We’ve interviewed our gameplay designers about the Hive Scum’s new weapons and their design!

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Hardened criminals, ruthless bounty hunters, violent psychopaths: Tertium’s Hive Scum have made it onto the Mourningstar and are here to stay!

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This is the third in a series of dev blogs breaking down different aspects of the Hive Scum! In case you missed it, you can find the Narrative & VO dev blog here! For this one, we talked to our Game Designers Matteo and Erik about the design of the new weapons coming with Hive Scum, as well as what existing weapons the class will have access to!

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“I’m Matteo, I’m a Game Designer specializing in Weapons. My favourite class is Psyker, and I do a sick tiramisú.” ~ Matteo

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“I’m Erik, a Game Designer also specializing in Weapons. My favourite classes are Zealot and Psyker. I can confirm that Matteo makes a sick tiramisú. I can't cook or bake but I'll make you a perfect 'Last word' cocktail.” ~ Erik

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Weapons Design

The initial designs for the weapons was a deeply collaborative effort between us and Games Workshop, finding the perfect weapons that would be iconic for a criminal of this caliber, and making it come to life in-game.

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Being Tertium locals and street thugs, they have to make do with what they have. These weapons are rough and scrappy, but nonetheless lethal and effective.

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“They’re definitely not refined or high-tech, but at the same time the Hive Scum are not stupid; they’re very intelligent, crafty people. So they get this ‘junk’ coming from the upper parts of the Hive and they make it a weapon of extreme power, both from their skill in crafting and tinkering with the weapon, but also their innate skills at using them.” ~ Matteo

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We knew that for the core player fantasy that the Hive Scum represents, we needed weaponry that was both lethal but also on the lighter side, to accompany that highly mobile playstyle. This was coupled with us really wanting to introduce dual wielding for the first time to Darktide, which led to us coming up with this unique and deadly arsenal!

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“You could say that they’re literally the opposite of Arbites in both the Narrative aspect and Gameplay.” ~ Erik

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The following weapons are all new and unique to the Hive Scum class.

Dual Autopistols

The Autopistols that the Hive Scum use are a different variant from what the other classes have access to (beyond packing two of them, I mean!), and they’re a sight to behold. Extremely high firerate, very mobile, and plentiful ammo, encouraging spray and pray tactics. 

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The extremely high firerate of these autopistols will shred any enemy not wearing Carapace armour, but you’ll have to stick close to the enemy to get the most out of them. Thankfully, that suits the Hive Scum’s playstyle perfectly! Additionally, despite having a large ammo pool to draw from, they chew through it rather quickly, so don’t get too lax with your ammo management.

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Because they’re dual wielded weapons, rather than aiming down sights you can brace them to slightly increase accuracy and stability, at the cost of mobility. The Dual Autopistols’ Weapon Special is a simple but effective bash, perfect for when you run out of ammo and need that extra second to finish reloading.

Dual Stub Pistols

These paired handguns are a bit more restrained compared to the Dual Autopistols: Lower rate of fire, less ammo, but more accurate and packing a bit more punch, making it a more versatile weapon. Nonetheless, they’re still a wild and aggressive ranged weapon!

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“They are meant to fit the Hive Scum’s Run and Gun playstyle. They’re powerful and work for both aimed precision shooting, or run and shoot in a general direction. That’s the idea.” ~ Erik

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Just like the Dual Autopistols, you don’t aim down sights with these weapons but rather brace them to slightly increase accuracy and stability, at the cost of mobility.

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For the Weapon Special, after giving them a spin, the Hive Scum focuses to make the next shot count, making it more accurate and deadlier. This class is all about self-expression and attitude, and this special attack not only packs a punch but allows you to bring that flair into your gameplay, which is extremely satisfying.

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Needle Pistol

This is one of those weapons we always wanted in the game, even before we had decided to work on the Hive Scum, and the new class with its toxin focus made it a perfect fit. What excited us the most was the opportunity to head into uncharted territory and show needle weapons in first person for the first time ever. It took a lot of prototyping on all elements, from gameplay, sound, visuals and animations, to nail the representation and make the weapon "work" in a fast-paced FPS.

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This terrifying pistol fires needles that apply Chem Toxin, same as the Chem Grenade Blitz (you can read more about that in our Class Design & Talent Tree dev blog).

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The needle itself doesn’t deal much damage, but the Chem Toxin it applies is lethal enough, and it’s what the weapon relies on the most. Make each shot count, because the Needle Pistol has a more limited ammo pool than other weapons.

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“It’s a lot of value per shot, but it also kills slower inherently by being Damage Over Time. You can also choose to pump your target full of toxin for a quick kill.” ~ Erik

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It sports two firing modes, which you can switch between with the Weapon Special input. The first mode fires a highly lethal projectile applying a large amount of Chem Toxin stacks to a single target, while the second firing mode spreads Chem Toxin in a small radius, but also injects the enemy hit by the projectile with a delayed toxin. Enemies injected with the delayed toxin will explode on death, dealing significant damage in a small area. 

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These firing modes allow the Needle Pistol to be very versatile and function well in multiple situations, switching between dealing with single targets or larger groups of enemies with ease.

Shivs

We wanted to display not just the brutal nature but also the craftiness of the Hive Scum, and few things show that better than the shivs! While they may look like crude pieces of metal, the Hive Scum are intimately familiar with how to make their enemies bleed with them, and many are quite fond of their personal pair.

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They’re extremely fast dual wielded melee weapons that attack from various angles, and while the base damage is somewhat low, they deal devastating blows when targeting weak spots and have the mobility to let you easily avoid attacks and even position to backstab any enemy.

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These come with two Marks, one focused more on stabbing and the other on slashing.

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The first Mark is best suited for single targets, dealing very high damage but with almost no cleave. Thankfully, they attack so fast that they can still deal with multiple enemies in a pinch.

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The second Mark is better at cleaving through enemies and is just as fast, making short work of any horde of Heretics in your way. In exchange, each attack deals less single target damage compared to the other mark.

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“The main differences are especially in the heavy attacks. The first mark will have strikes with both shivs at the same time for massive damage, while the second one will do cleaving attacks, alternating with both hands.” ~ Matteo

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Both Marks share a Special Attack, in which you throw one of your spare shivs at the enemy. This thrown shiv is coated with the same Chem Toxin as the Chem Grenade and other weapons, dealing low damage on the initial hit but with a scarily lethal Damage Over Time effect.

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The Special Attack of the Shivs is limited to 3 at a time, but you can regain Throwing Shivs by either killing Special and Elite enemies with Melee attacks, or by performing backstabs.

Crowbar

While originally a humble tool, the crowbar becomes a brutal weapon when wielded by the Hive Scum. A favourite of those who come from the Manufactorums, or simply the ones who enjoy breaking bones a bit too much.

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The crowbar is a versatile weapon that has two modes of attack, using either the blunt side of the crowbar or the claw, and switching between them with the Weapon Special input.

The crowbar’s blunt moveset has high impact and wide sweeping attacks, perfect for crowd controlling hordes of enemies, no matter who’s in it. Flipping it over to the claw side, the attacks will be more focused on single-target damage, with the crowbar sticking into the enemy before being ripped out for extra damage.

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“[...] you want to swap between the modes as the flipping animation is very fast and you will resume the attack chain from where you are.” ~ Matteo

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The weapon’s moveset is rather straightforward and intuitive, making it easy to pick up and learn, but the ability to switch attack patterns gives the weapon a lot of depth and allows for some really cool improvisational gameplay and quick decision making.

Bone Saw

A rough looking bonesaw coated in deadly toxins, the Saw is a versatile melee weapon that, similar to the Needle Pistol, has two modes that you switch between by using the Weapon Special input. This changes the specific toxin that coats the serrated blade.

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The first coating is best suited to deal with unarmoured enemies, while the second one excels at dealing with heavily armoured ones.

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Like the Needle Pistol, a lot of the damage from the weapon comes from the Damage Over Time effect of the Chem Toxin applied! So, while the blade itself might not cut deep, a slice is all it needs. Because the Saw applies the same Toxin as the Needle Pistol and the Chem Grenade, they stack together for a devastating combination.

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“So for example I could be shooting with the Needle Pistol on a target and to keep the toxin going, Matteo could hit them with the Saw. We’re adding to the same pool of Toxin, so synergy between both weapons and the Blitz is the idea.” ~ Erik

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Existing Weapons

As for which of the weapons already in the game that the Hive Scum will use, we made sure that these followed the same direction that the new weapons have. This meant focusing on kinetic firearms and avoiding weapons that were too slow or heavy to fit their mobile playstyle.

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Ranged Weapons

• Stub Revolver
• Braced Autogun
• Infantry Autogun
• Vigilant Autogun
• Combat Shotgun
• Double Barreled Shotgun
• Autopistol
• Boltpistol

Melee weapons

• Combat Blade
• Tactical Axe
• Devil’s Claw Sword
• Assault Chain Sword
• Assault Chain Axe
• Combat Axe
• Heavy Sword

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Bonus: Most fun part of working with Hive Scum?

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“For me the best part of what I worked on is the Crowbar’s blunt Heavy 1 attack, which is a big golf swing. [...] That’s my favorite part, haha.” ~ Matteo

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“I like all the ranged ones! Dual wielding is fun, just run quickly, shoot a lot and watch the heretics die. But I kinda also like the Needle Pistol as well because you can kinda mess with the enemies. You can shoot an enemy with a few needles and then ignore him and go on to the next one and they just sort of fall over, that’s pretty satisfying I think. But I also like the dual shivs as well, they look so cool… And the Saw! Ah, I mean, I like all the weapons, to be honest!” ~ Erik

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That’s all for today, but keep an eye out for our next Dev Blog, coming soon!

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For the Conclave!

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Buy Hive Scum on Steam

Buy Hive Scum on Xbox

Buy Hive Scum on PS5

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We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.

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– The Darktide Team

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