Warhammer 40K: Darktide offers a wealth of weapon blessings and advantages to alter your playstyle. With so many alternatives available, it may take some time initially to understand what every blessing does. While certain ones are relatively straightforward, like additional critical strike chance, others may be more difficult, such as Rending. Darktide also has several ambiguous benefits – Hit Mass is one that we will explore today in detail!
You’ve likely seen blessings that exclusively talk about ignoring Enemy Hit Mass by fulfilling certain conditions, but what is Hit Mass, and how does it affect your weapon? Here is what Enemy Hit Mass is in Darktide.
What does Enemy Hit Mass affect in Darktide?
Enemy Hit mass refers to the Mass and or size of enemies in Darktide. For a quick example, a Plague Ogyrn is significantly larger than your average human, making their Hit Mass substantially larger in comparison. Hit Mass also takes into account how many enemies you hit with each melee swing or ranged attack.
Let’s use the Catachan Sword, for example, since it is a standard weapon most classes obtain at earlier levels, and the variations of the weapon have cleaving attacks. When using light or heavy swings, your blade will cut through a certain number of enemies before your swing stops. If you use a light attack with the Catachan Sword, you will likely hit three to five Pox Walkers before your attack concludes.
When using the Catachan Sword’s heavy attack, you will cleave through more Pox Walkers as they have a low hit mass. If you use the same weapon’s heavy attack to cut through five Scab Shotgunners. However, your sword will likely stop after the second or third enemy, as their hit mass is higher due to their size or armor.
The final comparison we will have is attacking a Crusher, which is the toughest Elite enemy in Darktide. Not only is the Crusher an Ogryn, but they wear full carapace armor, which makes them highly resilient to damage. Using a heavy attack on the Catachan Sword will still hit the Crusher. Yet, your blade won’t hit any extra targets because the Crusher has a ton of Hit Mass.
Related Guide: Complete Guide to Darktide’s Critical Hits
Ignoring Enemy Hit Mass in Darktide
Now let’s look at certain weapons or blessings that Ignore Enemy Hit Mass in Darktide. Let’s use one of the strongest and heaviest weapons for Zealot builds, as an example:
The Thunder Hammer is a large weapon, meaning it will be better off cleaving through enemies compared to a Combat Axe. Since the Thunder Hammer is a large weapon with cleaving strikes, it will already have an easier time swinging through multiple enemies. Yet, let’s take a look at the blessing.
The weapon blessing Shock & Awe grants a buff that lets the Thunder Hammer ignore 35% of Enemy Hit Mass for 0.5 seconds after landing a killing blow. This effect stacks five times, making Shock & Awe have the potential to Ignore 175% of Enemy Hit Mass.
This allows the weapon to cleave through five Scab Shotgunners or possibly hit three Scab Maulers before the weapon’s strike loses momentum.
For more information, check out our companion guide specifically on how to ignore enemy hit mass in Darktide.
How Enemy Hit Mass differs from the Cleave Stat
Obtaining extra Cleave on your weapons allows you to hit more targets and how much damage you deal in a single swing. Stacking extra cleave stats will allow your wide-swinging weapons, such as the Power Sword, to hit more targets with every swing.
However, just because you can hit more targets doesn’t mean your attack will cut through everyone in your swing if the Enemy Hit Mass is too great. Stacking extra Cleave blessings or modifiers won’t allow you to ignore Darktide’s Enemy Hit Mass.
Without any Hit Mass buffs, your weapons can cut through Pox Walkers like butter. Yet, your swings will stop short once you start cleaving through armored targets. It’s recommended to balance your weapon out with bonus Cleave weapon stats or Ignoring Hit Mass buffs to determine whether your weapon is better for horde clearing or if it’s built for dealing with Elites and Special enemies in Darktide.
Final Thoughts
That’s our short explanation of Enemy Hit Mass and why it’s essential to obtain weapon blessings to help cut through those more formidable enemies. Ignoring Enemy Hit Mass is extremely helpful for all classes, except Ogryn Skullbreaker builds, since their natural strength lets them cut through every enemy, no matter their Hit Mass.
If you enjoyed our guide and want to learn more about Darktide, check out our breakdown on suppression and how it influences your Darktide games.
Good hunting, Rejects!
