H40 - Helbore (Exe Stance)
 Veteran Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

I will preface this by saying that this build is not friendly to use in pubs. Expect a lot of suffering if your intention is to win in matches with 0 communication since ranged vet is highly team reliant and clutching is not part of what you will be able to do. Voice of Command will give you a better chance at keeping your goobers alive and potentially clutching. With nades you should be able to get revives up regardless of ability choice but if multiple bosses  are present then it is absolutely cooked.

Grenade choices are dependant on 2 factors, whether you are playing with premades and what the HAVOC modifiers are.
Shredder Frag Grenade Are good for any non rotten armor modifiers or modifiers that affect armored elites. Good stagger, ok AOE bleeding. Staggers bosses but you need Grenade Tinkerer otherwise the explosion radius is too small for consistent staggers.

Krak Grenade After the recent buffs kraks are absolutely insane in damage. Highly recommended for any HAVOC modifiers that affect armored elites such as rotten armor. Good for bosses for both damage and stagger.

Smoke Grenade Disable special, lesser shooter, gunner AI. The primary purpose for this nade is to give yourself some breathing room when the AI director decides to spam 50 specials at the time. Smoke your frontline and take your time dealing with priority targets. Highly recommend over any other grenade type in premades especially for the Lucius Mk IV Helbore Lasgun .

In a nutshell if armored elite modifiers are present then Krak Grenade if not then Shredder Frag Grenade . If you are premading then Smoke Grenade will be superior in my opinion if the player skill in your lobby can take care of armored elites confidently, if player skill cannot compensate for the lack of Krak Grenade then plan accordingly. Shredder Frag Grenade will be useful in non armored elite modifiers for the most part and you save a point.


Mainly a shooting build on vet. Optional node is Exhilarating Takedown . I will list some combos below on what you can drop it for.

Melee Weapon choices:

Maccabian Mk IV Duelling Sword . Good for single target, repositioning without the need of point investment. You can drop Exhilarating Takedown for Trench Fighter Drill / Grenadier / Opening Salvo / Melee Damage Boost / Volley Adept / Rending Strikes . Personally I would opt for either Trench Fighter Drill / Grenadier / Opening Salvo. DS4 allows you more options in general.

Catachan Mk III Combat Blade/ Catachan Mk VI Combat Blade . Good for single target, repositioning. Drop Exhilarating Takedown for Serrated Blade that way you can run Uncanny Strike and Mercy Killer on it for consistent single target. Alternatively if you feel like you don't want it just run any bleed blessing you find consistent and follow the above mentions for what talents you want to pick.

Achlys Mk VI Power Sword . Much harder to use but gives you everything you want. Horde clear and single target at the cost of dodge distance and being harder to reposition with. Run Power Cycler and Brutal Momentum can also run Slaughterer / Sunder instead of Brutal Momentum . Again drop Exhilarating Takedown for something you prefer. I personally take the Melee Damage Boost with it for better single target. For anyone unaware of what I mean with single target I am referring to the push attack - light combo that this thing has. For horde clear and general control just L-L - H where L is lights and H is heavy.

Munitorum Mk I Sapper Shovel . Good horde control and reposition but lack single target. Again drop Exhilarating Takedown for something you prefer. For blessings Uncanny Strike and Decimator / Take a Swing . Take a Swing is pretty strong since we stack all the stamina regeneration we can fit.

Notable mentions:

Atrox Mk VII Tactical Axe - Similar purpose as Catachan Mk VI Combat Blade / Catachan Mk III Combat Blade / Maccabian Mk IV Duelling Sword. Mostly for repositioning and has ok horde clear with Brutal Momentum on push attacks into heavy. Single target is fairly ok you can maybe run Melee Damage Boost .

Munitorum Mk III Shock Maul  - This can be controversial since your armor damage will suffer with this one but I think its viable to play. Skullcrusher is non negotiable and then you can potentially run Opportunist / High Voltage / Hammerblow (if you want to be a stagger bot) . One nice positive of shock maul is its special burns through captain shields so spam that when you get those.

If you care to read about target prioritization gameplay choices and a way to create space for yourself.

There is no rending in this build but Lucius Mk IV Helbore Lasgun can deal with pretty much anything. Being stuck in melee is a loss in DPS so make sure your positioning is good, kiting hordes that spawn on your back to the team is required here otherwise run Voice of Command for an easier time. Vertical space is your best friend ie. having places from where you can drop and continue shooting specials/gunners/shooters as to create more space for when back hordes spawn.

Specials - For me bombers/flamers/trappers/snipers take priority over any other special. The first 2 deny so much space and trappers/snipers can delete a frontliner by the time you blink. Mutants/dogs are important to at least damage or one shot if possible since they can throw your frontliners off pace which can be detrimental depending if you are being pressured by armor waves. Poxbursters are a hit or miss, you want to kill them before they reach your frontline but you also need to be careful not to blow up your teammates, preferably kill them before they reach the frontline as its one less thing to worry about.

Bosses - Everything excluding captains (unless you can reliably hit headshots on captains) is pretty much worthwhile shooting. Beast of nurgle and plague ogryn are pretty easy to headshot consistently. Beast of nurgle has the weakspot on the back but you can also shoot it in the mouth. Chaos spawn can be tricky but you can stagger throw krak grenades and get at least a couple of headshots between nade throws. Either way you can hit up to a potential of 15k damage per shot but around 10k is more consistent.

Melee elites - I would say Bulwarks/Crushers/Maulers take priority in this order specifically. There is nothing more annoying for the frontliners to have to deal with a Bulwark shield while trying to dodge Mauler and Crusher overheads and 20 ragers. If you find openings just kill those as fast as you can. After that crushers and maulers preferably the ones charging overheads to reduce the chances of teammates getting one shot. Even if you dont kill them in 1-2 shots it's still worth shooting their heads just to take some pressure off your frontliners.

Ranged Elites - I don't think I need to explain much here. Reapers then every other gunner that exists with plasma gunners taking the second highest priority. Care with aggroing shotgunners as unaware teammates can literally get blasted if you aggro 10 shotgunners and they are not ready for them, same thing goes for plasma gunners.

Lesser shooters - Small shooters are as dangerous as gunners and you should be taking them out as best you can but it's not always possible depending on situations. Regardless they are part of your responsibilities.