Not only that, but the Havoc modifiers are very uninspired in terms of new content.
I understand that Fatshark needed something “hard” and needed it quickly, so it feels like they half-assed most of the modifiers without putting much production effort into them. Most of the current modifiers boil down to: “Let’s paint that enemy this colour and make them take less damage”, or “Let’s make them heal so they are effectively tankier”, or “Let’s give them a damage reduction with a chance to proc chance”.
This doesn’t change the quality of the encounter, it just inflates the numbers.
What is Rotten Armour? It’s just a Carapace DPS check that slows the game to a total crawl. My longest match in Darktide was a Havoc 34 Rotten Armour mission that lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes. There was zero dopamine after the first 30 minutes. Needless to say, I was completely drained after that incredibly long match and didn’t return to 30+ Havoc levels that day.
It is not “fun” to spend 5 minutes straight up holding a chokepoint against a Carapace horde, stunning them, and placing shock mines just to scrub off their armor bit by bit while they literally just sit there doing nothing.
On another day, I had a game end because, immediately after making it out of an elevator, we had to fight a Captain, the Twins, AND a Beast of Nurgle on top of a Carapace horde of a bazillion Crushers… all while a Daemonhost Ritual with a 30-second cooldown was active. It wasn’t a challenge; it was a clown show. The strike team disbanded immediately.
Rituals would be a great modifier if the placement wasn’t so strange.
- Sometimes a ritual spawns right in front of your eyes without triggering properly.
- Sometimes you need to walk 30 meters to it, but it has already started ticking, spawning bosses just so the run can be finished.
- Sometimes they are so hidden that only through sheer experience could you find them. If no one on the team knows the spot, it leads to a wipe or an accidental Daemonhost fight.
Blight is actually on the more interesting side because it forces you to change your behaviour (avoiding positioning right in the enemy’s face, looking at the ground, etc.). Additionally, it doesn’t restrict builds too much - often requiring just one player (like a Zealot or Hive Scum) to rebuild to completely negate the modifier for the team.
Stimms & “Pink” are probably on the finer side. Stimms have a small animation window where you can hit the enemy, even if it is short and the modifier is a bit of a gamble. The pink enemies at least don’t heal each other, though I wouldn’t mind if Pink enemies received more damage (15-25% increase) to balance the regeneration.
I saw a video by Mister E recently about Havoc modifiers, and I commented with some general ideas on how to make them more engaging. We need modifiers that change the nature of the threat, not just the effective HP of the enemies. Here some of my points from the comment:
1. Integrate more events as Modifiers. Why aren’t more events implemented as Havoc modifiers?
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The Fiery Ventilation Purge: The map is ablaze with reduced vision and increased Flamers/Bombers. This makes the mission difficult through unique terrain and visibility modifiers rather than just stat checks. It might need a slight nerf compared to the event version. For example, not all rooms should be lit with flames - only the majority. Leave a few safe areas, specifically ensuring the areas around Medicae Stations are not affected by the flames and perpetual darkness.
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The Shrine Mechanic. Similar to recent events, implement Shrines as a requirement.
- Seal the entrance to the next area with a “Nurgle Goop Wall”.
- To progress, the Strike Team must find a hidden Shrine and “atone” by activating it, which spawns a wave and a guaranteed boss.
- This adds tactical value. Players must decide when to engage the shrine while managing the pace of the level and clearing existing enemies.
3. Enemy Replacement modifiers could be a thing.
- A simple modifier where all Mutants are replaced by weakened Plague Ogryns, and no other weakened monstrosities can spawn.
- It forces players to adjust team composition. You would need a frontline tank to hold aggro and a boss-killer (like a Thunder Hammer Zealot) to deal with the high health pools. It would be chaotic fun to have three Plague Ogryns charging someone near a ledge!
- Or another modifier that replaces all heavy elites (except Bulwarks) with Captains.
- These Captains would have no shields and reduced HP, but they would retain their mechanical complexity (movesets), offering a different challenge than standard Ogryns.
4. Rotten Armour Rework: Instead of a flat buff to every armored enemy in a horde, turn this into a patrol mechanic.
- Armored elites spawn in specific “Patrols” in large rooms. They have reduced aggro range and are passive unless you get within 4 meters or shoot them (blinded by rot gas, perhaps).
- Players can choose to sneak past them. However, if the team activates a map objective, the Patrol sounds a unique horn and marches swiftly toward the players, regardless of distance or the AI Director’s current resources.
- They should never appear right at the start of a room (e.g., immediately after a lift or door). They should always be spawned farther away and produce distinct audio cues (loud stomping) so players can identify their position easily.
- No other elites have Rotten Armour besides these patrols.
- It rewards stealth and careful positioning but punishes players during the finale if they didn’t clear the map. Much more engaging than a perpetual stat buff.
5. Pus-Hardened Skin Rework. Currently, this is just a boring damage reduction buff with a proc chance.
- Fix A: Make enemies vulnerable to specific damage types (Fire, Las, Plasma, Power) to encourage diverse loadouts (even though most of that is already meta).
- Fix B: If they are hit at least once, they become significantly slowed. This turns them into a creeping wall of meat rather than just a bullet sponge.
6. A Gunner specific modifier. If we must have tougher Gunners in Havoc, change their behavior:
- Make them extremely tough but immobile (or very slow).
- They cannot spawn with hordes but appear as pre-placed huge “Firing Battalions” or sniper nests waiting for players.
- Since they cannot reposition, this encourages the use of Smoke Grenades, Executioner’s Stance, Psyker Telekine Shields(the rectangular one), and shield weapons to make the static firing line manageable.
Havoc is hard as is (I’ve never beaten anything higher than 34), but it should be hard because of mechanics and chaos, not because I have to hit 50 Crusher 50 times instead of 3 of them 10 times.