Let’s talk about Classes in Darktide.
As many of you know, we just started dropping our class spotlights, and with that came a wave of feedback, thoughts, and questions. It quickly became apparent that we must clear up some of the confusion and better answer your questions.
So, here we go. While we won’t be able to address everything (still in development and working through things), we hope this is a start.
First, Classes are a new thing in Darktide and something we are really excited about. They are perfectly suited for the 40k universe and allow us to extend the play experiences in a better way than previous games like Vermintide’s careers.
While similar, classes are not the same as careers (in Vermintide). Some of this will become clearer as you jump into our Closed beta this weekend, but most of it won’t show up until the full play experience closer to launch. More specifically, you can expect a deeper narrative experience, greater range, and more options in character customization. There’s also a more profound and wider progression in weapons.
We will start with 4 classes and 70+ weapons available at launch. We really wanted to focus on quality, depth, and differentiation first - and less on the number of classes. Each class has a distinct personality, and your choice affects what cosmetics they can attain, and how they interact with teammates on their strike team. Weapons are more robust, each with their individual stats and traits specifically designed for that weapon.
While we are not ready to announce specific dates, it is safe to say that we aim to release one new class every quarter.
We haven’t fully decided if we will charge for new and upcoming classes, but that is an option we are discussing. This isn’t our way of trying to bait and switch anyone. Fatshark has always prided itself on being very player-centric. We want to stay true to that in our monetization practices. We never intend to split our player base - you can expect in-game content, such as new areas, game modes, and missions, to remain free. We’ve learned a lot, and we think we have done a good job in Vermintide with our monetization of cosmetics and careers, and we are looking to that and other areas of feedback before we make a final decision.
We hope this clears things up a little, and look forward to your feedback!
