Summary
Whether it’s roaming cultists, the turncoat Moebian Sixth regiment, or the heaping masses of pure-grimdark known as Beasts of Nurgle,Warhammer 40,000: Darktidethrows a lot of dangerous enemies at you. to survive your forays into the hive-city of Tertium, you’re going to want to play at the top of your game.
Thankfully, there’s a lot you may do to improve your odds of making it to the escape shuttle.Darktide is a co-op shooter, which means you’ll be completing missions on Tertium with up to three other players. By implementing strategies that keep you alive, while also making decisions that benefit your team, you’ll be cleaving through the enemies of the Imperium in no time.
Updated June 15, 2025, by Sean Murray:Just getting started with Darktide? These tips will be very helpful when beset by the enemies of the Imperium. That’s why we’ve updated this gudie with fresh formatting and more links to other helpful Darktide topics.
10Highlight The Enemies Giving You Problems
Depending on your class and weapon load-out, there are going to be times when it feels like anElite or Special enemyis intent on ruining your day. It could be a Scab Sniper who’s got you right in their sights, or it could be a Bulwark that’s blocking all of your gunfire. Whatever the case may be,the first thing you should do when an enemy is giving you problems is tag them for the rest of your team.
You can highlight any Elite or Special enemyby using the key bound to the “Tag” ability in Darktide’s options menu.
While it is good practice to highlight any Elite or Special enemy that might pose a danger to your team,it is critical to tag enemies thatyouare having trouble dealing with. Tagging these enemies will reveal their existence and location to your three teammates. They might have a better shot of taking care of those enemies than you do if you are busy taking care of other threats.
9Complete Side Missions For Rewards
While every mission has a primary objective,some missions also have side objectives. If you are able tofind these side objectives and carry them to the escape shuttle, you’llearn additional experience points. You might also earn progress towards the completion of weekly contracts at Sire Melk’s Requisitorium.
These side objectives come in the form ofGrimoires and Scriptures. Grimoires project a faint green glow from their location, while Scriptures emit a constant noise that’s somewhere between a whisper and the sound of wind rustling.
8Add Block Canceling To Your Arsenal
Darktide features a plethora of melee weapons.Each melee weapon has a combofor light attacks, and a combo for heavy attacks. These attacks chain into each other as you continue swinging your weapon. Some weapon combos, such as the Eviscerator’s heavy attack combo, start with a wide sweeping hit and progress into a vertical hit.
If you areclearing a horde of enemies, theEviscerator’s first heavy attack is perfect, whereas the second heavy attack might not prove as useful.
By pressing and releasing the block button before letting loose another attack, you’ll interrupt the comboand be able to use the first attack again. In any situation where your most devastating move is the first in a combo, you can utilize block canceling to return to that move quicker than by completing the combo.
7Stay Clear Of The Firing Line
While you are clearing hordes and engaging in melee fights,attempt to keep track of where your teammates are firing their ranged weaponsfrom.Darktide doesn’t have friendly fire, but you’ll still block your teammates' shots if you’re directly in their line of fire.
Thanks to thefinite amount of ammo in each mission, this can be extremely detrimental to your team.
Engage enemies from the side while using dodgesto strafe around them, and you’ll make it easier forsquad mates such as Veteran Sharpshootersto shoot at the bad guys and cover you. While fighting in close combat, don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for ranged enemies, and remember to tag them for your squad.
6Slide While Dodging To Improve Your Defense
When you press the jump key while moving to the side or backwards, you will perform a dodge.Dodging is incredibly importantin Darktide, as it is one of the primary methods of avoiding attacks.
Pressing the crouch key near the end of a dodge will immediately follow up the dodge with a slide. This is useful for avoiding multiple enemy hits at once. If enemies are firing at you from range, you can also implement dodge-sliding to reach cover more quickly.
This isparticularly useful while you are using a ranged weaponor holding a grenade because you cannot block melee attacks with these weapons.
5Use Wound Curios To Stay Healthy
In Darktide,your character’s health is split up into multiple bars, referred to asWounds. Each time you are downed, you will lose a Wound. These not only determine how many times you’re able to go down before dying, but they also determine how much recoverable health you have each time you are picked up.
For example, if you have two Wounds, you will only have 50 percent recoverable health when you are revived. Whereas if you have three Wounds, you will have 66 percent recoverable health when revived. It is always a good idea tobring at least one wound curio with you, if not more.
4Keep Track Of Your Team’s Ammo and Grenades
There is alimited number of ammo and grenade pickups on each mission, so it is important to ensure that your team is properly stocked up. At the bottom-left of your screen, your teammates' banners will have icons representing their ammo and grenades. These icons change color to give you a rough estimate of how many resources your teammates have.
If any of your teammates' ammo or grenade icons are red,keep an eye out for pickups, and tag them for your teammate. They’ll be grateful for it, and you’ll be increasing your team’s overall survivability.
3Force Ranged Enemies Into Melee
Since you can dodge and block enemy melee attacks, they are typically easier to mitigate than ranged attacks. You canforce enemies into melee by swinging your melee weapon near them. However, if the enemy has already begun to shoot at one of your teammates, you’ll need to actually hit them with your melee weapon in order to draw their aggression.
By limiting the amount of ranged fire your team takes, you’ll be freeing up space for your team to maneuver and deal with more important threats. Just keep an eye on where the rest of your team is, so you don’t get in over your head.
2Stay On Top Of Your Stamina
Stamina determines a lot of what you can do in Darktide, so you’ll want to ensure you never fully run out of it. Whenever you sprint, block an attack, or push an enemy, you’ll expand a portion of your stamina bar. Stamina regeneration is also paused when you dodge an attack.
When your stamina gets low during combat, find an opportunity to go on the offensive with repeated attacks. Your stamina will recover as you attack, and you’ll be back to blocking and pushing enemies in no time.
1Replenish Toughness Whenever Possible
Toughness acts as a barrier between the enemies' attacks and your health bar. Ranged damage is applied to your toughness bar before your health, and melee damage is mitigated depending on how high your toughness currently is. If your toughness is at the maximum, you will not take damage from a melee attack.
Toughness replenishes passively while you are close to another teammate. Toughness is also generated upon each melee kill. Each class in Darktide also has certain feats that allow them to replenish toughness. Since toughness nullifies ranged damage and can mitigate melee damage, it’s always a good idea tokeep your toughness as close to 100 percent as possible.
