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While the world is distracted by Space Marine 2 when it comes to Warhammer 40k, there is still no solid reason to ignore the excellent Darktide game that also inhabits the universe.
After a rocky start, although it was still fun, Darktide has blossomed into a great four-player horde shooter, with a solid item shop and lots of mess-making upgrades.
After the ongoing success of Darktide’s predecessor Vermintide 2, Darktide has done well via a series of large updates to get up to anywhere close to that standard.
The latest Warhammer 40k Darktide patch is now live and it’s another big one so let’s dive into some of its highlights.
Darktide Unlocked and Loaded patch highlights
Unlocked and Loaded is the name of the latest Darktide update and the changes behind the scenes are monumental.
Firstly the entire itemization system has been dramatically overhauled. Fatshark has outlined the changes to items as per below:
The Itemization Overhaul reinvents weapon progression, giving players more freedom to experiment and progress with weapons. The overhaul introduces two new systems, Mastery and Power, that provide players with clear avenues to get the weapons and gameplay they want.
- Mastery: Players simply have to use their weapon of choice through missions which will result in gaining experience in that weapon’s Mastery track. As players gain experience, they will unlock three different types of rewards and unlock more power: Blessing Points, Weapon Marks, and Perks.
- Blessing Points: Allow players to unlock different tiers of Blessings.
- Weapon Marks: Players will unlock various weapon marks attached to the Mastery track of the weapon’s family they are progressing in.
- Perks: Perks tiers unlock automatically as players advance in a given mastery track.
- Power: With the new Power system, players will be able to see and improve their weapon’s stats, by spending resources at the Shrine of the Omnissiah. The new power system gives players the possibility to increase the base stats of any weapon allowing it to reach its maximum potential.
Besides this huge change to how weaponry functions in the game, we are also getting a new mission type, Operation, and a new mission Rolling Steel.
The new mission sees your squad trying to stop a moving train hijacked by cultists, whereas the new Operations MIssion Type will provide a shorter, more cinematic experience.
Also included is a new in-game event called Unrelating Hordes which starts today (26th September) and gives you the chance to collect a load of in-game items for rewards.
As you would expect another raft of bugs has been squashed and Darktide continues apace to becoming one of the best horde-shooters of recent times.
