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Genre: Shooter, Adventure, Indie

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Grim Protocols - Dark Communion Mission - Dev Blog


Hey Everyone, 


For Grim Protocols, we are releasing a new mission known as Dark Communion. To celebrate its release, we interviewed some of the devs and Fatshark team members who helped bring it to life. 

We’re going to talk a bit about the narrative that inspired it, the level design process, the art and the visual effects. As always, we want to give you an overview of the process of creating the mission, but we still want to leave some things unsaid for players to discover for themselves when they boot up the map for the first time.

Let’s dive back into the carnival.

P.S. We waited to share this dev blog until a few days after release so everyone could have a chance to try it out without any spoilers.

Level Design



With Dark Communion we wanted to forward the narrative of the Moebian 6th activities in The Carnival, as well as their relationship with the Cult of Admonition. This level sends players deeper into the heart of the Carnival district, following reports of sinister, ritual activity and a growing presence of heretic cultists. You’re being sent in to investigate these reports, but as always, things can and will escalate, so keep your eyes peeled and your weapons ready.

While building the previously seen missions set in the Carnival district, we had already planned to revisit it when the time was right. As such, players are likely to have already noticed, for example, the Cathedrum of Messelina Vengeant, seen in the background near the beginning of Warren 6-19 - now you will get to see it up close, and purge the heretics on its steps.

The other parts of the mission follow our usual modus operandi of interconnectivity. We wanted to revisit certain parts with a new coat of paint, and introduce new combat spaces that are different, while staying true to the DNA of the already established architecture.

As always, Jesper Kyd also created a masterpiece of a track for this mission. 

Bringing it Back to the Carnival



Is this a continuation of the Carnival maps?



Absolutely, but not only that. This level sees the culmination of the threads that began in the Carnival and continued through last year’s Orthus Offensive. We now know that Wolfer and the Traitorous 6th have made the Carnival a base of operations for their foul, tainted stimm production. While the warband continues to stymie their progress, their shipments are still getting through, as evidenced by that unfortunate business with the Moebian 21st, poor souls. Killing Rodin Karnak was a blow to their plans, but we already know that Rinda is still at large. Somehow, they brought her back from the brink of death. She’s calling herself the Herald of Admonition now. This mission promises to shed more light on what is driving the Traitorous 6th and their tainted stimms.

Will future missions continue the story that’s being played out in Dark Communion?


Without giving away the mission ending, there are definitely new leads to follow after the conclusion of Dark Communion. Though, what those are, you’ll have to find out alongside the warband. 

Who are the Cultists?


Originally assumed to be rabble-rousers and disorganised, disenfranchised gangs of hive citizens, we discover in Dark Communion that this is not the case and something much more sinister lies behind these yellow-clothed maniacs.

Since the mission is to ruin the ritual, does that “close” Rodin’s story? What would have happened if the ritual had worked?

When dealing with the fell powers of Chaos, it is unwise to write off any victory as final. The warband seems to have dealt with the threat for now, but who knows what effect those foul energies could have on Tertium.

Does this mission herald the start of a new narrative arc? Gloriana felt self-contained narratively, but Dark Communion raises a lot of questions.


To us, Dark Communion is a continuation of several of the previous story arcs in the game, it harkens back to the story we started to tell with the release of the Traitors Curse update but also starts to show us that there is more to the cult of Admonition than the warband has previously understood. We’ve got loads of plans for future storylines.

Art Design


For Art Design, we reined in Environment Artist Jonatan W. to give his thoughts on working on Dark Communion. 



What was it like designing the art for this mission? 


Most of my work was on the setpieces for the end event, but designing that was really fun. There was already a rough blockout for the event in the level that had Stimm tanks from one of our older levels with cables running up to a chaos star that was hanging over the altar. That gave me a good idea of what to make. 

After clarifying with the level designers what the objectives were and how you would interact with the event, the actual work on designing and creating the units began.

What kind of feeling were you trying to capture with the end event?


Since the event is set inside of a cathedral, I thought it might be cool to make something that resembled church organs in its silhouette. I thought it would frame the altar and Rodin in a nice way when you enter. 

I came up with the design of the two large vat tanks that would pump out fluids to Rodin from a central dispenser and started blocking it out. For some reason, I got the image of a horror monster being brought to life and retro-tesla coils stuck in my mind and thought that designing something like that would be neat, and fit into the whole vibe of trying to resurrect Rodin.

Were there any challenges?


Yes there were some technical and performance limitations to consider. Making destructible units always has some inherent challenges, not only from a technical standpoint but also from an art perspective! Like making nice transitions in destroyed states and getting VFX and sound in to sell it properly.

Visual Effects


Hi everyone, I’m Felicia and I work with visual effects (VFX) for Darktide. When I got the task to work on the new mission - Dark Communion, I knew that this was right up my alley. Scary and spooky Warhammer 40k with cultists and a ritual and a lot of new effects? Sign me up! 

After the level designers had done the blockout for the level I knew that it was gonna be a cathedral that you could see from the start of the mission and the direction I got was that you were supposed to see that something scary and big was happening over there. I usually try to look at real life videos for visual effects (like snow, explosions, steam, rain etc.) but how does it work when it comes to more illusion-like effects and references that I can’t find in the real world? Then you have to imagine what it will look like and mash things together. Like what indicates a spooky atmosphere above a cathedral? I knew it had to be big. I thought of some kind of thunderstorm that was just above the cathedral and experimenting with different behaviors and it ended up with a spiral of clouds to make it more unique than just a thunderstorm. 



After the clouds above the cathedral, then most of my work came in the end event inside the cathedral where the ritual was going on. 

The second thing I started to work on was the shields that are a big part of the end event and the gameplay. For these I got concept art so that I knew kind of how it would look. So I knew that it would be green and look a little bit like northern lights in its behavior. It’s a mesh with a material on it so it’s not any particles except when the shield goes down when smoke is pushing the player back as the shield goes down.  



We also have the cultists that are keeping the shields up to protect the ritual. When it comes to these effects I just knew that I wanted it to be kind of rough but still have subtle things that you wouldn’t notice at first but it does a lot for the feeling. Like adding a distortion when the cultists effects are hitting a shield so it kind of wobbles on the shield as an impact from the cultists.   



When you have destroyed all the shields you get to the altar where you will destroy tanks, resulting in a big energy explosion. It was gonna be a build up over some time, so I did 4 different stages and I was thinking of some kind of implode explosion with a lot of energy.  So at first it would start off with a small indication that the energy is getting bigger and bigger in the energy source (the corpse) until it finally reaches maximum and then explodes. 



And the last thing that happens is Rodin’s soul leaves his body and flies out of the cathedral windows. How does a soul look/feel like leaving the body? That was the question I asked myself and I thought of some smoke that is spawning from the body and flies in different directions so you can’t mistake it as smoke from an explosion, to make them stand out so you as a player understand that it’s something more than just smoke. 



Hope you liked to step into my visual effects mind and ideas that became the effects for Dark Communion, this was a really fun mission to work on and I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do! 




That’s our sneak peek for Dark Communion! We hope everyone enjoys jumping into the Carnival again, and we look forward to seeing what everyone thinks. We’ll be reading the comments. 

– The Darktide Team

Hotfix #54 (1.6.1) - Patch Notes

Hey Everyone, 


Hotfix #54 (1.6.1) is currently being rolled out across our platforms. You’ll find the patch notes below. 

Havoc Fixes

  • Temporary fix for the Error 9999 associated with Havoc.
  • If obtained, the Havoc Clearance Level will now be displayed in the Mourningstar over player characters instead of the Trust level.
    • Only for characters who have reached Trust level 30
  • Fixed an issue where some text strings could be overlapping in the Mission Vote Details and the Tactical Overlay screens for Havoc missions.
  • Fixed an issue where several text strings could be overlapping in the Havoc terminal in some languages.
  • Fixed an issue where Commissar Dukane could fail to greet players when interacting with the Havoc terminal.
  • Fixed an issue where Commissar Dukane could repeat the first access greeting also on subsequent visits.
  • Added the Havoc rank unlock information to the rewards details of Maelstrom missions.
Dev Note: Only when interacting with the Mission Board while not having yet unlocked Havoc mode. Please note this will be fully implemented in 1.6.2 and a broken parameter will display.
  • Added an objective marker to guide players to the Havoc terminal when first unlocking the game mode.
  • Added images behind the mutator tiles for the current Assignment in the Havoc terminal.
  • Updated the UI and animations when receiving a reward, a new assignment or a demotion after interacting with the Havoc terminal.
  • Updated the sound effects when navigating the UI in the Havoc terminal screens, and during the promotion and demotion animations.
  • Fixed an issue where the Havoc icon would appear as misaligned in the mission lobby screen.
  • Fixed an issue where the objective to interact with the Havoc terminal to unlock the game mode could be displayed even if the player already interacted with it using a different character.
  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect Havoc Clearance Level update could be displayed in the End of Round screen after failing a Havoc Assignment.
  • Fixed an issue where some text strings in the Havoc terminal would appear in English also when playing in other languages.
  • Fixed bug where a second character was still asked to do the Havoc unlock quest after having already completed it on the first character.
  • Combined the end of round information for Havoc to one card.

General Fixes

  • Fixed a crash that could happen while using a Zealot Relic Blade when trying to interact with an object (e.g. a Medicae station battery) while in the Block animation.
  • Fixed a crash that could happen when accessing the Tactical Overlay if a temporary Event had expired in the same session.
  • Fixed an issue where the End of Round rewards could be skipped in rare situations when failing to retrieve the data for the participating players.
  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect generic Backend Error message was displayed to players who tried to access the game after having received a ban.
  • Fixed an issue where players revvin’ up any chain weapon and sawing could get stuck in the sawing animation for a short period.
Dev Note: Additionally, fixed an issue where the controller vibration would continue to play indefinitely for players who got disabled/downed during that period of time.
  • Fixed an issue where the Play button in the Mission Board could occlude some of the mission details
  • Updated the gore settings restrictions applied to specific countries:
    • (All platforms) Only for players in Germany and Austria, post-death Ragdoll Interaction will be disabled.
      • On death ragdoll and other gore settings will remain available.
    • (Certain Consoles only) Only for players in Japan, the Blood Decals, Gibbing, Enemy Wounds and Ragdoll Interaction gore settings will be disabled.

Cosmetic Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where the attachment point for weapon trinkets would be positioned incorrectly for the Double-Barreled Shotgun weapon skin obtained from its Mastery penance. 
  • Fixed an issue where the attachment point for weapon trinkets would be positioned incorrectly for the Ogryn Heavy Stubber weapon skin obtained from its Mastery penance.
  • Fixed issues with certain hairstyles clipping on multiple mask-based Zealot cosmetic Penance headgears.  
  • Fixed an issue where the lower body would clip through select parts of the Veteran “Krieg Greatcoat (Krieg 143rd)” upperbody cosmetic.  
  • Tweaked some decals on the arms of the Ogryn “Krieg Greatcoat, XXXXL (Krieg 143rd)” upperbody cosmetics to remove thin white lines present on the sleeves.  
  • Fixed instances of hands clipping through the armwraps on the Zealot “Krieg Vigil Greatcoat (Krieg 143rd)” upperbody cosmetic.  
  • Fixed instances of hands clipping through the gloves on the Psyker “Storm Witch's Redemption Raiment” upperbody cosmetic.  
  • Polished up the fit on the Veteran “Flak Helmet (Tresian Night)” headgear cosmetic.  
  • The fire mode indicator on the Branx Minor Forge-Livery Boltgun skin should now properly light up.  

Console Fixes

  • Added the Brightness and Motion Blur settings in the Video Options.
  • Fixed a rare issue where Imperial Edition content and/or Aquilas could fail to be redeemed when accessing the Mourningstar.
  • Fixed a rare crash which could happen if the player lost connection to the network while game data was being processed.
  • Fixed an issue where the game could fail to reconnect to the voice and text chat channels after console activity resumed from a Rest mode period.

Special Event Live NOW - Cry Havoc!
Commissar Dukane has ordered the Warband to support the Moebian 53rd's latest offensive, so that untested fighters can be forged into reliable soldiers and soldiers into trustworthy veterans.

To celebrate the second anniversary of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and the free update Grim Protocols, the game is hosting an event that will reward players with crafting materials - such as dockets, plasteel and diamantine - as well as a unique weapon trinket. To earn these rewards, players have to complete Havoc Missions or win a mission where at least one team member is below level 30. (by completing any mission in which any team member - including the player - levels up).



Havoc Update - Completing Auric Maelstrom Update


Hey Everyone,



Thank you to everyone jumping into Grim Protocols. We’ve been reviewing the comments from all the players who are trying out Havoc and we’ve made a tweak on something.

To unlock Havoc, players are required to play a Maelstrom mission. If they play an Auric Maelstrom, they are boosted to Assignment Rank 10.

We’ve been monitoring feedback and we don’t believe this boost was enough. We’ve made a change to the backend where players who complete an Auric Maelstrom are now boosted to Assignment Rank 16. If you’ve already been boosted to Rank 10, you should be able to play another Auric Maelstrom to boost to Rank 16.

We chose Assignment Rank 16 because that is the level Auric Intensity is activated with the Emperor’s Fading Light.

To support the different skill levels that might be able to complete a Havoc-equivalent Maelstrom mission, we don’t want to boost too high. Some players who complete an Auric Maelstrom mission might’ve thought it was easy, while others struggled through it.

We’ll be continuing to monitor players to see if this is an adequate boost in levels or not. We’ll be monitoring the other feedback for Havoc, as well.

P.S. If you are having trouble finding parties for Havoc, make sure to select E in the Party Finder to clear your selected tags. We’ve found some players have tags selected that are mutually exclusive from Havoc and it prevents them from seeing the open parties.

Grim Protocols Free Update OUT NOW


Grim Protocols - Patch Notes Pt. 1




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC1HRacColU

Hey Everyone, 



We're trying something new and including a TL;DR section.

TL;DR for Grim Protocols



  • New Game Mode - Havoc: Think you’ve mastered the threat over Tertium? Think again. Havoc is a new end-game experience that will test the resolve of the most seasoned operative. Be ready to face daunting challenges and earn new cosmetic rewards.
  • New Mission - Dark Communion: Return to the Carnival and explore its darkest corners. Steel yourself as you face hordes of cultists who will stop at nothing to achieve their dark communion.
  • Three New Weapon Families: tear through waves of enemies by wielding the destructive might of the Two-Handed Force and Power Swords, and the Ogryn Heavy Stubber.
  • Anniversary Special Event: to celebrate the second anniversary of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, the game will host an event that will reward players with a unique weapon trinket.
  • And more: including the expansion of the Penance progression track with new challenges and rewards, as well as quality of life improvements such as an extension of the Party Finder feature.


New Game Mode: Havoc



Listen up, Rejects! You've all had it too easy so far. At least, that's what Commissar Dukane thinks. You've had your training in weapons handling, and now it's time to put that to use. The Commissar has declared this mission now under the purview of the Astra Militarum and intends for it to be carried out in a manner befitting its illustrious reputation. Report to the 53rd tactical command to receive your orders. Perform well and there might even be a medal in it for you. But I wouldn't hold your breath.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUzMxKl9qqM

Havoc is a new tiered progression system we have been working on for Trust Level 30 players. This system consists of different levels, known as Havoc Assignment Ranks. There will be 40 Assignment Ranks in total for Havoc. The highest Assignment Rank that a player successfully clears will give them a Havoc Clearance Level. 

The mode is designed to offer fresh and exciting challenges for both new and veteran players. Our goal is to make the highest tiers truly demanding, even for our most experienced players. This will be an ongoing process, and we on the design team are eager to collaborate with the community to develop even more difficult challenges for this mode in the future.

To begin your journey with Havoc you need to be playing on an eligible level 30 character, where you will receive a notification upon logging in saying Darinda Dukane wishes to speak with you. She will give you the task of finishing a Maelstrom mission in order to qualify. UPDATE: If a player completes an Auric Maelstrom mission, that player will be immediately given access to Havoc Assignment Rank 16 (previously 10).



Each Assignment Rank will incrementally grow in difficulty, with increasing negative modifiers and varying mutators. Players won’t only face increased hordes or enemies, they’ll also encounter 2 challenging mutators and 2 new mutators:
  • Cranial Corruption
    • A percentage of enemies have been afflicted with a Cranial parasite leaving them with no fear or thought; these enemies are immune against suppression and will explode if killed by headshot.
  • Infected 21st Moebians
    • Infected Moebian 21ths replaces poxwalkers and newly infected. 
  • Pus-hardened Skin
    • A percentage of enemies have been blessed with hardened skin rendering them more protected against ranged attacks.
  • The Blight Spreads
    • A percentage of the enemies have been afflicted with a nasty Nurgle plague, turning them into gooey liquid upon death with a chance to infect nearby enemies.


Players can attempt as many Havoc Assignment Ranks as they wish in a week. Each player will have 3 attempts to clear their own Havoc Assignment Rank before they’re demoted (1) Assignment Rank. (Note: This doesn’t affect a player’s Clearance Level, which is the highest successfully cleared level). Of course, you can’t go lower than Assignment Rank 1. If a player is attempting another player’s Assignment as a member of a party, and the party is not successful, it is only the Assignment Rank owner that loses (1) attempt. 

Each player’s Assignment Rank will mostly be unique, meaning it could be any of the missions in Havoc rotation, with any combination of mutators. However, the negative modifiers will remain the same for everyone as the levels increase.

To complete an Assignment Rank, players can either create a party in the Party Finder using their own unique Assignment Rank, or they can request to join an existing party using the Party Finder and complete someone else’s Assignment Rank. Note: Players can also create a party by inviting friends through the Social menu. Players are allowed to attempt Assignment Ranks higher than their own current Assignment Rank through this option.

Additional Note: The Party Finder has been extended to include Havoc. 





At the end of each week, a player will earn a Weekly Cache of materials that corresponds to their highest cleared Assignment in that week. At the start of the next week, a player’s Assignment Rank will update based on the highest cleared Assignment from the previous week. Note: The player’s Clearance Level, which represents the highest all-time Havoc Assignment completed and updates in real-time, will not go down each week.

There have been some changes since the last communication about Decay in Havoc after reviewing player feedback. Currently: If a player does not partake in at least (1) Assignment Rank (either their own or from a friend or through the Party Finder) during the week (whether successfully or unsuccessfully), then their current Havoc Assignment Rank will go down (1) Rank.

Along the way to Havoc Clearance Level 40 there are earnable frames, insignias, titles and cosmetics. The cosmetics are all-black versions of the 53rd Moebian cosmetics. (You won’t need to beat Level 40 in order to receive the cosmetics.)

We’ve already written a couple of dev blogs on the topic of Havoc where you can read more (Introduction to Havoc, Q&A about Havoc). Please be aware that some things may have changed since these were written.




Ogryn


Zealot


Psyker


Veteran

New Mission - Dark Communion


Interrogator Rannick sends you back into the dingy alleys of the Carnival on the trail of the Tainted Stimms. But a storm rages over the Cathedrum of Messelina Vengeant and ritual bells peal across the empty streets. What fresh horror have the heretics mustered behind the Cathedrum doors?



New In-Game Event: Cry Havoc!



Commissar Dukane means to forge untested fighters into reliable soldiers and soldiers into trustworthy veterans. 

To make progress in the event, either complete Havoc missions; or complete any mission with new Rejects (aka Rejects under Trust Level 30).

This event will start on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. The rewards will be Ordo dockets, Plasteel and Diamantine. Those who complete the last tier of the event will receive a new Weapon Trinket.





New Weapons


We are introducing three new weapon families into Darktide! Tear through waves of enemies by wielding the destructive might of the Two-Handed Force and Power Swords, and the Ogryn Heavy Stubber.

2h Powersword - Relic Blade





Overview

The Zealot 2-handed Powersword is a giant greatsword with barely contained energy.
It sports huge, sweeping swings and a unique sprinting Heavy stab attack that is perfect for charging into the fray.

This weapon possesses great damage and incredible reach, with easy to use but still deep movesets available between the two marks.

While not particularly nimble, it has a generous Stamina profile, providing flexible frontline pacing of heretic swarms.

The Special action activates the sword, further improving its already remarkable attack properties at the cost of increasing Heat.

Weapon Special

The 2h Powersword's Special action empowers the sword, improving its swings while it is active.

It particularly buffs the weapon's Cleave values, Damage Multipliers against certain armour types (e.g. Carapace armour) and Impact values (particularly for specific Heavy attacks). 

Activating the Weapon Special will start filling a Heat bar. Each activated swing will also increase Heat by a small amount.

When the weapon is deactivated, the Heat bar will passively cool down.

If the Heat bar is completely filled, the weapon overheats. On overheating, the weapon deactivates and cannot be activated until the Heat bar is completely emptied.

The weapon will also deactivate from the following actions:
  • Automatically, when swapping out of the 2h Powersword.
  • Manually, when performing the Special action while the weapon is already activated.

After performing the Special activate or deactivate action, the attack chain will not be reset.

Additionally, the weapon will receive Block properties while activating or deactivating.

This will provide flexibility to weave in the Special action in between attack combos.

Munitorum Mk II Relic Blade

This 2h Powersword mark is especially easy to use, with immediate access to both sweeping Light Vanguard attacks and powerful Heavy Strikedown attacks.

Additionally, a unique chain from Push to Heavy 4 allows a faster way into the looping Heavy 3 and Heavy 4 Vanguard attacks.

Attacks

  • Light 1 / Light 2: Moderately fast, horizontal Vanguard attacks with good cleave.
  • Light 3: Fast stab Strikedown attack with good armour penetration and finesse multiplier.
  • Light Sprint/Slide: Fast, diagonal uppercut Vanguard attack with good cleave (only available while in Sprint or Slide state).
  • Push-attack: A stab Strikedown attack with similar properties as Light 3.
  • Heavy 1 / Heavy 2: Slow, vertical Strikedown attacks with great damage and finesse multiplier.
  • Heavy 3 / Heavy 4: Slow, horizontal Vanguard attacks with great cleave.
  • Heavy Sprint/Slide: Long reaching stab Strikedown attack with good armour penetration and finesse multiplier (only available while in Sprint or Slide state); entering the windup animation for this attack gives a small speed boost.

Suggested Horde combos

L1 > L2 > H3 > H4 > H3 > …
L1 > L2 > Block cancel > L1 > L2 > …

… > H3 > L2 > …

Push > L2 > …
Push > H4 > H3 > …
Light Sprint/Slide > L2 > ...


Suggested Single Target combos

H1 > H2 > L3 > H1 > …
H1 > H2 > Block cancel > H1 > ...

Push-Attack > H2 > …
Heavy Sprint/Slide > H1 > …



Munitorum Mk X Relic Blade

This 2h Powersword mark trades access to fast Vanguard attacks for a plethora of Strikedown attacks.

The unique chains from Light 1 to Heavy 4, from Heavy 3 to Light 2, and from Heavy 4 to Heavy 3 allow to quickly loop together all the Strikedown attacks in free-flow combos.

Attacks

  • Light 1 / Light 2: Moderately fast, vertical Strikedown attacks with good single target damage.
  • Light 3: Moderately fast, slightly diagonal Vanguard attack with good cleave.
  • Light Sprint/Slide: Fast, diagonal uppercut Vanguard attack with good cleave (only available while in Sprint or Slide state).
  • Push-attack: A horizontal Vanguard attack with similar properties as Light 3.
  • Heavy 1 / Heavy 2: Slow, slightly diagonal Vanguard attacks with great cleave.
  • Heavy 3: Slow, uppercut Strikedown attack with good damage and great finesse multiplier.
  • Heavy 4: Slow, vertical Strikedown attack with good damage and finesse multiplier.
  • Heavy Sprint/Slide: Long reaching stab Strikedown attack with good armour penetration and finesse multiplier (only available while in Sprint or Slide state); entering the windup animation for this attack gives a small speed boost.

Suggested Horde combos

H1 > H2 > L3 > H2 > …
H1 > H2 > Block cancel > H1 > H2 > …

Push-Attack > L3 > …
Push-Attack > H1 > …
Push > H2 > …
Light Sprint/Slide > H2 > ...


Suggested Single Target combos

L1 > L2 > H3 > H4 > H3 > …
… > H3 > L2 > …

L1 > H4 > …
… > H4 > L1 > …
Push > L2 > …
Heavy Sprint/Slide > L2 > …


2h Forcesword - Blaze Force Greatsword


Overview

A weapon for the truly incomparable minds, the Psyker 2-handed Forcesword inherits most of the speed and elegance of its smaller 1-handed sibling along with additional damage, reach and a very unique Special (continue reading below for further details).

It has a deep moveset that rewards players who can master its quirky combos and conditional attack starts: both marks have unique chains with specific attacks only available during Sprint or Slide states, or even immediately after wielding the weapon.

Weapon Special

The Special of this weapon is divided into two parts: 
  • Upon performing the Special action, the blade will be imbued with warp energy for a very short time.
  • The first follow-up attack (either Light or Heavy) will always perform a horizontal swing that releases the stored energy as a ranged Warpshock Slash.

The Warpshock Slash travels a short distance, cleaving through most enemies while damaging and staggering them.

At its base power, the Warpshock Slash has moderate damage, while its Impact value will only stagger lesser enemies.

However, the Warpshock Slash level can be empowered by active combat:
  • Whenever an enemy is killed by damage from the 2h Forcesword swings, their life essence will be stored temporarily. Stronger enemies provide more essence when killed.
  • Upon reaching a minimum essence gauge threshold, the next Special attack will be empowered. If the essence gauge is completely filled, the next Special attack will be empowered even further, granting a reality-tearing Warpshock Slash attack.
  • When performing the Special action to imbue the blade with power, all essence is consumed. The Warpshock Slash attack's power is calculated based on the essence gauge threshold rounded down.
  • The essence gauge will also slowly passively deplete if no additional essence is gained after a short period of time.

Note that essence from a dying enemy will still be awarded to 2h Forcesword players that damaged but did not kill the enemy in a short grace time period immediately before its death.

Covenant Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword

This 2h Forcesword mark has immediate access to powerful Strikedown attack loops but can reach its Heavy Vanguard attack only when chaining from specific Light attacks.

This makes the weapon very suited to deal with single foes but also will require a bit of skill when facing dense hordes.

Attacks

  • Light 1: Diagonal Vanguard attack with good speed and cleave.
  • Light 2: Diagonal Vanguard attack with good speed and cleave (also performed directly instead of Light 1 when in Sprint state).
  • Light 3: Diagonal uppercut Vanguard attack with good speed and cleave, an improved finesse modifier and a unique chain to Heavy 3.
  • Light 4: Vertical Strikedown attack with good damage and finesse modifier.
  • Light Slide: Diagonal uppercut Vanguard attack with similar properties as Light 3; chains into Light 3 or Heavy 1 (only available while in Slide state).
  • Light Wield: Diagonal uppercut Vanguard attack with similar properties as Light 1; chains into Light 1 or Heavy 1 (only available immediately after wielding the weapon).
  • Push-attack: A single target force push, with good range and extremely high Impact.
  • Light Push/Push-attack follow-up combo: Horizontal Vanguard attack with similar properties as Light 1; chains into Light 4 or Heavy 3 (only available when chained from a Push or a Push-attack).
  • Heavy 1: Slow, vertical Strikedown attack with good damage and finesse multiplier.
  • Heavy 2: Slow, stab Strikedown attack with great damage and finesse multiplier, and improved armour penetration; chains into Light 4 or Heavy 1.
  • Heavy 3: Slow, slightly diagonal Vanguard attack with great cleave; chains into Light 1 or Heavy 1 (only available when chained from Light 3 and Light Push/Push-attack follow-up combo).
  • Heavy Wield/Sprint/Slide: Vertical Strikedown with similar properties as Heavy 1; chains into Light 3 or Heavy 1 (only available while in Sprint or Slide state, and immediately after wielding the weapon).

Suggested Horde combos

L1 > L2 > L3 > H3 > L1 > …
L1 > L2 > Block cancel > L1 > ...

Push > Light followup > H3 > …
Push attack > Light followup > H3 > …
Light Slide > L3 > …
Light Wield > L1 > …
(While Sprinting) L2 > …


Suggested Single Target combos

H1 > H2 > H1 > …
H1 > L4 > H1 > …
… > H2 > L4 > H1 > …

Push Attack > H1 > …
Heavy Wield/Sprint/Slide > H1 > …


Covenant Mk VIII Blaze Force Greatsword





This 2h Forcesword mark has immediate access to many different Vanguard attack loops, but can reach its Strikedown attacks only when further into the combo. 

Particularly, its extremely strong Heavy stab can be reached only after a push-attack, therefore requiring a small amount of setup.

Attacks

  • Light 1: Horizontal Vanguard attack with good speed and cleave.
  • Light 2: Horizontal Vanguard attack with good speed and cleave; chains into Light 3 or Heavy 1.
  • Light 3: Diagonal uppercut Vanguard attack with good speed, cleave and an improved finesse modifier.
  • Light 4: Diagonal uppercut Vanguard attack with good speed, cleave and an improved finesse modifier (can also be accessed while in Slide state).
  • Light Wield/Sprint: Diagonal Vanguard attack with similar properties as Light 1; chains into Light 1 or Heavy 1 (only available while in Sprint state and immediately after wielding the weapon).
  • Push-attack: A single target force push, with good range and extremely high Impact; chains into Light or Heavy follow-up combo attacks.
  • Light Push-attack follow-up combo: Fast stab Strikedown attack with good armour penetration and finesse multiplier (only available when chained from a Push-attack).
  • Heavy Push-attack follow-up combo: Slow stab Strikedown attack with great damage, armour penetration and finesse multiplier (only available when chained from a Push-attack).
  • Heavy 1: Slow, slightly diagonal Vanguard attack with great cleave.
  • Heavy 2: Slow, vertical Strikedown attack with good damage and finesse multiplier.
  • Heavy 3: Slow, vertical Strikedown attack with good damage and finesse multiplier; chains into Light 4 and Heavy 2.
  • Heavy Wield/Sprint/Slide: Slightly diagonal Vanguard attack with similar properties as Heavy 1; chains into Light 1 or Heavy 1 (only available while in Sprint or Slide state, and immediately after wielding the weapon).

Suggested Horde combos

L1 > L2 > L3 > L4 > L1 > …
H1 > L2 > …
L1 > L2 > Block cancel > L1 or H1 > …
… > L2 > H1 > …

Light Wield/Sprint > L1 or H1 > …
(While Sliding) L4 > L1 or H1 > …
Heavy Wield/Sprint/Slide > H1 > …


Suggested Single Target combos

H1 > H2 > H3 > H2 > …

Push Attack > Light Followup > H1 or Push Attack > …
Push Attack > Heavy Followup > H1 or Push Attack > …


Ogryn Heavy Stubber





Overview

While sporting only half of the barrels and magazines compared to their Twin-linked brethren, the Heavy Stubbers make up for it with increased punch and precision on each shot, especially when bracing the weapon in secondary fire.

With high-caliber bullets and huge penetration and stagger values, no foe will remain standing after the smoke dissipates.

When correctly pacing the shots, this will allow Ogryns to snipe enemies even at longer distances, while still having the option to go full auto in situations that require less thoughtful strategies. 

Weapon Special

The Special of this weapon is a high-power flashlight. While Ogryns are not fully used to such advanced technology, they still find ways to make it work.

May it be a light to you in dark places.

Primary Fire

Full auto mode, with high spread and recoil. Becomes rapidly inaccurate even at medium distances, but can still be useful to create Suppression when covering the team’s advance against entrenched enemies.

Secondary Fire

Semi-auto mode, with slow rate of fire. Bracing the weapon enables more accurate shooting, especially when waiting for the spread and recoil to settle.

Krourk Mk IIa Heavy Stubber

40 rounds magazine, with good fire speed in both primary and secondary stance.

While less powerful than the other marks, the Krourk Mk IIa has increased mobility and faster wield and reload speeds, making it a very reliable firearm to quickly deploy in tense situations.

Gorgonum Mk IIIa Heavy Stubber

30 rounds magazine, with average fire speed in both primary and secondary stance.
The Gorgonum Mk IIIa has significant power in each shot, while still not completely sacrificing mobility and fire speed.

A good middle ground to bring in any engagement.

Achlys Mk II Heavy Stubber

20 rounds magazine, with slow fire speed in both primary and secondary stance.

The Achlys Mk II mark trades nimbleness for enormous power: while its wield time is high and the handling is cumbersome, it makes up for it with the highest damage, armour penetration and cleave of all the Heavy Stubbers.

A great ranged weapon for smart Ogryns with tactical awareness of the fight (or just for players who want problems to disappear).

Quality of Life Additions


Player Reporting


Player Reporting was introduced in Hotfix #53 (1.5.11) and it goes live for all platforms today. To find the reporting option, players will need to open the player’s account details in the Social menu and select the Report entry. From there, you’ll be brought to the Report Player screen.





Disconnect Punishment for Leaving a Game



Disconnecting / ALT+F4:ing to circumvent being “downed” to complete harder penances (e.g. the Auric Storm Survivor penance) or bypass the downed/hogtied states has been an issue especially in higher difficulties, and to this end, we’ve introduced more checks when players reconnect. Players will now respawn back with the health count they had upon leaving, instead of being spawned with a minimal % of hp, and players who disconnect/ALT+F4 to get around being downed will now spawn back hogtied. 

Further, if a player leaves mid-mission without reconnecting, it will automatically count as a loss for that player. However, the players in the mission will still be able to complete the mission; and if they do, it will count as a win for the remaining players.



This is the end of Pt.1 for the patch notes. Please continue on to Pt. 2!

Ogryn Talent Tree Redistribution - Head's Up


Hey Everyone,



We’re making a few layout changes to Ogryn’s Talent Tree with the upcoming Grim Protocols patch on December 3rd. This will reset player’s talent trees and require them to redistribute points.

We wanted to let you know ahead of time so players can take note of their current talent tree distribution.

Have a great weekend,

The Darktide Team

Ritual & Prophecy - Narrative Dev Blog


From the moment the Rejects arrived on Tertium, Interrogator Rannick harboured suspicions that there was more to the invasion than met even his over-suspicious eye. Now, with the forthcoming Grim Protocols update, there are signs that the Battle for Tertium is entering a new phase. 

We sat down with Narrative Producer Michael Knight and Lead Writer Matthew Ward to find out more.

So, Tertium’s in trouble then?

Mike: It’s always in trouble, isn’t it? But yes, things are about to get worse. 

Matthew: Are they though? Isn’t it more the case that Rannick’s finally about to realise just how bad they’ve really been from the start?

Mike: I know, right? He’s probably known something was badly wrong ever since the Orthus Offensive last year, but that’s the problem with suspecting everyone and everything: occasionally you don’t see something until it’s bang in front of you.

Matthew: Even paranoids have enemies.

Mike: Exactly. Rannick’s about as paranoid as they come, and he has a lot of enemies.

We’re talking about Wolfer, right?

Matthew: Wolfer’s involved, sure. He’s been our Rejects’ dark mirror since the moment Zola stepped aboard the Tancred Bastion prison ship.  

Mike: Maybe even before that.

Matthew: We can’t talk about that, can we? Dan (Abnett) will kill us.

Mike: Dan wouldn’t do that. He’s actually a very nice man. But let’s play it safe. Wolfer isn’t nice. He’s been the face of the Battle for Tertium right from the start. He spearheaded the invasion. Every soldier of the Traitorous 6th - the ones we’ve seen anyway – answer to him. But he’s a purely military threat. It turns out that Tertium’s been rotten for a long time.

Matthew: We’ve seen the cultists fighting alongside Wolfer’s traitors. So far, Rannick’s assumed that their goals are the same and that they’re just a rabble militia fighting for Wolfer. The first is kinda-sorta-maybe true. The second? Not at all. To the leaders of the cult, Wolfer’s just fulfilling his part of a long-awaited prophecy. He’s a tool, nothing more.

Mike: I’m not sure he realises that. 

Matthew: At the very least, he’s in denial. But we’ve all been there.

Hang on, back up a bit. The cult’s leaders? Who are they?

Mike: We’ve met one already. He rescued Rinda after she and her brother (Rodin) fell foul of the Rejects and then set her loose during the Terror in the Dark event. We’ll meet the others soon enough. The hour of prophecy is fast approaching and they’re not the kind of people that lurk in the shadows for ever. They’re starting to flex their muscles. After all, it was the cult, not Wolfer, who attacked Commissar Dukane’s Moebian 53rd during the Rolling Steel mission. What we’ve seen so far is only the beginning.

That’s the second time you’ve mentioned a prophecy. Can you tell us more about that?

Mike: Only that Dan’s really excited about it. The rest you’ll have to find out as it unfolds.
 
In the Grim Protocols update?

Mike: It’s a watershed moment. Rannick, Wolfer, Zola… they’re all starting to see that there’s more going on than they realise. In the end, Wolfer and the 6th are pursuing victory the way the Imperium taught them. Theirs is a conventional war. The cult deal in dark sorceries and blasphemous powers. For them, the path to victory lies through embracing the Grandfather’s blessings. In life … and beyond.

Matthew: So much of what’s happened over the last year has fallen neatly into the cult’s plans, but now they’re taking an active role in the Battle for Tertium. Unknown to Rannick (and Wolfer) they have a ritual in the works. One that the warband need to stop if there’s to be any hope of winning. The Rejects are about to be tested as never before.

Mike: I’m sure it’ll work out. Right?

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide in "Labor of Love" Category

Hotfix #53 (1.5.11) - Patch Notes

Hey Everyone,


Hotfix #53 (1.5.11) is live now on Steam and it will shortly follow on our other platforms. You can read the patch notes below! This is only a smaller update before we release Grim Protocols next week. Bug fixes and tweaks will be wrapped into that larger patch next week.

QoL updates


Tertium Logo Animation and Text Update: In this update we’ve added some small changes to transitional screens in Darktide, which will appear while you are loading.

  • The animated spinning Tertium logo is now present in more places, such as after a mission.
  • Text has been added to indicate on what step the game process is currently at.
Dev Note: The intent with this addition is to make it more transparent to players what happens during these transitions, and give more clarity to troubleshooting in case players run into longer-than-expected waits.

Cosmetic Fixes


  • Fixed instances where the hands and arms would clip on the Veteran “Arlo Tohmasson’s Battledress” upperbody cosmetic.
  • Fixed a small gap between arms and body on the Veteran “Tanker Commander’s Battlegear (Moebian 110th Armoured)” upperbody cosmetic.

Known Issues


  • We have temporarily removed Chasm Station HL-16-11 and Magistrati Oubliette TM8-707 from the mission board until Grim Protocols releases (Dec 3) due to an issue that would sometimes occur and prevent players from ending the mission.
    • A fix for this has been included in Grim Protocols for December 3rd.
  • There are some rare instances where a weapon keeps shooting while in secondary braced stance even after the trigger button is released. It is possible however to end the input by performing another action, like reloading or removing the braced stance.
    • A fix for this has been included in Grim Protocols for December 3rd.
  • [Console Only]: We have identified and are working to fix a memory leak issue when loading textures that could cause an out of memory crash after longer sessions of gameplay.
    • A fix for this has been included in Grim Protocols for December 3rd.
  • [Console Only]: After resuming from Rest mode, players may not be able to join text or voice chat when joining back into the Mourningstar.
Dev Note: It is advised to return to character selection or restart the game as a workaround to solve the issue.
  • [Console Only]: No error message will be displayed when a console player attempts to join a party with a player on a different platform who has Cross-Play disabled.
  • [Console Only]: The Brightness and Motion Blur settings are not available in the Video options.
  • [Console Only]: The game may crash when changing multiple times in rapid succession between Performance and Quality mode the Video options.


Grim Protocols - New Weapons - Dev Blog


Hey Everyone, 



Welcome to the first dev blog for our next update, Grim Protocols. Today, we’re talking about weapons. This dev blog will give you more of a behind the scenes look at creating these weapons for Grim Protocols. We’ll include more information about their special attacks work and in-game information in the patch notes at release.

We’ve got 3 brand new weapons coming to you with this update:

  • Two-Handed Power Sword (2 Marks) - Zealot
    • Munitorum Mk X Relic Blade
    • Munitorum Mk II Relic Blade
  • Two-Handed Force Sword (2 Marks) - Psyker
    • Covenant Mk VI Blaze Force Greatsword
    • Covenant Mk VIII Blaze Force Greatsword
  • Heavy Stubber (3 Marks) - Ogryn
    • Krourk Mk IIa Heavy Stubber
    • Gorgonum Mk IIIa Heavy Stubber
    • Achlys Mk II Heavy Stubber

Remember the Itemization trailer? 😉



For this dev blog, we’re going to talk to some devs about the general design direction, creating the animations, formulating the sounds, and bringing them to live through visual effects. 

General Design Direction



For the design direction of these weapons, we spoke to Matteo A., Game Designer on Darktide, who worked on them. 

What is the design target for the Heavy Stubbers? Was it difficult to place when the Twin Stubber already existed?


The design intent for the heavy stubbers was to give Ogryns some more precise long-range capabilities. Since we already had the Twin Linked Stubbers, it didn’t sound super interesting to only make them a less rapid fire version. Instead, we went with another approach. 

Ogryns being Ogryns, we imagined them using the Heavy Stubber as a sort of DMR (marksman rifle) weapon. This would allow them to lay down supportive fire with the primary fire and be very precise with the alternative fire. This broadens the Ogryn player's toolkit, enabling them to take on a wider variety of roles within the team.

We’ve also added a flashlight to the Heavy Stubbers for the big guys, because they’ve been in the dark too long.

Why is the Two-Handed Power Sword on the Zealot, when the Veteran already has the One Handed Power Sword?


The Two-Handed Power Sword is a giant greatsword with barely contained energy: its huge, sweeping swings and a unique sprinting Heavy stab attack, it just asks to get stuck in melee while frantically lobbing off the heretics' heads.

The weapon also sports a new bespoke activation mechanic: instead of having a fixed, stable amount of empowered swings (more appropriate to the ex-Guard regimented Veteran), a Heat gauge will increase while the weapon is activated. Upon reaching the Heat limit, the weapon will overheat and lock the player out of the Special activate for a short period.

Controlling the rising Heat while engaged in the thick of combat felt very much suited to the playstyle and fantasy of the Zealot: melee-focused, unbridled and overwhelming power. 

I’ve noticed Veterans haven’t received a weapon this patch. Will we be left hungry?


Veterans won’t be left out for too long. They’ll be receiving more next year. 

What about the Force Swords? 



> Drops a video of the Force Greatsword special attack



> Refuses to elaborate further
> Leaves

Animation



Next up to speak about animation for the new weapons is Jonas B., one of our Gameplay Animators.

What was the process like to animate the two-handed swords compared to the other swords in game? 


It was quite a similar process actually! Although this time around, I had to think more about weight shifting and gripping both hands instead of just one. Especially since they're, you know, pretty big. Usually, when I animate new weapons, I try to re-use and adjust some of the old animations if they’re similar or fitting enough to be something new. This time around it wasn’t the case, though. 

In the very beginning, I collected some references of HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) / Sword dueling videos. I also looked a bit into sword stances to gather inspiration. In the end, a lot of these inspirations were a bit subdued, or they were changed a bit for the sake of highlighting the personalities of the Psyker and Zealot. But changes were also made to make the weapons unique and fun with the weapon specials in mind. 

Specifically, the Two-Handed Power Sword is more forceful, reckless and heavy (Emperor guide my path!). Conversely, the Two-Handed Force Sword has more “flowy” finesse and flair to its movements, which  showcases Psykers using psi-assisted techniques instead of proper training. 

In other words, you could find me posing and swinging around prop swords sometimes at my office desk or in the animation room to get a feeling of how to animate and handle the swords. (I'd like to think I looked pretty cool acting as a reckless and fervent Zealot, but it was probably quite silly. Maybe you can bribe StrawHat to show it to you one day.)

(NOTE: Also I want to shout out Oliviero M., for making an awesome solid groundwork for the Two-Handed Force Sword.)

How long have you been working on these weapons?


Hard to say to be honest. All the weapons have been in varying stages for a long time. Some were more functional than others. I think animation-wise the new Heavy Stubbers have been in a good place for a while. (Note: This only refers to animation-wise. We still needed to do testing and tweak numbers to make sure they felt right in-game.)

I started working on the Two-Handed Force Sword full-time a few months ago. It had quite a lot of solid groundwork done during the prototyping stage and functional stage. I think the groundwork was done earlier. 

The Two-Handed Power Sword had its very basic groundwork a while back, but we wanted to focus on other weapons first. Coincidentally, I started working on the Two-Handed Power Sword roughly at the same time as the Two-Handed Force Sword. 

In general, these weapons have been worked on bit by bit. It’s taken time, because they’ve both gone through quite a lot of reworks and iterations. We’ve changed how the weapon special attacks worked. We began taking a new approach by adding unique conditional actions that lead to different attacks depending on whether a player is running, sprinting or sliding. This meant I had to return and change some animations and transitions on these weapons to make sure they worked as intended.

What were some of the challenges you faced while working on the animations?


The biggest challenge this time around was probably making sure the Two-Handed Power Sword Weapon Special did not feel disruptive in the attack chain flow, yet still be visible enough for activating and deactivating. Considering how the activation system works for the Two-Handed Power Sword, it meant that the weapon needed an activate/deactivate animation for most cases after swings (left-side, right-side, idle, sprint). 

But it also needed support for activate/deactivate when sprinting due to being able to start attacks while in a sprint. There were quite a few custom animation transitions made for the activate/deactivate animation to make sure it could blend into the action from any point in the gameplay, such as hitstops, shield-hitstops, blocks, etc. 

Another challenge for both the swords was that we allowed them to be able to start charging a heavy attack while being in a sprinting state. This itself is not a very large deal, but this change caused a lot of unexpected animation bugs leading into attack chains, which needed to be addressed.

Any comments or thoughts on what it was like to animate the Ogryn stubbers?


It’s always a treat to animate Ogryns. There’s something magical about them when it comes to animating them. I think it might be because they’re such brutes that allow you to animate ridiculous, but lovable actions. You’ll see an example of this when you turn on the flashlight for the heavy stubbers. Most of their problems are usually solved by brute force or heavy firepower. 

That said, it was very satisfying to animate a weapon that is quite heavy and powerful in fire-power and brutish in handling such a weapon.

Are there any fun bits of trivia?


In the very beginning the Two-Handed Power Sword was known as the “Ogryn Jousting weapon” amongst some of the animators of Fatshark. This is mostly because the unique sprinting pose very much resembled someone charging forward ready to strike. We joked around about how the humans were piggy-riding on Ogryns with the swords pointed forward, in a joust-like fashion. 

Also, the sprint stab animation (Sprint > Heavy Stab attack) on Two-Handed Power Swords was just a fun prototype thingy, which kinda led us to add conditional attacks for the weapons, things such as attacks made from equip, slide and such. 

Sounds



Our next section is about building the sounds for the new weapons. For this, we have Jonas H. entering the blog!

What was it like designing the sound for the new Power Sword and Force Sword? Did you do anything to make them distinct? What was your thought process?


My first focus was to make both two-handed swords feel heavy, so I needed to make foley* and hit sounds that gave that feeling.

(* You might be asking what foley means: Foley is the sound for handling the weapon. It’s all about the small details: like touching and grabbing the sword, the small clinks and clanks when you walk, etc.)

For the Two-Handed Power Sword special attacks, I wanted it to still feel like it was in the same family as the 1H counterpart, but I tried to embrace the fantasy that when activated it should both feel and sound cool when hitting enemies. And as the window of the activation was fairly short, I could make the hits a bit louder, while not making it tiresome in the long run.

The Two-Handed Force Sword took the longest to make because the way the special worked was changed a lot during development (like the other Jonas mentioned above). I wanted the wave and the explosive hits on the enemies to also feel satisfying, so it took some time to find a good balance. It was also important to me to make the warp sound design surrounding this weapon to feel connected to its sibling, the 1H Force Sword. A lot of experimentation was done to find the right vibe in swings and activation information for this weapon.

When it comes to designing guns for Ogryns, are there any differences compared to designing the sounds for the human classes?


Compared to the swords, the stubbers are more grounded.  I tried to make them feel different from the faster Twin Stubbers. I did this by making more mechanical sounds in the background while shooting, and adding another flavor to the shots. They are slower and heavy, and that was the goal sound wise, as well.

Visual Effects



To round this BTS dev blog off, we’ve got Felicia K., one of our VFX Artists, to talk to you about her process. 

Hi everyone, I’m Felicia and I work with visual effects (VFX) for Darktide. To start off, for those who don’t know what a Visual Effect Artist does at a game studio, I create effects for both environment and combat. For the environment, it can be things like rain, fire, dust, smoke, steam and much more. For combat, it’s more muzzle flashes for guns, impact effects on enemies like blood and explosions, the list goes on. I work very closely with a lot of different roles at the studio. Most of the time my role comes in later in the process, since I need to know what is happening in the levels or the combat to be able to brainstorm my part of the process. 

When I started to work on the new swords I was very hyped. I knew that these weapons would be a little bit different from what I’ve worked on before, especially the Two-Handed Force Sword.

Two-Handed Force Sword



I heard from the combat designers that the Two-Handed Force Sword would have a force cleave coming out of the sword that you would charge up. Almost like a wind slash in some other games. But of course we would need it to look much more brutal and more Warhammer 40,000. 

From here, the brainstorming begins for me. How does the effect feel? How does it behave? What is it? What is the style for this effect? So this is what I wrote down as the description: 

Style/Mood: Wispy/Souls to separate the Force Sword from the Power Sword that already has lightning. The Power Sword feels a lot more “rough” than the Force Sword. Make it “Wispy” in the effects as a whole. 

I wanted the Two-Handed Force Sword to be soft and smooth but still feel very powerful. It has 3 different stages on the cleave depending on how powerful the charge is. To show this visually, I made them different sizes and added some extra effects on the most powerful one, like smoke and sparks.

After the cleave was done, I worked on the charge that you do on the sword itself before you can shoot the cleave. There was some back and forth on how it should look. We knew it should indicate that you can have enough power to charge up the cleave, and to make that clear I created a screen space effect (AKA an effect that spawns on the screen). I also added a small blue fire-like effect that would spawn on the sword when you have enough power. 

It’s always a challenge when working with visual effects to make sure you as a player understand what is happening, but not take over and be too much, so you can focus on your gameplay. It needs to be balanced. You don’t want effects all over your screen just to indicate something. But you still need to see the effects enough, so you can understand “oh I have enough power to charge my forcesword” even in the middle of an intense combat fight.



My own beautiful (not so beautiful) sketch of the indicator of when you have reached a certain charge. It turned out a little bit different when I actually started to work on it, but it’s always good to go back to your mood board/description to not lose track of what you’re aiming for, because you can easily forget along the way. 

Two-Handed Power Sword


So if the Two-Handed Force Sword would feel smooth and powerful, I wanted the Two-Handed Power Sword to feel more rock ‘n’ roll. I wanted this sword to feel more rough when it comes to the effects. To accomplish this, the lightning is spawning and it is pretty big when you activate the weapon. 

You also have a time limit before it overcharges. For this, I thought it should look/feel like an engine on a car that’s failing and there’s smoke coming out of it to indicate “you should probably de-activate so it doesn't break”. 



This is another example of a sketch I did. It’s for when you’ve reached the overcharged. 

Heavy Stubbers



But hey, let’s not forget the new Heavy Stubbers! As a hardcore Ogryn player, I was super happy to get some more ranged weapons for the Ogryn, and even more happy to be able to work on them. 

First of all, when you work as a visual effect artist, you have a lot of odd search history. I look at a lot of military videos as reference when working with guns, and also explosions. The Heavy Stubbers are big and powerful, and like I’ve written before, I need to decide: how do the effects feel? How do they act? How much of the effects do you see when you shoot? 

When researching for the Heavy Stubbers I looked at a lot of 50.cal weapons, like in this video: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFB7-bvVKs8

When you look at the video, the gun is so powerful that you can almost only see smoke, almost no muzzle flash at all. But since this is a video game, we need some more feedback than just smoke when shooting. For this, I added a very small muzzle flash and smoke for the heavy stubbers to indicate that this weapon has such force when shooting, that you can’t see a lot of fire like when shooting a shotgun (and shotguns also have more spread when shooting in general). 

Hope that you find this interesting and that you like the new weapons, it was a blast to work on them!



Alright, that’s our BTS dev blog on the making of the new weapons coming to Grim Protocols on December 3, 2024. 

On release, we’ll include more information about how the weapons work in-game and their special activations. 

Let us know if you have any questions for the team in the comments below!

– The Darktide Team
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