Veteran: One Shot, One Crusher

This build goes all-in on using the Lucius Mk IV Helbore Lasgun to kill a Crusher on Damnation with one clean headshot.

Introduction

This setup starts out begins with using a well-rolled Lucius Mk IV Helbore Lasgun (with the +25% Carapace Damage and +10% Elite Damage perks) to kill Crushers in three non-critical headshots. Activating Executioner's Stance and scoring a critical hit headshot on a Crusher tagged with 2 stacks of Focus Target! (plus your other talent choices) boosts your damage enough to drop it with a single shot.

To take advantage of this, this build aims to maximise your critical hit chance while working around the Mk IV Helbore's clunkiness. Your Helbore is built to blast max-powered shots; your melee and grenades are chosen to control the hordes and thereby give you the space to take your shots. You are a glass cannon. Make sure you're comfortable with melee or else you will suffer.

Note: Most of the testing was done using a Helbore with 80 Damage and 73 Stopping Power. Test your Helbore in the Psykhanium to make sure you can hit the same breakpoints.
Note 2: I recorded the Psykhanium clips before Secrets of the Machine God, so the colours for critical hits and weakspot hits are swapped.

Terminology

Come back here if you forget what an abbreviation meant.
• Bolded text - Talents
  
• Italicised text - Stats, Perks, and Blessings
  
• Crit - Critical Hit, Critical Strike
  
• TDR - Toughness Damage Reduction
  
• BP - Breakpoint, the amount of damage needed to do something
  
• xSBP - x Shot Breakpoint, having enough damage to kill the target in x shots where x is an integer (ex. 1SBP meaning One Shot Breakpoint)
  
• DPS - Damage per Second
  
• ADS - Aim Down Sights
  
• OOS - Out of Stamina
  
• ES - Executioner's Stance ability
  
• ES Bonuses - The 25% Ranged Damage and 25% Ranged Weakspot Damage boost from ES, plus the 10s of +20% Power from Marksman and 5s of +10% base Damage from For the Emperor!
  
• FT - Focus Target! keystone
  
• n FT - n stacks of Focus Target!
  
• n RF - n stacks of Redirect Fire!
  
• MF - Marksman's Focus keystone
  
• n MF - n stacks of Marksman's Focus
  
• DShot - Deadshot talent
  
• PStrikes - Precision Strikes talent
  
• xDmg - +25%/+10% x Damage perk

Equipment

================ Ranged ================

----- Stats -----
You're looking for maximum Damage and Stopping Power. Having a high Charge Rate stat on your Helbore will let you make the most out of Executioner's Stance and the talents activated by it, especially since the Mk IV has the slowest charge rate of the Helbores. It's not necessary to have it maxed out to hit the Crusher 1SBP, but it will feel much better to use overall. Ammo is nice to have to increase your magazine size but can be easily sacrificed; Shock Trooper and Survivalist will keep your reserve ammo topped off throughout the mission. Dump Stability because it has no practical effect on Helbores.

(Stopping Power, Damage) > Charge Rate > Ammo > Stability

----- Perks -----
You need the CrpcDmg and EliteDmg perks to reasonably hit the Crusher 1SBP with the main build. With the glorious itemization update in Unlocked and Loaded, you can have both every time. Some of the alternative MF builds I have can forgo EliteDmg while still being practical, so you can try out these alternative perks.

1. +25% Unyielding Damage to melt Monstrosities
   
2. +25% Maniac Damage for headshotting Flamers and finishing off Mutants with the bayonet

The benefits of +25% Flak Damage, Mauler and Shotgunner bodyshot BPs, are covered by ElitesDmg.
Weak Spot Damage and Critical Hit Damage both only affect the bonus damage, not the total damage done by a weak spot or critical hit. This means the final damage boost is always less than what's stated. It can still shave off a few MF or FT, so it's not the worst thing to keep if you're too broke to Refine.
----- Blessings -----
The only blessing you need is Surgical. This build thrives with a high crit rate, and Surgical allows you to guarantee a critical shot with 10 stacks (7 if you have Deadshot active).
Then take Weight of Fire (WoF). If you want to be silly, take Hot-Shot or Sustained Fire (SF).
WoF is the best overall; nothing else lets your Helbore clear out a room of Elites quite like that increased charge rate, especially since this is the slowest mark. As stated in the Charge Rate stat section, it will also let you make the most out of moments of opportunity. Think about how long a Beast of Nurgle stays turned away from you; faster charging lets you unload more into its weak point.
Hot-Shot gives a bit of cleave. Helbores have 3 cleave, which can penetrate a few trash mobs. Bumping that up to 4.5 lets you punch through Scab Bruisers, more trash mobs, and Dreg Gunners.
As a (much) less optimal but still useful blessing, SF lets you build up more Surgical stacks before firing and can let you reach the Crusher 1SBP without EliteDmg. It also lets you skip FT as long as Kill Zone (KZ) is active. To make the "most" out of SF, you'll have to pause after each salvo to start another one, but this DPS increase is realistically only relevant against Monstrosities.

Showcasing SF and KZ. The current active Stimm is a Concentration Stimm, which was just to recharge ES faster to speed up testing (so damage is unaffected).

================ Melee ================

Your melee weapon's job is to deal with hordes. Feel free to skip this if you already have one you're comfortable with.

I prefer the Mk I Sapper Shovel. Shovels are great at controlling and good at killing mixed hordes. The Mk I and Mk VII Shovels have wide, sweeping heavies; this gives them more cleave and stagger (and therefore crowd control) than the Mk III Shovel. The Mk I has faster heavies, and its poke (Special Attack, SA) can interrupt Mutants, Ragers, Maulers, and Crushers on headshots. The push attack also does a lot of damage, even against armoured targets.
The Mk VII Shovel's folded attack (SA) can deliver a stupid amount of damage against a single target, but that's why you brought a Mk IV Helbore; here, it'll mostly be for Mutants and lone Elites/Specials.
I built my shovel for full horde clear capabilities. If you want to be not as... radical, feel free to swap out one of the blessings for Uncanny Strikes and UnarmouredDmg for Maniac/Unyielding/EliteDmg. I find that Decimator lets me chew through mixed hordes fast enough, so the main things I'm losing from not taking Uncanny are anti-Carapace damage and rending for grenade bleed. Well, I got a gun built exactly for that (and if it's just one target, it's still good enough anyways) and I didn't go all-in on grenades. Skullcrusher also lets you debuff bosses if you hit them after someone else staggers them, so it can lead to some funny focused fire moments.
Oh, and if you make a Krieg shovel joke I'll slam your balls in a waffle iron.

----- Alternatives -----
You're looking for weapons that perform well even without investing into melee talents. The Assault Chainswords and Shock Mauls are my preferred alternatives for their speed and movesets. Despite their insane killing potential, I dislike using Power Swords here since you're already a slow, fat karker.
Chainswords have good horde clear speeds that don't get crippled by Bruisers. They're decent against Elites, and the revved attack (SA) saws through Mutants. I swap between these and Shock Mauls depending on my mood.
Shock Mauls are strong generalist tools that only suffers against Unyielding. They beat up hordes, smash skulls against single-target, and can even open Bulwarks with the cattle prod (SA). It's a jack of all trades, and its clear speed isn't crippled by mixed hordes.
I no longer recommend the Devil's Claw Swords. Their main strengths are the fast poxwalker clear and flashy parry, which can even protect against Crusher overheads. The issue is the cleave damage against flak. Doing a third of the damage when Dreg Bruisers show up is not the move.

================ Curios ================

The main focus here is just getting more stamina for DShot.
Two +3 Stamina curios and one +21% Health curio with three Health perks and one Sniper Resist to survive two Sniper/Poxburster hits. Triple Stamina for chads. For perks, I prefer Stamina Regeneration.
For builds without DShot, it's up to personal preference. I use one each of Stamina, Health, and Toughness with the same health breakpoints.

Talent Tree

================ Talents for the Breakpoint ================

Taking Precision Strikes (PStrikes), Superiority Complex, Rending Strikes, and Bring it Down! gives your Helbore the Crusher 3SBP with all headshots (2SBP with two crits).
The magic comes from activating Executioner's Stance (ES). This, in addition to taking Marksman and For the Emperor!, pushes your crit headshot damage just under the Crusher 1SBP. Applying 3 stacks of Focus Target! (FT) is the final boost needed to hit the 1SBP (only 2 FT with 5 stacks of Redirect Fire! active).
Because a crit is required, take Deadshot (DShot) to increase the chance of this working.

================ Starter Subtree ================

You have two choices here:
Go left for Longshot, Exhilarating Takedown (ET), and the Health boost node
Go middle for Close Order Drill, Confirmed Kill (CK), and the Stamina node.

The main benefit of going left is Longshot; it can help you reach Crusher and Mauler BPs beyond 12.5 meters. Damage falloff isn't a concern due to the Helbore's inverse falloff. ET is a good source of Toughness regeneration and TDR. However, its TDR stacks multiplicatively, so three stacks means 1 - (0.9^3) = 27.1% TDR. In addition, it requires you to hit mostly headshots. As you will see in the Breakpoint Breakdown, there are a good amount of enemies you can kill with a fully charged bodyshot. Having ET heavily pushes you towards only headshotting enemies, which can backfire if your aim isn't the best during hectic situations. Having easy access to Volley Adept is nice, but unnecessary due to Shock Trooper. The health boost can save a curio perk but is otherwise inconsequential.

Close Order Drill surpasses the TDR from ET as long as your team sticks together, which I find easier to maintain than chaining headshots. It stacks additively, which means 33% TDR. CK gives double the amount of Toughness as ET without requiring a headshot, and 2/3 of it is fed to you over time. This means you can kill the Elites and finish off the shooter trash while still regenerating Toughness, which ends up being just as good as ET without needing to chain consistent headshots. Plus, the Stamina node helps DShot

================ Blitz ================

Shredder Frag Grenades are an amazing generalist tool. They'll stagger enemies and give you space when getting overwhelmed, and two of them will clear a room of everything besides Ogryns (due to damage from bleed stacks applying non-linearly, 6 --> 12 is a much bigger deal than 0 --> 6).
Krak Grenades are good for dealing with Bulwarks and can stagger Monstrosities but are redundant for Crushers.
Smoke Grenades are too expensive point-wise to even consider in the main build.

================ Other Talent Effects ================

When you still have the ES bonuses up, a crit headshot will almost one-shot a Scab Mauler if you don't have EliteDmg. Having 5 RF helps you meet that BP more consistently when they're up close.
PStrikes gives bayonet 1SBP for Flamers without needing FT.
Note: I prefer Kill Zone over Opening Salvo now (see Nightmares and Visions changelog entry) but am too lazy to redo all the screenshots.

Talent Tree - Flex Talents

================ "Flex" Talents ================

The talent point requirement to hit the Crusher 1SBP is incredibly expensive, so there's not many talents you can take out.

1. The Bigger They Are...: If you time it correctly, you can one-shot a Crusher and quickly snipe a nearby Elite/Specialist to extend ES. With this talent, you won't need to scramble to refresh ES. Not having this makes dealing with Crusher trains harder; however, those don't happen every minute, it's fair enough to want to be more effective in general cases. I keep it mainly for comfort and thematic purposes.
   
2. Demolition Team: Frequent grenades usage is not required in this build, but grenade regeneration is incredibly powerful. Only consider changing this if you're not consistently playing in missions with a lot of Elites/Specialists or if every teammate you have is allergic to coherency (this is usually not the case; you're the one lagging behind if this happens every time).
   
3. Shock Trooper: While you won't be going ammo positive throughout missions as often as before Path of Redemption, the Helbore is still generally ammo efficient. This may be overkill if you only play in teams that don't use much ammo, such as having a premade with some staff Psyker friends. Even in this case, you'll lose out on the extended magazine size. I found myself reloading much more often without it. You could try to squeeze in Volley Adept to mitigate this, but I'd rather spend the point here to have more ammo and TDR due to opportunity cost.
   
4. Kill Zone: +15% damage is great, as long as your dodging is on point (since blocking still removes the bonus). The main benefit is acting as a pseudo-FT when you ping the wrong target and can't build up stacks in time. Notice how this is just an alternative way to hit the BP instead of being the main damage boost to rely on. It falls off quickly when the situation goes sideways, and 8 seconds is a long time when a wall of Elites is marching towards you.

================ Alternatives ================

1. Counter-fire: This lets you easily deal with shooter trash. Synergises with Catch a Breath since you can regenerate toughness while picking them off. Plus, it still helps with extending ES after a Crusher kill. Shooters are everywhere and die in one uncharged headshot, as opposed to needing to find a Specialist with the same BP (such as a Scab Bomber) or needing to charge up half a shot (such as against a Dreg Gunner). Just make sure you watch your stamina.
   
2. Stamina Regeneration Boost node: This helps with DShot uptime and melee pushing more often.
   
3. Opening Salvo: It's free crit chance, but it's a minor boost. You already have 30% from Veteran's base crit chance and DShot, so you only need 7 stacks of Surgical to guarantee a crit, which is 2.1 seconds of ADSing with Tier 4 Surgical. Opening Salvo shaves off 0.3 seconds for the first 20% of your magazine; for a Helbore with >=50 Ammo this is about four fully charged shots. This would be pitiful, but Shock Trooper extends this bonus to any free shots within that, so it's actually a decent option.
   
4. 5% Melee Damage Boost node: The melee boost lets you one-chop Scab and Dreg Stalkers. Even with an 80 Damage Helbore, you can't reach the 1 bayonet BP without the node. Only consider this if you have an unconditional love for one of the following talents:
   
5. >>>> Close Quarters Killzone: This also helps with BPs and helps when you're low on FT and RF stacks and makes up for losing For the Emperor! in the second half of Marksman's active time. This is a solid choice, especially since it's a multiplicative damage boost; however, it takes two points to reach this, so it's just too expensive to include.
   
6. >>>> Duck and Dive: Dancing between shots turns into another source of stamina regeneration. Some people swear by it, but I find the additional benefit is not worth two points; Target Down! restores enough stamina for me.
   
7. >>>> Reciprocity: This helps keep your crit rate high when you're shooting quickly (building up less Surgical stacks) and when you're OOS (no DShot bonus). It will also help out your melee, especially if you took a melee with high finesse such as the DClaw.
   However, it's difficult to keep stacks up if you're playing in the backline. Gunners/Reapers won't always activate it when you dodge their shots, so you're mostly relying on just dodging Shooters. Generally, I found that I could keep 2-3 stacks, which is half of the crit chance from DShot. I did not find this worth two points. It's best used in the alternative builds without DShot.

================ Forgone Talents ================

• Get Back in the Fight!: It seems like this would be a mini oh-♥♥♥♥ passive to save you when you're out of position, but it doesn't actually do much even in those situations. You're also using ES, so you should really just learn to have better positioning unless you want to watch the rescue screen. Catch a Breath isn't great, but it isn't as useless as this.
  
• Fire Team: Since you're already ammo sufficient with Shock Trooper, you might think that it'd be worth getting more damage. However, this requires two additional points to go from Shredder Frag Grenades to ES. It's only one point if you path through Krak Grenades, but that loses the 5% ranged damage node below Frags (which nullifies the benefit of Fire Team) and trades the powerful all-round utility of Frags for niche Kraks, which massively overlaps in purpose with your Helbore.
  
• Focused Fire: Having 8 stacks makes hitting BPs much easier. The only issue with that is that it's highly unoptimal to hold stacks like that (see the Stamina subsection in Gameplay Advice). Though in fairness, 8 stacks also gives you another +4.5% damage from RF since that bonus is easily refreshed, but which talents did you give up for that? Grenade regeneration trumps a situational Fire Team any day.
  
• Determined: Suppression makes it so your aim sways all over the place while enemies are firing upon you. This is disastrous for headshot-orientated weapons, so why do none of these builds have it? It's because Helbores have native suppression resistance.
  
  Demonstration in the Psykhanium with Gunners and Shooters.
  

Talent Tree - Alternative Trees 1

================ Marksman's Focus ================

You could swap FT for Marksman's Focus (MF) and still maintain the Crusher 1SBP, but MF stacks are a pain to build up with low RoF guns, and you're losing out on FT's subnodes. Bad ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥' idea for DShot.
However, DShot isn't necessary for the 1SBP, and you won't lose stacks for jittering like a cracked out rabbit as long as you can hit headshot kills every 6 seconds.

----- Losing Deadshot -----
This version is greedier but doesn't need to stack Stamina, so you have more freedom with curios and talents. DShot was mainly here for consistency on chained shots, and taking it with MF almost necessitates taking Tunnel Vision (which is more expensive than just going with FT).
By skipping that, this build can focus (kill me) on grabbing more generalist talents, namely Demolition Stockpile and Counter-Fire. Having consistent, reliable grenade regeneration is great for Frags since you can use them often. Without the drain from DShot, you won't be punished for taking out shooter trash. Clearing out shooters is trivial when they're highlighted, and it makes the match smoother.
In addition, having high stacks of MF gives more damage than regular FT usage. Realistically, this is only a benefit for incomplete weapons with low stats, but it's nice to know.
Since followup shots are much less likely to crit, you can't rely on crit bodyshot BPs as much in this version.

----- Long Range Assassin vs Camouflage -----
Long Range Assassin (LRA) has higher potential, but Camouflage makes consistently having high stacks easier. A Mk IV Helbore with EliteDmg hits the Crusher 1SBP with ~8 MF in this build. LRA gives a safety cushion for losing stacks but needs to claw its way back from zero stacks. The obvious answer is to just not lose stacks, but that's much easier said than done when juggling the abysmal swap speed while engaged with a horde.
LRA also punishes you more strictly when you're off by 1-2 stacks. LRA users need to score an additional headshot before reaching the BP, while Camouflage users just need to stand still for a second (which you probably are already doing to line up the shot or get the previous headshots).
Essentially, LRA is an extreme pick that heightens peaks and lowers the floor. It'll be easier to maintain stacks for the BP against a Crusher train and gives a bit more boss damage, but it struggles when you've dropped stacks from engaging in melee or repositioning.

----- Verdict -----
This version has a much easier time hitting the Crusher 1SBP when you don't have enough Mastery to Empower/Refine your Helbore (if you're feeling spicy, you could even sneak in ♥♥♥♥♥ in Their Armour!).
The reload speed from MF rarely helps maintaining ES and makes Shock Trooper just a bit less necessary, but it overall is unremarkable.
The key difference is that you exchange the need to manage DShot for the need to consistently hit headshots. If the Crushers catch you by surprise, you can't just whip around and ping them; you may need to farm a Poxwalker first.

================ Non-Deadshot Focus Target ================

This is the (relatively) chill build. It avoids both hassles from maintaining MF stacks and from managing stamina for DShot, but requires more setup through Surgical stacks for the Crusher 1SBP. Think of the main build as a big game hunter, while this build is a typical Elite hunter that can dip into anti-armour.

The pictured talent tree has a free point. I recommend the Stamina Regeneration Boost node. It loses some usefulness from not being paired with DShot but is still a powerful QoL overall, especially if you take melee weapon that relies on push attacks. I use the push attack quite often with the Agni Shock Maul.
Field Improvisation is a good choice for team support. Being able to hold an area with extra Zealot Immolation Grenades or Ogryn nukes makes completing objectives much smoother.
Speaking of grenades, stacking up on grenade regeneration by also taking Demolition Stockpile can be funny. With this build, however, I wouldn't recommend it. You have neither Grenade Tinkerer nor the Bolt Pistol's Lethal Proximity blessing, so there's no blast radius increase. It's by no means a bad choice, but you could do so much more if you committed to a grenadier build instead of trying to shoehorn it here.

================ Smoky Infiltrating MF ================

For the sneaky snipers out there, this version takes advantage of Fatshark math ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to hit the Crusher 1SBP with just CrpcDmg (within 12.5 meters)! In terms of general gameplay, the backbone are Infiltrate's subnodes Low Profile (LP) and Surprise Attack.

----- Fatshark ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ -----
Most damage boosts in Darktide are additive. Some sources are multiplicative, which means that it retroactively increases all of your other boosts as well. The Strength boost from Marksman is one, and Close Damage from Close Quarters Killzone (CQKZ) is another. CQKZ is too expensive to grab with ES, but only takes one point with Infiltrate. Having more multiplicative damage is a massive boon to the 1SBP, since it can let you skip Rending Strikes and EliteDmg.

----- Infiltrate -----
Surprise Attack gives a massive 30% damage bonus, which is almost as good as ES. The issue is its uptime; 5 seconds isn't very long, but it's long enough for our purposes.
LP adds 10 seconds of reduced threat to our ability, which effectively means you're invisible for over double the time. Pseudo stealth makes it easy to build up MF stacks through Camouflage and trivialises completing objectives. A word of warning though, enemies that ignore you will go after your teammates. Even with the slot system, you still need to nail those ranged Elites/Specialists before your teammates get turned into Swiss cheese. Hitting those shots is the difference between being the selfish ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who got their team killed and being the crackshot who kept the team alive. Be aggressive!

----- Other Points to Note -----
I took Smoke Grenades to save points. While they aren't as flexible as Shredder Frags, Smokes are still a good defensive tool. Throw them at your feet and make sure you see the buff icon on your HUD, since that "concealed" state is what stops enemies from shooting and confuses Disablers. Think of it like a mini Psyker bubble!
The main issue here is that MF takes an additional travel node compared to FT. While the decreased stamina regeneration delay is strong, it means you lose grenade regeneration. This is borderline trolling for a Veteran build, but it's something you can live with. You'll have to drop Camouflage or LP to grab it, and both of those are powerful subnodes. You could also skip Iron Will if you are a god gamer and never get hit, but if that were the case you probably aren't looking for builds through Steam guides.
Agile Engagement works on bayonet kills, but its a lot less powerful here than with the Mks IIIa and V. It may come up once in a while, mostly against bosses when some Poxwalker tries to swipe your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It's still a lot better than Serrated Blade since bleed stacks below 4 are effectively useless (outside of Mercy Killer Knife).
Shock Trooper and Surgical mean you'll be fine without Survivalist.

Talent Tree - Alternative Trees 2

At this point, these builds only hit the Crusher 1SBP through technicality. You won't be chaining oneshots like in the main build. These are more for curiosity and comprehensiveness than recommendation, so feel free to skip them.

================ Infiltrate Frag MF ================

An iteration of the previous build. Worming from Frags to Infiltrate to MF is expensive, but you have stronger generalist talents in lieu of fully focusing on the Crusher 1SBP. Dropping Bring It Down! is a net loss of 10% damage, so you'll need more MF stacks.
Not much else to say.

================ Voice of Command ================

Going from Frags to Infiltrate was expensive, so what if you could skip Surprise Attack? If you have a Helbore with just CrpcDmg, you can hit the 1SBP with the red nodes, 13-15 MF, and Bring It Down!. This requires LRA, but VoC with Duty and Honour provides such a massive safety net that you won't have much of a problem maintaining stacks.

This build is the easiest one to use in general, but it's the most difficult to get the 1SBP with. You only get it within 12.5 meters because of CQKZ, but VoC pushes back everyone within 9 meters. As a Crusher is standing back up, the head isn't visible until around 3 seconds have passed. To get the oneshot, either you'll have to shoot someone else while you wait and hope for a crit, or you'll just sit there twiddling your thumbs while you build up Surgical stacks.

================ Voice of Command Grenadier ================

With EliteDmg, you can replace Bring It Down! with ♥♥♥♥♥ in Their Armour to hit the 1SBP without needing to take the +25 Toughness travel node. It's not bad to have more Toughness, but that point could be used elsewhere. I already grabbed a few grenade boosting nodes, so I rounded it out with Demolition Team for even more Auric Frag grenade spam. Feel free to put the point somewhere else, such as Field Improvisation or Desperado (it wouldn't be a grenadier build anymore but eh). Grabbing One Motion would be great since you're swapping weapons so often while chucking grenades.
If you recall the grenade tangent from the Non-DShot FT alternative build, this may seem familiar. In essence, this version is the inverse situation where it's a generalist grenadier build that shoehorns in the Crusher oneshot.

Gameplay Advice

================ Taking the Shot ================

Say you've seen a Crusher. To kill him in one shot, you need a crit and ES active. If possible, ADS and build up Surgical stacks to guarantee the crit, then activate ES just before taking the shot.
Don't worry about getting this every time. Realistically, you won't always have the time to guarantee the crit, and even when you can, you may just miss the head (especially if the Crusher moves erratically). You also might have just tagged the wrong Crusher. A lot can happen on the battlefield.

Here's me hitting the one-shot, only to miss it on the following Crushers. They still died pretty quickly, so the only loss was to my ego.

================ Stamina ================

Since you're using DShot with ES, take at least 2 +3 Stamina curios (you can take 3 if you're not a ♥♥♥♥♥; I'm a lil ♥♥♥♥♥). Mk IV Helbore has a hipfire accuracy akin to pissing with morning wood, which means you'll be ADS'd for basically every shot. These Stamina curios, in addition to the +1 stamina node in the starter subtree, lets you liberally snipe shooters without going OOS when Elites/Specialists arrive.
The Target Down! node under FT helps prevent you from going OOS the middle of a firefight. It returns stamina whenever a FT-tagged enemy dies, and you should be tagging a lot. Don't wait for 5 stacks every time; dealing with targets faster is much better than getting 10-15% extra stamina back, especially since you get refunded to 2 stacks if the target dies within 2 seconds of tagging. Against, say, a squad of 5 Gunners, you can easily activate that back to back, which gives 10% Toughness and Stamina for your team after every kill for a total of 50% Toughness and Stamina. Holding for another 5 stacks means you'll have killed them all before you can get a second full activation, which only yields 25% Toughness and Stamina.

================ Melee and Hordes ================

You'll be using your melee a lot and will probably have it equipped when roaming around because of the Helbore's slow movement speed. However, the Helbore's sluggish equip time makes it harder to deal with surprise Elite groups. You could activate ES, but that could leave you without it if Crushers show up just as Marksman ends and you won't be able to do the funny. Since that's the entire point of this build, I choose to live with the slow equip speed and save ES in case a Crusher shows up or if the situation gets too hot. You could also do the reload-quickswap tech but I'm lazy.

The Mk IV Helbore's bayonet is hot ass but not unusable; it has a fraction of the speed of the Mks IIIa and V bayonets with basically the same damage. It works well enough to deal with meandering trash, can one-shot various Specialists (namely Poxhounds), and lets you swipe away random trash while ES is active. However, you need to swap to melee when you spot ~5 enemies charging you.

Here, you can see me stubbornly swinging my bayonet at the horde. This clear speed is complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥; I would've been overran if I was alone, and I'm barely helping my team. However, you shouldn't be alone in most cases, and having my lasgun out made it easy to kill the Scab Trapper. In this specific situation, it would've been difficult to kill her with melee before she shoots a net, but simultaneously, it would've been easier to reach her if I just had my melee out and helped clear the horde. Essentially, using your bayonet in situations such as this means you're gambling by being dead weight and putting full faith in your team for the trash clear, in the hopes that killing a surprise Elite/Specialist 1 second faster will save the game. Not worth it.

When Elites spawn during hordes, give the horde a shove and pray that your team can manage it while you dodge backwards and shoot. The horde will keep coming, so dodge on sound cue while maintaining fire. The Helbore's low mobility makes this hard, but it's doable with practice. I've danced away from hordes for just long enough to kill most of a Gunner squad before needing to refocus on clearing trash. I like to use my dodge to get my crosshairs vaguely near the target before actually aiming and shooting at the end of the dodge.
[WIP] The only clips I have saved are just after we cleared most of the horde or when it's only like 8 flankers, and I'm running low on disk space. This generally showcases the kind of dodging you'd do, even though it's only a handful of enemies.


A fully charged Helbore shot has 3 cleave, so fire away even when the Elites you've marked are standing behind trash mobs (you ARE marking them, right?). Beware, it can take a few shots if the horde is too dense.
In this horde, there were only one or two Groaners (1.25 hitmass each) directly between the Poxhounds and me. The Helbore cuts right through them.

================ Sustain ================

In terms of ammo, having Survivalist and Shock Trooper with a high crit rate gun makes you incredibly sustainable. Even after the Survivalist nerf, I've consistently ended Auric Damnation missions with 0 ammo picked up and without hitting orange ammo; you can leave most of the ammo for your team. Shock Trooper also makes your magazine last longer, so I don't find reload talents necessary.

Demolition Team will regenerate your frag grenades, on average, every 20 Elite/Specialist kills. This may feel underwhelming on missions without the Shock Trooper Gauntlet modifier. Because of the regeneration, I'll be liberal with my frags when I'm sitting on 3/3 grenades. I'll reserve the two for the following situations: throwing one to cover a revive/retreat or throwing two to clear out a pack of Elites. It's more inconsistent than the 60s from Demolition Stockpile, but takes one less point to access. It also produces those rare high moments where you get many refunds in a row, though that's more of a meme than an actual upside.

================ Monstrosities ================

You have good boss damage, but it's not amazing. If your team is at least slightly competent, you're better off hunting any Disablers that spawn while your team handles the boss. Otherwise, shoot it in the weak point until it dies. The issue is that Plague Ogryn and Chaos Spawn weak points are hard to hit if you're not the one being targeted, and in that case you'll need to defend yourself in melee.
Block and dodge when the Chaos Spawn or Daemonhost is jumping you. Dodge to the right when the Chaos Spawn goes for its grab. Plague Ogryns can be easily danced around; simply dodge and stab. Beasts of Nurgle are really only a threat when they vomit on you, and it's easy enough to slide out of the way.

This isn't even close to optimally taking down a Chaos Spawn, but demonstrates how you can quickdraw the Helbore with ES to take advantage of the pause between attack chains. Since this is a weakened Chaos Spawn, you won't normally take off that much health.

Shoot it in the face.

Breakpoint Breakdown

================ Crusher 1SBP ================

[WIP: Math ♥♥♥♥ for nerds]


A Crusher on Damnation has 3600 health.
Base Crit Headshot Damage against Carapace
bonuses from passive talents
ES bonuses
other activatable bonuses (ex focus target)
the damage calculation formula is so annoying that i'm gonna leave this unfinished until the end of time. goodbye and goodnight >:(

This table showcases various combinations of buffs and the results. What we want is a method that works and only requires 2 stacks of FT since that can be realistically chained (3 if you have a lot of self control), which is really only feasible if you also have +10% Elite Damage.
Rows using KZ without FT can be replaced with 2 FT and 5 RF.
Note: These were made with the old version of KZ, which was +20% damage instead of +15%.
Non Surprise Attack rows are for VoC setups.

================ Other Breakpoints ================

I've listed the shots to kill in various scenarios below. I gathered this information in the Psykhanium with my old Helbore (80 Damage, 74 Stopping Power, no EliteDmg, SpecialistDmg). Some sections have multiple options available; I bolded the preferred options. If you don't feel comfortable with 0.33 and 0.75 charges, just round up.
Note that wherever you see a shot + FT stacks but no ES, you can also hit the BP with the same shot + ES.
5 RF is a 7.5% damage boosted compared to 8% from 2 FT, so you can substitute that for targets with >2 FT stacks.


Shooters/Stalkers die in one uncharged headshot or a fully charged bodyshot.

Left: The two weak Scab Shooters die in one bayonet strike to the head with any Helbore worth mentioning.
Right: Even with an 80 Damage Mk IV Helbore, the bayonet cannot kill the Stalkers in one bayonet strike; this is with PStrikes, and Stopping Power doesn't affect this. You can reach this BP with RF or the Melee Damage Boost node. Centre your aim towards the right (above their left shoulder) for more consistent bayonet headshots.

FAQ and Changelog

• This sounds like a lot of effort just to end up with a worse plasma gun in 95% of cases.
  Yeah but ammo efficiency and funny one-shot
  
• I'm pretty sure the Zarona Revolver is better in 95% of cases.
  Yeah but ammo efficiency and funny one-shot
  
• Zarona and Plasma can also hit the Crusher 1SBP
  Yeah bu-
  
• Crushers when I introduce them to kid named Krak grenade: Walter White falling down.gif
  A Krak will kill one Crusher (two if you move them into position correctly) and you can have at most three Kraks on hand (and most only have two). When a Crusher train shows up and you dump your Kraks, you'll have to wait a minute (Demolition Stockpile), get lucky (Demolition Team), or find a pickup to have a ranged anti-armour option, all while hoping that another train doesn't show up. Meanwhile, the Mk IV Helbore can activate ES and just go to town. If a Krak sticks to a Scab Bruiser before it can home onto a Crusher, you've wasted 33% or 50% of your supply; if you miss a headshot, a Mk IV Helbore can just keep shooting like nothing happened.
  
• How did you get a reflex sight on your Helbore? Why is wrapped up with tortilla strips? What is that ax doing at the tip?
  I'm using the Enhanced Weapon Customization[www.nexusmods.com] mod, which is available on Nexus Mods. Some of the parts come from the MT Plugin[www.nexusmods.com] and Syn's Edits[www.nexusmods.com] addons for the mod. As this is not a modding tutorial, I'll direct you to the Darktide Mod Framework mod installation tutorial[dmf-docs.darkti.de] page. These weapon modifications are purely cosmetic and don't change any stats.
  
• Why did you spend so much time talking about melee weapons when the focus is the Helbore Lasgun?
  There's something to a bit of smack and stab that you don't get from a rifle.
  
• What's the win rate of this build?
  There's enough factors affecting win rate outside of build that I don't care.

Scabs are getting worried, they've all gone underground.
When One Shot Franzy sees them, they'll know they're going down.
And next time when see the Scabs with their faces full of fright,
remember One Shot Franzy and her friend named Eamon Wright!



Changelog
2025-03-27
Nightmares and Visions. Kill Zone got reworked, and I found it neat enough to edge out Opening Salvo for me. I still don't think there's a massive difference between them. Added notes to builds and BP tables because I'm not redoing all that lmao.
Returned to my beloved, the Standard-issue Shovel.

2024-10-09
More changes for Unlocked and Loaded. Redid the ES builds to account for the merging of Relentless and rewrote descriptions for alternative builds. Bumped up Reciprocity since I didn't know it correctly gains stacks from shooters.

2024-09-29
Made the first of the changes to account for Unlocked and Loaded. Implemented the rename to Mk IV. De-emphasized mentions of bad rolls and secondary blessings/perks. Updated Monstrosities section to mention your actual job. Remembered I had SpecialistDmg on my old Helbore which messes with the BP table...

2024-08-15
Added VoC builds. Updated alternative trees. Updated 1SBP table with non ES. Reordered some perks.

2024-08-10
Added some notes to the breakpoint breakdown that I forgot about.

2024-07-16
Added Infiltrate MF version. Blue consecrations are so back. Anointed lasgun gamers rise up! Hey why did everyone in the lobby just leave?

2024-07-13
Pictures from the last edit were not actually uploaded.

2024-07-10
Made +10% Elite Damage a requirement. Going from 4 FT to 2 FT is a massive deal since that's actually reasonable to do during a match. Expanded Flex Talents section and elaborated on trees some more. Added Devil's Claw slander.

2024-07-09
Updated for close damage change from Secrets of the Machine God. Reevaluated melee, curios, and talents. Corrected various grammatical mistakes and phrasing issues. Added Krak slander. Added more BP tests.

2024-06-08
Expanded the flex talents to a second section due to length limits. Reevaluated the alternatives for flex talents. Added bayonet BP for Shooters and Stalkers.

2024-05-27
Added alternative builds from MF testing runs. Reranked talents and perks.

2024-04-19
Updated BPs and talents for Path of Redemption

[Lawn Chair Enthusiast]

why would you take kraks when shredders grenades do everything they do and million times more efficient

[Wendigo]

Can clearly see you failing to one shot crushers in the earlier videos at the top of the guide xD

[Freedzone]

This build is lots of fun for me. I can run T5 on just 1 small ammo box. All ogryns elites get down with 1 headshot. Many other elites die with a body shot. Max crit HS takes away a good chunk of HP from monsters as well. I rolled 80dmg/80sp mk1 with +weakspot damage.

[🥃 Marceline]

Keep in mind Krak grenades are just 2-3 at a time. This should keep stacking kills with good economy.

Not very my style here, but guide is appreciated.

[Stormer]

Pretty cool special killer build. Though it's a bit ironic given how you can use Krak Grenades to the same effect. But I mean, Krak nades are OP so it's good to have alternatives