Peril Knight
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Role & Mindset

Your role as a Peril Knight Psyker is to hold the frontline through overwhelming melee pressure.

This is a melee-first Psyker fighting alongside Zealots and Ogryns. High Peril is intentional and fuels your damage, cleave, and damage reduction. You are not a caster or backline support — your power comes from staying in melee and keeping Peril high.

Combat Flow

Engage aggressively and stay in motion.

Activate Scrier’s Gaze before major fights. It is your primary damage window, and its effects continue to ramp even after it ends, allowing you to stay aggressive.

Your two-handed Force Sword is your main weapon. Heavy attacks deliver massive cleave, stagger, and elite kills. With stacked buffs and high Peril, most elites die in a single heavy hit.

The Force Sword’s special attack is also effective for clearing dense groups and adding control. Use it deliberately and watch your Peril — Scrier’s Gaze’s lingering effect gives you enough room to use it safely during peak engagements.

Critical hits fuel your sustain, rapidly restoring toughness while stacking damage and movement speed.

Peril Management

High Peril is by design.

Your damage, cleave, and survivability all scale upward near the limit. Avoid quelling unless between engagements or before a major push.

Smite Usage

Smite is almost never used.

Peril is kept high, leaving little room for frequent casting. Smite is not part of your damage rotation and is used only for:

• Emergency stagger on dangerous enemies
• Brief interruption of ranged or elite pressure
• Electrocute Weapon procs for short bursts of melee control

Smite is a last-resort utility button. If you cast it often, you are likely misplaying the build.

Positioning

You are a frontline anchor, not a lone wolf.

Fight close to your melee teammates and push together. Your role is to break enemy formations and create space, not to chase kills far ahead.

Use block and terrain when approaching ranged enemies. Deflector allows safe advances under fire; otherwise rely on team support.

Target Priority

• Elites in melee range
• Horde density threatening the frontline
• High-risk specialists when needed (via revolver)

Your revolver is a utility tool for removing immediate threats, not a sustained ranged weapon.

Survivability Philosophy

You survive through momentum and pressure.

Damage partially converts into Peril, which further increases your damage and damage reduction. Combined with extreme toughness regeneration, this allows sustained frontline presence.

Standing still is dangerous. Forward pressure is safety.

Strengths

• Exceptional melee burst damage
• Massive Peril-scaled cleave
• Strong stagger and crowd control
• Unexpected frontline durability

Weaknesses

• Lower mobility than Zealot
• Vulnerable to heavy ranged fire if mispositioned
• Requires comfort with high-Peril gameplay

Final Note

This build is for players who want to play Psyker like a frontline knight, not a spellcaster.

You will rarely cast abilities and instead rely on positioning, timing, and raw melee pressure. If you enjoy two-handed melee combat and high-risk, high-reward gameplay, the Peril Knight delivers a uniquely aggressive Psyker experience.