Here a list of settings I would change for a player new to Darktide using an xbox controller. The lengthy reasoning is below. If a setting isn’t mentioned, I recommend changing it at your leisure.
Options > Controller
Controller Layout
Change from Default to Bumper Button Dodger
Aim Assist
Change from Full to Light
Response Curve (both melee and ranged for consistency)
Change from Linear to Exponential
Response Curve Strength (both melee and ranged for consistency)
Change from 0% to 50%
Vertical Sensitivity
1.0 to 1.5
Vertical (Ranged)
1.0 to 1.5
Options > Input
Stationary Dodge
Off to On
Lengthy Reasonings
Controller Layout
Change from Default to Bumper Button Dodger
The Bumper Button Dodger layout moves the Dodge function from the A button to the Left Bumper and the Tag / Open Com Wheel function from the Left Bumper to the unused Up button on the D-Pad. The A button is still bound to Jump, but will no longer Dodge. You can now dodge without moving your thumb.
Dodge is, by default, on the A button. Your thumb has to move off of aiming to dodge. A quick dodge can mean success or failure on higher difficulty missions, and many damnation matches could be described as a series of dodges. Good players will expect you to be able to push a poxburster and dodge backward into a slide to avoid the explosion. This configuration makes moves like that, and looking around while dodging, reasonable to execute. Not that many things in Warhammer are reasonable.
Issues with the Bumper Button Dodger configuration
You now have to move your left thumb from movement stick to the D-pad to mark a target or draw a grenade. If you are a heretic, you can cross over with your right thumb to pull a grenade or mark a target and still walk with your left thumb. If you turn on stationary dodge in the input settings, you will be able to dodge backward instead and still look around, mark, or pull a grenade without crossing over. Don’t be afraid to cross over in a panic, but try not to make a habit of it. We all cross over eventually.
You have to take your finger off of aiming to crouch or slide with the B button. Sliding is useful and almost mandatory when trying to clutch because shooters lose their aim on you for a few milliseconds. PC users slide and look around fairly effortlessly, but this is difficult to do with a controller unless you have extra buttons, and, to be honest, it’s still not easy.
I have a controller with 6 extra buttons, I have them bound to pull grenades, crouch, and swap weapons. The crouch is the only one that feels truly necessary for sliding while failing to clutch.
Options > Controller > Aim Assist
Change from Full to Light
Aim assist kicks in when your reticle moves into a target’s frame (area around their body), and then the sensitivity is massively decreased to allow you to aim for weak points. If you leave aim assist on full, the frame is very large. It sticks to weak chaff enemies like poxwalkers at nearly double their width, and when they move it will drag your aim off of anything near them you might be aiming at. You will also start to anticipate the extreme drop in sensitivity by aiming near targets and letting the stick float, waiting for it to kick in. Light aim assist has these problems but they are not as severe.
Problems with Aim Assist and Turn Speed
Aim assist makes quickly looking around inconsistent. If you load the psykhanium training area, put aim assist on full, look up above the enemies heads and spin, it will move smoothly and consistently. If you aim down at the enemies and try the same thing, it will latch onto them and slow your view sporadically. “Tactical retreats” are critical on higher difficulties, and if a sea of enemies is approaching and you need to “retreat”, full auto aim is a problem.
Dropping auto aim from full to light alone will cost you some precision, but it will will be more than regained by making the response curve and curve strength adjustments below.
Options > Controller > Response Curve
Change from Linear to Exponential
Options > Controller > Response Curve Strength
Change from 0% to 50%
Default aiming is linear with a curve strength at 0%. Making small adjustments is difficult. It is reasonable for a new player to drop their sensitivity to try and hit weak points, but this will drop their turn speed from slow to glacial, and they still can’t really hit them at mid to long range. Curve strength at 0% is the biggest problem here, but changing both settings is even better.
If you’re curious, dropping the curve into the negative percentages decreases the ability to make slight adjustments, and 100% makes it much less responsive when you need to turn.
Options > Controller > Vertical Sensitivity
1.0 to 1.5+
Options > Controller > Vertical (Ranged)
1.0 to 1.5+
Want to thank Fatshark devs off the top for adding vertical sensitivity settings in the last patch. I have heard that console patch cert is a pain for many years and a lot more work than people think. Adding these settings is a huge boost for controller players, but as is often the case when I am so thankful, it’s because I was furious mere moments ago.
Aim acceleration in Darktide works in a way I’ve never encountered. It only applies to an extremely small area at the extreme left and right horizontal stick positions. These aim acceleration zones are smaller than I recall encountering before. Well, for any modern game worth playing for more than a few minutes anyway.
I assume this was a decision made to decrease the chance that someone will up their sensitivity to boost turn speed and end up missing weak points and making sawing stick movements to compensate. To be honest, 90% of combat is within 45 vertical degrees of your view anyway, and it’s pretty rare that you need to look from a target at your feet to your head and back very often. This would work well enough except that there is ankle high loot everywhere. If you aim down at your feet to loot, and need to turn around to deal with a threat, you naturally push and hold the thumbstick upwards at a 45 degree angle to look up and turn around at the same time. In Darktide, this angle doesn’t come close to activating aim acceleration.
The fastest way to turn around is to actually keep looking at your toes and jam the stick to the left or right then look up, or look up then turn around like a dazed Ogryn wandering in a field looking for their missing rock. This is actually a major reason I gave up on the Ogryn after leveling it to 30: looking down all the time is a problem, even as a disappointing shorty.
I still don’t look completely down to my toes by instinct, it just takes too long to look back up. The fact I can’t look above the ammo to mark it still annoys me. I have to look right at the box. Before these vertical sensitivity options, if I missed marking and had to look back down to try again it would take an eternity.
Keep in mind, by default, you have to remove your hand from aiming down to the dodge button as well. You can’t quickly dodge to the left or right, if a dog leaps at you, you’re toast. And if you don’t have your melee weapon out just in case, you have to stop aiming to pull it out then turn around. Forget about planning on running past anything and quickly grabbing it off the floor on higher difficulties, just forget it. It’s lost to the void.
Options > Input
Stationary Dodge
Off to On
When I tap dodge, I want it to dodge, not do nothing. Dodging while moving forward though, not so much.
NOTE: you can swap and rebind buttons through the console, but it’s global and the options are pretty limited.
Darktide Controller Settings Wishlist
Aim Acceleration sensitivity settings.
Ability to disable or adjust various aspects of the auto aim settings. I don’t want ADS target snapping. Without it, light auto aim would be pretty solid.
Allow R3 (thumbstick click) to be bound to crouch, and the B button to be bound to Weapon Special Action. Would be a great trade for flashlight mounted weapons so that sliding doesn’t require moving the thumb for people with standard controllers.
Allowing for more rebinding or button swaps is always great.
Big Thanks to Fatshark
The settings are a massive step up from Vermintide 2. I wouldn’t have put this info together if the game wasn’t truly great with even more potential and you didn’t listen to feedback. The skill trees, balance changes, and crafting updates are more than most of us could have imagined.
I’ve played Warhammer games before, but this game got me interested in the lore and I’m becoming a fan. This is largely due to the hilarious voice acting, crazy quotes from the loading screens, and all the skulls everywhere. At first I thought, hey, easy on the skulls guys, but now, I get it.