'Darktide': Weapon Power and Item Levels Explained

It's no secret that "Darktide's" weapon stat screen is full of vague bars and poorly-explained systems. While the team over at Fatshark is working on making things easier to understand, it's understandable how some players may want to know as much as they can regarding the gear they carry on their excursions.

Gear Score, the sum of the power levels of all equipped weapons and curios, works differently in "Darktide" compared to its spiritual predecessors. While it technically does increase a player's overall strength, it does so through different means.

Item Level

Unlike in "Vermintide," the levels of weapons and trinkets in this game don't necessarily the player's damage output unless the actual stat bars say so.

As per Fatshark developer Hedge in the "Darktide" Discord, weapon stats work on a "point" system—the number of points a weapon gets is dictated by its level, and these points are distributed randomly across all available stats.

"And it can be different stats on different weapons for the same named bar. It's wild. The upcoming stat overview is a portal into the warped minds of our combat designers and will go some way to show why we struggled historically to visualize how our weapons work," Hedge continues.

In summary, a level 200 Catachan Mk I Sword can deal the same damage as a level 300 version, depending on how many points are in their Damage bar. However, the higher-level version will have better stats in other departments like Mobility or Finesse.

Equipment Modifiers and Perks

Weapons of higher rarities will have additional modifiers, such as more damage against certain enemies or increased stamina efficiency. Rarer tiers of items can have up to three modifiers at once.

Blue weapons and above will also begin dropping with perks that grant unique effects that are either applied passively or upon reaching certain conditions, such as hitting enemies with heavy attacks, chaining hits together, or tagging multiple targets with one swing.

Unfortunately, the perk effects themselves are also vague. It's not exactly clear what "Rend" or "Brittleness" do, apart from the fact that they have something to do with armored enemies. Fatshark will be implementing better information screens on launch, so players will have to wait until then.