Darktide: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

Why I'm Writing This and Why You're Stuck

I've got about 600 hours in Darktide now. I still remember my first week: I was convinced the game was broken. I'd get swarmed from off-screen, my gun felt like I was shooting wet paper towels, and I watched three different Ogryn players walk off cliffs while trying to melee a single poxwalker. I almost refunded it. I'm glad I didn't, because underneath that chaotic first impression is one of the tightest co-op shooters you'll ever play. But the game is dogshit at explaining itself. The tutorial is a joke. The menus are designed by someone who hates you. And the difficulty curve doesn't go from 1 to 10—it goes from 1 to 45 the second you hit Malice difficulty.

This guide is me sitting you down, buying you a virtual drink, and telling you exactly what I wish someone had told me. No fluff. No "you got this, champ." Just the hard truths and specific numbers that will keep you alive when the horde hits.

The Five Things That Will Make You Uninstall

Let's be honest about why you're reading this. You're dying. A lot. And the game feels unfair. Here's why, and here's what's actually happening:

• Stamina management feels like a second job. The game gives you a stamina bar, a dodge meter, and a sprint toggle, but never tells you that blocking a heavy attack from a Mauler costs 60% of your stamina in one hit. I spent my first ten matches sprinting into a room, hitting zero stamina, and getting stunlocked by a single groaner. The fix? Stop sprinting everywhere. Learn to walk and let your stamina regen like it's your only resource—because it is.
• The sound design is trying to murder you. I am not joking. The trapper's net gun makes a sound that is barely audible over gunfire. The mutant's charge roar mixes with ambient noise. After 100 hours, I still miss the trapper sound and get netted. You need to either turn your game volume up to 80% or buy a headset. This isn't optional. You are missing 40% of the cues that keep you alive.
• Melee is not optional—it's the main game. The store page shows you shooting guns. The trailer makes it look like a shooter. It's not. Darktide is a melee game where you also have a gun. I watched a friend try to "snipe" from the back of a horde on Malice and he went down in eight seconds. You need to learn the melee flow: push, light attack, heavy attack, dodge, repeat. Your gun is for burst damage and specials. Your melee weapon is your life.
• The crafting system is a scam at first. You'll find a weapon with good stats and a bad blessing. You'll think "I'll reroll it." You can't. Not until level 30. Not until you've collected about 3000 plasteel and 500 diamantine. The game locks you out of meaningful crafting until you've already beaten the base content. Don't hoard materials thinking you'll craft your perfect weapon at level 15. You won't. Just use whatever drops until level 30.
• Difficulty scaling is a trap. Sedition (level 1) is fine. Uprising (level 2) is fine. Malice (level 3) is a brick wall. The game doesn't tell you that Malice roughly doubles the number of specials, triples the damage from enemies, and adds crusher patrols that can one-shot you. I jumped into Malice at player level 12 with gear score 150 and got deleted. You need gear score 250+ for Malice, and even then, you need to know the maps. Do not rush difficulty.

Day One: What The Tutorial Doesn't Tell You

You've finished the tutorial. You feel ready. You're not. Here's the stuff the game hides behind a loading screen you'll never read:

Your first priority is not a weapon—it's your curios. Curios are the trinkets you slot into your character. The game gives you one at level 3 and prays you figure it out. The best curio for a new player is one with +max health and +block efficiency. I run three curios with health and toughness regen. That extra 60 health is the difference between surviving a trapper net and getting executed. Go to the shop every hour and check the curios. Buy any purple or gold curio with health or toughness stats. Do not pass on them.

Your weapons have hidden stats. You see a damage number and a penetration number. You don't see the first target modifier, the cleave damage, or the weak point damage multiplier. The Combat Knife, for example, has a first target modifier of 6x on a heavy attack, meaning the first enemy takes six times the weapon's base damage. That's why it one-shots groaners on Malice. The Antax Combat Axe has lower base damage but a cleave stat of 4, meaning it hits four enemies per swing. You need to learn which weapons have good hidden stats. The Vermintide 2 guide on this site explains a similar system—Darktide carries the same logic forward.

The Psykhanium is your best friend. It's the training room in the ship. Go there. Test every weapon you find. Swing at the dummies. See how many light attacks kill a groaner. See how many heavy attacks kill a scab shooter. I spent two hours in there early on and it paid off instantly. The game doesn't tell you that the autogun has a damage falloff of 50% at 20 meters, meaning you're tickling enemies at range. You wouldn't know that unless you tested it.

Play every class to level 5 at least. The class system is not locked. You can swap whenever. I recommend Veteran for your first playthrough because the Volley Fire ability highlights all special enemies through walls. That alone teaches you the spawn patterns. After you hit level 10 on Veteran, try Zealot. Zealot's Chastise the Wicked gives you invulnerability frames during the charge, which lets you survive things that would kill other classes. Knowing how each class plays makes you a better teammate because you understand what they can and can't do.

Advanced Tricks That Separate Veterans From Corpses

You've survived the first 20 hours. You know when to block. You know when to shoot. Now let's get into the stuff that turns you into a team carry.

The slide cancel is not a meme—it's survival. Sprinting makes you fast but drains stamina. Sliding costs no stamina and makes you a smaller target. The trick: sprint, then crouch to slide, then immediately sprint again. You can chain these to move at sprint speed with near-zero stamina cost. I use this to cross open areas when a sniper is active. The sniper's aim is designed to lead a running target but cannot track a sliding target. I have dodged at least 40 sniper shots this way. It will save your life.

Blocking is not just for melee—it works on some ranged attacks. Specifically, the Shotgunner's pellets and the Scab Gunner's volley can be partially blocked if you hold block while moving backwards. I tested this on Malice. A blocked shotgun blast does 30% of its normal damage. That's the difference between losing all your toughness and losing half. Do not stand still and tank ranged fire—block while retreating to cover.

Weapon damage types matter more than the tooltip suggests. The game has four damage types: Light, Heavy, Brutal, and Penetrating. Light is for horde clear. Heavy is for single-target. Brutal ignores armor on the first hit. Penetrating hits through multiple enemies. The Thunder Hammer has a heavy attack that does Brutal damage, meaning it ignores the Crusher's carapace armor on the first hit. That's why you can one-shot a Crusher with a charged heavy. The tooltip says "high damage" but doesn't explain that the damage type bypasses armor. I learned this after three failed Malice runs where I couldn't kill a single Crusher.

Your grenade is not a panic button—it's a crowd control tool. The Veteran's frag grenade has a stagger radius of 8 meters. That's huge. A single frag can stagger a horde of 20 enemies, giving your team 4 seconds to reposition. I used to chuck nades at single enemies. Now I only use them when my team is cornered and the horde is about to wrap us. The Zealot's stun grenade does the same thing but also stuns Ogryn enemies. Coordinate with your team: one stun nade into one frag nade clears a room.

Learn the audio cues for every special. I already mentioned this, but I'll be specific. The Trapper makes a pneumatic hiss like a compressed air canister. The Flamer has a gas burner sound that ignites. The Mutant roars twice—the second roar is the charge. The Hound makes a guttural bark that echoes. If you hear any of these and don't see the enemy, ping immediately. Even if you don't know where it is, the ping system will highlight it for the team. I've saved countless runs by pinging a trapper I heard but couldn't see.

Mistakes I Made So You Don't Have To

I want to save you from the specific stupid things I did. Here are my top five face-palm moments.

• I ignored toughness regeneration. Toughness is your shield. It regenerates when you're near teammates or when you kill enemies in melee. I spent my first 50 hours stacking health curios and ignoring toughness. Result: I'd get hit once, lose all toughness, get hit again and take health damage, then bleed out from a single poxwalker. The fix: run at least one curio with +toughness regen or +toughness. The difference is night and day. I now run two +toughness curios and one +health. I survive hits that would have one-shot my old build.
• I never checked the mission board for modifiers. Every mission has modifiers like "Low Intensity" (fewer enemies) or "High Intensity" (way more enemies) or "Ventilation Purge" (reduced visibility). I clicked "Quick Play" for 30 hours straight and wondered why some missions were impossible. The answer: I kept getting High Intensity missions. Look at the board. If you see "Low Intensity Horde," that's an easy way to farm materials. If you see "Power Outage," skip it until you're comfortable with the map in the dark.
• I thought the Bolter was the best weapon. Everyone hypes the Bolter. It has insane damage. But it has a 1.8-second reload and 15 rounds in a mag. In a horde, you will reload and die. The Infantry Autogun (specifically the Columnus variant) has a 55-round magazine, 0.4-second reload, and does 85 DPS on body shots. It's better for horde clear and special sniping than the Bolter unless you are specifically hunting Crushers. I switched and never looked back.
• I never used the slide to avoid netters. The Trapper's net has a travel speed. You can dodge it by sliding under it. I died to trappers for 100 hours before realizing a well-timed slide lets the net fly over your head. Now I slide toward the trapper, get close, and melee them. It's a guaranteed kill if you time the slide right. Practice this in the Psykhanium with a friend—have them shoot nets at you while you slide.
• I blamed my team instead of my positioning. For the first 50 hours, I thought my teammates were idiots for dying. Then I watched my own replays. I was standing in doorways, blocking their retreat. I was standing in the open during snipers. I was never checking my flank. The game punishes bad positioning harder than anything else. Always have a wall to your back. Always leave an escape route. The best tip I ever got: "Don't stand where you were standing 5 seconds ago." Constantly move.

Questions You're Too Embarrassed To Ask

Q: Is the game pay-to-win?
A: No. The cosmetic shop sells only weapon skins and outfits. No stat boosts. No XP boosters. It's purely cosmetic. That said, the best skins are locked behind the premium currency, so if you want to look cool, you're paying. But it won't help you kill a Crusher.

Q: Why do I keep getting disconnected?
A: Darktide's servers are held together by prayers and duct tape. I average one disconnect every 10 games. The fix is to play during off-peak hours (after 10 PM local time) or to host your own private game. If you're on Wi-Fi, hardwire. The game hates packet loss.

Q: What's the best class for a beginner?
A: Veteran. Full stop. The Volley Fire ability marks all enemies, gives you infinite ammo temporarily, and highlights specials through walls. It teaches you the game's enemy spawns and targeting priority. Zealot is second—it's more forgiving with damage but requires aggressive positioning. Psyker is the hardest because you need to manage Peril (your heat meter) constantly. Ogryn is slow and takes hits, but you're a bullet sponge and your teammates will hate you if you block their shots.

Q: How do I get better gear?
A: You don't actively farm gear until level 30. Below level 30, just equip whatever drops with the highest item level. The game scales your drops to your level. Once you hit level 30, the shop sells 380+ base rating weapons that can be upgraded. You also get plasteel and diamantine from missions—these are used to upgrade your weapon's perks and blessings. Save all your materials from level 1 to 30. Do not craft anything until you're max level.

Q: Why can't I stagger the Crusher?
A: Crushers have carapace armor on their head and body. Carapace resists all stagger from normal attacks. You need either a weapon with Brutal damage type (like the Thunder Hammer powered attack) or a plasma gun to stagger them. The Ogryn's power maul also works. If you don't have these, just dodge the Crusher's overhead swing and let your team handle it.

Q: Are the penances (challenges) worth doing?
A: Some are, most aren't. The penances that reward cosmetic helmets are worth doing for the drip. The ones that require you to complete a mission without taking damage are not worth the frustration—they force you to play in ways that hurt your team. I've seen a Zealot refuse to save a downed teammate because they were going for a "no damage" penance. Don't be that person. Only do penances that don't require you to play selfishly.

Q: Why does my gun feel weak?
A: Because it's not upgraded. Weapon upgrades in Darktide are tied to your character level and your weapon's base rating. A weapon with 300 base rating is about twice as powerful as a 200 base rating weapon. Check the rating number (the big number in the top-left of the weapon card). Anything below 300 is trash for Malice+. Also check the perks: "+10% damage to Flak Armor" is great. "+5% damage to Unyielding" is trash against most enemies. Reroll perks at Hadron's workshop once you're level 30.

One Last Thing

I know I've thrown a lot at you. But if you take away three things from this guide, make them: block and dodge constantly, learn the audio cues, and don't rush difficulty. Darktide is a game of compounding knowledge. Every death teaches you something if you let it. I've died more times than I can count—to trappers, to crushers, to my own stupidity—and each one made me a tiny bit better. Stick with it. The feeling of clearing a Damnation mission with a random team of players who just clicked? That's worth the grind.

And if you see an Ogryn walking toward the edge of a cliff, ping him. He means well.