Check out the biggest update in Warhammer 40k: Darktide sbx.gg/darktide-luetin09 #ad Darktide returns with a major new update - which drops tomorrow October 4, fundamentally altering the way the class system works. I also give my thoughts about where things need to go from here. More lore on the way soon - unfortunately have been both extremely jet lagged and now sick this week, but will get something sorted asap, several scripts already in the works.

I want them to add Genestealer Cults to the game. it would fit well with the hive setting. Genestealers being the new 'gutterrunner' ambush assassins.

Even without cutscenes, some kind of semi-linear progress of unlocking levels and telling a basic story would make an incredible difference.

Really glad to see a skill tree added to the game. Kind of disappointing to hear there is no new narrative aspect. But the game is headed in the right direction finally.

Just played a game as Zealot. I’m enjoying the changes quite a lot. Hopefully more will be added. I always enjoyed the chaos wastes in vermintide. Perhaps we will see a Spacehulk enter the system? Definitely a step in the right direction for now.

Personally something I’d like to see is allowing the player characters to initiate dialogue with each other rather than only have a couple lines exchanged back and forth without any control. Sort of like how Deep Rock Galactic has the “Rock and Stone” button that everybody can use at any time, except it would open up a couple of broad options like in Red Dead Redemption 2. Some of the options can be openers like “Taunt”, “Jest”, or just hit a “Random” button. Then, players can be presented with a couple options in a corner on how to respond. Then the players can pass it back and forth if they like. It would be a fun way to deepen what we already have, while also letting us hear the amazing voice actors give us more insightful or hilarious dialogue.

This game's setting has so much potential, it's great seeing this update hint what's to come. Still, I long for a third faction. Or a fourth. Or fifth. Personally, though? I miss the tutorial mission. I want to see us board vessels in Atoma Prime's orbit. Have the Mourningstar intercept them on grounds that they contain contraband while checking to see if they're harbouring Chaos sympathizers. Heck, have the boarding mission go in a variety of directions, like taking over a ship's bridge or sabotaging its engines so it can't escape the Inquisition's intentions for it. Or how about spacing a legion of the Moebian 6th hiding in a cargo hold? Stealing encrypted data from said ship's bridge after taking out its captain? Or how about a new faction not being Chaos-related but a Tertium noble who seeks to secede from the Imperium, much like what happened on Krieg? He could have his own private military or at the very least a zealous following (more like what happened on Vraks), which can be seen engaging both the player and Chaos enemies on the field, adding another facet to the conflict.

Darktide brought me back into 40k and reminded me why i love the verse so much back when i was a teen.

I honestly don’t care if they add more narrative, I still have a zillion books to get through for that I want more maps I think doing the skill trees is a huge plus tho!

So happy Ogyrns will have finally have more Use and Roles

The problem with Darktide is the lack of maps. They should really add more maps.

I hope we one day get a Ratling class and maybe even a Skitarii

This is all nice and I can't wait to try out the update when I get the chance, but the game really needs more maps, modes and story content. I hope that's what they focus on next. That said, as a worshipper of the machine god, I'd love if they eventually add a techpriest class.

I'd be curious to know how much of Dan Abnett's original story/lore was cut during development.

I’ll be real with you Luetin. As someone who disappointed Total Biscuit by pre ordering in order to play EA. Even *with* this overhaul it still barely gets the game within the same room as the level and depth of game we were promised. Yes. The talent trees go a long way. But the need for new maps, new mission types as well as a content expansion that delivers genestealer cults, is sorely needed to give this game wind under its wings. Darktide had players in the 6 figure plus zone on its launch. It lost over 98% of that player base within a month (or two at most). And while yes, this is a Tide game, and yes, all games struggle to maintain a population, but it still doesn’t excuse the barebones narrative. Vermintide managed it and you could argue that’s different, that’s fantasy as well as identifiable characters. True. So tell the story differently. Do better. The L4D games managed it aeons ago. And Destiny, however you feel about it, for a long time it was hooking millions with eye grand space opera story it was telling even as you are a faceless guardian or yet another MMO raid group. And even more recently, Baldurs Gate 3 proved that a quality game will continue to draw people and keep them engaged. It will even draw people who don’t even engage with that genre of video game. We’ve seen it happen multiple times over the years. Finally, if it wasn’t to be an engaging narrative then I see the use of Dan Abnett in the marketing and selling of said narrative as a supremely sneaky move. None of the story beats have any impact. At no point do you feel your character has learned or grown more into their personality that you’ve set for them when creating them. The exposition is indeed awful. All things that I *do not* associate with a writer such as himself. It might as well have been Joe Bloggs down the street who just played a round of Among Us and thought “Yeah, just put that in 40K or something, I dunno.” The release of this overhaul just further highlights that Darktide has been an Early Access game in all but name. It was such a missed opportunity that more narrative and story beats didn’t unlock as you leveled up to reflect your time spent with an *Inquisitorial* branch. It could’ve been so easy. You could’ve had your handler reveal new war gear to you and the tech priests teach you how to maintain it and it’s history and lore. Going from desperate prisoner to a hardened agent of the throne is a story begging to be told and Darktide sold me on this. A person like you who is more into lore and story, *could’ve* embraces the grind of the grind delivered lore and story as a reward alongside just incremental gear changes. I reinstalled the game yesterday and I really hope the overhaul gives me the drive to sink another 150+ hours into the game and a reason to be patient for a bright future for Darktide. But to secure that, Fatshark will *need* to address their pipeline and production practise. And I don’t think it’s unfair or too much to be utterly disappointed that a studio with multiple games of this type under their belt continue to make mistakes or deliver tepid launches and snails paced update timelines as if it was their first foray. Also, It’s almost as if the game director had no experience with making games like this and only made games for mobile until Darktide.

This is a good start and we know how Fatshark can cook when we give them the encouragement and time but we have to keep the constructive pressure up to make the game a possible 40k Vermintide 2

Man I'd still love to see an arbitrator as another class in this game! Would fit just soooo well.

This change was obvious to some from the beginning, considering each 'Type' of character had a 'Sub-type' descriptor, Example: [Veteran]; [Sharpshooter].

Well, Darktide had a lot more issues than just balancing, i guess we'll see

There was a full story written, we never got it. The first intro mission teased us with story. And then we got a cash shop..........

My biggest beef Narratively speaking is the lack of voice lines that make reference to the very detail background of the charters (since we pick from the planet of birth to path of life etc)

You're the man Luetin. Love your 40k content and appreciate the Darktide update. It can be a bit repetitive but the crunchy combat keeps me coming back. Keep up the good work man!

"Rocky start" is the understatement of the century lmao.

Looks good from an expansion of character playstyles and approaches to the game, certainly up for giving it another chance. That said, will really need a gearing/progression look improvement (i.e remove bulk of the RNG and locking of traits) to find its way back into the rotation in earnest.

Still waiting for them to actually add the solo mode they promised instead of hotfixing the glitches that made it possible.

This is a great move in the right direction from them. Lets hope they keep it up.

They did the plot progression in VT and VT2. VT2 had you work through the campaign maps leading up to a finale, so it's weird they haven't done it yet in DT.

I bought vermintide years after launch but I heard how the initial launch was really bad. It’s crazy how the devs did absolutely nothing to fix those same mistakes for darktide’s release. Man the gaming industry is in a shit state right now.

Been around since beta stuff with darktide. Am glad they're still actively working on it. It's much better now than it was. Haven't played with a skill tree yet but something like it was needed. Time to re-download Darktide. 🍻

I think the best way to incorporate lore and nuance in general to the game is to just add a campaign mode with missions like vermintide that bleed into each other. You could release it chapters, could probably work the tile sets into the generic "radiant mission" map pools, completing lore significant events could help flesh out characters or unlock benefits in the hub, and normal missions are still nice for when you just wanna sit down and play a game or two with buds. Knowing fatshark they'll probably be dlc eventually, but it would be nice.

Might give them another chance. Biggest issue has always been the pre lobby spaceship and lobby system itself. Love the idea of the game just so much time trying to actually get a game started

I've seen the heretics with snipers. Itd be a really fun thing to add ratlings to dark tide. I absolutely love the astra millitarum representation in darktide and it would be fun to see a short smart mouthed sharp shooter that would get along with the ogryn, my personal favorite in darktide. " LOVE ME CLUB AN' SHIELD! LOVE ME SHOOTA! LOVE ME EMPRAH! "

To me, Darktide seems to become that game I play for 1 weekend every 6 months or so. Even with this update, theres just not much game here to be played. Its fun, but for a *VERY* limited time.

Wow, I only remember now at the mention that you used to do videos on shooters before 40k. It's not been all that long but damn, sure feels like an eternity.

Thanks LT I’ve been needing anything new 40k I appreciate all your content and effort

Dude imagine a mission where a Death guard ship lands on tertium and we have to fight a Plague Marine as a boss!

Plague Marine 3 stage boss battle. Nurglings and Plague Bearers. Master Crafted Weapons. Cosmetic or Functional Armors (Tempestus, Breacher etc.) The missing guns and Melee: Melta, Bolt Pistol, Hotshot, Power Fist (Militarum Issue), Power Axes, Needle Rifle.

I know nothing about 40k lore but played Darktide with a couple mates and absolutely loved it!

I've been binging since it was released on console. Love it, but a few improvements I would like to see a . On the talent tree for veteran( the only one I've been playing , a skill that will allow you to spawn with equipment. Like a medic, powder monkey( carries ammo pack), and grenadier( they already have this). Alternatively, a subclass tree that is unlocked after reaching level 30. Medic, Storm Trooper, Sniper. They would have special equipment that would rely on unreplenishable ammo or on a cooldown timer.They would also have access to special weapons. Medic can use the las carbine, it increases mobility and stamina regeneration at the cost of damage, and stormtrooper can use hot shot lasgun at the cost of mobility and stamina regeneration. Sniper gets the long las, high damage and accuracy, very low ammo. Unique weapons for subclasses would be un modifiable in terms of attachments as listed below. Gene stealer cults and Khorne. Could be implemented as different hive cities on the same planet. Having a 4-way fight would be absolutely fun. To introduce khorne, have a transport full of blood pack crash land in the lower levels of a hive( warp shenanigans). Gene stealer cults could be in the underhive. Introduce them by the game, explaining how refugees from a world devoured by a hive arrived and strange things have started happening. Weapon attachments for ranged weapons that affect weapon stats: stocks( stability), sights( accuracy), scopes(accuracy), laspack/mag type ( ammo capacity/ ammo type=damage), Limited to 1 attachment, can get a blessing or perk that allows for an additional one

13:17 I agree on the point you made I just make weapons with just a good feel rather than stats

Thank you for doing an update video!! Been thinking about picking it up again. You Rock!!

Hope you see this, Luetin. Have you read the latest Bequin books? About Beta, Comus, Eisenhorn and Ravenor. Comus is being shown in the City of Dust as busts and so on. Comus is a big deal, possibly even a clone of genome breed from Sanguinius. He is thought to be a Blood Angel, but it isn't confirmed. He is strong and scary enough for Cherubael to be very uneasy and afraid of him. We're talking about more than a warp touched Astarte. He's The Angel from the Inquisitor games. He is a weapon based on the prototype Primarch from the game. When Abnett started to write Eisenhorn he was asked to write it so that it came out with the Inquisitor skirmish game. He got all the stuff for it. Then when the book is ending and Beta is in the city we have the biggest reveal. Forget Valdor. Beta is just a genome clone of A Bequin. Think to the first Eisenhorn book where Alisabeth is introduced and how easily she assumes functions over the century and so on. Sure, she plays damsel in distress in the beginning, but I believe that she's another King in Yellow / Cognitae infiltrator put close to Eisenhorn. She's too good at asuming personas. Remember, she is supposedly hated because of her blankness, she should be socially a PARIAH... Instead she easily moves between functions. Just like Beta. Penitent turns the whole idea of the Inquisitor storyline (this includes ALL of Abnett's Inquisitor books and short stories) on its head. Ravenor and Eisenhorn have been played all along. As for the King.. We have first the cloned Angels. We know of at least two. The skeleton and Comus himself. A sort of a tank thing. Then we have the blanks... Who by being blanks bring the angels under control as well as repel daemons. The most skilled ones are created into the eudaemons, the graels. This is where it gets interesting. Ravenor books especially, as well as Magos were about meaning of language. Eisenhorn books have a huge deal about this too, even Glossia is all about it. What language, words and mathematics (universal language) convey. Not mean. Vocabulary isn't important, this we learn from Glossia. Cognitae has wanted Enuncia. Twice almost gotten it, but soon Valdor will have it. It can unmake, it can make, it can alter. We already also know that the Emperor knows Enuncia, this is from The Angel. From where the City of Dust lies near the Eye of Terror the cloned Angels can use Enuncia to destroy the Eye while the created bloodlines (grails/graels) will watch over them. This is setting up the Return of Arthur (WH40K is King Arthur in space. Horus is Mordred). Valdor needs all of this because he will use Enuncia to restore the Emperor. The name thing is ruse fed to the Inquisition. When and if GW allows Abnett to restore the Emperor this will be huge and set up a sort of a reboot of the game itself ala Age of Sigmar. I believe Abnett's Inquisitor books are far more monumental to the lore than even Horus Heresy.

crazy they still have map / difficulty selection randomized on a timer lol

okay been having heaps of fun really enjoying the new class trees

ive never stopped playing darktide, always loved it but wow this update has given me such a GREAT experience and the most fun i have had since this game released, beautiful! i highly recommend people get back into it or pick it up. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful

Update 13 is the state the game shouldve been at for release. Been playing for a couple weeks prior to the update in preparation for it and have not been disappointed with the update. The trees have been fantastic in enabling complimentary gameplay; friend and I both went psyker, but had two drastically different loadouts and it worked out splendidly. I covered horde clear with flame staff and long range kills with brain burst while my friend brought the bubble shield and murdered close-medium rang priority targets with Assail. Makes getting a duolicate class via quickplay a lot more interesting/viable. Hopefully the devs capitalize on yhe good will and momentum and follow up with some semblance of narrative, which can and should bring in new maps. More weapons after that would be nice, too.

The new Psyker ability "assail" is extremely fun and can be devastating in tight packed groups. It's like that red bolt from guardians of the galaxy. I was hoping for a telepathy ability though, like puppet.

I couldn't agree more with the quickplay ideas. I'd love to play with a squad but I only get to go online for max a couple hours a day and I honestly don't have any friends who would play this so quickplay is all I've got!

Glad to see this game is still being supported and finally happy for console release. I can definitely see the narrative side being expanded now that base game issues are being resolved. Ensure the foundation of the horde game is secure to ensure people will keep playing for more than just for one new mission that gets released every so often.

18:35 You can choose the difficulty when you quickplay and have been able to since the game launched. Not sure if i'm missing something here?

Eventually it would nice to fight a chaos space marine or something. They could make it an escort mission where you follow around a space marine and take the enemy on together. That would be crazy.

Agreed. Was so completely disappointed the story is, at every level up, 'Shoulda killed you, doing good, keeping my eye on you'. With the capstone of 'lol nah you good'. Breathtaking. Classes to Add : Arbitrator, Scum, Tech Adept, and hell maybe even Administratum.

Tell me, what is deadlier? A weapon blessed by the omnisiah and honed to perfection to slay the heretic. Or a rock!

Going for "Unlimited power" is going to be super popular with psykers.

I'm glad to see them making moves like this, gives me hope that this game will grow some more. :)

They've got a small window until space marine 2 scratches everyones horde slaughter itch in the 40k universe.

Thank you for the good news!

Been playing a lot of Darktide with my friends. Especially since the game finally released to console as well. An addition I needed to make to this comment once I had finished the video. I'm glad they did make a a good move to work on the gameplay as a priority, which it feels like they did that with this patch. A narrative update could always happen in the future, but making sure the gameplay feels and plays well everything else should fall into place.

One thing you can do after this new talent tree is stand still as a veteran and see the mobs go past you to attack your allied instead. Allowing you to be on specials overwatch :< Camo cloak....is gone! And stealth isn't the same

Even more variations of the chaos units would be nice

I still have connection issues, and bugs with "Cutscenes" (I use that term Lightly). That being said, I still will force myself to play. You nailed it in my opinion please give us some kind of narrative, you paid one of the best authors in the field, make it seem like there was a reason for it. Use that resource.

I am totally onboard with that idea of having additional mission groups at higher levels that tell a story the first playthrough of them. Places where you go deeper into the hive and discover places that are totally over run with Nurgle. There is concept art which already show areas they haven't used yet.

Finally got to play this on xbox last night. Man its alot more difficult than i thought, especially without a team to communicate with. But im excited to figure it all out.

all very valid points - i hope fatshark takes note

I remember Vermintide 2 not having a great release either, but this game is just shameful. Something really bad must have happened at the studio for them to release Darktide in such a state. At this point I think we're looking at about 3 years of patches and polish for Darktide to be even close to as good as Vermintide 2.

I saw that Darktide popped on Gamepass, started downloading it, and 5 minutes later saw this video in my feed.

Always nice to see more gaming content from you, LT! I fully agree that we need a more embedded and engaging story... The 30 second cutscenes, every couple of char-levels (that are the same, no matter which class or background you are) was not enough. As much as the game is about getting boots on the ground and carving up some Heretics, like you said, 40K is a lore fueled entity... And so are its consumers 🥲 It'd give us something to keep coming back too, that isn't just the incredible moment to moment gameplay! They've already done such a great job bringing the Hive to life, I could spend hours just marveling at the architecture and all the greebles... Come on FatShark, monumental work so far, just keep it coming! 😁

Thanks man

One issue I have is that the background of your character is never brought up again. It doesn't really matter what you chose for your character

I just started this game last month, but I agree that this game is some of the best visual story telling of 40k I've ever seen, but it definitely needs a STORY, like I want some juicy bits to look forward to

Leutin's space marine 2 vid is gonna be awesome

I agree with just about everything Luetin said here. With me however it was odd to hear about the quickplay system as in depth, as I personally didn't have any problems with it. However, seeing these viewpoints in the light of a casual player I have to agree that adjustments should be made for both veterans and casuals with quickplay. I do however like the crafting system thus far and cant wait to see how Fatshark develops it further.

The main problem for me and my friends about this game, is that it just made us want to go back to Vermintide 2. It didn't have enough classes and different playstyles for each character. Vermintide has 5 characters, each having 3 (and later with DLCs 4) subclasses for each, which allows many different ways to play. Darktide had 4 characters, each having 1 class... With the class skill tree, it might make this better... But the game not having this on launch like Vermintide did was a huge let down.

The game was already ridiculously fun, now its just getting insane!

Some new maps would be nice

Needs another year in the shop

How soon we gamers forget. The marketing of the game made a big deal about Dan Abnett writing the game. They must have paid for his name, not much of his writing. There is no story, the cutscenes are a joke. They lied, they deceived by dropping Dan Abnett's name. That shouldn't be forgotten or forgiven.

I didn’t know about 40k until I played darktide. Now I’m maybe 20+ books in. Ava Dominus Nox!

a good step in the right direction. now i want more maps, more gear/customization, they need to do more unique gear we can unlock in game and not only pay for.

Love to see it

Its been a smashing good time

This game needs campaigns. Just like for dead and vermintide 2 had. A score screen. A free for all mode. A team PvP mode. Genestealer and orc narrative campaign DLCs would be awesome.

I had an absolute blast playing on xbox last night. L4d af

Quickplay should pull only from non-modified missions. Instead of having each Hazard individualy searchable, have a queue for Haz 1-2, then one for 3-4, and a final one for Haz 5 for a total of 3 queues.

So freaking excited

I would be lying if i said i didn't have fun when the game launched. That said it also felt like a big step backwards in to many regards. The talent tree update seems like a cool thing but it is something that should have been there from the start and the narrative was/is just not there. Heck even a game like "Opperation Racoon City" had a better narrative. Like we had this random "theres a traitor" stuff going on and it had zero impact or even mention anywhere. Heck even a random modificator that could drop called "sabotaging traitor" that spawned additional waves, corrupted vox chatter with praises for nurgle and/or blew up medicare stations with a random chance on the last charge hurting instead of healing everyone close would have given that "plotpoint" at least some impact. Another thing that was imho a missed opportunity were the "boss" fights we had some random dudes that looked more boring then the in level special enemys in a few missions and that was it. Why not something a bit more out there? A blight drone? Some lesser demons? Heck an even more corrupted pest ogryn? We got so little i would even be fine with shooting that nurgle tree in that one map were you have to scan for virus samples. Darktide got the scale 40k and the sound design right but it felt kinda bland in the diversity field. And finaly weapons. The weapons we got felt mostly awesome in both look and feel but at the same time it also felt... lacking. Im not saying they should add every gun 40k has to offer but just a bit more heck i would have even been fine with turrented weapons if that meant we got to play with at least mildly exotic weapons. Heck sprinkle them through the levels and make them class specific like a multi laser for the vetrans, a heavy flamer for preachers a heavy bolter for ogryn and maybe something more exotic like a grav gun for the psyker in certain rooms to handle waves (and maybe different each time in terms of wich gun spawns and addapted to the teams setup). Darktide had and still has a big potential but for now even with the skilltree update it feels sadly wasted

More maps and more type of ennmies (other than nurgle friends) is what this game needs

Will there be videos dedicated to the Adeptus Custodes like the Astartes/Grey Knights videos?

Bought the game at launch and while I enjoyed the core loop (and still do) it was rough and I would not of recommonded it to people. Played it off and on since with updates but with this major skill tree update I went in and started a Psyker for the first time (from zero), and holy hell has the new player experience changed for the better. Way more cut scenes, everything seems to be working better, and smoother. The game really is in the state it should of been at launch. It is mentioned in the video but these days you are pretty much always going to have a better time with a game waiting a year it seems, or more. Cyberpunk, Darktide, and so many other examples even if the launch game isn't in a bad spot. I've taken to ignoring new releases and just focus on my back catalog and sales on games that have been out for a while.

This video actually got me to play the game. While it's incredibly fun on it's own, I would love to see some sort of replayability. Maybe some sort of chaos waste gamemode similar to vermintide

I really wanted Zealot Crusader! with a shield and longsword! maybe in the future, they can tie them to a narrative! I would love to see a Squat, Skitarii, and maybe an Ork class, working with the Guardsman for a new threat within the hive city!

I personally think that the biggest issue with darktide is that i wasn't even able to join any match because game will crash, like every single fking time, i spent 10h trying to fix it, but nothing worked and i can't even get a refund now, i bought it in january, intro was good tho XD

I loved the game during beta...but then it still felt like a beta when the full game released.

the 1 thing that would make the game perfect for me is a versus mode like like in l4d

I just don't understand why I would play this when Vermintide 2 is a far superior product, I prefer the 40k Universe to the Fantasy one but at the end of the day gameplay is king and whilst combat in Vermintide feels like smooth butter, in Darktide it feels like wading through sludge

Just had a qol update today and I'm pretty sure they made plasteel costs basically double

Today is the 3rd and the update is out on Steam... maybe it's a day late on consoles? Also, just wanna say that the update is HUGE and makes the game feel and play much much better. Vermintide fans will have a good time (like we should have had since day 1, but oh well)

The way they did it ain't bad, you can break a weapon down and get your enchantment back, you just need to find a weapon with the one you want first.

I want them to add actual story, but I also want to see some influence from the other Gods. Or maybe a non chaos invader like tyranids or orks.

Is it possible to save different skilltree profiles?