Darktide Hotfix #80 (1.9.4) rolls out with class tweaks, captain health cuts and crash fixes

Fatshark is rolling out Hotfix #80 (version 1.9.4) for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. The update lands as a follow up to the recent stability-focused hotfixes and concentrates on class balance adjustments, enemy health corrections, and a string of crash and cosmetic fixes. For context on the prior push, see the coverage of Hotfix #79 (1.9.3).

Patch Notes – 1.9.4

Class Balance

Fatshark says the previous patch helped diversify builds and evened win rates, but a few outliers needed to be adjusted. Key changes by class are listed below.

• Arbites
  • Arbites Vigilant
    • Duration 10s -> 12s
  • Retaliatory Force
    • Attack Speed 10% -> 15%
  • Castigator’s Stance While the defensive power is appreciated, the Ability was being used too frequently, so its Cooldown has been adjusted.
    • Cooldown 45s -> 50s
  • Walk it Off Uptime and effectiveness were too strong compared to similar nodes.
    • 15% over 3s -> 10% over 3s
• Veteran
  • Covering Fire
    • Duration 3s -> 6s
  • Lock and Load
    • Clip Size 15% -> 25%
  • Redirect Fire
    • 2% -> 2.5%
  • Kill Team
    • 5% Damage -> 7.5%
  • Duty and Honour The long duration plus the low cooldown on Voice of Command gave this effect excessive uptime.
    • Bonus Toughness Duration 15s -> 10s
• Zealot
  • Punishment
    • Impact 5% -> 8%
    • Duration 5s -> 8s
  • Pious Cut-Throat
    Cooldown Regeneration lowered because it was easy to maintain uptime.
    • 100% for 2s -> 75% for 2s
  • Riposte
    • Melee Damage 4% -> 3%
• Psyker
  • Inner Tranquility
    • Peril Reduction 6% -> 8%
  • Kinetic Presence
    • Damage 7.5% -> 10%
  • Psykinetic’s Aura Came out of the previous patch too strong and caused very low Ability Cooldowns.
    • Cooldown Regeneration 100% for 3s -> 60% for 5s
• Ogryn The Ogryn can still be very tanky without heavy investment, so defensive nodes were buffed to encourage more defense-focused builds.
  • Stay Close!
    • Toughness Increase 15% -> 20%
  • For the Lil’Uns
    • Cooldown 30s -> 20s
  • Feel No Pain (Keystone)
    • Stack Replenish Rate 3s -> 2s
  • Get Stuck In
    • Duration 4s -> 6s
  • Delight in Destruction
    • Stacks 4 -> 6
    • DR per stack 8% -> 5% (32% -> 30%)

Enemy Balance

• Scab Captain health changes:
  • Uprising from 24000 to 20000
  • Malice from 32000 to 24000
• Dreg Captain health changes:
  • Uprising from 21000 to 17500
  • Malice from 28000 to 21000

Dev Note: Fix for unintended health increases, this change restores Captain health to intended levels.

• Lowered spawn chance for the Scab Plasma Gunner during events.

Fixes

• Crash fixes
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when rendering in-game icons and portraits.
    • Dev Note: Commonly encountered when switching loadout in the operative screen or browsing barber options.
  • Fixed a crash which could occur if two players started the Auspex minigame at the exact same time.
  • Fixed a rare crash when trying to equip items to an operative.
    • Dev Note: Affected players with old loadout preset data. As a result of the fix, some players will see their operative loadouts deleted.
  • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when voting for a mission started while a player was sacrificing weapons.
  • Fixed a crash when loading icons in modify appearance and when switching to a loadout with a previously equipped item that has been deleted.
• Cosmetic Fixes
  • Corrected colors in the naming of the Veteran “Scavenged Kantrael MK XF Flak Helm” headgear cosmetics for items previously labeled Green and Red.
  • Fixed facial hair clipping with the Psyker “Krieg Witch Mask” headgear.
  • Fixed backpack accessory clipping with the Zealot “Pilgrim’s Jerkin” upper body cosmetic.
• Lawbringer Mk IIb Power Falchion
  • Tweaked Light attack ranges to align them, slightly increasing the reach of Light 1.
  • Smoothened the windup of the Heavy 2 attack animation.
    • Dev Note: Thanks to player aroth68 for reporting this.
• Catachan “Devil’s claw” Sword
  • Fixed incorrect third person animation played during certain Heavy attack windups on mk IV and mk VII.
• Fixed an issue where Time to Kill would proc on non-damaging backstabs like Fury of the Faithful impact hit.
• Fixed True Grit applying the wrong amount of Health damage.
• Fixed Psyker Charged Strike electrocution damage scaling with the Empowered Psionics Keystone damage boost.
• Fixed Remote Detonation not receiving extra charges from buffs or mission modifiers like the Enhanced Blitz Maelstrom modifier.
• Fixed Crystalline Will still dealing corruption when canceling the Perils of the Warp explosion, for example by quelling Peril through Venting Shriek.
• Fixed Steady Grip failing to trigger after weapon Special actions with certain weapons.
• Fixed Penance unlock popups during missions sometimes showing wrong information.

Players can expect these changes to take effect as the hotfix finishes rolling out across platforms. For ongoing coverage of Darktide updates and previous hotfixes, consult the linked prior report above.

Share thoughts or reports on the changes and follow for more updates on X, Bluesky, YouTube.