Community Update #4: Darktide Launches

Rejects,

Today, we officially launch Warhammer 40,000: Darktide! This is a moment that many of us have been looking forward to for quite a while, and we couldn’t be more excited to share our “labor of love” with you. We believe we have created something special that we will build on for years to come, and we look forward to your continued support and feedback along the way.

Many of you joined us along this journey to get here, whether in playing the technical test, the closed beta, or the pre-order beta. All of it helped, and for that - we are immensely grateful, especially knowing that it often meant you sometimes played a broken or partial game.

Since our last update, below are a few highlights of areas of improvement and what to expect - followed by much more detailed KNOWN ISSUES and PATCH NOTES.

Stability

The pre-order beta helped us fix many of the issues. It was a big part of the reason we ran the beta. In particular, we have made a lot of progress in fixing “GPU Hang” issues, which was the #1 contributor to client-related crashes. This isn’t to say we have a 0% failure rate, and the team will continue to work through this as we know that some users will still have issues - but we believe it is much improved.

Matchmaking & Network Disconnects

There has been a lot of improvement over the last two weeks, mainly due to the number of players playing, providing feedback, and allowing us to fix and scale our service. In particular, party matchmaking should be improved, with tighter matching levels and better class distribution. We have also resolved some issues for players disconnecting late in missions and getting error code 2007, and we are still actively hunting down more causes of this issue. Look for us to continue to improve this area as we bring more and more players online.

Gameplay Updates & Balancing

We've adjusted the final balance mix for launch. We wanted to give players a clearer sense of how to interact in combat: When to act and how much time they have to act/react is an essential part of these balancing adjustments and will continue to be, based on community feedback.

We want to allow players to dodge and kite but also be required to pause and reset dodge counts. We feel that chain-dodging as a default solution feels repetitive, and we think getting some attacks, pushes, blocks, creative maneuvering, or abilities into the mix helps create a more engaging combat loop.

When hit while having toughness depleted, players will get stunned. There has always been a stun immunity window that allows action before being able to get stunned again, but other hit effects have hidden it. We have cleaned up and paused many of the secondary hit effects to more clearly interface when you can act and not sabotage player actions in these precious frames of defiance. We have also increased the action windows a bit to allow for a broader range of action, as some weapons are relatively slow.

After a few tweaks during the beta, the toughness loop is now more granular and less jumping from max to min all the time, which makes a good foundation for an interesting defensive loop and build choices.

The intent is to create a loop where players use talents, abilities, coherency, and traits to regain the safety of full toughness while gaining reduced damage along the way. All that said, we will continue to balance the experience over time and are just getting started.

Please, keep reporting issues, and express your thoughts in our Discord channel and Fatshark Forum. On our social channels, we also provide regular updates.

As for the latest - Ogryn sized - patch notes, let’s get into it:

1.0.10 and 1.0.11 UPDATE SUMMARY

The 1.0.11 update (Steam only) and the 1.0.10 Update (WindowsPC & Steam) focus on improving the game's stability and introducing new features. Below is a complete outline of the changes in these updates. We understand this may be confusing, and we aim to have parity in numbering for future updates. (For clarity, the Steam update today contains both Patch 1.0.10 and 1.0.11, whilst WindowsPC only contains Patch 1.0.10)

In terms of feature content and updates to weapon balancing, both updates are identical. The same applies to known issues.

KNOWN ISSUES

• Ray tracing is currently disabled for AMD and Intel GPU users while investigating issues related to our support for these GPU's. We are working closely with our hardware partners to resolve this as soon as possible. Until then, ray tracing is turned off by default to avoid any issues in playing the game.
• Ray tracing optimization and performance. This is an area we continue to work on, and see issues with performance.
• We currently don’t support users on IPv6-only networks. This often means a player requires a VPN to play the game. The intention is to support IPv6 in the near future.
• In the Weapon Detail Screen, there is a known crash when inspecting the weapon damage breakdown of certain weapons (e.g. lasgun torch).
• Sudden crash to desktop with dialogue popup - often called “GPU Hang”.
• Switching between windowed mode and fullscreen can result in adjusted resolution and deadlock in some rare cases.
• Working on delivering missing Twitch Drops to a select few players. We hope to have this resolved within a week.
• Inability to merge strike teams. If you pick to merge your strike team at the end of a mission, it will currently not work and will display a version mismatch error.
• Some users may not have some premium currency packs available on Microsoft Store.
• if toughness is above 100 (veteran or anyone who's stacked +toughness curios), they'll still take damage.

New Features

• New Zone: Habzone HL-19-24 "Throneside". The enemy has entered Throneside. This is unexpected - the Warband didn’t know they’d got that far. They must be driven out before they can gain a proper foothold.
  • New Throneside Mission
    • Enclavum Baross: Enemy forces have made sudden and unexpected advances into Throneside. They must be driven out of the zone. However, it seems they have over-extended their assault and have not yet had time to properly consolidate their position. It is a priority to cut off their supply lines and access routes before they are fully established. Any enemy forces remaining in Throneside can then be isolated and eliminated without the risk that they will be reinforced and supported.

• Two more missions in Freight Port HL-32-2, "The Hourglass"
  • Refinery Delta-17: Turns out that one of the Hourglass' fuel refineries is being used to culture a pathogen. Get access to said refinery via flow control, then build overpressure in the gestation chambers to destroy it. The bad news is that it's all enemy territory, so it might get sticky.

• Excise Vault Spireside-13: The Heretics are using one of the old Excise Vaults to store samples of their latest contagion, and Interrogator Rannick wants one for study. To get into the Vault, you'll need a cypher-ident… and for that, you'll need to brute force access to a servitor colony. You can use the old pneumatic conveyor to get the samples out. Then you can find your own exit.

• The Commodore's Vestures are open for business. Trade Aquilas for fashionable items curated by the Mourningstar’s Purser, Alice Hallowette. Cosmetics only. Once purchased, items are unlocked for all characters on your account that can use them.

1.0.10 (WINDOWS PC & STEAM)

Cosmetics

• Fixed an issue where some Armoury Exchange headpieces hid the Ogryn beards.
• Fixed some visible black spots on upper body cosmetics obtained through Sire Melk's Requisitorium.
• Veterans should now wear the correct gloves on the Sire Melk's Requisitorium obtained / Penance earned cosmetics.
• Fixed an issue where player outlines were missing on some cosmetics.

SFX / Audio

• Atrox Mk IV & VII Tactical Axes and Antax Mk V & Achlys Mk VIII Combat Axes now have block sounds.
• Fixed ambient audio cutting in and out at the start of HL17-36 Smelter Complex.
• Turned up the audio of Scab Ragers.
• Fixed an issue where Ogryn footstep sounds were out of sync with his big ol' feet.
• Fixed an issue where there was no sound when blocking whilst reviving.
• Fixed an issue where audio would be missing on equipping the Maccabian Dueling Sword.
• Fixed an issue where the incorrect voice line would be played on mission update, or it wouldn't play at all.
• Fixed an issue where the audio would not match the subtitles for Ogryn's voice lines when Psyker is low on health.
• Fixed an issue where music would be absent or quiet during combat.
• Fixed an issue where the Plague Ogryn would be missing the appropriate audio effects on certain attacks.
• Fixed an issue where Scab Ragers had the wrong sound effects assigned to them.

UX / UI

• Atrox Tactical Axes should now have the correct UI icons.
• Turtolsky Heavy Swords should now have the correct "Smiter" icons and not "Tank" icons.
• Fixed an issue where the Penance 'Flawless Execution' had misleading requirements.
• The Scab Rager should no longer appear as "Dreg Rager" when tagged or in the kill feed or Meat Grinder.
• Fixed an issue where the trait "Fire Frenzy" had an incomplete description.
• Fixed an issue where gamepad players were not clearly informed on how to use the Auspex Scanner.
• It should now be possible to access your loadout in the pre-game lobby.
• Fixed an issue where menus could not be navigated easily using a controller.
• Fixed an issue where item rarity would not be displayed in the end-of-round reward screens.
• Fixed some issues where things would appear missized or in the wrong resolution in the Tactical Overlay (Tab).
• Fixed an issue where scrolling by mouse-wheel in chat did not work.

Animation

• Fixed an issue where attacks would not animate correctly if performed immediately after being stunned.
• Turtolsky Heavy Swords now have the correct attack direction on special attacks.
• Fixed an issue where sprinting & inspecting weapons creates a stuttering animation loop.
• Maccabian Dueling Swords should no longer have a weird arm rotation on stab attacks.
• Ogryn's Heavy weapons should no longer overlap with the other players during the cinematic scenes.
• Made some improvements to player movement animations in the Mourningstar.
• Fixed an issue where the Catachan Mk III Combat Blade was missing heavy block to idle animation transitions.
• Fixed an issue where the first shot when sprinting and shooting with the Accatran MG Mk II Heavy Laspistol looked wonk.
• The Bull Butcher Mk III Cleaver and Krourk Mk IV Cleaver should now use the correct animation events for when an attack is stopped by reaching its cleave limit.
• The Brute-Brainer Mk III Latrine Shovel should now have the appropriate sweep trails when swinging around like Ogryn do.
• Zarona Mk IIa Quickdraw Stub Revolver should now have follow-up melee attack animations while aiming with the weapon.
• The Force Staff should now go back into the charge animation after using the Psyker ability.
• Fixed a bunch of animation issues seen from third-person use of the Foe-Rend Ripper Guns.
• Fixed an issue where the 'ready up' model animations would not display for all players in the lobby.
• Fixed an issue where the Chainsword would not animate correctly when sprinting.
• Fixed an animation issue that could occur on heavy attack with the Combat Axes.

Fixes & Tweaks

• Fixed an issue where End of Round could sometimes not be shown to players.
• Sharpshooter "Counterfire" Feat description should now describe Cultists as an additionally affected faction as intended.
• Fixed an issue where double %% was shown on the Decimator weapon perk.
• Fixed an issue where the "Your Trust Level is growing" messages could spam players in the Mourningstar.
• Penances for killing specific Cultist enemies should now have progress tracked as intended.
• Failing a mission should no longer grant you the crafting materials you found in that run. Soz.
• The Standard-issue Munitorum Sapper Shovel should now apply the correct wounding decals on enemies.
• Vraks & Agripinaa Headhunter Autoguns should now have the correct crosshairs.
• The Artemia Mk III Purgation Flamer should now have a fuel canister installed as expected.
• Fixed an issue where it wasn't possible to turn on flashlights on weapons with flashlights while sprinting.
• Fixed an issue where the camera sway behaved weirdly when under 60FPS.
• Characters should no longer slide in idle movement when swapping between weapons.
• Fixed an issue where the Zealot ability would be canceled if getting shot or accelerating backward at the start of the charge.
• Fixed an issue where sprinting while holding weapon special with the Vraks & Agripinaa Headhunter Autoguns caused an ugly chain loop.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to sprint and shoot with the Vraks & Agripinaa Headhunter Autoguns even without the 'Run n' Gun' trait.
• Fixed an issue where Ogryn could get stun-locked by Dreg Stalker, and Scab Stalker ranged attacks.
• Fixed an issue that would prevent two players from partying up.
• Fixed an issue where the Force Staff could have the incorrect crosshair.
• Fixed an issue where the Flame Staff VFX would render poorly when the camera is moved down -> up.
• Fixed the description of the 'Quickflame' Weapon Trait being unclear.
• Fixed an issue where Ogryn's hands would appear low-resolution.
• Fixed an issue where the Laspistol would display incorrectly in the third-person view.
• Fixed an issue where Kinetic Flayer could be activated when an enemy is damaged by a tick of the Soulfire debuff.
• Fixed an issue where player flashlights would be switched on after a cutscene.
• Fixed an issue where players could respawn with the Corruption they had before dying.
• Fixed an issue where equipping a weapon of the same Mk did not work as expected in the Meat Grinder.
• Fixed an issue where ammunition in magazines would not decrease as expected.
• Fixed an issue where fire decals would flicker after the explosion of a barrel.
• Fixed an issue where canceling reload with another action will show the magazine as still in the weapon.
• Fixed various Weapon Trait descriptions that were not described clearly to players.
• Fixed an issue where switching weapons could cancel sprinting.
• Fixed an issue where players could be moved up instead of being pushed away in explosions.
• Fixed an issue where the text cursor could not be placed between letters during character creation.
• Fixed various input queue issues.
• Fixed an issue where the mouse wheel could not be looped to swap weapons.
• Fixed an issue where some push attacks would have a longer than expected recovery time.
• Fixed an issue where the Pox Hound could become invisible after attacking a player.
• Fixed an issue where impact decals could wrap around 90-degree corners.
• Fixed an issue where expanding from Windowed to Fullscreen mode did not work as expected.
• Fixed an issue where a mission would not automatically start when the timer reaches 0, if one player hasn't selected 'Ready'.
• Fixed an issue where the Pox Hound can result in a player becoming stuck in a permanent "attacked" state.

Weapons & Balance

• Turtolsky Mk IX Heavy Sword now has the correct power level.
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to dodge-slide-kite for an unintended amount of time with the Catachan Mk III Combat Blade.
• Lucius Helbore Lasgun charged shots should now chain into zoomed bayonet attacks appropriately.
• Agripinaa, Graia & Columnus Braced Autogun weapon specials should now interrupt sprinting.
• Fixed an issue where not all stats were working correctly for Ogryn Cleavers.
• Weapon traits can no longer be activated by different weapons and attacks
• Adjustments made to slowdowns and stuns on hit. Adjustments made to Toughness bleedthrough:
  • Reduced slowdown on hit durations for light and medium stunning hits
  • Increase stun immunity durations when players suffer stunning hits
  • Added immunity to look overrides, pushes, and ADS interrupts when in stun immunity - should clean up and interface when players can act and help avoid aiming dashes, etc. while being shot at.
  • Slightly increased stun durations for light hits
  • Set all dodge count reset timers to 0.85s for all weapons and classes. (down from 1.0s on many, but not all, weapons)
  • Removed minimum bleed-through of 10% damage regardless of toughness on melee hits. 100% toughness now blocks all damage. Damage reduction based on toughness at the time of strike (So at 75% toughness, the damage is reduced by 75%)

Zones & Missions

• Fixed an issue where sometimes the mid-level elevator would not show up on Refinery Delta-17.
• Enemies should no longer be able to walk through a chainlink gate at the start of Relay Station TRS-150.
• Fixed an issue where Grenades could drop through the environment in one area during HL-16-11 Chasm Station.
• Fixed an issue where a wall encountered in HL-16-11 Chasm Station would have no collision.

Stability & Performance

• Fixed countless unspecifiable crashes.
• Various improvements to performance.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when making purchases or navigating back through the menus in Sire Melk's Requisitorium.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on the second heavy charge of the Orox Battle Maul.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on selecting certain weapons in the Armory Exchange.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on the credits screen.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on selecting a tattoo for Ogryn.
• Fixed a crash that could occur after selecting tattoos in quick succession.

1.0.11 (STEAM ONLY)

UX / UI

• The selected Screen Mode should now correctly apply when starting up the game.
• Heavy eviscerator should now have stat details on "shredder" and "cleave targets" stats
• Fixed an issue where the "Bombs Away!" Ogryn trait description wasn't clear.
• Zealot ability "Chastise the Wicked" should now show the appropriate amount of toughness restored in the description.
• Fixed an issue where the Ogryn's Blastoom Mk III Grenadier Gauntlet damage stats weren't explicitly noted as only affecting melee damage.
• Fixed an issue where Strike Team Members' character levels showed your own level in the Mourningstar.
• Fixed an issue where some subtitles could be stuck on screen when the dialogue has long since passed.

Animation

• Fixed an issue where the Blastoom Mk III Grenadier Gauntlet readying animation prevented switching weapons.
• Fixed an issue where the Nomanus Mk VI Surge Force Staff electric effect could get stuck on screen when switching weapons.

Fixes & Tweaks

• Fixed an issue where it was possible to unlock Veteran penances while playing another class.
• The veteran’s “Counterfire” feat has been fixed and now should function as intended.
• Ogryn’s “Non-stop Violence” feat should no longer remove the speed boost from his main ability
• Mk VIIa Recon Lasgun’s flashlight should now stay lit when turned on.
• The Lucius pattern lasgun should now fire consistently when using a gamepad
• Ogryn’s Slap hitbox should now match its animation
• Fixed an input buffer issue with switching from Surge Staff to Brain Burst.

Zones & Missions

• We have increased the number of materials obtained per pick up of Diamantine, and Plasteel found in missions.

Stability & Performance

• Fixed an issue where DLSS and FSR settings were not correctly saved to the user_settings file when changed/applied.
• Made some VFX optimizations on player flamer, resolving an FPS drop that could occur if a player continuously sprayed a surface close to the camera for too long.
• Fixed an issue where the Framerate Cap setting was not applying correctly on starting the game.
• Fixed a crash with the Daemonhost that could occur when a target gets deleted during warp teleport
• Fixed a crash that could occur on some Maccabian Duelling Sword attacks.

Balance & Weapons

• Chaos Hounds should no longer receive running stagger from pushes
• Poxburster is no longer stagger immune after being staggered while running
• Fixed damage vs. elite/horde/specials perks to 40/60/80% bonus damage
• Fixed an issue where the 'Infernus' ranged weapon perk was also activated by melee stab/bash special attacks.
• Players should no longer be able to consult with the Warp and have infinite heat reduction for their plasma gun.
• Atrox MK II Axe now has a cancelable push-attack recovery
• Zealot’s "Enemies Within, Enemies Without" talent should now function as expected.
• There should now be more verticality when aiming with the Surge Force Staff
• Psyker should no longer forcibly switch to their melee weapon from Brain Burst
• Grenadier Gauntlet melee attacks should now register to their correct damage profiles
• Psykers can now cancel Dueling Sword attacks into Brain Burst
• Boltgun should now stop firing when a player hits reload
• Psyker’s Force Staff should now stop charging while quelling Peril.
• Tweaked netgunner so reload triggers more often
• Tweaked special spawning:
  • Duplicate specials should now spawn less frequently
  • Reduced the number of specials that can spawn in coordinated strikes
  • Coordinated strikes now use more randomized spawns
  • Added offset timers to help space out special spawning

• Fixed an issue where Orestes Mk IV Assault Chainaxe push attacks couldn't be canceled into rev / special action.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Artemia Mk III Purgation Flamer could get a crit perk despite being unable to crit.
  
• All weapon traits have had their power curves changed from Logarithmic to either Linear or Exponential curves instead.

Launch is just the beginning for us. While we are excited about the launch of Darktide today, we are rarely satisfied. Look for us to keep optimizing and improving the game, and we are keen to hear your feedback.

Welcome to Tertium, Rejects.

The Darktide Team

HELPFUL LINKS & FAQ:

Performance Blog - A detailed look at our approach to performance alongside helpful hints to tweak your performance

Twitch Drops - What you need to do to link your account and receive Twitch Drops

I went to the Armoury and purchased a skin, but it isn’t showing up. Why?
This is a known issue. The skin is purchased and will be equipped once exiting the menus and in the hub.

I recently bought an NVIDIA GPU, where is my promotional Darktide key?
NVIDIA is currently hosting a promotion where new purchases of qualifying RTX cards will also receive a key for the Darktide Imperial Edition.

If you have not received your key for the Darktide Imperial Edition, please contact NVIDIA directly.
The easiest way to do this is by using the 'Ask us a question or 'Live chat' buttons at the bottom of NVIDIA's Support page here:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/support/consumer/

More information on this promotion can be seen on NVIDIA's website:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/campaigns/pc-game-bundle-warhammer-40000-darktide-imperial-edition/

When will more detailed weapon stats be available in Microsoft Store?
We understand the way information is presented for weapons stats is unclear. We hear you and are working on changes we will be implementing post-release in the next update.

When will I be able to access the pre-order beta participant cosmetics?
If you participated in the pre-order beta, you will receive your cosmetics at launch on Steam. If you are playing from the Microsoft Store, your pre-order beta participant cosmetics will be available after launch.

Will crossplay and cross-save be available?
We see the value in cross-play and cross-save and fully intend to support cross-play shortly after launch. Cross-save is more complex to execute and still being investigated.

When is Darktide coming to consoles?
We know this is one of the top questions console players have.

We will have more news on the Xbox Series X|S release date as soon as possible and likely immediately after the release on PC.

At this time, Darktide has only been announced for PC and the Xbox Series X|S.

Will progression persist between the pre-order beta and the full game?
Yes, progression will carry over into the full release.