Those who have followed Warhammer 40,000: Darktide know that the game is in a bit of a rough spot. Developer Fatshark, previously best known for the very fun and highly rated multiplayer Warhammer: Vermintide series, were met with rampant fan support when they announced that they would be working on a game set in Warhammer Fantasy’s science fiction brother, Warhammer 40,000. That support was quickly dashed when Darktide released in a state that was less than ideal, to say the least, from massive technical performance issues to bad business practices on Fatshark’s part, to a majority of the bare-bones features being locked behind a “Coming Soon” screen. The game even at one point hit the dreaded “Mostly Negative” score on Steam’s ratings from how badly the release was fumbled. But a new patch has given the few Darktide enjoyers hope that it can be redeemed.

Rejects! Get those spectacles out – today we’re talking talent trees.

— Warhammer 40K: Darktide (@Darktide40K) September 29, 2023

On October 4^th, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will be launching Patch 13, a massive overhaul patch that basically reworks the entire game from the ground up. The skill trees have been expanded, and each class has many more options and plays much differently than they did in the base game, with expanded subclasses coming for all 4 base subclasses, such as a stealth-based rogue-type archetype available for the Zealot class. Game and enemy balance has been reworked to match the players as well:

We’ve shifted baseline difficulty scales, re-tuned healthpools for enemies, tuned spawning limits and rebalanced core parts of our damage system as part of our test-driven approach. What’s the point of having suppression bonuses in a talent tree if everything is already immediately suppressed, or worse: dead.

This massive update is hopefully a sign of things to come. One of the big criticisms of Darktide was how bare it was, and how there was no real endgame to shoot for. These changes should address a lot of that, with the new update practically tripling the amount of options you were given in the base game. Fatshark willing, these changes are a sign of a more diligent developer, rather than the hands-off approach they’ve been using so far.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is available on PC through Steam and GOG, with an Xbox Series X|S release coinciding with Patch 13’s update on October 4^th.