What do Darktide’s weapon symbols mean?
In Warhammer 40,000: Darktide even the weapons that aren’t Obscurus-class are pretty obscure. Little bit of Imperium humor for you there.
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Something that’s frustrated a lot of players in the Warhammer 40,000: Darktide beta is not knowing exactly what a weapon is like before it’s in our hands. When you see a new autogun or chainsword in the armory there will be a couple of words to sum up its strengths, like Mobile or High Capacity, some numberless bars for attributes like damage and reload speed, and then a trio of icons that are as inscrutable as any of the Chaos runes drawn on the walls of Tertium Hive. It’s hard to know what you’re buying.
Though there’s no mouseover text on these icons in the beta, press the V key while you’re in the menu to inspect a weapon and you’ll bring up an information screen that provides their names, if not descriptions. (The combo attacks of melee weapons are also shown here.) Some are plain enough, and a few will be familiar to those who played Fatshark’s previous Warhammer game, Vermintide 2. Others are still straight-up inscrutable. I’ve spent some time in the Meat Grinder testing room to figure out just what all of the weapon symbols and stats mean.
Ranged weapon symbols
The three symbols for each ranged weapon describe, from left to right, its primary attack, secondary attack, and special action. These are mapped to left-click, right-click, and mouse-five (likely a thumb button) by default. The bullets beneath a gun’s symbols tell you whether that firing mode is:
A single bullet followed by an arcing trail means it’s a projectile weapon that will drop over distance and needs to be aimed high. The one that looks like a shotgun shell next to a stream of pellets? That’s a shotgun, yes. It’ll fire in a cone.
Here are the many other symbols you’ll see on ranged weapons.
Hip Fire:Shooting without aiming first. If there’s a lightning bolt symbol in this position instead, that means this is a charged weapon and holding down attack increases the damage of the shot.
ADS (Aim Down Sights):Will zoom in when aimed. As with Hip Fire, if there’s a lightning bolt symbol in this position then holding down attack will charge up the shot, as with certain patterns of lasgun and force staves.
Braced:Some guns, like shredder autopistols, don’t do the aim-down-sights zoom when you right-click. Instead they switch to a tilted, two-hand-hold that doesn’t zoom but does seem to increase stability a little.
Torch:A flashlight, for our American readers, not the thing you combine with pitchforks when forming a mob.
Special Ammo:Has ammo types you can switch between. Normally seen on shotguns where it lets you alter the firing spread to a flat horizontal line rather than a broad cone. Perfect for dealing with a horde if you aim at their heads.
Vent Heat:If you played Sienna in Vermintide, you’ll be used to the need to manage heat. In Darktide it’s more likely to be a plasma gun that’s about to cook your goose than a wizard’s staff, but the principle is the same.
Strike/Bayonet Attack:While switching to a melee weapon is basically instantaneous in Darktide, switching back to a ranged weapon takes time. Gotta ratchet that slide to keep the machine spirit happy. A weapon with a strike attack will be able to deal with the sudden appearance of a single weedy enemy behind you without having to go through that rigmarole.
Bash:Like Strike, but a staggering attack that doesn’t do much damage. Some melee weapons also have a bash as a special.
Melee weapon symbols
The first symbol represents a weapon’s light attack, the second its heavy attack (triggered when you hold down the attack button), and the third is its special action, mapped to mouse-five. Make sure to bring up the full details by pressing V, because melee weapon combos often include different attacks that won’t match that symbol.
Strikedown:A vertical slash that does more stagger.
Relentless:A horizontal slash with a decent amount of cleave for dealing with multiple targets.
Vanguard:A diagonal slash somewhere between Strikedown and Relentless in terms of utility.
Assassin:A slash with increased Weak Spot damage. Aim for the head, or somewhere unarmored.
Parry:Holding down this special will let you block, then automatically riposte to counter-attack enemies who melee you.
Punch:You can probably figure this one out for yourself.
Activate/Defensive Stance:Indicates a secondary mode, like revving up a chainsword’s blade, or placing an ogryn’s slab shield to use as cover.
Special Melee Attack:An individual attack that isn’t part of a combo.
What do the item rating and stats mean?
-Warhammer 40K: Darktide tips-Darktide classes guide-Darktide system requirements-Can you play Darktide solo with bots?-Darktide curios guide
Every weapon in Darktide has a rating number. The higher that number, the more points will be spread across its attribute bars. That doesn’t mean all its bars will be higher, however. Though a higher rating often means a better weapon, sometimes those extra points won’t have been spent wisely. Keep an eye out for high-rating weapons with low damage bars in particular.
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As for what those attributes mean, some are self-explanatory, like reload speed, but others are a little more opaque. Here’s what the more confusing ones mean.
Jody’s first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia’s first radio show about videogames,Zed Games. He’s written forRock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue,GamesRadar,Zam,Glixel,Five Out of Ten Magazine, andPlayboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody’s first article for PC Gamer was about theaudio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he’s written aboutwhy Silent Hill belongs on PC,why Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, andhow weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.
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