Prepare yourself for the hordes of enemies in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide by starting with our 10 best tips and tricks. While some of these tips are basic, others are easy to miss that even experienced players won’t know. So make sure you work through the list and don’t miss a thing!
The last thing you want is to not understand how a mechanic works that the game doesn’t quite throw in your face. As the developer, Fatshark, polishes it over time, we’re sure to see more clarity. But for now, you can rely on guides like this one to make it a bit clearer. Whether that’s about how bleedthrough damage works or the frustrating purple health.
Tip 1 – Stick Together With Your Team For Buffs
Sticking with your team isn’t just a good idea for buffs, it’s also a great way to avoid being singled out by elite enemies.
The number one tip that we’re starting out with first is to stay together! Even if you’re playing with a lobby full of bots, you should still try to stick together. This is because there are several buffs that you can take advantage of if you’re near your teammates. But, if you run away as a lone wolf, you won’t get any of them.
The first one that the tutorial teaches you is gaining Toughness by being near teammates. This is part of the “Coherency” bonus which stacks for each teammate nearby. If you’re new to Darktide, Toughness is your shield but it works a little weirdly as explained in tip 2. Regardless, every operative class has a unique Coherency bonus as well. Such as extra elite damage or free ammo when elites die.
Tip 2 – Understanding Bleedthrough Damage
Enemies aren’t the only thing that can hurt your health while you have your Toughness shield. Beware of explosive barrels which skip your Toughness and directly hurt you.
One of the more confusing mechanics in Darktide revolves around the blue Toughness shield. Plain and simple, this shield completely blocks ranged damage until it depletes. Once it’s fully gone, you’ll start taking damage to your health. This is how most people understand the way it works. But, that’s not all.
The confusing part is that melee damage hits your Toughness shield and also bleeds through to your health. While it’s often only a small amount that bleeds through, it quickly adds up if you keep getting hit. Especially if you don’t understand that this is how it works. Therefore, Toughness isn’t a shield that blocks all damage.
Tip 3 – How to Survive Hordes of Enemies
Even a small group of enemies can kill your run if you’re unprepared. You’re always stronger together with your advantages combined.
Regardless of what difficulty you’re playing Darktide on, you need to know how to survive against hordes. Especially if you’re playing on a tough difficulty. This is because a swarm of enemies can easily overwhelm your team if you’re not prepared. Or even just you if you get caught alone. So take advantage of these few tricks!
First, don’t forget about shoving enemies away. This is especially great if you have a high-stamina weapon. You can shove by holding right-click (block) and then pressing left-click (attack). Second, dodging is another great strategy for simply getting out of the way. It’s important to mention that the developer has confirmed you can still dodge attacks with ranged weapons out, even though it is tougher. Finally, don’t forget that you can block melee attacks.
Tip 4 – Use the Pinging System Often
Even outside of pinging elites, you can ping the direction to go or where an elite may be coming from.
Pinging systems have become popular over the last several years for a good reason. They increase communication significantly even for those of us that prefer not to hop on voice comms. Even if you are speaking into your mic, take advantage of the pinging system in Darktide. There are several reasons to use it whether it’s a quick ping or a long hold to mark something interesting.
- Mark elite enemies so everyone knows where to focus fire. Especially if you have a Psyker that can pop them from far away.
- Mark ammo for another player that’s low. (You can see vague ammo amounts above player names based on the bullet symbol color)
- Place a pin marker on an active medkit so your team realizes it’s there.
- Ping a medicae for that low-health teammate that is persistent in moving forward.
Tip 5 – Beware of Enemies that Love to Flank
Get used to enemies tapping you from behind out of nowhere. As much as you can try to avoid it, you’re bound to have it happen!
This tip is even more important now that you know how bleedthrough damage works. Darktide enemies love to sneak up on you from behind and get a lucky hit in. Even when it’s literally one enemy while you’re fighting a massive horde in front of you. But, that one hit from a melee enemy will damage your health. And nobody wants to deal with that.
Aside from stating the obvious to check behind you sometimes, there is another important tip here. Enemies don’t always come at you from open spaces like the hallway near you or a big giant room. They also love to pop out of doors you can’t enter or bunkbeds along the wall. This is how they usually get behind you after a room is clear.
Tip 6 – Experiment With Different Weapons in Darktide
Aside from buying new gear from the Armory, you can also randomly get items as a reward from completing a mission. But the only place you can get cosmetics like helmets is the Armory (not including premium skins).
Don’t be afraid to experiment with different weapons because you may find something unique and fun to use. Regardless of what operative class you pick, you’re bound to find several cool weapon types. This is why you should always check the Armory in-between missions because it refreshes every hour with new gear.
Playing as the Ogryn I’m a huge fan of the Twin-Linked Heavy Stubber which is essentially a minigun. But, it’s hard to pass up the powerful Lorenz Mk V Kickback shotgun as well. There’s nothing more satisfying than blowing enemies to bits. Or when I’m playing my Psyker, I love a good Voidstrike Force Staff. It’s just as satisfying using explosive Warp energy.
Tip 7 – Test Your New Gear at The Meat Grinder
The Meat Grinder is a useful area to check how much damage you deal especially across different difficulties.
Now that you know to try new weapon types, you should also learn about The Meat Grinder. The Darktide beta didn’t seem to mention this, so I can’t say for sure if that’s changed or not. However, this is a neat training area where you can try equipped weapons and also test them on different enemy types. Such as unarmored, armored, infected, elites, etc.
With that said, you’ll need to reach Trust Level 2 before The Meat Grinder is available. Even though you will unlock more enemies in there as you level up. If you’re not sure where to find it, it’s to the right after leaving the starting room. This is the room that has the giant pod with Sefoni in it.
Tip 8 – Take Advantage of Useful Feats
Keeping your Toughness up with strong feats will keep you going even when pesky ranged enemies are hitting you.
Make sure to check your operative Feats page every five levels for new passives. These can make a significant impact on your build and playing style, so it’s important to check. Every operative gets a choice of three different Feats at level 5 that help you gain Toughness. Regardless of which you pick, they’ll help you stay alive on harder difficulties.
Also, you can change a Feat for free whenever you’re not in a mission. This isn’t like an MMORPG where it costs skill points and you’ll need to respec or reset your skills. So don’t worry about trying different Feats if you’re not sure how one works or what you want.
Tip 9 – Understand What Corruption/Purple Health Is
Corruption can take any team down if you’re not ready to handle that loss of health. Especially if you keep going down and losing health bar segments to it.
If you ran through the Darktide training, you may have a decent grasp on how purple health works also known as Corruption. As you take damage you’ll slowly gain Corruption which takes over your health. This is a chunk of health that you can only heal by using a Medicae station. With that said, if your team is holding a Grimoire item, you can’t heal it back.
But, if the Grimoire becomes too much for your team to handle, the player holding it can use it to destroy it. This will forfeit the extra experience and money you would get from completing the mission with it, however. Depending on how your gear is, grabbing two Grimoires can certainly be deadly.
Tip 10 – Beware of Holes You Can’t Return From
Darktide loves ledges where you can jump off but not return. So it’s important to make sure you’re ready to leave before you do. Especially if there’s a hidden Grimoire or Scripture nearby.
Depending on what games you’ve played, you may be familiar with the concept of dropping down into an area and not being able to return. This is common before big boss fights or in linear games that don’t want you to backtrack. However, in Darktide you need to be careful of areas like this if your team isn’t together.
Similar to games like Left 4 Dead, if you have a player lagging behind and they get grabbed by an elite, they’re gone. Therefore, make sure you stick together or keep two people near each other. Once you drop through that hole or off that ledge, there’s no going back. So make sure everyone goes at once or at least two people stay behind together. There are even character voice lines to address this.
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of this Warhammer 40,000: Darktide tips and tricks list. Hopefully you’ve learned a thing or two and can survive a bit more easily. If you have some tips of your own, be sure to comment below. Or even why you think a certain operative class is the best one!
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.