Hello Everyone,
Ahead of our next update Unlocked and Loaded, we wanted to share these patch notes related to balancing for Weapons, Blessings and Classes within Darktide. The purpose is to give players a sneak peak at what to expect, as well as to receive feedback on what we’ve prepared.
Important Note: These are not the complete patch notes for the upcoming update, Unlocked and Loaded. We’ll have more to share on the release date, September 26. This is to simply give players a look ahead at the balancing!
Depending on player feedback, we’ll be able to tweak values for the changes below. If there are any larger reworks requested, we’ll likely be unable to make those changes before the update. However, we’ll be able to revert anything that feels out of place / doesn’t feel right for players and remove it from this patch.
So, grab some tea or coffee and give this a read. Let us know what you think! We’ll be reading the comments.
There are 28 pages of notes here, so we’ll need to do a part one and part two.
Weapons
Weapon Changes
Thunder Hammers
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[list]
- Tweaked the damage profile for Light Special activated attacks:[list]
- Armor damage modifier vs Unyielding from {2.0,3.0} to 2.0.[/*]
- 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.[/*]
- Finesse boost from 0.3 to 0.5.[/*]
- Attack power distribution from {150,300} to {180,350}.[/*]
- 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}.[/*]
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:[list]
- Light stun from 1.3 to 0.3[/*]
- Heavy stun from 1.3 to 0.5.[/*]
- Light 1[list]
- Slightly reduced the attack speed[/*]
- Improved chain time to Light 2 / Heavy 2 attack start from 0.65 to 0.55.[/*]
- Significantly improved the attack speed.[/*]
- Attack power distribution {200,380}[/*]
- Finesse boost vs Unarmoured 0.75[/*]
- Finesse boost vs Flak Armour 0.6.[/*]
- Added a small amount of cleave to Heavy activated attacks:[list]
- Cleave distribution {1.0,3.0}.[/*]
- Attack power distribution {400,800} when cleaving.[/*]
- Cannot cleave through Elites, Specialists, Monstrosities and Captains.[/*]
- 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:[list]
- Light stun from 0.7 to 0.25[/*]
- Heavy stun from 0.7 to 0.4.[/*]
- 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[list]
- Reduced the intensity of the Sway from 1.0 to 0.3.[/*]
- xtended the radius of the hitscan for the bolt projectiles.[/*]
- hanged the bolt properties to ignore limbs on non-Monstrosity enemies when the projectile trajectory would have also hit their torso or head.[/*]
- 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).[/*]
- Locke Mk IIb Spearhead Boltgun[list]
- Significantly improved the wield speed, from around 1.9s to 1.6s.[/*]
- Improved the stagger properties of subsequent hits on the same target.[/*]
- Godwyn-Branx Pattern Bolt Pistol[list]
- Added cleave properties to the bolt projectiles[list]
- From no_cleave to {1.0,3.0}.[/*]
- Reduced some chain timings after the Special Push action:[list]
- 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[list]
- Extended the block property of the Special parry to remain active for a short period of time at the start of the riposte attack.[list]
- Stamina is still drained as normal when blocking attacks during the additional block duration.[/*]
- 0.2s additional block duration.[/*]
- Slab Shield[list]
- Added ranged block properties during the Push action, in addition to the already existing melee block properties.[/*]
- Branx Pickaxe[list]
- Improved the stagger properties of the Special bash attack:[list]
- Stagger_category from “melee” to “uppercut”.[/*]
- Impact power distribution increased on the first 3 targets:[list]
- [1] from {16,33} to {30,70}[/*]
- [2] from {8,20} to {10,60}[/*]
- [3] from {6,18} to {10,35}.[/*]
- Reduced the chain timings after specific attacks:[list]
- 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.[/*]
- Reduced the chain timings after specific attacks:[list]
- 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 chain timings after specific attacks:[list]
- Heavy 2 into Light 3 / Heavy 1 start from 0.56 to 0.55[/*]
- Heavy 2 into Special from 0.75 to 0.6.[/*]
- Agripinaa Mk XIV Quickdraw Stub Revolver[list]
- Improved the Cleave properties of the shots.[list]
- Cleave distribution from {1.0,2.0} to {2.0,4.0}.[/*]
- Significantly improved the damage and stagger against Maniac enemies for all Heavy attacks.[list]
- Armor damage modifier vs Maniac from 0.5 to 1[/*]
- Armor impact modifier vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.75.[/*]
- Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axe[list]
- 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:[list]
- 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.[/*]
- Lucius Helbore Lasguns[list]
- 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:[list]
- Mk I from 3 to 2[/*]
- Mk II unchanged at 2[/*]
- Mk III from 4 to 2.[/*]
- Aligned the Sway values to the other marks.[/*]
- Reduced the windup timings for the Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 attacks, depending on the attack chain:[list]
- 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.[/*]
- Orestes Assault Chainaxes[list]
- 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.[/*]
- Significantly improved the movement speed curve for the Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 attack windups.[/*]
- mproved the stagger properties of the Push follow-up attack.[/*]
- Tweaked the hitbox of the Heavy 2 attack to be more aligned to the animation.[/*]
- Shock Mauls [list]
- Tweaked the buffer time windows for attack inputs to be more lenient.[/*]
Weapon Bug Fixes
- Ironhelm “Hacker” Mk IV Assault Shotgun[list]
- Fixed an issue where the aim direction could be incorrectly moved if switching to another weapon immediately after firing.[/*]
- Fixed an issue where the Special shell shots failed to be correctly scaled through the Damage stat.[/*]
- 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[/*]
- Puncture[/*]
- Terrifying barrage[/*]
- Fire Frenzy[/*]
- Opportunist[/*]
- Opportunist[/*]
- New: Slaughter Spree[list]
- Guaranteed Critical Hit (Next Attack) on Weak Spot Critical Hit Kill.[/*]
- +4-10% Power for 2s on Hit (Same Enemy). Stacks 5 times.[/*]
- Refreshed Dodge Efficiency on Weak Spot Hit. +2.5-10% Melee Weakspot Damage.[/*]
- New: Chained Deathblow[list]
- +5-20% Critical Chance for 3s on Weak Spot Kill.[/*]
- Hitting multiple enemies in one sweep gives 4-10% Rending for 2.5s. Stacks 5 times.[/*]
- New: Relentless Strikes[list]
- +4-10% Power for 2s on Hit (Same Enemy). Stacks 5 times.[/*]
- Refreshed Dodge Efficiency on Weak Spot Hit. +2.5-10% Melee Weakspot Damage.[/*]
- New: Everlasting Flame[list]
- Critical strikes fill the current clip with 2-5 bullets from your ammo reserve.[/*]
- 1-4% Rending on Burn Stacks.[/*]
- New: Penetrating Flame[list]
- 1-4% Rending on Burn Stacks.[/*]
- Transfer Peril[/*]
- Sustained Fire[/*]
- Surge[/*]
- New: Hot-Shot[list]
- Weak Spot Hits gain 20-50% Cleave.[/*]
- Target receives 2-8 Stacks of 2.5% Brittleness on Charged Hit.[/*]
- New: Concentrated Fire[list]
- Up to +2-5% Critical Chance on Chained Ranged Weak Spot Hit (Any Target).[/*]
- +5-12.5% Critical Chance for 2s on successful Dodge.[/*]
- New: Smackdown[list]
- +7.5-15% Critical Chance for3s on Special Action Hit (Staggered Enemy).[/*]
- New: No Guts, No Glory[list]
- +50% Toughness Regeneration per second for 2-5s on Elite Special Action Hit.[/*]
- New: Disruptive[list]
- Hitting at least 3 enemies with your secondary attack grants 15-30% bonus to Power on melee attacks for 3.5s.[/*]
- 6-15% Power bonus for 5 seconds after hitting multiple enemies with your weapon special explosion.[/*]
- +2-5% Power for 1.5s on Chained Melee Hit (Any Target). Max Stacks 10.[/*]
- Terrifying barrage[/*]
- Fire Frenzy[/*]
- New: Power Surge[list]
- Special Attacks on Armored Enemies cause an additional Shockwave. Special Attacks have +10-25% Explosion Radius.[/*]
- New: Last Guard[list]
- Block Breaks push Enemies, 15s cooldown. -15-30% Block Cost.[/*]
- 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.[/*]
- New: Explosion Zone[list]
- +3-6% Explosion Radius for every shot fired during continuous fire. Stacks 5 times.[/*]
- +1-4 Bleed Stacks from close range explosions.[/*]
- 15-30% Reload Speed for 3s on Projectile Weakspot Hit.[/*]
- New: Power Blast[list]
- Gain between 2-5% and 10-25% based on charge level when firing.[/*]
- Increases power up to 7.5-20%, scaled on overheat.[/*]
- -30-60% Heat generation on Critical Hit.[/*]
- Increased Charge Speed scaling inversely with Heat Level. 4-10% to 20-50%.[/*]
- Opportunist[/*]
- Thrust[/*]
- Slaughterer[/*]
- Thunderous[/*]
- Thrust[/*]
Blessing Changes
To make all Blessings have a difference in strength between Tiers, we’ve changed the following Blessings.
Unstoppable Force
- ow also provides 2.5-10% Heavy Melee Damage based on Tier.[/*]
- Now also grants 2.5-10% Melee Stagger based on Tier.[/*]
Blessing Bug Fixes and Additional Changes
Punishing Salvo
Specifically on the Infantry Autogun.
- ixed bug where the description was displaying the wrong values. “…14-20%…” to “…35-50%…”.[/*]
- Fixed issue where the Stagger values were too low. Was 7.5-15%. Is now 14-20%.[/*]
Specifically on the Recon Lasgun.
- ixed bug where the description was displaying the wrong values. “…2-5%…” to “…3.5-5%…”[/*]
- Fixed an issue where the stacks and duration could be refreshed by Damage over Time effects (e.g. Burn).[/*]
Terrifying Barrage
- ixed 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.[/*]
- Fixed an issue where the bonus damage of the blessing failed to be applied.[/*]
- Changed the block cost reduction bonus to also be active when blocking melee attacks[/*]
- Now also affects Damage over Time effects (particularly, Burn).[/*]
Classes
Psyker
When we started overhauling the Classes for Patch #13, we did it one Class at a time. The first one we tackled was Psyker. As a result, the Psyker ended up with a lot less Passive Nodes available compared to the others, resulting in less room to Customize your preferred build. In this Patch, we hope to remedy that.
Psyker Talent Updates
Scrier’s Gaze
To further define this Ability as the go-to choice for those wielding non-Force Staff Ranged Weapons.
- ow also grants Suppression Immunity for its initial Duration.[/*]
To incentivize weaving between Warp Attacks and Regular Attacks
- ow also grants +4% Damage to non-Warp Attacks for 8s after a Warp based Kill. Stacks 5 Times.[/*]
Psyker Talent Tree Updates
With more nodes having to fit into the tree, we’ve restructured it a bit. All builds you have been playing up until now should still be available for you, but you might have to take a slightly different path to get there.
Inspiring Presence
- emoved.[/*]
New Psyker Talents
Warp Unbound (As a modifier to Scrier’s Gaze)
- crier’s Gaze prevents you from overloading from Perils of the Warp during its lingering effect.[/*]
- Your Heavy Melee Attacks electrocute enemies, damaging them. The stun was removed.[/*]
Perilous Assault
- p to 50% Weapon Wield Speed (based on Peril).[/*]
- +30% Damage to Force Staff’s Primary Attacks after Fully Charged Force Staff Secondary Attacks. Lasts 5s.[/*]
- 6% Warp-Damage Taken by victims of your Force Staff’s Primary Attack. Max Stacks 5. Lasts 10s.[/*]
Lightning Speed
- 10% Melee Attack Speed.[/*]
- Up to 100% Cleave, based on Peril.[/*]
- Melee Weakspot Kills Quell 5% Peril and Reduce further Peril Generation by 20% for 4s.[/*]
- Killing an Enemy with Soulblaze restores 5% Toughness and grants 5% critical Hit Chance for 5s.[/*]
Penetration of the Soul
- 10% Rending on Warp-Attacks when above 75% Peril.[/*]
- -40% Peril Generation. -30% Toughness Replenished.[/*]
Tranquility Through Slaughter
- on-Warp Ranged Critical Hits Quell 4% Peril.[/*]
- +25% Reload Speed while below 75% Peril. On Reload, generate up to 25% Peril based on the Percentage of the Clip Restored.[/*]
Crystalline Will
- verloading through Perils of the Warp no longer knocks you down, but you still take the appropriate Corruption Damage.[/*]
Veteran
Veteran Talent Updates
Skirmisher
- uration 5s to 8s.[/*]
- First Percentage of Ammo: 10% to 20%.[/*]
- Ranged Damage: 15% to 20%.[/*]
Veteran Talent Tree Updates
Vanguard
- emoved. Replaced by ‘One Motion’.[/*]
One Motion
- 25% Weapon Swap Speed.[/*]
- Removed. It is now included in Executioner’s Stance per default.[/*]
Zealot
Zealot Talent Updates
Invocation of Death
- hanged from 1.5s Cooldown reduction on Melee Critical Strike to: +175% Cooldown Regeneration for 4s on Melee Critical Strike.[/*]
Sainted Gunslinger
- Reload Speed per Stack: 3% to 6%.[/*]
- Max Stacks: 10 to 5.[/*]
Vicious Offering
- oughness: 7.5% to 10%.[/*]
- Toughness: 2.5% to 4%.[/*]
- Toughness Coherency Modifier: 25% to 50%.[/*]
- Damage: 20% to 30%.[/*]
- Now also provides 25% Toughness Damage Reduction while ‘Fury’ is Active.[/*]
- Ability Cooldown Increase: 50% to 25%.[/*]
- Duration: 6s to 5s.[/*]
- Toughness Damage Reduction per Stack: 5% to 6.5%[/*]
- Heal 25% to 20%.[/*]
- Time for Full Heal: 5s to 4s.[/*]
Swift Certainty
- print Speed: 10% to 5%.[/*]
End of Pt. 1. Please continue reading Pt.2!
