Devblog: Incoming Balance Changes

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Warband!

Next week’s patch will come with some balance changes that we have been working on for a while now. Balancing the gameplay experience is important to us, and we have been following the discussions around this topic. Today we will look at just the upcoming balance changes in the patch, the rest you will get in the normal patch notes when it drops.

In the coming update we’re taking the first step in a broader effort to improve both performance and combat balance.

First, some background on this.

Over time, as we’ve expanded and improved weapons, talents, and introduced new classes, the overall player power has increased in the game. To maintain the intended difficulty, we have increased the enemy density and spawn rates of elites, and while this has kept the game intense, it has also introduced new challenges for us. As difficulty rises, enemy count increases, and in especially enemy dense scenarios this often impacts performance and stability. At the same time, as we rely on an increased number of strong Elite enemies to scale the difficulty, we also narrow down the range of effective player loadouts. It’s important to us that you can use your favourite loadouts in as many scenarios as possible, and not box players in too much.

Our long-term goal is to bring these elements back into better alignment. We want to preserve the intensity of the combat, while making it more stable, more readable, and more supportive of different builds and loadouts. This means toning down the most extreme of enemy scenarios, while also addressing a small number of player power outliers that have been shaping our encounter design.

This update focuses on Carapace Armoured enemies, particularly Ogryn Crushers. These enemies (and the tools used to counter them) have become a central part of the current meta. As we lower how frequently these threats appear, we’re also adjusting the most dominant anti-Carapace options.

Enemy changes

This change is a first pass at reducing the amount of Ogryn Crushers across the game. Do note that the value below is an average across multiple missions, and any single mission may still have fewer or more Crushers (still lower than before though) based on the specifics of the run.

This is to maintain a healthy variation in the randomized spawning system, with the goal of keeping every mission fresh and exciting.

With that being said, we are gonna continue to monitor post patch and adjust accordingly.

Enemy Spawns

• Lowered Ogryn Crushers spawn amount by around 30% on average

• This affects ambient spawns, Horde spawns and Event spawns

Havoc

• An additional ~15% on average reduction in Ogryn Crushers, Bulwarks and Reapers

• ‘Rotten Armour’ Modifier

  • Armour type override has been changed from Carapace armour to Infested

    • Dev Note: This will allow for a greater diversity of weapons to be brought to a Rotten Armour mission

  • Lowered the amount of Rotten enemies spawns

Dev sidenote: In the last few patches, we have been tweaking the limits of the amount of enemies that are allowed to be spawned at the same time. This is to ensure that the performance of the game is better during higher tension moments where there might be an extreme amount of enemies spawning.

Class changes

As we are lowering the amount of Carapace Armoured enemies you will encounter, to maintain balance we are also tweaking some of the strongest anti-carapace tools.

Veteran

• Split talent ‘Demolition Stockpile’ into different replenish timers for each Blitz

  • Krak Grenades from 60s to 90s

  • Frag and Smoke Grenades unchanged at 60s

Hive Scum

• Boom Bringer

  • Max charges from 3 to 2 (With ‘Extra Pouches’, from 4 to 3)

• Chem Grenade

  • Max charges from 3 to 2 (With ‘Extra Pouches’, from 4 to 3)

• Chem Toxin DoT

  • Damage per tick while at max stacks changed from 440 to 350

Weapon and Blessings changes

Uncanny Strike, Opportunist & Bladed Momentum

The ‘Uncanny Strike’, ‘Opportunist’ and ‘Bladed Momentum’ weapon Blessings provided a relatively easy way to gain a large amount of Rending, which could then be applied to any outgoing damage from the player, and not just to damage coming from their Melee weapon or towards the enemy that was being hit to trigger the Blessing.

‘Uncanny Strike’ was changed to apply Brittleness to the enemy being hit instead, allowing the player to still reach a considerable bonus (40%) but only after repeatedly striking the specific enemy in melee.

‘Opportunist’ and ‘Bladed Momentum’ were changed to apply their Rending bonus only to Melee attacks, instead of any offensive effect.

Note: Brittleness is a debuff applied to a specific enemy which increases their damage taken, while Rending is a buff that applies to the player’s outgoing offensive effects.

Both are effective only against the Flak, Carapace, Unyielding and Maniac armour types.

‘Uncanny Strike’ Blessing

• From Rending to Brittleness

  • Blaze Force Sword, Combat Blade, Duelling Sword, Sapper Shovel

    • From 12/16/20/24% Rending per weak spot hit (max 60/80/100/120%) to 2/4/6/8 stacks of 2.5% Brittleness per weakspot hit (5/10/15/20% per weakspot hit; max 40%)

  • Shivs

    • From 4/5/6/8% Rending per weak spot hit (max 20/25/30/40%) to 1/2/3/4 stacks of 2.5% Brittleness per weak spot hit (2.5/5/7.5/10% per weak spot hit; max 40%)

‘Opportunist’ and ‘Bladed Momentum’ Blessings

• From Rending to Melee Rending

  • The Rending buff from these Blessings will only affect Melee attacks, instead of any attack/effect

Sapper Shovels & Blaze Force Swords

Since Psyker Blaze Force Swords and Veteran Sapper Shovels were affected significantly by the changes to the Uncanny Strike Blessing, we raised their offensive properties with a particular focus on their performance against Carapace armour. These changes will increase the baseline effectiveness of these weapons, allowing also for more competition and variance in the Blessings slots.

Sapper Shovels

• Damage profiles (against 1st target of the attack)

  • Heavy Relentless ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.4 to 0.5

  • Heavy Relentless ADM vs Flak armour, Maniac, Unyielding from 0.75 to 0.8

  • Heavy Relentless Damage from {110,225} to {125,250}

  • Heavy Relentless Impact from {10,20} to {12,20}

  • Heavy Special active second hit ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.5 to 0.6

  • Heavy Strikedown ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.4 to 0.6

  • Heavy Strikedown ADM vs Flak armour, Maniac, Unyielding from 0.75 to 0.8

  • Heavy Strikedown Damage from {125,275} to {145,295}

  • Heavy Strikedown Impact from 15 to {12,20}

  • Light Vanguard ADM vs Carapace armour from 0 to 0.2

  • Light Vanguard ADM vs Flak armour from 0.75 to 0.8

  • Light Vanguard Damage from {80,160} to {85,170}

  • Light Relentless ADM vs Carapace armour from 0 to 0.2

  • Light Relentless ADM vs Flak armour from 0.75 to 0.8

  • Light Relentless Damage from {55,120} to {70,140}

  • Light Strikedown Damage from {95,180} to {100,190}

  • Light Special active initial and second hit ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.4 to 0.5

  • Pushfollow attack ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.25 to 0.35

  • Pushfollow attack ADM vs Maniac from 0.5 to 0.75

• Damage profiles (against secondary targets of the attack)

  • Heavy Relentless and Heavy Strikedown Damage scaled up on all targets
    Blaze Force Swords

• Damage profiles ADM vs Carapace armour (against 1st target of the attack)

  • Light Vanguard from 0.01 to 0.2

  • Light Strikedown Stab from 0.25 to 0.4

  • Light Assassin Uppercut from 0.25 to 0.35

• Damage profiles ADM vs Carapace armour (against secondary targets of the attack)

  • Heavy Vanguard from 0 to 0.1

• Obscurus Mk II Blaze Force Sword

  • Slightly delayed the active window for the Light 2 uppercut attack to make it easier to connect with weakspots

Shivs

With Chem Toxin now dealing less damage, we have increased the effectiveness of the Shivs’ Weapon Special direct hit properties, to weigh up for any missed breakpoints.

Specifically for the Mk I version**,** the bonus from Critical Hits was lowered, maintaining the huge offensive spike potential of the weapon but in a more contained way.

• Weapon Special

  • Direct hit Damage from 190 to 235

  • Finesse boost from 1.2 to 1.6

  • ADM vs Flak armour (near) from 0.5 to 0.6

  • ADM vs Flak armour (far) from 0.25 to 0.35

• Mk I Damage profiles

  • Crit boost curve on most profiles lowered by around 0.15

    • from around 0.8/0.7 to 0.65/0.6

Duelling Swords

While affected by the Uncanny Strike changes, the Duelling Swords’ Heavy attacks still remained an outlier in effectiveness, especially because of their extreme Finesse (Weakspot and Critical Hits) scaling. We have slightly lowered those properties, while maintaining the high mobility and overall ease of use of the weapon family.

• Heavy Strikedown

  • Finesse boost from {1.1, 2.1} to {1.0, 2.0}

  • Crit boost curve from 0.5 to 0.4

• Heavy Stab

  • ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.5 to 0.4

  • Finesse boost from {1.2, 2.4} to {1.1, 2.2}

  • Crit boost curve from 0.5 to 0.4

Inferno Force Staff

Alongside the changes to Soulblaze (details just below), we are giving a small buff to the Carapace armour direct hit effectiveness of this Force Staff, allowing it to still be valuable against the heavily armoured targets in a mixed group of enemies.

• Direct hit ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.25 to 0.35

Damage over Time effects changes

Since the ease of gaining global Rending was significantly lowered due to the changes to Melee weapon Blessings, we have increased the Armour Damage Modifiers of specific Damage over Time effects against the Carapace armour type, and overall slightly raised the damage of Psyker’s Soulblaze.

DoT effects

• Burn ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.1 to 0.2

• Soulblaze ADM vs Carapace armour from 0.1 to 0.25

• Soulblaze Damage per tick while at max stacks changed from 250 to 255

Looking Ahead

This update is the first step of many to improve both gameplay balance and technical performance. In future patches, we will continue refining enemy compositions, adjusting outlier weapons, and improving those that have been falling behind. Darktide is at its best when combat feels intense, responsive, and fair. These changes are aimed at supporting that experience, reducing unnecessary extremes while expanding the number of ways players can succeed.

There are plenty of other mechanics and enemies that we can improve, such as the high density of Ogryn Bulwarks. We’ll talk more about our shielded enemies in the near future.

We’ll be closely monitoring feedback and performance data as these changes go live, and will continue to iterate based on this! Please let us know what you think of these changes after you’ve had some time testing them out next week.

That’s all for today.

See you on the Mourningstar!

• The Darktide Team

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