How to Boop Your Daemonhost
Build for Darktide

Basics of Booping

So you wanna boop a Daemonhost (and other bosses), huh?

It's pretty simple, first you need a Crucis Thunderhammer, second you'll need to be on your final wound, and last you'll need a fresh pair of panties for when you fail to boop the Daemonhost on the snoot off rip. 

Easy right?

Crucis vs Ironhelm

The Crucis Thunderhammer is much better than the Ironhelm but not as straightforward to use. The Ironhelm has you basically always activating your weapon special regardless of circumstance due to the extra Cleave gained by doing so as well as the bonus damage. It is actually better than the Crucis at horde managment because of this and the fact that it will still chunk an Elite or Special that is in the middle of the horde. When the Crucis' weapon special is activated, it always stops at the first enemy hit regardless of enemy hit mass but the tradeoff is that it does massively increased damage. Don't miss.

To properly boop Daemonhosts, the Crucis needs 79-80% for Damage, First Target, and Penetration stats. Crowd Control and Defences are less important but obviously the higher the better for horde management. 25% Damage to Unyeilding is a hard requirement but the other perk slot is flexible with Damage to Unarmored being the best option for horde management and killing Gunners/Bombers (with headshots). Thrust IV is the hard requirement for Blessings, but the other option is up to you. I prefer Momentum for better sustain but Slaughterer can improve your chances of successfully booping a Daemonhost in the middle of a horde. Slaughterer can also stand in for Thrust if you got bad rolls on your Crucis and already have Momentum.

Big Iron

Using the Zarona Revolver is pretty self explantory as it's the best ranged option for Zealots on mouse and keyboard however it does serve a specific role in this build. As I said before the Crucis stops on the first enemy hit when powered up and while it's charged heavies are powerful, they are not powerful enough to easily deal with Ragers without activating the weapon special. At close range it is quite easy to hip fire the Zarona accurately so it is possible to tap Q and shoot an enemy in the weak point in a fraction of a second. The recoil is also manageable so continuing to fire after this is also a breeze. When you combine this with a 25% Damage to Maniac Perk suddenly you can bodyshot-headshot a Rager before the rock your Ogryn threw even hits him, with the added bonus of headshots one-tapping every other Elite and Special. The only 3 exceptions to this are the Unyeilding enemies and the Carapace enemies, both of which no ranged weapon a Zealot can use is able to one-tap, and the Dreg Gunners which have 1400 HP on Damnation.

In the second Perk slot you can run pretty anything; Damage to Flak makes it more forgiving when you miss headshots, Damage to Unarmored lets you one-tap the Dreg Gunners, and Damage to Unyeilding let's you 3 shot headshot Ogryn Gunners which can come in clutch as it's takes all 5 shots to down them otherwise. As for Blessings, Gloryhunter is a requirement and I use Trickshooter in the second Blessing slot however feel free to put whichever one suits your fancy. Trickshooter is probably the best if your accuracy high as you can one-tap Unarmored Ragers at max stacks. 

Build and Playstyle

As you level up and fill out the skill tree, theres a few things to note first being that this build is centers on boss killing first and foremost. To that end we want to maximize SINGLE target damage without much care for what happens after booping the snoot and so we choose Fury of the Faithful and Martyrdom instead of Shroudfield and Inexorable Judgement. 

You'll want to be at 3 or less wounds at essentially all times and Until Death + Holy Revenant is almost necessary for ensuring you accomplish that without actually going down or being overly vulnerable after the Until Death duration ends. You will also need +1 Wound on each Curio as it essentialy equates to +8% damage if playing correctly. 

On Heresy or Damnation difficulties you're not going to be able to ignore horde enemies and thus it's necessary to take either Punishment or Sustained Assault, preferring the latter if you are maximizing horde damage. If you take Punishment the other skill point can be put in Backstabber for improved booping capablities.

Blades of Faith is fully outclassed if you are running the Zarona and the Immolation grenade outperforms the Stunstorm on missions with the Hunting Grounds modifier.

Daemonhost Booping Enterprises LLC is not responsible for damages caused by failed attempts at booping a Daemonhost. Such damages can include but are not limited to; being verbally harassed by your teammates, being kicked while moving to the extraction point, and painful death via the tasty Daemon-mommy.