This fantastic audiobook rekindled my desire for a ratling class to be added at some point (after many new full length missions OC):
Listen to The Wraithbone Phoenix by Alec Worley on Audible. https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/B0B7SMZXYQ?source_code=ASSOR150021921000O
The book feels really relevant to DT for some reason. It’s a lot of fun!
My previous suggestions: Ratling archetype
FS has said no to ratling
Non human sized characters require more work. They regret starting Ogryn.
Can’t blame them when they struggle to put out any content at all.
Isn’t that something people who did want small PoV say ? I don’t remember any devs saying that.
Also, even without the PoV issues and need of new animations…Ratling would have kind of sucked for a tide game. I can understand that they’re some people’s favourite type of abhuman, but they’re not bringing much from the lore, and their appropriate application for Ratling wouldn’t be in a tide game.
Squats on the other hand could have worked (and imo could still do so with less issues) would have fitted quite well with the game style, and could lean on different sub factions to introduce new stuff.
It wasn’t worded like that, but it was the gist of it. The reason why they won’t do rattling.
I just hope the next class (whatever it is) is the final one, it’s time to give the core game some love.
100% This. Ratling’s can be neat and have a place in the lore and can make for some cool potential videogame material. I don’t think they’re great Darktide class material however. Everything about their lore and tabletop representation is built around long range fire and stealth and hiding and avoiding engagement at all costs, which is pretty antithetical to Darktide gameplay. In a game heavily built around melee combat with zombies and chem-raged berzerkers, a child-sized combatant with disproportionately short limbs feels like it would…struggle.
I don’t see why adding Rattling would require extra-special work, it’s not like they’d need to make maps smaller. In fact, you could play a vet with marksman’s focus and crouch-slide everywhere if you really wanted to (and I have, once or twice) and outside of being inconvenient and a bit slow (both solvable problems for a new operator) it wasn’t that bad. They’ve already done a short class for VT2, so I don’t rightly see the issue.
But alas, FS will FS regardless of our say of things. We’ll be lucky to get Admech, and not something left-field and bland like an Administratum Clerk or a high-born noble.
Glances at stealth CAs,
Glances at threat nodes.
Glances at Expedition maps,
Glances at Bardin.
Yep, I don’t see how they could do it. Simply beyond the realm of possibility.
To my mind, it’s one thing to have some stealth or threat reduction elements. It’s another when the entire fundamental tactical identity at play is inherently “avoid melee and direct engagement at all costs”.
Gaunts Ghosts are famous for their ability to infiltrate and use stealth tactics and gear. That sort of thing can be accommodated within the existing Vet gameplay, and the Ghosts spend plenty of time using such things to get up close and personal. Ratlings whole schtick however is “shoot from extreme range and immediately run away and hide after every trigger pull”, literally sounds like the antithesis of Darktide gameplay.
I think it woulda been be thematically fine to have them be a dodge based evasion-heavy class with focus on small melee weapons and some interesting ranged options that excel at special killing. It’s basically what Hive Scum ended up being in a way
I think just because they’re shown as long range snipers in the lore doesn’t mean they can’t work up close in game. A long las would basically function sort of like a plasma gun which is an incredibly viable weapon in DT to say the least. People tend to forget sniper rifles are traditionally strong as hell in these games, for special killing reasons
The ratling thief Baggit in The Wraithbone Phoenix fought enemies in close combat. You have a very narrow view of ratlings. And again, they made Bardin. They could just make another Bardin, two of his careers would be excellent starting points for a ratling skill tree. Hel, “You go invisible for 5 seconds, equip a long-las and fire a powerful piercing shot” and there you go, all the power fantasy of long-las in a single CA and no more antithetical than Vet’s “I’m gonna peace out for 8 seconds”.
And as far as overlap, we already had big chunks of what Arbites and Hive Scum are in the Zealot and Ogryn, it’s clear FS doesn’t care about overlap.
Yep! And imo, makes him sound quite strong. He lumps an officer so hard he knocks him over if I remember correctly.
It’s why I mentioned the book as it really does give a lot of life and scope to Ratlings 
Hadn’t heard of it until now. May have to give it a look at some point.
Outside of an obscure e-book (with an apparently limited original print run from what I can see) Ratlings had a fairly narrow and consistent representation across every tabletop edition of 40k going back over 30 years, so that’s been my framing.
There it’s not just that Ratlings are “bad” there at close combat in say, the way Guardsmen are known for being, it’s that Guardsmen are actually towering heroes comparatively, Ratling’s are basically stat’d as though they’re 2nd graders with pocketknives as far as melee goes. Ratlings are about the worst individual melee combatants in the game alongside Gretchin (who can be taken in far greater numbers), even in an army famously allergic to close combat, with a Weapon Skill (melee hit roll) stat that is on par with meme-ably inept close combatants like Conscripts or Tau Fire Warriors (both of whom however hit harder, are harder to hurt, and are better armored, and thus will still beat the stuffing out of a Ratling 1v1).
In Blackstone Fortress, the Ratling characters Rein and Raus don’t even have a melee weapon, they have a pistol they can use at close range to fill that role, but unlike every other character in that game, they don’t have a sword/eviscerator/powerfist/force-orb cane/mace/dagger/bayonet, and IIRC the pistol is tied with the Eldar character’s dagger for the lowest damage on a close combat intended weapon in that game.
In fairness, Ranger Bardin is, by comparison, a terrifying combat monster compared to a Ratling, and can wield great hammers and war picks. Dwarves, and their 40k equivalents Squats/Votann, are as strong and tough as Orks. Bardin would have no problem picking up and crushing a Ratling to death bare-handed.
I want my space Bardin!
I don’t hope the next Class is the FINAL one. I just hope that Fatshark decides to limit DLC Classes to ONE PER ANNUM from this point onwards in order to focus more on the base game. Skulls is the PERFECT time of year to drop the annual one new DLC Class.
In 2025, we saw that two DLC Classes per annum comes at too great of a cost to the base game’s content output. It’s simply not a good idea to focus HALF of Darktide’s MAJOR UPDATES for a given year on DLC Classes. One DLC Class per annum allows for Fatshark to give us a new way to experience the game, in exchange for some doubloons, whilst the majority of Major Updates would still be entirely free and focused on adding to and improving the base game. It’s the best of both worlds!
Like, it’s just more sustainable overall to follow a one-per-annum model rather than a two-per-annum model for DLC Classes, because a one-per-annum model allows them to stretch the DLC content output out in the long-term, whilst also allowing them to add more “meat” to the base game in the short-term.
Fyi I have updated the op with proper hyperlink. Sorry it had broken somehow when I first posted
Unlike Vt2, DT’s maps aren’t made with Bardin’s PoV in mind, when they picked Ogryn (again, after having thought of Squats, not Ratling), they then had to make the map biggers, but still try to make them claustrophobic.
Then there is also 2 unstated things:
And comparing the 3 big Abhuman (Not taking those that are “human shaped”), all of which need specialized animations:
Like there are Abhuman that I could see FS have an easy time adapting to Darktide. But that isn’t one. Beastmen and Ratling are on the same level of use, but one has the problem of PoV. And on the other hand, Squat and Ratling have the same issue of PoV, but Squat offer more from base
From memory, I’ve seen grappling hooks; Caltrop, night vision googles… ↩︎
To me you’re honestly just describing a fresh new experience with all this. Any deficits caused by this can be made up elsewhere
It’d take effort but that shouldn’t deter any dev studio. I don’t think I’ve ever played another game where the devs having to work for their money was a concern to be honest. I’ve played other games where devs not only planned out
Okay, so if we add a necromancer class, we need to make this very pious anti-necromancy faction we have in the game react to it
but also
Okay, so they’re playing co-op and one of them is a necromancer, so they’re going to bring up specifically that only one of them can join
and even
Okay, so they became a necromancer AFTER joining and building trust, we need unique dialogues from every single NPC to address this
(Grim Dawn if you care, and there’s even another layer to this if you’re playing with an inquisitor who is another DLC class and they regard highly)
Sure it’s effort, it’s retrofitting, it’s more work but if it’s cool it’s cool, simple as. They’re not selling these 25 dollar cosmetics with an abusive FOMO system just cause. They got the money to redesign assets to fit a ratling, they don’t deserve being given a pass like they’re handicapped and can’t actually do it.
My point is: The explanation for why Fatshark won’t do it isn’t “well X and Y is quite hard and..” the actual explanation is “Fatshark does not want to work on this game to that extent” period
