Warhammer 40K: Darktide’s Original Crafting System Was Replaced Because it “Just Wasn’t Good Enough”

Fatshark’s Warhammer 40K: Darktide is available for PC after a two-week-long pre-order beta. It’s garnered above-average critical acclaim (check out our review here), but not every feature was available by launch. The crafting system released in a limited form, with Consecration being the only option available during the pre-order beta.

It was especially odd afterwards when the developer said other crafting features would roll out through December. Speaking PC Gamer, head of designer Victor Magnuson revealed that a different crafting system was in place, but it wasn’t good enough and subsequently replaced.

“We had another crafting system that we realized just wasn’t good enough. So we ripped it out, started over, and created a completely new crafting system, which will be much, much better. When we took that decision, it was not a happy day in the office. But we felt that we had to do it. And it’s going to come, and it’s going to come very soon.”

He added, “If we release a system and it’s in there, and people are using it, it’s really, really hard to rip that system out and replace it with another system. People have already invested in the previous system. And from a backend perspective, it’s going to be a nightmare. From the player’s experience, it’s going to be really bad.

“So if we released the game with a borked crafting system and decided we needed to redo it, that’s major surgery, and we don’t want to do that. It was a really tough call, but I think in the end, players will agree it was the right call. Of course, they’re never going to know how bad the original crafting system was, but it wasn’t as good as this one.”

Game director Anders de Geer also provided more details on the other crafting features. Along with Consecration, you can Refine an item, which rerolls the perks (like a 20 percent damage bonus against enemies with armor). Earn Blessing is about removing a special trait from a weapon and swapping it between others.

“You can actually extract traits and move them between weapons. So they are, in a sense, like gems. You can take a trait out of a weapon and place it on another weapon. So that’s a way for people to get the combination of traits that they want. And traits have rarities, with three tiers,” said de Geer.

You can also Combine Blessings, which allows for combining lower rarity traits into higher rarity versions. “It’s a way of upgrading if you find the right trait, but it’s not rolled to be the highest tier. Then you can put it on your favorite weapon.” Finally, there’s Re-Bless which places a high-level trait onto your weapon of choice.

There’s no roadmap for when all the crafting features will release, so stay tuned for more details. It’s also coming to Xbox Series X/S, though no release date has been confirmed.