Fat Shark has brought another familiar mechanic from the Vermintide series into Darktide in the form of Curios. Curios are trinkets that buff certain stats, reduce damage against specific enemies, and generally boost your defensive capabilities.
Unlike Vermintide 2, where each character could only equip one trinket, one talisman, and one necklace, each with different stats and traits, we only have Curios in Darktide. In comparison to what existed in Vermintide 2, Curios offer a wider variety of buffs and passives on mission completion.
Currently, in the Darktide pre-order beta, we do not have access to crafting, but you can still get Curios from the Armoury Exchange or as a reward at the end of a mission. Either way, here is a breakdown of how Curios work in Darktide.
How Do Curios in Darktide Work?
Curious grant stat boosts that help modify your Reject to face unrelenting hordes of chaos. Currently, Curios primarily buff your Toughness, HP, Stamina, or the number of Wounds your character has.
Suppose you get a rare blue Curio rather than a standard green one. In that case, it will also grant you a small secondary buff such as damage reduction against specific enemy types, extra experience, Curio drop chance, or corruption resistance for carrying Grimoires.
Compared to Vermintide 2, you would also gain a trait once you upgraded your talisman to legendary (orange). For example, you could get traits that would increase the radius of your bombs or your buff potions spread to nearby allies. As of the pre-order beta, we have yet to see any Curios give any unique traits, and we don’t know if exotic (red) Curios exist.
Related Guide: Complete Darktide Beginners Guide
Which Curios Should You Use?
As for which Curios in Darktide are the best to obtain, it ultimately depends on what class you are playing. For example, gaining more Toughness or Stamina for your Psyker build in Darktide would be fantastic because Force Swords don’t have a lot of Stamina, and Toughness is hard to replenish as a Psyker.
Alternatively, if you are running a massive, tanky, Darktide Ogryn build whose role is to soak up damage for their team, anything you can do to increase your HP or tankyness will be best.
Gaining more Wounds can be a great benefit because having more Wounds means you can be revived more without getting captured. However, on the other hand, reviving your teammates is far more risky and difficult than it is in Vermintide. Combat in Darktide is fast, intense, and brutal. We recommend gaining more HP or Toughness since damage can interrupt most revives in Darktide, and having extra Wounds would be wasteful when you can’t be revived.
How to Get Curios in Darktide
You unlock your first Curio slot at Trust Level 8, and subsequent unlock at levels 16 and 24. Once you reach trust level 8, Curios will become available for purchase at the Armoury Exchange. What Curios are available are somewhat random, and they typically grow in strength as your general power level grows.
If you want to have a higher chance of farming Curios, you can equip a bunch of Curios that have Curio drop chance as one of their secondary buffs. You can get three Curios with a maximum of 15% Curio drop chance, and stacking three will give you 45% of getting a new Curio instead of a weapon that occasionally drops at the end of a mission.
However, a more consistent way to gain Curios is to use the Armoury Exchange because the shop refreshes every hour. You can also find a higher rarity of weapons and Curios at Sire Melk’s Requisitorium, which unlocks at trust level 11. In order to unlock the Requisitorium, you must complete weekly quests to gain his valuable currency, which you could also be spending on legendary weapons.
Ultimately the decision is yours, but with the current lack of crafting or a system that lets us reroll our stats like in Vermintide, there aren’t tons of other options. If you buy from Sire Melk’s Requisitorium, be cautious since it takes a long time to acquire enough of his currency to purchase one item, so make sure the stats of the Curio or weapon are to your liking since we can’t reroll our stats. For more insights into what each weapon stat in Darktide means, check out our linked article.
Frequently Asked Questions about Curios in Darktide
To unlock your first Curio, you need to reach Trust level 8. You gain additional Curio slots at levels 16 and 24.
Once you unlock your first slot at level 8, the best place to get Curios is the Armoury Exchange. The selection updates hourly and can be a good place for avid gamers to peruse more varied selections.
If you want to find higher quality options, you should look into Sire Melk’s Requisitorium after your reach trust level 11. Yet, purchases from this store can be very expensive, so be sure you want the more valuable wares.
There isn’t one answer to this question. Yet, we’ve compiled a list of the best Curio perks in Darktide to help you make this decision. There are definitely some bonuses that are more valuable than others.
Final Thoughts
That’s our guide about Curios in Darktide. We hope to gain some way to craft or roll the stats we gain on our weapons and Curios. If we don’t get a similar feature like Vermintide’s item system, the end game in Darktide will be a lot more of a grind for players, which might put off some of the player base.
We have faith that Fat Shark will make this system work, and there might be more to come once the game fully releases or in a future patch.
If you enjoyed our guide, take a look at some tips and tricks for those just getting into Darktide. Good Hunting, Rejects!
