The best Darktide classes and how to play them

Looking for the best Darktide class to suit your playstyle? The game offers a wide variety of fighting styles, even with only four different Darktide classes. You might prefer a ranged weapon master, a solid melee expert, or even a wand-waving brain-booster.

The question is, which class is best for you? Let’s take a look at each Darktide class, their abilities, passive skills, starting weapons, and overall playstyle.

Darktide class system explained

At the very beginning of the game, when you make your first character, you have to choose a Darktide class. There are four options to choose from: Senior, Zealot, Ogryn, and Psyker. Each class has two starting weapons, one melee and one ranged. They also have a unique Ability, an Aura, and a Blitz action. Aura provides a passive buff to allies in Coherency (among other characters), while Ability is an active skill with a short cooldown. The Blitz Action is usually a grenade.

These core abilities determine the playstyle of the class, so be sure to study them closely. As you level up your character, you’ll unlock additional passive abilities. Every five levels, there are three new passives to choose from.

Darktide Veteran class

• Senior style of play: ranged firearms specialist.
• Senior Start weaponry: shovel and laser gun.
• Senior Capability: Barrage. Instantly switches to the Veteran’s ranged weapon, highlighting the primary target (elite and specialist) in red and increasing ranged damage by 50%.
• Senior aura: reloads a small amount of ammo after killing an elite enemy. It also works if an ally within the coherency kills the elite.
• Senior lightning: Grenade.

As the name suggests, the Senior Sniper is a ranged damage dealer with increased clip size and high weak point damage. Their level-based passive skills mostly focus on reducing reload time, using more grenades, and further increasing weak spot damage. You can even choose a sniper-like structure with buffs depending on the distance between the veteran and his target.

Veteran Sniper really shines against elite enemies, specials and bosses. Increased weak spot damage is also useful against Hordes, but it might seem a bit of a waste for them. A melee weapon is usually the better choice for dealing with them; While it’s best to have a “buffer” of melee allies between the Veteran and their target, the team is unlikely to stop every Horde before they reach you.

A particular challenge of playing a Veteran is ammo supply. Not only will you use up more ammo compared to other classes, but you’ll also tend to reach supply chests a little later than your teammates. Don’t be afraid to communicate your need for bullets!

If you prefer to use weapons and aim well, the Veteran may be the best Darktide class for you.

Darktide Zealot class

• Bigot Game Style: fast melee, Toughness versus HP.
• Bigot Start weaponry: battle ax and automatic pistol.
• Bigot Talent: Punish the wicked. Performs a dash that increases the damage of the next melee hit by 25% and makes it a guaranteed critical hit. This ability also restores 50% Hardness.
• Bigoted Aura: Reduces Toughness damage by 7%.
• Zelot Raid: stun grenade.

Zealot Preacher’s basic passives include increased melee attack speed, increased damage output when HP is low, and a five second invulnerability window (every 90 seconds) when fatal damage is taken. Level-based skills offer better Stamina regen and HP recovery, additional Ability usage, and increased attack speed.

As expected with gear like this, Zealot is a melee fighter. Thanks to their stun grenades and fast attack speed, Zealots are great against Hordes and elite enemies alike. Beware though, they are quite vulnerable to bosses. The best way to play them is to switch between melee and ranged weapons frequently, and dodge enemies when Stamina is low.

But make no mistake, Zealots are not glass balls. In fact, Stamina-based skills make them a surprisingly defensive class with the ability to lose a decent amount of HP without dying. Note that you only need -45 HP (without additional passives) to get the full attack bonus, so don’t take unnecessary risks.

If you prefer to stay in the heat of battle, smash through enemy armies and don’t mind a little danger, Zealot is the best Darktide class for you.

Darktide Ogryn class

• Ogryn Game Style: heavy melee, team assistant.
• Ogryn Start weaponry: club and shotgun.
• Ogryn Ability: Pushing with brute force. Charges forward and knocks back enemies while gaining a 25% movement and attack speed bonus for five seconds.
• Ogryn Aura: +10% heavy melee attack damage.
• Ogryn Raid: throws a box of grenades.

The robust Ogryn class receives less Stamina and HP reduction, has an improved melee stagger ability, and is not interrupted when reviving or assisting allies. Most level-based abilities further enhance melee attacks (especially heavy attacks), increase damage resistance, and greatly improve Bull Rush.

Big, tough and incredibly strong, Ogryn is another frontline warrior, but compared to Zealot they focus more on heavy attacks and keeping the Hordes at bay. Although they remind you of a special tank class, don’t overestimate the Ogryn’s ability to draw enemy fire. Catching a few bullets can be beneficial for the team, but if you’re alone and overwhelmed, the game is easily over.

If you choose this Darktide class, don’t forget Ogryn’s support role. They are the best class for resurrecting allies and have many abilities related to Consistency. One potential risk of being close to the team, though, is blocking your allies’ attacks. Try to avoid it.

If you find it fun to take on the role of this burly bully and are not afraid to go head-to-head into battle, then this might be the best Darktide class for you.

Darktide Psyker class

• Psychologist Game Style: ranged psychic, elite-killer.
• Psychologist Getting Started weaponry: sword and laspistol.
• Psychologist Skill: The Wrath of Psychokinetics. Reduces danger by 50% and staggers enemies ahead.
• Psyker’s Aura: +10% damage against elites.
• Psychopath Raid: choose an enemy and blast their brains.

The Sorcerer-like Psyker starts with a 10% chance to reduce Danger by 10% on kills. Additionally, killing an enemy with Brain Burst grants a Warp stack that increases damage by 3% (up to four stacks lasting 25 seconds). Level-based passives mainly focus on buffing Brain Explosions, adding Warp Charges, and reducing Danger.

This ‘Danger system’ is the number one thing to watch out for when playing the Psyker class. Using psychic powers increases Danger (see percentage on your screen) and you cannot use psychic abilities such as Brain Explosion when the meter is full. If you try to use a psychic ability though… Well, you’ll explode.

Note that loading your psychic abilities always increases the Danger, even if you don’t actually shoot anyone. The key to keeping it low is proper time management, using Ability, and using the Extinguish (reload) button to reduce Danger.

Due to the need to carefully manage psychic abilities and the lack of good defensive abilities, the Psyker is a difficult class to play. You must constantly keep your enemies at bay, avoid being surrounded, and you will still be a glass ball. However, the Psyker is also a very fun class, and once you gain some combat experience your Brain Explosions will become absolutely invaluable to the team. If this sounds like a challenge you’d want to take on, the Psyker class might be the best choice for you.