Darktide has over 60 weapons in the game at the time of writing. Each weapon, whether it be a brand new name or a variation of the weapon, each has their own flavour and gameplay niches that warrant all the weapons being fairly decent and practical no matter what map, mode or condition you come up against. However, there will always be players edging to pick what people believe to be the best. So, we are here to serve the Emperor with our Darktide Weapon tier list.

Darktide Weapon Tier List and Best Weapons Explained:¶

Note that all tier lists are memes, so take our opinions with a pinch of salt. Moreso, we will list only some of the weapons in the game, thanks to some of the variations being so minor that listing slight differences is not worth it. The only time we will specifically mention weapon types is if they are notable with what they bring. Some weapons are better suited for other classes, so the tier list will be divided into different classes. Keep the caveats aside. Also, be aware this tier lists presumes role archetypes, taking into account some feats too. Our general ideas of how classes work are as follows:

• Veteran: Primary Ranged DPS and prio target killer
• Zealot: Melee specialist killer, horde control
• Psyker: Ranged specialist killer with Brain bust, Ranged Horde controller
• Ogryn: Tank and general horde killing and specialist crowd control

Table of Content: (Click the text to auto scroll to the relevant sections that interest you.)

1. Veteran
2. Zealot
3. Psyker
4. Ogryn

Also not you will get a slight rundown of each class’s special weapons, general playstyle and other useful information to get a better idea at the rankings of the classes’ unique weapons and playstyle if you want to understand more theory about weapons and their roles in the game.

Darktide Veteran Weapon Tier List¶

• S+ Tier: Power Sword, Bolter Gun,
• S Tier: Cadia Chainsword, Kantrael la Infantry lasgun, Accatran MG VIIa, Kantrael XII Lasgun, Catachan Devil Claw Swords (all MK versions are great)
• A Tier: Recon Lasguns, Graia Braced Autogun, Accatrans MG VII, Kantrael MG VII, Chain Axe
• B Tier: Plasma Gun, Helborne Lasgun, any normal Autoguns or other lasguns not mentioned
• C Tier: Autopistol, Snub Revolver, Laspistol, Axes, Dagger, Shovel, Shotgun

The general summary of the Veteran Weapons is that the Power Sword and Bolter gun are very strong. Bolt guns have low ammo capacity, but deal massive damage, and can cleave hordes very well with the splash damage they bring. It makes it a perfect all-around weapon, especially when you can get talents that make reloading easier, or reduce weapon sway, as the gun is known to sway a fair amount. As for the Power Swords, this weapon cleaves very well, and its special attack amplifies damage, making it a decent tool against armored or Maniac / Unyielding skin type with high toughness. These two weapons are very effective for a Veteran for horde killing, Special killing, and Monstrosity killing.

Outside of that, your other go-to weapons are typically the more noteworthy Lasguns. Most of them in the S Tier are largely slight variations, with the differences mainly lying between ammo capacity, magazine size, ammo consumed per round, rate of fire and damage profile. Some people love the XII for its high damage per round, especially when synced with the Volley Fire ability. Meanwhile, others like the la infantry gun for its low ammo consumption and rate of fire. Either way, these weapons make great horde destroyers, and are very good or picking off enemy shooters that destroy toughness in higher difficulties, which is one of Veterans’ duties.

Other notable weapons for Veterans are the Plasma Gun and the Chain weapons. Chainswords are pretty good armor destroyers, which makes them worth bringing as a melee weapon if Power Swords are not for you. Moreso, the Chain Axe is a very high-damage melee weapon, but it is very slow, and lacks some cleave that the Force Sword brings. These are the reason why we rank weapons the way we do. As for the Plasma Gun, this weapon has an awkward charge up, and it damages the user when cooling it down thanks to its extreme heat ventilation, making it much less practical than the Bolter.

Darktide Zealot Weapon Tier List¶

• S+: Eviscerator
• S: Thunder Hammer, Chain Axe, Chainsword, Achlys Axe, Preferred Braced Autogun, Bolt Gun
• A: Lasguns, Flamer, Antax Axe, Indignatus MK IV Cruser
• B: Infantry Autoguns, Other Axes, Catachan Devil Claws, Shotgun
• C: Autopistols, Laspistols, Dagger

The Zealot is a class designed for getting into the fray, cleaving, dishing out big melee crits, and even cheating death and getting injured to maximize their melee attacks speed and damage output. Therefore, this class will naturally favor melee weapons. It explains why melee weapons are so weighted to the top of the Zealot tier list, compared to other classes.

The three main unique weapons for the Zealot are interesting. The Eviscerator is a weapon only available to the Zealot around level 15. This weapon provides some of the earliest chain bonus damage, which is handy against flesh, and to some extent armored enemies. In addition, its chain rev special attack can also cleave. This makes the weapon very effective overall for taking down specials and hordes.

Meanwhile, the Thunder Hammer is a very high stagger, and high damage weapon, perfect for breaking armor and specials. Add in the special attack and your ability’s critical attack, and your specialist or monstrosity enemies will burst incredibly hard. The other unique weapon is the Flamer. This weapon is a decent horde control weapon, and is fine to take if you want a more dedicated horde control weapon, but it is not too necessary on a Zealot thanks to its playstyle, but it is still viable. It has some competition right now with the Indignatus, but that weapon is largely a two handed crowd control weapon, which is not as effective as the Eviscerator or a Tanky Ogryn, at least from early testing anyway.

Axes are fairly interesting choices with the Zealot, largely thanks to the Chastise the Wicked ability, where you dash in and get a guaranteed critical strike. Consequently, this is handy on axes, since most axes have high damage and armor penetration. The Achlys axe has solid armor pen, and its specials and heavy attacks have different ways to pierce armor or target awkward, weak points. The result is it’s a very good anti-specialist weapon. Meanwhile, The Antax Axe can apply bleeds to enemies, making it very good if you opt for Feats that grant bleeds and critical strikes. If you’re a Chain Axe enjoyer, this is one of the strongest specialist slaying weapons for the Zealot, but it is very slow. These weapons are largely preference-based or somewhat build-dependent, but they work well.

As for the actual ranged firepower, you have two options really. The first is the Boltgun, a horde-killing and specialist-destroying ranged weapon. The only downside to this weapon is the Zealot cannot get better reload or sway-reducing feats like the Vet, so it does feel somewhat less effective. However, it still does its job very well. Meanwhile, the more common ranged weapon you find on zealots is the Braced Autoguns. These weapons are great for spraying into hordes, mowing things down, and even dealing lots of damage to specialists. The only downside is they lose their accuracy at range, which is fine. You’ll often find Braced Autoguns are the go-to ranged weapon for Zealots thanks to their practicality, and when their cheat death is on cooldown, they need to avoid taking melee damage.

Darktide Psyker Weapon Tier List¶

• S+: Force Surge Staff, Purgatus Staff, Force Sword
• S: Catachan Devil Claw, Voidstrike and the Trauma Staff, Chainsword, Recon Lasgun
• A: Any Lasgun,
• B: Any form of Autogun, Axes, Duelling Sword, Shotgun
• C: Autopistol, Laspistol, Dagger, Stub Revolver

The Psyker is a class that is essentially the mage playstyle in the game, with its unique mechanic being about control hordes with ranged knockbacks and stagers, along with peril management. The result is that the class is a support-ranged playstyle, and needs to quell its peril, as that exposes and can potentially kill the character. Therefore, weapons that manage peril better, and help to use that support ranged playstyle are certainly effective.

Starting with the unique force weapons, these are by far the best ranged and melee weapons for a reason. Firstly, Fore Swords have a feat you will find you take a fair amount at level 10 that grants 5-15% more damage based on peril. Sync that with your brain-bust damage bonus stacks, and Force Weapons can scale their damage higher than other strong weapons like the Chainsword. Meanwhile, Force Staff weapons have better quelling speeds, meaning you can quell dangerous peril in 4 seconds, compared to the base 6. This is necessary if you’re managing that peril playstyle to gain bonus damage stacks through Brain bust and not to overload Peril on your Force Weapons.

As for the weapons themselves, the Purgatus and the Surge Staff are, in our opinion the best Force Staff options. The reason is that these weapons are solid horde-controlling weapons, with some decent cc tools as well. The Surge is a chain lightning weapon, which can stun enemies hit by the chains and burst lower-hp enemies. Its primary attack is similar to other ranged staffs as it projects a ranged attack capable of hitting far-away enemies. Meanwhile, the Purgatus is a flame thrower that scales with Soulblaze feats, especially the level 30 feat. Moreso, it is effortlessly staggers Specialists and hordes alike with fully charged heavy attacks repeatedly. When it stacks, it can melt specialists very easily too, no matter their armor type. The only downside is that it’s heavy and primary fire is rather short-ranged, so, playing around allies like tank Ogryn or zealots are the optimal usage scenarios, while Vets take out the annoying range, unless you can spare the occasional brain bust.

The other two staves are good too, with the Voidstrike firing cleave heavy void balls, akin to fireballs to blow chunks out of hordes or do burst to specialists. Meanwhile, the Trauma Staff is largely a ranged horde destroyer with its charged-up radius dealing huge burst damage. Thes ealso grant a light attack that send out a spell missile that can hit far away ranged enemies aswell. The general theme is how you kill hordes with staves, and the rest is the niche in which it does it.

As for the Force word, this weapon can make a very strong anti-armor, Unyielding, or Maniac specialist melee weapon. Charge up your sword, and most specialists will die in one or two hits, depending on what you’re fighting. Its flurry is also decent for hore killing, and you get the force shove, which eats into your stamina first, followed by Peril, meaning you can shove hordes much more than any other melee weapons in the game if you need to protect yourself. This is extremely valuable since the Zealot has very low tankyness outside of Curio buffs.

Now that’s done the other weapon of choice tends to be the Devil Claw for its horde clearing and the Recon Lasgun for horde clearing and ranged support. No matter the MK, the Devil Claw has at least one heavy side swing, which decapitates enemies if you aim head height, which is very handy for horde control. Meanwhile, the other variants have one under heavy attack, which is good for hitting unarmored arms to kill enemies. The Recon Lasgun, no matter which variant, is also handy because this has a very high magazine, no recoil and decent damage. It makes ranged horde control handy as you can mow enemies down, drill specialist weak points since it has no recoil, and even spray annoying shooters and support your Veterans when you don’t need to head pop with brain bust instead.

Outside those weapons, it’s largely just messing around with weapons until you get your preferred weapons and feats rolling.

Darktide Ogryn Weapon Tier List¶

• S+: Battle Maul and Slab Shield
• S: Grenadier Gauntlet, Twin Stubber, Ripper Guns, Power Maul
• A: Cleaver, Lorenz Rumbler,
• B: Lorenz Kickback Shotgun,
• C: Billy Club, Shovel

The general idea of the Ogryn is that its feats are either bleed-based, or heavy attack based. Therefore, weapons that can hit multiple enemies to inflict bleeds, or do unstoppable heavy cleaves are the finest weapons for an Ogryn. This is why the weapons are ranked the way they are. Moreso, the Ogryn is the only class with a shield in the game, making it an incredibly strong horde control, Monstrosity tank, and anything else it needs to be when it raises its shield.

Regarding your melee weapons, the go-to melee weapons are the Battle Maul + Slab Shield, or the Grenadier Gauntlet. The Slab Shield has strong arcing attacks when you don’t need to raise your shield, as does the Grenadier Gauntlet’s primary attacks. When combined with either bleed attacks, or general hits, you can generate toughness which prevents damage from ranged fire, and reduces most damage from melee attacks as long as it lasts. Since you’re a big target in the thick of it, these heavy arcing attacks and combos are very strong for the niche tank role and general survivability. This also doesn’t consider the ranged grenade launcher fire on the gauntlet or the point-blank high stagger explosion, which is great for CC on Unyielding and other big enemies.

As of the Patch 1.0.20 update, Ogryns now have a new and juicy Power Maul to play with. This weapon is similar to the Billy club in its like attack low stagger spam, with a heavy cleave, which is fine for general horde control without tanking. However, the juicy part is the special, with its massive stun in the area. It’s actually a really good crowd control from melee dps version for Ogryn, so you can actually chose between playing tank with shield, or having some AOE explosive capabilities with the grenadier gauntlet. The only downside is the perks and stats are slightly weird, which is likely its biggest downside so far.

As for the ranged weapons, any of the Ripper Guns are good when you get them. These weapons are hard to control, but effective ranged horde tools for mowing enemies down before you need to play melee. Meanwhile, the Stubber gun has much better range but guzzles ammo. They also have decent ranged damage against specialists, too, if you can get shots on them, but is only effective around medium ranged thanks to aim sway and recoil.

Therefore the Ogryn’s weapons largely rely on how you want to blow hordes up at ranged, and which style of tanking you want to do, whether it’s heavy cleave or taking the shield and physically holding enemies back.

This concludes the Darktide Weapon Tier lists, and best weapons for each Darktide class. Hopefully, that gives you an idea of how the general playstyle of the classes work, and which weapons are better fits for the class, and then individual playstyles and decision-making. Remember, use this as a guidance, rather than a doctrine you must follow, as there is some nuance to it.