The rewards will be Ordo Dockets, Plasteel and Diamantine.
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