Owl's Stealthy Speed Demon
 Zealot Build - Warhammer 40k: Darktide 

For the longest damn time, I have been trying to figure out the best possible build for my exact playstyle in Darktide, I love playing speedy assassins and having tons of utility, I never thought id find it but I finally did it. If you're looking for a build like this too, I hope this finds you well.

Assassins in my eyes are three things in my eyes, Elite/specialist killers, Supports, and always have a tool for every situation, this is that.

BLITZ: Blades of faith is your specialist killing tool. Use this on Trappers, Dogs, Snipers, Flamers, Bombers, etc. Can be used on the heavier gunners too if you cant find yourself able to get close or need them down quick. DO NOT USE ON ARMORED ENEMIES, you have other tools for that. Killing Elites & Specialists in melee will replenish knives, can also replenish with ammo boxes.

AURA: I like Zealous cause it allows me to run for longer and more often, however your curios can give you the same effect if you're willing to give up some perk slots for it. Beacon of Purity is a phenomenal other choice if you decide you dont care about Zealous all too much, and your teammates will love you for picking it. Benediction is good too, but ideally you wont be getting hit too often in this build so I dont see it getting too much value.

COMBAT ABILITY: Shroudfield is the IMO the best ability that Zealot has, the amount of damage, speed and utility potential it has is just better than any other ability in here. Shroudfield is best used to one-shot any enemy with a heavy attack from behind even into Auric, but this is best used against your carapaced armored enemies (Crushers, Maulers, Plasma Gunners).  You can also use it to reposition and get yourself out of a bad spot, you can use it to carry power cores undetected and quickly, you can use it to pick up your teammates for free, you can use it to do data interrogator minigames for free, and so so much more I haven't even listed. On top of all of that with Invocation of Death and Blazing Piety, it will effectively be up 24/7 and even if it isn't, light spam for 3 seconds and it will be. People will tell you its bad, DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM, they haven't been enlightened yet.

KEYSTONE: Blazing Piety ties everything together, the keystone combined with invocation of death ensures that you have always have Shroudfield ready. It also gets you some insane boss killing damage by allowing you to bleed them, which allows you to use one of the best blessings on the knife "Mercy Killer" and "Uncanny strike"'s brittleness does apply to bleed and causes them to take more damage from that as well. There really isn't a ton to talk about here.

MELEE: You can use either mark for this build, but the mk III's Heavy Attacks just feel so much better to use for the things you'll be using it for, the downward strike after the push feels great for dealing with maniacs and vanguards, and the middle stab in the light combo just feels perfect for precision damage. For the most part, hordes, bosses, etc. you will just light spam so you can crit fish and stack up bleed. Elites, Vanguards, you'll be trying to heavy attack. I know it seems weird to dump mobility on a speed build but the difference is so negligible it doesn't make a difference nor is even noticeable in gameplay + the other stats are just so much more important.

RANGED: Gonna be honest, I'm still testing this one. The Accatran Mk IX shotgun however so far, does feel like an amazing horde clear weapon which is what this build lacks, its special ammo fires and incendiary round which is great at dealing with hordes and the flechette round plus its massive reticle means it just can hit and bleed so many enemies at once, making hordes a joke. The shotgun is also an incredibly mobile weapon still since you can dump stability (which increases spread, which is what we want anyway), and keep mobility up, you dont lose any dodges, dodge distance or much sprint speed so its pretty smooth gameplay wise and feels like you can keep your flow going well. I will however continue to try the Shredder Autopistol, Braced Autogun and Infantry Autogun, just to see if any of those work well too.

TALENTS: I suppose I should talk a bit about these too, however I'm sure most of these are self-explanatory as you choose them. Enemies Within, Enemies Without, turned out to be a massive survival tool I wasn't expecting on this build, it keeps you alive really well when running ahead or into hordes after you exit Shroudfield to kill a Crusher or Mauler. Thy Wrath Be Swift is such an excellent tool to deal with and get to ranged enemies quickly, dont sleep on it just cause its a talent to get us to other talents. Relentless Fervor is literally what makes this build possible, you simply cannot have this speed without it and it makes you feel like a fucking demon.

And that's it, hope this build works for you and you have fun using it and turning into a speed demon, oh and dont be a dick and use this to speedrun in public lobbies.