If you’ve been looking for an excuse to get back in and battle heretics in Warhammer 40k: Darktide, your wait may not be much longer. Developer Fatshark has announced a massive new update for “late April” that’ll bring a slew of new Penance challenges, a new progression system, new enemies and conditions, and more updates.
The biggest update by bulk is certainly the addition of progression options. Per the official unveiling announcement, there’ll be more than 200 new Penances, 100 new rewards, and a new progression system. The new progression tiers sound a lot like similar games’ battle passes and the like, with “tiers” unlockable through penance points providing new rewards. In addition, if you want to flex a specific achievement, there’ll be achievement titles visible to other players.
“There was one main driver behind reimagining the whole penance system: giving players more agency in Darktide,” the announcement explains. “We wanted to add fun and meaningful ways for players to earn more cosmetics, and give them new ways to challenge themselves.”
The new updates give the rewards system “a more center stage position” so players will be encouraged to earn and use them. Meanwhile, the challenges are meant to be “more player-driven and less focused on the grind,” and the devs hint that some of them are pretty crazy, claiming to be excited to see players tackle them.
To mix up the gameplay as well, there are a few new threats being added. “Pox Gas” doesn’t have much details yet, but the devs say “don’t breathe too deeply” when encountering it. Surely, the new Drex Tox Bomber, with its new Blight Grenades, may have absolutely nothing to do with it. In the meantime, in the world around Darktide, the devs have also added “several puzzles across Tertium Hive for players to discover and solve.”
Plus, a few new quality-of-life updates are hinted at. A major one is the “Personality Scourge,” letting players trade ordo dockets to update some minor character traits like “background, height, name, and voice.” The penance point UI is updated, too, so you can grab the new shinies and keep track better.
There’s no precise date on the update, even if it’s been teased for a while now on social media, but the title of the post claims it’ll be released later this month.
