HomeFeaturesWarhammer 40,000: Darktide
I’m enjoying the unique challenge of playing Darktide with rubbish weapons and no talentsA little self-flagellation never hurt anyone
A little self-flagellation never hurt anyone
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Fatshark
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Fatshark
I’ve griped before thatWarhammer 40,000 Darktidehides satisfying challenges behind tedious grind, but another interesting challenge is easily missed and forgotten at the opposite end of the scale. Darktide is hard when you start a new character, with weapons that barely scratch some foes and no talents to back them up. It’s a challenge unlike the official high difficulty levels, which lean towards drowning you in special enemies. So after hitting level 30 on all four classes and grinding out great gear, I’ve started a new character who’ll never learn skills or get a good gun. She’s quite bad, and that’s quite fun.
Before you grow as bulletproof as a helmetless named Space Marine character and get tooled up with a sanctified arsenal that a Blood Raven would covet, Darktide is difficult with a whole other pace. You don’t face many foes at once but you can’t handle many either. Even the weakest enemies can batter through your shields in a couple blows, and a few lads with guns can outright destroy you. And it’s alarming to charge up a full melee blow then fail to kill an armoured foe whose head you’ve come to expect should be flying across the screen. You must treat every heretic as a threat, pay attention, stick together as a squad, and dodge, block, and slide about to stay alive. You must consciously fight the instincts you’ve developed on stronger characters. As much as I enjoy saving Damnation squads with clutch plays scything through a hundred-strong horde, six Ragers, five Mutants, four dogs, three Trappers, two Snipers, a Bomber, and a bonus miniboss, Darktide has a whole other type of intensity when Scab Mauler twins come strutting up and all your weapons harmlessly ding and ting against their armour.
Having bad gear creates a fun cascade of problems. Your gun has a bad damage stat so enemies take more shots to kill, so enemies get closer, and your ammo stat is bad so you need to reload more often, so enemies get closer still, and your reload stat is bad so now they’re right on top of you, so you whip out your axe which is also bad, so you’re holding on for dear life. Afterwards, you scavenge for ammo, but that bad ammo stat means a box only gives you enough bullets for a few more kills, so that’s a whole new problem for your next fight. You’re rarely comfortable.
A like-for-like comparison of the different arsenals my two Zealots have—all the stats and perks really add up |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Fatshark
So I’ve created Caterina, a Zealot named after the patron saint of people ridiculed for their piety. She has never put any points on the talent tree and never will, blessed with only her starting flashbang grenades and the basic charge move. All of her weapons are terrible, received as the starter loadout and random victory rewards. She equips no Trinkets. She mostly runs in Uprising difficulty because I want to be challenged without burdening my team. While I certainly don’t always want to play Caterina, she’s a novel change of pace.
Embracing terrible weapons is also a way to escape Darktide’s woefully tedious loot grind. While developers Fatshark recentlyannounced plans to reduce random grind, I still thinkthey should rip it out. It’s refreshing to not just ignore all the grinding systems but outright bin the increasingly good rolls I’m earning. Trash only for me, thanks.
If you too fancy playing a permavarlet, I can suggest some guidelines:
This is only how I play, mind. I think it’s important to tailor this to your own skill and enjoyment. A little self-flagellation is always appropriate but I find this style more fun as self-discipline. If you want or need to use better weapons or a trinket, go for it. Sure, buy a rubbish roll of a desired weapon archetype if you can’t live without one. Even add a couple skill points if you desperately want a different ability (especially as a Psyker). But remember the golden rule: if you ever feel powerful, not just skillful, you need to make yourself worse.
