Darktide class spotlight looks down the sights of the Veteran Sharpshooter

Fatshark has released another video and developer update about the Veteran, a class in the upcoming cooperative horde shooter Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. Specifically, we got a look at the Veteran's Sharpshooter class. This is one of the classes, Sharpshooter, inside the broader Veteran archetype.

As you might guess from the name, the Sharpshooter is a ranged combat specialist. They focus on using the lasgun and autogun, which are laser and bullet rifles respectively, and use something humble in melee: Like a knife, or shovel. The debut trailer also shows a Veteran using a heavier, much bluer-and-glowier, plasma gun.

Fatshark says that the Veteran: Sharpshooter may well be the best choice for those who're unfamiliar with their style of horde shooter, where melee combat is a big option, as it "leans heavily into the standard shooter trope." Certainly, the abilities emphasizing headshots and a frag grenade that makes a big boom are the things you'd expect from that.

The veteran's activated ability slows their movement, but gives them better weapon accuracy and handling alongside a big increase in damage when hitting vulnerable spots like the head. That's on top of their already-increased damage to weak spots, an innate passive power.

Their other passive power is increased ammo capacity for their weapons. Their bonus for keeping coherent with the team is a chance to not use any ammo while firing. (Love those, brilliant design idea for a shooter like this.)

You can read more about the class, and some nice lore, on Fatshark's character spotlight post for the Veteran: Sharpshooter.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is hotly anticiapted by two groups: Those who love the Left 4 Dead-style cooperative shooter formula, and those who love the Warhammer 40K world. Fatshark's past games in the genre, set in the Warhammer Fantasy world, Vermintide and Vermintide 2 are both superb. You can read everything we know about Darktide right here.

Darktide will have a beta this monthfollowing its delay to a November 30 release. In a hands-on with Darktide earlier this year, our Wes Fenlon said it "absolutely rules."

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.