Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, the mission-based horde survival shooter from the same makers as Vermintide 2, is finally out. Warhammer fans have been waiting for this game for quite a long time and now that it's in their hands they've put in the time and effort to figure out all the tips and tricks.
There's a lot that Darktide has to offer that, quite frankly, the game just doesn't explain well or at all. So, let's get into it and look at some of the lesser-known tricks players can use to their advantage in Warhammer 40k: Darktide.
8 Always Block While Interacting With Just About Anything
Starting things off with probably the most important trick that applies to both Vermintide 2 and now Darktide, and it has to do with blocking. Basically, while blocking, players can interact with just about anything and will still block any enemies that swing at them during the animation. It really only matters when it comes to reviving allies, as this basically gives every character Ogryn's Loyal Protector passive.
Be careful, however, as these blocks still drain the player's Stamina if hit during the revive animation, even if the Stamina Bar isn't visible. Still, just knowing that it doesn't have to be the Ogryn reviving people every time is a huge improvement.
7 Don't Just Wait For Death While Pinned
A lot of players figured this out naturally through gameplay, but many are still unaware that they can still ping enemy Elites and Specialists while they're incapacitated. If a Trapper nets them, the player can immediately ping the Trapper, which lets their allies know two things. One, they're netted and need help. And two, it tells them where the Trapper is at. These two vital bits of information can make all the difference in the higher difficulties.
And, this doesn't just apply to Trappers either, it also works for Poxhounds and Mutants, though it can be a lot more 'wonky' with them given that they make it hard to move the camera around while interacting with a player.
6 Go For A Poxhound Homerun
There are three Elite/Specialist enemies that can 'disable' players for a time, the Scab Trapper, Mutant, and Poxhound. And, out of the three disabling enemies, the Poxhounds might be the most annoying. Now the reason for it beating out the Trapper, despite the Trapper being able to disable someone at a range and then run away is simple, the Poxhound is harder to dodge. While the general tactic is to dodge to either side right as the Poxhound leaps, it doesn't always work with the current server stability of Darktide. So, players have started trying to get around this by timing their Heavy Melee attacks to hit them out of the air instead. And, it used to be that doing this with the Thunder Hammer or Grenadier Gauntlet had the potential to send the Poxhound into orbit.
Sadly, this specific interaction has been addressed in Fatshark's most recent community update that mentioned many of the changes the game needs and has now been patched out entirely, but players can still absolutely interrupt and launch Poxhounds to counter them but they just won't fly as far.
5 All Poxburters Need Is A Good Shove
Poxbursters are another annoying Elite enemy in Darktide. And, they're annoying simply because the better players get at the game, the more problems it can cause with this particular mob. When people were first starting out, the best course of action was just to shoot at a Poxburster from afar and hope that no one is close enough when it pops.
But there's actually a safer option. It's actually much better to just wait for the Poxburster to approach, push it right as it leaps into the air, and immediately dodge backward (much easier with the Stationary Dodge option turned on). If done properly, the Poxburster should explode just far enough away for everyone to avoid getting hurt.
4 Blocking Is A Full-Circle Action
Again, this is something that Vermintide 2 players are likely already aware of, given that this is also in that game, but new fans of developer Fatshark's work likely have no idea that they block in a full circle around their character. While the animation makes it seem like the player is only blocking the enemies immediately in front of them, attacks from any angle will be blocked.
This knowledge makes a huge difference in the way players approach hordes and chaotic combat situations. For example, players who know this are now able to face a horde holding block and just spam backward dodge in the direction of their allies to move towards them in a mostly-safe way. That said, this obviously doesn't apply to gunfire, though some weapons like the Slab Shield and Force Sword (with the Deflector Blessing that turns Psykers into tanks) can block gunfire if looking directly at it while blocking.
3 Audio Cue When An Enemy Is Attacking From Behind
This next pro tip might seem pretty surprising to some, given that almost everyone knows by now how elite enemies have audio cues. In fact, almost everything in the game has some sort of audio cue related to it, even the act of an enemy attempting to hit a player's backside.
Because of all the random moans and groans the Infected and Poxwalkers make in a horde, it's easy to miss this sound effect, but after a player hears it once and is aware that this sound effect happens every time, it's nearly impossible to miss afterward.
It's difficult to describe the sound, so players should just test it out themselves by running up to an enemy in a mission, turning around, and waiting. But, it basically sounds like a high-pitched short "yell", and it's the exact same sound every time. So, if a player is swinging at a horde in front of them (which Zealots love to do) but still hears this audio cue, they're immediately able to tell that either they're being swarmed from behind or some got past them and to react accordingly.
2 There Are Multiple Visual Tells For The Daemonhost
The Daemonhost is the newest of the three Monstrocities, and it's also the scariest. Much like the Witch from the Left 4 Dead games, the Daemonhost is passive until players disturb it too much, and if this happens the Daemon then picks a target and goes into a frenzy trying to down them as quickly as possible.
Thankfully, a squad can avoid the Daemonhost entirely, but many players still aren't entirely positive about how to make sure they're not getting too close or waking the Daemon up. Well, there are a few ways to discern this:
- The "smoke" around the Daemonhost can be thought of as the area of effect in which standing or moving through it will start to aggravate the enemy.
- As players move through or stand in the smoke, a creeping ice-y effect will start to crawl in from the edges of their screen, getting bigger and more pronounced the closer the Daemon is to 'waking up'.
- The Daemonhost gives a sort of "last warning" when it stands up slowly and just floats there. When this happens, players need to get away from it ASAP (but still carefully), as it's very close to going into battle mode.
1 The Hit Markers Are Informational Goldmines
Longtime shooter game fans are likely very familiar with hit markers, as they're used often in games like Call of Duty,Apex Legends, or Fortnite. And, for the most part, they're really only used to tell the player two things, if they're hitting an enemy and if they've killed or KO'd them. But, in Darktide, the hit markers actually have a lot to say, as the color of the hit marker (for both melee and ranged) informs the player of many things.
- White: Standard hit.
- Yellow: Headshot or Weakpoint Hit.
- Orange: Critical Hit.
- Blue: Hit against Armor.
- Red: The enemy was killed by this hit.
Being able to instantly tell what exact type of hit an attack was against an enemy gives the player much more freedom of choice in every moment.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is out on PC and Xbox Series X/S.