Everything You Need to Know about Critical Hits in Darktide (2024)

Warhammer 40K: Darktide is Fatshark’s second brutal hack-and-slash horde killer game, but with a hybrid focus on melee and ranged combat. There are several different elements to combat that every player must master if they wish to survive against the hordes of heretics and Chaos worshipers in the hive city of Tertium.

Darktide shares many combat basics with Vermintide 2, which includes blocking, dodging, shoving, stamina, and critical strikes. In both games, critical strikes can shift a fight against a formidable opponent, and there’s a handful of reasons to care about your crits. In this short guide, we will go over everything you need to know about critical hits and critical strike chance in Darktide.

What are Critical Hits in Warhammer 40K: Darktide?

Critical hits are a random chance to deal roughly 25% more damage on any melee or most ranged attacks. In the early stages of Darktide, we are uncertain if every ranged weapon has the ability to critically strike since it’s hard to notice on weapons such as the Flamer or some Force Staffs.

We are assuming this because a part of the Darktide community is confused if all weapons can crit since there is no visual feedback for certain weapons. However, for the sake of the topic, we will continue as if every weapon can critically strike since most weapons can gain traits that boost critical chance.

So, naturally, a critical hit is influenced mainly by random chance and the player’s total critical chance. Crits are more likely to occur on high attack speed weapons such as the Catachan Combat Blade. So the slower your weapon is, you might be less favorable with rolling consistent crits. Critical hits typically have a visual distinction whenever they occur. Whenever you crit, there is an orange glow or particle on your melee weapon for a crit swing.

This small particle effect also affects ranged shots, but it’s hard to notice on some weapons like the Lasgun. Both of these small visual effects are complimented by a small audio cue. It’s not as notable as the crit sounds in Vermintide 2, but there is a subtle noise. We recommend practicing in the Meat Grinder to learn the visual and sound cues.

In Darktide, Critical Hits are Different from Headshots.

Headshots and critical hits are different. Your crosshair will shift to a different color depending on what you hit.

Your crosshair will be:

  • White for normal hits
  • Yellow for a critical hit.
  • Orange for hitting a weak spot/headshot
  • Blue for hitting armor
  • Red if you landed the killing blow

This is extremely important to note, especially for those who are using a weapon with high Finesse. The Finesse weapon stat only increases headshot and weak point damage, not crit damage or chance. Crit damage will only be increased if you have any weapon traits that boost critical damage.

Some moves and passives are exclusive to some classes, like the Zealot’s Chastise the Wicked ability, which makes their next melee attack a guaranteed critical hit, or the Veteran Sharpshooter’s Deadshot talent, which gives 25% critical chance. There are many options to increase your critical chance, but you will find that the best way to gain a lot of crit chance in Darktide is through weapon traits and perks.

Weapon Perks and Blessings Improve your Crits

Aside from the talents you take in Darktide, which can add up to a decent amount of critical hit chance (depending on your class), your weapons will mainly influence your odds of dealing additional damage. The higher your weapon rarity, the better your perks and blessings will be. Take the following image as an example:

Everything You Need to Know about Critical Hits in Darktide (1)

This Boltgun has a perk that increases its ranged critical damage in Darktide by an extra 8%, making each critical hit strike even harder. Additionally, both of their blessings increase their crit chance by doing separate actions such as continuously firing or aiming. There are plenty of other weapon blessings in Darktide you can acquire. So, there are more ways to increase your critical chance, but not all blessings work on every weapon.

It’s also important to note that when the crafting system is implemented, you can swap your modifiers, perks, and blessings for better weapons. So if you see any great stats on a lackluster weapon, keep it for the future to boost a better weapons power.

Wrap Up on Critical Hits in Darktide

That’s our short breakdown of critical hits and how they can be improved in Darktide. The more you sink your time into Darktide, you will notice the damage scaling of crits is far more drastic than you’d initially think. The frequency goes up, and the damage becomes more severe and game-changing.

It’s definitely worth investing some time into determining what your favorite weapon’s stats are and how much it can crit. Knowing how strong your weapons are is what makes the difference between a Varlet and an honest Servant of the Imperial Throne.

If you want to learn more, check our breakdown of Darktide’s curios. Or if you are looking for a good crit build, check out our Veteran: Sharpshooter loadout guide. Good hunting, Rejects!

Everything You Need to Know about Critical Hits in Darktide (2024)

FAQs

How does crit chance work in Darktide? ›

Crit chance is 5% unless you're ogryn who has 3% (big deal, his crit damage sucks). Some weapons have extra crit chance, like lasguns during ADS, the las pistol, revolver, knife and tactical axe. Most of those are like 10%-20% instead.

What are the hit indicators in Darktide? ›

But, in Darktide, the hit markers actually have a lot to say, as the color of the hit marker (for both melee and ranged) informs the player of many things. White: Standard hit. Yellow: Headshot or Weakpoint Hit. Orange: Critical Hit.

What is the hardest difficulty in Darktide? ›

Difficulties
DifficultyCharacter levelGear rating
Uprising10-15150-250
Malice15-20250-350
Heresy20-25350-450
Damnation25+450+
1 more row

How much damage do critical hits do? ›

Criticals deal three times the normal damage (and are not weaker at long range, unlike most damage), whereas "mini-crits" only increase damage by 35%.

What does 100% CRIT Rate do? ›

General. Having 100% or more CRIT Rate means that attacks will always critically hit. Aimed Shots on an enemy's weak point guarantees a CRIT Hit. On Ruin Machines, this is on the exposed cores.

What does super crit chance do? ›

Super-Crit Chance is how often a critical hit will be a Super-Crit. The player can see how much their Super-Crit Chance is by looking for the Super-Crit Chance stat in the System Page.

What is the best beginner weapon in Darktide? ›

The best and easiest weapon to start with is Kantrael Mk XII because it doesn't need any blessings and +20% flak is functionally enough as Veteran so you can grab a 340 white and with a single upgrade make it 90% as good as a perfect one.

What is the best class in Darktide? ›

As a Veteran in Warhammer 40K Darktide, you excel at long-range combat, capable of maintaining distance and effectively counter-sniping. Your versatility against ranged enemies and in close combat makes the Veteran a popular choice.

What is the highest weapon Darktide? ›

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

380 is max "base" stats on a Grey Item. 540 is the absolute max a weapon can be.

What ability prevents critical hits? ›

Shell Armor prevents Pokémon from receiving a critical hit, even if they would usually always land one such as with Frost Breath, Storm Throw, or with Merciless (if the target is poisoned).

What is a good crit damage? ›

CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG Ratio

Our recommended ratio of CRIT Rate and CRIT DMG is 1:2, with CRIT DMG being double of the CRIT Rate. For example, if your CRIT Rate is 60%, your CRIT DMG should be at least 120%.

What damage is doubled on a crit? ›

So, when you critically hit, you double all of the "attack's damage dice" as well as all of the damage dice the attack "involves".

How does crit rate work? ›

CRIT Rate measures how often you can deal CRIT Hits. Higher percentages means a higher chance of your attacks becoming critical hits. For Bow characters, all Charged Attacks that hit an enemy's weak spot will be a guaranteed CRIT Hit!

What is the base crit for veterans in Darktide? ›

Vet and Zealot have a base crit chance of 5%; Psykers has 7.5%; and Ogyrns has 2.5%. It seems the game doesn't add extra crit from other sources until just before the first strike.

Does weapon rating matter in Darktide? ›

So the rating does matter, but not in the way you think. If you compare a weapon, it has a multitude of stats on them. Damage is only one of the stats. At higher rating there is more "points" placed into each of the stats, but it's a random placement.

How does coherence work in Darktide? ›

Darktide: Coherency Explained

In the game, Coherency refers to a passive aura that detects how many allies are near a player. Stepping inside a Coherency aura passively regenerates the Toughness of all squad members within the aura's radius.

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