The release of Unlocked and Loaded brought a new face to the Mourningstar. Commissar Darinda Dukane has assumed command of the Moebian 53rd regiment - the famed Steelheads. These stalwart troops have been deployed to Tertium at the behest of the Planetary Governor, Lord Margrave, who is disturbed by the perceived lack of progress made by the Inquisition.
But what is a Commissar of the Astra Militarum?
The Commissars of the Officio Prefectus are fearsome, iron-fisted authoritarians who keep the wheels of the Astra Militarum in motion. To the masses of Humanity, most of whom recognise the black greatcoat, peaked cap and polished boots of a Commissar from hab-block propaganda frescoes or grainy recruitment vids, these inflexible men and women are Imperial authority made manifest. Their amorphous remit is to ensure that all do their duty in the Emperor’s name, and the high rank and wide-ranging powers of these Departmento Munitorum agents give them leeway to enforce discipline at all levels. Should discipline and morale falter, should orders fail to be obeyed in anything less than exemplary and immediate fashion, it is these ruthless men and women in black who take whatever steps necessary to restore order – no matter the cost.
A Commanding Presence
Commissars rarely assume direct command of a regiment and the circumstances by which Commissar Dukane came to head up the 53rd remain shrouded in mystery - or are at least snarled up in the processes of the Imperium’s infamous bureaucracy. However, it is plain that she enjoys the full confidence of the sectors lord militant, and has swiftly moved to assume immediate control of the Atoman warzone, masterminding aggressive deployments by the 53rd and rallying the winnowed survivors of the Moebian 21st - until now, the only official Astra Militarum presence in Tertium.
Uneasy Allies
With initial drop zones secured, Dukane has taken station on the Mourningstar and even now casts a suspicious eye over Grendyl’s warband, whose motives and masters she clearly does not trust. Nonetheless, she is too practical not to recognise the necessity of allies and has assigned the finest drill sergeants of the 53rd to tutor the rejects in proper weapons drill. Expendable allies they might be, but every heretic the members of the warband eliminates is one less heretic to stand in her path.
But not everything is going Dukane’s way. Tertium’s insidious cult refuses to let this upstart newcomer foil their long-held plans. Even as the 53rd secures new ground the heretics prepare to strike a humbling blow, presenting Sergeant-Major Morrow with an opportunity to prove the warband’s worth…
Hotfix #50 (1.5.3) - Patch Notes
Hey Everyone,
Welcome to the patch notes for Hotfix #50 (1.5.3). It is now going live on Steam and it will shortly follow on our other platforms.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where the Psyker ‘Kinetic Flayer’ talent incorrectly triggered on non-valid enemies.
Fixed an issue where the Psyker ‘Warp Unbound’ talent did not properly prevent a Perils of the Warp explosion when using Force weapons (e.g. Force staves).
Fixed an issue where the text in the Sacrifice weapon screen overflowed outside of the UI.
Fixed an issue where the ‘Ceaseless Barrage’ blessing description did not properly display the Damage vs Suppressed Stat.
Fixed a visual issue on Hadron’s workbench
Fixed an issue that could cause a client and server crash when a player was stunned without having any weapon equipped.
Fixed an issue where Discard options could become disabled to input after performing certain actions in the Discard weapons menu
Fixed an issue where the Empower menu could appear off-screen when using widescreen resolutions
Fixed an issue where the Edit Loadout Preset menu could appear empty
Experience will now show correctly on the Masteries screen if a player reached max Mastery on a weapon by using the Sacrifice menu.
Fixed a crash which could happen when opening the Penances menu in specific situations
Fixed an issue where the name for the Mastery weapon skin for the Pickaxe would appear incorrectly.
Fixed an issue where the Auspex input tooltip during the hacking minigames in the Rolling Steel mission would appear in English also in other languages.
Fixed an issue where the information in the Sacrifice Weapon screen tooltip displayed an incorrect minimum rarity level.
Dev Note:The correct minimum rarity level required for the Sacrifice procedure is Redeemed (green).
Fixed an issue where the value for the Mastery Level required to unlock a Mark could fail to be displayed in the Marks Swap screen.
Known Issues
The Game Can Crash When Switching Between Fullscreen and Windowed Mode with FSR 3.1 Frame Generation Turned On
FSR 3.1 Frame generation is unstable when used in combination with exclusive Fullscreen Screen. Specifically switching between screen modes is prone to crashing.
We recommend using Borderless Fullscreen.
[*[b]]FSR 3.1 Frame Generation does not do anything during excessive fullscreen effects
FSR 3.1 Frame Generation excludes the entire screen from generation when there are a lot of fullscreen effects playing that impact all pixels on screen. This will cause frame gen to just copy the previous rendered result which results in the framerate looking like framegen is disabled while frame counters saying that it is running correctly.
Penances Shown As Not Completed
While migrating to the new Itemization system, there is a chance for a visual bug to occur where players with a lot of progression on their weapons might not see their Penances displayed as complete. This is only a visual issue which might occur when opening the Penances menu for the first time. Closing and opening the UI again will update it properly.
Misaligned Weapon Skins in the Penance Preview Squares
There are some weapon skin rewards in the penance previews that are misaligned or don’t fit in the square.
Incorrect Rounding of Weapon Stats
On uncommon occasions when looking at a weapon card, the total value of the potential stats distribution shown might add up to 1% higher or lower than the maximum (380).
UPDATED: This is now known to not be a visual issue only. Rather, it involves different values being delivered by the backend than expected. This is being investigated.
Hotfix #49 (1.5.2) - Patch Notes
Hey Everyone,
Hotfix #49 (1.5.2) is now live on Steam and it will shortly be live on our other platforms.
Changes
Added Penances for completing the Rolling Steel mission and for completing Operations missions.
Added a shortcut to the Party Finder menu from the mission board.
Bug Fixes & Tweaks
Fixed an issue where the game could fail to retrieve the latest Mastery data from the backend when opening the Loadout screens.
Removed the “Stand By For Action” and “Rapid Response” penances, which were incorrectly added with the 1.5.0 release.
Fixed an issue where both marks of the Assault Chainsword family could be purchased from Brunt’s Armoury when playing as Veteran.
Fixed an issue where the “new” marker could be displayed incorrectly in the Masteries menu.
Fixed an issue where Blessings could still be purchased while hidden when the focus was on the lower rewards track.
Fixed an issue where the Power Rating value for Curios could be incorrectly displayed in the Emperor’s Gift tile after completing a mission.
Fixed an issue where the “Sort by Name” feature was not correctly sorting items.
Fixed an issue where the selection focus could be missing when performing operations in the Discard and Sacrifice screens while playing on controller.
Fixed an issue where the weapon name could overlap with other text and UI elements in the Sacrifice screen.
Tweaked the icon for the selected weapon in the Sacrifice screen to be slightly smaller.
Fixed an issue where the tooltip for the Frame Generation could display undefined text.
Fixed an issue where the coat of the Darinda Dukane NPC could clip with the legs.
Fixed an issue where the weapon cosmetic obtained from the Power Sword Mastery penance was missing the rarity and “obtained from” information.
Rolling Steel Fixes
Fixed a rare server and client crash which could happen in the Rolling Steel mission when a player joined the mission while no other players were alive.
Fixed a crash which could happen when pressing the “-” key in specific moments during the Rolling Steel mission.
Tweaked the matchmaking values to avoid players joining too close to the end of the Rolling Steel mission.
Dev Note:This is to limit the chance of joining an already ongoing mission, without the ability to affect the success of it due to the timer already being close to expiring.
Fixed so that in the Rolling Steel mission no success audio effects are triggered when destroying the cogitators in the last carriage after the mission timer had expired.
Tweaked the spawn locations of the batteries in the Rolling Steel mission.
Fixed an issue in the Rolling Steel mission where parts of the geometry would still shake after the train was stopped.
Fixed an issue in the Rolling Steel mission where players could clip through closed doors before completing the related minigame.
Fixed instances where pickups could be clipping with the geometry in the Rolling Steel mission.
Fixed an instance of missing hang ledges in the Rolling Steel mission.
Fixed an issue where rain could fall inside the locomotive at the end of the Rolling Steel mission.
Tweaked geometry on a ramp in the Rolling Steel mission to make it easier to navigate.
Fixed an issue where bots could fail to properly board the extraction Valkyrie at the end of the Rolling Steel mission.
Fixed an issue where the thruster VFX from the enemy Valkyrie could remain visible even after it went away.
Tweaked the fade to the Valkyrie cutscene after winning the Rolling Steel mission.
Fixed an issue in the Rolling Steel mission where multiple characters could share the same seat in the Valkyrie cutscene after winning the mission.
Cosmetic Fixes
Fixed some mask clipping issues on the Psyker “Illius Pattern Battleshroud with Psykana Collar (Burnt Sulphur” and “Illius Noctis Pattern Battleshroud with Psykana Collar (Burn Sulphur)” headgear cosmetics
Fixed some issues where the tubes from the Psyker “Illius Pattern Battleshroud with Psykana Collar (Burn Sulphur)” headgear cosmetic would clip with high-collared upper bodies .
Fixed an issue where some beards would clip through the Psyker “Illius Pattern Battleshroud with Psykana Collar (Burn Sulphur)” headgear cosmetic.
Fixed an issue where the Ogryn “Militarum Tox-Field Siege Jacket (XXXXL)” upper body cosmetic would clip with lower bodies while in the operative screen.
Fixed an issue where the shoulder area of the “Kinetic Witch’s Redemption Raiment” upper body cosmetic could look deformed on female characters.
Known Issues
The Game Can Crash When Switching Between Fullscreen and Windowed Mode with FSR 3.1 Frame Generation Turned On
FSR 3.1 Frame generation is unstable when used in combination with exclusive Fullscreen Screen. Specifically switching between screen modes is prone to crashing.
We recommend using Borderless Fullscreen.
Penances Shown As Not Completed
While migrating to the new Itemization system, there is a chance for a visual bug to occur where players with a lot of progression on their weapons might not see their Penances displayed as complete. This is only a visual issue which might occur when opening the Penances menu for the first time. Closing and opening the UI again will update it properly.
Misaligned Weapon Skins in the Penance Preview Squares
There are some weapon skin rewards in the penance previews that are misaligned or don’t fit in the square.
Mastery Level Value is Missing in The Marks Swap Screen
When in the Marks swap screen, the Mastery level value required to obtain locked Marks may fail to be correctly displayed.
The issue is only visual, and the locked Marks will be correctly available upon reaching the required Mastery level in the weapon family.
Incorrect Information in the Sacrifice Weapon Screen Tooltip
The tooltip in Sacrifice Weapon screen incorrectly states that only Anointed (blue) rarity weapons (or higher) are able to be sacrificed.
The issue is only in the tooltip text, as the minimum rarity level required for the Sacrifice procedure is Redeemed (green).
Incorrect Rounding of Weapon Stats
On uncommon occasions when looking at a weapon card, the total value of the potential stats distribution shown might add up to 1% higher or lower than the maximum (380).
This is a rounding issue, however the actual stats total will always effectively be 380 for all weapons.
Auspex Tooltip in Rolling Steel Localization Issue
The “Move” text in the HUD tooltip when using an Auspex for the new hacking minigame in the Rolling Steel will appear localised in English but is missing in other languages.
Zealots are Unable to Purchase Recon Lasgun from Brunt’s Armoury
Zealots are currently unable to purchase Recon Lasguns from Brunt’s Armoury.
Warp Unbound Having Inconsistent Activations (Added after original post):
The "Warp Unbound" Psyker talent is not working correctly when using the Electokinetic and Inferno staves, as a Perils of the Warp explosion may still be atriggered while the talent is active.
"Kinetic Flayer" Psyker Talent (Added after original post)
The "Kinetic Flayer" Psyker talent is not working correctly as it can still be triggered by enemies that are not Specialist, Elites or Monstrosities."
Hotfix #48 (1.5.1) Patch Notes
Hey Everyone,
Our latest hotfix #48 (1.5.1) is out now on Steam and it will shortly launch on our other platforms.
Miscellaneous Fixes
Fixed a crash occurring when enabling FSR 3.1 frame generation without upscaling.
Fixed a crash occurring when applying the ‘Pierce’ Blessing to the Ogryn Kickback and Rumbler.
Fixed a crash occurring when using a controller during discard and ending up having no pre-selected weapon when going back on the screen.
The max potential stats preview will now display correctly on all weapons.
The help functionality in the Blessings screen of the Mastery menu will no longer keep the screen dim once it gets removed from the screen.
Fixed a series of typos where Strength was incorrectly showing as Power in Blessing descriptions.
Fixed a typo in the description of the “Showstopper” Blessing.
Party Finder Fixes
Fixed a crash that could happen while in the Party Finder menu when failing to retrieve details from joining players.
Removed hidden keyboard keybindings for starting and canceling party advertisements.
Players will now automatically get back to the Mourningstar after joining a new party while having the menu open.
Crash fix that could occur in the Party Finder menu when multiple people request to join your party.
Fixed an issue where parts of the UI in the Party Finder could fail to be correctly updated when new players joined the Strike Team.
Removed access to the Party Finder while playing the Prologue with a new character.
Cosmetic Fixes
Fixed an issue where the arms of the Veteran “Militarum Tox-Field Trench Jacket (Burn Sulphur)” upper body cosmetic would look differently sized at certain angles
Fixed an issue on the Veteran “Militarum Tox-Field Trench Jacket (Burn Sulphur)” upper body cosmetic where the sleeping bag would deform on certain body types
Removed a small black patch from the collar of the Zealot “Militarum Tox-Field Chaplain’s Jacket (Burn Sulphur)” upper body cosmetic
Fixed an issue where the cylinder on the back of the Zealot “Field-Repaired Acheron-Pattern Rebreather” headgear cosmetic would occasionally deform
Fixed an issue where the gloves on the Ogryn “Militarum Tox-Field Siege Jacket (XXXXL)” upper body cosmetic would occasionally deform
Fixed an issue where a leather belt on the back of the Ogryn “Militarum Tox-Field Siege Jacket (XXXXL)” upper body cosmetic clips with the jacket
Fixed an issue where the following cosmetic headgears was clipping with certain high-collared upper bodies
Psyker “Illius Pattern Battleshroud with Psykana Collar (Burn Sulphur)”
Fixed some clipping issues with the Ogryn “Mk IVc Pot Helm with Gas Mask (XXXXL)” headgear cosmetic
Fixed some issues with lack of movement on parts of the cosmetic backpacks “Reliquary Array” and “Artillery Carriage Spare”
Multiple fixes to the Psyker “Illius Pattern Battleshroud with Psykana Collar (Burn Sulphur)” headgear cosmetic
Known Issues
The Game Can Crash When Switching Between Fullscreen and Windowed Mode with FSR 3.1 Frame Generation Turned On
FSR 3.1 Frame generation is unstable when used in combination with exclusive Fullscreen Screen. Specifically switching between screen modes is prone to crashing.
We recommend using Borderless Fullscreen.
Penances Shown As Not Completed
While migrating to the new Itemization system, there is a chance for a visual bug to occur where players with a lot of progression on their weapons might not see their Penances displayed as complete. This is only a visual issue which might occur when opening the Penances menu for the first time. Closing and opening the UI again will update it properly.
Misaligned Weapon Skins in the Penance Preview Squares
There are some weapon skin rewards in the penance previews that are misaligned or don’t fit in the square.
Mastery Level Value is Missing in The Marks Swap Screen
When in the Marks swap screen, the Mastery level value required to obtain locked Marks may fail to be correctly displayed.
The issue is only visual, and the locked Marks will be correctly available upon reaching the required Mastery level in the weapon family.
Incorrect Information in the Sacrifice Weapon Screen Tooltip
The tooltip in Sacrifice Weapon screen incorrectly states that only Anointed (blue) rarity weapons (or higher) are able to be sacrificed.
The issue is only in the tooltip text, as the minimum rarity level required for the Sacrifice procedure is Redeemed (green).
Incorrect Visual Rounding of Weapon Stats
On uncommon occasions when looking at a weapon card, the total value of the potential stats distribution shown might add up to 1% higher or lower than the maximum (380).
This is only a visual rounding issue, as the actual stats total will always effectively be 380 for every weapon.
Auspex Tooltip in Rolling Steel Localization Issue
The “Move” text in the HUD tooltip when using an Auspex for the new hacking minigame in the Rolling Steel will appear localised in English but is missing in other languages.
Penances: Stand By For Action and Rapid Response
These penances were accidentally included in this release and was not supposed to be included, we will remove them in 1.5.2.
Dev Note:Flash used to be the working name for Operations and this two penances are two old test penances that flew under the radar, we’re sorry for any confusion stemming from this.
Special Event - Unrelenting Hordes- NOW LIVE
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.
Rannick's sure there is something afoot. Keep your eyes peeled for any clues as to what the Cult are doing.
Play missions with a set of new 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, September 26, 2024 and it will end on Thursday, October 10, 2024. The rewards will be Ordo Dockets, Plasteel and Diamantine.
Note: Players will need to collect the grims on missions with the condition. It won't count if it's from any other mission.
Update on Maintenance for Unlocked and Loaded
Hey Everyone,
We put this message in the patch notes, but it’s been missed by some so we’re dedicating a post to it, as well.
As you might imagine, transferring over all the weapons and blessings in the game for our existing players – from the old system to our new system – is a huge task.
There are two important things to note.
First, we have disabled certain Mastery and Shrine of the Omnissiah features, as well as the Armory Exchange and Melk’s Requisitorium while the update is continuing to roll out.
This means if you’re checking things right now, you will not see any progress or mastery. However, it does not mean you lost it.
While this is happening, we’ve received reports that some players have not been granted the Mastery or Blessings they’re owed. It is likely due to logging in after the above maintenance had started. We’ll let players know when they can log in and check their Mastery progression.
Second, some players are experiencing crashes. If players are running the game with FSR 3.1 Frame Generation enabled, and they are tabbing between the exclusive full screen and windows, they may crash. Further, if players run FSR 3.1 Frame Generation, but without any upscaling enabled (such as FSR 3.1, DLSS or XESS), they will crash upon entering the Mourningstar.
The current workaround is to:
Use borderless fullscreen;
If they’re running the game with FSR 3.1 Frame Generation: Enable one of the Upscaling alternatives (FSR 3.1, DLSS or XESS).
Alternatively:
Disable FSR 3.1 Frame Generation
^ We are working on a fix for this to be included in a hot fix.
Thank you for your patience today as we work to get everyone up and running again soon.
Unlocked and Loaded - Patch Notes - Pt. 2 - OUT NOW!
The Thunder Hammer family of weapons suffered for being over-specialized into the Monstrosity-removal niche, while being very underwhelming against most other threats and in general failing at keeping up with the increased intensity of high difficulty missions.
With the following changes we aimed at rebalancing the weapon to preserve its single-target focus, but also to make it more well rounded and more exciting to use in all situations.
While the upper end of the damage on Special activated attacks against the Unyielding armor type has been lowered to prevent unhealthy 1-shots of Monstrosity enemies, the damage against Carapace Armour has also been significantly increased to conversely be able to more effectively handle Elite enemies like Maulers and Crushers (potentially dispatching them with a single well placed hit).
The Light activated attack damage profiles have been improved to reward weakspot hits and to more easily eliminate any human-sized enemy.
The self-stun after a Special activated attack has been significantly reduced on both marks, and differentiated between Light and Heavy attacks.
This will make it way easier to find a window of time to deliver its devastating activated blows without being overly punished by other enemies.
Also, most Light and Heavy attacks have been improved in their damage and reach, to make the weapon more reliable in dealing with lesser enemies when not activated.
Both marks of the Thunder Hammer weapon family have also received some additional targeted changes, explained just below!
Dev Note:It’s also a hammer.
Detailed Changes
All Marks
Tweaked the damage profile for Light Special activated attacks:
Armor damage modifier vs Unyielding from {2.0,3.0} to 2.0.
Tweaked the damage profile for Heavy Special activated attacks:
Armor damage modifier vs Unyielding from {3.0,5.0} to 3.0.
Armor damage modifier vs Carapace Armour from 1.0 to 1.5.
Improved the headshot/critical damage bonus multiplier on all Light attack profiles:
Finesse boost from 0.3 to 0.5.
Improved the damage of the Light Strikedown attacks:
Attack power distribution from {150,300} to {180,350}.
Improved the damage of the Heavy Relentless attacks:
1st target attack power distribution from {150,300} to {180,350}
2nd target attack power distribution from {80,160} to {100,200}
3rd target attack power distribution from {50,100} to {75,150}.
Fixed several windup and attack actions which could be canceled by sprinting.
Crucis Mk II Thunder Hammer
The Crucis Mk II mark always boasted the higher damage compared to its Ironhelm Mk IV brother, but delivering that damage to the intended target was often difficult due to the horizontal direction of its Heavy attacks and the effective lack of cleave on Special activated attacks.
This led to not uncommon scenarios where a Heavy activated attack could be completely absorbed by a single intercepting Poxwalker, leaving the target enemy unscathed.
To give players more control on the situation, we added a new overhead Heavy attack to the weapon, only chainable after the Special activation action for a short period of time.
Also, a small amount of cleave was added to the Heavy activated attacks, meaning that the swing will be able to go through at least one lesser enemy.
These changes combined will make the weapon more reliable in delivering its devastating damage to the intended target.
Additionally, the damage profile of the Light 3 attack has been improved to reward players completing the attack chain instead of resetting it.
Detailed Changes - Crucis Mk II Thunder Hammer
Reduced the Self-stun duration after connecting with a Special activated attack:
Light stun from 1.3 to 0.3
Heavy stun from 1.3 to 0.5.
Tweaked the hitboxes and damage windows for most attacks to be more aligned with their animations.
Improved reach for all Light attacks and the Push follow-up attack.
Tweaked the speed and chain time for the Light 1 and Light 2 attacks:
Light 1
Slightly reduced the attack speed
Improved chain time to Light 2 / Heavy 2 attack start from 0.65 to 0.55.
Light 2
Significantly improved the attack speed.
Added a bespoke improved Light Strikedown damage profile to the Light 3 attack
Attack power distribution {200,380}
Finesse boost vs Unarmoured 0.75
Finesse boost vs Flak Armour 0.6.
Slightly improved reach for all Heavy attacks
Changed so that the Heavy 2 attack chains into Light 3 / Heavy 1 instead of Light 1 / Heavy 1 to give an alternate access to the improved Light 3 attack.
Special activated attack changes:
Added a small amount of cleave to Heavy activated attacks:
Cleave distribution {1.0,3.0}.
Attack power distribution {400,800} when cleaving.
Cannot cleave through Elites, Specialists, Monstrosities and Captains.
Added an attack start chain from the Special activate action, chaining into Light 1 and a unique Strikedown Heavy attack with a vertical animation.
Improved the duration of the Special activate buff from 4s to 5s.
Significantly improved the Light activated attack properties:
Attack power distribution from {300,600} to {400,750}
Finesse boost vs Unarmoured from 0.3 to 1.0
Finesse boost vs Flak Armour from 0.3 to 1.0
Finesse boost vs Maniac from 0.3 to 0.5
Overall Finesse multiplier curve from {0.25, 0.75} to {0.65, 1.15}.
Ironhelm Mk IV Thunder Hammer
The Ironhelm Mk IV received few additional specific tweaks, but will still benefit greatly from the overall changes to the Thunder Hammer weapon family.
The improved reduction in self-stun duration after a Heavy activated attack will help in further distinguishing it as the more nimble and well rounded Thunder Hammer mark.
Detailed Changes - Ironhelm Mk IV Thunder Hammer
Reduced the Self-stun duration after connecting with a Special activated attack:
Light stun from 0.7 to 0.25
Heavy stun from 0.7 to 0.4.
Tweaked the hitboxes and damage windows for most attacks to be more aligned with their animations.
Improved reach for all Light attacks and the Push follow-up attack.
Slightly improved reach for the Heavy 1 and Heavy 3 attacks.
Improved the Light activated attack properties:
Attack power distribution from {250,500} to {300,600}
Finesse boost vs Unarmoured from 0.75 to 1.0
Finesse boost vs Flak Armour from 0.75 to 1.0
Overall Finesse multiplier curve from 0.25 to 0.65.
Boltgun / Bolt Pistol
In this release we added a set of targeted buffs aimed to increase the overall reliability of the iconic Boltgun and Bolt Pistol weapons, but also to significantly improve their performance against specific enemy types and in various situations.
Dev Note:We are aware of some issues regarding the aim of the bolt weapons, particularly in the recoil and sway when shooting continuously.
Unfortunately the issues are rooted quite deeply in the interaction between multiple different systems, so a complete fix was not possible for this release. We are going to continue investigating a solution and provide an update on our progress at a later date.
In the meantime, we have added some tweaks on the Sway and hitscan behaviors which should at least alleviate part of the issue.
Detailed Changes
Both Families
Reduced the intensity of the Sway from 1.0 to 0.3.
Dev Note:This will make the weapon to be overall slightly less unwieldy when aiming, and also make it less likely for the aim position to be significantly displaced when transitioning from hipfire to ADS.
Extended the radius of the hitscan for the bolt projectiles.
Dev Note: This will make the hitscan detection to be more generous and allow for shots that would have slightly missed the target to still be considered a hit.
Changed the bolt properties to ignore limbs on non-Monstrosity enemies when the projectile trajectory would have also hit their torso or head.
Dev Note: This will avoid situations where a bolt could be intercepted by the limbs of the enemies even when aiming at their center of mass, resulting in heavily reduced damage.
Armor damage modifier vs Carapace Armour from 0.4 to 0.5 (both near and far range).
Armor damage modifier vs Infested from 0.5 to 0.9 (near) / 1.0 (far).
Dev Note:Bolt-type weapons were penalized when shooting against Infested enemies. This tweak will normalize the damage in order to make them more reliable against this armor type.
Locke Mk IIb Spearhead Boltgun
Significantly improved the wield speed, from around 1.9s to 1.6s.
Improved the stagger properties of subsequent hits on the same target.
Dev Note: This will make it easier to open up Bulwark shields and reach stagger thresholds on other hard to stagger enemy types.
Godwyn-Branx Pattern Bolt Pistol
Added cleave properties to the bolt projectiles
From no_cleave to {1.0,3.0}.
Dev Note:This will make it possible for the shot to hit the intended target instead of being fully absorbed by even a single minor enemy.
Reduced some chain timings after the Special Push action:
Chain to hipfire Shoot from 0.56 to 0.4
Chain to Unwield from 0.54 to 0.4
Chain to Special from 0.9 to 0.75.
Additional Weapon Changes
“Devil’s Claw” Swords
Extended the block property of the Special parry to remain active for a short period of time at the start of the riposte attack.
Stamina is still drained as normal when blocking attacks during the additional block duration.
0.2s additional block duration.
Dev Note:This is to avoid situations where the player could still be hit on a well timed parry if multiple attacks were incoming at the same time.
Slab Shield
Added ranged block properties during the Push action, in addition to the already existing melee block properties.
Dev Note: The Block properties of the shield were still maintained during a Push, but only against melee attacks. Now the Block properties of the Push action should also cover ranged attacks.
Branx Pickaxe
Improved the stagger properties of the Special bash attack:
Stagger_category from “melee” to “uppercut”.
Impact power distribution increased on the first 3 targets:
[1] from {16,33} to {30,70}
[2] from {8,20} to {10,60}
[3] from {6,18} to {10,35}.
Dev Note: The Branx pickaxe Special attack is a Bash instead of the Pull used in the other two lighter marks, but its stagger output was often underwhelming against bigger targets. After the changes, this attack should now be more reliable in staggering any kind of non-Monstrosity enemy, even when in groups.
Reduced the chain timings after specific attacks:
Heavy 2 into Light 3 / Heavy 1 start from 0.87 to 0.8
Heavy 2 into Special from 1.05 to 0.8
Heavy 2 into Block from 0.69 to 0.62
Push follow-up attack into Block from 1.1 to 0.9.
Borovian Pickaxe
Reduced the chain timings after specific attacks:
Heavy 2 into Light 3 / Heavy 1 start from 0.63 to 0.6
Heavy 2 into Special from 0.9 to 0.7
Heavy 2 into Block from 0.63 to 0.6.
Reduced the windup time for the Heavy 1 attack when chained from Light 2 / Heavy 2 from 0.8 to 0.72.
Karsolas Pickaxe
Reduced the chain timings after specific attacks:
Heavy 2 into Light 3 / Heavy 1 start from 0.56 to 0.55
Heavy 2 into Special from 0.75 to 0.6.
Reduced the windup time for the Heavy 1 attack when chained from Light 2 / Heavy 2 from 0.71 to 0.6.
Improved the stagger properties of the Push follow-up bash attack when hitting a Weakspot.
Dev Note:This will make it easier to quickly control single enemies with carefully aimed attacks, at the cost of some Stamina.
Agripinaa Mk XIV Quickdraw Stub Revolver
Improved the Cleave properties of the shots.
Cleave distribution from {1.0,2.0} to {2.0,4.0}.
Rashad Mk II Combat Axe / Antax Mk V Combat Axe
Significantly improved the damage and stagger against Maniac enemies for all Heavy attacks.
Armor damage modifier vs Maniac from 0.5 to 1
Armor impact modifier vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.75.
Dev Note:The Heavy attacks of the Combat Axes were unfairly penalized against Maniac type enemies, to the point where it was often preferable to use Light attacks instead.
Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axe
Aligned the Heavy 2 and Heavy 3 attacks to the Heavy 1 attack profile.
Tweaked the damage and impact modified against specific armor types for all Heavy attacks:
Armor damage modifier vs Carapace Armour from 0.6 to 0.8
Armor damage modifier vs Unyielding from 2 to 1.75
Armor impact modifier vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.75.
Dev Note: The Heavy attacks of the Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axe are now all aligned to use the “spike” version of the attack profile, which also got some rebalancing with improved damage against Carapace and lowered damage against Unyielding. This will make the mark a bit more unique compared to the other two versions of the Combat Axe.
Lucius Helbore Lasguns
Reduced the buffer time for the hipfire shoot input to avoid unintended inputs to be registered when exiting the ADS stance immediately after shooting.
Aligned the minimum ammo usage for minimally charged shots between marks:
Mk I from 3 to 2
Mk II unchanged at 2
Mk III from 4 to 2.
Lucius Mk II Helbore Lasgun
Aligned the Sway values to the other marks.
Tigrus Mk XV Heavy Eviscerator
Reduced the windup timings for the Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 attacks, depending on the attack chain:
Heavy 1 chained from base start / Light 4: 0.4 (unchanged)
Heavy 1 chained from Light 2 / Heavy 2 from 0.76 to 0.65
Heavy 2 chained from Light 1 / Heavy 1 from 0.85 to 0.65
Heavy 2 chained from Light 3 / Push follow-up from 0.6 to 0.4.
Dev Note:These changes will reward opting to use Heavy attacks when going further down into attack chains, instead of resetting the chain.
Orestes Assault Chainaxes
Slightly improved the Dodge Distance range on the Mobility stat, from {0.8-0.9} to {0.9-1.0}.
Slightly improved the Block cost.
Slightly improved the Sprint cost at lower Defences stat values.
Orestes Mk XII Assault Chainaxe
Significantly improved the movement speed curve for the Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 attack windups.
Dev Note:This will make the Heavy attacks of this mark more dynamic and easier to use in more situations.
Improved the stagger properties of the Push follow-up attack.
Dev Note:This attack was meant to be a quick interrupt against enemy actions, but often failed at staggering key enemies like Ragers. The new values should allow to more reliably create space, still at the cost of Stamina due to the Push.
Tweaked the hitbox of the Heavy 2 attack to be more aligned to the animation.
Shock Mauls
Tweaked the buffer time windows for attack inputs to be more lenient.
Dev Note:This will make it less likely for Light attack inputs to be lost if performed too early after attacks with long chain times. Weapon Bug Fixes
Ironhelm “Hacker” Mk IV Assault Shotgun
Fixed an issue where the aim direction could be incorrectly moved if switching to another weapon immediately after firing.
Lawbringer Mk VI Combat Shotgun
Fixed an issue where the Special shell shots failed to be correctly scaled through the Damage stat.
Force Staves
Fixed an issue where the Celerity Stimm would fail to raise the charge speed of the secondary charged attacks.
Blessings
Updated Tiered Blessings
Blessings that were previously only available in 1 or 2 Tiers, have now been expanded upon to be available for all 4 tiers, with relevant values.
Blessing Pool Additions per Weapon
The number of Blessings available for the different Patterns has not been consistent, with some Weapons like the Blaze Force Sword having 12 different Blessings, while others like the Ogryns Power Maul only having 4. With the introduction of the new Itemization System we’re trying to make this more even between the Weapons. Going forward, all Weapons should have at least 8 different Blessings to choose from.
Braced Autogun
Ceaseless Barrage
Roaring Advance
Inspiring Barrage
Spearhead Boltgun
Puncture
Terrifying barrage
Fire Frenzy
Assault Chainaxe
Opportunist
Heavy Eviscerator
Opportunist
Tactical Axe
New: Slaughter Spree
Guaranteed Critical Hit (Next Attack) on Weak Spot Critical Hit Kill.
New: Relentless Strikes
+4-10% Power for 2s on Hit (Same Enemy). Stacks 5 times.
Critical strikes fill the current clip with 2-5 bullets from your ammo reserve.
New: Penetrating Flame
1-4% Brittleness when applying Burn Stacks on a direct hit. Stacks up to 20%.
Dev Note:When we previewed the balancing notes a couple of weeks ago, this said “1-4% Rending on Burn Stacks. Which was updated to clarify 1-4% Rending on Burn Stacks. Maximum 20%). The Rending text was an oversight and it was always meant to be Brittleness, due to it being applied on an enemy and any player being able to take advantage of the buff once it’s been applied. Inferno Force Staff
New: Penetrating Flame
1-4% Brittleness when applying Burn Stacks on a direct hit. Stacks up to 20%. (See Dev Note above).
Showstopper
Blaze Away
Electrokinetic Force Staff
Transfer Peril
Sustained Fire
Surge
Helbore Lasgun
New: Hot-Shot
Weak Spot Hits gain 20-50% Cleave.
New: Armourbane
Target receives 2-8 Stacks of 2.5% Brittleness on Charged Hit.
Heavy Laspistol
New: Concentrated Fire
Up to +2-5% Critical Chance on Chained Ranged Weak Spot Hit (Any Target).
New: Desperado
+5-12.5% Critical Chance for 2s on successful Dodge.
Latrine Shovel
New: Smackdown
+7.5-15% Critical Chance for3s on Special Action Hit (Staggered Enemy).
Opportunist
Bully Club
New: No Guts, No Glory
+50% Toughness Regeneration per second for 2-5s on Elite Special Action Hit.
Grenadier Gauntlet
New: Disruptive
Hitting at least 3 enemies with your secondary attack grants 15-30% bonus to Power on melee attacks for 3.5s.
New: Explosive Offensive
6-15% Power bonus for 5 seconds after hitting multiple enemies with your weapon special explosion.
New: Gauntlet Momentum
+2-5% Power for 1.5s on Chained Melee Hit (Any Target). Max Stacks 10.
Point Blank
Twin-Linked Heavy Stubber
Terrifying barrage
Fire Frenzy
Power Maul
New: Power Surge
Special Attacks on Armored Enemies cause an additional Shockwave. Special Attacks have +10-25% Explosion Radius.
Gain a stack for each stamina spent blocking. Your next attack gains +4-10% melee power per stack and consumes one stack. Last 3.5s. Stacks 5 times.
Opportunist
Perfect Strike
Rumbler
New: Explosion Zone
+3-6% Explosion Radius for every shot fired during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.
New: Shrapnel
+1-4 Bleed Stacks from close range explosions.
New: Clonk
15-30% Reload Speed for 3s on Projectile Weakspot Hit.
Plasma Gun
New: Power Blast
Gain between 2-5% and 10-25% Crit Chance based on charge level when firing.
New: Energy Leakage
Increases power up to 7.5-20%, scaled on overheat.
New: Focused Cooling
-30-60% Heat generation on Critical Hit.
New: Optimised Cooling
Increased Charge Speed scaling inversely with Heat Level. 4-10% to 20-50%.
Crusher
Opportunist
Thrust
Slaughterer
Thunderous
Power Sword
Thrust
Blessing Changes
To make all Blessings have a difference in strength between Tiers, we’ve changed the following Blessings. Unstoppable Force
Now also provides 2.5-10% Heavy Melee Damage based on Tier.
Power Cycler
Now also grants 2.5-10% Melee Stagger based on Tier.
Blessing Bug Fixes and Additional Changes
Punishing Salvo Specifically on the Infantry Autogun.
Fixed bug where the description was displaying the wrong values. “…14-20%…” to “…35-50%…”.
Trauma
Fixed issue where the Stagger values were too low. Was 7.5-15%. Is now 14-20%.
Headhunter Specifically on the Recon Lasgun.
Fixed bug where the description was displaying the wrong values. “…2-5%…” to “…3.5-5%…”
Dumdum
Fixed an issue where the stacks and duration could be refreshed by Damage over Time effects (e.g. Burn).
Dev Note:Those effects will still be affected by the damage bonus of the blessing. Terrifying Barrage
Fixed an issue where the blessing failed to trigger for secondary charged attacks of the Equinox Mk III Trauma Force Staff and the Nomanus Mk VI Surge Force Staff.
Adhesive Charge
Fixed an issue where the bonus damage of the blessing failed to be applied.
Deflector
Changed the block cost reduction bonus to also be active when blocking melee attacks
Overpressure
Now also affects Damage over Time effects (particularly, Burn).
Welcome to the Unlocked and Loaded update! We’re excited for everyone to get their hands on this one. Here are the patch notes for the update. It just went live on Steam and it will shortly be live on our other platforms.
(Note: It takes a little bit of time after the release before the old servers are completely disconnected and players are migrated over to the new one. Try reloading the game to switch sooner.) 🙏
(Additional Note: To ensure a smooth release across all platforms, the Armory Exchange and Melk’s Requisitorium are currently closed for maintenance while the new update is being rolled out.
We’ll notify you once the maintenance has been completed! Thank you for your patience, Acolytes. You can follow the update on Twitter or Discord.)
We’re finally ready to unveil the Itemization Overhaul we’ve been working on for players.
The Itemization Overhaul reinvents weapon progression, giving players more freedom to experiment and progress with weapons. The overhaul introduces two new systems, Mastery and Power, that provide players with clear avenues to get the weapons and gameplay they want.
Mastery: Players simply have to use their weapon of choice through missions which will result in gaining experience in that weapon’s Mastery track. As players gain experience, they will unlock three different types of rewards and unlock more power: Blessing Points, Weapon Marks, and Perks.
Blessing Points: Allow players to unlock different tiers of Blessings.
Weapon Marks: Players will unlock various weapon marks attached to the Mastery track of the weapon’s family they are progressing in.
Perks: Perks tiers unlock automatically as players advance in a given mastery track.
Power: With the new Power system, players will be able to see and improve their weapon's stats, by spending resources at the Shrine of the Omnissiah. The new power system gives players the possibility to increase the base stats of any weapon allowing it to reach its maximum potential.
Dev Note:We will not be removing any existing weapons. Existing weapons will remain exactly the same. The only difference is that players will be able to see their weapons’ stats potential. If a player’s weapons are not at their maximum potential, they will be able to upgrade them accordingly. We will not be removing any Blessings, Perks or anything else.
There is a LOT to it, and if we included it all in the patch notes here, there would probably be at least 5 parts to these notes on the Forums / Steam. We’ve written everything down in our latest dev blog: the Itemization Overview. We hate to ask you to go to another page, but it’s quite long on its own.
New Mission Type: Operations and New Mission: Rolling Steel
Introduces a new type of mission, Operations, which provides a shorter and more cinematic experience. In Rolling Steel, players are thrust into a high-octane adrenaline scenario where they must stop a moving train hijacked by the cultists. The mission also introduces a timer as an overarching objective, providing a new challenge and elevating the gameplay’s intensity. Players can read more about this mission in our dev blog. This operation will be live on the regular mission board (as well as on Auric).
New Social Feature: Party Finder
Darktide is built to be enjoyed with others and our Party Finder feature makes teaming up with like-minded players easier! Players will be able to find each other based on four criteria: Game Mode, Difficulty, Language and assorted Tags to define what the group is about. This will be an evolving feature that will improve alongside community feedback. Players can read more about the Party Finder in our dev blog, too.
New In-Game Event: Unrelenting Hordes (Moebian 21)
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.
Rannick's sure there is something afoot. Keep your eyes peeled for any clues as to what the Cult are doing.
Play missions with a set of new 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, September 26, 2024. The rewards will be Ordo Dockets, Plasteel and Diamantine.
New Penances
For this update, we’ve also added new Penances related to the new Itemization, and new rewards to the Path of Redemption Progression Track, increasing it to a new Maximum of 5000 Points.
Extended Availability of Weapon Families for Human Classes
As part of this update, we will extend the availability of specific weapon families to all human classes (Veteran, Zealot, Psyker). These weapons were previously locked to only one or two of the three classes, but will now be usable by all of them. However, we made sure that the weapons that are key to the identity of each class will remain uniquely available to that class. We hope that this will expand the gameplay experience and open up new interesting builds for players!
Detailed list:
Turtolsky Heavy Swords
added also to Veteran and Psyker
Maccabian Duelling Swords
added also to Veteran and Zealot
Orestes Assault Chainaxes
added also to Psyker
Braced Autoguns
added also to Psyker
Accatran Recon Lasguns
added also to Zealot
Combat Shotguns
added also to Psyker
Features and QoL
Bulk Actions
One of the major quality-of-life features coming with the Itemization Overhaul in the Unlocked and Loaded update revolves around Bulk Actions. We have included the option to Discard/Sell weapons in bulk. We have also implemented a filter system that allows players to get rid of certain weapons in bulk right away. For example, players could set a filter to remove all Redeemed rarity weapons in their inventory.
Favourite Weapons
Since bulk action is always a bit of a risky operation that could see a player lose their best weapon, we also implemented a “favourite” feature. Players will be able to set weapons as their favourites through the Loadout menu. When listing a weapon as a favourite, it will never show in the Bulk Actions menu or in the Sacrifice menu at the Shrine of the Omnissiah. Players will know it is their favourite as it will have a recognizable icon. In addition, there is no limit to the number of weapons players can set as their favourite.
Discarding AKA. Selling Weapons
Players used to only get Credits when selling weapons, and the amount of Credits was determined by the item’s Rating. This will still be the case once Unlocked and Loaded is deployed. But in addition to the Credits, players will get additional crafting resources based on the rarity of the weapon sold. From Profane (Grey) to Anointed (Blue) rarities, players will only get Credits back; at Exalted (Purple) players will get Plasteel in addition to Credits; and finally, at Transcendent rarity (Orange) players will get Diamantine added to the mix.
Mourningstar Improvements
With her initial research on the Clandestium Gloriana findings complete, Hadron has unveiled the improvements to her Shrine of the Omnissiah. This brings some much-needed (according to Commissar Dukane's Quartermaster) improvements to the armaments and options available to the Rejects.
Swagger makes an appearance on the Mourningstar, whose presence adds an air of mystery and tension to the already gloomy atmosphere. "I know Rannick and Hadron seem to trust him. They must have their reasons, I suppose, but there's something not right about that Swagger fellow hanging around on the Mourningstar if you ask me."
Commissar Dukane has started making herself comfortable aboard the Mourningstar. Make sure to mind your manners around her and don't go eavesdropping!
AMD FSR updated to 3.1
AMD FidelityFX™ Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3.1) is the latest evolution of AMDs advanced open-source upscaling technology. FSR 3 introduces cutting-edge frame generation technology, delivering significant framerate boosts in supported games, and a new "Native AA" quality mode for enhanced image quality.
KNOWN ISSUE
The Game Crashes When Switching Between Fullscreen and Windowed Mode and With Upscaling Disabled While FSR3.1 Frame Generation is Turned On
FSR 3.1 Frame generation is unstable when used in combination with exclusive Fullscreen Screen mode or with upscaling disabled. Specifically switching between screen modes is prone to crashing.
If you want to use FSR 3.1 frame generation it is recommended to use it with Borderless Fullscreen or Windowed screen modes and with FSR 3.1, DLSS or XESS upscaling enabled. We are working on a fix to ship.
Miscellaneous Changes
A notification dot will now appear on the Penances and Commodore’s Vestures buttons in the pause menu when something new has happened since the last time you visited.
A button for the Commodore’s Vestures is now available in the pause menu while in the Mourningstar, similar to the menu in the Operative select screen.
Known Issues
Penances Shown As Not Completed
While migrating to the new Itemization system, there is a chance for a visual bug to occur where players with a lot of progression on their weapons might not see their Penances displayed as complete. This is only a visual issue which might occur when opening the Penances menu for the first time. Closing and opening the UI again will update it properly.
Misaligned Weapon Skins in the Penance Preview Squares
There are some weapon skin rewards in the penance previews that are misaligned or don’t fit in the square.
Crash When Selecting Marks/Cosmetics/Inspect After Selecting To Delete An Item
When using a controller, after discarding a weapon the game may fail to correctly reobtain the focus on the list of weapons.
While in this state, the game will crash when trying to access the Marks/Cosmetics/Inspect screens, as no weapon would be selected.
As a momentary workaround, please make sure to have a weapon in focus before accessing the above screens immediately after having discarded any item.
(We intend to ship a fix in 1.5.1.)
Some Weapons May Show Their Max Stat Potential Incorrectly
On rare occasions when looking at a weapon card, the max potential stats distribution shown might not correspond to the actual values.
This will be usually signalled by a total potential stats value lower than 380.
The issue is only visual; the weapon card will update to the correct values once the first Empower operation is done on a weapon with incorrect values.
(We intend to ship a fix in 1.5.1.)
UI Remains Greyed Out After Going Through All The Mastery Help Tiles
Looking at the help functionality that is available in the Blessing menu, the screen will remain dark after the help closes.
While navigation in the menu will not remain available, the only way to remove the darkened UI will be by going back on that screen and re-entering it.
(We intend to ship a fix in in 1.5.1.)
Mastery Level Value is Missing in The Marks Swap Screen
When in the Marks swap screen, the Mastery level value required to obtain locked Marks may fail to be correctly displayed.
The issue is only visual, and the locked Marks will be correctly available upon reaching the required Mastery level in the weapon family.
Incorrect Information in the Sacrifice Weapon Screen Tooltip
The tooltip in Sacrifice Weapon screen incorrectly states that only Anointed (blue) rarity weapons (or higher) are able to be sacrificed.
The issue is only in the tooltip text, as the minimum rarity level required for the Sacrifice procedure is Redeemed (green).
Incorrect Visual Rounding of Weapon Stats
On uncommon occasions when looking at a weapon card, the total value of the potential stats distribution shown might add up to 1% higher or lower than the maximum (380).
This is only a visual rounding issue, as the actual stats total will always effectively be 380 for every weapon.
Minor Typos in the Description of Specific Blessings
The “Showstopper” Blessing has an additional “%” character.
The “Penetrating Flame” has an additional “%” character, and an incorrect additional “that apply” in the sentence.
Auspex Tooltip in Rolling Steel Localization Issue
The “Move” text in the HUD tooltip when using an Auspex for the new hacking minigame in the Rolling Steel will appear localised in English but is missing in other languages.
Since June, we’ve been talking about the Itemization rework which is coming in the Unlocked and Loaded update this month. We’ve been working toward an open dialogue with players to receive feedback. We released an Introduction to Itemization dev blog, as well as two Q&A dev blogs answering your questions along the way (Q&A Pt.1 and Q&A Pt.2). Now it’s time for the big one.
The goal of this blog is to put it all together and to provide everyone with an overview of the Itemization rework! There is a lot to talk about so grab your favourite drink and dive in.
As a recap, the new Itemization rework consists of two systems: Mastery and Power.
What is Mastery?
Mastery is a new system that was created to bring more player agency to Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. More specifically, we wanted to provide a stronger sense of progression when using weapons and ensure that we respected the time our fans invested into the game when tinkering and improving their gear.
Mastery thus became the central system to open the array of options available to players surrounding a weapon’s progression. This new system will make the players’ life easier: players simply have to use a weapon they like, which will result in the player progressing further in the Mastery track of said weapon’s family.
How Does Mastery Work?
Blessing Points: While progressing through the Mastery track of a weapon (or weapon family), players will receive Blessing Points. Blessing Points received through the Mastery track will allow players to unlock the Blessing of their choice. Each Blessing is split into four different Tiers. In order to unlock a new Tier, players will have to spend 5 Blessing Points. For example, if a player has a weapon with 8 Blessings, they will need to spend at least 1 point in 5 of those Blessings. Then, they’ll be able to access Tier 2 blessings. They’ll need to spend another 5 points to access Tier 3 blessings, etc.
Unlocking Weapon Marks: Gone are the days where players needed to sift through a long list of weapons before finding the weapon Mark they were looking for. By progressing through the Mastery level of a given weapon family, players will unlock the various weapon Marks attached to it. Once players unlock access to a new Mark, they will receive the corresponding weapon. From there, players will be able to freely change from one Mark to another, to experiment more easily with their playstyle, and possibly discover their new favourite weapon.
Unlocking Perks: Perks are a bit different from Blessings. Whilst Blessing Tiers require players to invest Blessing Points to unlock, Perks will unlock as players progress through the Mastery track of a weapon family. Once players have unlocked the Perks, they will be able to change their weapon’s perks for a cost at the Shrine of the Omnissiah. (A maximum of two Perks per weapon at any time.)
Increasing the Power Cap: The Power Cap is something that brings together both new systems: Mastery and Power. (More details on the Power System discussed further below.) The Power Cap tells players what is the maximum amount they can increase their weapon’s stats at that point in their Mastery Progression of that weapon. The further a player is in their Mastery of a weapon, the more they can increase the weapon’s stats towards that weapon’s maximum potential.
Players will always be able to see the Power Cap, and they’ll want to keep a keen eye on this, as it will be directly linked to their capacity to upgrade their weapons through the Shrine of the Omnissiah (our crafting station).
To put it all together, players will be able to experiment with all the different aspects of a weapon through the Mastery system. Naturally, Darktide being a looter shooter, players will still have to hunt for the weapon with the optimal profile, but the surrounding experience of the thrill of the chase - such applying Blessings and Perks - has been overhauled to increase the player agency and provide players with the freedom to experiment. Once unlocked, Blessings and Perks will be able to be changed and interchanged, without being locked away. It is up to players to try things out and build the weapon of their choice.
Sacrifice - An Alternative to Mastery Progress
We have created the Sacrifice feature to help veteran players get value out of the hoards of weapons in their inventory, but also as a way to empower new players to catch up more easily with the rest of the playerbase. Sacrifice is a way to further gain experience on the Mastery track of a given weapon family, and (a bit of a) shortcut for the Mastery track.
Let’s say that a player wants to play a shotgun and improve its Mastery track. The player will go to the Shrine of the Omnissiah, where they will have a new option called “Sacrifice”. Players will ask Hadron (the NPC managing the Shrine, for the uninitiated), to teach them about a weapon family in exchange for weapons they do not wish to use, granting them experience for the Mastery track within the shotgun family. Players can give any type of weapons to Hadron from Redeemed Rarity (Green) onward, in order to progress in any given Mastery track. That said, if they sacrifice the right weapon family (i.e. the weapon family that they are trying to gain experience in), they will get extra experience.
All of the options above provide various choices for players to think about. Say a player gets a Transcendent rarity weapon with stats reaching their max potential that they do not have use for, will they sell it to get more resources? Or will they Sacrifice it to improve their Mastery track? All these systems are intertwined and interconnected to provide a more exciting experience to players.
How Do Players Access the Masteries Menu?
The Mastery menu will be found as a tab within the Operative menu, in between the Cosmetics and Talents tabs. When clicking on the Mastery menu, players will be greeted by a list of all the weapons available for their operative’s class (when starting a new class for the first time, players will have to unlock their unique weapons as they level up in Darktide). Once they have selected a weapon in the Mastery menu, they will get to a screen displaying Blessings and the Mastery progression track, the latter displaying rewards (which will unlock automatically as players gain experience with a weapon). On the left of the screen they will have the Tiers of Blessings they currently have access to. Once a player has unlocked and distributed Blessing Points, they will merely have to go to the Shrine of the Omnissiah to apply their Blessings in exchange for crafting materials.
One good thing to remember is that with all the sweeping changes coming with Itemization Overhaul, we have been rethinking the in-game currency economy. This means changing a Blessing, Perk or even Consecrating (i.e. upgrading) a weapon will be cheaper than it was in the past. Since we are introducing the Empowerment mechanic that increases stats of weapons to their allocated maximum potential, we wanted to decrease the price of all other options at the Shrine of the Omnissiah.
An Important Note: We’ve mentioned that when playing a new class for the first time, players will have to unlock the Mastery of weapons by levelling up their characters. However, Blessings are also tied to player accounts, not characters. If a player has been progressing with a Zealot and they move to a Veteran , the progress on the Blessings of the weapon these classes share will already be unlocked, and the Mastery progress will remain the same.
What Will Happen to My Current Weapons?
We will not be removing any existing weapons. Existing weapons will remain exactly the same. The only difference is that players will be able to see their weapons’ stats potential. If a player’s weapons are not at their maximum potential, they will be able to upgrade them accordingly. We will not be removing any Blessings, Perks or anything else.
How Do Blessings Migrate into the New System?
We made a direct translation of the Blessings players have learned from the previous system into the new system. This will translate directly into the Mastery track of their relevant weapon family. What does that mean exactly? This is going to get mathy, so put on your glasses and take out your calculators.
For the sake of example, let’s say we have 10 Blessings available in a given weapon Mastery. (Note: The amount of weapons available per weapon will vary.) We take the experience from this specific Mastery Track from 0 to the Maximum, and we divide its progress bar by the amount of Blessings attached to it - in our case, 10. Since each Blessing has four Tiers, each of the 10 segments is then divided by 4, giving a total of 40 segments. This is when we go into the collection of Blessings from a player.
Continuing with the example above: If a player has all of the 10 Blessings unlocked at a given Tier, we will look at each Tier obtained by the player for each Blessing and allocate its corresponding segment of experience to the Mastery track. If a player has obtained a Tier 4 Blessing, the player will gain ¼ of the Blessing’s subdivision on the Mastery track. That said, we wanted to ensure that our migration felt generous; if a player knows a Tier 4 but not Tier 1, 2 or 3, the migration system will automatically grant a bit over two additional segments, bringing it to over 75% of the segment’s progress for that Blessing. In a nutshell, if a player has a Tier 4 Blessing they will automatically get a bit over 75% of the progress corresponding to the Blessing on the Mastery track. Similarly if a player has a Tier 3 Blessing they will receive exactly 75% of the progress. And if they know Tier 3 and 4 of a Blessing (but not Tier 1 and 2), then they will get 100% of the progress for that segment.
Continuing with the example above (of a weapon with 10 blessings): if a player has obtained 6/10 Tier 4 Blessings, the players should then be able to fully unlock (3x) Tier 4 blessings right away. The interesting thing with this migration system is that it acts a bit as a reset (in a good way). Sure, players might want to simply repick the Blessings they previously had, but it also grants players the opportunity to unlock Blessings they might have had on their radar, but never unlocked with the previous system.
What is the Power System?
In past communications, we have already touched base on Power as it is tightly interconnected to the Mastery system, but we are here taking a deeper dive into this new system. (Note: This is called the Power system, and the action of raising a weapon's stats is to Empower the weapon.)
Similarly to the current system in Darktide, the Power System outlines the weapon and its stats. But the novelty is that players will also be able to see a weapon’s maximum potential, i.e. how far players will be able to push a given weapon's stats.
The Power menu is where players will go if they want to increase the five statistics of a weapon, i.e. if they want to attain the maximum potential of their weapon. For example if they have a weapon displaying 70 damage but has a maximum potential of 75 damage, they would use the Power menu to increase the weapon’s power to its maximum potential.
By simply clicking on Power, players will progress toward the maximum potential of their weapons. All stats are raised equally. Players do not choose which stats to increase. By raising the power level of a weapon, all the stats will increase. As mentioned before, players will need to check if their Mastery is high enough in order to Empower their weapon further (check the Power Cap).
The weapon rating in itself will not comprise Blessings and Perks as in the previous Itemization system. It will instead focus on the stats themselves.
Depending on the Power of the weapon itself, the cost for Empowering it will increase. The cost will increase by increments of a 100 Power, which means that costs will increase when a weapon will go from 100 to 200, and 200 to 300 etc. Therefore, the resources needed to Empower a weapon will also change depending on where a player is on the Power curve of a weapon, e.g. if a player has a weapon at Power 500, they will have to pay a higher cost in diamantine than in credits.
The Power system is located at the Shrine of the Omnissiah (the crafting station), where players will be greeted by the traditional “Entreat Hadron” or the new “Sacrifice” menu we spoke about earlier in this dev blog. Players will find the Empower menu below the Consecrate option.
Modification Points
Players might’ve seen from the early WIP screenshots where Modification points were initially part of the design of the Power system. The logic was to have a budget on each weapon combination, and that budget would increase each time players Empowered the weapon until a maximum was reached. We have decided to remove this feature.
Switching Marks
As mentioned above, Marks will be unlocked by progress through Mastery. To equip a Mark, players will simply have to go to the Loadout menu (which has also received a bit of a facelift!) With Unlocked and Loaded, players will be able to see the weapon families in the weapon selection menu with the following options: Cosmetic, Inspect and Mark. By selecting Mark, players will get access to a menu that will allow them to swap from one Mark to another. As a reminder, once a player has unlocked a Mark, they will get the default Mark of that newly unlocked Weapon Family.
Weapons Across Classes
Extended Availability of Weapon Families for Human Classes As part of this update, we will extend the availability of specific weapon families to all human classes (Veteran, Zealot, Psyker).
These weapons were previously locked to only one or two of the three human classes, but these will now be usable by all of them. As an example, the Veteran will be able to use the Saber. We took the opportunity with the Unlocked and Loaded update to reinforce the different player fantasies and provide more choices to players. If a player plays a Veteran and they want to be a Squad Leader, and they feel that the Saber is part of the tool kit of the Squad Leader, they can now lean more into their fantasy and equip it!
However, we made sure that the weapons that are key to the identity of each class will remain uniquely available to that class.
We hope that this will expand the gameplay experience and open up new interesting builds for players!
Detailed List:
Turtolsky Heavy Swords
Added also to Veteran and Psyker.
Maccabian Duelling Swords
Added also to Veteran and Zealot.
Orestes Assault Chainaxes
Added also to Psyker.
Braced Autoguns
Added also to Psyker.
Accatran Recon Lasguns
Added also to Zealot.
Combat Shotguns
Added also to Psyker.
Quality of Life Improvements
The Itemization Overhaul coming with Unlocked and Loaded was also the occasion for us to revise several features and elements, and improve the experience of Darktide for players.
Discarding AKA. Selling Weapons
Players used to only get Credits when selling weapons, and the amount of Credits was determined by the item’s Rating. This will still be the case once Unlocked and Loaded deployed. But in addition to the Credits, players will get additional crafting resources based on the rarity of the weapon sold. From Profane (white) to Annointed (blue) rarities, players will only get Credits back; at Exalted (purple) players will get Plasteel in addition to Credits; and finally, at Transcendent rarity (orange) players will get Diamantine added to the mix.
Bulk Actions
One of the major quality of life features coming with the Itemization Overhaul in the Unlocked and Loaded update revolves around Bulk Actions. We have included the option to Discard/Sell weapons in bulk. We have also implemented a filter system that allows players to get rid of certain weapons in bulk right away. For example, players could set a filter to remove all Redeemed rarity weapons in their inventory.
Favourite Weapons
Since bulk action is always a bit of a risky operation that could see a player lose their best weapon, we also implemented a “favourite” feature. Players will be able to set weapons as their favourites through the Loadout menu. When listing a weapon as a favourite, it will never show in the Bulk Actions menu or in the Sacrifice menu at the Shrine of the Omnissiah. Players will know it is their favourite as it will have a recognizable icon. In addition, there is no limit to the number of weapons players can set as their favourite.
Changes in Existing Menus
Similarly to the Loadout, the Armory Exchange’s Requisition Weapons and Curios is now segmented between Ranged, Melee and Curios. This segmentation will allow us to increase the amount of items to be sold in each category.
Changes to Weapon Generation and Acquisition
Edited: 23 September, 2024 - 15:25 CEST We have changed the way weapons are generated in certain areas of Darktide. Now that players will have more options to Empower and upgrade weapons, some stores such as Brunt’s Armory will display slightly lower weapon quality by default - i.e. weapons from Brunt’s Armory will not be immediately at maxed power, but a set range of weapons will be available instead. On the other hand, weapons from Sire Melk’s Requisitorium will all have been maxed.
On that note, the Emperor's Gift will also be handing out better weapons than with our previous system. With the Itemization Overhaul, receiving a good weapon after a mission will not mean that players will not be able to use it - on the contrary. We want to encourage players to tinker and try out other weapons.
Miscellaneous Questions
Question Looks good! Genuinely hope there are cosmetic rewards for fully mastering a weapon. Come on FatShark! Just one free skin, just a scrap. Answer Yes! There will be one cosmetic weapon to be earned per weapon after unlocking the penance by finishing a weapon’s mastery track.
Question Is there going to be an option to lower the stats on a weapon? Answer No, we can not remove stats from weapons.
Question Ballpark Estimate, if we start completely fresh on a weapon group Mastery/empower level, approximately how many normal damnation runs would it take to start getting choice tier 4 Blessings and Perks? 5-10 games? 20-50? 100+? Answer Numbers can be tricky there because there are so many factors to account for, but yes, around 5 to 15 games would be enough to have access to T4. (That would be starting completely from zero, and without using the sacrifice feature.)
Alright, let us know if you have any more questions below. Thank you for reading and we’ll be going through the comments.
For the Emperor!
-- The Darktide Team
The Party Finder QoL Feature - Dev Blog
Heyo Everyone,
We’re back again with another dev blog for the Unlocked and Loaded update coming on September 26.
This time, we’ll be talking about the new QoL feature coming to Darktide: the Party Finder (formerly mentioned as the Group Finder).
In this blog, we’ll discuss where the idea began, what features will be included, and how we will continue to build it with player feedback.
Shout out to Jonathan, the Game Designer in charge of bringing this to life, for sitting down for an interview to give us the scoop on this upcoming feature.
Where Did the Idea for This Party Finder Come From?
The answer to this is two-fold. First and foremost, Darktide is a co-op game. It’s meant to be played with others. But right now, a player is a bit limited in forming a team. A player can either use the Mourningstar, or their friend list to form a party before starting a mission. It is too random.
We’ve noticed players using third party places to find parties, such as Discord, Reddit, the Fatshark Forums. This increased even more from the Path of Redemption update because players wanted to group together to work on penances, etc.
Our goal was to provide a place for players to find other like-minded players within the game. For whatever content they wanted! Maybe it’s hardcore grinding, casually trying Auric (without worrying about being flamed), etc.
Further, we wanted to improve the overall social aspect of Darktide in general.
What Features Will Come With the Party Finder?
This will be an evolving feature. Right now, players will be able to find like-minded players based on four criterias: Game Mode, Difficulty, Language and assorted Tags to define what the group is about.
Game Mode
Adventure
Maelstrom
Special Assignments
Difficulty
Sedition
Uprising
Malice
Heresy
Damnation
Auric - Hersey
Auric - Damnation
Language
English
French
German
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese
Polish
Russian
Cantonese
Mandarin
Japanese
Korean
Assorted Tags
All Welcome
Quickplay
Casual
Hardcore
Contract(s)
Penances
Power Leveling
Grinding
Building the Party Finder Together With Players
Earlier, we mentioned this would be an evolving feature. When we were planning this feature, we came up with a lot more tags and ways to form a party. However, we are working towards building Darktide together with players and inviting them into the conversation. We could’ve added 200+ tags, but we didn’t want to add clutter which players might not engage with in the first place.
Instead, we want to optimize this feature together with players. We wanted to start with this solid base and invite everyone to tell us how we can make this feature work better for their gameplay style.
As players try out this feature from Sept. 26, let us know what tags you’d like us to include. Would you like a tag for only certain classes? (We saw someone ask if you can do an Ogryn-only team. This is something we could implement on a tag side.)
We’ll be looking out for and we’ll be collecting feedback on this topic from launch. Feel free to tag me (StrawHat) or create some threads to consolidate the feedback so it can be passed on to the team! (To set expectations, it’s likely that not every suggestion will make it into the Group Finder but we’ll do our best to include the most requested features.)
OK, that’s it for now! Hopefully everyone understands our goals for this feature and how we’d like to build it up together with feedback from the community. This way we can continue to make Darktide the best it can be for players.
