More Enemy Variants Please

[IGN_Vera]

Increased difficulty can come from combinations of enemy variants rather than just Specialist spam.

With variants like these affecting existing Elites to create difficulty spikes, spawn rates of Specialists can be reduced to more sustainable levels that don’t result in constant sound cues for Bursters/Trappers not playing on higher difficulties.

Traitor Commisar:

Details

Health (Auric) - 1700
Armor - Flak head, Carapace chest, Flak everywhere else
Ability - Rally. VoC visual stagger wave w/ reddish flair, knocks players within 5m back. All Gunners/Reapers within sight of Commisar during this ability’s use enter their Volley Stance and cannot be suppressed for a period of time. Scab Shooters, Snipers and Dreg Stalkers within sight of Commisar are extra aggressive, get 2x attack speed for melee/ranged attacks.
Weapon - Bolt Pistol. Low fire rate, medium range, Shotgunner comparable stagger/damage on hit. Chain sword sweep attack in melee range that knocks player back if hit.
Behavior - Spawns with Scab Gunners, remains within 8m of a Scab Gunner.

Basically takes Gunner groups that can normally be countered with using slide spam to close the distance and wreck them in melee, to fearsome death squads protected by a Commander who players must deal with before engaging Gunner groups.

Scab Radio Operator

Details

Health - 1700
Armor - Flak
Ability - Reinforcements: Finds nearby cover, does his little radio animation, throws a smoke bomb that 2x Scab Gunners, 2x Snipers, 8x Scab Shooters spawn in and shoot from while obscured by smoke. Hyper lethal in combination with Traitor Commisar for obvious reasons.
Behavior - Will hide behind cover when players are present, periodically peaking out to shoot his Laspistol if Reinforcements is on cooldown. Spawns with Scab Gunner groups.
Weapon - Laspistol

Plaguebearer:

Details

Health - 6000
Armor - Infested
Ability - Heal over time, immune to 90% of stagger sources. (Combat Ability stagger excluded) 2x Resistance to all DoTs. Slowest Elite enemy in the game.
Weapon - Plaguesword, minor Corruption damage to players every 5s spent within 8m of him - similar to Corruption from Pox Gas. 2 slow Bulwark style Sweep attacks followed by one Crusher style overhead.

Basically a big tanky enemy to pull player attention away from more dangerous enemies, serves as a “Dreg” combination of Bulwark/Crusher.

Focus him down as a team using ranged attacks, or kite surrounding enemies away from him then deal with him afterwards; but caution against uncoordinated melee attacks against this Elite when large groups of enemies are near.

Dreg Psyker Specialist:

Details

Health - 1400
Armor - Unarmored
Ability - Blessing Ritual. Targets the nearest 5 Elites and begins his ritual. During his ritual the 5 affected Elites are healed continually until his ritual is completed. Ritual takes 8s to complete. If completed, each Elite receives a blessing based on Elite type until death.

Most of his threat stems from buffing other Elites and it’s pretty easy to spot his ritual magic trailing to Elites. Most of his time would be spent buffing enemies, when he’s interupted or attacked he performs a ritual on the player that attacked him instead.

Gunners/Reapers/Shotgunners - Increased hitmass, increased rate of fire. Cranial Corruption visual cue.
Maulers/Crushers/Scab Ragers - Rotten Armor visual cue w/ Final Toll
Dreg Ragers/Enforcers - Final Toll w/ Cranial Corruption visual cue
Attack - When Psyker is attacked by a player, they will teleport out of sight line and attack with a magical spell that drags that player toward the Psyker. The attack does not deal damage until the captured victim is right in the face of the Psyker, allowing teammates with quick reaction times to save their friend before any damage is done.
Behavior - buffs enemies until attacked by a player, then performs ritual on player.

Glitchling Specialist:

Details

Health - 1400
Armor - Infested
Ability - Glitch. Targets one player and leaps at them, attempting to bite them after sound cue; “Bite, bite, chew, chew, your gun won’t work and I’m coming for you!”

If hit, player loses ranged weapon and Combat Ability for 8s. If hit while Ability is active, Ability is shut down but refunded when the 8s period is completed. Player Ability Cooldown continues as normal through the 8s.

Dreg Enforcer:

Details

Health - 3000
Armor - Unarmored
Ability - Amped up. Rather than slow movement speed with an overhead like his Scab counterpart, the Enforcer charges at his target with the speed of a Mutant, knocking human sized enemies aside and unleashes a sweeping uppercut attack that if not dodged will stun an opponent. He then unleashes a flurry of Vanguard style sweeping attacks before amping himself up again. He can be baited into attacking barrels or allies, if his target positions themselves well at the start of his flurry combo or his charge.

If dodged correctly, the Enforcer will have a period of vulnerability upon colliding with an object, much like the Mutant.

[Index]

I said it before and gladly repeat myself

these things can’t be too hard to implement, can they?

give em some pops through walls etc, accompanied by some troop support and you have a new encounter fitting the theme

[IGN_Vera]

That would be a superb boss fight, behavior could be like Northstar Titan from Titanfall 2, favoring ranged attacks with a few dashes mixed in (like Rinda Karnak dashes for anyone who hasn’t played Titanfall 2).

[Index]

could replace what we have in terms of 12 crushers on screen right now as an intermediate climax skirmish

[Rvl]

Plasma Gunner was one of the best additions to the game this year, spiced things up a lot, we definitely need more enemies.

But please,

For the love of god Emperor,

No minotaur-like enemy (from Vermintide) for Darktide.

[IGN_Vera]

I’m assumimg your referring to the Plaguebearer? Minotaur has a charge attack, Plaguebearer wouldn’t have one. Outside of that, it wouldn’t be bad to have one enemy variant that doesn’t get perma staggered the minute he enters a room.

Besides, because he would be the slowest Elite in the game. Players could kite enemies away from him and deal with him when ready or focus him down quickly depending on the situation.

It would be an Elite that strongly encourages repositioning, using flanking routes rather than charging headfirst - if he’s surrounded by other enemies that is.

[Index]

it’s been 3 years that every inch of every floor/wall and ceiling has been shat upon, vomited across and jizzed on in all colors of the rainbow from creatures of varying appendages and endowments.

how is it we don’t have a full nurgle outbreak already, I havent seen any janitors cleaning up that gunk that’s been festering for over a 1000 days right now.

what more seeding ground does the grandfather need?

bring the bearers, toads, -lings -longs and anything in between

[Rvl]

No, I’m just saying no broken boss enemy like Minotaur, it’s absolutely awful in Vermintide 2 and is regularly ending runs by itself on Champion and Legend, it’s like 100% stronger than any other boss, I’d rather fight two of other bosses than 1 Minotaur by itself. It’s near impossible to fight them in melee due to them instantly breaking all stamina and they kill you in one combo with most characters, unless you play high HP careers.

[IGN_Vera]

Seriously. Here’s the lore: Water Cartel defects to Cult of Admonition and introduces Nurgle’s Rot into the Hive City’s water supply. Done. Now there’s Plaguebearers. Barrier between reality and Warp weakens, now there’s Glitchlings.

@Rvl

No, I’m just saying no broken boss enemy like Minotaur, it’s absolutely awful in Vermintide 2 and is regularly ending runs by itself on Champion and Legend

Gotcha, yeah Plaguebearer wouldn’t be as big a threat as Minotaur.

[eatingsand]

Who would win: one minotaur, standing at 4 meters tall with rippling muscles and long enough attack combos to kill an ironbreaker in 2 seconds
And in the other corner, a crouch button and a wall

[Vror]

I need Fatshark to enable Scab Radio Operator again pls it was fun to fight them

[IGN_Vera]

It definitely was a great addition, they’re quite dangerous if in packs of three and ignored.

@Vror

I need Fatshark to enable Scab Radio Operator again pls it was fun to fight them

It was a fun event, but IMO they weren’t distinct enough from Gunners. It was difficult to spot them hiding among the Gunners, especially during horde events. That’s why perhaps Traitor Commisar could offer an alternative to them, fulfilling a similar role with a more distinct visual appearance.

[Vror]

To be fair I don’t really care about the visuals, I want the gameplay element it added

Let it be a scab Operator with an edited armor to stand out more, a traitor commisar, I don’t really care how it looks like, as long as it does what old Scab Radio Operator did

[BizarreSalp]

Yeah, more new enemy types is exactly what the game needs. Look at how Plasma Gunners shake things up, even in their nerfed form.

Games like this are four dimensional puzzles; the fourth dimension here being time, because everything moves, which changes the dynamic. A Crusher in your face demands you pay attention and dodge it, and because it can deal so much damage it is a priority target. Now add a Trapper into the mix and you have a new priority; just avoid the Crusher and deal with Trapper. Chaff enemies aren’t very threatening except in great numbers in your face, but they also serve to provide cover to other threats. In addition to this 4D puzzle of sequencing threats and dealing with them, your own positioning, resource management (and health is just another resource; you’ll readily take a non-lethal hit if it means you get rid of a more dire threat), and then using your tools effectively via understanding of melee combos all comes together.

None of these skill checks are very high. They are all easy to medium. But it’s having to do a lot of them in rapid succession, with high penalty for failure that creates the engaging challenge.

New enemies are the #1 way to change this dynamic and create fresh scenarios, IMO. Even more than new weapons, classes, and maps. Not that I don’t want those, of course lol.

[sioux]

Is that a sentinel with arms?

[Index]

it’s what Google gave me as answer when looking for a “40k walker”, im still too much in tourist mode to know the correct terminology

[VivianJPDT]

Can Fatshark Code them in and get them working? Yeah, they can - They have talented folk behind the game afterall and can honestly add a bit - I think Vermintide 2 is a great example of this.

Problem 99% of the time is GW, as they are strict on 40K more so than fantasy now. So they pry gotta finagle and fight GW to add a lotta’ stuff.

[Index]

just go awol, by the time the lawyers sort it out we had a year’s worth of content that can “easily be removed “ like the 14day event stuff

[Heretical_Cactus]

While the Sentinel that Index showed isn’t something that exist in lore, Sentinels could have some potential toward a Monster pick that is themed around the Scabs.

Common:

• Shielded Bruisers: Bruisers with destructible shields

Dregs:

• Pistoleros/Pistoleer: Lighter variants of Stalkers, armed with either 2 pistols or with a Pistol&Sword, have the ability to dodge back when in melee range
• Plaguebearers: High Elites (Dreg themed Ogryn), mixing Unyielding and Infested, or Infested but with load of health
  • Plaguebearer: High Elite/Crusher like, weakpoint on the eye and maybe inside of the gut mouth
  • Sniveler: High Elite/Reaper like, Plaguebearer who have gained blessings from Nurgle “Disgusting Sneeze” giving them a ranged salvo attack.
  • Bilepiper: Special, Plaguebearer that spawn alongside Poxwalkers, and buff them from Infested to Unyielding when they’re close to it.
• Sorcerer: Specials
  • Dreg Blighter: Special Create several exploding boils on the ground, that if stepped on damage and corrupt. (Corpse Burst)
  • Dreg Host: Special Create small floating swarms of Flies, that seek Rejects and stun them (can be destroyed by shooting or meleeing them (Foul Messenger)
  • Dreg Dirge: Special Simply throw bolts of Pestilence (could also see it be a secondary attack for the 2 Dreg Psykers)
• Sorcerer Lord: Assassination target, same system as the Scab Captain, 2 melee, 2 ranged and a defensive mechanics
  • Melee: Plague Sword (Sword and Corruption DoT); Reaper Scythe (Big AoE attacks)
  • Ranged: Use the same stuff as the Sorcerer specials
  • Defensive: Nurgle Bloom: Arena has X Nurglite Flowers that have to be destroyed to lower damage negation

Scab:

• Sentinel: Monster Attack with kicks and its weapons
  • Powerlifter: armed with Powerlifter claws
  • Scout: Armed with a Multilaser
• Psyker: Special
  • Scab Gazer: Special Create a beam of Infernal energy, slowly damaging any entity that goes through (Infernal Gaze)
  • Scab Shrieker: Emit a shriek that will wreak toughness and toughness generation(Deamonshriek)
  • Scab Blazer: Special Generate a warp bomb before throwing it (Coruscating Blaze)
  • Scab Empyrean: Special Generate a Warp Shield around himself (Empyric Shield)
    → Warp Shock: Alternate attack of the Scab Psykers

Other:

• Clotter: Khornate Faction, originating from the Penal Hive, mixing Enforcers and Corpse Gringer cults
  • Anemian: Civilians infeected by Khornate rage
  • Convicts: Corpse Grinders inspired, most melee units
  • Executioners: Enforcer Inspired, Most ranged units
  • Bloodletter: Ogryn level units
  • Monsters:
    • Sanctionner Automata: Armed with Shock Batons, Man catcher or Rams
      
      
    • Khorgorat: (I know it’s AoS, but could serve as inspiration)
• Neurox: Tzeentch Faction, originating from the Ash Waste, largely taking a spin around the Ash Waste Nomads from Necromunda.
  • Puppets: Civilians enthralled by Nomad Sorcerers
  • Nomads: Armoured Nomads
  • Horrors: Ogryn rarity Elites
  • Monsters:
    • Flamer of Tzeentch
    • Enslaved Ambull

[Martak7]

Should be a scab squad leader. Has a laspistol and chainsword and can buff nearby enemies akin to pox gas until killed.