Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Ogryn Skullbreaker guide

The Ogryn Skullbreaker is the invaluable, immovable tank of Fatshark’s new horde shooter. Here’s a Darktide Ogryn guide to get you cracking heads in no time.

The Ogryn is an enormous, powerfully-built abhuman descended from humans who spent thousands of years evolving on high-gravity planets. Ogryns are less well-spoken than the other classes, but luckily eloquence means very little in the endless hive of Tertium, and the Ogryn Skullbreaker is a vital part of any strike team.

Here’s everything you need to know packed into one easy Darktide Ogryn Guide.

Darktide Ogryn guide

Ogryn abilities

The Ogryn is the tankiest member of the strike team, with 300 Health and 100 Toughness.

Ability: Bullrush: You charge forwards, knocking enemies aside and backwards as you cover ground quickly.

Iconic: Excessive Force: Your melee attacks have +25% stagger.

Loyal Protector: Reviving or rescuing allies cannot be interrupted by damage.

Thick Skin: Take 20% less Toughness damage, and 20% less health damage.

Blitz: Grenade Box: You throw a box of grenades that strikes a single target and deals a burst of focused damage to the first enemy hit.

Aura: Intimidating Presence: You deal an additional 10% melee damage with heavy attacks.

Level 5 (Tier 1) Talents

Lynchpin: You regain Toughness at double the normal rate when in Coherency with allies.

Smash ‘Em Good!: Replenish 20% Toughness on hitting a lone enemy with a heavy attack.

Best Form of Defense: Regain 20% Toughness upon hitting multiple enemies with a heavy attack.

Level 10 (Tier 2) Talents

Heavyweight: Deal 50% increased damage to Ogryn-sized enemies and Plague Ogryns

Bombs Away: Hitting an enemy wearing Carapace armor with your grenade box causes the box to fall open and release grenades around the target.

Blood & Thunder: Apply a Bleed stack to enemies hit with a heavy attack

Level 15 (Tier 3) Talents

Towering Presence: Your Coherency radius increases by 50%

Lead the Charge: When you use Bullrush, allies in Coherency gain a burst of 25% movement speed for four seconds.

Bullfighter: You refund 10% of Bullrush’s cooldown when you or an ally in Coherency with you kills an elite enemy.

Level 20 (Tier 4) Talents

Bloodthirst: For each enemy with a Bleed stack within melee range of you, gain 10% damage resistance. You can benefit from this from up to five enemies.

Hard as Nails: You take 25% less damage for each ally currently downed, dead, or waiting for rescue.

Die Hard: While you are below 25% health, double your Toughness regen. (This stacks with Lynchpin).

Level 25 (Tier 5) Talents

Payback Time: When you are damaged by an enemy, gain 20% more damage against all enemies of that type for five seconds.

Knife Though Butter: Your fully charged heavy attacks won’t stop when they’ve reached their Cleave threshold, and can hit any number of enemies in range.

Raging Bull: You gain 5% increased melee damage on your next melee strike for each enemy hit with your last melee strike.

Level 30 (Tier 6) Talents

Bull Gore: Apply two stacks of bleed to each enemy hit with Bullrush.

Unstoppable: Double the distance that Bullrush makes you travel, and you can’t be blocked by enemies except for Monstrosities.

Non-Stop Violence: Replenish 10% of your Toughness for each enemy hit by Bullrush.

Ogryn gameplay tips

As the Ogryn, you are the first line of defense between the squishy members of your strike team like the Psyker Psykineticist and the Veteran Sharpshooter. As the tankiest class in Darktide, it’s your job to soak damage, clog up choke points with your enormous body, and get your teammates back up when they go down. The Ogryn’s job in Darktide is a mostly thankless practice, having to shore up the weaknesses of the other players in your squad.

Many Ogryns in the pre-release beta have favored the Slab Shield for its ability to be set down to block hallways and bridges, forcing the hordes of enemies to come to you and buying your friends space. Bullrush is an excellent tool for getting to downed allies and picking them up, given that you are the only class who can revive allies without being interrupted in the heat of battle.

You are both your team’s tank and their medic, and sticking close to your team to make sure you can guard them effectively is key. While there are more damage-oriented Ogryn builds, ones that focus on staying alive and protecting teammates shine the most. The Ogryn has less tools to deal with the enormous hordes that get thrown at your kill team in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and therefore often wants allies like the Zealot Preacher and Psyker Psykineticist in order to augment the significant peel that the Ogryn can provide to its teammates.

Recommended Ogryn builds

Bull Ogryn: Best Form of Defense, Blood & Thunder, Bullfighter, Bloodthirst, Knife Through Butter, Bullgore

This Ogryn build helps its allies by being able to decimate its way through waves of enemies and frequently Bullrush into vital positions to help its allies. Thanks to Best Form of Defense and Knife Through Butter, you’ll be throwing out tons of fully charged heavy attacks that will keep you healthy and your allies safe, saving Bullrush to reposition yourself or join allies in precarious positions.

If the Ogryn is a tad too brute force for you, check out our Psyker Psykineticist guide.