VERY IN-DEPTH H40 MELEE PSYKER GUIDE, 2 BUILDS
 Psyker Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

Changelog

7/7/2026 - guide should read better now overall

7/6/2026 - added link for the talents I run with Scrier's Gaze: https://darktide.gameslantern.com/builds/a23327de-a0e2-459b-8cbb-3fbab5ac8dbf/scriers-variant-talents-only-below

• Still read the mini-guide because there is talent variation, and if you are very into it then read the Shred vs Unstable Power too

7/1/2026 - added significant rambling on Shred vs Unstable Power for Scrier's Gaze under 'Gear Philosophy' - for min-maxxers only

WHY USE MY BUILDS?

• Build revolves around using the "Uptime" mod across 150+ Havoc 40 games with these builds, in addition to 300+ Havoc 40 games just going by feel of talents and playstyle
  • Most games are on Party Finder and inviting 1-2 low ranks, so much of the output is the build and less from the team
     
• Utilizes Walls & Scrier's Gaze to their maximum potential
  • By default, this guide is for Walls but anything that deviates due to picking Scrier's Gaze will be noted (here is just the talents:) https://darktide.gameslantern.com/builds/a23327de-a0e2-459b-8cbb-3fbab5ac8dbf/scriers-variant-talents-only-below
     
• Most unholy clutch power, can deal with every situation that presents in Havoc 40
   
• Huge, palpable impact on the team and is very fun
   

Gear Philosophy

Blaze Force Greatsword Covenant Mk VI (will be abbreviated as FGS)

• Huge single target damage vs. the Mk VIII (~ +33%)
• INSANE range, you outrange almost every incoming melee attack in the game
• Can swap Riposte for Precognition if you are solo / duo
• Can swap Carapace for Flak but I hate maulers too much to do that
• Scrier's Gaze: can swap Unstable Power for Shred.....(only read if you are a min-maxxer)
  • Unstable Power uptime with walls = 3.9 out of 4 avg. stacks ; Uptime with Scrier's Gaze = 2.8 out of 4 avg. stacks
    • Unstable Power is up to 1.2x dmg multiplier and enhances cleave and other properties (because it is strength)
    • Because of its basically max average stack uptime with walls, I really have not messed with this too much. 
  • Shred uptime max stacks ~40% --> more crits --> massive damage amplifiers + palpable increase to both Empathic Evasion and Mettle's movement speed uptimes
    • Uptime consistency is kind of all over the place, sometimes great for elite packs and sometimes crap
  • Currently have done a few Scrier's Gaze H40 games with Shred instead and my unstructured pros of each are the following:
    • Unstable power
      • With higher stacks, non-crit 1-tap H2 stab kills on dreg ragers and bulwarks (max height jump-shotting them over shield)
      • Zero management or thought, I can pre-emptively charge up H2's on nothing without feeling like I am messing up any stacks
    • Shred
      • Noticeably less dead-slides (slides without enough Mettle stacks) and noticeably more Empathic Evasion uptime (being surrounded by reapers and remaining immortal with [L L H] repeating.)
      • Higher uptime on massive captain H2 stabs, frequently dealing ~40% of their hp in 1 hit
      • Loss of non-crit 1-tap H2 stab kills on dreg ragers (and I think bulwarks?) but overall more 1-taps on dreg ragers due to crits. The frequency of Shred allowing for more 1-taps was greater than the frequency of Unstable Power allowing 1-taps.
  • More testing needed for scab seeds to see how maulers / flak gunners feel. Walls need thorough testing as Unstable Power uptime is basically always maxed.

Electrokinetic Force Staff Nomanus Mk VI (will be abbreviated to EK staff)

• Innate +21% crit chance and +31.5% crit damage, other staves do not have the 'Critical Bonus' stat
  • Primary attack crits do 2x to nearly 3x damage at base, plus the 'Surge' blessing is a global 2x multiplier to that damage
  • Crits also trigger several important talents
• Is used like a warp revolver to take out ranged elites (can suppress reapers easily,) specials, and dreg ragers
• Can swap Maniac for Flak, or run Maniac + Flak depending on preference / playstyle

Curios

• Can swap Toughness for Revive Speed
• Scrier's Gaze: can swap Combat Ability Regen for Revive Speed or Health* 
  • *I usually run Health

Talent Philosophy - from top to bottom

Perilous Combustion

• For non-soulblaze builds, this is rarely noticeable aside from shotgunner waves, which are already easy to kill

Blitz

• Running Walls? Assail is easy to maintain high peril + Malefic Momentum
• Running Scrier's Gaze? doesn't matter for my playstyle as I'd rather keep Peril down. I equip smite and literally never use it, as a meme.
  • I used to use Kinetic Flayer a lot, but I had many redundant procs

Malefic Momentum

• NO MICROMANAGEMENT: 70%-80% uptime on warp damage buff; 45-55% on the non-warp damage buff
  • No micromanagement means using the staff / warp slice naturally and not thinking about this talent
• MICROMANAGEMENT: 70-80% for both, done by treating the staff like a revolver and quickly 1 shotting something every few sec

Empathic Evasion

• Very nice for clutching when you have no dodges + fighting elites/bosses + getting shot at. Allows time to reset dodge counter
• Comfortable without Empathic Evasion? Consider the following for both Walls and Scrier's Gaze variants:
  • Brain Rupture + Kinetic Flayer combo
  • Assail + True Aim combo
    • If using Scrier's Gaze, also swap Warp Speed for Warp Unbound
  • Immaterial Focus: free global damage resistance with rarely useful stun immunity
  • Battle Meditation (Scrier's Gaze only:)  significant increases average Scrier's Gaze stacks

Anticipation

• The +1 dodge makes the FGS feel a lot more forgiving when kiting large packs of carapace or dreg ragers

Just a Dream

• Big global damage resist, often times when you need it most 

Abilities

Walls

• Main intent is for anti-special use
  • As long as a pixel of the enemy touches the wall, they get stunned. You can pretend the wall is actually lengthier than it looks
  • Bursters may walk through
  • Trapper nets may pass
  • Bombers easily throw over the wall
  • The wall has width
    • Mutants may run through the full thickness --> stunned + recoil --> no follow-up stun 
    • Mutants may run through partial thickness --> stunned + recoil --> follow-up stun 
    • Dogs will likely run through the full thickness --> stunned --> no follow-up stun
• Spam them, they have high uptime thanks to Psykinetic's Aura
• Most of Darktide consists of paths more narrow than the wall's length meaning it is good to rotate the wall and make use of the entire length down the hallway.
• In a narrow hallway, rotate the wall diagonally or straight to move up on gunners. I will draw below an aerial view of a narrow hallway

  • |     > > )         X      |
    |    ^     )        X        |
    |    ^    )          X       |
    |    ^   )         X         |
    |    ^  )                      |

     

    • |                         | is the hallway
    • ) is the diagonal wall
    • X are gunners
    • ^ > is your path of movement
  • Notice how you can rotate the wall to walk the entire length of a gunner line and get behind them
  • Bubble has bad uptime

Scrier's Gaze

• Plays a bit differently (link to JUST THE TALENTS & mini-guide right under the link, not in the link)
• https://darktide.gameslantern.com/builds/a23327de-a0e2-459b-8cbb-3fbab5ac8dbf/scriers-variant-talents-only-below
  • Warp Splitting changes to By Crack of Bone now that we are trying to keep peril down
  • Empathic Evasion: see above under Empathic Evasion if you don't want this node
  • Precognition: big damage
  • Warp Speed: most players don't use, but it helps when things get really bad. I always use this
  • Warp Unbound? IMO is useless unless you can spam a useful peril-generating action
     
  • Peril management: don't worry, play naturally in almost all cases & spam Scrier's Gaze. That mental energy should be spent on anything else.
  • FGS reroll: swap <60 warp resist to =60 warp resist & consider Shred vs Unstable Power (read way above under initial FGS section)

Shriek: I have not experimented with Venting Shriek and Perilous Combustion

Warp Ghost

• Walls: peril slow-down makes upkeeping Unstable Power, Warp Rider, and Warp Splitting easy
• Scrier's Gaze: peril slow-down has no significant positive or negative effect
• +2 stamina has helped to compensate for an inactive Kinetic Deflection (at 97% peril)
• Toughness Replenishment is a 1.25x multiplier to all toughness sources that actually matter in Havoc

Disrupt Destiny - 3 different builds, depending if you are:

1. Confidently aggressive with max damage possible, but potentially inconsistent: Perfectionism + Cruel Fortune
   1. Stacks: ranges from 1-25; averages 18-21 
   2. Rotted armor? TBD at this point because Rotted got reworked and is not yet in rotation
       
2. Confidently aggressive with a free talent point, but potentially inconsistent: Lingering Influence ONLY
   1. Stacks: ranges from 8-13; averages 10-11
   2. Free talent point for whatever you want
      1. Check under Empathic Evasion section above for where to spend the talent point
          
3. Lazy, but consistent: Lingering Influence + Cruel Fortune
   1. Stacks: ranges 11-15; averages 12-14

• Difficult to kill enemy highlighted? Look away for 5 seconds, the next markable enemy you see will be instead highlighted

Gameplay Guide - Havoc 40 focus

FGS

• Special Wave
  • Wave mechanics
    • 2-part attack consisting of the wave projectile and the physical swing. The physical swing itself (without the projectile) can be a light or heavy attack. 
      • The physical swing can generate special meter, meaning sometimes you can swing into a horde and instantly have another half or full charge ready. 
      • Special light: useful on trash mobs, the physical swing will kill them all the same and generate special
      • Special heavy: useful on elites, it has huge damage and with enough buffs, can 1 hit most elites. 
    • Reaches to approx. 25 meters with large damage drop-off after ~10 meters (estimated based on feel, never really tested)
  • Zero charge:
    • Will free teammates from pox hounds through walls
      • If through a wall, aim slightly above teammate's silhouette when they are pounced. The wave is wide, not tall.
    • Will stagger trash mobs trying to hit netted teammates, buying more time to free them
  • Half charge: kills trash mobs at close-med range
  • Full charge: kills trash mobs at long range; kills / weakens elites and specials at close-med range
  • Peril saving trick: if using Scrier's Gaze and a charge is ready, activate charge --> use Scrier's Gaze --> use special wave
• Combos
  • Aggressive trash clear: [L L L > H] repeating
    • Sliding / Sprinting: [L L > H]
  • Safe trash / mixed clear: [Push > L] repeating   OR   [Push > L > H] repeating
    • The first light after a push is unique and is perfectly horizontal
    • This will be your primary way of avoiding getting body blocked trash
      • Pair with hugging a wall for the highest chance of maneuvering around high density hordes
    • The heavy is the unique sweeping heavy from the first combo if you feel you have time for a bit more damage, but I mostly just do [Push --> L] 
  • Single-target: [H H]   OR   [L > H > block cancel] repeat   OR   L > H > [L L > H] repeating
    • Try all of them, you'll notice over several games that each one provides different value. Random examples below:
      • H H repeat will let you chain guaranteed elite gunner kills quickly
      • L > H block cancel repeat can abuse stab mechanics (see below), 1-tap mutants fast, or safely fight cspawns.
      • L > H > [L L > H] virtually matches the DPS of [H H]. It trades ease of headshot consistency for +50% hits per second.
        • +1 attack = +50% attacks = +50% Empathic Evasion proc chance + more of Mettle's movement speed uptime + faster Shred stacking (if using Shred)
  • Sprinting Heavy: very fast, great opener / gap closer, I use this ALL the time when fighting gunners or needing to run away
  • Push "attack"
    • Open bulwarks
    • Knocks captains down and off maps (hilarious)
      • Melee twin gets pushed back, not knocked down
    • Interrupt overheads
    • Proc kinetic flayer
    • Extra insurance vs. bursters
• Stab attacks: will always hit weakspots if your crosshair is on it 
  • Example: Beast of Nurgle's weakspot can be stabbed when in front of them 
  • Example: Bulwark's head can be stabbed through their shield if they are staggered

EK Staff

• Primary attack: for range elites, specials, and occasionally dreg ragers (absolutely melts them)
  • Will proc Empathic Evasion, Mettle, and Perfect Timing very easily to make you immortal
    • Sprint sliding + Empathic Evasion is near 100% immunity from shooters
    • Sprint sliding + Mettle is high movement speed to avoid all melee enemies
  • When to quell:
    • Short quells during any downtime (changing targets, during slides)
    • Can shoot and immediately quell to negate peril cost entirely
  • Careful when only aiming for the head, many enemies will crouch / hide and make you miss entirely after the first hit. It is okay to just aim at the body unless you can guaranteed headshots
  • Weapon swap is so fast that you can swap --> shoot --> swap and not even see the staff on your screen
• Secondary attack is for fast moving specials

Peril Management 

• For Walls, Warp Rider + Unstable Power do a lot of heavy lifting for damage. Keep your peril above 80%. It is OK to avoid sitting at 97%+ so you have a Just a Dream buffer
  • Try not to waste the FGS special progress just to maintain high peril, instead use your staff or blitz, whichever is faster / makes sense
• For Scrier's Gaze, do not worry about peril management that much; you are better off spending that mental energy on literally anything else

Toughness

• Mettle, Warp Expenditure, and Disrupt Destiny are your only toughness generators.
• It is easier to think about the toughness generation in the following way:
  • Mettle - you can't control your crits, but you'll be critting when you are hitting things. Bottom line: hit things
  • Warp Expenditure - you should always aim for the head anyways. Bottom line: hit things in the head
  • Disrupt Destiny - even if at max stacks, it is nice to hit the highlighted guys anyways for +movespeed. Bottom line: hit blue things
  • Overall: hit things, in the head preferably, bonus if they're blue

Movement

• Movement needs its own entire guide, so I will keep this brief. It is ironically last and in a small section for this guide, but is more important than literally anything else in the entire game IMO
• With the FGS, engage holding heavy --> activate sprint --> slide --> release heavy attack
  • Practice this over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
  • Get to a point where you can replicate the movement in the video
  • Movement speed bonuses exponentially increase momentum for this, allowing insane chain kills on elite gunners
• Don't waste dodges. When a bunch of overheads come at you, you transition to soulslike game mustn't waste dodges
• Climb objects often if needed
• Watch how good players move around in Havoc. They can make any build work because of movement

Same link as above, but Scrier's Gaze talents are here: https://darktide.gameslantern.com/builds/a23327de-a0e2-459b-8cbb-3fbab5ac8dbf/scriers-variant-talents-only-below

@bruh moment on the darktide discord if you want examples of anything above, I have clips of everything. The linked video is a clutch that encompasses many lessons taught here, but this site won't let me upload other videos sadly. The link breaks whenever I paste here.