Warhammer 40K: Darktide ‘Unlocked and Loaded’ to Overhaul Weapons in a Big Way
Warhammer 40K: Darktide has a major free update, Unlocked and Loaded coming next month, and it will overhaul weapons, progression, and more in a big way.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide has spent the last year and a half on a “we’re so back” tour, ever since they rebalanced combat back in 2023. And the we’re so back vibes continue with a big free update coming next month. Unlocked and Loaded will bring a new mission, a new group finder, and most importantly, a long-awaited overhaul to weapons, perks, progression, and so on.
This one’s going to be big, folks. There have been two Q&A’s so far, that’s how in-depth Fatshark is going to try and pave the way for the new changes.
Unlocked and Loaded
Perhaps the biggest change is the new “mastery system”. In the video below, the Professional himself, Alex Jordan, walks everyone through the upcoming changes in a brief overview.
Essentially weapons are going to be changed so that now, the more you kill, the more you unlock. The blessings, perks, and marks are all kind of getting folded into one system. Which is good news for those of you who have already unlocked a ton of this stuff, you’ll have plenty of weapons mastered.
And they’re grouping them together into weapon families as well, so you won’t have to keep hunting for the exact right version of a lasgun. Though, you know, you’ll probably still do that anyway. The Devs outlined, more specifically, how the new system will work on a Q&A post on the Darktide Steam page.
“Unlock Your Potential: With the itemization overhaul, players will master their weapons over time, unlock blessings, weapon marks, and perks, and tinker with their gear to increase its Power. This overhaul will help players carve a clear path to get the weapons and gameplay they want.
As players use a specific weapon, they’ll gain more experience. This unlocks new blessings, perks, marks and a special weapon cosmetic along the way via the reward tracks. As players progress, the potential quality and stats of the weapon also increase.
This system will merge all weapon types/families, meaning players will be able to freely switch between different marks of the same weapon type. For example, once you own an Infantry Lasgun, you have the potential to unlock all the possible marks for this weapon and switch from one mark to another.
– Fatshark
Now obviously, a huge change like this, means a lot of reorganizing. Players can expect to see their blessing libraries folded into mastery progressions – you may well end up with a weapon mastered. Curios will have their locks removed. And in most places, it seems the devs are trying to make the transition as smooth as possible. We won’t know how smooth until the release gets here, obviously, but take a look at the Q&A for a more in-depth look at some of your hard hitting questions.
Of course, new players will have less to worry about. Either way, Darktide will hopefully keep things fresh!
