Darktide Depths of the Damned is out: Spillway mission, Prophet of Decay boss, Golden Toughness nerf and a Thunder Hammer buff
The free Depths of the Damned update for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide went live on November 12, 2026. Fatshark's official announcement lists a three-mission mini-campaign, a new mission called Spillway, a new boss, new weapons and a live event. The bundled patch 1.13.0 also contains a balance pass that removes Spillover Immunity from Golden Toughness and buffs the Thunder Hammer family (official announcement and patch notes on playdarktide.com, read November 13, 2026, Paris time).
1. New content
- Story mini-campaign "Terrors in the Depths": three connected missions. The first two take place in Consignment Yard and Enclavum Baross, the third in the new Spillway mission.
- Spillway: a new mission in the sewers beneath the ancient dam. The Ragged King is losing Water Cartel members to something in the tunnels and the Strike Team must clear out the Traitorous Sixth.
- New boss: the Prophet of Decay, described as a terrifyingly powerful Nurgle Psyker and unique to this level.
- Live event "Allies and Adversaries": play the Terrors in the Depths missions to earn Plasteel, Ordo Dockets, Diamantine and a new Insignia. The announcement says the event runs "until October 13th", which cannot be right for a November 12 launch. We do not know the real end date.
- Cosmetics: a new Regimental Rotation in the Commodore's Vestures, the Death Korps of Krieg 158th.
2. New weapons
- Krourk Mk IIa Cruncher (Ogryn): an industrial sledgehammer with huge stagger and reach; a long windup of a Heavy or Special attack stacks up to 4 times +10% Melee Strength.
- Krourk Mk VII Crusher (Zealot and Arbites): the Crusher family mark with a Push-attack uppercut and a more powerful but cooldown-limited Special shockwave.
- Gromm Mk I Battle Maul and Mk V Slab Shield (Ogryn).
- Huntsman's Shotgun Accatran Mk III (Veteran, Zealot, Psyker and Hive Scum).
- Double-Barrelled Shotgun Krourk Mk IV (Veteran, Zealot, Psyker, Arbites and Hive Scum).
- Thugshot Lorenz Mk VII (Ogryn): a slug variant of the Kickback.
3. The balance change that matters: Golden Toughness
- Fatshark calls Golden Toughness one of the most disruptive mechanics in the game and removes its Spillover Immunity effect. It now follows the same damage calculation as regular Toughness, so a single point of it can no longer fully absorb an otherwise lethal attack.
- Voice of Command - Duty and Honour: Toughness Bonus goes from 50 to 75.
- Enemy adjustments to go with it: Poxburster explosion damage now falls off with distance (100% within 3 m, 20% at the 6 m edge); Sniper damage spillover is reduced by 50%; Ogryn Crushers are less likely to target players who are already overwhelmed; Scab Mauler overhead attacks are slightly less frequent.
- Talent trees of the original four classes are reworked with fewer stat nodes. Fatshark warns that loadouts may need rearranging, with only partial resets.
- Ogryn base Toughness goes from 75 to 125, and Towering Presence becomes an Iconic passive with Coherency Radius 75% to 50%.
4. Thunder Hammers and other weapons
- The studio says other well-rounded weapons had made the Thunder Hammers redundant, and gives the family a large set of buffs, including more first-target damage.
- The Thrust Blessing is nerfed (max bonus +15/30/45/60% down to +15/22.5/30/37.5%), with part of its power moved into an inherent Melee Strength bonus while charging Heavy attacks.
- Fatshark adds a minimum enforced time before some attack actions can be repeated, to fix swap and sprint cancel exploits on Force Staves, Shivs, Bone Saw, Relic Blade, Shock Mauls, Force Swords, Duelling Sword, Combat Axe, Tactical Axe and Eviscerator.
5. Quality of life and fixes
- Added End of Round statistics (Tab or L3 at the end of a mission) and detailed Operator Stats in the Loadout and Talents screens.
- Gyro controls for PlayStation 4 and 5 controllers, and the ability to open players' Steam profiles from the Social menu.
- Any talent can now be deselected in the Talent Tree.
- Expeditions: higher difficulties spawn more Tech-Remnants, rewards are increased, and extraction rewards grow with the number of players who extract (+10% with 2, +15% with 3, +20% with 4).
- Performance: AMD FSR SDK 2.3.0 and a new AMD FSR Ray Regeneration reflection denoiser option on certain GPUs.
- Fixes include a freeze when a friend with a very large friend list joined the Strike Team, and several navigation and objective issues in missions.
6. What we could not confirm
- The real end date of the Allies and Adversaries event (the announcement says October 13th).
- How the new balance plays out at the highest difficulties. Fatshark itself says the changes will shift the meta at higher difficulties and that it will watch class performance.
7. Your turn
Did the Golden Toughness change break your build, or was it overdue? Tell us in the comments which class you play and whether the Thunder Hammer is back in your loadout.
Sources
- Fatshark, "Depths of the Damned Free Update Out now", playdarktide.com, November 12, 2026 (including Patch 1.13.0 patch notes).
- Fatshark YouTube channel, "Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Depths of the Damned Update | Release Trailer".
- Image: official key art from the announcement. © Fatshark / Games Workshop.
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