While playing with the Psyker Voidstrike Staff, I have noticed following issue. I was also able to replicate the same issue with the Trauma Staff, although I have no recording as of right now.
I was not able to replicate it with a Purgatos staff, nor with the lightning staff as I do not own one.
Issue Description:
When using a Psyker Staff with secondary actions that require charging and reaching 100% Peril, you are usually able to complete your cast of the ability and then are put into the overcharge state, where the player character clutches their hands and then either explodes or vent through the Class Ability to stop said explosion.
Sometimes the āoverchargeā state does not happen and you explode immediately, not having to chance to insta quell with the class ability. I used a Voidstrike Staff with the Transfer Peril perk and a Trauma Staff with the Warp Flurry perk.
Steps to Reproduce:
Use either Voidstrike or Trauma Staff.
Charge to high peril (next attack makes you overcharge) through any means. Can be below 100% or exactly 100%
Overcharge with a secondary action either through a quick or long charge.
Reproduction Rate:
It has happened during missions sometimes, overall trying to reproduce this issue is not consistent and it took a couple of tries. A solid uneducated guess of 10% reproduction rate.
Upload Supporting Evidence:
Example with a long charge secondary action Void Strike Staff: Darktide Beta - Instant Explode long charge - YouTube
Example with quick succesive secondary action Void Strike Staff:Darktide Beta - Instant Explode quick charge - YouTube
As you can see, the player instantly explodes, quelling all peril. Another observation, which is only possible to see in the Psykhanium, that the player instantly switches back to the staff being able to use it, skipping the pull out animation. Usually, the player after exploding from peril needs to switch back to their weapon with the usual pull out animation, e.g. cocking the gun
Very annoying bug. Its guaranteed to happen pretty much every time when using the lightning staff. I have become absolutely paranoid to use my special the second the lightning goes out, because I will explode half a second after that without any kind of animation.
After a lot of testing in the meat grinder I can safely say Iāve found the cause of this issue.
If you trigger the āBattle Meditationā (10% chance to quell 10% peril on kill) feat at any point during the āPerils of the Warpā warning animation it will cause you to immediately explode. I havenāt been able to find a reasonable explanation as to why this occurs, but I am certain that this is the case.
A few things to note:
1a. The damage from Brain Burst appears to be calculated prior to entering the explosion warning animation. As a result, a kill resulting from Brain Burst which procs Battle Meditation will never cause you to instantly explode. In fact it will save you from entering the Perils of the Warp animation outright.
1b. This does not however mean that it is impossible to have this bug occur if the warning animation was triggered by Brain Burst. If you trigger the Perils of the Warp animation with Brain Burst, then an enemy dies to Soulblaze for example and triggers Battle Meditation, it will cause you to explode immediately.
Although you might assume that the damage from Trauma Staff secondary attack occurs instantly and would therefore be calculated prior the the Perils of the Warp animation (similarly to Brain Burst), this does not seem to be the case. Any Trauma Staff attack which also triggers Battle Meditation WILL cause you to instantly explode.
In case it matters or anyone is curious, this is how I tested the issue:
Note that results from these tests do not change based on which feats you have selected, eliminating the possiblility that the bug is caused by feat selection.
Using any peril generating attack from any staff, enter the Perils of the Warp warning animation but make sure that the attack does NOT result in a kill (an no enemies die from your damage during the warning animation). Notice that you will never cause the instant explosion bug in this manner.
Do the same as step 1 but make sure that your attack kills a single enemy. If you ensure that only one enemy dies from the attack, notice that you will instantly explode 10% of the time. Killing more enemies will increase the rate at which the bug occurs.
Do the same as step 2 but use only damage caused from Brain Burst (avoid using any soulblaze feats). Notice how you will never trigger the instant explosion bug. In fact you will prevent the animation 10% of the time instead.
At this point you should have enough evidence to show that Battle Meditation is in fact the cause of the issue but if further proof is desired, do the following. Apply Soulblaze to an enemy using any method of your choosing (I used Kinetic Overload). Then enter the Perils of the Warp state using any method which does not result in a kill (or by using Brain Burst). If the enemy with Soulblaze dies at any point during the warning animation, notice that it will cause you to instantly explode 10% of the time.
As you can see, any kill caused by you after entering the Perils of the Warp state, has a 10% chance of causing the bug. By eliminating any feat selection as a possibility (deselect all of them), the only remaining possibility is Battle Meditation (which cannot be deselected).