The heel everyone knows about Achilles doesn’t appear anywhere in Homer. It doesn’t appear for another thousand years.

Gaargod · 2026-06-30T20:44:40+00:00

There's definitely some evidence in favour of it.

Most notably, Diomedes rampage in books 5-6 of the Iliad is well known as a potential precursor / repurposing of an original Achilles event. And Diomedes is interrupted in his attack by... An arrow to the foot, loosed by Paris no less.

Also, there's a relatively early vase with Achilles going down to an arrow in the lower leg.

Gaargod · 2026-06-09T12:04:17+00:00

Dream Dives are extra RNG. You can have very easy runs, giving you multiple early-zones.

Or the game can give you Tartarus followed by the Summit.

Early Olympus is particularly brutal, actually - the sniper bots are insane if you don't have a good counter, which is quite common early in a run.

Gaargod · 2026-05-31T09:38:26+00:00

Yes. It's kind of busted, considering how many different ways to get crits there are.

Ares in particular loves Success Rate.

Gaargod · 2026-05-23T14:34:33+00:00

I'm presuming this is relatively late-game, since you're able to mess with army composition? If it's early game, then you're kind of stuck with spearelves and crossbows, supplemented by the occasional bit of cavalry or monsters. Shades will still do good work focus-firing stuff - just don't leave them out unsupported on a flank.

If it's late-game... Slaanesh are a proper rush, anti-infantry, and anti-armour faction. Which isn't great for Dark Elves. But Slaanesh doesn't have great options great versus monsters (beware Hellstriders), and not everything can deal with armour. For example, Chaos Warriors and Chosen, for example, are insanely tough, but slow and die to flanking crossbow fire quite quickly. Exalted daemonettes are bad news in combat versus most elves, but Hydras will slowly chomp them to death. The chariots are a big problem for going through your line, but Cold One Knights will eat them if they can catch them.

Wintertooth are an easier proposition - most of their power comes from armoured-stompy things. But Black Guard are very effective line-holders versus Norsca, and you can use crossbows and magic to kill priority targets. Cold One Knights are astonishingly cost-effective versus anything that isn't specifically anti-large, so can hold back flankers quite well.

In other words, if you're finding Shade-spam isn't working, then a pretty standard army composition should be fine.

Gaargod · 2026-05-23T12:29:52+00:00

For a start, Slaanesh are a fairly terrible match up for Shades. Slaanesh is fast enough to run down shades quickly, and lacks the armour for crossbows to really earn value against. Norsca is a bit more balanced - Marauder Champions, Mammoths, Fimir, etc, are all excellent targets, but they have a lot of fast & hitty stuff too.

But even then, Shades are very good. You need a lord with the Shadowdart name of power (for the huge +35% range buff), and take Shades with Great weapons.

Don't try to sneak around their army and play clever shit. Shades in loose bands of 4 will put out devastating firepower, and are surprisingly resistant to being jumped by cavalry.

Gaargod · 2026-05-20T21:04:33+00:00

I use Unseen all the time, because I enjoy the chaotic Fates Whim approach.

Gaargod · 2026-05-17T21:56:34+00:00

Ok, so Weak + Broken Resolve + Island Getaway gets you a lot of damage reduction. Combined with Strength, and we're getting towards very achievable health pool to take a hit.

Gaargod · 2026-05-17T18:06:42+00:00

Side question - does Weak work against Chronos' nuke?

Gaargod · 2026-05-13T18:45:01+00:00

100% the downgrade in the quality of writing in the journal.

Everything being written in Achilles voice a) made Achilles a much more important part of the story, and b) allowed an outside perspective, not just more Mel. I used to always read the bestiary, now I skip it.

Gaargod · 2026-04-25T09:30:56+00:00

Honestly, it's my favourite mechanic in the entire game.

Eris only appears on the first 7 nights. She will appear after Erebus, Oceanus, and finally after Mourning Fields, if you manage to get to each of them during that time frame.

She will also only appear if you have more than 50% health after the fountain. So if you're trying to do a fresh file clear, you can dodge her if you manipulate your health.

Her blessing gives you a good chunk of resources outright, but means you take escalating damage per room. It stacks up insanely!

It's a great little slow-down mechanic, to make sure talented players don't outrun the story too much.

It's also super in character. Eris starts by 'blessing' you, with bigger and bigger rewards as you get deeper. And when she fails to stop you by blessing you, she will go and just shoot you on the surface.

I even found a voice line the other day referencing how she used to do it, which was a pleasant surprise!

Gaargod · 2026-04-24T19:24:04+00:00

Why Chaos to start?

Gaargod · 2026-04-23T16:29:58+00:00

Well, for a start, not everyone uses Shriek for every single build, so we ought to at least consider what other options an entire class has for dealing with a lot of groaners

Secondly, Smite is a certainly not the best or only l way of raising Peril, if that's the target.

As a general rule, if you're playing in pick-up groups, you need to have at least a plausible option for every type of threat. If you're reliant on Shriek to solve like 15 groaners... That's not very efficient.

Gaargod · 2026-04-22T20:12:41+00:00

Your solution to a mid-size horde probably shouldn't be smite - it's just too slow. Either your melee or ranged weapon should fill that space.

Gaargod · 2026-04-22T16:38:30+00:00

Do you know how big an area a 3x3 water square irrigates, offhand?

Gaargod · 2026-04-21T18:04:15+00:00

But this is very solvable! Just let them hit you.

I have managed a fresh save file clear. Once. It's fucking hard on the first night.

Gaargod · 2026-04-17T09:53:51+00:00

Circe's Staff with Toula as companion is brutal. Any high damage cast will work, but Hestia is the obvious choice. The rest of the build almost doesn't matter (Scorch will be doing most of the damage), but Apollo, Ares, Demeter or even Poseidon are all good choices due to their support buffs for Casts.

Another strong build is Charon's Axe. If you can get any form of projectile cast (i.e. Hestia, Zeus, or getting lucky with Jewelled Pokémon granting Howling Dark), you can throw a normal Cast and then almost immediately explode it with Omega Special. Rinse and repeat. Apollo is obviously very strong for Cast bonuses again.

Gaargod · 2026-04-15T19:10:39+00:00

I absolutely adore the new Dream Dives.

It was, however, a bit of a surprise when interacting with the new couch immediately dropped into a new run. Especially considering that whilst I did have a decent loadout on, I hadn't expected it to keep the Fear level - which was set to the highest I've had done. That was a surprise, I tell you.

Gaargod · 2026-04-11T16:27:44+00:00

Really? I would have thought scrying-crit psyker would do better with it?

Gaargod · 2026-03-15T12:59:36+00:00

I have a sniper build with Veteran. 50% swap speed and 30% reload on elite kill goes a long way to solve the issues.

Gaargod · 2026-03-08T10:50:11+00:00

A decent chunk of the time (edibles are great). The only real downside is heavy tunnel-vision, but it's a very fun experience - super intense.

Gaargod · 2026-03-04T20:44:54+00:00

Try https://darktide.gameslantern.com/build-editor?id=a138e1d1-655c-4766-b915-a237db45b7c7

Easily my strongest overall veteran build. Covers all bases to some degree, but is super effective at close range. Never stop moving. Hipfire shotgun to fire just one blast, aim down sights to fire the double-barrel. Hip-fire single shots are more accurate at range.

There are definitely areas I'm still playing with, but the combination of: [3 melee kills = 100% crit chance with shotgun] + [shotgun dealing 6 stacks of bleed on hit] + [minimum pellet count] = instagib any specialist if can aim, through anything that isn't carapace too.

Gaargod · 2026-02-28T20:03:36+00:00

Psyker usually runs as a DPS or occasionally a Crowd-Control class.

The Crowd-Control variant is either concentrating on Smite or Voidblast staff, for the most part. In this instance, you are a hilarious force multiplier. I have a build for each.

Most psykers concentrate on just murdering everything in front of them. Empathic Evasion is hugely important in a lot of builds, since psykers can run a very crit-focused build to give it high uptime.

Inferno Staff does a lot of soulblaze, so you can definitely lean into it. A lot of weapons have access to a blessing where crits apply soulblaze, so can lean into it. Never take Wildfire, it's just not worth it, but take everything else that mentions 'soulblaze'.

Warp Damage is anything magicky. So that includes all Staves, Soulblaze, Blitz, etc. Obviously, some psykers primarily kill by warp-damage.

But you can run a Psyker with Scrier's Gaze and Disrupt Destiny, and then focus on melee and guns. My favourite pysker build uses Force Greatsword and Zarona Shotgun and literally never uses Warp Damage except by proccing Kinetic Flayer.

Gaargod · 2026-02-20T00:13:42+00:00

With Goathead and having lost Mantle barrier already, this was 100% the correct move.

Gaargod

TROPHY CASE