Warhammer 40,000: Darktide News

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.




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.



[h2]How Does Mastery Work? [/h2]
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. **CORRECTION**: In order to unlock Tier 2, 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 7 points to access Tier 3 and 8 points to access Tier 4. At the end of the Mastery track, players will be able to raise all blessings to Tier 4.





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. 

[h2]Sacrifice - An Alternative to Mastery Progress[/h2]

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.





[h2]How Do Players Access the Masteries Menu? [/h2]
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. 

[h2]What Will Happen to My Current Weapons? [/h2]
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. 

[h2]How Do Blessings Migrate into the New System?[/h2]
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 blessings 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. 




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.

[h2]Modification Points [/h2]
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.

[h2]Switching Marks[/h2]
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.





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.
    

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.

[h2]Discarding AKA. Selling Weapons[/h2]
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.

[h2]Bulk Actions[/h2]
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.



[h2]Favourite Weapons[/h2]
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.



[h2]Changes in Existing Menus[/h2]
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.

[h2]Changes to Weapon Generation and Acquisition [/h2]
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.



[h2]Miscellaneous Questions[/h2]
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

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.

[h2]Where Did the Idea for This Party Finder Come From?[/h2]
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.



[h2]What Features Will Come With the Party Finder?[/h2]
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 - Heresy
    
  • 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

[h2]Building the Party Finder Together With Players[/h2]
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.

Until next time!

– The Darktide Team

We heard you wanted some trains… It’s time to unveil the newest mission coming to our Unlocked & Loaded update this month: Rolling Steel. For this dev blog, we interviewed a Level Designer and Level Artist from our team who were in charge of bringing the vision to life: Jacopo and Roberto.

Our goal of this blog is to tell you about the new mission and how it formed, etc. without spoiling all the fun of playing it the first time for yourselves. We’ll have to leave some things out, because we want players to still be surprised when they load into the mission for the first time.

Let’s get rolling. 🚂 (I’m a comical genius -Straw)

[h2]Where Did the Idea for This Mission Start?[/h2]

The idea for “Rolling Steel” began about a year and a half ago, following the release of Ascension Riser 31. In that mission, we experimented with creating a more dynamic end event where players fight atop an ascending platform in a massive vertical shaft. After completing that challenge, we wanted to create something with even more movement. A mission to explore more visually dynamic and immersive events.

Our devs continued working on this with the latest mission, Clandestium Gloriana, where players are in the lateral elevator.

A key moment that influenced this concept was a scene from the “Rejects Will Rise” trailer, where a train crashes and explodes into a station. This powerful visual helped solidify the narrative and set the pace for the objectives in the mission.

It was intimidating to start. While we had worked on similar movements with Ascension Riser 31, we knew this would require a tech investment to create the movement we wanted players to feel. We didn’t want the background to be a constant loop of the same elements. At first, the endeavour was put on hold. However, we saw the community's interest in a mission involving a train. This reignited our enthusiasm for the idea and it led us to resume development.



[h2]What Will Players Be Doing in Rolling Steel?[/h2]
In Rolling Steel, players are thrust into a high-stakes scenario where they must stop a moving train hijacked by cultists who have repurposed it with tox bombs onboard to spread the Nurgle plague. The mission immediately begins with high-octane adrenaline as players are dropped directly onto the speeding train. From the beginning, players are immersed in the action.

The primary objective is to prevent the train from crashing into its destination and releasing tox gas. To do this, the players must work their way through a series of train cars. Each car presents unique challenges and escalating threats. Cultists will relentlessly defend the train, and the players will need to stick together and push forward quickly.

[h2]What are the New Objective Types?[/h2]
Yes, we said quickly. One of the most significant additions to this mission is the timer as an overarching objective. We wanted to introduce this mechanic to create a stronger sense of tension and urgency throughout the mission.

The timer in "Rolling Steel" is intended to force players to move very quickly, adding a layer of pressure that should elevate the intensity of the gameplay. Our goal was to offer a new harder challenge that requires players to work more closely together to succeed. It is not like the classic missions where there is a mid-event and an end-event. Rather, it’s one full event from beginning to end.

We wanted to see what happens when you break the rules, or at least suspend them.

Additionally, we're experimenting with a potential new auspex minigame that also plays a part in the importance of teamwork and communication in the mission. (We’ll leave this for you to learn more about through playing.)

Additionally, Rolling Steel is part of our effort to experiment with a different mission format, which we call Operations. It is a shorter mission than we’ve created historically. By introducing shorter, more cinematic experiences, we hope to offer a fresh alternative to the normal types of missions in Darktide. Something else to sink your teeth into when you have the urge to slay heretics, but you’re more limited on time.

As this mission is somewhat of a test, we’re eager to hear feedback from our community. Your input will be invaluable in determining how we evolve these new types of missions in the future. (Thank you ahead of time!)



[h2]Any Learnings From Past Missions?[/h2]
Absolutely, we’ve learned a great deal from designing past levels, but with "Rolling Steel," we also wanted to challenge ourselves and try new things.

One of the most significant changes is the level topology. Unlike our previous missions, which often feature wider environments, "Rolling Steel" has a highly linear layout, which naturally funnels players into more close-quarters combat scenarios. This shift strongly affected how we design encounters and balance the overall experience, especially considering the added pressure of a time constraint and how all these elements impact our combat director.

In many ways, "Rolling Steel" is informed by our past experiences, but it also represents a step towards new possibilities and gauge how these innovations resonate with our players.

[h2]Inspiration for the Environments[/h2]
As mentioned, the Rejects Will Rise trailer was one of the inspirations. This Nurgle train is based on an industrial cargo train which creates more room for slaying. Then a heavy coating of 40k grimdark, as always! (That’s the best part). The art team did a tremendous job providing a variety of assets for us to include throughout the mission, and we look forward to players trying it out.

[h2]New Music[/h2]
When we told Jesper about the new type of mission and the timer, he was really excited. He said he immediately had some ideas in his head of what he could create for players to add to the rising tension. He delivered a certified banger, as always. It is a blend between a standard and a high intensity track, so when the heat ramps up, players will definitely feel it.

[h2]Future Missions[/h2]
We are expecting players to ask if we’ll have more missions on a train. The answer is…we’ll see! 😉 Let us know what you’re feeling.



We can’t wait for players to start running this mission and trying out the new objective. Let us know how it feels and we’ll be reading the feedback!

Until next time. May the Emperor protect!