Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

29 ratings
Double-Barelled Shotgun Psyker
By v4nd4hl
Let's think outside the box to make this iconic and stylish weapon (kinda) work and worthwhile!
   
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Introduction
Hello!

I've been playing Gun Psyker in all his variants since Darktide's initial release in November 2022. This class and style of gameplay is just the most fun to me comparatively.

I also love double barreled shotguns in any game. However, they seem to be kinda underwhelming in Darktide at first glance. Nevertheless I tried to make them work on a Gun Psyker anyway - and kinda succeeded? Maybe? Hopefully?

I hope you enjoy this alternative approach on a Gun Psyker as much as I do.

Have a nice day!
The Core Skills










The idea behind the build is to hard counter the biggest weaknesses of the Double Barelled Shotgun: It's very long reload animation and its uselessness against further away targets while simultanously playing to the strengths of the weapon: Close quarter burst damage against packs of elite enemies within hordes.

That's why we use Surety of Arms (reducing the reload speed) and (Empowered) Brain Rupture in combination with Kinetic Resonance to be able to quickly and easily dispatch further away targets if necessary. And of course give Crushers/Bulwark a hard time.

Venting Shriek is both used to quell peril in an instant if need be (to continue the usage of Surety of Arms) as well as a general crowd control tool (we can stun enemies in a large area in front uf us to continue shooting our gun safely) and last but not least to activate Kinetic Resonance to very quickly cast chained (Empowered) Brain Ruptures on targets our shotgun cannot reach.

True Aim is used to make sure, our initial shot is a guaranteed crit. Melee headshots - which we should land consistently - as well as Brain Rupture generate stacks. We do however not use the crits for pure damage reasons (Double Baralled Shotgun has a comparatively weak crit damage modifier and is not really a finesse weapon) but moreso to trigger Man-Stopper blessing consistently. Warp Rider buffs our damage passively when Surety of Arms increases our peril.

Our beloved


Ahhh. ... isn't she a beauty?

With 80% reload speed stat and Surety Of Arms we're very serious about being able to reload this clunky thing in the fastest way possible.

Scattershot / Man-Stopper combination is used to make sure we crit consistently and cleave through mixed hordes with ease. At first the usage of True Aim passive together with Scattershot might seem like redundant but in reality this is not the case. True Aim "only" assures us to hit a man stoppering crit shot when we switch to ranged combat initially. Scattershot increases our chance to score crits greatly for all follow up shots.

Flak Armored / Carapace Perks help us to hunt down some our main targets we actually shoot at: Maulers, Scab Ragers and the like in mixed hordes.
Full Build
This is probably the weirdest looking Psyker talent tree you've seen so far. My apologies ; )


Yellow is the "core build". White is optional and a matter of taste / preferences. All variants have their pros and cons.

We do use Kinetic Presence over the other auras. Thanks to True Aim and Scattershot we crit consistently without using Prescience. One could make an argument for cooldown regen aura.
Kinetic Presence however plays to the strength of the shotgun: Getting rid of elite enemies in close combat. (and it generally buffs our melee damage against said enemies too).


Melee and Curio
Meelee Weapon

Pick a melee weapon you are comfortable dealing with hordes. I personally ended up using the Shock Maul variants. It's a save and reliable tool to me. Its light/heavy chain combos can safely deal with hordes without relying on crits. It's single target damage is okay too and benefits from Kinetic Presence. But most of all I just like the moveset/tech and feel of the weapon ; )... But your mileage may very. Catachan Swords as well as Illisi Force Swords come in mind too.

Just pick whatever works best for you as a standalone anti-horde melee weapon. Whatever weapon makes you feel comfy surviving prolonged melee encounters in which you have to play the frontline role here and there. Don't forget: If things go south we have a devastating close combat stagger heavy ranged weapon at our hands we can and should quickly switch to ;).

Just for the record, the weapon I do like using myself:



Curios


I prefer learning how to avoid damage and not go down in general. But... i'm not perfect ... so I will take chip damage! Toughness helps us to negate that chip damage (and other fkups XD). As long as our actual health isn't affected too much, we're fine.

+12% combat ability regen does not seem like much at first. But remember, having Venting Shriek ready or not in that exact moment you need it .... can and will make the difference between a glorious clutch and a sad wipe : )

I also do like perks on my curios which are not situational. Toughness, Toughness regen and Combat Ability regen will be useful in whatever run and group composition.
Who's got the most drip?
Mad Max?



The Terminator?
(Yeah I know technically its not a double barelled shotgun... but its also The Terminator.)


Doom Guy?



Shotgun Psyker?



What's your opinion on this matter of life and death question? ;)


Thank you for reading this little guide on how to make the double barrelled shotgun enjoyable on Gun Psyker! ; )
5 Comments
v4nd4hl  [author] 8 Oct, 2024 @ 1:19am 
@Родные Чебоксары

Thank you for this great question.

Personally I always shoot LMB twice. Because you can do this very quickly anyway and switch targets in between the two shots if needed. If you do use RMB, the damage is not exactly twice as much. You have more damage if you shoot LMB two times overall.

Also, I don't use blessings which would improve reload speed (Both Barrels) because it is not needed with Surety Of Arms.

However, the stagger of RMB is better. But for those situations we need stagger, we have Venting Shriek.

TL:DR shooting twice with LMB is superior to RMB imho

Have a good day!
Родные Чебоксары 8 Oct, 2024 @ 1:04am 
how better shot in group enemies? with rmb or without it?
Shungus2006 7 Oct, 2024 @ 6:52am 
Прикольно
v4nd4hl  [author] 6 Oct, 2024 @ 1:50am 
@Mito

You are absolutely right, my good friend. Will add this to the guide later today!
Mito 6 Oct, 2024 @ 1:37am 
I think you forgot to add that you must listen to whole DOOM(2016) ost for the best experience.
Otherwise solid guide not a darktide player but will be saving this one for when I want to have fun.