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Warhammer 40,000: Darktidepits a squad of four Operatives against the unending hordes of the Chaos God Nurgle. You and your teammates will face insurmountable odds on every mission, and will always find yourselves gravely outnumbered. Having at least one member of your Strike Team specialize in crowd control can be a huge boon when the hordes descend.
Whether you’re out of ammo or just prefer to hack and slash your way through groups of enemies, your choice of melee weapon will have a large impact on how you handle things when you’re surrounded.
Enemy Mass, Explained
Every enemy in Darktide has a Mass rating.This value is hidden, but you can usually tell at a glance how much Mass an enemy has;a bigger foe means more Mass. The standard skin-and-bones cultists will have relatively low mass, while armored troops, Ogryns, and Daemons will all have a much higher Mass.
Whenever you swing your melee weapon,your character will always try to swing as far as they can, hitting as many enemies as possible. Each time they connect with an enemy, the game checks the weapon’s Cleave against the enemy’s Mass, plus the Mass of all the enemies that you’ve already hit on that attack; if the enemy is too big for the attack to cut through, thenyour melee swing stops with that target.
Cleave Targets and Crowd Control are two important Bonus Stats to look for when selecting a weapon to cut through large groups.
Best Crowd Control Weapons
Weapons with theCleaving Striketype tend to be the best for fighting large groups.Axes and Swordsare good choices, especially for lower-level Operatives; Axesdeal heavy damage to their primary targetand often have solid armor penetration, while Swords are better forspreading damage around a groupand targeting weak spots.
At higher levels,Evisceratorscombine high damage with good Penetration and a Cleave rating that their one-handed Chainsword counterparts are lacking, but can be slow and unwieldy. Ranged classes like the Marksman and Psyker will probably want to focus onrapid-fire ranged weaponsfor crowd control and leave the melee combat to Zealots and Ogryns.
What Is Enemy Hit Mass?
Occasionally, you’ll come across a weapon with a Blessing that affectsEnemy Hit Mass.When active, this Blessing causes the weapon tocount its targets Mass as lower than it actually is, potentially allowing you to hit more targets. It doesn’t apply a Mass debuff to enemies, so your teammates won’t be able to take advantage of it.
The best way to utilize an Enemy Hit Mass blessing is toput it on an Axeor other weapon with high First Target Damage. Specialist enemies like Ragers often have a higher Mass than the hordes they’ll be leading, so a weapon like this canhit them hard, then cut throughto deal with the small fry all in one swing.
