Rising above the shackles of the flesh, the Skitarii have been rebuilt with the divine augments of the Adeptus Mechanicus to best serve the Omnissiah, as an impossibly efficient tool of war.
In case you missed it, check out the reveal trailer here.
This is part of an ongoing series of feature highlights focused on the upcoming DLC class: The Skitarii.
In our previous blog we went over the Skitarii’s unique character creation features! This Feature Highlight focuses on the design of the class’ gameplay, going over its core principles, abilities, talents, and unique mechanics! We’ve interviewed Design Director Victor and Game Designer Gunnar to get their insight.
“I’m Victor, I’m the Design Director on Darktide. I’ve been at Fatshark for 17 years, working as a designer in different ways.” - Victor
“My name is Gunnar and I am currently a Game Designer, but I started at Fatshark in 2018 as a Gameplay Coder on Vermintide, and a few years ago I switched to become a Designer instead.” - Gunnar
Design and Concepts
For the sake of doing this class justice, we spent a lot of time working on various concepts and ideas, finding a balance between the options available in the lore and what works in a game like Darktide.
“Even way before Arbites, we started thinking about something like this. But, over time, it has evolved into what it is today, which is a Skitarii Alpha Primus, something completely new.” ~ Victor
Working on other classes first also allowed us to get used to that workflow and formula, so we’re more confident both in being able to craft a great class and also in pushing the boundaries of class’ gameplay design.
The Adeptus Mechanicus’ unique cybernetic nature gave us a great opportunity to work outside the box, to represent how removed they are from your typical human. You’ll see that there’s unique elements even in core aspects of the class, such as how Ability Cooldowns work or even the talent tree itself!
When talking Adeptus Mechanicus, or even just Skitarii, there’s a ton of ground to cover in terms of abilities and tools to explore. This both gave us tons of inspiration, but also a lot of ground to cover in terms of what to implement and how to best represent them in-game, which was an everpresent guidance during development.
We tried to incorporate as many elements of the Skitarii and the Adeptus Mechanicus as a whole as we could fit, to give everyone the chance to play around with their favorite part of this beloved faction.
“We want to for sure fulfill the fantasy of what it is to be a Skitarii. So when we’re thinking of abilities and playstyles, or different types of builds, we’re always trying to fit that within the Skitarii theme. While there are a bunch of other cool things about the Adeptus Mechanicus, we don’t want to lose the Skitarii just to chase those.” ~ Gunnar
On top of that, the design team for the class and the talents is in constant communication with the design team for the weapons and blessings, making sure that everything works together smoothly, that there’s synergy, and that both areas support each other to create a strong design pillar for the class.
Unique Mechanics
Before we get into the talents and overall gameplay, we wanted to break down the new, unique mechanics coming with the Skitarii. These are features that are exclusive to this class and affect core aspects of how the class plays, whether it be through its Abilities, Talents or Weapons.
Combat Ability Capacitance Charge
While most classes’ Combat Abilities function on a strict Cooldown, where you either have your Ability available or you’re waiting for it to refresh, the Skitarii’s Ability depends on Capacitance Charges. Having a single Capacitance Charge enables you to use your Combat Ability from the get go, but accumulating multiple Charges empowers your Ability!
This means that the Combat Abilities that the Skitarii has access to have devastating potential even with little talent investment, but require patiently accumulating Capacitance Charges to access it. With the exception of the Chordclaw Strike Ability (more on that later), activating your Combat Ability will consume all available Capacitance Charges to empower it.
“They’re not just being recharged through cooldown, as it is on existing classes. [...] You will generate the most Capacitance through your actions. Both through killing basic and Elite enemies as a baseline, but also through other talents that will allow you to generate more Charge by doing specific actions.” ~ Gunnar
You’ll find that many of the talents in the Skitarii’s talent tree also synergize with this mechanic, such as by triggering effects when gaining Charges or by giving you different ways to charge your Capacitance.
Servo Skull - Blitz and Companion
The Servo Skull is the default Blitz available to the Skitarii; a floating companion that can provide aid in combat by shooting at your enemies, or even complete Data Interrogation minigames for you on your command. Similar to the Arbites’ Cyber-Mastiff, you can direct your Servo Skull towards a particular enemy or Data Interrogator by double pinging it, and it’ll comply.
“It is super nice in those events, where you can just send your Servo Skull to complete the Data Interrogator and keep doing what you’re doing.” ~ Victor
“Currently it takes more than what it would take a good player to do it manually. So it’s a trade-off; it’s slower, but you can continue fighting.” ~ Gunnar
However, why just stop at one? By investing more talent points into the Blitz, you can unlock additional, more specialized Servo Skulls to accompany you! You’ll be able to add a Servo Skull with an integrated flamethrower to focus on more firepower and cleansing of heretics, and one with Medicae functionality, to better support your team! You can even take both, if you’re willing to spend the talents.
While the primary Servo Skull is controlled with your pings, the Flamethrower and Medicae Servo Skulls are commanded with your Blitz input, depending on whether you’re targeting an enemy or an ally.
“So if an ally is knocked down, or netted, or hogtied, then you can revive them using your Medicae Servo Skull.” ~ Gunnar
Of course, since it is only one of the three Blitzes available to the Skitarii, the Servo Skull is not as key to the class’ identity, but it is nonetheless an iconic piece of gear that we think really helps sell the player fantasy of playing a member of the Adeptus Mechanicus.
And, also! Your primary Servo Skull is customizable! There will be a variety of skins to change the appearance of the initial Servo Skull to suit your preferences, available by obtaining the relevant cosmetics!
Arc Weapons and Effects
Unique to certain Skitarii weapons and talents is the Arc mechanic, an effect that interacts with the pre-existing Electrified state on enemies! How it works is that the weapons and talents that have an Arc effect hit an Electrified enemy, the electric attack will immediately jump to the nearest enemy, dealing damage and also electrifying them!
If, instead, the attack hits an enemy that isn’t Electrified, it will Electrify them, so that follow up attacks can trigger the Arc!
“So the more enemies that are affected by it, the more it will bounce, basically. Or, arc!” ~ Victor
This creates not just an interesting gameplay loop for yourself, but it can really take off with teamwork! Multiple Skitarii bearing Arc weaponry can build off of each other’s electrified enemies, and while other classes cannot trigger Arcs, someone like a Psyker could still Electrify enemies to set them up for a Skitarii’s Arc weapons to capitalize on.
And if you’re curious about said weapons, keep an eye out for the next feature highlight, where we cover the Skitarii’s arsenal, including the new Arc weaponry!
Gameplay & Talents
The Skitarii is a very versatile class that is designed to be able to fill many niches, both in terms of gameplay and of Adeptus Mechanicus’ player fantasy. The class is extremely flexible, and it is up to the player to decide how to build their Skitarii and what aspects to focus on.
“So you can slot into pretty much any role that you can find in Darktide, but you might not be the best at it.” ~ Gunnar
To support that, the Skitarii has a unique layout to its talent tree: Rather than going top to bottom following different branches, this class’ talent tree starts from the center, and allows players to expand outwards in different directions, taking a cog-like shape. This gives an incredible amount of flexibility to the talent tree and allows players to pick exactly what they want with as little restrictions as possible. You can even opt to not pick any Blitz, Combat Ability or Aura talents if you’d rather focus your talent points on other things!
We’ve been experimenting with different layouts for a while (even as far back as when we first reworked the talents in Patch #13!), and after six successful classes, we were confident enough to push the boundaries of what works for a talent tree in Darktide to try this out. Skitarii’s design as a flexible jack-of-all-trades, as well as the ‘modular’ nature of an Adeptus Mechanicus’ mechanized bodies, gave us the perfect opportunity to implement this type of talent layout and deviate from our norm.
This flexibility also means that this talent ‘web’ doesn’t have as much of a hard emphasis on pre-existing archetypes or playstyles, as opposed to the existing classes in Darktide. Nonetheless, the design behind most of the talents can still be considered to support one of four themes that players can follow and build towards.
“[...] you will be able to take some from that section, some from that section, some from that section… It’s more open in that sense, but if you look at [the talent tree] more as a map, different sections of that map are themed in different ways.” ~ Victor
This layout of talent tree can perhaps look a bit daunting for newer players, since there’s no easy paths to follow. We suggest that if you feel lost, you take a look at the available Blitzes or Combat Abilities and focus on pathing towards them. The talent nodes near them are bound to have good synergy with each other, which can hopefully make initial builds more intuitive.
While we can’t show you the entire talent tree right off the bat, we can show you a sample of some of the talent nodes available in each of those four themes that we mentioned.
Melee talents
These talents allow you to improve your melee combat capabilities or trigger from being in the thick of the melee. Some examples:
- Electro-Strike Conduit: Melee Critical hits Electrocute the first target hit.
- Target-Neutralization Feedback: Weakspot kills grant Stun and Suppression immunity for a short duration.
- Uncapped Arrestor: Successful Melee Attacks grant a stacking bonus to Attack Speed for a short duration.
Ranged talents
These talents allow you to improve your ranged capabilities or otherwise synergize with ranged combat. Some examples:
- Ammunition-Restoration Pod: Replenish 1% of your Ammo Reserve every 15 seconds.
- Rad-Sink: After not shooting for at least a second, gain increased damage on your next shot.
- Gunsmith: Gain increased reload speed. Additionally, after not shooting for a few seconds, reload a portion of your magazine from your Ammo Reserve each second.
Support talents
These talents give you boosts to your character and squadmates, or help you aid them. Some examples:
- Salvation Doctrine: Gain increased Damage Reduction and Revive Speed while reviving an ally.
- Power Overflow: When at full Toughness, a portion of your excess Toughness Replenished is distributed to each ally in Coherency.
- Protectorate Protocol: Incapacitated Allies in Coherency have increased Damage Reduction. If you free them, gain Stun Immunity and increased Damage Reduction for a short duration.
Electrocution talents
These talents synergize with the Skitarii’s unique Arc mechanic, either taking advantage of it or helping enable it. While these talents are not necessary to make good use of Arc effects and weapons, players who want to specialize in them can do so with these talents. Some examples:
- Voltaic Burst: Staggering enemies with a Push applies Electrocution, dealing damage and stunning enemies on a cooldown.
- Weakness Analysis Doctrine: Gain increased damage for a short duration when hitting any enemy suffering from Electrocution, Soulblaze, Burning, Bleeding, or Toxin.
- System Shock: Electrocuting an enemy applies 4 stacks of Brittleness to them.
Combat Abilities
Voltaic Emitter
Unleash an electric discharge around you, stunning, electrifying and damaging enemies near you. With multiple Capacitance Charges, the effect is improved, such as by also disabling the weapons of enemies in a nearby area!
Chordclaw Strike
Perform a powerful, heavy melee attack using a Chordclaw. This Ability does not consume multiple Capacitance Charges, allowing you to store multiple to perform several attacks in succession.
Advanced Combat Doctrines
For a short duration, your weapon locks onto enemies close to your targeting reticule, granting you inhuman accuracy.
Blitzes
Artificer Servo Skull
You are accompanied by a Servo Skull that can shoot at enemies or complete Data Interrogations. Further talents allow you to bring specialized Servo Skulls.
Arc Grenades
Throw an Arc Grenade, creating an electric explosion that Arcs several times.
Integrated Refraction Emitter
Surround yourself in a shield that absorbs all incoming Ranged Damage for a short duration.
Coherency Auras
Resurgence
You and allies in Coherency regenerate 50% Coherency Toughness regardless of enemy proximity.
Ammunition Deposit
You and allies in Coherency have +10% Ammo Reserve.
Foe-Render Creed
You and allies in Coherency gain increased Cleave and Rending.
Keystones
Redline Capacitors
Gain increased Toughness Damage Reduction and Capacitance generation whenever you spend or gain an Ability Charge. Additionally, you have +1 Max Ability Charges.
Flensing Protocols
Killing Elites and Specialists grants Flensing Protocol charges, which increase your damage and Toughness Damage Reduction. Charges are lost when taking damage.
Power Overload
Killing enemies grants stacks of Power Overload. When reaching the maximum amount of stacks, trigger an overload, which improves the damage and Toughness Damage Reduction to you and allies in Coherency for a short duration.
Bonus questions!
How many major iterations of the talent tree have there been?
“I guess… fifteen? We’ve been working on the Skitarii since before Hive Scum was released, and during that time it was just… Me and a few coders prototyping, trying things out… and back then, we were throwing everything at the wall and doing all sorts of weird iterations.” ~ Gunnar
“And this time around we had the talent tree up and running, in some form, very early on. [...] Earlier than we’ve ever had it before when building a class.” ~ Victor
What’s your favorite part of the Skitarii’s talent tree?
“I think the Chordclaw is really cool and super satisfying to use. Even the first version that we got in - I was already in love. That’s gonna be my go-to when we release it, for sure.” ~ Gunnar
“I really like the weapon-disabling one [the Voltaic Emitter], it’s super cool. It’s one that at face value maybe doesn’t sound super powerful, but in the right situation it’s a life saver and really powerful. Like, with how the game works, it actually is very, very powerful.” ~ Victor
What did you have the most fun working on?
“I think the talent tree layout has been really enjoyable to work with, since it’s a bit different to what we already have. So trying to come up with different configurations that work with different types of weapon setups has been very enjoyable.” ~ Gunnar
“I would say the Servo Skulls, seeing that coming together has been super cool.” ~ Victor
That’s all we have for today! We hope you enjoyed this early look at the mechanics and the talents, as well as a glimpse into what goes on when designing a new class!
Stay tuned for the next feature highlight, which will focus on the Skitarii’s weapons, coming soon!
Praise the Omnissiah!
The Skitarii Alpha Primus class will be available on the 23rd of June, but you can already wishlist it now.
We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.
– The Darktide Team
