The Best Curio Perks in Warhammer 40k: Darktide

Are you stuck trying to figure out which perks are the best for your curios in Darktide? Look no further! We’ve done the research, so you don’t have to – we’ll give you a breakdown of all the top Curio perks and help you decide which one is right for your gaming style and build.

With these tips, strategies, and insights, you’ll be prepared to make well-informed decisions when preparing your next build. So if this sounds like something that will help take your gameplay up a notch, read on!

What are Perks in Darktide?

Like understanding the intent of the Chaos Gods, when you think you have grasped everything in Darktide, there is always more to learn. The further you delve into the depths of the game, the more mechanics and stats there are to uncover. The same goes for all the perks, weapon blessings, and other mechanics that Darktide has to offer. Today we will be highlighting one of the many sections we have previously covered: Perks.

Perks are small buffs that you can find on your weapons and Curios in Darktide. For those new to Darktide, you unlock Curios with up to three slots, which serves as the game’s trinket system. Each Curio in Darktide offers exclusive Perks and buffs that are tied only to that item. As your Curios’ levels increase, they acquire more Perks and make your Reject stronger. Although every Curio Perk makes you stronger, some stand out far above the rest.

All Curio Perks in Darktide

Before we begin with our list, we decided to give you the list of all available Curio Perks in Darktide. This way, you can see our picks out of all options, and you can choose what curio perk might fit your build or playstyle if we don’t cover it. Here are all Curio Perks currently available in Darktide:

• + Health
• + Experience
• + Toughness
• + Wounds
• + Max Stamina
• + Stamina Regeneration
• + Sprint Cost Reduction
• + Sprint Efficiency
• + Block Efficiency
• + Revive Speed (Ally)
• + Cooldown Reduction
• + Combat Ability Regeneration
• + Toughness Damage Reduction
• + Toughness Regeneration Speed
• + Ordo Dockets (Mission Rewards)
• + Chance of Curio as Mission Reward (Instead of Weapon)
• + Corruption Resistance
• + Corruption Resistance (Grimoires)
• + Damage Resistance (Bombers)
• + Damage Resistance (Gunners)
• + Damage Resistance (Mutants)
• + Damage Resistance (Pox Hounds)
• + Damage Resistance (Snipers)
• + Damage Resistance (Tox Flamers)

Best Darktide Curio Perks

Several of the many Curio Perks in Darktide have their time and place. However, for our list, we want to focus on those Curio Perks that are always useful and applicable to any class.

1. +Health,Toughness & Wounds

For this entry, we are grouping three Curio Perks together because they function roughly the same. Having more Health, Toughness, and Wounds in Darktide makes taking blows in higher difficulties less deadly, and increasing one’s Reject’s overall Health and Toughness is by far the best option.

It may not be an exciting or unique take, but we still wanted to put extra Health and Toughness at the top of our list due to their importance, even if these Perks are standard picks.

Taking extra Wounds allows you to have more pips in your HP bar, giving you more chances to be revived. On top of that, if you take too much damage and one of your Wounds becomes corrupted, that’s one less revive you will get until you use a Medicae Station.

This Will Help Offset the Challenges of Heresy Difficulty Mode

It’s also worth noting that, if you delve into Heresy difficulty or higher, your maximum Wounds will decrease; thus, having at least one Curio perk in Darktide with bonus Wounds on it will help balance out the debuff. Even if you don’t get downed very often and think you can conquer waves of heretics without extra Wounds, we still believe it is better to have more Wounds and not need them than be dead on the ground.

However, there are some better options for those who want to maximize Darktide’s Rejects. For instance, the Veteran class has the highest Toughness by default, making it preferable to stack Health on them. In comparison, Ogryn class builds have the highest Health, so putting extra Toughness on him might be more beneficial.

The same goes for Wounds, with Ogryns having the highest number of Wounds and Psykers and Veterans having the lowest. If you can manage without extra Wounds, more power to you; however, we always recommend having more Health and Toughness.

2. +Block Efficiency Curio Perk in Darktide

Block Efficiency is terrific and oftentimes underestimated by newer players. Block Efficiency improves your effectiveness for guarding against enemies. The higher your Block Efficiency is, the more hits you can block; this is extremely important, as blocking can save your life countless times and becomes increasingly vital in greater difficulties.

Block Efficiency is important for every class in Darktide to have, but it is even more vital for squishy classes like the Psyker or the Veteran class. We cannot emphasize enough that Block Efficiency can be your primary and sometimes only line of defense when the horde of enemies inevitably gets into melee range.

3. +Combat Ability Regeneration

There are two ways to enhance your Rejects Combat Ability: Cooldown Reduction or Regeneration. For this entry, we have chosen Combat Ability Cooldown Regeneration, simply because it increases the speed at which your Combat Ability regenerates.

Typically, your Combat Ability comes back faster when you deal damage or get killing blows. Still, this Curio Perk gives you a little extra regeneration in Darktide, so your Revenant can get their Combat Ability back more quickly.

The Combat Ability Regeneration gives you between 3-4%, while the normal Cooldown Reduction gives you between 1-4%. This statistic is still vague, but we recommend it, especially for Psykers or the Zealot class.

4. +Revive Speed (Ally)

Another great choice is Ally Revive Speed. This Curio Perk is especially helpful but only sometimes needed. We have to recommend this Curio Perk for the same reason why we highly value Handmaiden in Vermintide 2. You never think about wanting extra Revive Speed when all your allies are alive. Still, the moment someone gets downed while they’re surrounded, you may wish your revive was faster.

Ogryns cannot be interrupted during their Revive, even if their Toughness is broken, thanks to their passive Loyal Protector perk. This Curio Perk is even better for the other non-Ogryn classes as, if their Toughness is broken, their Revive will be interrupted. By combining this perk with Block Reduction, you can pick up your teammates without taking any damage.

We do not recommend stacking Revive Speed, as it is a bit unnecessary; however, having one or two boosts to your Revive Speed across three different Curios can be extremely helpful.

5. +Toughness Damage Reduction

Whether you are stacking Toughness or Health, you will want some damage reduction from Toughness. Currently, there is no raw damage reduction or any way to reduce the impact of blows on your Health, so this Curio Perk is almost essential to acquire.

Toughness and Damage Reduction are also important since you will typically take chip damage from squads of traitor Guardsmen while weaving through hordes of Poxwalkers, making their stray shots less impactful.

Outside of that specific situation, having Toughness Damage Reduction is always beneficial because it reduces the amount of damage taken in every situation where you have Toughness. This perk is even more impactful if you boost your Toughness above its standard 100 or if you have a Zealot in your party thanks to their Aura ability.

Honorable Mentions

1. +Damage Resistance (Gunners)

Next, all enemy resistance curio perks in Darktide are subject to your least favorite enemy. If you become more experienced with Darktide, you won’t need any damage reduction thanks to your blocking and dodging skills. However, regardless of whether you are an amazing Heretic killer or new to Darktide, we recommend having Damage Resistance against Gunners.

Gunners are typically easy to eliminate, especially when you have a well-coordinated team. Still, in those moments when no one can kill that one annoying Gunner, they can cause some serious damage to your team. Gunners include not only the normal Scab and Dreg Gunners but Reapers as well.

Because Gunners are so common, we recommend taking this Damage Resistance Curio Perk, even if you only take one. All other Damage Resistance options are typically easy to deal with or don’t usually have catastrophic moments where you need to stack Damage Resistance. Still, if you find yourself hating one enemy type and wanting to spec against them, more power to you.

2. +Damage Resistance (Snipers)

We still think it is entirely understandable to have Damage Resistance toward Snipers. It greatly impacts your run when you can’t dodge a single Sniper shot, depleting your health bar completely. However, from our experience, this usually happens if the first Sniper shot is not noticed when they spawn; afterward, it is relatively easy to spot and dodge their shots.

Still, Snipers are extremely powerful, and we recommend taking some Damage Resistance Curio perks in Darktide to avoid the potential punishment of being hit. Some argue that this perk is more important than gearing against Gunners, and it comes down to personal preference.

The Curio Perks in Darktide that We Don’t Recommend

1. +Experience

Bonus Experience becomes useless once your Reject reaches its maximum level, making this Curio Perk extremely temporary. We do not recommend prioritizing this stat. Even in cases where taking this Curio Perk while playing Darktide would help boost your leveling experience, we still strongly think that it is not worth the time to seek out.

Does that mean avoiding this Experience Perk altogether? No, but if there’s any other Curio in the store with a higher Weapon Rating, we will take that over any small buff to Experience. 

2. +Sprint Efficiency & Sprint Cost Reduction

In Darktide, you should prioritize something other than buffing your capabilities for sprinting. You will mainly sprint outside of combat and for ducking and sliding. Using precious Curio Perk slots to buff your sprint can be wasteful. Instead, you could gain extra stamina or wounds, which are far more useful than buffing your sprint, as it does not have life-saving advantages in combat.

The only major use we see for these two Curio Buffs is carrying objectives such as ammo boxes out of the trains. Still, the Ogryns move much faster when carrying those objectives, so a class already fills that slight advantage.

3. +Ordo Dockets as Mission Reward(Instead of Weapon) & Ordo Dockets(Mission Rewards)

Another set of Curio Perks that we think should only be used in the early leveling phase are these options. These options help you get more of Darktide’s free currency or give you a chance to gain a free Curio instead of a weapon at the end of a mission, which isn’t always an upgrade.

Once you enter Darktide’s late game, these Curio Perks will become obsolete, like the extra Experience Perk. It is alright if your Curios have these Perks while leveling, but we would rather have any other slight increase to our stats than gain extra Ordo Dockets.

Refining Curio Perks in Darktide

We also want to highlight one part of the upcoming crafting system in Darktide: by visiting the Shrine of the Omnissiah, you can select the “Refine Item” option to upgrade or re-roll your perks.

Upgrading your Perks significantly impacts your gameplay in the long run. Currently, you can upgrade Perks up to four times, increasing their total percentage and thus making them stronger.

We wanted to give context for our picks since all Curio, and Weapon Perks in Darktide can be upgraded, and many newer players might not know about this upcoming feature.

Conclusion on the Best Curio Perks in Darktide

These are our picks for the best Curio Perks in Darktide. If a Curio Perk isn’t mentioned on our list, it doesn’t mean it isn’t suitable for you. Sometimes the best builds come from experimenting, so we encourage you to try whatever you think is best. Ultimately, you should build your Revenant and your class to fit your playstyle and address any weaknesses.

If you enjoyed our look into Darktide’s Curios and want to learn more about the game, then check out our guides on Critical Hits and Suppression in Darktide.

Good hunting, Rejects!