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Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s September 29 Update Will Rework Golden Toughness and Class Builds

The scheduled free update will also rearrange talent trees, retune weapons, and partially reset loadouts when connections change.

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A glowing blue-eyed Servo Skull above the text "PATCH 1.12.5"

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will receive a sweeping balance pass on September 29 alongside the free Depths of the Damned update. The biggest system change will remove Spillover Immunity from Golden Toughness, while every class will receive talent-tree adjustments and several weapons will be retuned. Fatshark detailed the changes in its Steam balance preview. Beyond the balance work, the update will send strike teams into the Water Cartel’s domain through the new Spillway mission and add six new weapons.

Golden Toughness will still offer extra protection, but it will follow the same damage rules as regular Toughness. A single point of Toughness will no longer fully absorb an otherwise lethal hit, giving the defensive abilities built around the mechanic a clearer tradeoff in high-difficulty missions.

Golden Toughness changes will also affect enemy attacks

Poxburster explosions will use distance-based damage falloff, dealing 100% damage within 3 meters and 20% at the edge of the 6-meter blast radius. Sniper damage spillover will be reduced by 50%, while Ogryn Crushers will be less likely to target players who are already overwhelmed. Scab Maulers will also use their overhead attack slightly less often.

Several abilities will receive compensation or tuning alongside the system change. Veteran’s Voice of Command node Duty and Honour will raise its Toughness bonus from 50 to 75. Zealot’s Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude will no longer require full Toughness to provide bonus Toughness, but its pulses will fall from 7 to 5 and its crowd control will become more limited after the first tick.

Talent trees will need fewer stat nodes

The four original classes are getting layout changes intended to make key talents easier to reach without spending as many points on basic stat nodes. Players may need to rearrange loadouts when the update arrives because removed talents can break connections in existing builds. Fatshark described the resets as partial rather than full resets.

Ogryn will see its base Toughness rise from 75 to 125, while Towering Presence becomes an Iconic passive and its coherency radius drops from 75% to 50%. Dominate will provide 15% Rending instead of 10%, Keep Shooting’s Reload Speed bonus will rise from 15% to 20%, and Soften Them Up will increase Enemy Damage Taken from 10% to 15%. Indomitable’s cooldown will fall from 30 seconds to 25 seconds, and its subnodes will no longer be exclusive. A new Found Some More talent will replenish 1% ammo every 15 seconds.

Ogryn talent tree in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Zealot’s base Toughness will increase from 100 to 125, while Blood Redemption becomes baseline with a lower Toughness bonus from kills. Until Death is being rebuilt as a Core Keystone, extending its duration from 6 seconds to 8 seconds and adding the Holy Revenant and Zealous Pilgrim branches. New talents will reward fighting at close range, protecting allies, and attacking burning or electrocuted enemies.

Zealot talent tree in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Psyker’s tree will merge two clusters around its Auras and make several lower branches easier to reach. Base Critical Chance will increase from 7.5% to 10%, while Mind in Motion will also grant 5% Movement Speed. New options include Focused Warp for 15% Warp damage, Peril Equilibrium for generating Peril with non-Warp hits, and Psykinetic Grip for 20% more damage with Brain Rupture, Smite, and Assail. Psykinetic’s Aura will now trigger from Specialist and Elite kills by the Psyker rather than allies in coherency, with its duration reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.

Psyker talent tree in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Veteran will gain a new Guardsman Iconic passive that grants 25% Ranged Damage. Sharpshooter will become another Iconic passive, restoring 1% ammo after an Elite or Specialist kill with a 5-second cooldown. Survivalist will remain available as an Aura with lower ammo restoration values, while Close and Kill will provide more Movement Speed. Voice of Command’s Duty and Honour node will rise from 50 to 75 Toughness to offset part of the Golden Toughness reduction.

Veteran talent tree in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Arbites, Hive Scum, and Skitarius get targeted tuning

Arbites will gain a quality-of-life change for Nuncio-Aquila, which will slowly follow the Arbitrator after a tap or fast deployment. Lone Wolf’s damage bonus will increase from 10% to 20% when the Cyber-Mastiff is not selected.

Hive Scum’s Rampage ability will be reduced from 50% Strength to 35%, and Sample Collector will switch from percentage-based bonuses to fixed 0.5-second and 1-second values. The Skitarius will receive a mix of adjustments after its recent Blitz pass. Advanced Combat Doctrines will include 25% Reload Speed for 5 seconds after use, Readiness Doctrines will be removed, and Chordclaw Strike’s Axial Slash will scale from 500 damage to 300 across 6 targets instead of retaining its full value against every target.

Several Skitarius nodes will now scale with Capacitance charges. Voltaic Motivator will gain 5% Attack Speed plus another 5% per charge spent, while Voltaic Overcharge will provide 25% Toughness per charge used. Higher Purpose and Noospheric Command will cost or provide different Capacitance values, Voltaic Burst will have a 12-second cooldown instead of 15 seconds, and Ammunition Deposit will increase its ammo bonus from 10% to 15%.

Thunder Hammers are getting the largest weapon pass

Ogryn’s Slab Shield and Battle Maul will receive new light-attack routes, stronger second and third targets, more blocking during Heavy 2 windups, and extra ways to reach the planted shield special. Relic Blade’s sprinting Heavy Stab will lose some baseline power, then build up to three 8% Melee Strength stacks while sprinting.

Thunder Hammers are receiving a broad offensive pass. The Thrust Blessing will lose some of its bonus, but the weapon family will gain an inherent Melee Strength bonus that reaches three stacks of 12.5% while charging a Heavy attack. Several Heavy and Light attack profiles will deal more damage or gain better Finesse and armor modifiers, while the Crucis and Ironhelm marks will receive faster attacks, new chains, improved hitboxes, and more ways to use their movesets against groups.

Several weapon Blessings that previously required a Perfect Block will now trigger from any Block. Counterattack will last 6 seconds and refresh during its duration, Energy Transfer will also refresh, and Lightning Reflexes will move its Melee Strength trigger to a normal Block while keeping its stun effect tied to a Perfect Block. Combat Axes, the Achlys Mk VIII mark, the Ogryn Pickaxe, and the Crowbar will also receive Shield Breaker changes.

The update will arrive with the free Depths of the Damned content, which will add the Spillway mission and new weapons alongside its balance work. The new combat rules will be a particularly clear test for defensive builds that currently depend on Golden Toughness to survive the hardest encounters.

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