Power Sword: What powered up state actually does?

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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Hi, I wasn’t able to find more detail about powered up state so I’d like to ask here.
I mean it’s obvious it increases damage. I believe it also increases Cleave and considering it’s called Power Sword I think it actually gives Power bonus instead of just damage bonus. On top of that it probably has effect on armor penetration.

Do you know where to find more detail like actual numbers?

It would be ideal to have the information in the game. There already is detailed chart for each attack against every enemy type so it would be nice if you could just toggle numbers for normal and powered up state. But perhaps Power Sword is too much of an exception to implement that in UI.

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lets the next attack or two ignore mass/armor and gives you a big enough damage and rend bonus you don’t need to care about the exact numbers because you won’t be able to hit that any.

i’m sure someone’s tested it and can tell you if the damage blessings when energized apply to their actual armor type or to the effective armor type it hits when energized (unarmored) but frankly it’s enough damage the only times it might matter are times when the whole party will be hitting the monster so it still really doesn’t.

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I don’t think it ignores mass.

And the reason I’m asking is because I’m not sure if it makes actually sense to invest into armor penetration at all. But why for example Suparcharged blessing is a thing on power sword?

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Well the good news is Supercharged isn’t meta and armor penetration is not a power sword stat (unless FS snuck in some changes just before Christmas).

But, I agree with you, it would be nicer if FS updated the damage breakdown tables to include power from perks and to see a break down of damage from the powered up states.

There used to be a breakpoint calculator that did all of that.

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You can use damage calc to see the values on different enemies as well as the cleave:

For example here are some damage tables for the Mk III heavy (all stats 80 no perks or blessings) against various enemies:

Screenshot_2023-12-24-03-57-23-56_e4424258c8b8649f6e67d283a50a2cbc
Screenshot_2023-12-24-03-57-23-56_e4424258c8b8649f6e67d283a50a2cbc1080×1775 241 KB

Stagger cleave is 8

Here it is with power mode active:

Screenshot_2023-12-24-03-57-40-99_e4424258c8b8649f6e67d283a50a2cbc
Screenshot_2023-12-24-03-57-40-99_e4424258c8b8649f6e67d283a50a2cbc1080×1948 157 KB

Didn’t fit in the image but stagger cleave for the empowered heavy is 11.7

First column is body shot, second is headshot, third is crit, fourth is crit headshot. The rows are for each subsequent enemy cleaved.

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I’ve found this one Darktide Breakpoint Calculator

It seems that armor penetration actually makes some difference especially on light 1-3 and surprisingly heavy attacks even in charged up state. But if you’re using push attack followed by light 4 it makes very little difference even with maxed Brittleness stacks.

Saying that Supercharged will do much more for uncharged attacks and helps party do deal more damage as well so it’s not completely useless.

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Thanks, already did that :slight_smile:

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These pseudo-imaginary numbers are the worst parts of Darktide / Vermintide.

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it does. Hit the crusher with regular strike - your sword will bounce off. Charge your sword and hit again - your sword will go through. That’s hit mass that you ignored.

I dont know how much brittleness Supercharge blessing applies. It says 1-4 stacks, does that mean 1-4% armor reduction?
Veteran talent Onslaught applies 2.5% brittleness per stack. Stacking up to 16 times. So it’s like up to 50% armor reduction on target. So i assume Supercharge works the same way, applying 1-4 stacks of brittleness, each reducing 2.5% armor on target to the total on 10% armor reduction.

Which still doesnt sounds much. But we have base talent on +10% rending, +10% brittleness on crit hits and +50% on max stacks of Onslaught.

Tbf still useless, as Powersword MkVI with it’s energized push attack pretty much oneshots crushers anyway

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Charged up attacks does not ignore hit mass. It just increases cleave value of all attacks to around 11 depending on the base Cleave stat roll. Btw that can be further boosted by power or cleave bonuses, e.g. from Slaughterer blessing. It might be enough to cut through the Crusher but can you cut through 2 crushers?

I’ve read somewhere that Brittleness bonus, that does not list percentage part applies 5% reduction. That would mean that just one hit would apply 20% penetration. However in the calculator mentioned above there is 2.5% reduction for up to 16 stacks, so probably 10% per hit? Who knows…

But you’re right, it would be useful mostly against bosses.

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cleave and hit mass are different things. No matter how much cleave you have - your weapon will bounce off when reaching it’s hit mass limits.

It’s a difference between through how many you can hit and to how many you can deal dmg

So there is +200% cleave blessing, hit 3 enemies and try hitting crusher. You weapon wont go through him. Meaning that you dont deal cleave dmg to other targets because you failed to pass his hit mass.

So hit mass and cleave work together. One decides if your hit will or will not be able to pass through the enemy. The other one decides how many enemies you can hit.

Crushers both have a big hit mass and big cleave limit. He alone counts as several poxwalkers. So with cleave blessing and energized attack you can cleave through ~4 crushers.

Without Sunder blessing on cleave your weapon will go through first crusher, ignoring his hit mass, but due to low cleave it wont deal dmg to other targets.

Without energized attack, that ignores hit mass, your weapon will stop on first crusher no matter how much cleave you have. I tested with max stacks of Wrath blessing, weapon still stops at first crusher with non-energized attack.

Furthermore without Brutal Momentum killing crusher with wide, non-charged, attack means your weapon still bounces off the crusher, stopping it from going further and hitting another one.

But killing crusher with wide, non-charged, attack having Brutal Momentum blessing - means your attack will go through and hit the second crusher. Because you ignored it hit mass.

So energized attack do have increased dmg, cleave and ignore hit mass.

Yes i wasted 8.5k plasteel to get Sunder blessing and tested this all in Meat Grinder. Just to prove a point x)

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I thought that the Cleave value simply refers to the value that determines how much mass you can cut through. I guess I don’t know what the “Hit Mass” means but I know for sure that I can’t cut through everything. It’s not uncommon for the blade to stop somewhere in between when cutting through super dense horde.

Btw regular attack with max stacks of Wrath have still less cleave than energized attack.

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It’s a complicated system. Because fatshark tried to make combat feel as realistic as possible. Which cannot be achieved with simple “cleave = more target hit”.

I’m too lazy to look up all numbers, so let’s just hypothize. Let’s say 1 poxwalkers = 1 cleave value. Weapon with cleave value of 3 can deal dmg to 3 poxwalkers, 4th wont be damaged.
Let’s say Crusher has cleave value of 4, which means he is as chunky as 4 poxwalkers.
Let’s say Mauler has cleave value of 2, which means he is as chunky as 2 poxwalkers.

Now with your weapon, that has cleave value of 3, you should be able to cleave through Mauler and hit 1 poxwalker, right?
But because Mauler has also hit mass - your weapon bounces off. Not going through him. And not hitting the poxwalker.
With Ignore Hit mass - you will go through Mauler and will hit poxwalker and deal dmg to him.

With Crusher even if you ignore his hit mass - your weapon with cleave value of 3 is not enough to pass Crusher’s cleave value of 4. Which means even with hit mass ignored - you wont deal dmg to poxwalker even if your weapon goes through Crusher.
But if you increase your cleave AND ignore his hit mass - you can hit both crusher and poxwalker.

Base cleave dmg distribution on Powersword MkIII on heavy attack with 80% cleave stat is 8. With 5 stacks of Wrath III (i dont have IV blessing) it cleaves through 3 scab ragers. Energized heavy attack without 5 stacks of Wrath III cleaves through 2 scab ragers.
So stacked cleave on Wrath gives you more cleave than energized attack.

P.S. a little addition: ironhelm thunderhammer works like power sword. So if you charge up and wide swing at horde - you will kill more. Since charged hammer also has same benefits.
Without charging up - thunderhammer kills 1 poxwalker and deals mediocre dmg to 3 and staggering the last one.
WIth charging up - thunderhammer kills 3 poxwalkers and deals good amount of dmg to other 4 poxwalkers.

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Sorry if someones mentioned this, I only skimmed the posts. Its called a power sword because of lore, its a weapon from the WH40K TT. It might well still increase “power” while being powered up, but I felt the unecessary need to point this out :grin:

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