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Road to Damnation: A Guide to Mastering Darktide's Damnation+ Difficulties

By Mezmorki

Do you want to improve your Darktide skills and be able to play Damnation difficulty and effectively contribute to the team? This guide covers a range of basic and advanced gameplay tips and strategies to help grow your abilities and confidently tackle Damnation. Welcome to the Hive.

Award

Created by

Mezmorki
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Category: Characters, Classes, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

May 10, 2023 @ 1:54pm

Jan 20 @ 11:21am

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Guide Index

Overview

INTRODUCTION

THE FIVE GOLDEN RULES

CONTROL & SETUP TIPS

KEY TERMINOLOGY

CHARACTER BUILDS & GEAR

THREAT ASSESSMENT

DEFENSE: PLAY TO STAY ALIVE!

OFFENSE: MELEE COMBAT

OFFENSE: RANGED COMBAT

TEAMWORK ESSENTIALS

ENEMIES: SPECIALISTS

ENEMIES: MONSTERS & ELITES

PACING & COMPLEX ENGAGEMENTS

TLDR (too long, didn't read!)

APPENDIX

Comments

INTRODUCTION

This guide is written to help newer players break into Damnation and beyond. It covers a range of topics from getting your controls setup and character builds, to core combat skills, team strategies, and how to deal with different threats. This is a no frills guide and I'm striving to be brief, despite their being a lot to cover!

As your skills in Damnation grow, you'll learn where you can deviate from this guide and still achieve success. But overall, it's intended to give prospective Damnation players a good foundation to work from.

If you have a question and/or want to share suggestions, please do so in the comment section.

THE FIVE GOLDEN RULES

Damnation isn't particularly difficult once you have a handle on the right mentality going into it. Sure, having good mechanical skills helps, but having the right attitude and mindset is the most important part of successfully finishing a Damnation mission. There are number of overarching rules when it comes to Damnation, which if you stick to them, will up your chances considerably. I'll refer back to these rules over the course of the guide, but here they are:

Rule #1: Stick together!

Darktide is a team game, and most importantly Toughness is regained when you're in coherency with at least one teammate. Toughness is basically free life that you can gain back. Be aware of where of where your teammates are. If someone splits off at a safe moment to look for loot, buddy-up. When the fighting starts, pick a spot (mark it with the tag location social wheel) and group up to fight.

Rule #2: Situational awareness is paramount

Runs are lost when surprises happen. The team gets surprised when they are NOT paying enough attention to the broader situation. Listen for the audio clues that Specials have spawned into the area, be aware of where you are potentially fighting and if cover can be found or a choke point utilized. Don't push ahead and aggro more enemies when you haven't cleared out the ones behind you yet. If teammates go down, get them up but make sure you don't succumb to the same fate!

Rule #3: Prioritize staying alive!

Dealing damage and attacking is great, but you can't do that if you're dead or downed. On an individual basis, the most important mechanical skills are related to staying alive and learning how to reduce your damage taken. Your goal each game should be to minimize the amount of incidental damage you take. Sprint, slide, dodge, block, and push are all tools to help you stay alive - learn how and when to use them.

Rule #4: Manage the Pace

Don't just stumble forward through the level mindlessly. Think about upcoming environments and the enemies that spawn and pick where and how to engage enemies. Sometimes its worth aggro'ing a distant pack of enemies so you can draw them into a more defensible area. Keep an eye on the health and ammo of your teammates and adjust the pace accordingly. Don't play risky.

Rule #5: Reflect on your Losses

Always reflect on what went wrong. You'll lose games of Damnation. But the only way to get better is to think about what went wrong and what you can do differently in a similar situation in the future. This is the process of learning.

CONTROL & SETUP TIPS

Setting up you computer and controls so that you get the most out of your equipment is an important pre-requisite for playing well. Overall, the most important thing is making sure you are comfortable and fluid with the controls and that they work effectively for you. What works well for one person may not for the next, but the items below provide a few suggestions to help on this front.

Optimize Your Controls

First, a few suggestions on ways to improve the default controls in Darktide:

Suggestion #1: Bind SPACE to Jump and SHIFT to Dodge

Basically, don't have Dodge and Jump on the same key (you can use keys other than jump or shift if you want). There ARE times when you want to be able to jump backwards over obstacles that are hanging you up, and it's hard to do this if dodge and jump are bound to the same key.

Suggestion #2: Bind SHIFT to Dodge and Sprint.

Did you know you can bind two different actions to the same key? With Shift bound to Dodge also have it bound to Sprint. Sprint activates when moving forward, and dodges only when moving to the side or back. This makes it quite intuitive. Again, doesn't have to be Shift-key, but you can put both functions on the key of your choice.

Suggestion #3: Bind the "tag only" key to an easy to reach button.

As we'll discuss below, tagging enemies is important, and you want it on an accessible button that won't mess your movement keys. Side mouse buttons are ideal for this. (Protip: Do NOT bind tag to your attack buttons for the love of the Emperor!)

Video and Gameplay Settings

Smooth computer speed performance is important. Nothing will throw off your ability to play effectively than major stuttering or FPS drops. Darktide can look incredible but don't let that hinder your gameplay effectiveness. Try to maintain a minimum of 60 FPS during hordes, and tune down your settings until you can achieve this.

Useful Mods for Improving Performance

There are TONS of amazing mods that are available for Darktide. When it comes to your actual performance in-game, there are a handful of Combat UI mods that can really help. I've been maintaining a curated list of mods in a pack located below:

Mez's Mod Pack
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2964086851
Some critical mods that I consider essential UI improvements and can help you along on Damnation include:

Numeric UI - so you can see exact numbers for you and your teammates (e.g. ammo count)
Player Outlines - greatly improves the visibility of your teammates during fights
Ration Pack - makes it clear how many ammo charges are remaining
Chat Block - nothing worse than typing and getting nailed by a stray enemy
Scoreboard - so you can reflect on your own performance accurately
For the Emperor and/or Tag Keys - so you can hit dedicated key to issue orders / voice lines

KEY TERMINOLOGY

There is a lot of terminology in Darktide that is sadly not explained well in-game. Below is a short list of some key terms to know (more terms are explained at the end of this guide).

Damage

The raw amount of a damage a weapon does. Each weapon does a variable amount of base damage to each different type of enemy armor (flak, unarmored, maniac, etc.)

Strength (previously called Power)

Increasing Strength of a weapon affects the damage, impact, and cleave of the weapon. +Strength is amazingly useful.

Stagger & Impact

The impact of a weapon determines how many hits it will take to stagger an enemy. Different enemies have deferent amounts of impact they can take before becoming staggered.

Cleave (Damage / Targets)

A melee attack has a certain amount of cleave damage and targets that can be hit simultaneously. This is also affected by the "hit mass" of the target, with heavier enemies being able to stop a cleaving attack short.

Rending & Brittleness

These effects apply a portion of the damage dealt to an enemy using the weapons base (unarmored) damage instead of Flak & Carapace armor types. E.g., 20% Rending being 20% of your damage is treated as unarmored damage instead of Flak/Carapace. Brittleness can stack overtime and applies to all future damage that the enemy takes (even from allies!), whereas Rending only applies to the original weapon's attack.

Chain / Chained Attacks

A chained attack is consecutive melee attacks that successfully hits a target. Missing a swing will break the chain. Chains start on the second successful hit.

Salvo

A sequence of successive ranged attacks before the weapon's recoil resets. Recoil resets if you pause firing for a moment and/or switch off and back to the weapon.

Weakspot Hits

Each enemy type has a weakspot, typically the head (or the Beast of Nurgle's yellow back patch). Hits on weakspots do more damage.

Critical Hits

A chance for a weapon to do bonus damage. Can be combined with a weakspot to deal a "critical weakspot" hit. Each class has a default crit chance: Psyker = 7.5%, Veteran/Zealot = 5%, Ogryn = 2.5%. Certain weapons also receive a bonus to crit chance based on an inherent property and/or the Finesse stat.

CHARACTER BUILDS & GEAR

This section of the guide covers some basic information, rules of thumb, and quick strategies for getting your character build and gear in good working shape.

To Meta or Not to Meta?

"Meta Builds" are those that are considered to be the strongest builds for a particular class at any moment in time. What is currently the meta is likely to change as subsequent game patches buff and/or nerf skills and equipment to refine the game's balance.

Here's one rule of thumb:

You do not need a meta build to succeed in Damnation or Damnation+

However, here's another rule of thumb:

Using a meta build or meta-adjacent build will make things relatively easier for you as you step up to Damnation.

All of this is to say that if you're trying to break into Damnation for the first time, do yourself a favor and have decent and effective gear so that you're not knee-capping yourself at the onset. It doesn't need to be perfect, or gold-rolled, or even fully meta. But you want a well-rounded build that will be effective.

Making an Effective Build

This section covers some BRIEF rules of thumb for putting together an effective build and knowing if you're in the ballpark of something that won't be handicapping you on Damnation.

Suggestion #1: Be level 30

This is so that you can utilize the full range of skills available to your class. Moreover, if this is your first character and push into Damnation, the hours spent getting to 30 is a chance to practice the fundamentals a bit more. You really want all the skill points available to you.

Suggestion #2: Focus on Key Weapon Stats (ignore the overall rating!)

Revised for Unlocked & Loaded Update: The Unlocked & Loaded Update changed the way item progression and weapon ratings work. Previously, I was often asked "what's a good weapon rating?" Adapting that question to the new system is "How good should my mastery be before going into Damnation+?".

Here's key things to know about weapons:

Each stat bar is currently capped at 80%.
A weapon's rating is tied to the maximum power level you've unlocked through mastery for an item. Unlocking level "500" allows you to increase the stats of a weapon to it's maximum values listed for that specific item.
A excellent stat for a key stat is 78-80. A good stat is 74-77. An acceptable stat is 70-73. Below 70 in a key stat is less ideal. Key stats frequently include Damage, First Strike, Penetration, Cleave Targets/Damage
Dump stats are those that don't matter as much to the weapon's performance, and often ratings in the than 50-70 range are perfectly acceptable. For many weapons, Mobility is a dump stat so long as you hit the maximum of dodge count.
Under the new mastery system, you don't NEED to have a 500-level item, but having "good" stat numbers on the important stats can make a big difference. Buy 500-level items from Melk that have good stat distributions while you work your way up the mastery track.

Suggestion #3: Use weapons that you're comfortable using

Being comfortable with a given weapon is essential. Weapon X might be the bestest, most meta-est weapon ever, but if it isn't intuitive for you to use and feels awkward, don't force it on yourself. Use gear that feels right to you and squeeze the most out of it that you can. That said, do think about a combination of range and melee weapons that can work together to cover the range of threats you'll be facing (more on this in the next section).

Suggestion #4: Weapons should be Orange Tier

Blessings and perks don't need to be perfect, but should be in the ballpark for weapon effectiveness. If you don't have certain blessings, don't worry about it You'll be fine. Getting the perks right is often a huge improvement (more on that below). But at least having an Orange-tier weapon means you're squeezing the most benefit out of the gear you're bringing to the mission.

Important Tip!: Under the new mastery system, mastery level 13-14 for a weapon is usually enough to get a few tier 4 blessings unlocked. That combined with good stats can give you something solid to work with.

Suggestion #5: Curios should Use Effective Blessings & Perks

There is a lot of nuance that can go into curio selection and the blessings and perks they employ, based on a given build. However, as a general rule of thumb, more is always better. So do yourself a favor and use Orange Curios. Below are some key suggestions as a starting point:

Tips on Selecting Blessings for Curios

+Toughness is most helpful on characters with higher base toughness, like Veteran. +Toughness is also helpful on builds that are able to quickly regenerate toughness (i.e. that have multiple talents or blessings to regenerate toughness on their own) and thus are able to keep it near max.
+Health is universally useful on most builds to increase longevity - especially on Psyker where the base health is relatively low. Most builds want at least one of these, but two is often great. +Health has a higher +% (mac of 21%) than +Toughness as well.
+Stamina is most useful on Psyker due to their low base stamina (recommend one +Stamina for most Psykers), extending their durability in melee, and often on Vet when taking low stamina weapons. +Stamina is also useful on builds geared around frequent use of sprinting. Overall, having more Stamina allows you to push and block much longer in order to get out of difficult positions. Additionally, some weapons have really strong push-attacks that will consume Stamina, and having more Stamina can be a huge boost to your power. Don't underestimate more stamina!
+Wounds has the least value in the long run, with the exception of Martyrdom builds. Sure, +Wounds lets you get downed more times, but doesn’t help in preventing you from going down in the first place. It may help transitioning to higher difficulties, but don’t rely on it.
General rule of thumb: Take one or two +Health and one or two +Toughness. Emphasize toughness on toughness-heavy builds. Psyker should take one +Stamina and two +Health.

Tips on Selecting Perks for Curios

Aim for two each of +Health and +Toughness across your curios to boost overall longevity.
Stamina Regeneration is universally useful to help you recovery stamina quickly and manage stamina during melee fights. Taking a few instances of this is usually good.
Round out perks with +Damage Reduction vs enemy types you struggle with. Gunners cover the most common source of elite damage (elite gunners and Ogryn Reapers) and is generally most useful. Sniper resist can also be great, especially on builds with lower base health and toughness - but this usually requires stacking at least two sniper resist perks to get much benefit.
(Less useful) Toughness Regeneration Speed boosts your toughness regeneration rate from being in coherency and reduces the delay when the regeneration starts after taking damage. This is only really useful on builds that rely on coherency (proximity to your teammates) to recover toughness. Taking 1 or 2 in these cases can help. There's a bug with toughness regen where the delay reduction doesn't take effect when enemies are in melee range
(Less useful) Cooldown Reduction is good for builds that rely on frequently spamming your career/ultimate ability - although if you're build has other tools for reducing cooldown the benefit may be marginal.

THREAT ASSESSMENT

Broadly speaking, there are a few different types of threats in Darktide, and I've listed these out below approximately in order of severity. Runs are more likely to end in a failure due to these categories of threats, generally at the top of the list. If you're trying to fine-tune a build, having an answer to the higher priority items can be helpful.

Threat Priority #1: Specialists (especially Disablers!)

At the higher difficulties, disablers (Mutants, Trappers, Pox Hounds) followed by snipers and then flamers/bombers are the biggest threats. Having a teammate or two disabled and pulled out of position can end a run and the best defense is being able to eliminate these threats quickly or have a safety net when they show up to buy yourself space.

Use +Maniac damage on weapons
Higher stagger weapons can be good for stopping dogs, flamers, trappers in their tracks.

Threat Priority #2: Ranged Shooters & Gunners

Masses of ranged shooters, gunners, and shotgunners can pose a significant threat during a run, as getting caught in the open can be a death sentence. Situational awareness is key to not getting into a bad position. However, your build should have a way to deal with this situation, either by having a ranged weapon able to provide some accurate fire to thin the crowd or a way to more safely close range and engage the shooters up close.

Accurate, longer-distance weapons can go toe-to-toe with shooters
Use +Flak damage on ranged weapons to dispatch foes quicker
Alternatively, have ways to safely/swiftly close distance and engage groups in melee

Threat Priority #3: Armored Elite Packs

Massed armored elites (Ogryns, Maulers, Ragers, etc.) are usually not a huge issue on their own. However, when they are mixed into larger hordes is where it can pose a challenge. Your build should have an approach worked out for how to deal with such targets, either through using a ranged weapon, blitz/grenade abilities, a safe melee option, or damage over time (DoT) effects.

Threat Priority #4: Hordes, hordes, hordes

Clearing out the hordes of Groaners and Pox Walkers. Usually should be melee based, as otherwise you'll consume a lot of ammo that would be better saved to deal with elites & specials. When you're comfortable fighting in melee combat, Horde Clear is lower priority.

Threat Priority #5: Monstrosities & Bosses

It is usually the niche builds that are able to handle monstrosities optimally. For most builds, it's going to require a group effort to kill the monster and being able to clear hordes and/or elites and specials around the boss is more important to keeping your team alive.

This guide will cover more specific strategies for countering these different types of threats later on. You never know when you might be the last one standing, and it will be hard to clutch and save the run if your build falls short. Think about what your build is suited for, and think about how you and your build can respond to each of the above types of threats. Focus on and practice that response.

Enemy & Armor Types

Without getting into exhaustive detail, knowing what armor types and unit class different enemies are is important, as it will affect what weapon perks and skills you might utilize together.

The chart below shows the intersection of enemy type and armor type. If you don't already, it's worth getting your head around this so that you know what perks or skills to select to help address a particular type of enemy.

Armor Type

Basic

Elite

Special / Monster

Unarmored

Groaner
Dreg Bruiser (head is Flak)
Dreg Stalker

-----

Scab Sniper

Flak

Scab Bruiser (head is Unarmored)
Scab Shooter
Scab Stalker (limbs are Unarmored)

Dreg Gunner (head is Unarmored)
Scab Gunner
Dreg Shotgunner (head is Unarmored)
Scab Shotgunner
Scab Mauler (head is Carapace)
Scab Rager

Scab Bomber
Scab Captain (Boss)

Infested

Poxwalker

-----

Pox Burster
Pox Hound

Maniac

-----

Dreg Rager

Dreg Tox Flamer
Scab Flamer
Mutant
Scab Trapper

Unyielding

-----

Ogryn Bulwark (Limbs are Carapace)
Ogryn Reaper (Torso is Flak, some Carapace on arms)

Beast of Nurgle
Chaos Spawn
Plague Ogryn
Daemonhost

Carapace

-----

Ogryn Crusher

-----

A few general recommendations following from the chart above.

Ranged Weapons Perks: Maniac & Flak Perks are frequently safe picks and will help you better deal with most disablers (e.g. Mutants, Trappers) as well as flamers and Dreg Ragers. Flak is great for dealing with nearly everything else.
For Melee Weapons +Damage vs Flak is a good pick, as you'll often be flighting Flak armored elites or basic troopers in melee range. Maniac is also generally useful.
Curios As mentioned earlier, if you struggle dealing with certain enemy types (e.g. snipers), adding 1-2 +damage resist versus that type of enemy can be helpful.

DEFENSE: PLAY TO STAY ALIVE!

Becoming proficient with the core combat mechanics in Darktide is a cornerstone of the game (obviously) and building your skills in these areas is essential for becoming comfortable on Damnation and beyond. Ultimately, your goal with respect to core combat mechanics is that these should become second nature. You should do them without having to the THINK about it anymore. At which point you are free to think more broadly about the greater combat situation and decision-making at that higher level.

So let's jump in!

Play Defensively and Learn to Stay Alive

This is the #1 one thing to master. If you're dead, you can't contribute to the mission. Learn how to respond to any given situation at the micro-level and focus on what you need to do in order to stay alive. Here are some critical tips:

Suggestion #1: Listen for the Whoosh

There is a "whooshing" sound effect that plays (a sharp air sucking sound) that plays when you are about to be hit by an enemy outside your field of vision. The instant you hear that sound, learn to hold block and also dodge to the side. If you're quick, you can even switch from ranged to melee and block.

Blocks work in a 360-degree arc, so if you hear the whoosh, block and you'll likely avoid the damage.

Suggestion #2: Dodge, Dodge, Dodge

When fighting in melee combat (and even up close with a ranged weapon out), get into the habit of dodging at a regular cadence. Dodging side to side messes with enemy tracking and reduces the number of hits that come your way.

Every weapon (based on mobility stat) will have a limit on the number of dodges that are effective. If you are using the Numeric UI mod (which you should use) it will display the effective dodge count.
When you exceed this limit, you need to pause for a second (0.85s) for the counter to reset. Using the Numeric UI will help you learn to track this and spot the difference between an effective vs ineffective dodge.
Be aware that when dodging stamina regeneration is paused!

Suggestion #3: Use your Pushes & Push Attacks

Practice pushing (hold block and click attack). Get a feel for when enemies are pressing in too much and when you can use a push to make space and setup an attack. Just remember that pushing consumes 2 blocks of stamina, so let your stamina regen.

Learn what your weapons Push Attack is (hold block and then click+hold attack) and use it as part of pushing.
Some push attacks do great single target damage (especially after the push staggered them) and others do wider attacks and are awesome against a horde. Learn to use it

Suggestion #4: Don't trade hits

Hit trading means just wildly swinging at enemies when they are swinging at you. Maybe they hit you first and you take damage and hit them back. If you see an enemy winding up an attack, it's better to block (and then push!) to avoid damage and stagger them than it is to try and sneak in a quick hit and risk taking damage. Don't do it. Along these lines, be mindful of whether you "have space" to charge up a heavy melee attack without taking damage and having your attack interrupted. Winding up for a grand slam is pointless if you can't do it safely.

Suggestion #5: Manage your Stamina & Toughness

These are critical resources for keeping yourself alive. Always be mindful of how much stamina and toughness you have (pay attention to these UI items!). Don't charge at a group of enemies when you don't have any toughness, or sprint all the way across the map to engage in melee and the not have any stamina left when you need it for a push. Generally, it's better to slow down a bit and wait for these to replenish before diving in.

As a rule of thumb, prioritize having your toughness maxed. Knowing what talents (or blessings) in your build generates toughness is essential. If you can keep your toughness topped off you'll minimize the amount of health damage you take and be able to stay in the run longer. If you take a hit, play more defensively (dodge back to make space, etc.) until your toughness is maxed again.

Technical details regarding stamina/toughness management:

Your current % of toughness remaining determines how much health damage you take from a MELEE hit (e.g. at 50% toughness if you take a 40 damage hit, 50% of that damage does directly to health).
Ranged hits always deplete Toughness fully first.
Toughness regens automatically when in coherency with 1+ teammate. There is a short delay after taking damage before this starts to regen. Toughness Regeneration Curio perk improves this.
Killing enemies in melee replenishes 5% toughness (all classes as of patch #14)
Stamina regeneration is paused when dodging.
There is a delay after dodging before your effective dodge counter resets (1-2 seconds).
There is a short delay, class dependent, before stamina starts to regenerate.
Pushing consumes stamina. Push attacks do not consume more stamina beyond the initial push.
Blocking melee attacks consumes stamina
+Stamina regeneration curio perks are often useful for keeping stamina topped off.

Suggestion #6: Wield the right weapon for the situation

Localized situational awareness, and knowing when to switch between melee vs. ranged weapon at the ready is important.
A common mistake is people keeping out their ranged weapon too much, particularly as enemies close range, and not swapping to melee fast enough.
Until you are comfortable dodging with a ranged weapon, it's much safer to default to a melee weapon when enemies are close, as you'll be able to block and push more effectively (not to mention killing them without needing to spend ammo!).

Suggestion #7: Sprinting and Sliding. That is the way

When sliding, your stamina does not deplete. This means that if you are sprinting, you should also be continually sliding in that direction as you'll be able to go further using less stamina.
When running towards ranged enemies, slide as they are preparing to shoot at you. This will often throw off their aim and let you close the final distance into melee ranged without taking damage or getting staggered.
If you're trying to get out of line of sight from ranged enemies, sliding will help avoid fire along the way. Important! If you're sprinting perpendicularly to an enemy line of fire (or even slightly towards the enemy) you will dodge ranged attacks!

Suggestion #8: Bunny hop out of the fire!

Fire is bad. It will instantly deplete your toughness if caught in it.
If you are caught in the fire, jumping as you escape the flames can help reduce the amount of burn damage you take.

Suggestion #9: Make Smart use of Space

Be aware of the environment you're fighting in. Pay attention to where mobs are coming from and use dodges to quickly reposition as needed. Try to keep enemies funneled towards you from as few directions as possible so you have room to "kite" around the space. This is essential if you get split from your team and need to work back towards them.
Be aware of where there are opportunities to engage enemies at a chokepoint or elevation drop/rise. Just make sure you don't get corned and watch your back at the same time!

OFFENSE: MELEE COMBAT

Melee combat is a cornerstone of the Darktide, and growing your comfort and skill level fighting in melee is paramount for success on higher difficulty levels. The previous section covered elements related to staying alive across a range of situations. But when it comes to melee combat, it is often the case that a good offense is the best defense. Being able to effectively dispatch enemies and manage enemy groups up close is key.

Understanding Melee Weapon Stats

The effectiveness of your weapons can be impacted significantly by the stat bars. Knowing which stats are critical to have at a high level, versus what the lower priority "dump stats" are. Below are the more common melee weapon STATS and you should know about them:

Typically High Priority Stats

Damage: Affects base damage, want this as close to max as possible.
First Target: Many weapons, especially those with strikedown attacks, have a bonus modifier on the first target a swing hits. This should also be as high as it can be.
Penetration: For weapons that specialize in anti-armor rolls, high penetration stats can add up to a fair amount of additional damage.
Crowd Control: Modifies damage, stagger, cleave and attack speed.

Typically Mid Priority Stats

Finesse: Affects weakspot and crit damage mods (not a huge deal) and weapon attack speed (can be helpful)
Cleave Targets: Affects number of enemies you can hit - often doesn't make a huge difference.
Cleve Damage: More useful stat, as it buffs the spread of damage a weapon does when cleaving across multiple targets.

Typically Low Priority Stats (can be a "dump stat")

Mobility: Affects spring speed, accelleration, dodge distance, and effective dodge count. Dodge count is more important here, but often a mid rating (e.g. 60-ish) is enough to hit the maximum dodge count.
Defense: Sprint cost, push cost, dodging. Not usually that critical.

Essential Melee Tactics

The following covers key tactics and strategies for effective melee play.

Suggestion #1: Learn your Weapon's Optimal Melee Attack Patterns

Every melee weapon has different types of individual strikes (vanguard, relentless, etc.) that are sequenced together in an attack pattern.

The first step is to understand what the different attack types do (i.e. single target vs. multi-target, which attacks do more armor damage, etc.) and then understand how you you can short-cut the attack pattern by alternating between certain light and heavy hits and/or "block canceling" (tapping the block key for a moment) to reset the pattern.

Certain patterns will give you much better results for horde clearing versus doing high single target or anti-armor damage. You can inspect your weapons details to see the attack types for each attack type.

Below are the distinctions between different types of melee attacks:

Relentless Attacks: Wider attack that damages and staggers multiple enemies - best option for horde clear.
Vanguard Attacks: Wider attack that can damage multiple enemies - decent option for horde clear.
Assassin Attacks: Faster attack, single-target, may have bonus weakspot modifiers. Low cleave.
Strikedown Attacks: Higher single-target damage attack, usually with armor penetration and a damage modifier. Worse option for horde clear.

Practice attack patterns for horde clear vs single target situations
It is often the case that a combination of a light then heavy attack (or the other way around) will yield attacks that are better suited for dealing with hordes, whereas other chains work better for single target. Figure this out for your weapon and practice opening up chains with the right type of attack to chain the right next attack to deal with the situation.

The guide below provides extensive details on all attack patterns:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2910081612

Suggestion #2: Advance Safely into Melee Range

Think carefully about how and when you are advancing into melee range.
Utilize terrain and cover to flank enemies if possible.
If you have combat abilities that allow you to close range quickly, that may open up new options but also risks (what if the team doesn't advance with you and you over-extend and get isolated!?).
If you don't have an opportunity to close range safely, stick with and support your teammates until you have a clear opening and/or the team as a whole moves up.

Suggestion #3: Control the Crowd and Make Space

Attacking requires a window of safety in order to land a hit and not take return damage. This is particularly true if using attack chains that rely on heavy charged attacks, as taking damage during your heavy attack wind-ups will cancel your attack.
Use dodging (i.e. backwards) to make space and keep enemies out of strike range.
Use pushes to make space to wind up an attack chain.
Circle the horde - dodge side to side to keep the horde in front of you and avoid letting enemies slip around to the side/rear of you.

Suggestion #4: Know how to Get out of a Bind

Getting surrounded by masses of enemies can be a recipe for getting downed. Some tips for avoiding or getting out of such situations:

Give yourself an "out". Don't get backed into a corner where you don't have an escape route. Fighting along a wall with open sides is better than getting boxed into a corner.
If trapped, use a push and follow-up with Blitz or Combat Abilities to create an opening to escape.
Don't be afraid to just block and hold your ground for a moment. Don't try to hack you way out. Give your teammates time to come to the rescue and stay alive.

OFFENSE: RANGED COMBAT

Ranged combat is a bit more straight forward compared to melee combat, but there are some key aspects related to it that are important to know, which will be covered in this section.

Understanding Ranged Weapon Stats

Same as for melee weapons, there are some important stats used by range weapons that are typically more (or less) critical to have high than others.

Typically High Priority Stats

Damage: Affects base damage, want this as close to max as possible.
Ammo: Most ranged weapons have ammo, and the more ammo you have the better. Generally you'll want this as closed to max as you can.
Stopping Power: Affects the Damage and Stagger effect of the weapon versus Flak, Carapace, Maniac, and Unyielding enemies. Important on weapons that focus on elite and special killing.

Typically Mid Priority Stats

Collateral: Affects the Stagger and Suppression strength of weapons, with additional bonuses versus Flak, Carapace, Maniac, and Unyielding in some cases. While it doesn't boost damage directly, it helps with controlling hordes and mixed groups of enemies.
Stability: Affects the recoil, spread, and sway of weapons. Can be important for being able to maintain accuracy. Single-shot, flow firing weapons are less dependent on this than more rapid firing weapons.
Reload: Some weapons, especially those with long reload times, can benefit from having a higher rating in this stat.
Range: Affects the damage falloff for weapons at longer distances.

Typically Low Priority Stats (can be a "dump stat")

Mobility: Affects spring speed, acceleration, dodge distance, and effective dodge count. Dodge count is more important here, but often a mid rating (e.g. 60-ish) is enough to hit the maximum dodge count.
Defense: Sprint cost, push cost, dodging. Not usually that critical.

Essential Ranged Tactics

Now we get to the good stuff. Below are tips for how to be most effective when engaging in ranged combat.

Suggestion #1: Don't Waste Ammo on Hordes

For the most part, hordes should be dealt with using melee weapons to both conserve ammo but also to give your team opportunities to maintain toughness (which you get from melee kills) and to conserve ammo for more important situations (i.e. dealing with specials or masses of ranged enemies).
The exception to this are weapons designed to deal with hordes, and especially mixed-horde situations (where you have hordes and elites/armor mixed in). Flamers, high ammo count stubbers, Force Staves, etc can be used more for hordes.

Suggestion #2: Share the Ammo!

Pay attention to how much ammo everyone has. If using the Numeric UI mod (which you should use!) enable % of ammo remaining. If others have less % ammo than you, let them pick it up.
If multiple players are low on ammo, make sure to let teammates more reliant on ranged weapons have a crack at picking it up first.

Suggestion #3: Use Grenades (Blitz) Abilities Proactively

Use your grenades when you sense the situation is getting bad. Its better to use a grenade preemptively to prevent a bad situation or prevent a player from getting downed, than it is to have to waste it in order make space to pick up a teammate.
Try to always save one grenade for a rainy day. Especially stun and other wide Area of Effect (AoE) grenades, which can be a life saver when you need to stagger enemies off an ally in order to pick them up.

Suggestion #4: Don't Get Tunnel Vision

Don't sit back with a ranged weapon and overly concentrate on sniping at far off targets.
It's easy to get sucked into headhunting games and not realize that enemies are outside of your field of vision about to attack you.
Maintain situational awareness even when concentrating fire. Drop out of ADS (aim down sights) and look around to make sure you're still in a safe position to shoot from.

Suggestion #5: Don't Rely on Partial Cover

Darktide isn't a cover shooter. Sure, there are things you can hide behind, but enemies will often shoot you through tiny gaps or hit your head if it's not sufficiently behind something.
Crouching down to use cover often doesn't work. It's better to get around hard objects or around the corner of map geometry, especially if you're trying to reload.

Suggestion #6: Reload Proactively

Generally don't wait until a magazine is empty before reload. If you fire off a few shots and have a second as you reposition, reload! Nothing is worse than going into a fight realizing you only have 3 bullets left in the mag.

Suggestion #7: Use suppression smartly

Shooting at enemies, and depending on the gun you're using, will cause them to duck behind cover, which can allow you to advance.
But keep the bigger picture in mind! Suppressing a few enemies and trying to advance when there are other enemies shooting at you won't turn out well.
Don't spray bullets just to cause suppression. It's rarely worth the ammo wastage. If you can't deal damage with suppressive fire, consider a different tactic to close range or support your team.

TEAMWORK ESSENTIALS

In Darktide teamwork is absolutely essential. The difference in felt difficulty between a team that works together, versus one that does not, is enormous. One or two players YOLO'ing off on their own can be disastrous and make life much more difficult for the other players, not to mention jeopardizing the entire run. If you're new to damnation, you likely have to work to do to improve your individual skills and decision making. But focusing on working as a team is paramount and will create opportunities to learn and grow. Here's the critical suggestions:

Suggestion #1: Stay together, maximize coherency bonuses

Being in coherency provides passive regeneration of toughness.
Every class has aura abilities that provide a bonus to other member of the team in coherency.
Being closer to one another means you can cover each others' back, help out in melee, if someone goes down teammates are near at hand to pick them up, etc.
If there is a lull in the action and a player splits off to look for resources (ammo, crafting supplies, etc.) buddy up and don't leave partners wandering off alone. Alone players will cause specials to spawn! Buddy up and if you start to engage enemies move back together as quickly as you can.
Don't attack far off, idle enemies if they don't need to be - especially if your team is already fighting closer threats. Nothing is worse than aggro'ing additional groups of enemies that didn't need to be engaged.

Suggestion #2: Tag Enemies, Especially High Priority Threats

Bind the "Tag Only" key to something easily usable. And then...
Use it!
Seriously. Your tag key is the #1 communication tool to call out threats. You can tag special and elite enemies through a dense horde. Alerting your teammates about incoming disablers is especially important - even more so if you are tied up and melee and not in position to get out your ranged weapon to deal with them.
Just seriously - learn to use the tag key! Tagging key enemies will save your teammates lives more than you'll ever fully realize.
DON'T under any circumstances bind tag to your attack or alt fire buttons. Auto-tagging your target in this way doesn't give you flexibility to tag threats and leave the them tagged (e.g. trappers or hounds running away and repositioning).

Suggestion #3: Be Smart with Team Resources (Ammo, Medkits, etc.)

Never forger when you are carrying health or ammo.
A sub-optimal use of medkits is better holding it unused if it might save a run. If there is a health station coming up (FYI these are always in the same location, so you can learn them) don't drop a medkit if you think you're team will make it to the station. But conversely, if it feels like the team is a bind and the group is losing health, dropping a medkit preventively to keep teammates' health up can save the run.
Medipacks won't heal corruption damage (except for Veteran deployed medkits IF they have the Field Improvision Talen). If a lot of your team has corruption damage, the healing potential of a medipack will be a limited. It may be worth saving it for a more challenging part of the mission and trying to limp along to a medic station instead.
During finales, holdouts, assassination fights, or other protracted engagements drop medipacks preemptively to keep the team's health topped off and provide a clear rallying point for the team.
Keep an eye on the team's ammo reserves, and drop ammo kits before you run out of ammo. If one player is out of ammo, and others have a workable amount left, you might hold off. Once two or more players are critically low (e.g. less than 20%) it's probably time to drop that ammo crate.

Suggestion #4: Prioritize Reviving Downed Teammates

Free from trappers! You can free teammates from the trappers web very quickly. If a teammate is trapped, rush to free them. Don't attack the trapper first in most situations - just get your teammate up!
Teammates that are down from health lost should be a priority for the whole team to get back up. Use your Blitz and/or combat abilities to create an opportunity to pick up your teammate. Grenades can stagger or stun enemies long enough for a pick up. Stealth abilities can be used to pick up downed teammates, etc.
Recognize when trying to revive a teammate is too risky and they should be abandoned. The only thing worse than a down teammate is more downed teammates. Downed teammates surrounded by ranged enemies are a particular challenge to rescue, as you'll become the target when you try to revive and then when your toughness breaks (and each time you take health damage) your revive attempt will cancel.
If a teammate fully dies, stay near where they died until they respawn (wait for the respawn counter to end). If you press ahead into a new zone before they respawn, it may push their spawn location even further ahead. In some cases you can even move backwards during the timer to force a closer respawn.
Move swiftly but safely, AS A TEAM, to rescue dead and respawned. Yes, you want to get your teammate back, but moving as a team is still important. Don't rush ahead to rescue a teammate if it means you might become cut off and become a casualty yourself.
You can drop a medkit next to a downed teammate to keep their temporary life up if you need to clear enemies before reviving them.

Suggestion #5: Pick a good place to fight

When you hear a horde starting to come in (music plays, you hear the horde sounds, etc.) use the tag wheel to callout a rally location to fight.
Pick places to fight that provide chokepoints to funnel the enemy and prevent your team from being surrounded or caught in the open.
However, don't pick a spot that backs your team into a corner. Be sure your team always has an out. Fighting along a wall that limits enemies to 180-degree is better than being in the open.
If a horde and/or Monster spawns, don't press forward. Its often better to fall back slightly to a defensible location to hold out instead of drawing more roaming enemies into the fight.
If you can wait at drop location that forces enemies to climb up a wall or edge to get to you. These are easy positions to defend.
If the current location becomes too challenging to hold (e.g. you're getting flanked, surrounded, too many elites pressing in, etc.), use your location tag to indicate a place to fall back to. Move as a team and fall back to more defensible areas.

Suggestion #6: Move the Objective

During objective sequences (hacking terminals, auspex scans, moving containers, etc.) move as a team and cover each other, especially the player managing the objective.
If someone starts to hack a terminal, stay next to them and keep enemies off of them!
If someone is carrying a container, guard them.
For Auspex scans, if you can coordinate it, have one player (or pairs) run the scanner and move around while the other players cover them.
For the kill plague tentacles objectives, each player should move to a tentacle end point, terminate it, and WAIT by the location until all the other tentacles have been killed. The tentacles respawn quickly on higher difficulties, and if a player leaves their position too early the tentacle might creep back and lead to horrible never ending tentacle cascade. Never allow the tentacle cascade.
For container lugging objective, know that you can hold attack and charge your throws to toss the container further! This will let you throw it up onto ledges where it might get it closer to an objective (or where a teammate can catch it). You can even jump + throw to get a little additional range.

ENEMIES: SPECIALISTS

We talked earlier about threat assessment and target priorities. We also discussed knowing how your equipment and talents position you to deal with different types of enemies. In this section, we will talk about specific types of enemies and some basic tips and tricks for how to counter them, and also how to deal with more complex engagements.

Dealing with Specialists

The followings are strategies for dealing with specific types of specialists, which are often the biggest threat to the team.

Specialist #1: Learn the Audio Cues!

Every specialist has audio cues that are highly directional when they spawn. Learn each type and practice getting in position to deal with them as they spawn and approach.

Specialist #2: Mutants - Dodge to the left

Mutants can be a big threat. The combination of disabling your teammates and then throwing them out of position (and doing damage) can be tricky. On higher difficulties, up to three mutants can be spawned at a time. It's essential to avoid then slay the mutant.
When a mutant charges at you, dodge left! Their reach to the left is shorter than to the right, so it's more reliable to dodge in that direction.
Put a way or obstacle a little ways behind you when getting set to dodge. After a successful dodge, the mutant will hit the obstacle, be stunned for a moment, and be in close range to melee down.
Special attacks (e.g. chain weapon shred attacks), damage vs maniacs, and right DPS weapons are key for bringing down mutants quickly.
If a teammate gets caught, kill the mutant ASAP before they start to damage your teammate through their toughness.
Mutants are a high priority for tagging!

Specialist #3: Pox Hounds - Push the Pounce

Dogs are very difficult to dodge, and their pathing is all sorts of whack.
When dogs start to leap at you, start spamming your push (hold block and click attack). With a bit of practice and getting the timing down, you'll be able to use a single push mid-leap and keep them from pinning you (and conserve stamina).
You can also melee strike hounds of midair before they hit you, but the timing can be trickier to learn.
Hounds are a priority for tagging. Due to their speed and ability to weave through a horde, they can be hard to spot and bring down. Keep them tagged and prioritize attacking them.
Ranged weapons with good stagger power (most higher damage weapons or those with stagger bonuses) can be used to stagger hounds and keep them stunned while you take them down.
If teammates get pinned by a hound, shoot it, push it (if close), and melee it

Specialist #4: Trappers - Listen & Dodge

Trappers aren't particularly tough or fast. Listen for their audio cues, tag them if you see them, and focus on killing them with ranged weapons. They aren't very tough.
The moment you hear the click of the net sound, they are about to shoot you. Immediately dodge to the side as perpendicular as you can from the trapper.
Worst situation for trappers is when they are buried in a horde. You probably have your melee weapon out. And you can't shoot them because (a) if you get stunned by the horde you won't be able to move and the trapper will get you; and (b) you often can't shoot through the horde fast enough to get the trapper. So you need to dodge the net!
Reminder that you can free your teammates from the trapper net very quickly. If they get netted, free them ASAP. There is a long delay between when the trapper will shoot a net, so you have time to free your ally first.

Specialist #5: Pox Bursters - Shove 'em Back

Box busters are fairly easy to manage but if not dealt with can cause a significant amount of damage to the team.
The safest approach is that when you hear a burster coming, ONE player from the team should move a bit towards it.
As the Burster gets close and right when it starts to jump, there will be glowing sparkles around it. As it jumps towards you PUSH it back, timing the push as its halfway through its leap. Immediately dodge backwards yourself.
The push will send it back and if successful the pushing player will not take any damage. Other teammates close by may still take damage however, which is why it's important to separate a little from your team.
If you see someone moving towards a buster to push it, NEVER try and shoot the burster. It will screw up the bursters ability to be pushed and end up exploding on your teammate!
The ONLY time you should shoot a buster is when they are far away from all teammates and you know you can kill it before it gets close.

Specialist #6: Scab Bombers & Tox Bombers

Bombers can be wildcard that can turn a manageable situation into an incredibly dangerous one if left unchecked. Multiple bombers can make large areas of ground dangerous, giving the team little room to maneuver. Even a single tox bomber, if left alive, can fill huge areas with gas making it very difficult to fight there.
Flames from bombers (as with barrels and flamers / tox flamers) instantly deplete your toughness and will continuously stun you. Use your dodges to get out of the flames as quickly as possible.
Tox Bomber gas will also quickly deplete your toughness. While it won't directly damage your health, it does add corruption. Moreover, the gas BUFFS enemies, making them tougher and faster. The Tox Bomber is sneaky to boot, so effort should be to made to locate and kill it before it creates a dire situation.
Bombers can throw bombs and get out of sight, making them tricky to kill when surrounded by other enemies. Try to make space and create an opening to take to them out at range before they run away and resposition.

Specialist #7: Snipers - Dodge & Dispatch

Snipers can be at times one of the more dangerous specials. They do a lot of damage (will deplete all your toughness usually and still do a bunch of health damage). In a mixed battle situation when surrounded by enemies at close range being able to take the out at range can be a real challenge.
The sound cue for snipers is pretty quiet. Looking out for the laser beam is your best bet to spot them initially.
The laser will lock onto you for a moment before the sniper takes their shot. When the laser is locked on, you'll hear the rifle wind up right before the shot. Dodge during that windup and you'll likely avoid the shot. If you can sprint and slide perpendicular to the shot that can also help.
If a sniper is tracking you, follow the red laser line and try to tag them. You can tag through hordes and other enemies usually, so tag so your teammates can clear them.
Best way to kill snipers, assuming you have a longer range / accurate ranged weapon, is to get behind a large piece of cover (e.g. around a corner) and then dodge out with your aim ready, and shoot them.
If you have a stealth ability, it's an excellent sniper counter. Use your ability to disengage from other enemies and line up a shot on the sniper.

Specialist #8: Flamers / Tox Flamers - Slide and Cleanse

These enemies often get up close before attacking, so you'll often be able to close into melee range quickly.
If they are actively flaming, slide at an angle towards them (but not directly towards them). Their flamers are usually either in a line or the tracking is slow, and sliding will help you close range quickly and get around their flames to melee or shoot them up close.

ENEMIES: MONSTERS & ELITES

Monsters don't pose too much of a challenge except when you're trying to deal with a monster and mixture of other enemies at the same time. This is when things get dicey. Here are strategies to help:

Monster Slayin' Tip #1: Deal with non-monster threats first!

This may seem counter-intuitive, but if dealing with a monster along with a mixed horde or packs of elites, focus on killing the horde and the elites first. If you focus on the monster, your team can get overrun easily by other enemies and it turns into a total cluster.

Monster Slayin' Tip #2: Learn to kite the monster

If a monster is focused on you, the best course of action is to play defensively. Hold up your block and dodge in circles around it (aka "Kiting it") to avoid as many attacks as you can.
Continue to kite the monster and let your teammates focus on dealing damage to it. If it switches targets, then switch to attacking.
Try to avoid dodging backwards in a way that lures the monster away from your team. Its an easy way to get separated from your team, especially during horde situations. Try to dodge in a circle or arc and stay near your team. Just be careful not to circle too tightly around the monster if your allies are close, as it's attacks hit wide and can catch your teammates too.

Monster Slayin' Tip #3: If a monster grabs an ally, stagger it!

Be cognizant of what weapons or abilities (e.g. blitz, combat abilities) can stagger monsters. Save these stagger effect for if/when a monster picks up a teammate. Unleash your stagger ability and the monster will drop your teammate.
Freeing allies from the Chaos Spawn is especially important. If a Spawn snags a teammate and is a bit removed from the rest of the team, they start to eat/gorge on the player and replenish the spawns health. If you can't stagger the Spawn, get close to it and it will often switch from eating to slamming the player, and you might be able to prevent some of its health regen.

Monster Slayin' Tip #4: Learn and avoid a monsters grab attack

When kiting a monster, its easy to quickly run out of effective dodges. Keep an eye on this and make sure you leave an effective dodge on hand to avoid a monster when it makes a grab attack.
This is especially important for the Chaos Spawn, as its grab attack can potentially lead to it feasting on the player and restoring the spawns health. The spawn winds up a big tentacle before trying to grab. Dodge backwards or to the opposite side of the spawn.

Monster Slayin' Tip #5: Pressure the Traitor Boss

The boss in assassination missions is most dangerous when they pull out their ranged weapon, which does a ton of damage to players. Always keep someone in melee range and attacking the shield to minimize their use of the gun.
Melee attacks do more damage to the shield in general, so the more people that can attack the boss at once the better.
When the boss winds up for a big heavy / slam attack, hold block. You'll get knocked back still, but won't take much damage.
Try to save a few medkits during the run. Drop them down early near where the boss drops into the arena and try to fight around the medkits . This will help keep the team's life topped up and let them focus on dealing damage.
Having 1 or 2 players focus on clearing the horde and/or specials is usually good.
When the shield breaks, try to have your high burst damage attacks/abilities ready to do as much as health damage as you can before the shield comes back.

Monster Slayin' Tip #6: Don't Wake the Daemonhost!

It sounds obvious, but seriously. Don't take the demon host. If you hear it, immediately start looking around and make sure you tag it, especially if you're under attack from other enemies or dealing with a horde.
I've never seen a situation where it's impossible to get around the Daemonhost. There's always a safe route past it. Deal with other enemies first if needed, so you have a clear way around it.
If the Daemonhost is triggered on you, just try to dodge in circles while holding block. Stay alive as long as you can to give your team a chance to kill it is possible.
When attacking a risen Daemonhost, melee attacks generally do more damage quicker - BUT being close to it raises your corruption. So it's a tradeoff between killing it faster or spending a lot of ammo on it.

Dealing with Elites

The followings are strategies for dealing with different types of elite enemies.

Elites #1: Ragers - Stagger & Kill

Ragers, especially in masses, and quickly overwhelm. If a pack of Ragers is attacking you, focus on defense (hold block and dodge back and towards allies) and buy time for your teammates to help out.
If you have weapons or abilities that can stagger enemies, use it to break their attack chains and create an opening to counter-attack.
Shooting them at range is usually a good option if you see them coming.

Elites #2: Maulers, Crushers, Bulwarks - Stagger / Penetrate

Utilize weapons and/or attack patterns that deal higher damage to Flak and/or Carapace armor.
For Maulers, aim for the body. The head is Carapace armored while the body is only Flak.
For Bulwarks groups, use grenades or abilities to stagger the group and break their shield wall, creating an opening to attack.

Elites #3: Gunners, Shotgunners, & Reapers

Masses of gunners can pose a significant challenge to the team. Your best approach is to use ranged weapons to kill them, unless you're able to flank and close distance without opening yourself up to their fire.
Ranged weapons that can cause suppression can also be used to force ranged elites into cover, allowing you to close range.
If you can't engage at range, use grenades or combat abilities to stagger or stun the group, or otherwise safely move into melee range. If all else fails, sprint slide towards the gunners in rapid sequence to close range while minimizing exposure.
if you find that you're frequently halving issues with masses of gunners, consider using a +Reduce Damage vs. Gunners Curio. This won't help with shotgunners, but it will help with Dreg/Scab Gunners (with the rapid fire guns) and Ogryn Reapers.

PACING & COMPLEX ENGAGEMENTS

As you gain more experience, you'll start to get a better feel for the pacing, timing, and flow of the mission. Managing the overall pace of progress through the mission is important. Knowing when to push quicker to get to Medicae stations or when to start conserving ammo if you team is getting bogged down is important. At the highest levels of challenge (Damnation High Intensity Shock Troop and Maelstrom Missions for examples), enemies and even specials are spawning in a nearly continuous stream. You have to be able to move forward (as a team!) while fighting at the same time.

Below are some tips for managing the mission pace as a team.

Suggestion #1: Pay attention to where Monsters Spawn

Monsters spawn in a handful of potential locations that are pre-determined in each map. As you play more, you'll notice these locations, and can also start to think proactively.
If you're dealing with a horde or large groups of elite enemies, don't push forward into a new zone that might trigger a monster spawn on top of what you're already trying to deal with.

Suggestion #2: Be Aware of the Horde Timer

Hordes spawn during a mission on a timer with a bit of variation. When you haven't had a horde in a while, know that one is probably going to start soon.
If you hear a horde forming group up and get to a defensible location.

Suggestion #3: Make Forward Progress, but always as a Team

At the higher difficulty levels, you'll constantly be under attack. If you don't make forward progress you'll get mired down in a location and eventually start to run out of ammo and health.
While you don't want to dally around, you shouldn't be rushing through the map either. Stick together as a team, but realize that the longer you take, the more enemies you'll have to deal with over the course of the mission.

Suggestion #4: Know when to Pivot

Either individually or at a team level, knowing when to pivot out of a difficult situation can save a run. This harder to do if the team isn't on comms, but using the tag wheel to call out a location can be helpful.
Essentially, if you're team is exposed and getting surrounded by a mix of hordes, elites, and specialists all the same time, the number one priority should be to fall back or otherwise move to a more defensible area where you can't get surrounded.
Use combat abilities and grenades to make space and buy yourself and your team time to reposition and reset.
Don't be afraid in dire situations and as a team to fall back a ways if needed. Making forward progress is important, but if you're going to risk a wipe its better to fallback and regroup.

Suggestion #5: Be Cognizant of Teammates' Playstyle and Pacing

If a teammate is YOLO'ing off way ahead of the rest of the group, don't try to rush and keep up if it will result in further splitting of the group. If a far ahead teammate goes down, not only are they surrounded by enemies but there's probably a wall of enemies still between you. It can be better to wait back for your teammate to just respawn and calmly deal with threats along the way.
If there is a teammate that is lagging behind, often its because they are getting "pinned" by mobs that are spawning in close to them and preventing them from being able to sprint and catch up. Rather than wait for them, drop back and lend a hand. It will save everyone time and reduce the chances of someone going down.
Don't expect your team to play around you. Instead, focus on playing around them. As you get a sense for what your teammates are doing (are they rushing into melee? standing back to snipe at ranged enemies? focusing on crowd control over killing?) think what you can best do to compliment their playstyle and reduce risk to the team overall.

TLDR (too long, didn't read!)

If this is way too long for you, below is a list of just all the recommendations & suggestions by topic.

The Five Golden Rules

Rule #1: Stick together!

Rule #2: Situational awareness is paramount

Rule #3: Prioritize staying alive!

Rule #4: Manage the Pace

Rule #5: Reflect on your Losses

Control & Setup Tips

Suggestion #1: Bind SPACE to Jump and SHIFT to Dodge

Suggestion #2: Bind SHIFT to Dodge and Sprint.

Suggestion #3: Bind the "tag only" key to an easy to reach button.

Use an Effective Build (doesn't need to be "meta")

Suggestion #1: Be level 30

Suggestion #2: Focus on Key Weapon Stats (ignore the overall rating!)

Suggestion #3: Use weapons that you're comfortable using

Suggestion #4: Weapons should be Orange Tier

Suggestion #5: Curios should be Orange Tier

Prioritize the Biggest Threats (and know how your build deals with each!)

Threat Priority #1: Specialists (especially Disablers!)

Threat Priority #2: Ranged Shooters & Gunners

Threat Priority #3: Armored Elite Packs

Threat Priority #4: Hordes, hordes, hordes

Threat Priority #5: Monstrosities & Bosses

Play Defensively and Learn to Stay Alive

Suggestion #1: Listen for the Whoosh when you're about to be attacked!)

Suggestion #2: Dodge, Dodge, Dodge

Suggestion #3: Use your Pushes & Push Attacks to make space

Suggestion #4: Don't trade hits

Suggestion #5: Manage your Stamina & Toughness

Suggestion #6: Wield the right weapon for the situation

Suggestion #7: Sprinting and Sliding. That is the way

Suggestion #8: Bunny hop out of the fire!

Suggestion #9: Make Smart use of Space

Melee Combat Suggestions

Suggestion #1: Learn your Weapon's Optimal Melee Attack Patterns

Suggestion #2: Advance Safely into Melee Range

Suggestion #3: Control the Crowd and Make Space

Suggestion #4: Know how to Get out of a Bind

Ranged Combat Suggestions

Suggestion #1: Don't Waste Ammo on Hordes

Suggestion #2: Share the Ammo!

Suggestion #3: Use Grenades (Blitz) Abilities Proactively

Suggestion #4: Don't Get Tunnel Vision

Suggestion #5: Don't Rely on Partial Cover

Suggestion #6: Reload Proactively

Suggestion #7: Use suppression smartly

Teamwork Essentials

Suggestion #1: Stay together, maximize coherency bonuses

Suggestion #2: Tag Enemies, Especially High Priority Threats

Suggestion #3: Be Smart with Team Resources (Ammo, Medkits, etc.)

Suggestion #4: Prioritize Reviving Downed Teammates

Suggestion #5: Pick a good place to fight

Suggestion #6: Move the Objective

Dealing with Specials

Specialist #1: Learn the Audio Cues!

Specialist #2: Mutants - Dodge to the left

Specialist #3: Pox Hounds - Push the Pounce

Specialist #4: Trappers - Listen & Dodge

Specialist #5: Pox Bursters - Shove 'em Back

Specialist #6: Scab Bombers - Dispatch Quickly

Specialist #7: Snipers - Dodge & Dispatch

Specialist #8: Flamers / Tox Flamers - Slide and Cleanse

Managing Monsters Safely

Monster Slayin' Tip #1: Deal with non-monster threats first!

Monster Slayin' Tip #2: Learn to kite the monster

Monster Slayin' Tip #3: If a monster grabs an ally, stagger it!

Monster Slayin' Tip #4: Learn and avoid a monsters grab attack

Monster Slayin' Tip #5: Pressure the Traitor Boss

Monster Slayin' Tip #6: Don't Wake the Daemonhost!

Mission Pacing and Forward Progress

Suggestion #1: Pay attention to where Monsters Spawn

Suggestion #2: Be Aware of the Horde Timer

Suggestion #3: Make Forward Progress, but always as a Team

Suggestion #4: Know when to Pivot

Suggestion #5: Be Cognizant of Teammates' Playstyle and Pacing

APPENDIX

Technical Terminology and Inner Workings

Darktide features a lot of technical terms and behind the scenes calculations on how certain mechanics or numbers work. Very little of this is actually explained in the game as part of assembling a character build. There are many nuanced and counter-intuitive mechanics, and going into them all is beyond the scope of this guide. However, I'll point out a few key things:

#1 Many effects from abilities are "multiplicative" in how the calculations work.
Take, for example, two instances of reduced sniper damage perks on curios (20% reduction on each), is not a 40% reduction in damage (that would be additive). Instead, you take damage (eg. 100) and multiply it by the net damage received each time, in this case you'd take 80 damage (20% reduction) with one curio, but the second now reduces this 80 damage by 20%, resulting in 64 net damage. So there are some diminishing returns to stacking too much of the same effect.

#2 Blessing descriptions are often misleading or under explained.
For example, Fire Frenzy and Deathspitter Blessings say that do +X% damage for a period of time after a close-range skill. No where does it say that these ALSO stack up to 5 times! These blessings are way better than they appear going by the description. Another is the use of the terms "Rending" and "Brittleness" which aren't explained at all in-game. These effectively degrade armor to a certain degree, allowing weapons to do bonus damage to armored targets.

There are a few excellent guides that provide more detail on terms and mechanics, listed below:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2892198053
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2892028185
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2890393386

What about breakpoints?

You may have heard people talking about Breakpoints. Breakpoints are how many kills it takes to kill a particular enemy, and people care (in theory) because if you can do X% more damage you might hit a breakpoint such that it requires less hits (melee or ranged) to kill a given enemy, saving both time and ammo.

Personally, I don't worry about breakpoints too much and being an effective team member on Damnation does NOT require hitting breakpoints. It's a fun thing to pursue and research if you're looking to really min/max a build, but it is certainly not required.

The reason I don't care about them, is that while it's a cool notion in theory, in practice there are so many additional sources of damage that affect enemy health pools that you are rarely facing a situation where a breakpoint would actually matter. Between cleave damage and bullet penetration carrying across multiple targets, AoE damage, DoT damage, what your teammates are doing, etc. you're rarely facing a clean condition where breakpoints are going to consistently matter. Don't worry about it.

Gear Progression and Mitigating RNG

Gear progression in Darktide is currently heavily dependent on RNG. It's an unfortunate design direction for the game. I wrote a separate guide about how to minimize the anguish in gearing up. Check it out below:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2964461108

Finding Good Builds

If all else fails, and you just want to find a good build, head over to the Darktide Discord server, go to the channel for your class, and ask for build recommendations. Darktide at Games Lantern[darktide.gameslantern.com] provides a very handy build tool that people can link to in providing a recommendation:

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