Psykers are one of the most popular classes in Warhammer 40K: Darktide and it’s easy to see why. Bursting people’s heads open and channeling the Warp to obliterate foes with fire and lightning is incredibly fun indeed. That said, when you’re just starting out you’ll need to rely on conventional weapons for a while because unlocking a Psyker’s full potential takes a long time.
Psykers get access to a ton of different weapons, both conventional and exotic. This makes them more versatile than other classes and allows them to specialize in a variety of roles. Similar to other classes, your role in the party is largely going to be dictated by your build.
Psyker Psykinetic AoE/Crowd Control Build
This first build revolves around AoE damage and crowd control, allowing the Psyker to take out hordes of weak enemies while the rest of the party focuses on the big targets. Naturally, you should still use Brain Burst to get rid of Specialists and Elite enemies whenever you can even with a build like this, however, that shouldn’t be your main priority.
Feats
| Level 5 | Warp Absorption | All three Feats you unlock at level 5 will allow you to replenish Toughness but ‘Warp Absorption’ is the best pick for a build like this. This passive ability triggers whenever you kill an enemy using a Warp attack, which, among other things, includes Force Staff attacks. Seeing as how you’ll be using the Force Staff a lot with this build, ‘Warp Absorption’ is an obvious choice. |
| Level 10 | Psykinetic’s Wrath | Strangely enough, this Feat shares the same name as the Psyker’s class ability, but there’s no real connection between the two. It’s possible the developers will end up changing the name of the Feat at some point. Either way, this is another Feat that will make your Force weapon attacks stronger and applies to both staves and swords. You will need to have a high level of Peril to get the maximum benefits, but the Feat does give you a small damage boost even when you’re at low Peril. |
| Level 15 | Psychic Communion | Despite being the Psyker’s most memorable ability in Warhammer 40K: Darktide, Brain Burst is not something you’ll need to rely on a lot with this build. Fewer Brain Bursts usually means fewer Warp Charges, but don’t worry because you’ll still be able to get a good amount of charges thanks to this Feat. ‘Psychic Communion’s 4% proc chance may not sound like a lot, but it triggers more often than you think when you’re laying waste to hordes of enemies. |
| Level 20 | Kinetic Shield | Normally, you would want to take ‘Mind in Motion’ here but since the ‘Psykinetic’s Wrath’ Feat benefits from having high Peril, you’ll want to go with ‘Kinetic Shield’ instead. This Feat ties in pretty nicely with ‘Psychic Communion’ and gives the Psyker a much-needed defensive passive ability. Just keep in mind that the damage reduction only applies to ranged attacks. |
| Level 25 | Kinetic Flayer | ‘Kinetic Flayer’ is a very powerful Feat mitigated somewhat by the fact that it can only proc once every 15 seconds. Still, being able to randomly Brain Burst targets is extremely helpful and allows you to gain even more Warp Charges. Between ‘Kinetic Flayer’ and ‘Psykinetic’s Wrath’ you shouldn’t have any issues generating Warp Charges even if you’re not actively using Brain Burst a lot. |
| Level 30 | Ascending Blaze | Ascending Blaze ties in nicely with most of the other Feats in this build as it gives your class power the ability to apply Soulblaze stacks based on the number of Warp Charges you’ve expended. Soulblaze works similarly to the Ogryn’s Bleed, so it’s basically just a damage-over-time status effect. As an additional benefit, ‘Ascending Blaze’ gives you a Warp Charge whenever you kill an enemy with Soulblaze. The proc chance is only 10%, but it applies to Soulblaze effects from all sources, not just your class power. |
Weapons
Surge Force Staff/Purgatus Force Staff: All Force Staves deal AoE damage but some of them are better than others at crowd control. The Purgatus version does more damage, but the Surge variant is better at staggering, so you could go either way here. The Trauma Force Staff wouldn’t be a bad choice other but it’s not quite as good as those other two.
Regardless of your choice, you should go with extra Damage to Unarmored Enemies and Increased Ranged Critical Strike Chance as the ideal perks for the staff. Meanwhile, both Blazing Spirit and Warp Nexus are great choices for blessings and have synergy with the second perk.
Blaze Force Sword: The Force Sword is a great backup weapon that does a good amount of damage and synergizes with the first two Feats of this build. Just keep in mind that regular swings with a Force Sword don’t count as Warp attacks, only charged ones do.
In this case, we recommend filling both perk slots with Melee Critical Chance, but feel free to swap one of those for Damage to Unarmored Enemies if you want. Blazing Spirit is a good blessing for the sword as well, and then you’ll want to pick Slaughterer as the second blessing. That said, Force Swords have a ton of good blessings so feel free to experiment.
Curios
Curios are great for increasing your defenses, but they don’t really help with your damage, at least not directly. You can add a bunch of Combat Ability Regeneration perks to help with your damage if you picked the ‘Ascending Blaze’ Feat but it’s a good idea to focus more on defenses since Psykers are notoriously squishy.
- First Curio blessing: +1 Wound. Perks: Combat Ability Regeneration X 3
- Second Curio blessing: +1 Wound. Perks: Damage Resistance (Gunners), Damage Resistance (Snipers), Damage Resistance (Tox Flamers)
- Third Curio blessing: Toughness. Perks: Toughness Damage Reduction X 2, Corruption Resistance
Psyker Psykinetic Single-Target Focus Build
This second build is designed primarily for single-target damage and leans more into what Psykers do best in Warhammer 40K: Darktide – Bursting Brains. You’ll still have good AoE capabilities when using this build, but it encourages you to focus more on taking out high-value targets using Brain Burst instead of clearing waves of weaker enemies.
Feats
| Level 5 | Essence Harvest | With this build, you’ll want to pick ‘Essence Harvest’ as your first Feat since you’ll be using Brain Burst a lot and gaining Warp Charges at a frequent rate as a result. This build uses ‘Mind in Motion’ so ‘Quietitude’ isn’t a bad choice either, but it’s a bit less effective than ‘Essence Harvest’. |
| Level 10 | Inner Tranquility | ‘Wrack and Ruin’ sounds good on paper for a build like this but it’s very situational. If you want to play it safe, ‘Inner Tranquility’ is the better option here. Peril management becomes very tricky when you’re using Brain Burst a lot, so you’ll definitely want as much Peril resistance as possible. This feat increases Peril resistance by up to 24% at this level, but you can bump that up to 36% once you hit level 25. |
| Level 15 | Cerebral Lacerations | ‘Cerebral Lacerations’ can be a bit hit or miss depending on the difficulty you’re playing on. Brain Burst already one-shots a lot of enemies but it won’t outright kill Elites, let alone monstrosities and bosses, especially at high difficulties. This Feat is very helpful when fighting those types of enemies, however, it won’t do anything against everyone else. But although situational, this is still the best Feat you can unlock at level 15 for this build. |
| Level 20 | Mind In Motion | As mentioned earlier, ‘Mind In Motion’ is a great talent to have for a single-target build. Brain Burst significantly increases the Peril meter, meaning you’ll have to quell it often if you don’t want to accidentally blow yourself up. Normally, quelling your Peril slows your movement speed to a crawl and makes you vulnerable but with ‘Mind In Motion’ you can continue moving at the normal speed. |
| Level 25 | Warp Battery | All the Feats you unlock at level 25 would work really nicely with this build so it’s worth experimenting with all of them and sticking to the one you like best. But we do recommend starting with ‘Warp Battery’. Being able to store two extra Warp Charges has a lot of advantages and synergizes really well with ‘Inner Tranquility’. |
| Level 30 | Kinetic Barrage | ‘Kinetic Barrage’ is a no-brainer for a build that focuses on Brain Burst. Being able to charge the ability 25% faster is extremely helpful in situations where speed is of the essence, which is pretty much all the time in Warhammer 40K: Darktide. In addition, ‘Kinetic Barrage’ also causes Brain Burst to consume 50% less Peril. It’s pretty self-explanatory why that’s a big deal. But the most important thing to note here is that these effects don’t just apply to the first Brain Burst you cast after using your class power. Instead, you have 10 seconds at your disposal to cast cheaper and faster Brain Bursts after using Psykinetic’s Wrath. |
Weapons
Voidstrike Force Staff: The Voidstrike Force Staff inflicts a lot of single-target damage and is a solid complement to Brain Burst. It can be a bit tricky to aim compared to a firearm but the alternate attack shoots balls of energy that deal AoE damage, so you don’t have to be super precise when using it. Still, you should try to hit your primary target directly if you want to inflict the highest amount of damage.
Since you’ll be spending most of your time focusing on big targets, picking perks like extra Damage to Carapace Armored Enemies and extra Damage to Unyielding Enemies will help a lot. Warhammer 40K: Darktide doesn’t really explain this but Unyielding enemies include Crushers, Bulwarks, and Reapers. As for blessings, you’ll want to go with Rending Shockwave and Warp Nexus.
Blaze Force Sword: The Force Sword is going to be your best friend in Warhammer 40K: Darktide regardless of your build. It’s arguably even better for this particular build than the first one thanks to its special attack, which is particularly useful against strong enemies. But do take care when using it because the animation is quite lengthy.
Same as with the staff, the best perks for this build are those that allow you to inflict extra Damage to Carapace Armored Enemies and extra Damage to Unyielding Enemies. Meanwhile, the blessings you should be going for on the sword are Uncanny Strike and Unstable Power.
Curios
Using a build based around Brain Burst tends to make you vulnerable because of its charge time. You’ll want to get as much Toughness as possible to mitigate that while also grabbing some cooldown reduction perks in the process.
- First Curio Blessing: +1 Wound. Perks: Cooldown Reduction X 3
- Second Curio Blessing: Toughness. Perks: Toughness Damage Reduction X 3
- Third Curio Blessing: Toughness. Perks: Toughness X 3
