Throughout several factions in the Warhammer 40k universe, you will find Psykers. They are beings who possess varying degrees of psychic powers. Psykers are beings of incredible intelligence, power, and sometimes insanity. Psykers draw their powers from the Warp or the Immaterium, which is the source of all psychic energy in the universe. In Darktide, we can play as a Psyker and build them with powerful psychic gifts capable of crushing the heads of any foe who stands in our way.
However, this great power comes with a price; an untrained mind is often in danger of being possessed by demonic entities of the Warp, being driven insane, or becoming corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.
Psyker: Psykinetic Class Summary
Psykers are powerful beings but often fragile, preferring to fight with their overwhelming intellect instead of brute strength. In Darktide, we play as Rejects: members cast out from society or from a previous life. Psykers are commonly hunted in the Imperium of Man because their less disciplined minds are easily corruptible from the powers they wield. This translates to gameplay with the Pskyer: Psykinetic only has access to a few abilities, but they can gain more through using different force weaponry.
The Psykinetic is adept at eliminating high-priority targets better than any other class in Darktide. Thanks to their Brain Burst ability, they pop the heads of any armored or unarmored foe alike. Their force weaponry also allows them to channel their psychic abilities through a sword, making them deadly melee combatants or using various staffs that further enhance their ranged abilities.
Psyker: Psykinetic’s Abilities in Darktide
We will begin our guide by examining the special abilities you should consider when preparing your Darktide Psyker build.
Ability – Psykinetic’s Wrath
Quell 50% Peril and stagger all enemies in front of you.
As the Psyker continuously uses their powers, they accumulate Perils of the Warp, which functions like Sienna’s Overcharge meter from Vermintide 2. Casting too much and going over 100% will cause the Psyker to lose control and succumb to the Warp, detonating with psychic energy and getting knocked down.
Using Psykinetic’s Wrath allows you to reset the Perils of the Warp meter to 50%, allowing you to pop more heads without needing to vent. The gigantic AOE stagger is also extremely powerful for pushing hordes back or staggering elites back for some breathing room.
Related Article: How to Build and Play the Zealot Preacher like a Pro in Darktide
Iconic Abilities
Warp Siphon: Killing an enemy with brain Burst earns a stack of Warp Charge. Each charge grants +3% damage. Warp Charges are retained for 25 seconds and can stack up to four times.
Unlike other abilities in Darktide that enhance one type of damage, Warp Siphon grants you extra total damage scaling. For each head you explode, your ranged and melee power temporarily grows, and with Warp Siphon lasting 25 seconds, it’s easy to keep your stacks.
Maintaining your stacks is easy once you reach four (or six) charges. Crush one head with Brain Burst to keep your Warp Charges and keep your Peril low.
Battle Meditation: +10% Chance to Quell 10% Peril on kill.
Battle Meditation is an extremely strong passive for any Psykinetic Psyker build in Darktide. It allows you to vent your Perils of the Warp by cutting down your foes with your melee weapon or using other ranged attacks. Battle Meditation has a chance to activate on any kill, which includes Brain Burst, or Warp Staff kills.
If you destroy multiple enemies in rapid succession with an AOE from a Warp Staff, Battle Meditation can proc numerous times. If you’re lucky, each enemy you vanquish in an AOE explosion can rapidly Quell over half of your Perils of the Warp meter.
Aura
Kinetic Presence: Allies in Coherency gain +10% damage toward elite enemies.
Kinetic Presence aids everyone in bringing down heavily armored elites like Scab Maulers, which can be extremely tanky on greater difficulties. This also boosts the Psyker’s role in using Brain Burst to eliminate these threats quickly before they can harm your team.
Blitz
Brain Burst: Target a single enemy. After a short duration, this ability crushes their skull, dealing a high amount of damage to the target.
This is the bread and butter for any Psyker Psykinetic build in Darktide. It allows them to crush the heads of any near or distant enemy to great effect. Brain Burst bypasses any armor, allowing you to squash any up close threats like Bulwarks or distant threats like Snipers. Brain Burst also takes up the slot that other classes in Darktide would have a grenade, making the Psykers Blitz ability require no outside resources to use.
The Psyker: Psykinetic Strengths & Playstyle
The Psyker is a fragile ranged specialist who excels at single-target damage and crowd control. While the Psyker can wield guns and use standard melee weaponry, they don’t gain any significant bonuses like other Darktide classes. Most of their upgrades revolve around their unique connection to the Warp and their force weaponry that can shift their play style.
No matter what weapon you decide to wield, as a Psyker in Darktide, the greatest weapon in your build is still popping heads. From using Force Swords to obliterate your foes to a variety of Force Staffs to cleanse hordes with Warp fire or lightning, you will always use Brain Burst. The ability to crush the skulls of your foes in a few seconds, where it takes significantly longer for your allies to cut through armor, makes you a force to be reckoned with.
The Pysker is probably one of the more advanced classes in Darktide at the moment. If you are a beginner, you may want to also check out our Darktide beginners guide to help get you started, or learning to play on the Psyker may be a bit of a steep learning curve for you.
The Best Psyker: Psykinetic Talents in Darktide for Your Build
During the beta, we sunk tons of hours into playing the Psyker: Psykinetic, but we need more time to fully max them out to test all of their talents. We will update our listing once we have a better grasp of the Psyker in the late game, but here are our current recommendations.
Warp Absorption
Replenish 10% Toughness when you kill an enemy with a Warp attack.
Warp Absorption is a solid choice for replenishing your Toughness since the Psyker’s unique weapons arsenal also use the Warp’s powers. Using any Psyker staff’s secondary AOE ability will easily allow you to fully replenish your Toughness, especially during a horde. For example, you can fully charge the Voidstrike Staff and blast through dozens of enemies, and for each foe, you slay with your staff, you will gain 10% of your Toughness back.
Having this in your Psyker Darktide build also synergizes well with your Brain Burst ability. Yet, if you aren’t a huge fan of using the Psyker’s Warp weaponry and prefer to use guns, you can use Essence Harvest instead. Still, gaining regenerating Toughness from Essence Harvest rather than immediate Toughness through Warp Absorption is significantly vital at greater difficulties.
Inner Tranquility- Maybe the Best Darktide Talent for Any Psykinetic Psyker Build
+6% Peril Resistance per Warp Charge
Inner Tranquility is one of the most important talents you can take on Psyker, especially if both of your weapons are Warp weapons. If you maintain your Warp Charge stacks, you can spam any Warp weaponry into hordes for an insanely low cost.
You will gain 24% Peril Resistance at four Warp Charges, and with the Warp Battery Talent, you can have 36% Peril Resistance. Combined with Battle Meditation, your spells will cost considerably less, so long as you have the Warp Charges to maintain them.
Psykinetic’s Aura
+15% Combat Ability Cooldown (Allies in Coherency) on Elite kill.
A Psykinetic Pskyer in Darktide already grants themself, and their allies bonus damage towards elites with Psykinetic’s Aura. Every time you slay an Elite, you and your allies will gain cooldown reduction for your ultimate abilities. Even if your teammates don’t always gain the cooldown reduction benefit, you will constantly be using Psykenetics Wrath to reset your Perils of the Warp, so your ability will likely be on cooldown very often.
However, if you want to aid your allies in bringing down Elites of monstrosities faster, you can take the Cerebral Lacerations talent, which aids in slaying bosses quickly.
Mind in Motion
Your movement speed is not reduced while Quelling Peril.
What seems like a small change on the surface is actually a massive talent for the Psyker. Unlike in Vermintide, you will spend a lot of your time Quelling Peril unless you tend to use non-Warp weapons. Mind In Motion allows you to stay on the move while Quelling Peril, since that’s when a Psyker is the most vulnerable.
Warp Staffs also increase your Quelling speed, and it’s significantly faster than expelling the Perils of the Warp with your bare hands. With Mind in Motion and a Warp Staff equipped, you can stay on the move and spend less time Quelling and more time incinerating your foes.
Warp Battery
You can store up to 6 Warp Charges.
Previously the maximum amount of Warp Charges you could obtain was four, which boosts your damage by 12%. Adding two more Warp Charges allows you to scale your total damage up to 18%. However, including Kinetic Overload in your Warhammer 40K: Darktide Psyker build is another excellent option if you dislike maintaining high stacks of Warp Charge.
Kinetic Barrage
For ten seconds after using Psykinetic Wrath, your Brain Burst charges 25% faster and generates 50% less Peril.
Kinetic Barrage is a wonderful choice for allowing you to chain Brain Bursts, reset your meter, then continue popping heads. It’s great for eliminating multiple elites, specials, or severely damaging monstrosities like Plague Ogryns. However, Agonising Wave is also great for horde clearing and pairs well with Wrack and Ruin.
Additional Talents Worth Considering for Your Psykinetic Psyker Build in Darktide
Kinetic Transference
Replenish 30% Toughness over five seconds on a Brain Burst kill.
Having the ability to rapidly regenerate half of your total Toughness from killing ANY enemy with a single Brain Burst is exceptionally strong. This Darktide Psyker talent should really be considered for your next build. It allows you to turn even the weakest Pox Walker into Toughness, which can save you in multiple scenarios.
Wrack and Ruin
Killing an Elite or Specialist with Brain Burst applies two stacks of Soulblaze to all enemies within three meters of the target.
Wrack and Ruin pairs well with the Psyker’s role in quickly eliminating any elite or special target. The Soulblaze stack is basically a DOT of blue warp fire, which is more effective on harder difficulties. However, Psykinetic’s Wrath is better if you enjoy a more melee-focused playstyle, but Wrack and Ruin fit a generalized build.
Psychic Communion
Whenever you or an ally in Coherency kills an enemy, you have a 4% chance to gain a Warp Charge.
Psychic Communion allows you to gain free damage scaling whenever you or an ally slays any enemy in your Coherency aura. Including this passive in your Psyker Psykinetic build will enable you to help maintain your stacks without risking high Peral during the most intense Darktide battles.
Cerebral Lacerations
Damaging an Enemy with your Brain Burst ability causes them to take 15% Damage from all non-Warp Sources for five seconds.
As a Psyker, you are well equipped to eliminate any Elite or Special enemy with Brain Burster, but you cannot one-shot Plague Ogyrns. Cerebral Lacerations is an excellent alternative talent for your Psyker build that helps your Darktide allies bring down high-priority targets or bosses.
Taking Cerebral Lacerations will make bosses more vulnerable to non-Warp attacks, which will provide a tremendous damage boost unless your team is full of Psykers.
Kinetic Shield
Take between 10% and 33% reduced Toughness damage from ranged attacks based on your current number of Warp Charges.
Gaining any damage reduction is always helpful, especially on the Psyker, since they don’t have any defensive options outside using Psykinetic’s Wrath. However, we can see every talent in this row being highly effective, so the choice comes down to personal preference.
Good Darktide Class Synergies for any Psyker: Psykinetic Build
Darktide has another massive change when compared to Fat Sharks Vermintide 2 classes. In Darktide, multiple players can choose to play the same class so that you can have an entire squad filled with Ogryns or Psykers. Aside from this lovely addition to the game, some classes synergize well with others, and we found that Psykers pair very well with Ogryns.
A good Ogryn Skullbreaker build in Darktide will bring crowd control and another powerful stagger ability aside from the Psykers’ own. Ogryns help keep enemies away from the Psyker, which allows them to stand back and bring down targets that would require dozens from other classes in Darktide. Psykers also pair well with Zealots since they are more melee-focused, and it’s highly amusing seeing natural enemies pair well together.
There is definitely some overlap between a Psykinetic Psyker and a typical Veteran Sharpshooter build in Darktide. Namely, both excel at ranged, single-target damage. While there’s nothing wrong with running two high-damage classes like them at the same time, if your team is small, you may want to consider synergizing more with either an Ogryn or a Zealot.
Tips and Tricks for Playing and Building the Psyker: Psykinetic in Darktide
- You never need to worry about ammo while playing Darktide if you are using a Force Staff in your Psyker build. On Top of your Brain Burster ability taking up your Grenade slot, you also never require grenades, which helps divert those resources to the rest of your team.
- Brain Burst’s cast can be finished while behind cover. For example, if you lock on to a Sniper and start the cast, then duck behind cover while channeling, you can pop a foe’s head while out of the line of sight of most enemies.
- Quelling Peril doesn’t harm you as it does in Vermintide 2, allowing you to reliably spam your Brain Burst, so long as you have a short moment to channel.
- Quelling Peril only reduces your movement speed, but you can still dodge while channeling. If you need to reduce your Peril, you can dodge backward to stay with the team or avoid enemies.
- You can also dodge while channeling Brain Burst. Locking on to an elite enemy and rapidly dodging back while channeling is a relatively safe way to use your downtime while waiting for your cast to finish.
Additional Tips on How to Play Darktide’s Psyker Class
- Psykers are extremely fragile. Yet, if you learn how to play and build your Psykinetic Psyker well in Darktide, you have the potential to be one of the strongest classes in the game. However, using your Psykinetic abilities is difficult if you constantly have enemies swarming you. One of the most challenging enemies to face as a Psyker is Darktide’s Daemonhost, as they will relentlessly pursue their target without wavering.
- Psykers pair well with team compositions that can keep enemies away from them, allowing them to constantly charge up Warp attacks and Quell their Perils of the Warp without interruption. This is a very important tip, so feel free to double-check our class synergies above to give you the most freedom in how to build your Darktide Psyker.
- Maintain your Warp Charge stacks as frequently as possible. Warp Charges are vital for boosting your damage and reducing the amount of Peril from your attacks.
- You can Quell roughly 10% before using Brain Burst again, so long as you don’t start the cast of Brain Burst at 100%, you won’t explode. However, charging a Warp Staff and then using its ability while at 100% will make you explode.
- Also, using a Force Swords alternate power or its push attack while at 100% will make you explode. Be mindful of your Perils of the Warp meter because the only thing that can stop you from exploding is using Psykenetics Wrath.
For more general Darktide tips and tricks, not just specific to the Psyker, check out our companion guide.
Wrap-Up on Our Darktide Guide to Building and Playing with the Psyker: Psykinetic Class
That’s our guide for the Psyker: Psykinetic in Warhammer 40k: Darktide. Despite being hunted by over half of the Imperium of Man and the Inquisition, Psykers are extremely powerful in combat. If you can overcome the dangers of the Warp and keep the insanity at bay, you will find that having psychic powers is extremely potent at destroying your foes with a simple glance.
We hope that Fat Shark adds more Psykers to Darktide in the near future since there are loads of different types of Psykers we want to build and play with. Not only that, but their varied abilities would be unbelievably fun to play with.
Check out some of our other guides to learn important tactics, such as how to excel in combat in Warhammer 40K: Darktide.
Good hunting, Rejects!
