With the announcement of a second new class in one year, the community has been worked out taking guesses at what we mat be getting. I’ve seen Ad Mech, Sanctioned Xenos, Ganger, and even Rattling, even if I haven’t seen anyone make a serous argument for the class. Yet, despite tons of people acknowledging how many players would love to see Sororitas come to the game, I’ve seen almost just as many people suggest that Darktide will never get Sororitas yet alone in this coming update. And truthfully, I just don’t understand why there seems to be so much confidence in the potential of the other mentioned Classes but not for Sororitas.
I’ve heard a number of arguments against Sisters, but none of them have felt compelling, especially against the potential evidence for the class. The arguments against the class is:
Sororitas are Gender Locked
Sororitas are too Strong
Sororitas would be too similar to Zealots
But as easy as these arguments are to make, they are equally easy to dismiss:
Ogryns are Gender locked too
This is like, a non-counter argument. We’ve had a Gender Locked Class since the launch of the game, and I don’t think we’re likely to get a Female Ogryn update for the class.
Psykers and Ogryns are both Individually Powerful
Ogryns are strong enough to overpower Space Marines in lore, and our Psykers, despite being able to summon constant explosive mortar fire across arenas with our minds, are actually kind of middling in terms of some of the feats other psykers have shown. Darktide doesn’t need to be a perfect representation of in lore powers scaling, and even if it was, Ogryns and Psykers are arguably just as individually powerful Sororitas if not stronger.
Sororitas are a mixed range melee and shooting Army
Even if Sororitas and Zealots share a focus on melee, so do Arbites and Zealots. Zealots have a focus on Blocking, Dodging, and Impact. Arbites focuses on Stagger, Survivability, and Suppression. Sororitas could easily focus on Movement, Mobility, and Cleave, maybe having access to Jump Packs or the ability to Sprint through Infested enemies, the capacity to attack with melee or ADS while shooting, and having ways to gain cleave or ignore armor mass. The Arbites class has already showed that Fatshark is willing for classes to have some overlap. If Zealot is a Cleaver into the Horde, and Arbites is a Bludgeon, then Sororitas could be Spear.
And then there’s just the other evidence supporting the class. Narratively, there’s a shrine world in the this region of space, so Sisters should be in the area. They already have a soft presence on the ship in the form of Novitiate Prine. They are the military branch of the Inquisition’s Ordo Hereticus , the Ordo we have been conscripted into in Darktide. They they primarily fight Chaos, which is the main threat in the game. And Sororitas are already known to work in groups much like our Rejects (and Lexkeepers), see the Order of the Sacred Rose or Rogue Trader’s Argenta.
If Zealots playstyles are like Ragers and Assassins, Sororitas could easily be Cavalry and Shock Troopers. The class tree could be split between Repentia, Celestian, and Seraphim. Maybe they could have a Hospitaller node that gave the class utility by making it so that Stims they used or gave to allies had enhanced effects. There’s tons that you could do w/ the class, and it’s practically free real estate. At time of writing, there are only two games where you can play specifically as an Individual Adeptus Sororitas: Battle Sister VR and Inquisitor - Martyr. When Boltgun 2 releases sometime in 2026, that’ll be three. Adeptus Sororitas would be a slam dunk addition to Darktide. As someone who wants to see the class in the game, of course I wanted to make a case for them. But I also do genuinely want to understand the perspective of people who think the class is far fetched. Especially if they think Ad Mech or Sanctioned Xenos might make it into the game. From my understanding Skitarii are just Ad Mech soldiers with tech and prosthetic enhancements. If what would be, in broad stokes, a Cybernetically Enhanced Vet seems likely to people, why is a Powersuit Enhanced Zealot a far stretch? Ad Mech feels just as far removed from the Rejects as Sororitas, and Sororitas feels as far removed from the Rejects as does Arbites do. But Arbites is still in the game. And I think there’s room for Sororitas **and Ad Mech.
imo its an issue of lore. If the Adepta Sororitas was called in we are probably all coming out dead as they purge everything. The SoB themselves are not just Zealots, they are some of the most extreme Zealots in the WH40K Universe. There is a reason why hardly any Sisters fall to chaos, because they are among the most devout servants of the Emps and wholeheartedly believe in burning all heresy no matter how sleight.
If the SoB were brought in the entire narrative of Darktide would have to drastically change and most “rejects” would be put to fire and sword for even being adjacent to Heresy.
Due to the way our game works, it has to be a new class that there can be many of, which is why I think the Hive Ganger is most likely but who knows, maybe FS can do some serious tweaking and shimmy the story in a way that involves the Sororitas, so rather than literal Sisters its some of the Sororitas fanatics but idk enough to judge whether they could include the organization in some fashion without burning the whole place to the ground.
You just have more unique weaponry options if you go other routes. Sororitas has a lot of zealot weapons and a lot of arbites weapons, and even vet weapons. You go the route of techpriests or gangers and you have either high tech mechanicus weaponry or crude hive weapons. Plus a lot more interesting blitz and ability options, as much as I would enjoy a flag you plant on the ground a boombox to terrorize my enemies we already have those options on other classes.
Would I hate a Sororitas? No. Would it high on the list of things for a new class I’d expect to see, given the paradigm we’ve seen from Darktide to date? Also no. Same way I might expect a Tech-Adept or the like, but not a full Skitarii.
I think the issue with a Sororitas, as in a full Power Armored sister, is that they’re a bit above the combatant level in Darktide. With the Veteran, we get stuff that basic guard Infantry squads have access to (like plasma guns and power swords), but not Stormtrooper/Scion levels of equipment (like hotshot lasguns or Carapace Armor) that would be more on par with a Sororitas. Power Armor is also something beyond any of the combatants in the game currently.
Likewise, looking at Sororitas in tabletop rules and lore, they’re not terribly melee oriented at all, most Sororitas units are just as bad at melee as basic Guardsmen are except they get better armor. The melee units in the Sororitas army are all generally…”expendable” stuff like Penitents, or, like Paragon Warsuits, are just beyond what we’d get in Darktide.
There would not be any power armour, so that’s a plus.
But then we are locked into eviserator only. I don’t think they carry anything ranged with the penance theme and all.
Thematically correct, but no range weapons. I don’t think it’s the way.
Sister Hospitaller?
Carapace armour and technically access to frontline SoB armaments, but it’s pretty rare to see them outside of orbital hospitals.
It could work. But the character theme should be around healing and corruption removing.
I’m not sure if FS is ready to rebalance whole Darktide concept around walking med kit.
While I would love to see and play SoB I’m not sure if it’s feasible.
I think this is the most compelling “Counter Argument” I’ve heard. This doesn’t guarantee that we would never have a Sororitas class but it does clarify to your point that things would have to get a lot worse narratively before we would start seeing such characters, as well as pointing out that FS would have to establish a reason why the sisters wern’t just killing everyone. To your point about it not literally being a Sister though, I’ve seen someone point out that Novitiates could fill the role. Novitiate Superior still wear power armor, and if you are looking at Wrath and Glory, they are the same tier as Hospitallers. I don’t know how realistic it would be for a A Fortress Monastery World to send a company of Novitiates but that would only strengthen Novitiates Prine’s placement as a potential representative of the class the same way Hadron would be a representative of Ad Mech, or Brunt Ogryns, or Sefoni Psykers, etc…
Arbites got two Ranged Weapons and one melee weapon, and I think a Sororitas related class. A Powered Halberd for the melee would be a unique and iconic addition. And for range there are always Hand Flamers. If they have Power Armor, that could also potentially justify them having access to heavy weapons, like Heavy Bolters, which means that the could share some ranged weapons w/ Ogryns, giving that class a much needed expansion of its armory. Blitzs are harder. I think if you gave them a Jump Pack node one Blitz could be a dive bomb. But thats a lot of speculation.
I think it’s funny that you brought up Ganger though. I’m pretty convinced that that’s going to be the next class, but the research I did in interest of the class yielded results that didn’t exactly rivet me. From what I could see, they would mostly be using weapons that Zealot already has access too. I couldn’t even come up with a compelling answer as to what would be their class weapons. And I ultimately felt like the class would be more interesting for what the Class Tree let you do over what weapons you got. And trying to guess the class tree requires too much speculation, just like w/ Sororitas.
I’m in favour of a Sister class, but not necessarily a Sister of Battle.
The Adepta Sororitas have multiple sub-types of Orders, the big ones are mainly Sisters of Battles (Millitant Orders), those I’m not in favour of
Well equipped (Access to Power Armour; Melta; Heavy Flamer; Combi weapons…)
Stronger than most other than SM
Difficult to introduce and make sense without changing the narrative too much
Too similar to Zealot
But there are other choices that could work instead and make more sense, smaller Orders of the Sororitas, don’t have as great access to equipment, thus aren’t as strong as the big orders one, could be introduced as part of the domain, and be able to offer things that are different from the Zealot, most wouldn’t be able to offer anything good for DT
Order Famulus: Sister orders that mostly deal with “noble” liason/negotiation
→ Not really suited for DT
Order Dialogus: Sisters specialised in decoding Xenos languages and information
→ Not really suited for DT
Order Sabine: Missionary to new Imperial worlds
→ Not really suited for DT due to narrative
Order Madriga: Choirs members
→ Not really suited for DT
Order Plaxillium: Professional weepers
→ Not really suited for DT
Order Vespila: Autopsy expert
→ Not really suited for DT
…
But there are 2 that could work:
Order Hospitalier: Medical experts
→ IMO we don’t need a dedicated healer class.
Order Pronatus: Sister Order that are set around safeguarding Relics and using acts of faith.
→ This can offer the most gameplay wise as you could have a full “Act of Faith system” where you have a resource (Faith) like the Psyker, but without having staves.
I mean, when I think hive gangs, I think necromunda, and necromunda has a ton of weapon variety. I’m sure it’d be cool to have a halberd or one-handed flamer, but how about crossbows, spike arms, dart guns, needle guns, stub guns, radiation guns, grenade launchers, chain glaives, chain saws, whips and flails, etc.
Or mechanicus, which would have halberds, arc weapons, galvanic weapons, beam weapons, muskets, shoulder-mounted weapons, staves, gauntlets etc.
I think both just have much cooler options in the darktide space. There’s not a lot of unique weaponry available for sororitas that can’t just be added later as being one class of the other 5 in the game right now, while mechanicus and gangs have a bunch of options unique to them and can maybe even be backported to other classes later on.
It would be cool to have heavy weapons in the game, but they just don’t have good function or design in the context of darktide. Would it be cool to pull out a heavy bolter and gun down hordes of enemies? Sure, but I don’t think it’d be interesting when you’re either going to be ammo starved doing so like a flamer or saving it to burst down bosses like another bolter. There’s already so many duplicate weaponry that functions identical to others that adding “x but bigger” doesn’t catch my attention. This game is also so heavy on mobility that these weapons will just feel out of place.
The biggest thing I want to see if a SoB is added is burn based talents. There were also some stuff from the old Crusader datamine that never made it in that would fit.
In Kill Team, where Novitiates were first added, basically introduced them as “we’re sending a bunch of rookies on an critical spec ops mission because why not.”
Sororitas would be better represented by a new use ability for Zealot utilizing acts of faith instead of a whole new class. 2/3 signature sororitas weapons are already well represented in Zealot, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them (and Vets) get meltas if they were added.
In fairness to Hospitalier, it’s not as if they are exclusively “heal bots”. They are experts in anatomy which makes the very lethal. I could easily see a Hospitalier related branch of a tree having an ability to increase the effect of stims, or unique effects when attacking enemies w/ DoTs. Healing/Clearing Corruption isn’t the only thing they can do.
Zealots are a combination of Death Cult Assassins, Preachers, and Crusaders. The benefit of the tree is that we get to decide, per build, how much of what branch we are. Even if there was a Repentia branch, that doesn’t me we have to use evicierators; I just see it as being representative of our characters choosing to utilize a skillset that is evocative of that specific profession, just like Shroudfield is a part of the Death Cultist branch but we can use it on any build.
I don’t think it’s a stretch, especially after Arbites. I remember before Arbites, the thinking was that a lot of things were off the table to fit the “prisoner” narrative. Now it seems like they’re willing to adapt the narrative to fit what they’d like to add to the game, which I think is good.
The fact is, a Sororitas class would sell and it would bring a lot of attention to the game. That alone, means it would be a little silly to completely dismiss it out of hand as an impossibility.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a Sister of any kind, but the more bellyaching I see by people who do want a Sister (from the subreddit specifically), the less I actually want one. While you probably could add different class mechanics (like the WP’s fury meter), I’ve been hard pressed to see a speculative design that maintains a gameplay loop both thematic to the class while not stepping on the zealot’s toes or just being a moba/hero shooter character. Both Vermintide 2 and Darktide have classes that enable or boost their robust melee systems, with a lot of the class complexity baked into your build instead of your kit. That’s the reason why Arbitrator works from a gameplay standpoint, the cyber-mastiff is highly complex in how it functions under-the-hood, but all you need to do mechanically is mark a target, and it goes where you want. There’s actually a few talents that are too mechanically cumbersome to really invest in (really anything that mandates weakpoint kills), and thus aren’t selected nearly as often. Like, unless you invest in some level of mechanical creep, you’re going to have a hard time seeing something new from a Sister that isn’t already covered by one of the five classes we have here. Even if you wanted a medium-range bolter type character, the Arbitrator and Veteran do it extremely well, there’s just not enough ammo to be boltering 24/7.
It’s not really like gameplay design matters. Arbites doesn’t actually much in terms of unique gameplay beyond the dog, otherwise it’s just another melee frontliner class that has better defensive mechanics and abilities than ogryn or zealot without until death. Depending on design philosophy techpriest could just be better psyker/vet, ganger could be better vet/zealot, etc. but you’re not gonna have all classes in one game in the first place, so what ends up mattering is how people respond in kind to having another new class in the mix (whether havocs will be taking them or not, whether they have some awful garbage that makes people want to leave aurics, etc.).
I think the bigger issue with adding more classes to the game is that you take one second to look at these skill trees and you see the same kinds of abilities all over the place lined up in the exact way you want them to be and the abilities you don’t want are perfectly lined up far away and separated from the good stuff. There’s going to be class homogeny, they’ve made it pretty clear they can’t or have no interest in designing talent trees, and they are very aware of the good stuff that people want in their builds, and will make it very easy to get. What’s the point of a new class with 30 talent points if we’re just gonna get stuck with one build? Minus a keystone or ability or whatever.
