What if Auric-level Operations had a unique Maelstrom condition: "Bounty Hunt"

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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So I’m pretty excited about the idea of Auric-level operations and Maelstrom missions. While I’m not sure what new conditions Maelstrom missions will provide just yet, I was thinking about changes that could impact currency rewards without completely flooding the banks, so to speak. This is kind of a rehash of a suggestion I posted a little while back – essentially, that it’d be cool if monstrosity kills provided small crafting material bonuses. In lieu of that, I’d dig a new condition (presumably unique to the Auric-level board) along the lines of…

CONDITION: Bounty Hunt
“Each and every last heretic in the mission area is priority marked for termination. Each enemy slain will increase the payout after you successfully complete an operation. High-value targets provide even greater bonuses.”

This is just a rough draft, but here are a few basic outlines of what kinds of bonuses kills could provide. Obviously these wouldn’t be the final values, and if this condition was implemented, I’d probably expect them to be lowered or raised. I’m going off the assumption that these operations would have high intensity Damnation levels of mobs, where you can see upwards of 1500+ lesser enemies, 75-100+ elites, and 35-50+ specials, which is what I’m basing my math off of. Some bounties could have fixed rewards, while others may vary, depending on the challenge they present.

REWARDS:

  • Adds 1 docket per kill: Lesser enemies. Groaners, poxwalkers, dreg & scab bruisers
  • Adds 2 dockets per kill: More dangerous lesser enemies. Dreg & scab stalkers, scab guardsmen
  • Adds 5-15 dockets per kill: General elites. Gunners, shotgunners, ragers, maulers
  • Adds 35-50 dockets per kill: More dangerous elites. Crushers, bulwarks, reapers
  • Adds 60-80 dockets per kill: Most specialists. Poxbursters, flamers and tox flamers, pox hounds and snipers
  • Adds 100-125 dockets per kill and may add a tiny chance to receive an additional Profane (grey) item (item would be a primary or secondary weapon of a random type and stat distribution): “Disablers”, or any specialists that can single-handedly turn a run upside down. Mutants, trappers, and bombers. IMHO, hounds are a little too easy to kill to provide greater rewards than other specials. Honestly, I feel like bombers are pushing it too, but I know some players totally hate their explode-y guts.
  • Adds 500-750 dockets per kill and may add a tiny chance to receive an additional primary or secondary weapon or curio (has a random type and stat distribution beginning at Profane and scaling up to Exalted/purple): “Standard” monstrosities. Beast of Nurgle, Plague Ogryn
  • Adds 750-1000 dockets per kill, and a bonus of 100-150 plasteel or diamantine: Chaos Spawn. My logic here is that they’re usually tougher than Beasts and Plague Ogryns, but you literally have to fight them when they show up, so it isn’t really going out of your way to kill them
  • Adds no additional currency, but has a small chance to improve the quality of your Emperor’s Gift: Scab Captain. I figure the reward for taking on an assassination target is already rolled into the end of the mission, but maybe we’d get a little something extra for going into a Bounty Hunt operation
  • Adds 1500-2500 dockets per kill, ~100-125 Marks, and ~100 Plasteel or Diamantine: Daemonhost. You have to go out of your way to kill these, they can easily bury your entire team, and it may be a matter of weighing risk vs. reward, especially if Bounty Hunt’s challenge level and mob density is similar to High Intensity Damnation

VARIABLES (these could impact the final reward. Clearly, the proposed numbers would REALLY need to be adjusted to make any of this work):

  • Maybe there’s a timer, and depending on how much time you take, the overall amount of dockets received is reduced. I.E. Clearing a Bounty Hunt in less than 21 minutes = full rewards, 21+ minutes remaining = 80% rewards, 30+ minutes = 60% rewards, 45+ minutes = 50% rewards
  • Conversely, maybe it would be better if each ‘time bracket’ had its own multiplier. Clearing a bounty hunt in less than 21 minutes = 1.4x reward, 21+ minutes = 1.25x reward, 30+ minutes = 1.15x reward, 45+ minutes = no multiplier, you ‘only’ receive the bonuses from extra kills for completing a Bounty Hunt

POTENTIAL UPSIDES:

  • Due to the increased mob density and amount of challenging mobs, this could be a very high risk vs. reward condition, and I feel like it could help add some additional ‘spice’ to the endgame that some of us are after. You could possibly walk out with a haul of 10,000+ extra dockets, a few hundred more plasteel or diamantine, additional Marks, and an improved Emperor’s Gift or additional loot that you can either sell or upgrade, on top of the normal rewards for Auric operations. I’m assuming quickplay bonuses would still apply to the Auric operation itself, but it wouldn’t multiply the rewards from Bounty Hunt.
  • Rewards us when we take risks by going into missions and taking on other conditions, modifiers, and enemies we may not normally wish to tackle (i.e. daemonhosts)
  • May provide a reasonable influx of dockets and crafting materials even for groups that skip a lot of loot, but still rewards those who work quick and efficiently and/or vacuum up chests along the way
  • Additional means to accrue Marks, even during or after completion of weekly contracts could help counter the issue of “Ah, Melk’s selling a fancy new gadget that I literally can never afford” after spending all the definitely-fungible-not-at-all-questionable tokens you earned that week

POSSIBLE DOWNSIDES:

  • Conversely, may lead to groups pulling daemonhosts without warning or before the group is ready (this is something that was brought up in my previous post, but as that same poster noted, it’s not like that’s any different from how things are now, but I digress)
  • If the rewards are outlandishly better than other conditions, this could potentially lead to players ‘camping’ the Auric board and only targeting operations with the Bounty Hunt condition
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I don’t hate the idea, but wouldn’t that cause problems on missions with endless hordes? Like, there are some events where enemies literally just don’t stop coming.

What would stop people from just not fixing the consoles on those point-defense events and farming enemies until they maxed their bank?

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Yeah that’s the only problem. People would most definitely exploit this, if given the opportunity.

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We really need a Penance or some kind of reward for slaying Daemonhosts on Damnation difficulty. It seems so satisfying to kill them, but disappointing at the same time when there’s no reward.

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I don’t think they need a reward until they’re something other than a half-arsed copy of the witch from Left 4 Dead. If it is a true boss like the Beast, Ogryn or Spawn, then a reward would be cool (and add a reward to those too). If it’s meant purely to be an environmental trap, then I wouldn’t expect a reward. The issue is that it tries to be both in a way that it’s kinda neither right now.

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That’s a really good point, and something I hadn’t thought about

If the condition stops providing any kill bonuses once an endless horde/holdout triggers, I think that’s a fairly elegant way to prevent farming. If they end up choosing to incorporate a time limit or a time-based multiplier, I imagine the clock would pause and only start again once the room is completely cleared

@anthov4419
100% agreed; I like killing daemonhosts just for the fun of it, plus they’re a great way to farm monstrosities for weekly contracts if you have a team that’s willing to go for it. Whenever it’s available, my friends and I will run Power Supply Interruption on Damnation, preferably on an assassination map, and clear 4, 5, sometimes even all 6 monstrosities in one go

But outside of that, a lot of groups seem to get nervous about the idea of aggroing daemonhosts on higher difficulties. Like you mentioned, a penance or a reward of SOME sort would be a pretty solid motivator.

@zaygr
IMHO, I think the biggest issue IS that there’s no reward for killing them besides spicing up a run. As it is, you barely ever get a chance to fight them since a lot of groups avoid them entirely (understandably, since a fair amount of PUGs aren’t prepared to take them on, or they don’t want to waste time/resources). If there was any sort of incentive to kill a daemonhost, I feel like people would be much more prone to engaging them.

EDIT: because i’m a dingus and i don’t know why i posted two separate times instead of tagging people in a single post

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In my opinion daemonhosts aren’t meant to be engaged at all, they’re cribbed as an environmental hazard similar to the Witch in Left 4 Dead to negotiate past rather than being a loot pinata. But they’re not lethal or quick to deal with enough to be a hazard, and not really engaging or fun as a boss to merit any sort of reward.

If they’re meant to be a hazard, they both need to be more lethal and quicker to deal with for everyone, not just someone with a slab shield or thunder hammer.

If they’re meant to a boss that they want to incentivise people to engage, they need more interesting mechanics than taking one person out of the fight via an oppressive flurry of attacks.

Either way I still don’t think you should get a reward for killing them, or rather, there’s also no reward currently they could give that would make it worth it to deliberately trip.

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Probably what Flash missions were planned to be, which could be found via solo play mod.
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It’s not insurmountable by any means. They could do as you say and pause the count during these events, or the time-based reward system you described could be tuned so that a point is reached where it’s more efficient to try and finish the run and move onto the next one, rather than farm like that.

Tuning the timer-based reward system would be interesting. There’s a lot of things to consider - It’d be very easy to promote some pretty un-fun situations, like speedrunners vs non-speedrunners and newbies vs experienced players.

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Flash missions are still something different

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Could give some Melkbucks. Only in bountyhunt though. As others have said, you’re supposed to avoid it.

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