Fat Shark have been in the business of making ‘Tide’ games for a while now. Vermintide and its sequel were excellent. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide certainly stands up to its fantasy-based cousins, especially when it comes to difficulty. Difficulty has been a hot topic in gaming for a while, so we thought we’d provide some insights on Darktide.
This is because Darktide is harder than your gran’s toffees. Most people can handle its base difficulty, but ramp it up even one notch, and the game takes on a whole new level of challenge that newcomers will likely bounce off of. So this begs the question, is it worth playing Darktide on higher difficulty levels?
More Warhammer 40,000: Darktide content:
Combat Guide | Beginner’s Guide | How To Kill The Plague Ogryn
What Are The Difficulties In Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Darktide has a whopping five difficulty levels. These are, in order of challenge:
- Sedition
- Uprising
- Malice
- Heresy
- Damnation
Sedition, being the easiest, tends to have smaller hordes, fewer Elites and Specialists, and more importantly, enemy damage and HP are very low. This is the perfect difficulty for those looking for a blood-filled romp through Darktide without risking a mission failure.
You bump it up to Uprising, and things start to change. Firstly, enemies who once died in one hit, now take two or even three. Their damage is increased drastically, and this makes squishy characters like the Psyker incredibly susceptible to death. Not only that, hordes are larger, specialists are more frequent, bosses are more common, and new enemies will appear. Oh, and ranged units are a serious threat if you aren’t prepared for them.
We are going to lump Malice, Heresy, and Damnation all into one clump here because these all follow the same pattern – they are brutally difficult. With a solid random team, Malice is doable. You could probably wing it with limited communication and a team of experienced players. Heresy and Damnation? Not a chance. As of writing, we haven’t gotten through a Damnation mission with a win.
You are going to need a highly skilled team, voice chat, and a bit of luck if you want to do the Emperor’s work, that’s for sure.
Rewards For Completing Higher Difficulty Missions
When it comes to rewards, you get more money and EXP the more difficult the mission is. However, the amount these rewards increase by is not all that substantial, and more importantly, the odds of failure and getting next to no benefit, are exponentially higher.
Players will randomly receive new weapons called ‘Emperor’s Gifts’ upon completing missions, however, from what we could tell, the odds of getting a new toy are not linked to difficulty – nor is the quality or power of the weapon.
Is It Worth Playing On Higher Difficulties?
As if writing? No. Darktide is far too difficult for its own good on harder difficulties, and the rewards are not worth the effort. Since the game has a Level Cap, EXP eventually loses all value. Money is also very easy to get regardless of difficulty, so getting slightly more doesn’t change much.
The final nail is the lack of weapons. You would assume tackling the hardest challenges in Darktide would reward you with more weapons of a higher quality. This is just not the case. All of this combined makes slogging through Heresy and Damnation a little bit pointless beyond simple bragging rights.
Until there is an overhaul, we’d recommend sticking to Sedition or Uprising. Sedition is good old-fashioned fun, and Uprising provides just enough bite to keep things interesting. If you’ve got a good team, consider bumping Malice.
That’s all we have on Warhammer 40,000: Darktide for now. We have hods of other articles and tips covering the game, so be sure to check them out.
