Hello Rejects!

We are finally closing in on the start of the pre-order beta period and the lead-up to the final launch of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.  

Many of you have been with us on this journey – whether participating in the technical test, closed beta, or just by consistently engaging and providing feedback in the community.  For that, we are thankful. Darktide will be a better game because of your help.

WHAT WE ARE ADDRESSING

Since the Closed Beta, the team has been working hard to address many, but not all, issues. Here’s what we’ve fixed, along with a few things we’re still working on: 

New in the beta:

• Improved optimization and performance.
• Added mouse sensitivity.
• Added the ability to turn off wobble for players with motion sickness.
• Added the ability to skip the tutorial after initial character creation.
• We are working on adjusting the sensitivity of the chat filter so that calling out “snipers” no longer looks like you’re calling your teammates something only Nurgle could love. Please let us know how this is working for you. 
• We’ve added the Meat Grinder to the Mourningstar’s Psykhanium so you all can test your weapons before going into a mission. Just don’t shoot the servitors. They’re expensive.
• We’ve worked on general connectivity issues so you all can consistently stay connected to games.
• We’ve adjusted the difficulty of the “Cooling” mission, so it is more in line with the other maps’ difficulty levels.
• Some work has been done to lighting and to help players better see and identify enemies.
• We’ve implemented a new HUD so players can access more transparent information on their teammates.
• We’ve increased weapon handling for the Veteran Sharpshooter’s starter weapons, so your reject doesn’t handle their weapon like only a heretic would.
• We’ve separated enemy tagging input from the smart tagging wheel so players can more easily tag enemies.
• Malice difficulty has been locked to players until their character reaches level 3. Let’s not thin the Mourningstar’s ranks too quickly, Reject!
• Players in full strike teams can play the highest difficulty level that at least one party member has unlocked, even if the rest of the team hasn’t yet unlocked it.
• Chaining weapons, specifically push into attacks, should now be smoother.
• There’s been some fine-tuning on weapon swaps, but they depend on the weapon's size and weight. For example, switching between a 2h chainsword and a bolter will not be immediate. Switching to melee should always be instant, while ranged weapons have a “ready-up” time.
• Tuned some dodges and dodge timings.
• Player stun and hit reactions have been tuned to avoid instances where players could be stun-locked by riflemen. But remember to take cover! 

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Working on, but not in the beta: 

• We are working on how best to implement an end-of-screen scoreboard that rewards the cooperative behaviors we aim for in Darktide’s gameplay
• We know walking to the mission board every time was a bit of a workout, so we are working on spawning players returning from a mission closer to the board.
• We are working on a detailed view of weapon stats.

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WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE PRE-ORDER BETA 

Let’s face it: Launching a game is not easy. More often than not, day-one issues will prevent many people from jumping right in. We cannot guarantee our launch will be as smooth as an Ogryn’s forehead, but our Pre-Order beta aims to help optimize the launch experience. We plan on doing this by slowly ramping up our service over the next two weeks. 

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In practice, this means that joining us on November 17th, you and your friends will pick your class, create your characters, and then dive into 4 missions, across 4 zones, at several difficulty levels available. We will also give you access to an entirely new zone to explore: Dust. 

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Now, that’s not all, Rejects. You will get the whole experience of our training grounds to familiarize yourself with the game mechanics, 60+ weapons to choose from, 4 random conditions that’ll impact your in-game experience (from power outages to… worse) - and we will increase the number of missions regularly. Here’s a high-level rundown:   

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WEEK ONE (November 17 - 20) 

• Full access to the game hub and mission board. 
• 4 changing missions across 4 zones
• We will regularly run in-game events (Conditions), namely Power Supply Interruption and Ventilation Purge. We don’t want to spoil them too much. We encourage you to experience them for yourself :)  

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WEEK TWO (November 21 - 27) 

• Up to 8 changing missions across 4 zones
• In-Game Events, other surprise additions we do not want to spoil right now 

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WEEK 3 (November 28 to 30) 

• Up to 10 changing missions across 4 zones 
• Downtime to get the game ready for wide release: Tuesday Nov 29, 2022 19:00 UTC 

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NOVEMBER 30 (LAUNCH) 

• 13 missions across 5 zones 
• 1 New Zone (We do not want to share its name yet)
• New Conditions (In-Game Events) 

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We will also deploy hotfixes as we carefully monitor the Pre-Order Beta feedback and respond accordingly. 

CARRY OVER PROGRESSION

Our goal is to ensure all progression will carry over from the moment you start playing through full release - but we cannot fully guarantee at this moment. The reason is that we are still using this period to test our progression systems, and we want to reserve the opportunity to change or reset things in the event something unforeseen or critical happens.

But we assure you that we will do our best to ensure all your characters and progression carry over!

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TIME TO RISE, REJECTS!

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Oh, and if you're interested in learning more about recommended specs, do give our Performance Devblog a read!