Important news: if you encounter any problems you cannot fix with the community please try running the game in Windows 7 compatibility mode - especially with the lag/rubberbanding it may be a great help.

The problem is believed to be something something with APIs, while compatibility modes should change the APIs used by Deathwing. Whatever that tech adept meant by this...

 
 

 
 
 

 
 

To begin, I will tell you about my two golden rules for your duty in the Deathwing:

---

1: always follow your superiors and their orders; learn from their example
2: always pick the gear and role that you (and you only) find adequate

---

Why? Following those two rules is mandatory to sucessfully complete missions AND to guarantee long term satisfaction in your duty for the chapter. And not succeeding missions will also deny you satisfaction. If you do not find your fight for the emperor satisfactory, you will maybe do your duty, but never to your full potential. And possibly not for long.

To learn, you must communicate. Something you are not told necessarily is: use "y" to chat.

 
You need a good understanding how to keep you alive. Use Guides and other brother's knowledge for this goal. First: the basics. There are many brothers out there more wise in the art of war, and many have left their knowledge for us. I will not just repeat all knowledge you may learn out of them, so pay attention to other authors aswell - but I may repeat points I deem important or not known by many. My suggestions would be:

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1725556260
It sums up quite everything you need out there. Read it well. I have already annoyed so many by suggesting this over and over...And over...


https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/app/816090/discussions/0/1743346190279115555/
Technically not a guide, but it summarizes what you should do very good. Just don't believe rule number 4 and you are good to go.


https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1394016889
Another quick guide for abilities. Nothing you shall ever forget in battle, brother.


https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1399534338
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1527064527
And do not forget to gather those relics for the chapter, brother, you could make your local chaplain very angry. Also it is said to grant even more experience.


https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1393883569
Another neat little collection of tips for newcomers - feel free to take a look. Especially the reminder to move fast, do your objectives and use the resilence perk comes handy.

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2026690276
And for the diligent brothers a guide to all there is to achieve.

I am not completely sure the posted guides are 100% correct, nevertheless they are a great help. Let me thank everyone who made a guide, and thus influenced my experience of the game and this guide alltogether. May the emperor protect you all.





You might have read this in the mentioned guides already (possibly multiple times), but one of your earliest steps is to improve your equipment. Keep it simple tho, rule of thumb is buy tanky!

For your armour, get a skill buffed that you like and buy some acid resistance (it helps against bomber enemies and a part of the spit attacks). After this, for the last slot you get, yes you guessed right, the armour buff.

Next is the perks. Fortunately there are plenty to choose from, feel free to test them all and experiment with different play styles. Many are great fun or provide a better challenge. Unfortunately, in nearly every situation the perk Resilient is far better than the others - in no mercy runs it is quite mandatory. Pick it, you will miss it otherwise. Waste your renown on something else, weapons (especially so your weapons don't jam anymore), decoration, whatever... And if you are well equipped you might test those perks again.

Few exeptions I would try tho: if you like the devastator (or heavy weapons dude), try the Warmachine perk. It halves the reload time. This is great fun on weapons like assault cannon or vengeance BUT it also works on spear and plasma. Bring some good dodging skills and purge them all. Other perks might be interesting, like the rocket for the tactical's servo skull or triple sprinting, if you want to search for some fancy speedrunning. But you will die. Often.

Also I recently enjoyed the improved power fist, being even with damage-mod nearly as fast as the unmodded one - but in this setup still strong enough to onehit most enemies if you interrupt their blocking. If you are trained in melee you may find this perk incredibly fun useful for purging. Only improve what you intent to use obviously. Other weapon based perks should be equally useful and interesting. And still there are so many perks I do not understand a bit.

I haven't even bothered buying most them - I just never expected them to be better than tankyness (and often they aren't). On the other hand be aware that I might have missed out something, they might make your duty much more enjoyable. Test (and think) for yourself, brother. And I will test some more, too.


 

 
The next skill which will greatly improve your chance of survival and thus greatly increases the chapter's kill count is what I call: the dance™. It is the philosophy to never ever stand still, especially to not stand around without actively, consciously choosing to (like for a quick sniper shot). Even the codex astartes states, that a terminator is only vulnerable if stationary, and the codex is always right as long it says like I do... As most of my knowledge, I learned this while learning the role of assault marine. To best grind this skill into your very existence I suggest a melee weapon, especially a slow one.

The philosophy of the dance™ is to never stand around, to always move in a non-linear way. Move fast and sprint often (even improving the time you need for missions). Move sideways while at it in a random manner. Throw in a step left, throw in a step right. Throw a punch. Make your movement flow, fluently go from moving to the side to throwing your fist (while turning your entire body while at it). Like brother Lee from the fourth company, i believe, once said, you need to "be like water". If you fully internalize this philosophy it becomes quite hard for enemies and their linear, foreseeable attacks to hit you - even if you are not aware of their presence or not seeing them at the moment!

 
Step two of the dance™ would be to integrate the art of distributing damageyou should definitely already have read about in the suggested guides. Not only stop to walk totally straight through the hulk, but also do not always face the same direction. You will, consciously or unconsciously, start to get hit to different parts of your body - which, obviously, greatly increase the amount of survived hits.

I suggest to you that you start learning how and when to block after mastering to dodge - as dodging is superior in decreasing incoming damage. It will be quite easy to learn, too. Block whenever dodging is impossible and if you are heavily blinded. The timing is, unless you are engaged in melee with a slow and heavy weapon, also quite trivial as rising your hand is near instantaneous.


After your body knows what it has to do now, we should talk about your senses. You must utilize every single emperor given sense to reach your peak performance - also you should learn and train how to work without them. You need to train:

• your eyes: everyone knows that he has eyes, I hope. You already know how to use them, you will probably also know how to improve them with the tools you can add to your weapon. The most interesting part for now might be the tracer and the crosshair that your machine spirit provides.
  Tracer and Crosshair tell you four things: the spread of the crosshair will let you estimate the spread of your bolts, be aware how fast it gets precise after standing - quite fast. The Tracer will tell you, where you will most likely hit. It is not perfect, but close to it. If you move it will get unreliable, it you stop shortly, you will hit this exact spot again. It also helps you recognizing the difference between your line of sight and your line of fire - showing you obstacles that block your shot but not your sight (like little boxes)..
  If the tracer turns red, it shows you that you are aiming at a hostile target. I will talk about being blind (because of plasma, fire or else) later, a great danger for your vision and thus you. And even the shortest amount of blind time is enough for stalkers, psykers etc. So don't blind your brothers.
  If you are blinded, this little tracer might be your best bet to still find and hit your target even in the greatest flames. Alternatively dance™ the enemy off until you see again. You can also see a marker, showing you from where you are hit - working like in every other game it is quite self-explanatory.
  If your crosshair turns red, it indicates that your shot has found its target. Always watch this as the best tool to improve your aim. As most weapons are not "too weak" but not wielded well enough.
  
  On a sidenote you will get even more interesting info, like the position of your squad even through walls, or mission objectives, commands of your squad.
  
  
• radar: the radar brings additional, essential data to your attention. It shows unsafe directions and blips if the genestealers is hit by your sonar, or even shows red dots if the data it can gather is precise.
  
  If a stalker strain is present near you, it will cause some interference with your radar, making you a little blind. But fear not, as their strengh is mostly their downfall - if you notice the interference fast, they are faster discovered than if they never caused your radar to freak out. Dumb xenos...
  
  
• hearing: of course you should also use your ears to find genestealers and to stay save out there. On the other hand I am not quite sure how i shall teach you to use them. My tip is to listen for details and learn their individual sounds. Bioblast-strains scream, for an obvious example. If you hear psy-energy crackle, you might have found a Broodlord
  
  
• map: you may see the blip on your map, too. I would not suggest this as it leaves you blind for your immediate surroundings, and thus kills you easily

Your surroundings will also greatly help you staying alive if used smartly. Especially large enemies, Broodlords and Scythes, or Stalkers and their linear attacks, may be outmaneuvered. This helps obviously to shoot enemies that can't reach you but it also may let you attack enemies with melee, while they are mostly helpless. Doors are a great, if not the greatest, part of this, too.

As I am no fan of doors, because they keep the fun out, I will not judge you if you ignore doors completely. But IF you decide to lock them, beware this: do not waste time with doors. Only lock doors, if they actively block bugs (for example do not lock a door directly next to an already locked door without any new spawn points covered). Do not lock doors, if you need the room as last resort, for example because a Broodlord attacks. And do not lock doors while standing still - as mentioned in other guides (like the first on this list here) it is possible to lock open doors while staying in motion. You can also lock multiple at a time.



Another skill which may save your life is identifying bugs specifically. Firstly, is it a purestrain genestealer (Corporaptor hominis) or a ymgarl strain (Corporaptor ymgarli).


Look out for their skin colour (yes it is indeed appropriate to discriminate the xeno) or find out if they have claw-like hands or huge scythe-like claws - their mouth is a quite obvious difference, too. If a Broodlord has hands, you are in big trouble; if it has claws, you are quite dead, so hurry to safety. Maybe unlock it in single player. I summarized it for everyone who may be too lazy too buzy slaying:

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Genestealer#Ymgarl_Genestealer

https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2459877704
If you know this difference, always slay the broodlord before the scythe. Or if you are extra dense bold, try to block the broodlord's path with a scythe, if you have both at a time.
 

 

You need to follow orders and even sacrifice to win missions. But your life is the Emperor's, spend it well and do not waste it!

Especially on highest difficulty it is not advisable to wander around killing stuff for too long, for even the best squads might encounter enemies too good or uncountable to handle. Obviously you need the objectives to complete a mission, but a well timed rush or kill and thus spawning a psygate may rescue your entire squad - try to learn when to fortify and wait and when to risk it all and attack. And if your end comes, try to die gloriously, not as a coward.



There is no shame in following more experienced brothers. Follow their example and learn. Better to do what you are told than to do random stuff that is hurtful to the mission, like badly locked doors...

 
Keep in mind that most who lead a mission have some kind of plan, try to follow their orders as closely as possible. Well followed orders will greatly improve the speed and will make even the greatest bugs quite tame, while a chaotic squad will endanger the mission and waste time. And while a little stop (you actively decided to make) to kill even more bugs may a nice pastime, wasted time is not.

The amount of levels a battle-brother has is quite a good indicator if a brother should lead or follow - but it is NOT a perfect measurement. Please try to estimate your and your squad's skills in leading the mission as honest as possible.

This is no one-way road, always try to communicate your orders and your plan for your squad as good as possible. No one can be expected to read your mind, save the most competent battle psykers, and not commanding enough will lead to chaos.And we don't want chaos here, oh no, don't let me get Asmodai...This applies to the lobby, too. Try to give as much info as possible through the name of your game (like region (EU, NA, whatever), FF or not (better: never play without FF at all), the level range you hope to play with and maybe a hint if you plan to go on normal or special missions. Remember:



While working together with your squad, try to empathize with their point of view, their role, their playstyle. It is quite annoying to see a battle-brother run into your line of fire, ruining your aim, your shot and, if you try to shoot a witch, the entire mission. Try to evaluate your and their importance to the mission and save them if they are more important (for example due to being the healer or chaplain and needed right now). Try to understand how their skills work (for example do not shoot a Chaplain if he is likely to reflect). And keep in mind what areas of effect are to be expected (get close to the apothecary and his healwave, get away from the madman with the hammer). Look for weaknesses of your brothers and try to migitate them. And weaknesses are plenty, maybe the squadmate isn't capable, maybe he has to communicate via chat or maybe he is even locked in due to some bug of the game some warp shenanigans...

After this you should empathize with their movement, too. I am no huge fan of formations and similar stuff. but you should think about this matter at least a little. If your path is narrow, move to one side (ideally to the left) so your brothers may shoot the xeno behind you, too. Position you where you may save other squad members, especially valuable ones. And, of course, move fast - but still with your squad in mind, not too fast, not detrimenally slow. Also always keep your eyes in a direction not covered by the squad, never shoot a brother's target while you leave another direction open for an assault.


After all this you should be able to efficiently pick a target while answering those questions:

• is the direction covered? (don't leave blindspots)
  
• is the specific enemy under fire? (don't overkill (too much) especially with an assault!)
  
• what priority has this enemy? how much does this one hurt? (a Scythe is, for example, no priority target if someone (tank) is stopping it from backstabbing)
  
• what is my weapon (and my brother's weapons) capable of? (shoot close or far? soft or heavy targets?)
  
• what is my role / do other roles need help? (tank close to being pinned down? heavy weapon dude not killing fast enough alone?)

With this you should be able to stop the scythe syndrome, meaning the whole squad shooting a big, but not urgent enemy. Do not do this or similar stuff, always think while picking a target.


To cover every possible direction you will mostly move back-to-back with at least one battle-brother, reaching a 360°-view with at least 2 men. Alternatively you could also move front-to-front, with the one moving backwards at the front. This will create two little blind spots but will let you see at all time what the other is doing and seeing - if he turns, you can easily turn at the same time, reversing to standard back-to-back movement again. A possible purpose of this could be covering someone who wants to catch up by sprinting.

The most important part about moving as a team is not to lose each other - but also to NOT CUDDLE, people need enough room to dance and dodge.



But wait, there is more playing for your "team" than only your Battle-Brothers. You can count on help by servo-skulls and c.a.t.s too. Even hostile entities, like some xeno broods or the defense towers can be of great help - if you know how to abuse their hate for your goals. This means kill dangerous bugs (broodlords, psyker, stalker) before less dangerous (scythes, small ones), also kill towers after using them to stun bugs. Use this unusual help to block paths for entire enemy hordes and to save precious space marine lives!


 

 

Firstly, and most obviously, to improve your attacks you will need to train. Slay them all. Slay them with every tool you have, with bolter, blade, your feet or even the surroundings.

 
You begin with your main weapon. I will assume for now that this is a ranged weapon. I have not too much to say to ranged weapons that is not quite obvious. Point the shooty end at the enemy. Get a feeling for aim and recoil, try to keep your left ammo in mind. Observe how the projectile behaves (might be interesting for a flamer for example, as it works with a ballistic curve - aim it high for range). Try to not get killed while reloading and remember you have other weapons, too.

Get some upgrades, an aim improvement you like and the reliability blessing. Think about what other modules you want to install. Train and test. Imagine what role your weapon might fit best - I will talk about the weapons and my thoughts about them later. Just try to aim for the head!


To train shooting quite fast (in addition to shooting every bug there is) there are more targets. Just get something providing you feedback if you hit. For example exploding barrels. In short: just shoot all the barrels you find… Wait. Wait… I’m worried what you just read was 'shoot some barrels and stuff'. What I wrote was shoot all the barrels you find. Purge the barrel. Why? Few reasons for this: they do great damage, you will remember them some day - meaning you doing great damage, and they will train your aim incredibly if you try to shoot the barrel as fast as you can and with as few bolts per barrel as possible. And shooting barrels is great fun.

 
Besides Barrels you may also shoot those engines. I will exclude the big bell right here. It is quite fun to shoot but not very challenging. Grenades (even melta bombs) are fine too, while they are easy to overlook. You may even use the servo-skulls in the lobby-room of the single player special missions. But they are few and you do not want to anger the Omnissiah or his cult. Try whatever else will train you - just look for audible or visual feedback. And try not to annoy your squad with this.

  
 While not that well suited to train you, pipes will also make a fine weapon to burn the enemy. Use them whenever no one in your squad has a flamer ready - with one it gets redundand tho.
 
You could also smash those screens. I... I really don't know what this is training or how this might help... But do you even need a reason for it?
 

Try to get melee trained, too. Even if you are not planning to play the assault role, you will find at least basic knowledge about punching, blocking and dodging very useful. But I would suggest getting better than only basic knowledge, try to play the assault for a while as training, even if you drop the role afterwards. Maybe you will even like it. I do. And i might be a total fan little biased towards glorious hand-to-hand, face-to-face combat, just like He on terra would want us to.

Heavy melee attacks (or "power hits") are still not fully understood and all information found on this matter is quite obscure. As far as I understand this the damage of your attack increases after holding the button longer than the wind up animation goes - I can't say how long the damage increases or if there is any maximum. As you don't want to lose too much crowd control, you also don't want to hold the attack for too long. Maybe try not only hitting the attack button but to hold it approximately as long as the animation goes.


Melee is pretty useless without a basic understanding of dodging. Only smashing without the slightest thinking will get you killed in seconds, mostly. And too much blocking will eat up your health quite fast, too - much slower than facetanking tho. This is why you want to dance™, and why you will learn how to best while assaulting.

There are some tricks to learn for better close quarter attacks. One is to move your entire body while you strike, to amplify the arc of your attack (by whipping your mouse). With this you may hit multiple bugs with one strike - and most of them will be off guard, too. This works easier with slower weapons. With a slow weapon you could also begin your attack before moving near the enemy, again decreasing their chance to block greatly.

Most easily you will break their block is with a well timed attack right after you sucessfully charged (or blocked) them. Working only with small enemies, you will damage and stagger them, leaving them helpless and most often kill them with one strike. Use and practise the charge as often as possible, as it is mighty and most fun. Regardless of your class, too.

You can even retreat out of battle with your sprint just to make a u-turn and charge back in, starting the battle on your conditions anew. Be creative in the art of purging the xeno. Also be aware that you can start sprinting near instantaneously after a successful charge - try to run over multiple hybrids one after another. Just crush your enemy, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women.

 
Blocking is best used when dodging is impossible, like if you are pinned in a corner or stuck in a horde of bugs. You will only survive this for seconds, so slay them faster or at least turn yourself to distribute damage. Or hope for help, of course. An exeption is the storm shield, as it takes a tremendous amount of punishment to fail you, and it could bash you free. Another time you might want to block in is if you are blind, sure you could try to dodge, but it is too random and will fail more often than you would like to. Stepping out of the psygate is a case of "blind" too - block every time while teleporting.

If you are not the host of the session, but joined someone else, you may even use the shieldcharge. While starting to block and starting to sprint an nearly the same time you keep your block up (or similar) while running. This is not fully researched tho. If you run into an enemy or charge into a small enemy, you will get slower as usual and keep the block with its usual effect. While you shieldcharge, it looks and sounds like the block is working like expected, too. But to be sure it works like it should more observations are needed. Try it. Tell me your opinion on it.
 

 

A special situation for your block is against big bugs. It will, as usual, greatly increase your survivability. But they will break your block and you must raise your hand again after every of their hitsor die. Now is the time to put your new knowledge about the different types and breeds of the xeno to use: scythes can be blocked very reliably, no matter if its tier 1 or 2. Broodlords will occasionally kill you even if blocked (and even if you use defensive skills at the time) - and tier 2 broodlords will be even worse to face. Prepare to smartly run and use your surrounding, prepare to use skills to have a better chance. And the rule of thumb to always stay in motion is still in effect while blocking, of course. Also I suspect their close range attacks to penetrate a block more often, but test this yourself please. While blocking, try to get around the big bug, this may give you the opportunity to dodge, drop the block and even slap them back.

But beware, blocking is only possible if your melee attack is completed. Ranged attacks are not affecting your block much which makes them preferable in melee sometimes. This means you need to plan your attacks and the next seconds carefully, do not attack if you can't interrupt their dangerous attacks. Go full ham if you easily throw them around or kill them or if you have none of their attacks to fear. You may move in and move out of the fight while swinging, so keep dodging. And slap them good if you are sure you can dodge their next attack - this might be quite doable with a scythe for example. You may want to test a particularly heavy and slow weapon to train all this - if you can hit things, dodge and block while using a damagemodded hammer, you can do this with every weapon there is.

 
After evaluating your own and your brother's skills you should think about how to fight in a team. Who is to be protected as too valuable for the mission? Where does everyone has to stand or to walk to for making maximum damage? What to do if the squad gets pinned or attacked by Broodlord − are you melee-trained (so push in and tank) or not (so move/run out and shoot)?

Especially tough fights will become way easier if you have a tank who is knowing what he is doing. He takes aggro and brings good crowd control with melee attacks and charges, so every other task (healing, blasting ...) becomes easier and suprises become rarer. But melee can, as most know well, lead to a very fast death - meaning that the tank needs to stay in motion at all times! And the rest of the team needs to help him achieve this.

Think of a fight with a broodlord. With good dodging this may go on a while (I have seen fights over minutes), but with getting stuck or being backstabbed the fight is done in seconds. And after the tank going down at least one or two others follow in an instant. On the other hand many tanks (for example tanking medics) often can't hope to kill the big bug alone. This means get a heavy weapon on the target but also keep one or two smaller arms (and some eyes) on your surroundings. Do not lose your head because the enemy is big - stay cool and keep a 360° view even in those cases.

To dodge the Broodlord (as dodging scythe-strains is quite easy, just circle them) it is advisable to circle while moving backwards a little - triggering not their close quarter rip and tear but slower and more predictable leaps towards, or better past you.

If you all fight as one, attacking while the other blocks and vice versa, it is even possible to field two thunder hammers in one fight without too heavy casualties and such. Coordinated attacks and blocks are a wonderous thing.


The last important weapon is your skills. Use them with your brain online tho - do not teleport into a charging scythe for example, as it may kill you. Also mind that they can hurt your squad, too. Skills let you play more offensively than normally advisable (like shields or heals) or can even knock back enemies (like mines or librarian's skills) wrecking their block and let you slap them quick. Not only use skills for the most obvious, like the Frenzy makes blocking way easier mid-fighting. Be creative and use skills and all your weapons in great, deadly combos.

 
For good training spots you either get somewhere you can see everything and predict the enemies' movements - restrict them to attack from only one direction for example. Alternatively, look for places with special properties (like special spawns): check the knowledge section at the end of the guide for it.

And you need to experiment. Test stuff, try new attacks. Make mistakes (while trying not to screw over the entire mission with this). If it is for a reason and new knowledge is found, this might be worth the efford in the long run. Challenge yourself, don't always do stuff the easy way (like mentioned with the part about fighting with just a part of your senses). Most of your battle-brothers will be understanding if you fail because you tried something or if you were just not good enough - if you are willing to learn. And even the best veterans are quite dumb or fail big time in some rare occasions.



Secondly you might want to get a detailed overview of all weapons, or at least of those you want to use. So I will try to give you a complete survey of all weapons from my point of view, but I try to be objective. I hope to show some details not known well or some factors usually not thought about. This could be a quite boring part of the guide - but so might be the rest, too. If you want fun and play, do so, open the game and purge as much you want. If you want to learn I hope to be helpful with this:
 

 

Firstly some words on how to customize your weapons: frankly, I do not care how. I just care that you do, as most improvements are better than the unmodified weapon. The mods provide a 5% damage per time buff in both cases After testing, it seems like the speedmod brings much less than the descripion tells.

More speed is usually beginner friendly, it lets you recover faster from your attack and thus block easier. It lets you more easily crowdcontrol. While more damage lets you more easily break blocking enemies or inhibit them from blocking at all. I'd say go as slow and heavy as you are able to handle. Or go speed for crowd control if you focus your ranged weapon.

I will try to summarize the following stats for all weapons. Of course, I will summarize each weapon only once, as they mostly play the same way in each class they are available in. Minor differences are melee weapons for the apothecary, the effects of the devastator's skills, or Corswain's mace.

 

• Damage: obviously, I will summarize damage output per time, including rate of fire in this stat
  
• FF-Damage: how harmful the weapon is for your squadmates, depends on penetration mostly
  
• Penetration: how well the damage is delivered to heavily armoured enemies
  
• Precision: the ability to hit the target, summarizing aiming and recoil and all that
  
• Blinding: if and how much the weapon is a danger to the vision of your squadmates
  
• Bonus: possible special effects and behaviours of weapons benefitting you
  
• Role: what the weapon is best used for in my eyes

  Librarian

---

Storm Bolter

• Damage: quite low
  
• FF-Damage: near to none
  
• Penetration: very low
  
• Precision: immensely high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: headshots grant high damage bonus
  
• Role: good allrounder, incredible sniping weapon, slaughters hybrids and psykers like sheep. An awesome weapon if you aim well, a quite bad if you don't. Better than its reputation.

Redemption

• Damage: none - medium (depends on distance to target)
  
• FF-Damage: none - medium (depends on distance)
  
• Penetration: very low
  
• Precision: low
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: headshots grant medium to incredibly high damage bonus (depends on distance), the funniest ragdolls - overall fun weapon, ricochet bullets, aiming decreases bullet spread.
  
• Role: not used too well by most brothers. This weapon needs patience and aiming, as well as letting enemies get close. If you are able to hit all bullets (which is rare) damage is quite nice.

Storm Bolter Mk. II

• Damage: low
  
• FF-Damage: near to none
  
• Penetration: very low
  
• Precision: medium
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: headshots grant high damage bonus
  
• Role: okayish alrounder, okayish sniping weapon, another weapon depending greatly on your aim. I have no idea if you can aim it well tho. Absolutely no fan of this weapon...

Force Sword

• Damage: low
  
• FF-Damage: low
  
• Penetration: medium
  
• Precision: high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: reduces skills cooldown
  
• Role: nice and fast off-hand weapon, quite weak, but has good crowd control abilities

Force Axe

• Damage: medium at best
  
• FF-Damage: low
  
• Penetration: medium
  
• Precision: immensely high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: reduces skills cooldown even more
  
• Role: good off-hand weapon, quite weak, medium crowd control, very similar to the force sword, use for damage only if you know what you are doing

Lightning Claw

• Damage: low to high - one exeption better used with speed mod (can't onehit even with damage mod)
  
• FF-Damage: above medium
  
• Penetration: high
  
• Precision: high
  
• Blinding: none (but yourself while blocking)
  
• Bonus: higher than usual blocking abilities, quite good (maybe best) crowd control, attacking with main- and off-hand the same (incredibly useful for distributing damage all to your right arm, as it is not needed)
  
• Role: if you want some melee but without assault (assault has better options) - while keeping your skills for support or distance (hard mode if apothecary), if you want assault in super fast (for fun, leaving shield behind is no good idea).

Power Fist

• Damage: medium
  
• FF-Damage: low to medium
  
• Penetration: medium
  
• Precision: quite high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: tiny Area of Effect, medium crowd control
  
• Role: your standard off-hand weapon, slow if you are not used to it, quite awesome if your melee skills are high enough. Most fun with the lore-friendly damage mod, but possibly better with speed mod

Lost Mace of Corswain (normal)

• Damage: quite low
  
• FF-Damage: low
  
• Penetration: below medium
  
• Precision: high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: tiny Area of Effect, good crowd control
  
• Role: like the fist, little slower, bit less penetration, a little higher range. Achieved through some pre-order bonus. Said to be sold by keyseller websites, until some streamer talked about this matter, never seen since... If you own this mace and the fist, give one the speed mod and one the damage mod, so you have both in one mission available.

  Devastator (Heavy Weapons)

---

Plasma Cannon

• Damage: medium (quite underpowered for its FF)
  
• FF-Damage: extreme
  
• Penetration: high
  
• Precision: quite good
  
• Blinding: high
  
• Bonus: huge Area of Effect, extreme crowd control, no reloading, ammo regeneratess (warmachine increases this)
  
• Role: walking artillery, stunning of big bugs, not efficient for much more unfortunately, only pick if you can aim, learn dodging, melee and charging first

Redemption

Assault Cannon

• Damage: below medium, very weak but insanely fast
  
• FF-Damage: low
  
• Penetration: quite low
  
• Precision: good
  
• Blinding: very low
  
• Bonus: headshots grant high damage bonus
  
• Role: quite the same than the storm bolter but faster

Vengeance

• Damage: high, immensely strong but bit slow
  
• FF-Damage: quite high
  
• Penetration: very high
  
• Precision: low - high (single shots)
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: headshots grant high damage bonus
  
• Role: if you hit, you kill quite everything. best used against big and close targets, I'd say strongest non-AoE weapon by far

Spear of Caliban

• Damage: medium
  
• FF-Damage: low
  
• Penetration: medium
  
• Precision: very good
  
• Blinding: extreme - be aware, do not aim at squad
  
• Bonus: no reloading, ammo regeneratess (warmachine increases this)
  
• Role: good in close range, quite interesting off-weapon for melee. getting useless on greater ranges

Power Fist

Lost Mace of Corswain


 

 

  Assault Specialist

---

Thunder Hammer

• Damage: high - extreme, but slow
  
• FF-Damage: extreme
  
• Penetration: extreme
  
• Precision: high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: mostly ignoring enemy blocking due to damage, huge Area of Effect even improving the damage further
  
• Role: nuclear bomb for close quarters, use damage mod for even more madness (highest risk, highest reward), kill them all, the men, the woman and the children, too. You need to think ahead five to ten seconds because your defense is lost as long as you swing this monster. My favourite, so maybe a little biased. Only viable if you AND your team is working well with a hammer around...

Lightning Claw

Mace of Absolution

• Damage: high
  
• FF-Damage: high
  
• Penetration: medium
  
• Precision: quite high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: nice Area of Effect
  
• Role: like hammer, but in fast. not this incredible killing, but way better blocking through faster attack. speed-mod it, swing it like a maniac and you are practically immune to stalkers. and most others

Purgatory Sword

• Damage: medium - quite high, extreme against single targets - another exeption better used with speed mod (as it still onehits then)
  
• FF-Damage: very high
  
• Penetration: medium - quite high on paper, feels like extreme
  
• Precision: very high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: none, and none needed
  
• Role: killing single targets, especially big bugs, like none other(sorry hammer). Forgiving weapon for beginner assaults. Also quite good to kill hordes, but not as good as the hammer (and maybe mace). Pretty useless without force field tho

Lost Mace of Corswain (Assault)

• Damage: below medium - quite high
  
• FF-Damage: high
  
• Penetration: medium - quite high on paper, doesn't feel this high
  
• Precision: very high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: none, Area of Effect on paper, but you won't notice
  
• Role: unlike the normal version, this comes with force field, too. like sword, but a little less strong. While better on paper due to AoE. Good training weapon once sword became too easy

Storm Shield

• Damage: very low
  
• FF-Damage: near to none
  
• Penetration: high on paper, but who cares
  
• Precision: quite high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: incredible crowd control via knockback, incredible blocking
  
• Role: fighting near team with AoE-weapon in main hand, with right hand lost, crowd controling big bugs (stunlocking scythes entirely), blocking (ranged damage reduced nearly fully). one of your best friends out there

  Apothecary

---

Storm Bolter

Hellfire

• Damage: below medium, strong but slow
  
• FF-Damage: very low
  
• Penetration: medium
  
• Precision: high
  
• Blinding: high
  
• Bonus: headshot bonus, AoE bonus damage, stunning (easily stunlocking most)
  
• Role: stunlocking enemies and besiege entire corridors, strong against melee enemies from near and far. quite good against ranged enemies (while a storm bolter is better for this)

Storm Bolter Mk. II

Redemption

Narthecium

• Damage: low
  
• FF-Damage: zero
  
• Penetration: very low
  
• Precision: high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: reduces all skill's cooldown greatly
  
• Role: if you want to heal, but also want to slap, obviously. Mainly for crowd control or for mixing melee and ranged, bit weak otherwise

Lightning Claw

Power Fist

Lost Mace of Corswain



  Tactical Specialist

---

Storm Bolter

Heavy Flamer

• Damage: nearly none
  
• FF-Damage: nearly none
  
• Penetration: high on paper, none due to no damage
  
• Precision: below average
  
• Blinding: very high
  
• Bonus: huge damage over time (killing many bugs fully), minor staggering, high "bullet drop"
  
• Role: NOT for dealing damage directly, for applying the damage over time effect. to purge in style, to burn them in holy fire. DoT is a beast against every enemy. Preferrably against close enemies, usable against far enemies too - if you aim high enough

Storm Bolter Mk. II

Spear of Caliban

Redemption

Lightning Claw

Power Fist

Lost Mace of Corswain



  Interrogator-Chaplain

---

Storm Bolter

Storm Bolter Mk. II

Heavy Flamer

Spear of Caliban

Redemption

Lightning Claw

Power Fist


Crozius Arcanum

• Damage: medium
  
• FF-Damage: low to medium
  
• Penetration: medium
  
• Precision: quite high
  
• Blinding: none
  
• Bonus: medium crowd control
  
• Role: quite the same as the power fist, little faster, little weaker and I assume a little more range. Use to purge with style and to make misguided brothers repent

Lost Mace of Corswain


 

 
I had a little addition to the weapons guide: the mine skill of the heavy weapons dude. As this might also be seen as weapon and is relevant in the fields AoE and FF, I decided to give it some room. I thought about the servo skull too, but this should be (while i can't prove that) pretty similar to the Bolter Mk. I, while not dealing FF. Thus we don't need to talk about that skull too much:

  Devastator (again)

---

 
 

• Damage: on attack: high, DPS very low
  
• FF-Damage: mediocre, place with care
  
• Penetration: I have no idea
  
• Precision: high
  
• Blinding: small
  
• Bonus: AoE and immobile, quite an advantage if used while big brain time
  
• Role: nice crowd control, usable for combos if you're fast. Also useful to detect enemies following you. Hard to master, don't bomb your brothers.

 
 
 
 

Next thing I want to write about and explore more in the future is weapons testing. Only experiment up this date is a look upon the orange and blue thingies we put on fist melee weapon modifications. My interesting finding is: blue is a scam, be aware!

 

I tested the Power Fist on the devastator with a mouse macro for 60 seconds (repeated 3 times) to get attacks per minute. I calculated the mean of that per second and compared it to the unmodded fist. Findings were, that the blue speed mod provided 26% more speed, instead of the promised 50% (i tested the speed-modded fist twice).
 

This means the speed fist lowers your DPS by 11%, while the orange damage mod increases it by 5%. I also advise you test the damage-mod with a fist perk (available for devastator and tactical) for whopping 50% more DPS - it's a slaughtermachine.
 
 


I am not saying blue is worthless, tho. If you focus defense with much blocking, want high crowd control or never use melee at all, it might still be a very good idea to use blue. If you want to hit hard and stop their attacks with their deaths, use the heaviest weapon you can reliably handle.
All this is under the assumption that the text is correct about the damage buffs, while it is certainly not about the speed buffs. Meaning that I have (yet) no means of prove those calculations.
 
 
 
 
If you need some testing done for yourself, what weapon when to pick, another tip: try the game without codex rules. You may be no fan of this mode, as most aren't, but it comes with the feature of letting you access the equipment at all times. Just click the "i"-key and the equip menu pops up.
 

 
After learning to hit fast you should learn how to hit smart. Saving Bolts can be helpful, as you can slay more enemies with them. In other cases, like blinding ammo, it might be even more useful to press the fire button carefully. It may also be kind to honour the work of all the poor folks at the manufactorum working to deliver your bolts.

Ammunition not used may save your life, if it stops you from reloading in a dire situation. Thus you should aim well and watch the effect of your shot. Aim for the head and shoot slow. Keep in mind that most enemies die much faster than they fall to the ground - and while they fall, they are even recognized by your machine spirit as "alive". Contrary to your HUD you might recognize the bug pictured as dead due to the missing head. Even worse: if you continue to perforate it thoroughly it may stay longer in motion and "alive" for your sensors. if you Following this advise you might even find the standard storm bolter quite effective.

Mostly there is no need to kill the entire xeno all by yourself, think about killing a few partly instead of killing one fully - if you can expect some of your teammates to fire this specific enemy toowhich is approximately always.If you do this right you reduce overkilling enemies as they are killed by you or a squadmate; if you do this wrong the bug survives and harms the team.

In short: smart used weapons are way more efficient and in my experience they are (paradoxically) also more effective. but:

Never save a bolt that you need right now - only reduce excess!



While aiming, you should know that the zoom function of your weapon helps your machine spirit to greatly decrease the recoil and bullet spread of your weapon. While most weapons are quite unreliable while you move, they tend to hit quite good while you zoom in. But be aware, that you use this only for short time, or some psyker or stalker or even a scythe will sneak up to you. This even works on the Redemption, decreasing the spread of a single shot!

The best aim is of course reached by standing still, making zooming in obsolete in most cases - but as established earlier we do not want to stand still at all. Luckily our superhuman physique will increase the aim (as seen by looking at your crosshair) incredibly quick. You may use this fact to stand still only for a tiny split-second for every shot, by this you will hit well while still being hard to hit. Try this with slower weapons, like the Hellfire Bolter, and you won't even lose any significant movement speed.

 
Next you should mix your attacks, you have trained all possible attacks for a reason. Firstly, so you have some approach to every possible threat. Secondly, because mixing your attack style makes it, at least in my experience, way more potent. A possible explanation is, that's it nearly impossible to block everything at the same time. A blocking enemy can still be shot in melee. A enemy staggered by your strike might be open for you to shoot easily.

After this, try to mix your surroundings in, too. After shooting so many barrels you must remember them quite well - shoot them well timed and you will set the xeno ablaze and also stagger it additional to the damage the explosion does. If you ever find yourself fighting a Broodlord with a insufficient weapon, this might turn the fight.



Saving Time can also be important. Remember, if you are trained in finishing your missions fast, you may decide not to. But you can never finish stuff faster than you are able. Additionally there are objectives who force you to hurry, so be prepared.

And it may raise your efficiency if you learn to hurry, being fast does not only help keeping you alive (as mentioned earlier) but will also help you gaining experience and find more glorious battles. Serving in fast squads may keep you breathless and worried that you might miss something. But in my experience you will mostly skip parts where nothing interesting happens - as you can not safely rush crowded areas.

If you want to even skip those crowded parts and increase your gain of experience and renown even further, you must learn how to use the teleportarium well. One of the squad should run as the teleport beacon (if many brothers do, you find it difficult to find out to which you teleport), who runs to the desired target, and all (!) others should get in the psygate at the same time. Upon leaving the whole squad will be reunited at the first brother.
I will gather some possible shortcuts achievable by smart usage of psygates and brothers as beacons at the end of this guide - but theoretically there are more yet to find, if you are smart enough.

 
After all of this a final tip: aim for the head! Yes, I am aware I already talked about this at very large, but I cannot stress this point enough. It is incredible how much damage this does and it is unpleasant how few do this on a regular basis. Instead it is still normal to spray and prayplease do NOT stop the praying, only the spraying. Well placed single shots are just better than automatic fire - but placing shots well is an honest challenge.
 

 
Now that you have learned all tools you might need out there purging, we shall reflect over our new knowledge. Even the dance™ might not be the optimal approach in every situation (while it is in the most). This is why I don't want you to understand it as a law, but as some kind of baseline you shall fall back into as long as you have no better idea to keep yourself safe. And if you find yourself in the situation where you can do stuff better than if you followed the guide: do not follow it then! And maybe tell me about it...

This is why I want you to grind everything you read about my dance™ deep into your muscle memory, train it until you do it in your sleep. Walking from A to B? Dance! Overwhelmed by a charge of stalkers? Dance! Fortifying this position? Dance! Casually strolling around not paying attention because you listen to the Voxcast Publicae of Him on Holy Terra? Dance! This random walk and turning around has to be as natural as breathing. Wait, who let Rogal Dorn in here?

After this drill you shall start the second step - now you want to stop to dance. Yes, yes, I already hear you asking why to train this only to forget it. But no: do not forget it - it will still be your baseline to fall back. But as a random moving pattern can't be correct in 100% of situations we want something better, but this better needs a great amount of experience. You will have to learn in which cases you want to not dance around and then make the conscious decision not to. In every situation you do not actively decide not to dance again let your muscle memory tap in.

Examples for (maybe) good reasons to (temporarily) stop dancing:

• being sure no one can backstab you and you want to shoot more precise
  
• to block instead of dodging because you want to counter to kill faster than to slap their block
  
• to sprint at maximal velocity
  
• and theoretically many more

Keep in mind that most of this can be properly met with stopping to dance for a very short time. The last point to stop dancing is, when you fully mastered your senses and reflexes and thus know where the xenos are in every second, dodging and blocking and killing them perfectly with the least effort. Some strange Abhuman i once met referred to this as "unlocking ultra instinct" or something... Anyways, on the other hand: who even of us superhumanly Space Marines can claim to be this perfect?
 
 

 

Sources of damage, that could be used in a combo depend on some kind of crowd control effect - anything that staggers, slows, disables the enemy works. I will try to provide a list as complete as possible:

• slap - the simple melee attack can stagger the enemy, the heavier, the better. Can even knock down some smaller enemies
  
• damaging shot - dealing a sufficient amount of damage ranged staggers also. Best in staggering is plasma, but as worthless for combos as it is good for stunning.
  
• headshots - surpasses the damage threshold needed to stagger quite reliably, or kills
  
• charging - knocks back (or even down) smaller enemies, killing hybrids while dodging many others with ease. Use plentyful
  
• dodging - side- or backstepping may let the xeno attack thin air, so you may land an easy hit. This is most defensive tho, you will not be hurt but they will have the chance to block themselves. It might even work to step into the enemy, especially stalkers tend to not hit targets too close
  
• maiming - shooting or ripping apart their appendages, especially legs, tends to stagger, mostly knock down the enemy. Lost limbs impact their movement and blocking permanently
  
• shieldbash - the assault's off-weapon is capable to knock even the biggest xeno back, opening them for further dodging or comparably easy attacking
  
• blocking - a successfull block staggers the enemy and inhibits them from blocking for a short amount of time. But you will get hurt in the process
  
• environmentals - barrels and sometimes grenades are a great way to burn and to stagger the enemy, if not explode it directly. Other stuff, like shot pipes stagger, too
  
• abilities - proximity mine, shockwave, spontaneous combustion are nice sources of damage and bring staggering and knockbacks to the fight. The mine is hard to use mid-combo , but will work as good with some training

• Basic melee: slap -> slap - does not need much explanation. Keep your defense in mind
  
• Basic ranged: shoot -> shoot - also quite trivial, don't forget to aim, maybe stay with single shots
  
• Counter: dodge -> slap - hit after dodging, or without dodging before being hit, disrupt their charge by forcing them to block
  
• Ranged Counter: dodge -> shoot - also quite basic stuff, elegant but dangerous, not much staggering
  
• Execute: knock down -> shoot/slap - keep them helpless, an enemy on the ground has a hard time attacking and can't block, also very stylish
  
• Execute++: maiming (legs) -> shoot/slap - give the xeno scum not a slight chance
  
• Overwhelm: charge -> slap - standard-combo, nice and clean, killing often
  
• Nudge-Shot: charge -> shoot - possible, but harder than charge+slap and not necessarily stronger
  
• Riposte: block -> slap (while moving in) - keeps their defense opened and thus increasing your damage, while still hurting you, better to dodge
  
• Avenge-Shot: block -> shoot (while moving out)
  
• Overturn: shieldbash -> arbitrary followup
  
• Dominate: shieldbash -> shieldbash - nice crowd-control, nearly no damage. Better not try this at home this with a Broodlord tho
  
• Double-Push: charge -> shieldbash - bit redundant, opening the enemies defense twice while dealing not much damage
  
• Trapping: environmental/skill -> arbitrary followup
  
• Humilate: stun (hellfire, flamer, barrel...) -> charge -> slap/headshot: really ruining a small xeno's day
  
• etc.: be creative - there are more to find. Just make your movements and attacks fluent...

 
 

Most combos may just be stringed together, be creative, test stuff and be super cool more and more effective as you progress. The biggest limitation is that you must probably act once you started - using blocks and dodges is getting harder once you have to follow a rythm. And using environmental influences or some skills while engaged is possible, but complicated.

Easy to use is the Chain Lightning: it is very quick but not staggering much, just throw it in between or save it for valuable targets. Cooldown is low, so don't overthink it.

 
Another nice little carnage treat for you: the Augmented Sprint (I had another name, but it get's censored anyways): what if you could not only block while sprinting? Yes, if you are not the host, there is even more: to save precious time you can reload while running (pressing reload slightly after sprint), and you may even use your left hand or right hand attack. For melee attacks you need to hold the attack button until you cease to run, ideally by charging into an enemy.

This will open so many new opportunities in the hands of a brother with a mind awake, you can close gaps between you and the enemy while keeping the pressure on them (and not theirs on you). It may also be used to improve many of the described combos even further. An Overwhelm (or similar) will hit them much faster and possibly with a heavy attack instead of a normal one (while i cannot check this claim), wrecking their defense for good.
 

 
By now, the philosophy of the dance™ should be anchored deeply into your muscle memory, not only the moving and dodging - but different fluently combined attack moves aswell. This fighting instinct shall now be augmented with even more cognitive elements. Again, this is following the assumption that pure random movement is not the best pick in every case and should be migitated in certain situations.


 

There are some enemy combinations, that are especially dangerous. Those combinations you should approach specifically careful and defuse early:

• Bomb-and-Stomp: one of the most annoying and dangerous combos the xeno demonstrates. First you are left blind and then confronted with deadly damage. Step back in time or rush through it, hoping to dodge the stalker.
  
• Swarming: enemies attacking swiftly after each other forcing you into defense. High damage, like few stalkers in a row, will kill you if you chose to hit them first. Kill all at once or back up for some shooting. Force them to block each other or attack at the same time, making a block possible again.
  
• more to come, if i continue to think about later i guess...

 
Two-Brother-Combos:


If you have a battle-brother you often purge with, you might even have the great opportunity to coordinate offense and defense in detail. Get used to go into melee together, pulling back when he strikes and cover him while he recovers. If two of you move as one, you may even forget the 'NO CUDDLING'-rule a little - as your dodging does not suprise your partner, but is even improved by his attacking.
 
 
 
Flamer Anti-Overkilling Training:

As the flamer is capable to kill most enemies once ignited, it is not optimal to keep shooting already burning targets. While they burn, they are still capable of hurting brothers, tho. This opens a good opportunity to train dodging masses of enemies while learning restraint and killing while saving ressources. Burn, sidestep, dodge, watch them burn and die in great pain.


 
You are now getting close to becoming a master of the dance™. You know you did it right, if you are often dodging enemies you haven't even noticed yet AND if dodging enemies you did notice is also becoming more and more easy.

 

 
 

A sidenote after all that talk of coordinating: you might need some more ways to communicate quickly in some situations, for example for teleportation. Develop some kind of code for brothers teleporting via psygate - I used the following:

• 2 * "f" - follow, jump is kinda clear
  
• 2 * "v" - dangerous enemies ahead - do NOT jump

Every code understood by your squad is acceptable. Other code may be interesting too, for coordinating skills like Lithany...
 

 


Now we are entering the really boring informative part of this extensive compendium:
the part I want to collect all knowledge hidden in Space Hulk: Deathwing. Please be aware that the following is experimental, maybe even invented by myself or brothers I learn from often, and to the biggest part not much more than hearsay and rumours. This last part may be improved and complemented later, as the search for knowledge continues...

This obviously means that I would be grateful if you, dear reader, help me collecting knowledge not known to the broader masses and not listed here already. I am thankful for comments, discussions or corrections of the information stated here (or elsewhere in the guide).



The Crimson Armour for the Tactical Specialist, introduced by the Knights of the Crimson Order DLC, is said to be bugged cursed - applying no bonus you can buy in missions. It may be the most beautiful but also the most deadly piece for everyone choosing to wear it. Handle with care!
 
 
 
 
 
I once heard the rumour that the first armour in the second row (of every class) is granting a minor melee bonus. I have no idea if this is even remotely true or how high the bonus may be. You better tell me more about this!

 
 
 

 
 
 
Your machine spirit is far more advanced that you might know, with slight perks possible, like: opening and closing doors without increasing danger at all. To lock a door while staying in motion, press 'e' while you walk, then stay walking until you are no longer in range of the terminal - the locking will continue and you are again free to walk, fight or lock even more while the door is shut. Even multiple doors locked at the same time is totally possible.

To unlock doors you need to quickly open and close the map interface while holding 'e'. After this you are free to block, shoot and use skills with ease while unlocking. Even motion is possible, but only in the small area in range of the terminal, or the unlocking will end prematurely.

Never again be stalked while securing strategic key positions again!
 
 
  
 
 
Remember the augmented sprint? There is even more possible than stated in Chapter "The Dance Mk. II" - spoiler: quite everything.
Summarizing:

• shooting while sprinting
  
• blocking while sprinting
  
• charging melee while sprinting (stop sprinting before releasing attack)
  
• reloading while sprinting
  
• shooting while blocking
  
• blocking while reloading
  
• maybe even more, not sure right now (shieldbash?)

Just keep in mind that it is not working for hosts and needs good timing. Just try it out a little, it will make killing so much faster. Charging in will become more devastating, while shooting while blocking might save you while pinned. But don't overuse, remember dodging is better than blocking.
 
 

With a little tweak your machine spirit is capable of showing your H.U.D. even in situations it is usually shut down. Simply open "game" in the options and apply without any changes made, and it will be turned on. This might be useful in the psygate at the start of a mission (if you want to see the other brothers' classes) or after being killed the emergency teleport following a huge amount of damage taken (if you want to check other brothers' respawn timer). The Radar (while fixed) works, too!
 
 

Apparently relics that you should collect for a side mission objective are seen by a similar glow like the usual relics that are hidden all over the maps. This should make those objectives way easier to beat in the future. 


 
 
 
The Campsite – Norn's Ghost (map 3, always)

---

A quite reliable Spawnpoint for Scythes and Broodlords in unlimited numbers. If you stay there and move around, even if it takes some time, they will spawn for certain. Just roam around in the big pipes and after some seconds or minutes they will pay you a visit - and you are able to fight up to four or even more big Bugs at once.
 
 
The Big Lure – End Chapter 5

---

By crossing the big Gate guarding the cryo cells on the Caliban's Will as often as possible, you can spawn a high amount of Scythes and Broodlords. The highest number I heard in this context (not counting the scripted one down in the cryo room itself) was, I believe, 14 during the objective. Try moving in and out of the gate with the whole squad as synchronous as possible to maximize this effect.
 
This is still not fully understood and should be researched more. Please tell me if you have an hypothesis how to spawn more big bugs.
 
 
The Teleportarium Tubus – Special Mission 10

---

Just a cozy little pipe you can jump in and use as safe spot. The interesting part is that you can fall into it - which will result into being warped back into the psygate, thus granting you a free heal and a free teleport. It will work in singleplayer but will, due to the lack of another brother playing the beacon, teleport you back to the start of the mission.
 
 
The Soul Prison – Special Mission 10

---

Remember my little "shoot everything there is, like barrels and stuff"-lesson? Now there is even a great practical use: if you get to those strange tubes on mission 10, and you shoot all of them in rapid succession, you may trigger a mass of red souls flying wildly around. This is possibly VERY heretical and someone WILL make you repent for it. Do not try, brother!
 
Work in Progress - Safespots
 

 

The following is an experimental guide to teleportarium usage or similar splitways for shortcutting missions. As it depends on dividing the squad into at least two parts it also depends on battle-brothers who know how not to die - otherwise it will screw over the mission or at least the shortcut, letting you lose time you wanted to save.

I will not describe them in detail as I hope that the pictures themselves are quite self-explanatory. They will try to explain the way for all teams, the relics (which are mostly the reason for splits) and what is cut short by the psygate. Be aware who your beacon (the brother you are jumping to when you leave the gate) is - for most it is the host. For the host he isn't, of course. The shown possibilities are, I assume, not all. Also this is for normal missions - splitways are possible in special missions, but hard to achieve and to record...

 
 

Chapter 1 – the Power XL - Adeptus Mechanicus XL-class power ship

---

Note: do not leave the second objective too early. Move into it, until the yellow marker disappears, then retreat quickly before getting pinned down.


Chapter 2 – the Cadia's Hand - Emperor-class infantry carrier ship carrying the Cadia 22nd

---

 
  
Chapter 3 – the Norn's Ghost - an Adeptus Astra Telepathica's Blackship of the Inquisition

---

 
 
Chapter 4 – the Sanctum Imperator - Black Templars crusade ship

---

 
or split up team 2 - faster but more dangerous


 
 
Chapter 5 – the Caliban's Will - a Dark Angels battle barge from the great Crusade

---

 
or


 
 
Chapter 6 – the Tregrom - a Rogue Trader Ship from House Tregor

---

 
 
Chapter 7 – the Red Ark

---

 
or
 
 
 
with many starting possibilities - mind that you don't reach one relic, modify or get it earlier:

 
 
Chapter 8 – the Caliban's Will again

---

 
 
Chapter 9 – the Sanctum Imperator again

---

 
or
 
 

Chapter 10 – the Infested Mines

---

The mentioned Teleportarium-Tubus, not always usable to save time, as special missions are random. But always usable to heal.



Well then, I hope you enjoyed the read and learned something helpful. Now you may go and gift more knowledge to the chapter. Let us collect it all!


 

 
Special Thanks
 

While already passing 500 views (more I ever expected) I wanted to thank all that made this guide possible. I am grateful for all the help, the nice words and steam prizes. Obviously I want to thank everyone helping or reading that guide. And most importantly:


Squad Gr1ndus

Here I learned nearly everything I know, that isn't from other guides. Without those experiences this guide would simply not have been possible and I would probably not being such a zealous brother after all.
 

The Top-Contributors Thaxlsyssilyaan and work4aliving, who took quite some time to tell me about much stuff found in the 'hidden knowledge' section. Also provided some valuable criticism, further improving the guide.
 

The makers of all the guides used and referenced here. They also provided great knowledge partly posted here. And partly not - saving me mucht time, too.
 
 
The content creators who lured me into the Warhammer 40k Universe and made it feel alive in the first place, I would not be here without them and certainly wouldn't be motivated to make this guide. They will be missed...
 
 
 

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Special Vibes
 
 
Another matter I have to research regularily is the right music for purging. My advise is a fast paced and repetitive piece. Ideally a calm vibe getting you hyped for deathwing while not distracting you. Fortunately I found exactly that recently - but that on loop and start purging/dancing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEAqJpz09xI

If you are interested in more like this (or in painting streams) you may even check out the creator of this, "The Epic Narrator 40K" on the usual websites.
 
 
More obviously: some Doom soundtrack usually works fine for getting the right vibe too - go figure. Maybe I suggest even more in the future, maybe you find yourself a mix. Important is the looping, so you can fully fall into some fighting trance.

 

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Changelog

2021-05-15 - 1.00
- Release of the Codex Eradicatus

2021-05-20 - 1.01
- Expansion of "Hidden and Gathered Knowledge I"
- Chapter "Hidden and Gathered Knowledge II" added
- Minor changes and additions

2021-06-15 - 1.02
- Chapter "The Dance Mk. II" added

2021-07-20 - 1.03
- Integration of Chapter Epilogue - Special Thanks
- Expansion of "Hidden and Gathered Knowledge I"
- Chapter "Weapons Guide III - testing " added
- Minor changes and additions

2021-12-19 - 1.04
- Small additions to the Epilog and Weapons Guide III
- New and improved Splitways
- Minor additions to combos
- Minor rework of Weapons Guide
- Chapter "The Dance Mk. III" added