Warhammer 40k Darktide is here and in this guide we will explain to you briefly and concisely what the item rating, weapon attributes, perks & Co. mean. We also show you how the store works and which tricks you can use to get better items.
The guide at a glance: Warhammer 40k Darktide has already been playable in the pre-order beta for a few days and players are looking into a dark abyss full of attributes, skills, stats & perks when looking at the weapons. Therefore, we bring light into the darkness and tell you everything you need to know about the weapon attributes, perks, item rating & Co. in Darktide.
- All weapon attributes for melee & ranged combat explained
- Weapon Perks & Abilities
- Item rating and how it relates to stats and store items.
Weapon Attributes in Darktide explained – What do Cleaver, Finesse & Co. mean?
The weapon types in Warhammer 40k Darktide are divided into two upper categories and another subcategory. So there are melees and ranged weapons like swords, axes, pistols and rifles. The subcategory is then the chainsaw weapons, which belong to the melee brawlers in Darktide.
A weapon has five different attributes depending on its genre, and their influence is displayed in bars. The better an attribute, the fuller the respective bar is.
All Weapon Attributes for Melee in Darktide
- Damage: Indicates how much basic damage your weapon does.
- Mobility: Shows you how far you can dodge. The higher the value, the farther you can dash.
- Cleave Enemy: This weapon attribute indicates how many enemies in a group you hit with one blow. The more the bar is filled, the more enemies you can hit with one blow.
- Cleave Damage: This tells you how much damage your cleave does: The damage is split. The first enemy gets the full damage, the second gets less, and with each additional enemy the damage decreases. So the higher your Column Damage value is, the more damage the subsequent enemies hit will receive.
- Finesse: Weapons with this attribute get a bonus to head hits. The more the bar is filled, the higher the damage multiplier on head hits.
- Defense: On your weapon, this value indicates how much stamina it costs you to block an enemy’s blow. The higher the value, the lower the loss of stamina when defending.
- (Chain Weapons Only) Penetration: Unlike Columns Damage, this attribute means a damage multiplier for all enemies hit by the chain weapon.
All Attributes for Guns / Ranged Weapons in Darktide
Ranged weapons share damage and mobility attributes with melee weapons in Warhammer 40k Darktide. Therefore, we will not describe them further here.
- Stability: Indicates the recoil of your weapon. The more the bar of this weapon attribute is filled, the less recoil your weapon has.
- Reload Time: Indicates how long it takes to reload your weapon. The higher the value, the faster you reload.
- Ammo: Reflects the total pool of ammo.
- Collateral: Bullets can penetrate multiple enemies in Darktide. Collateral indicates the penetration power of your weapon and determines the damage to second or third-hit enemies.
How do weapon perks work in Warhammer 40k Darktide?
Perks are basically weapon abilities that give your gun or toothpick a passive bonus. These can be perks like more damage to enemies’ critical weak points or briefly more damage after successful dodging. So far, so understandable:
However, weapon perks in Darktide have varying numbers of dashes circling the perk’s icon – or no dashes. The markings thus indicate how strong or rare a perk is. A weapon ability without dashes is very common and not very strong. One or two dashes are accordingly better. Three dashes mark the maximum of the perks, and decorate only the rarest and strongest weapon perks in Darktide.
How Item Rating work in 40k Darktide & What’s that Shop Thing?
Contrary to the seemingly obvious assumption that the item rating determines how strong a weapon is, it has little to do with it. The item rating is more or less the total pool of points for a weapon. These are then distributed more or less randomly among the five attributes of the weapon.
A sword with a rating of 150 can, with a bit of luck, do just as much base damage as a sword with an item rating of 300, but the lower item rating in Darktide is and remains an indication of the overall quality of the weapon.
How does the rating work in the store? You will surely encounter the problem that item ratings of weapons no longer increase during your detours into the item store of Warhammer 40k Darktide. The explanation is simple: The item store in Darktide only offers weapons with a similar item rating as the best item in your possession.
If your bolter has a rating of 250 and is thus your top item of equipment, you will only receive offers for weapons of similar rank in the store.