The current 3-month major update cycle is a complete misstep – their game content simply cannot support three months of gameplay. Players drop off significantly after the first month (when the Arbites DLC launched, player count peaked at nearly 30,000, but now only 1,000~3,000 people are online daily).
Darktide lacks modes that retain players long-term, like Vermintide’s Chaos Wastes, while Darktide’s Mortis Trials mode is incredibly dull. Furthermore, most event rewards in Darktide are just cosmetic junk like profile pictures and badges, which hardly spark any excitement.
Therefore, my suggestion is: FatShark needs to revise its update strategy – change from a 3-month major update cycle to a 2-month one, increasing the annual updates from 4 to 6. At the same time, be more generous – ultimate event rewards could also be replaced with premium currency.
We told them we wanted premium currency after Skulls, they refuse to.
They also very clearly don’t have or don’t want to allocate the manpower necessary to keep a schedule like you’re suggesting.
So sure I’ll add this to the Book in the output section but they’re not gonna do it unless the game starts dying. At which point they’ll half-ass a band-aid on the loudest complaint.
FatShark’s June update introduced a mainline mode centered around the “Battle for Tertium,” so they should focus more on advancing this narrative. This includes the story of the Karnak siblings and Captain Wolff, the mysterious upper echelons of the Nurgle cult, and even more terrifying enemies deep within the hive city. In the future, we might even see unresponsive freighters filled with Tyranids hovering over Tertium Hive.
Darktide’s story holds endless possibilities, but FatShark’s sluggish update pace has now placed the game in an awkward position.
I don’t think it’s in the realm of realistic to hope for more frequency of major updates. I don’t begrudge your want, but I just don’t see it at all possible.
What they need to do, though, is come through with balance updates more frequently than quarterly (which we still haven’t seen).
I don’t care how many keyboard warriors want to come out of the woodwork to shout me down as a non-dev, there is simply nothing anyone but FS can say to make me believe doing some number tweaking is a bridge too far for any team.
Do a deep dive on why it’s not a simple numbers game, FS. Throw in some of those pet pics if that’s what it takes to get a post out of you. Otherwise, I have to call lazy or apathetic.
Most (not all, they have had quite a couple of weapon skins and some helmets) rewards in VT2 were also frames Frames - Vermintide 2 Wiki
Which is great in a vacuum, but I think it is unrealisable for Fatshark as it currently is, should it grow much larger, yes, would it fix the problem in the short term, nah.
For the new game mode, FatShark could fully draw inspiration from their previous successful title, Vermintide 2’s Chaos Wastes mode. It has been proven that the Chaos Wastes mode is highly replayable and immensely fun – all they need to do is adapt this mode for Darktide. In fact, most of the veteran players still actively playing Vermintide 2 are primarily engaged in the Chaos Wastes mode.
Additionally, if FatShark has no plans to develop Vermintide 3, then I suggest they should focus their resources entirely on Darktide, rather than allocating efforts to continue updating Vermintide 2. Many of my friends who used to play Darktide have moved on to other games. They jokingly remark that "FatShark’s true love is Vermintide 2*, and they’re only updating* Darktide to fund more Vermintide 2 content."
Darktide Chaos Waste is most likely planned, but like VT2’s one, it is a massive work plan, and unlike in the time of Vt2, they haven’t got their subcontractor anymore (those that helped them for the maps for Chaos Waste shut their studio).
And unlike what some people could think, it isn’t as straight translation (like if they did the Altars like in CW, i’m not touching them, way to many weapons available).
Also saying that VT2 should get dropped is just dumb, there are still many people that play VT2, or play both. So I would be quite annoyed about it.
Vermintide 3 shouldn’t happen though, if they remain chained to GW, better to start a new tide anyway.
I don’t deny the excellence of Vermintide 2, but it’s incredibly frustrating that Darktide’s update progress in 2025 is lagging far behind. Resources should indeed be allocated more generously to Darktide. This year marks the seventh year of Vermintide 2, and its story mode is still receiving new developments. Meanwhile, Darktide is only in its third year, yet all we’ve gotten is a trial mode, one new class, and no new maps. The latest story update was still from December of last year.
I’d like to see that happen too, but I don’t think it’s possible with Fatshark as they are now. Even though they have plenty of developers and staff, it feels like they don’t have the structure or resilience to coordinate them efficiently. Especially since they seem to be working on multiple projects simultaneously (VT2 + DT + a new UE5 game), and on top of that, several key staff such as leads and directors have left over the past few years. The fact that their community managers have been constantly changing also makes it feel like they’re struggling to maintain proper control.
The main reason for this is the fact that pretty much none of the updates have 3 months worth of content within them.
Like look at the updates this year, lot of it is pretty meh.
They’ve had since launch to adjust the knife and we are nearly at the two year anniversary of patch 13, which was when duelling sword and plasma got overbuffed.
People are expecting actual content when they can’t even adjust weapon numbers after multiple years.
the knife was not good until patch 14, I guess in patch 13 it was a bleed machine. as a chronologist of bad decisions I’ll have to point out that the knife didn’t become an issue until after the dueling sword. though with patch 13 buffed bleeds it was one of the best abusers outside being an ogryn, those got nerfed by patch 14.
Catachan Mk III Combat Blade
● Light Assassin Attack Armour Modifiers:
○ Unarmoured: 100% to 125%.
○ Infected: 75% to 90%.
● Light Strikedown Attack Base Damage (0%, 80% Damage Stat):
● Heavy Attack Finesse Modifiers (0%, 80% Damage Stat):
○ 100%, 260% to 175%, 315%.
● Heavy Attack Armour Modifiers:
○ Maniac: 50% to 100%.
○ Carapace: 25% to 50%.
○ Infested: 75% to 90%.
but yeah all these garbage tiny weapons with insane attack speed and damage can get nerfed 3 years ago or today and it wouldn’t make any difference for me really. well, I do love the Mk6 knife now and again if I need to go fast.
kinda jumping back and forth on what you’re choosing to whine about here…people were using dueling sword on psyker back then too, because they were the 2 melees that let you move faster than normal. not to kill anything, because their kill power was a little yike even with weaker elites.
While I’d not say no to more heretics to purge, I feel like the easy win is to adjust the ‘update the community’ strategy.
Choosing arbitrary frequencies is a bit silly imo because you are neglecting all the business cogs that would need to turn to execute on this. And what about the quality of the content?
If all they did in a single year was implement custom lobbies with every modifier they’ve done available, I would take that over events that come and go frequently (although I have been enjoying the events and also wish they rewarded Acquila pennies).