[ NEW WEAPON CONCEPT] DOUBLE-EDGED HEAVY EVISCERATOR
Introduction
Hello, Forum! 
I have been playing Darktide for a while, and most of this time on Zealot, though I started predominantly using Eviscerators because of their simplicity. After being more familiar with the game, I switched to Relic blades. It’s not a secret that the Relic blade, being a newer weapon, is better than the Eviscerator, and I don’t think only in pure numbers - it feels infinitely better to play with in general.
Also, I want to preemptively apologize for the doodles - I am bad at drawing and it’s even worse on PC with a mouse. 
My Issues with the Eviscerators
My main problems with them:
- Simple and uninteresting moveset , both in input variation and animations. (The heavy attack on the Mark XV is literally the same overhead repeated over and over - it’s boring.)
- Their animations feel very rigid and janky , similar to the axes - I just can’t get any satisfaction from using them.
- The special is bad. Anything that locks the player into a stationary animation and doesn’t one-shot at least a crusher is just not worth it. Compare it to the Thunder Hammer’s attack with thrust: it takes a similar amount of time to wind up but feels much more satisfying because of the payoff. It also gives more agency, as it involves multiple inputs (special > wind-up with thrust > hit with a little self-stun).
The Special Attack Problem
My biggest issue with the Eviscerators, besides the lack of a mark with a more complex moveset, is the SPECIAL ATTACK:
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Essentially stuns the player, making them vulnerable to death.
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Locks into only one enemy and sometimes not in the place I was aiming for (to the body instead of the head, even if a regular attack sticks to the head from the same spot).
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Though being supposedly a powerful attack, it needs time to chew through enemies, which looks a bit silly.
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Doesn’t offer enough rewards after proper execution.
I think the devs realized this themselves, because no new(very recent) weapons’ special functions work in a similar vein to the original release ones, they don’t lock you into animation and they don’t target only one enemy - because it feels bad to use.
The Idea
Instead of trying to fix the existing two eviscerators, which are already perfect for newbies (I myself was using eviscerators into Havoc in my early days of Darktiding), why not make a new Mark or a Whole New Weapon with a different mechanic and moveset?
The Idea: The blade getting stuck should be a punishment mechanic, not a reward. The special should be something that can be easily woven into the attack combo.
This would be somewhat similar to relic blades and power swords, where the special gives you easier cleave rather than locking you into a single target. It’s a massive chainsaw blade - how is it getting stuck in poxwalkers? It really shouldn’t.
My idea is to reverse the rev mechanism on the weapon. While revved up, it can go through anything, and while not revved, it stops. The simplest way to make it would be just to make a copy of the Relic blade with different moveset and animations, but keep an activation ability. For the sake of it being different, I want to propose a concept of power sword cycling special with a twist.
The Concept
The concept of a new special: introduce a 2-level rev-up mechanic that changes the heavy attack pattern of the weapon.
The player is able to rev up their Eviscerator by pressing the weapon special button. It has two levels:
Mid Rev
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Provides a horizontal heavy moveset for the weapon
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Has great cleaving properties, better damage, and is faster than the regular unrevved heavies
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Easily goes through anything that’s not carapace or unyielding
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Slows down into unyielding, has unimpressive damage into unyielding
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Slows into carapace, has terrible damage into carapace
Heavy Rev
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Provides the weapon with vertical heavy attacks
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Has great cleaving properties, much bigger damage, is faster faster than the regular unrevved heavies
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Easily goes through anything except carapace (the cleave is not enough to hit multiple carapace enemies)
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Deals amazing damage to unyielding, decent enough damage to carapace
Special Action
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Press ONCE to enter Mid Rev, press TWICE for Heavy Rev
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Has a long rev animation like the Crusher or Thunder Hammer
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The rev animation can be skipped mid-attack loop if done at the right moment.
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The rev always ends after performing any 3 attacks from the rev-up set, after a short inactive period, or always after the “spinning” Heavy 3.
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Mid Rev can be triggered after: light 1, the unrevved horizontal heavy or the Heavy rev “spinning” Heavy 3.
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Heavy Rev can be triggered after: push attack, run-up attack, light 2, the vertical heavy, or after the Mid rev “spinning” Heavy 3.
The idea is to keep the attack pattern relatively simple because the rev-up mechanic already adds enough complexity. The player should be able to skip the rev-up at the moment the wind-up finishes and before the swing finishes. It’ll probably need a input buffer system to account for lag and attack speed (So if the player inputs Light attack > rev-up > Heavy attack in quick succession, it should always result in seamless rev, not in a standard one.)
This way, the slowdown and blade-sticking mechanics become punishment for revving at the wrong time or using the wrong rev state for the wrong enemy - instead of being the core of what should be a powerful special attack.
Movesets
The base moveset is kept very simple: 2 light attacks, 2 heavies, 1 run up attack, 1 push attack.
Base Moveset
Light 1 - STRIKE DOWN: A shallow diagonal attack from right to left. Decent stagger, fast, enough to almost kill a poxwalker. Stops into anything heavier than a maniac.
Light 2 - STRIKE DOWN: A shallow diagonal uppercut from bottom left to right side. Decent stagger, slow, enough to almost kill a poxwalker. Stops into anything heavier than a maniac.
Heavy 1 - STRIKE DOWN: A vertical strike down attack that shifts more into the left side of the screen. Stops into carapace, slows down into unyielding. Great stagger, can cleave 1-2 poxwalkers to the target, mediocre damage - approximately 5-7 of these to kill a crusher.
Heavy 2 - RELENTLESS: A sweeping horizontal cut from down left to the right side of the screen. Great stagger, mediocre damage, stops into carapace and slows down into unyielding.
Run up attack - STRIKE DOWN: Stab. While running, the player can hold down attack to perform a stab that’s always revved up into heavy rev. The animation is essentially a charge while holding the guard with the left hand. Can cleave up to 3-4 enemies in a straight line. Great damage against anything that’s not carapace, unimpressive carapace damage.
Push attack - STRIKE DOWN: Two parts - first is the push itself with the pommel part of the weapon, after which a short uppercut slash into a poke from the left side to the center that is heavy revved. Can cleave up to 3-4 enemies in a straight line. Great damage against anything that’s not carapace, unimpressive carapace damage.
MID REV Moveset
Lights are the same but have the properties of mid rev, having better cleave, damage and stugger.
Heavy 1 - VANGUARD: Sweeping attack from the left side of the screen to the right side. Great cleave, cleaves anything except carapace and unyielding - slows down into them and deals mediocre damage. Great damage and stagger, faster than the Unrevved Heavy.
Heavy 2 - VANGUARD: Sweeping attack from the right side to the left of the screen. Great cleave, goes through multiple targets, easily goes through anything that isn’t unyielding and carapace. Slows down into carapace and unyielding, deals mediocre damage to both. Great stagger and damage, faster than the Unrevved Heavy.
Heavy 3 (Spin): A slower charged attack from over the shoulder (here more over the body) from the left side of the screen to the right. Can cleave through anything well except carapace and unyielding - doesn’t slow down in them but cannot cleave through more than 1-2 enemies. Better damage than the first two, better stagger but is a little slower. Enables the player to seamlessly rev up into HEAVY REV.
HEAVY REV moveset
Lights are the same but have the property of heavy rev.
Heavy 1 - STRIKE DOWN: From the right side of the screen to the left center. Even greater cleave and damage. Easily cuts through anything. Has amazing damage against unyielding, but still mediocre into carapace (little better than mid rev). Doesn’t slow down into anything, but cannot cleave through 7 crushers stationed in one line.
Heavy 2 - STRIKE DOWN: Uppercut from the left center of the screen, winds up a bit lower and strikes into right upper side of screen in a bit diagonal way. Has amazing damage against unyielding, but still mediocre into carapace (little better than mid rev). Doesn’t slow down into anything, but cannot cleave through 7 crushers stationed in one line.
Heavy 3 - STRIKE DOWN: “Spinning” downwards cut from over the shoulder to the left lower side of the screen. Has amazing damage against unyielding, but still mediocre into carapace (little better than mid rev). Doesn’t slow down into anything, but cannot cleave through 7 crushers stationed in one line. Has better stagger compared to heavies 1 and 2. Gives the ability to seamlessly rev up into MID REV.
Base Stats
I apologize but I don’t know the specifics. However, the general idea is: the weapon should be slow, have a lot of stamina to constantly push and push attack, have low amount of dodges and swing slowly in base form. If used rightly, great into non-carapace hordes, amazing into bosses and unyielding targets. Mediocre into carapace.
Blessings
Standard Blessings:
Wrath , Momentum, Opportunist, Savage Sweep, Rampage
Unique Blessing Ideas:
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Wheel O’Death - Just an idea, gives the unrevved state two new attacks: the reversed heavy 3 from both states but weaker. Essentially enables the player to chain spinning attacks into each other and stay in the same rev consistently. After the MID REV H3 the player can swing a light attack that will be the new horizontal L3 that can be revved into MID REV H3 again. Same goes for the HEAVY REV H3 and an UNREVVED H3.
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Master Rev - A stacking buff up to 4 stacks that gives you 5% strength for each successful rev, drops all stacks after either 5 seconds, or two unrevved attacks in a sequence, or a standard rev.
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Bloodthirsty - Successful revved attacks bleed enemies: lights 1 stack, heavies 2, spinning heavies 4.
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Shredding Defence - A perfect block places X amount of brittleness on a target and stuns it. Maybe a block reduction cost too.
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Revved Shredder - Each successful revved hit gives 5% critical chance up to 5 stacks, lasts 3-4 seconds.
Example Combos
Legend: Ur = Unrevved, Mr = Mid Rev, Hr = Heavy Rev, PA = Push Attack, RA = Run Attack, Srev = Standard Rev action.
Horde
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Ur L1 >rev> Mr H1 > Mr H2 > Mr H3 > …repeat…
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Ur L1 > Ur H2 >rev> Mr H2 > H3 > …repeat…
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Push > Ur H2 >rev> Mr H2 > H3 > …repeat…
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Srev > Mr H1 > Mr H2 > Mr H3 > …repeat…
Single Target
- Ur L1 > Ur L2 >rev> Hr H1 > Hr H2 > Hr H3 > …repeat…
- Ur H1 >rev> Hr H2 > Hr H3 > …repeat…
- PA >rev> Hr H2 > Hr H3 > …repeat…
- RA >rev> Hr H2 > Hr H3 > …repeat…
- Srev > Hr H1 > Hr H2 > Hr H3 > …repeat…
Essentially the combos emphasize the use of heavy attacks and the special action. Lights are there for looping and killing chaff.
Final Thoughts
I have no way to test this, so I don’t know how it would actually feel or how much attack speed would affect the usability of the special or the attack pattern. But as a concept, I find it interesting and distinct from the power sword and relic blade.
The rev animations can be done with a pull cord (like on real lawnmower engines), and the character would place one finger on the starter handle while swinging to seamlessly rev up the weapon, and what would pull the rev is the momentum of the swing. Though it could also be done with a similar metal trigger-like starter
Also, I imagined this new Mark being big, double-edged, with a gap or handle in the middle so it can be gripped for blocking and push attacks. During run-up thrusts, the character would hold it by the guard, spear-like - just to give a better sense of the weapon’s weight.
