Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has released Patch 4: Blessings of the Omnissiah which appears to be targeting many of the complaints players have had about the game since its release. This Darktide update is particularly sizeable, taking up multiple posts on developer Fatshark's forum just to contain all of the documented changes.
Following up after the classic Warhammer Fantasy co-op horde shooter Vermintide and its sequel, Darktide brings the carnage into the grim darkness of the far future. The addition of futuristic weapons like lasguns, chainswords, power weapons, and plasma guns along with the terrifying power of psykers and other Warhammer 40k staples seemed to be a perfect backdrop for some multiplayer horde stomping, but the game has been held back by a few glaring issues as evidenced by its mixed reviews. In response to feedback, Fatshark has released a handful of major updates that have gradually brought the game closer to the Emperor's light.
While earlier Darktide updates added new weapons and maps, Patch 4 is focused on quality-of-life, balance improvements, and overall polish. One of the highlights of Blessings of the Omnissiah is the new Wargear Set feature which lets players save up to five of their equipment loadouts, including cosmetics and talents. Another significant change has arrived for the Armoury Exchange, with a new Brunt's Armoury tab that lets players buy specific weapons rather than having to refresh a random set. This should cut down significantly on the tedium surrounding build crafting. Players will still need to unlock each weapon first by reaching the required level, however. Click here to read the patch notes.
Besides making the game's many weapons easier to get a hold of, the update has also made it possible to preview cosmetic gear and weapon skins either on the player's current character or on a holographic mannequin. Significant changes have been made to Darktide's weapon blessings as well, as players can now re-bless weapons and replace the existing blessings on weapons. The mission board has been expanded from 12 to 16 available missions, and new weekly contracts have been added, while the frustrating contracts that required specific side objectives on specific missions have been removed.
These changes are hardly a drop in the bucket among the multiple forum posts worth of patch notes, which makes Darktide's delayed Xbox launch understandable, given the amount of work that's been going into fixing up the game's issues. Most of the changes appear to be positive, and the balance changes are mostly geared toward buffing underutilized options, so Darktide players should have plenty to look forward to with this update.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is available now for PC.