Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's latest update adds new weapons and a mission to reactivate an icy AdMech foundry

Swagger, a mysterious new ally for Darktide players, standing in a foggy abandoned industrial floor.

(Image credit: Fatshark)

After pulling off a Darktide redemption arc last year, Fatshark's not resting on its inquisitorial laurels. Secrets of the Machine God, Darktide's latest update, arrived earlier today, bringing a new mission to revive an abandoned Adeptus Mechanicus foundry and a set of new weapon types. If you're not already thrilled, you should be: It's never a bad time when the tech-priests are around.

The new mission, Clandestium Gloriana, will have strike teams descend into a derelict "Foundryplex"—a massive production facility where the AdMech tech-priests once worked their fabled wonders, which the Inquisition hopes to reawaken for its war effort. The mission will feature some new tech from Fatshark, like a mission-giver who will accompany the players and a variable end-of-mission encounter that aims to improve replayability. And it's an arctic mission! Everyone loves an arctic mission.

As a reward for their efforts, conscripts will be able to enjoy the spoils of the Foundryplex in the form of new weapon types. For Ogryn characters, new two-handed pickaxes can puncture skulls and sweep crowds, depending on the variety. It'll be like you're playing Deep Rock Galactic, but big instead of dwarf-sized. Meanwhile, Veterans, Zealots, and Psykers will share three new weapon types to work with: shock mauls that can stun enemies and apply damage over time, double-barreled shotguns for "very close range" combat, and bolt pistols for mobile—if inaccurate—gunplay.

Secrets of the Machine God also brings quality-of-life updates and additions, like overhauled crosshairs that better reflect shot spreads and provide a better sense of when you are and aren't hacking into a heretic's weakspot with a combat axe. Existing weapons and class skill trees have gotten a balance tuning pass, and Fatshark's implemented a slew of tweaks to improve missions based on player feedback. Combat encounters have gotten reworked enemy spawns, layout changes, cover placement—it's an exciting time for would-be inquisitors.

Not having played much Darktide since launch, this update's giving me just the excuse I need to thaw out my Inquisition conscripts for a long-overdue revisit. And it looks like I'm not alone—since the update hit overnight, Darktide's gotten a sizable bump in player counts. If you want to join us in the thrashing pile of bolters, shovels, and knives, Secrets of the Machine God is out now.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 11 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.