Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Psyker guide

The Psyker is the anti-elite mage archetype character in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, harnessing the powers of the Immaterium.

The Psyker is a swiss army knife compared to other classes in the base Darktide game, able to pick out elite enemies and dump tons of damage into key targets. You’ll need to be incredibly careful about your positioning and ability usage, as your teammates will need your help to deal with Darktide’s hardest moments. Here’s all you need to know about the resident witch in Tertirum, all contained in one handy Darktide Psyker guide.

Psyker Abilities

Psykinetic’s Wrath: This is a large shockwave sent out in front of you that staggers enemies backward and consumes half of your Peril. Peril is the mechanic built up by using your Blitz ability or the class’ unique Psyker Staves. You can drain Peril while wielding your Blitz ability or a Power Stave or Power Sword.

Iconic: Warp Siphon, when you kill an opponent with your Blitz ability, Brain Burst, you gain a Warp Charge. Warp Charge increases all damage you deal by 3%.

Inner Tranquility: You can reduce Peril by 10%

Aura: Kinetic Presence: Allies in Coherency with you gain +10% damage to elite enemies.

Blitz: Brain Burst: Your Blitz ability is a single-target charged attack that deals immense damage to your target. If your target dies, your gain a stack of Warp Siphon.

Level 5 (Tier 1) Talents

Kinetic Transference: Replenish 30% toughness for a few seconds after killing an enemy with Brain Burst.

Warp Absorption: Replenish 10% Toughness when you kill an enemy with a Warp attack.

Quietude: Replenish 5% Toughness for each 10% of Peril quelled.

Level 10 (Tier 2) Talents

Psykinetic’s Wrath: Gain 5-15% damage with Force Weapon attacks based on your Peril.

Inner Tranquility: Gain 6% Peril resistance for every Warp Charge you have

Wrack and Ruin: Killing an elite or specialist with Brain Burst applies two stacks of Soulblaze (A damage-over-time effect) to all enemies nearby the target.

Level 15 (Tier 3) Talents

Psychic Communion: When you or an ally in Coherency kills an enemy, you have a 4% chance to gain a Warp Charge.

Psykinetic’s Aura: Allies in Coherency gain a 15% ability cooldown when killing an elite enemy.

Cerebral Lacerations: Damaging an enemy with your Brain Burst ability causes them to take 15% more damage from non-Warp attacks.

Level 20 (Tier 4) Talents

Kinetic Deflection: While below 80% peril, blocking an attack causes you to gain Peril rather than draining stamina.

Kinetic Shield: Take 10-33% less Toughness damage from ranged attacks based on your Warp Charge stacks.

Mind in Motion: Your movement speed is no longer slowed while quelling Peril.

Level 25 (Tier 5) Talents

Warp Battery: You can now store up to six Warp Charge stacks.

Kinetic Overload: At maximum Warp Charges, gaining a Warp Charge stack instead applies four stacks of Soulblaze to one nearby enemy, prioritizing elites.

Kinetic Flayer: All of your attacks have a 10% chance to Brain Burst your target, except for when you are above 80% peril. This has a cooldown of 15 seconds.

Level 30 (Tier 6) Talents

Quicken: Your Psykinetic’s Wrath ability removes all Warp Charge stacks, reducing its cooldown by 12.5% for each Warp Charge stack removed.

Ascendant Blaze: Your Psykinetic’s Wrath removes all Warp Charge stacks, applying stacks of Soul Blaze to every enemy hit based on the amount of Warp Charge Stacks removed. Enemies killed by Soulblaze effects have a 10% chance to grant you a Warp Charge.

Kinetic Barrage: For 10 seconds after using Psykinetic’s Wrath, your Brain Burst charges 25% quicker and uses half the Peril.

Psyker gameplay tips

As the Psyker, your squad will rely on you to take care of elite enemies, break up hordes, and supplement the other classes. There’s rarely a circumstance where you don’t have the opportunity to help against most enemies, but you have to be even more careful about your ability usage than other classes. Using Warp attacks at 100% Peril can lead to you being downed and gaining a bar of Corrupt health.

If you want to focus on repeatedly using Brain Burst early on, we recommend using a non-Warp ranged weapon. Otherwise, you can be forced to swap straight to melee or quelling Peril before blasting away with your ranged weapon. With a gun, you’ll be able to Brain Burst until you hit 100% Peril and then let the Peril reset itself passively as you fire away. Once you have some of the higher-level Talents, you can swap to using a Warp-based ranged weapon, specifically one of the Psyker’s Power Staves.

If you do want to use the Power Staves or the Power Sword, whose special increases Peril, you’ll need to constantly be quelling your Peril or else risk going down. If you want to be entirely Warp-based, we recommend building towards the Quicken capstone talent so you can regularly use the shockwave to drop your Peril after popping heads with Brain Burst. Soulblaze-focused builds will be best at clearing hordes, Ascendant Blaze and Kinetic Overload are near-mandatory for builds that hope to trim away at the enormous number of enemies in Darktide.

If you want to try another class, check out our Veteran Sharpshooter guide.