Hello Everyone,
Alongside the release of the Arbites Class on June 23, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will also receive a free update, dubbed Battle for Tertium.
New Player Journey
The core player experience has been reworked to provide a new clearer narrative focus, following the conflict of the Battle for Tertium. Players will now experience a linear campaign with new mission debriefs and embedded cinematics. This new progression path is designed to ease in new players and gradually unlock features that were previously gated by character level.
While previously each new player’s experience was completely random, the Battle for Tertium narrative presents maps, enemies and characters in a specific order, allowing players to discover all aspects of the game at a much better pace.
The story missions play the same as regular missions, except that these missions have a more tight control over which enemies spawn. You might also hear some new VO lines during missions, and some brand new mission debrief cinematics when completing each mission.
Existing players with characters at level 10 or higher can choose to skip the story or play it from the beginning. Players who change their minds about playing the campaign can opt out by using the Personality Scourge at the Chirurgeon.
Mission Board Rework
A new mission board system will be bringing several changes to how you engage with missions and difficulties. Missions are no longer tied to a specific difficulty, allowing you to select a mission and then choose the difficulty you want. This will effectively increase the amount of mission options available for players of all difficulty levels. While most circumstances remain consistent across difficulty levels, some are disabled on lower difficulties. Notably, Maelstrom missions are exclusive to the Heresy and Auric difficulties.
Additionally, the difficulty system has also been overhauled. You now unlock new difficulties by completing missions rather than leveling up your characters. You must prove your skills at your current maximum difficulty to unlock access to the next one. We intend to create a motivation for new players to master the game step by step, and for veteran players to feel assured that their teammates have earned the right to be there.
You will make progress by playing missions at your current maximum difficulty. Completing missions advances your progress. Failure reduces progress but very slightly. Additionally, you will never be demoted to a lower difficulty tier, regardless of how many missions you fail. Higher difficulties will require you to complete more missions to unlock them.
For existing characters, your difficulty progression will be migrated based on their character level and completed missions.
Auric is now a standalone difficulty tier, placed above Damnation. We felt that Auric Heresy fell in an awkward spot compared to Damnation, with the increased mission options per difficulty, we decided it was best to turn Auric into its own difficulty level. Additionally, we have removed Sedition difficulty and made a few minor changes to Uprising to take its place, as we felt there was too much downtime with too few enemies between hordes. These changes aim to keep you in the action more often.
Mortis Trials
The Secrets of the Shipmistress
Sefoni’s indiscretions are getting worse! During Mortis Trials, keen-eared Rejects now have the opportunity to sift pieces of Shipmistress Brahms’ past from the psychic chatter. How did she inherit the Mourningstar? What is she hiding? Is she really on the same side as Grendyl, let alone his irksome busybodies? Delve deeper into all these and more across dozens of new memory echoes, unlockable by claiming victory in the Mortis Trials!
Dev Note: If you've ever wanted to relisten to the memory echoes you've unlocked in the Mortis Trials, you should take a look behind the pillars in the meat grinder.
New difficulty for Mortis Trials
Since the release of Mortis Trials we have noticed people requesting a higher challenge in Mortis Trials! So, we are adding a new difficulty, Auric, as well as some other small changes.
There will now be a shorter time in between waves.
Waves will now have more enemies and enemy types increasing variety.
We are changing the base difficulty to match an Auric difficulty mission.
Weapon Balancing
This initial set of balance adjustments focuses on improving underperforming weapons so they can better compete with top-tier options. Some of these changes also pave the way for new weapons, such as the powerful signature shotgun coming with the Arbites class. Adjustments to existing shotguns were made to ensure the Arbites weapons feel satisfying without completely overshadowing their existing counterparts.
This first round is not exhaustive but represents a step toward better overall balance. While we are aware of some currently powerful weapons that need addressing, we chose to first elevate the lower-performing options rather than immediately nerfing the top ones.
Key Changes in Update 1.8.0:
"Devil's Claw" Swords
Tactical Axes
Shock Mauls
Heavy Eviscerators
Helbore Lasguns
Combat Shotguns
Double-barreled Shotgun
Detailed notes of all changes can be found HERE
– The Darktide Team