In the years since Warhammer 40,000: Darktide was released in 2022, the developer Fatshark has continued to update, expand, and improve the game at every level. Its efforts continue with the new Grim Protocols update, adding a new mission, three new weapons, and the Havoc difficulty system. For all the rejects out there who just can’t wait to kill more Nurgle cultists, it’s a great reason to jump back in.
The standout feature of the Grim Protocols update is the new Havoc system. Havoc missions are the new highest-difficulty missions that players attempt with max-level characters. The system features 40 tiers, each one more difficult than the last. Players start with access to a tier-one Havoc mission pulled from a pool of eight at launch.
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That mission is then assigned a mutator that increases the difficulty and is also randomly picked from a pool. There is also a chance for Havoc missions to come with a condition like being darker than usual, but they are relatively uncommon.
One interesting aspect of Havoc missions is that each player receives one per tier, which does not change until their Havoc rank goes up or down. To raise their Havoc rank, players have to beat a Havoc mission. If they fail to beat theirs three times, they go down a rank and receive a different mission. This gives players room to experiment with how they approach each mission, especially since a player’s Havoc rank is account-wide, so they can pick the best character they have for each one.
The Havoc System is a Grim Protocols Update Standout
Another interesting aspect of the Havoc system is that its missions do not feature quickplay matchmaking. Instead, Havoc players will have to rely on a party finder system to encourage more team communication and strategizing. Using the party finder system also allows players to jump around in the Havoc system if they want to try and skip a few tiers or take it easy with a mission that is a lower tier than their rank.
Overall, the Havoc system succeeds in giving the most dedicated Darktide players more difficulty levels to challenge themselves with, more rewards to chase, and a new ranking to level up. But, likely, only the most hardcore of players will fully engage with it. Many more will get a few tiers in and decide the difficulty level isn’t fun for them anymore, which narrows the system’s impact on the gameplay experience for many players.
Thankfully, Grim Protocols’ other additions are more universally available. The first is a new mission called Dark Communion. For fans who follow Darktide’s ongoing narrative, this mission is a significant moment that sets up the narrative’s future. It establishes stakes built up over the years and introduces some new foils with exciting potential.
If you care more about tearing through cultists with a chain sword than the reason you’re doing so, Dark Communion is also for you. The mission takes players to dark new corners of the Carnival region, with 40k’s iconic gothic architecture in grand form. With a good flow of objectives and plenty of interesting locations for randomized encounters and minibosses, it is a thrilling playthrough every time you jump in, and it’s more than welcome in Darktide’s mission pool.
Darktide’s updates have deepened its world and armory.
To help deal with the update’s new threats, Grim Protocols adds three new weapons to the armory. Psykers get the two-handed force sword, Zealots get the two-handed power sword, and Ogryn the heavy stubber gun. Unfortunately, Veterans don’t get anything new in this update. Otherwise, the additions here are great. Each of the weapons has its own personality and quirks to play around with and unique features.
They all do well to expand their associated class, offering new loadout styles or expanding the role they can fill within a squad. What sticks out among the weapons is their new animations. They are stellar and work to showcase both the weapon itself and the character of the class that can equip it. The two-handed force sword is floaty and smooth thanks to the Psyker’s unique abilities. The heavy stubber acts just as a lumbering tool of untold destruction should. And the two-handed power sword swings feverishly enough to communicate the intense fervor that fuels the Zealot.
The post-launch support of Darktide is incremental. The updates are steady and polished with each targeting one aspect of Darktide to tune up and throwing in some more universal additions for good measure. Grim Protocols is no different. While the update is relatively small and its main focus will only appeal to the more hardcore of its fanbase, what it adds is all of high quality and shows the developers have a strong understanding of the core of their game that fans adore so much.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
