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Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader

How Veil Degradation Works

By
Matt Chard

A unique gameplay mechanic in Rogue Trader is Veil Degradation. When a Psyker, either you, or a companion such as Idira, reach deeper into the warp to power your abilities, you add a point for minor psychic abilities, and three for major abilities to the Veil Degradation bar, of which there is a maximum of twenty. As this bar fills up, negative effects begin to take place, and the higher it gets, the worse the effects become which can change the outcome of battle. Read on to find out what these effects are, and what you can do to prevent it.

What is a Psyker in Rogue Trader?

Before we get on to Veil Degradation, let’s talk about Psykers as they will be the ones who cause this effect. Aptly named, Psykers are a selection of people who can use psychic powers. However, to do so, they have to draw their powers from an extradimensional realm known as Warp, among other names. Due to this, they will often risk possession, insanity, or even ultimate corruption.

Why Does Veil Degradation Happen?

In the Warhammer universe, humans utilized psykers to access the warp, which facilitated their traversal of the galaxy. Warp is an alternate dimension of pure energy and madness, existing as a mirror to realspace. This place is where psykers get all their powers from, but it is dangerous to do so as it is the home dimension of the Chaos Gods as well as daemons. So, when a psyker “taps” into this realm to use their powers, it comes at a cost, and this cost is Veil Degradation.

Veil Degradation Effects

The more you use your psychic abilities, the quicker the Veil Degradation bar fills up. When you get up 15 points of Veil Degradation, negative effects begin to occur which are called psychic phenomena, and perils of the warp. At the start of each battle, Veil Degradation will always start at 0 unless there is a reason for the story to have it. Every time you use a psychic power, Veil Degradation will either get one point or three points, depending on if it was a minor or major power.

(1 of 2) In short, keep your Veil Degradation level below 15 unless you want to deal with the negative effects.

In short, keep your Veil Degradation level below 15 unless you want to deal with the negative effects. (left), You can read the description about Veil Degradation by hovering over the purple bar in battle. (right)

Below 14 Veil Degradation

This is called the normal state and is the safe space, sort of. The chances of anything bad happening are extremely low, so you’d have to be unlucky, but they can still occur. While at or below 14 points in the Veil Degradation bar, this is what it looks like when you cast a psychic power.

  • Minor psychic powers have a (5 + psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
  • Major psychic powers have a (20 + psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
  • Sanctioned psykers using a minor psychic power have a (5 + 2 x psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
  • Sanctioned psykers using a major psychic power have a (10 + 2 x psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.

Above 15 Veil Degradation

When you are above 15 points of the Veil Degradation bar, you should prepare for the worst, and be pleasantly surprised if something bad doesn’t happen. This is called the degraded state, and the chances of triggering a psychic phenomena quadruples! Here are the negative effects for the degraded state:

  • Chances of triggering a psychic phenomena quadruples.
  • Major psychic powers may trigger perils of the warp.
  • Unsanctioned psykers using minor psychic powers have a (20 + 4 x psy rating) % chance to trigger a psychic phenomena.
  • Unsanctioned psykers using major psychic powers have a (20 + psy rating + veil degradation) % chance to trigger a psychic phenomena.
  • Sanctioned psykers using a minor psychic power have a (10 + 2 x psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
  • Sanctioned psykers using a major psychic power have a (10 + psy rating + veil degradation) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena whenever perils of the warp do not occur.

Perils of Warp

Perils of Warp can occur when the Veil Degradation bar reaches 15, and you use a major psychic power. The negative effects of Perils of Warp are:

  • Push party members away from the psyker resulting in said members being pushed out of cover.
  • Damage own party members.
  • Summon hostile Daemons (difficult enemies) onto the battlefield.
  • Fill the area with Motive Force charges.
  • Many more.

(1 of 2) When you reach the 15 points mark of Veil Degradation, bad things happen.

When you reach the 15 points mark of Veil Degradation, bad things happen. (left), One of these effects is a daemon to spawn. These are powerful creatures that you will not want to fight. (right)

Psychic Phenomena

Psychic Phenomena are more disconcerting than dangerous, but they will reduce the party morale and momentum. This effect occurs more often with unsanctioned psykers than sanctioned ones, but it can still happen to them.

Psy Rating

Psy Rating provides you with more psychic powers the higher the rating becomes. One can obtain an additional psy rating by selecting it during a level-up. On top of giving you more abilities, it also strengthens the abilities too. The maximum level that you can reach with Psy Rating is five. When the above math states “20 + 4 x psy rating” it means that if your psy rating is at level five, you would calculate it as 20+4 x 5 = 40% chance.

You can increase your Psy Rating by picking the talent when you level up. This occurs approximately every ten levels.

How to Remove Veil Degradation

The obvious answer is to only use one psyker, and even then, use their psychic abilities sparingly, but that’s not fun! If you stop using those abilities for a few turns, the Veil Degradation will decrease slowly, one point at a time. Outside of that, you can get talents that can reduce it. Here are a few of them:

  • Stable Routes: Whenever the Navigator uses a Navigator’s ability, veil degradation is reduced by -1.
  • Stabilizing Factor: The first psychic power used each turn increases veil degradation by 2 points less. If this talent reduces the effect on veil degradation to less than 0, veil degradation is instead decreased by 1.
  • Enforce Reality: Usage of a heroic act by the psyker decreases veil degradation by the psyker’s INT bonus.

(1 of 3) The Stable Routes Talent allows you to reduce the veil degradation by -1 when a Navigator uses an ability.

More Rogue Trader Guides

Rogue Trader is a difficult game to understand, so why not check out our other basic gameplay mechanics guides?

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Owlcat Games
  • Platforms,
    PS5, Steam, XB X|S
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    23 November 2023
  • Last Updated
    16 June 2024
    Version History
  • Guide Author

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In the grim dark future of the 41st millennium, there is only war. The Imperium of Man, ruled by God-Emperor of Mankind from atop his Golden Throne, is a vast interstellar empire with countless armies. Despite the Imperium’s apparent strength, however, its enemies are even more numerous and threats to mankind both surround the Imperium and gnaw at it from within. Where the constantly strained military might of the Imperium can’t reach, humanity must find other champions, and blessed with holy Warrants of Trade, Rogue Traders have almost unlimited authority to operate in the unconquered reaches of the galaxy beyond the Imperium’s direct influence. After unexpectedly inheriting the title of Rogue Trader von Valancius, you’ll have to secure your holdings in the Koronus Expanse, establish and develop new colonies, investigate the conspiracy that led to your ascension and fend off threats, internal and externals, humans, xenos and worse…

This guide will provide the following information:

  • Tips and info about various gameplay mechanics, including injuries and trauma, veil degradation, momentum, resolve, heroic acts, weapon types and space exploration.
  • Recruitment guides and builds for every companion in the game.
  • Walkthroughs for main quests, boss battle strategies and the effects your choices have.
  • Complete chapter overviews.
  • Best weapons lists for each chapter.
  • Guides for optional dungeons, side quests, errands and solutions to puzzles.
  • Colony guides, including colony projects and their rewards.
  • A vast database of weapons, armor, accessories, abilities, talents and more!

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