Rejects,

We are one week into the pre-order beta and less than a week from the full release of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, set for November 30th. Many of you have already had a chance to play. In fact, on average, players have played over 11 hours so far, with some highly devoted rejects (12%) spending more than 30 hours! The Emperor Respects.

It is exciting to see, but we clearly have more work to do.

An area of focus this week was improving the online service stability and connection, and - based on the current state - we have made a lot of progress in this area. That isn’t to say it’s perfect. In fact, we are focusing on a set of connectivity issues that some of you are experiencing, often requiring you to use a VPN to play the game. While we appreciate the extra effort from our players, this isn’t an ideal state and something we plan to solve.

For the 1.0.8 update, our focus was to improve overall game stability and slowly introduce new progression & economy features. This is outlined below and then followed with a summary of the patch notes:

Game Stability

We went into the pre-order beta with the idea that this is an opportunity to test, find new issues and solve them. We also said in our earlier update that we were not happy with the game’s stability and that we have work left to do. That said, we have made progress in this area since the last patch, and the one deployed today. We hope this translates to a much more stable experience. That isn’t to say we are done, and there are still a few pesky issues out there we will continue to work through as we look to have a stable release.

New Features: Progression & Economy

We are introducing more features as part of our progression system(s) and economy. For this update, we will introduce new cosmetics into the Armoury Exchange, an improved end-of-round experience, and launch the first element of the crafting system.

The first batch of character and weapons cosmetics are now available in the Armoury Exchange. Expect a small variety of items (e.g., upper and lower body, head slots, and weapons) with access to more items growing as a player’s level progresses.

To improve the player feedback of the progression system, we are also now highlighting what becomes available to players (weapons and feats) via new end-of-round cards.

Hadron Omega-7-7, the Mourningstar’s resident Tech Priest, will now be offering her services at the Shrine of the Omnissiah - located in the hub just adjacent to the Psykhanium. The Shrine will be open to all Rejects with a trust level of 4 or higher.

With today’s patch, we’re introducing the Consecration ability, allowing you to upgrade the Tier of a Weapon or Curio you have available. As the item’s Tier is upgraded, a random Perk or Blessing will be added, depending on the Tier it has been upgraded to. Consecration uses crafting materials, with the cost increasing for higher Tier weapons.

Crafting materials are now available throughout the missions you undertake on Tertium. Be sure to explore the world, and you may find the materials to pick up. The resources collected are awarded to the entire team equally (everyone gets the same amount of resources, and there is no split depending on team size). As you explore the Hive City, you will find Plasteel, an exceedingly common material in the Imperium, and Diamantine, a much rarer material only seen on higher difficulty levels.

Gameplay Balancing

As we said before, we will continue to balance the gameplay based on player feedback. In this update, we are trying to balance effortless kite-dodging and maintaining the nimbleness of our lighter weapons that live and die by the dodge. Beyond that, we are also monitoring the current dodge and toughness configuration and will continue to tweak it leading up to release.

1.0.8 UPDATE SUMMARY

The 1.0.8 update focuses on continuing to improve the stability of the game along with the introduction of new features. Below is a complete outline of the changes in this update.

New Features

• Crafting Feature
  • UI for interacting with the workshop is available
  • Consecrate functionality is available for players.
  • Players can earn crafting materials from missions via pickups.
  • Hadron’s Workshop as an interaction point is also available.
• Armoury Exchange updated - Buy Character and Weapon Skins in the store!

Quality of Life

• Added EOR (end-of-round) Cards to show better what you unlock.
• Sire Melk’s Requisitorium should provide better items overall by only having pristine/mastercrafted items.
• Made Zealot’s Penance tier 1 and 2 pants more distinct.

UI/UX

• We’ve added better interfacing for some cases where invalid names are entered during character creation, making it clearer that the chosen name/input is not accepted.
• Fixed unlocalized strings in the settings menu.
• Fixing some localization on some cosmetics items.
• Improved item sorting by rarity - should now consider item rating too (shouldn’t crash now either!).

Fixes & Tweaks

• Fixed an instance where players could not use weapon special when ADS with the Lucius Mk III Helbore Lasgun.
• Fixed issues with some audio on the Excise Vault Spireside-13 mission.
• Turned down the light emitted by the Zealot. The Zealot calmed down, and their overly bright aura will serve as a flashlight no longer.
• Fixed it so the Convict Garb no longer clips when having a specific face.
• Fixed an issue with some gloves not looking correct while sprinting.
• Fixed an issue where several of the enemy stagger animations clipped a lot.
• Can now use weapon special when ADS on Headhunter Autoguns and Braced Autoguns.
• Fixed some flickering in some prologue cinematics.
• The camera would jump through geometry when switching between players in spectator mode. Now, it’ll jump between players to remove those unsightly geometry collisions.
• Weirdly, ammo increased indefinitely when reloading during the prologue, which could cause a crash. This was fixed, and you can reload as much as you need.
• Fixed some issues with buffering melee attacks when playing as Ogryn. No attack was triggered when players held the button “too early” in a chain. We have now adjusted this a little to make the overall feel better.
• Better Variety of grunts when pushing multiple enemies. We know you love a good grunt.
• Some voice-over was unintentionally canceled by players placing world markers or using the comms wheel - we fixed that for ya.
• Players can no longer stand on top of the elevator in Chasm Logistratum and render the mission impossible to complete.
• Re-entering an airlock after using it no longer triggers the ‘group up’ VO, as this is no longer the objective.
• Fixed an issue where stacking crit bonuses would break the crit calculation, rendering the weapon unable to crit. Say “crit” one more time…
• Fixed the Force Staff sometimes having a +x% reload speed property - despite not being reloadable. It’s a staff, after all—no need to reload it.
• The Counter fire’ Veteran Feat should now work consistently.
• Fixed an issue with the Accatran Mk VIIa Lasgun, where shots would disappear after traveling around 45 meters / 147.6 feet / 49 yards / 0.0045 Swedish Miles.
• Made some minor tweaks to the minion melee movement.
• Tweaked ranged minions range switch from melee to ranged override when players are kiting them not to occur too close to players.
• Fixed some broken stagger animations for various minions and some sound tweaks.
• Fixed animation on fuel hose NPC character being frozen at the beginning of the level 18 Path of Trust cutscene.
• Prologue cinematic fix for Zolas wound not looking like a wound, but something…else.
• Made some voice-over tweaks so that we always play a line when deploying a health pack or ammo crate.
• Fixed issue causing two, or sometimes fewer, items to appear in the credits store on refresh.
• Improved stability of end-of-round rewards finalizing.

Balance Adjustments

• Setup separate weapon-specific dodge curves for light melee weapons, tune-up separate zealot baseline:
  • Setup separate dodge curve for Zealot class, increase baseline dodge distance to 2.75m over 0.4s (was 2.5m over 0.4s).
  • Increase dodge slide friction speed threshold to 5.5m/s (from 4.5) - we don’t break down as hard on dodge-sliding.
  • Setup weapon specific curves for agile dodge profiles to allow customized behavior:
    • For Atrox Tactical Axes and Maccabian Duelling Swords: Custom curve 2.75m over 0.35s with fine-tuned end of curve for chaining.
    • For Catachan Mk III Combat Blade: Custom curve 2.9m over 0.35s with fine-tuned end of curve for chaining.

We keep working on Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and will keep optimizing the experience. We’re nowhere near done, and hope you appreciate the improvements we’ve already managed to implement. Please let us know your thoughts, and keep sharing your feedback. We appreciate you all.

Thank you.
The Darktide Team

HELPFUL LINKS & FAQ:

What to Expect in the Pre-Order Beta - Outlined purpose of the Pre-Order Beta as well as a schedule of content & activities (subject to change)

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

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

When does the pre-order beta end?
The pre-order beta will end on the 29th.

Will I still have access to the beta if I pre-order now?
All pre-orders will have access to the beta until it ends, so long as the game was purchased before the close of the beta.

I received the game as a gift, will I be able to access the pre-order beta?
So long as you have a normal game key, you will be able to access the pre-order beta.

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?
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.

When will I be able to access my pre-order bonus items? When will I be able to access the Devoted Rejects cosmetics?
Players will be able to access these items when we launch the full game November 30.

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 release date for Xbox Series X|S 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?
Our goal is to ensure all progression will carry over from the moment you start playing through full release - but we cannot fully guarantee at this moment. The reason is that we are still using this period to test our progression systems, and we want to reserve the opportunity to change or reset things in the event something unforeseen or critical happens.

But we assure you that we will do our best to ensure all your characters and progression carry over!

Will I be able to refund the game on Steam if I play the pre-order beta?
Yes, we believe you will have the ability to refund with the same refund rules applying once Darktide launches and after November 30th. Please send an email to (steam support) for further details or additional clarification.