Duckity duck duck how OP the rapier on Zealot

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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You keep talking about balancing peoples’ needs but ignore that the game currently is balanced extremely far in the power gamers favour. All we’re asking for is tipping it back the other way a bit. We’ve already had the power gamers preferences excessively forced on us. Remember when gunners and shooters were buffed and most of the veterans around here were cheering?

Yeah the power fantasy gamers couldn’t let that stick around no sir, using your brain while playing a game is pretty yikes I guess.

Your idea is fine but it’s basically just what Auric board should already be. Heck catering to the hardcore difficulty nuts was pretty explicitly the purpose of the Auric board in the first place but that has been claimed too because apparently it would be too hurtful for the power fantasy gamers to not have every aspect of the game tailored around them.

Don’t worry FS has already taken great strides to abandon the core player base that has stuck with them since VT1 (and it is ALWAYS the hardcore difficulty nuts that stick around the longest for the Tide series, always has been). The way things have been going you’ll have the game to yourself soon enough :+1:

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And what’s diiferrent between this and new diificulty?

And what would you do if there’s player like you hopping into these challenge and asking for it to be power fantasy again or they’ll complain that it isn’t inclusive enough?

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I have to respectfully disagree with the idea that ‘hardcore players’ are the most loyal or the only ones keeping Tide games alive. The 40k fanbase is massive, and it’s made up of players from all kinds of backgrounds—casual, competitive, hardcore, and everything in between. To suggest that the ‘hardcore difficulty nuts’ are the ones who carry the series oversimplifies what makes 40k and games like Darktide so popular.

40k, as a universe, appeals to a huge variety of players, and many of them play these games because they love the setting, the lore, and the power fantasy. It’s not just about the struggle or the challenge—it’s about immersing themselves in the world and feeling connected to it, whether through mowing down hordes of heretics or simply enjoying the co-op experience with friends. If the game catered exclusively to the hardcore audience, it would likely lose a lot of the broader player base that actually makes the game successful in the long run.

I don’t believe that hardcore players are entitled to have the game catered specifically to them just because they may stick around longer. Loyalty isn’t determined solely by how hard someone wants their game to be. Plenty of players remain loyal to the game because they enjoy the world, the characters, and the power progression. They might not post on forums as much, but their presence is felt in the numbers that keep the game thriving. Power gamers, casual players, and fans of the 40k universe are just as important to the game’s success as the hardcore crowd.

So, while I understand that you want a greater challenge, it’s important to recognize that the game needs to cater to a wide audience—not just the players who are in it for the hardest difficulty. That’s why offering more customization, like a Skull system, is a better solution. It gives everyone—from the hardcore challenge seekers to those who just want to feel powerful—a way to enjoy the game in their own way.

At the end of the day, the strength of Darktide and games like it comes from the diversity of its player base, and it would be a disservice to the game to overlook that.

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What’s different about my suggestion is that it doesn’t force any specific playstyle on everyone. It’s about offering more choice, not catering to just one group. A customizable difficulty system—like the Halo skull system I mentioned—allows both challenge seekers and power fantasy players to get what they want without one group imposing its experience on the other.

Many players revel in a challenge but still want to feel powerful while doing so—whether it’s through mastering plasma guns or using other powerful tools in tough situations. Nerfing those weapons strips away their enjoyment and their sense of agency.

The point isn’t to make everything easy; it’s to allow players to feel like they’ve earned their power. Taking that away doesn’t necessarily make the game more challenging—it just makes it less fun for a significant portion of the community. My suggestion ensures that players who love power fantasies and those who thrive on pure struggle can coexist by giving them the tools to shape their own experience, rather than enforcing a one-size-fits-all approach.

As for your concern about power fantasy players complaining—well, that’s the beauty of having options. The whole point of my argument is to avoid that kind of conflict. If a player prefers a power fantasy, they can choose settings that cater to that. If they want a real challenge, they can crank up the difficulty or add modifiers. The system works because it’s flexible and designed to respect everyone’s preferences without turning it into a zero-sum game where one group’s enjoyment comes at the expense of another’s.

So no, it’s not a cycle of complaints—it’s about empowering players to tailor their experience, so everyone walks away satisfied.

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65

You do realize this option already exist right…?

Honestly your respone smell weirdly fishy, almost like some of those corporate respone. I would’ve think you’re using chat gpt to type these or something, but I digress.

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This option does not exist, however. We’re not able to choose our missions or what modifiers we want, we can’t even play games privately unless someone is in our squad. Honestly, I get the sense you’re not paying attention or comprehending what I’m laying down.

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All in favour of not balancing for weirdos who get off on a power trip. You can literally just move down difficulties and get easy breakpoints.

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68

Fair enough, as long as we’re not balancing for the “give me pain or give me death” crew either. Balance for all, not just the extremes!

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Bad argument, i already made a thread explaining why. Read it if you care to know why this is the case. But the TLDR is basically balance does matter in a PVE game and you cannot just endlessly buff.

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In PvP, balance is necessary to ensure fairness between players—there’s a competitive element where one side’s power affects the other’s experience directly. In PvE, however, the goal is different. It’s more about creating an enjoyable experience for the players against AI enemies, and the fun comes from feeling powerful while still overcoming a challenge.

Nerfing weapons in a PvE game, especially in Darktide, often strips players of the agency to craft their preferred playstyle, robbing them of the tools that make them feel powerful in tough situations. The fun of a game like Darktide often is the power fantasy, and by forcing a strict balancing approach, you can unintentionally remove the essence of what makes the game enjoyable for many players.

Balance absolutely matters, but the approach has to be different. Instead of nerfing, a better approach would be providing more tailored difficulty options, so players can choose the experience they want—whether that’s embracing a power fantasy or struggling against overwhelming odds. That way, you give players control over their experience without forcing everyone into the same rigid playstyle.

So yes, balance matters in PvE, but not in the same way it does in PvP.

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71

I respectfully disagree.

This game was markteted by Fatshark as a game where you will struggle immensely against insurmountable odds. You are just some guy in the imperium of man. That is honestly the exact opposite of my idea of power fantasy. It is a classic meme of an imperial guard regiment losing only half of its personnel in one assault as a good day. This doesnt give me power fantasy vibes.

As for not nerfing, i really just cannot agree with this at all. It just doesn’t make any sense. If all the weapons in the game could one shot everything on the screen and you just had to walk across the map, would you say that those weapons needed nerfed then? Of course you would, because then it wouldn’t be fun. But then, one could argue isnt that the ultimate power fantasy, being able to kill every enemy on screen at the push of the button?

Fact is, we are rejects. We arent sororitas, we arent astartes, we arent a knight house. We are regular men and women. The fun to you might be the power fantasy, but the fun to me is feeling like a regular guy with very little power. A regular human in 40k scaling is pretty much bottom tier. Fatshark knows this, and i believe they wanted to create this feeling but they have failed at that task. Also, this is a personal gripe of mine, but it just simply makes absolutely no sense a lot of the things we can do, such as veteran yelling and it staggering chaos spawns. This is just stupid to me. Suspension of diseblief can only take you so far.

As for difficulties, the problem if they were to create a new difficulty, is that the already OP things would only become even more of a necessity. You would essentially be pigeon holed into using the viable builds and the cheese. We are harking on nerfs, but let’s not forget that the under performers should be buffed too. I blame Fatshark for this cotnroversy, they need to be completely clear on what they are trying to achieve here. Every weapon used to have its own identity or niche, now it seems like they want all weapons to be the same OP slop with no identity to them whatsoever.

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Yes, Darktide may have been marketed as a game where you face overwhelming odds, but that doesn’t inherently mean that power fantasy and challenge are mutually exclusive. You can absolutely struggle against insurmountable odds while still feeling powerful. The two don’t cancel each other out—they can coexist. In fact, the fun for many players comes from finding that balance between being powerful and still being challenged.

Darktide puts us in the shoes of rejects, but even within that context, we’re still playing a horde game where we’re mowing down waves of heretics, members of the Moebian VIth legion, and even killing high-ranking officers and monstrosities. In a world where the average survival time of a guardsman is 15 minutes, we’re already more powerful than most of the Imperium’s soldiers. By that very nature, we aren’t playing as helpless cannon fodder—we’re playing as individuals who, despite being ‘rejects,’ are able to survive and overcome against all odds.

The power fantasy in Darktide isn’t about trivializing the challenge; it’s about feeling powerful while still being tested by the sheer volume and threat of enemies. The game is designed around horde combat, where we’re meant to slaughter waves of enemies, all while dodging and taking down massive threats like Chaos Spawns and Daemonhosts. It’s not just about surviving; it’s about thriving in situations where most would perish.

Nerfing weapons to the point where players no longer feel powerful against these enemies robs them of the sense of agency and progression. The challenge isn’t lost just because we have access to strong tools—on the contrary, it’s enhanced when you can use those tools to survive against overwhelming odds. The power fantasy and the challenge can absolutely coexist, and they already do. It’s not about one-shotting everything; it’s about feeling capable, even as the hordes keep coming.

We’re not Astartes or Sororitas, but we’re clearly more than the average guardsman. The fun comes from that balance—being powerful enough to fight through waves of enemies, but still facing moments of real danger that require skill and coordination to overcome. Nerfing weapons would only detract from that balance, making the game feel more punishing without adding real depth to the challenge.

The idea that because we are ‘rejects’ we should feel weak doesn’t align with how these games actually work. Even as ‘regular’ people in the 40k universe, we’re still heroes of the story. The game isn’t trying to turn us into cannon fodder—it’s about giving us moments of struggle and triumph. If you take away the power fantasy aspect, you’re left with a game where players feel helpless, and that isn’t fun for everyone.

Your concern about higher difficulties forcing players into specific builds is understandable, but that’s why offering customization options—like difficulty modifiers—would allow players to scale the challenge how they want without being forced into ‘meta’ builds. Buffing underperforming weapons is great, but that doesn’t mean powerful weapons need to be nerfed into the ground just to force a sense of struggle.

73

try testing harder then

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74

I mean, the Potato Peeler of Doom (aka Knife) is in the game since release flipping the bird to everything while having no drawbacks so…yeah…just another thing on the shelf lol

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Doesn’t change the fact that you can do the same at distance with a revolver or a PG. At least with the duelling sword you need that a crusher aim you and that you dodge it (so you take a risk, especially if it is a crusher patrol) OR that you use shroudfield.
I see in the video that you get the precognition bonus… in fact, you can’t one shot everything with this weapon unless you have help from something (duellist + precognition + fury the faithful here)

I say it… I find it “meta”. But until Fatshark decides to balance meta (= nerf them), the current damages of the duelling sword are perfectly acceptable and balanced considering the other metas. And even, I say it, the duelling sword is less powerful than a revolver cause you need to take risk for the same result.
Don’t forget… 6 months I ask that they balance the “too strong” weapons… As it doesn’t happen, I adapt. I don’t want that they nerf a random weapon while letting all others too strong weapons for more than 6 months untouched and still OP… oups, I mean “meta”.
And if they want to start balancing, they should not start by this weapon but by other weapons that are too strong for many months…

76

Just did Auric Maelstrom with DS on zealot to try what all of this fuss is about.

Holy Mother of sweet Ganesh, this thing is broken AF.
Everything gets 1 or 2 shotted with fast heavies fishing for crits, horde clearing is ridiculous and the mobility is on par with the dagger.

I was alternating its use on psyker with the force sword (I do not use melee much as a psyker but it was useful for the occasional mutant) but an ok-to-strong weapon in the hands of psykers has become the harbinger of doom in the zealot ones.

I know psyker will get shafted as soon as this thing is nerfed, I see no way around it, it trivialize the content and it is 4 times more effective than the next best zealot weapon…
The only other solution would be a convoluted weapon clone with 1 type that can be used by zealot and the other one by everybody else so at least a modicum of nerf could be applied without making it useless for every other class.

But I guess we will get the nerf hammer and will have to live with it.

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77

That’s what I’m saying bro, it’s ridiculous!

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