History VideoGame / Warhammer40000Darktide

** Veterans and Zealots can unlock the Locke-pattern Boltguns, which are the downscaled versions of the "big" [=BFGs=] commonly seen in the hands of Space Marines. Despite this, they're still absolutely massive, and their gunshots are appropriately thunderous. Whilst their ammo is limited, [[MightyGlacier further hampered by a sluggish animation set]], their firepower is immense; most weaker enemies hit by one will be reduced to LudicrousGibs, and the list of things that can survive fifteen bolter rounds can be summed up as "bosses, monsters, and [[SmashMook Crushers]]", for a total of about five enemy types out of dozens.

** DamageOverTime works this way, but especially Bleed. Individually, each stack of Bleed only does very small amounts of damage per tick until it naturally decays, but when accumulated to a maximum of 16, suddenly the target will be losing considerable chunks of its health (scales with type and armor rating) every second, which can melt even {{Mighty Glacier}}s like Crushers and Bulwarks pretty quickly, especially if complemented by the players' own input.

** What's colloquially known as the "Knife Zealot" build. As the name suggests, it's a setup focusing on the use of the Catachan Mk III Combat Blade, which is deceptively powerful despite the weapon's low base stats. To wit, the knife has a very high critical multiplier via Finesse, especially on good stat rolls, along with incredible dodge capabilities, and possesses blessings that allows the player to rack up Bleed stacks on enemies that both significantly contribute to their DPS, as well as constantly activating the Zealot's defensive feats, allowing a particularly nimble player to waltz right into big enemies and slice them to ribbons, while taking little if any tangible damage in return. That being said, this build requires a degree of skill to use properly, since the knife itself has very low block stamina, cannot control crowds very well, and lacks any effective means of staggering or opening armored or high-health enemies up for exploitation like the Thunder Hammer, Crusher, or Eviscerator can, meaning that getting up close to Elites or monstrosities is always a risky gamble.
** Parrying, by performing the special function of specific weapons. Unlike blocking, which will still leak damage through depending on the specific enemy attack (e.g. Crusher[=/=]Mauler overhead swings, Traitor Captain melee attacks, etc...), parrying incurs no loss to health when performed correctly, while also causing the player character to launch a CounterAttack at the enemy for some quick stagger. The catch is that parrying requires very precise timing due to the variance in enemy attack speeds, and there's a very noticeable delay before one can block or attack again, meaning that messing up a parry will leave the player open to additional attacks that could have been defended against had they just dodged or blocked the initial hit to begin with.
** The Zarona Stub Revolver boasts extremely high damage, near pin-point accuracy, and so much penetration power that it might as well be infinite. In exchange, it holds only five rounds, has a very lengthy reload time, and has a rather-petite ammunition pool. If the player can learn to handle these sizable downsides, the Zarona can address almost every problem the squad faces. The weapon's high damage makes it ideal for sniping entire swarms of Specialists and Elites before they ever get close enough to yell threats, and it's more than capable of drilling Crushers, Monstrosities and Reapers in only one or two shots more. It's most devastating in the hands of a capable Veteran, as their ammunition-related perks make it so ammo-efficient that squabbling over pickups becomes a thing of the past.

* FacialHorror: Being aligned with Nurgle, most of the heretic forces are in various stages of decay, with most of their facial features missing or outright rotting off of their skulls for all and sundry to see, and blows to the head can carve off chunks of whatever flesh they still got left as well. Even the helmeted enemy types like Crushers and Maulers can get in on the fun as well, as doing enough damage to their heads can destroy their headgear and their faces along with it, exposing a ghastly visage that's largely devoid of skin (or indeed flesh of any kind) or even ''eyes'' for that matter.

* StoneWall: Enemies with the Unyielding armor class typically boast a much more generous health pool than their brethren and receive less damage from weapons without a perk that specifically grants a bonus against their type. These Unyielding enemies are usually appropriately large and sturdy-looking, such as Monstrosities, Reapers, and Bulwarks, though Crushers are an outlying category, having the Carapace Armour tag instead. As an offset to their durability, Unyielding enemies also take quadruple bleed damage, making them surprisingly vulnerable to DeathByAThousandCuts.

** The Ogryn is the undisputed master of Dakka on Atoma Prime when wielding the Heavy Stubber line of weapons. Picture a Browning Machine Gun that's been made Ogryn-portable. Their trademark Ripper Guns are no slouch, either, essentially being fully automatic shotguns. The Gun Lugger skill-tree amps things up to levels that would make any Ork proud.

* ApocalypseHow: Regional social disruption flavor, as the plague outbreak is largely quarantined inside of Tertium, while the rest of Atoma Prime is implied to be untouched. It's definitely much more [[VideoGame/TheEndTimesVermintide Ubersreik]] than [[VideoGame/VermintideII Helmgart]], however, as even within Tertium itself, it's strongly implied that many of the major sectors are still securely operating under loyalist control, since most of the missions only involve the Strike Team taking care of odd jobs and running logistic resupplies, while a larger fighting force is doing the heavy lifting elsewhere.

** Any gun used by the Ogryn counts. The iconic Ripper Gun appears as an unlockable option, and their starting weapon is the Kickback, an Ogryn-sized (read: about the size of a small cannon) M79 grenade launcher-like gun that fires massive canister rounds that are about as big as the already-massive hands of their wielders, often turning their unfortunate targets into LudicrousGibs. If those aren't enough, they can also get a Heavy Stubber (dual-barreled heavy machine guns styled on the M2 Browning, which shoots .50 BMG for an idea of how massive they are), for MoreDakka.

** One of the weapon designs you can get your hands on are ''Graia''-pattern Autoguns; [[IndustrialWorld Forgeworld]] Graia was the setting of ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine'' and ''Warhammer40000Boltgun''. They are noted to be considered cursed by some as the world experienced an unspecified "series of calamities", but still have their fans. There are also Graia-pattern helmets for cosmetic options.

** One of the weapon designs you can get your hands on are ''Graia''-pattern Autoguns; [[IndustrialWorld Forgeworld]] Graia was the setting of ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine''. They are noted to be considered cursed by some as the world experienced an unspecified "series of calamities", but still have their fans. There are also Graia-pattern helmets for cosmetic options.

* DoNotRunWithAGun: The Run and Gun blessing on specific weapons allows the player to shoot them while sprinting. Played straight with most other things however, since sprinting forces your character to lower their firearms though thre are a few exceptions - laspistols, for example.

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: Despite their convict status, the player characters are part of an Inquisitor's warband, which put them several cuts above a penal legion member and average guardsman. The gameplay reflects this with how easily the Rejects can gain access to goodies like Plasma guns and Power Swords, which are usually reserved for officers and veterans in the regular army. They can even have access to a bolter, not a bolt pistol but an actual (man-portable of course) bolter.

* FriendlyFireproof: The Rejects can't hurt each other with grenades and gunfire even on the higher difficulties, but shooting at a teammate enough and they will complain about it. Fatshark [[AntiFrustrationFeature made a point to avoid any friendly fire at all compared to Vermintide due to the higher focus on ranged weaponry, and likely due to the Ogryn's stature]]. {{Averted|}} with the game's enemies - even basic shooting enemies are actually capable of shooting their allies by accident while they were aiming for the players, while the likes of enemy flamethrowers, incendiary grenades and bombs are all but guaranteed to be damaging their allies if any amount of melee enemies were around the players.

* EliteArmy: Auric-level operatives serve as this within Inquisitor Grendyl's warband, which the Rejects can work their way up to, though beyond having access to (slightly) better wargear and more perilous missions, they seem to have largely the same privileges as the rank-and-file, which is to say rather little. The Mortis Operatives additionally serve as an even higher echelon within the warband as some form of black ops, such as information on them are highly classified and next to nothing have been revealed about them so far.

* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: The Reject Strike Teams are basically this, consisting of individuals conscripted from all walks of life who ran afoul of the law one way or another, and was given the choice of fighting for the Inquisition in exchange for amnesty. Additionally, the Moebian 101st Penal regiment is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

* RedIsHeroic: The forces of the Inquisition predominantly wear red fatigues and robes with their armor, and represent the "good guys" (by ''40K'' standards) in this game.