# "This One Change Fixes Darktide’s Combat Forever" Does it though? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [August 10, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766 "2026-08-10T12:58:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hammer\_hold](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/hammer_hold/32/103503_2.png) [@Hammer\_hold](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Hammer_hold)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/1 "2026-08-10T12:58:36Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xK5zxG9fhuE/maxresdefault.jpg "This One Change Fixes Darktide’s Combat Forever") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK5zxG9fhuE) Personally, I just see the potential for more powercreep. But what about you, fellow Forum Dwellers? Is Yobiron’s suggestion good, or at least has potential to be as good as he claims, or nah? ---
**Author:** ![Index](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/index/32/95844_2.png) [@Index](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Index)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 2:32pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/2 "2026-08-10T14:32:14Z")
cant unhear ![copyImage](https://europe1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/uploads/fatshark/original/3X/c/1/c13528509d203896bf1f0cd51bc8ab713c994cad.gif) 😝 ---
**Author:** ![BensonWinifred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/59ef9b/32.png) [@BensonWinifred](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/BensonWinifred)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2026, 3:23pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/3 "2026-08-10T15:23:33Z")
If I understood him correctly, he is proposing stagger mechanics on enemies (Vermintide 2 combat?) and then refreshing the weapons and blessings that would be stagger based alternative to finesse based weapons and blessings we already have. I agree that there’s lots of under used and even some truly bad or nearly useless weapons and blessings I would love to see something done with, this is not a terrible idea ---
**Author:** ![eatingsand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/aca169/32.png) [@eatingsand](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/eatingsand)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 5:36am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/4 "2026-08-11T05:36:55Z")
“this one change” so how is that an 11 minute video? what he’s suggesting is to give stagger weapons extreme cleave. like ok that’s a theory but why would anyone not use stagger weapons then? i’m not seeing any real logic behind this other than “please make the thunder hammer ignore hitmass because it’d be cool” without thinking about what such a change would do to already great high impact weapons ---
**Author:** ![MarxistDictator](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/marxistdictator/32/106716_2.png) [@MarxistDictator](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/MarxistDictator)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/5 "2026-08-11T06:09:39Z")
yeah the real reason the good weapons are so stupid is that you can late dodge a poxburster with fatigued dodges and still avoid it, while outrunning most of the game/avoiding most melee attacks with sprint and/or slide W and having crazy crits that make them not actually ‘aiming’ weapons at all, but absolutely beyond lethal when they weakspot + crit. a lot of weapons have fantastic combat stats, but rely on the team game being played as a team and not a donkey monkey running off with his elaborate move tech that throws the entire dynamic of the game into the garbage because kark you I have like 40-60%+ crit rate (80-100 for scums) and ridiculous flicky attack speed. I think I’d absolutely have no enthusiasm for weapons like the shock maul if they put out stagger like arbites maul, which is basically what these videos are suggesting. but even more than that, lowering hitmass more than stagger already does… ---
**Author:** ![Agayek](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/agayek/32/98562_2.png) [@Agayek](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Agayek)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 9:39pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/6 "2026-08-11T21:39:59Z")
This suggestion is dumb and powercreep. The guy correctly identifies an issue, that high volumes of high-mass enemies are oppressive and problematic to the game experience, but seemingly fails to understand _why_ it’s a problem, and so makes a suggest that at absolute best does nothing, and (far more likely) makes the issue significantly worse. The solution to “stagger weapons struggle to keep up with the volume of enemies that are spawned because infinite cleave makes it impossible to create challenge in any other way” is not “we need more cleave”. ---
**Author:** ![Taranok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@Taranok](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Taranok)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 11:53pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/7 "2026-08-11T23:53:23Z")
There’s still damage caps on infinite cleave weapons, and while stagger weapons were extremely popular in VT2 (to name a few, flame sword, 2hh, mace+shield, single hammer, flaiming flail…the list goes on) they were also used regularly with other weapons, like bret longsword, spear+shield and spear (both kerr+kruber.) A big difference is, if I remember correctly, stagger weapons could overpower armor up to a point, armor was less seen in general, and while shields required specific tactics, they did have solutions for both categories. It has been a while, I might be wrong on stopping on armor at this point. > [@Agayek](#): > > This suggestion is dumb and powercreep. > > The guy correctly identifies an issue, that high volumes of high-mass enemies are oppressive and problematic to the game experience, but seemingly fails to understand _why_ it’s a problem, and so makes a suggest that at absolute best does nothing, and (far more likely) makes the issue significantly worse. > > The solution to “stagger weapons struggle to keep up with the volume of enemies that are spawned because infinite cleave makes it impossible to create challenge in any other way” is not “we need more cleave”. Anything that solves the core problem, which is correctly identified as nowhere near enough cleave for most weapons, will fundamentally power creep the game. So the question is, do you want to fix the cleave issue or not? It will, then, require further rebalancing because nothing is simple. But which hell is more favorable? The one where the game gets healthier or the one where the game stays sick? Do you want giant groups of carapace armor? Then you need cleave to make it fun. Do you want fewer groups but armor to be as effective as it is now? Cool, make armor rare. Both directly cause the same effect of increasing effective cleave. Hell, a big reason why Vanguard is so hated is because of the cleave problem. It doesn’t even need to be unconditional +cleave. ‘finesse’ weapons might require headshots to cleave through armor lined up. Stagger might need heavy attacks. Put versatile weapons somewhere in the middle (and for the love of the emperor make all weapons versatile enough to be viable…I’d love to see more rare-use weapons again.) But like all solutions are increasing effective player cleave. There’s no way around that if cleave is the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Agayek](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/agayek/32/98562_2.png) [@Agayek](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Agayek)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 12:32am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/8 "2026-08-12T00:32:14Z")
> [@Taranok](#): > > Anything that solves the core problem, which is correctly identified as nowhere near enough cleave for most weapons, will fundamentally power creep the game. So the question is, do you want to fix the cleave issue or not? It will, then, require further rebalancing because nothing is simple. But which hell is more favorable? The one where the game gets healthier or the one where the game stays sick? The solution is to put hitmass limits on infinite cleave so it can’t scale infinitely, and thus difficulty ceases to require infinity+1 elites and the spawns can then be limited in turn. Baking ludicrous cleave into the core function of weapons just means we’ll need _even more_ elites to maintain challenge, and so the difference between infinite cleave and limited cleave weapons also gets even worse, and the stagger weapons this change is supposed to help are then considered _even more useless because they can’t keep up with the ever higher number of elites._ ---
**Author:** ![Tarquelne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tarquelne](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Tarquelne)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 12:39am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/9 "2026-08-12T00:39:16Z")
> [@Taranok](#): > > Anything that solves the core problem, which is correctly identified as nowhere near enough cleave for most weapons, The problem with impact weapons compared to other weapons is indeed - arguably at least - lack of cleave. The problem with Darktide’s combat, which needs to be fixed forever, is that hundred-headed dragon we call “power creep.” ---
**Author:** ![Taranok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@Taranok](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Taranok)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 3:40am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/10 "2026-08-12T03:40:42Z")
The power creep is overblown as a problem, especially if we look at the game as a power fantasy not a dark souls game. It’s painfully obvious which way the devs want the game to go, the power creep isn’t a serious issue unto itself.. The real problem is fixing symptoms not problems. Fixing the problem will still cause power creep, it can be rebalanced back down. Fixing the cleave will cause power creep. Not fixing the cleave will leave the game in a godawful state. Which hell is preferred? ---
**Author:** ![Phracatti](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/phracatti/32/69579_2.png) [@Phracatti](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Phracatti)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 7:58am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/11 "2026-08-12T07:58:10Z")
Darktide is NOT A F\*#!IN power fantasy game. ---
**Author:** ![ramrod\_ikarus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9de0a6/32.png) [@ramrod\_ikarus](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/ramrod_ikarus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 8:05am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/12 "2026-08-12T08:05:52Z")
Well it somewhat started with the first dlc ---
**Author:** ![Phracatti](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/phracatti/32/69579_2.png) [@Phracatti](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Phracatti)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 8:08am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/13 "2026-08-12T08:08:07Z")
Hardly, it was just Fatshark’s horrendously bad Q&A execution, as proven by the current state of the man with the metal dog. ---
**Author:** ![Index](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/index/32/95844_2.png) [@Index](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Index)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 11:35am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/14 "2026-08-12T11:35:46Z")
> [@Taranok](#): > > Which hell is preferred? the one that makes players sweat and work for their results, takes away their “toys” and if some quit for having their one trick pony slaughtered its "good riddance " and a tasty BBQ 🤷‍♂️ you dont need cleave to be switched with something similarly easy way of dealing with a huge amount of enemies, you need to force people to play more effectively, simple as. beyond malice “fun” and “power” shouldnt exist in any vocabulary and switched with effort and scrutinized practise. put the cap back on to auric maelstrom afterwards and ignore havoc never having existed, for the fever dream it was. ---
**Author:** ![PedroPoz](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/pedropoz/32/118427_2.png) [@PedroPoz](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/PedroPoz)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 11:51am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/15 "2026-08-12T11:51:28Z")
> [@Index](#): > > ignore havoc never having existed, for the fever dream it was. Watch out some sweatlords and sweatlord-wannabies will come after you 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Index](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/index/32/95844_2.png) [@Index](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Index)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 11:57am UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/16 "2026-08-12T11:57:38Z")
well got some on video for the ages, dropping in the first 5 minutes of auric maelstrom and leaving. until you get doom ultra violence without taking any damage, how dare you speak of lordship 😝 ---
**Author:** ![BizarreSalp](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/bizarresalp/32/28058_2.png) [@BizarreSalp](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/BizarreSalp)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/17 "2026-08-12T12:21:22Z")
Vermintide 2 bringing in the Stagger changes was, at best, a sidegrade. Overall, I think the game just lost transparency. Prior to that, you could know “it takes me x good hits to kill that Stormvermin, then y for that Chaos Warrior . . .” Which, while not “realistic”, is a classic game concept that was very solid, because it let you plan. After the stagger changes, you could not know exactly what effects were applied at all times, so you just swung until they died-died. DT has already gone that route with the five thousand different talents and abilities and perks and blessings and whatever else I’m forgetting, so you can only have a vague idea of why you one-shot this enemy at x time and two-shot them at y time. Not a fan, personally. TL;DR: I don’t want more power-creep or more obtuse systems added. ---
**Author:** ![Tarquelne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Tarquelne](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Tarquelne)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/18 "2026-08-12T13:22:55Z")
> [@Phracatti](#): > > Darktide is NOT A F\*#!IN power fantasy game. “Sweats” get a feeling of power from skill expression.\* “Casuals” get it from success. “Punk-ass bitches” (Sorry about the sexism, but it’s an established technical term) get it from slaughter via button mashing. Can you _really_ say one form of power fantasy is better than the others? \*Index gets it from crushing his enemies, seeing them driven before him, and clutching. ---
**Author:** ![MadCowz](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/madcowz/32/79965_2.png) [@MadCowz](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/MadCowz)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 1:47pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/19 "2026-08-12T13:47:33Z")
Who cares what a youtuber thinks…get a life! ---
**Author:** ![Ryshek](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex013/user_avatar/forums.fatsharkgames.com/ryshek/32/92339_2.png) [@Ryshek](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/u/Ryshek)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 3:01pm UTC](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766/20 "2026-08-12T15:01:38Z")
I hate to say it, because I abuse it, but infinite cleave is a problem. > [@Agayek](#): > > Baking ludicrous cleave into the core function of weapons just means we’ll need _even more_ elites to maintain challenge, and so the difference between infinite cleave and limited cleave weapons also gets even worse, and the stagger weapons this change is supposed to help are then considered _even more useless because they can’t keep up with the ever higher number of elites._ So long as it exists, people will use and abuse it. [Next page](https://forums.fatsharkgames.com/t/this-one-change-fixes-darktide-s-combat-forever-does-it-though/124766.md?page=2)