The Veteran: Sharpshooter is a seasoned soldier who embodies the skills and duty of the Astra Militarum. In Darktide, the Veteran Sharpshooter serves as one among millions of soldiers who have served and been discharged from the line of duty, now working as sharpshooters for hire.
Despite being a common soldier, Darktide does a beautiful job of making this class feel unique from the rest of the roster, making them one of the strongest ranged classes in the game.
Brief Veteran: Sharpshooter Darktide Class Summary
The Sharpshooter specializes in ranged combat, preferring to keep their foes at a distance while bringing enough firepower to slay any enemy, from cannon fodder to high-priority targets. Their unique arsenal of weapons brings what most Warhammer 40k fans expect, Lasguns, Plasma Guns, and everything that’s found in the hands of a Veteran of the Imperial Guard.
While the Veteran can spray and pray like any other class in Darktide, they become far more deadly when they gain the opportunity to stand in the backline and take their time to aim their shots where the enemy is vulnerable.
Veteran: Sharpshooter Abilities for Your Build
Ability – Volley Fire
Your Darktide sharpshooter veteran enters a ranged stance for four seconds. He instantly equips his ranged weapon and designates nearby non-Ogryn elite and specialist enemies as priority targets. During this stance, you deal +50% ranged damage.
This ability is the bread and butter of all Veteran: Sharpshooters, highlighting all high-priority targets in red and increasing the power of your ranged weapon by 50%. This buff allows you to melt through the heads of nearly any foe, including Scab Maulers, or dish out severe damage to monstrosities like Plague Ogryns.
Even though Ogryn enemies aren’t designated as Priority Targets, you still do increase damage to them. This small change from the beta has been made because of the new final talent row, which we will go over later in this guide.
Iconic Abilities
Make Every Shot Count: +15% Weak Spot Damage.
This Iconic skill helps define the Veteran as a ranged class, making careful, precise aiming have a bigger payoff compared to other classes.
Be Prepared: Increase ammo reserves for all ranged weapons by 40%.
Be Prepared isn’t a mindblowing passive, but it helps further shift the Veteran to be a ranged-focused class. This also means you can be a little carefree with your ammunition. For example, your Lasgun has over 700 reserve ammunition, encouraging you to blast through anything that moves.
Aura
Scavenger Hunt: You and allies in Coherency gain a small amount of ammo whenever any of you kill an elite enemy.
This Aura doesn’t sound great on paper, but ammo can be scarce on higher difficulties, and recovering even a single magazine’s worth of ammunition can be a lifesaver. Vermintide 2 fans will also compare the Sharpshooters Aura to Bardin’s Ranger Veteran passive, which is a wonderful addition to have.
Blitz
Frag Grenade: Fragmentation grenade that explodes after a short fuse timer.
It makes sense for the common Veteran sharpshooter to use standard-issue Frag Grenades in Darktide. There’s nothing unique with frag grenades other than you can underhand, or overhand throw them like other grenades in Darktide. Still, it’s extremely powerful and can blow apart a small cluster of enemies in a few seconds.
Veteran: Sharpshooter Strengths & Playstyle in Darktide
As the Veteran’s name implies, their strengths revolve standing in the backline behind their team and landing precise headshots. They can perform well in melee like every other class, but their default passives don’t have any enhancements or buffs to make you out scale other classes. Still, their ranged combat in Darktide feels incredibly satisfying, from the sound and weight of your weapons to the satisfaction of landing headshot after headshot.
All classes in Darktide have superb gunplay, but the Veteran: Sharpshooter stands above the rest when it comes to becoming a marksman.
Best Veteran: Sharpshooter Talents for Your Sniper Build
During the beta, we sunk tons of hours into playing the Veteran: Sharpshooter, but we need more time to fully max them out to test all of their talents. We will update our listing once we have a better grasp of the Veteran in the late game, but here are our current recommendations for a great Sharpshooter build in Darktide.
Exhilarating Takedown is One of the Best Sharpshooter Talents in Darktide
Replenish 10% Toughness on a ranged weak spot kill.
Since the Veteran: Sharpshooter has a pre-established bonus for landing headshots or targeting other vital areas, we believe that gaining Toughness from prioritizing headshots dramatically improves gameplay flow.
This does make it more difficult to restore Toughness through melee combat, but you should remain in the backline and pick off heads whenever possible.
Sniper
Deal up to 20% increased damage based on the distance between you and the target.
Sniper is a great talent option that gives you extra damage if you’re far away from your target. This talent is great for Lasguns, Plasma Guns but gets less effective when using close-ranged weapons like Shotguns. Sniper is great talent in Darktide for our Veteran Sharpshooter build. Yet, if you prefer to be more mid-ranged up close, take Demolition Stockpile (described below) instead.
Related Guide: How to Play and Build the Zealot Preacher in Warhammer 40K: Darktide
Demolition Team
You and allies in Coherency have a 5% chance to gain a grenade after killing an enemy.
Giving you and your allies a 5% chance to gain a grenade by killing anything is unbelievably powerful. Combined with the Demolition Stockpile, your team will rarely need to worry about running out of Grenades.
Unwavering Focus
+75% Toughness damage reduction from ranged attacks during Volley Fire
This talent was a tough decision, but we found that counter-sniping ranged threats like Snipers or Scab Gunners is extremely important. Often the Veteran has the easiest way of countering these threats with their long-ranged weapons, making the damage reduction handy, especially if you are being Suppressed. However, another fantastic option would be Duck And Dive for extra stamina recovery.
Deadshot
While using your ranged weapon’s alternate fire, you have a 25% increased critical chance and 60% reduced weapon sway, but you lose 10% Stamina every second.
Like holding your breath when aiming down the scope of a rifle, this talent grants you temporary critical chance alongside reduced sway to make your shots extremely deadly. However, losing Stamina is dangerous, and if you are caught off guard without Stamina to block, you can suffer some unexpected damage if you are not prepared.
Combine this with Volley Fire; most enemies won’t survive a few shots.
Counterfire
- +25% Weak Spot Damage during Volley Fire
- Volley Fire now Designates all Scab Shooters as Priority Targets.
- Killing a Designated Enemy during Volley Fire refreshes its duration.
Counterfire is likely the best upgrade for Volley Fire since gaining a free reload on your ranged weapon, and some Toughness isn’t super beneficial outside the Toughness regeneration. The other option upgrades your Volley Fire to damage Ogryns more, which Psykers can handle better.
We picked Volley Fire for our Darktide Veteran Sharpshooter build because the Veteran is the best class in Darktide for dealing with other ranged units.
Other classes will struggle to eliminate squads of traitor Guardsmen, while the Veteran can take off their head with one clean shot without leaving cover. Simply put, they are a natural counter to their archetype. Plus, the extra Weak Spot damage is amazing and still boosts your damage against any non-designated targets.
Other Viable Darktide Talents for your Sharpshooter Build
Bio-Optic Targeting
Volley Fire Designates non-Ogryn Elites and Specialists as Priority targets for all allies in Coherency.
Bio-Optic Targeting is a nice alternative talent that grants your teammates the outline of all Priority targets whenever you activate Volley Fire. This talent only provides extra information, which can be beneficial since the outline from Volley Fire outlines enemies that are in cover or behind walls.
Information can save your life, and if you value Volley Fire’s highlighting, this talent is helpful but not mandatory.
Demolition Stockpile
Replenish one grenade every 60 seconds.
Gaining a passive that restores one of your Frag Grenades is insane and gives you the freedom to use your grenades more often rather than reserve them for the perfect situation. Another benefit of slowly gaining grenades back in Darktide on the Veteran Sharpshooter is allowing your teammates to obtain any spare grenade boxes.
Including this Darktide talent in your Veteran Sharpshooter build means more grenades for the Zealot or the Ogryn. The more resources you have, the better your chances of surviving.
The Bigger they are…
- +50% Damage (Ogryns and Monstrosities) during Volley Fire
- Volley Fire Designates Ogryns and Monstrosities as Priority Targets.
- Killing a Designated enemy during Volley Fire refreshes its duration.
The Bigger they are is a great alternative talent choice for your Darktide Veteran Sharpshooter build to Counter Fire. This talent re-adds Ogryns to the Priority Target list and boosts your damage to them and monstrosities. However, Counter Fire is still better because Scab Shooters are far more common, and it’s difficult for Veterans to hit Bulwarks, one of the three Ogryn enemies.
The Bigger they are is still viable and if you prefer to have more damage against Ogryns, take this talent over Counter Fire, but you will lose the extra weak spot damage.
Good Darktide Class Synergies for the Veteran Sharpshooter
Darktide has another massive change when compared to Fat Sharks Vermintide 2 classes. In Darktide, multiple players can choose to play the same class so that you can have an entire squad filled with Ogryns or Psykers. Aside from this lovely addition to the game, some classes synergize well with others, and we found that Veterans pair very well with Ogryns.
It comes as no surprise that the two are commonly found in thousands of squads in the Astra Militarum. Since the Ogyrn’s strengths come from being in the front line, it’s natural that the most backline-oriented class would benefit from an Ogryn Skullbreaker build to keep enemies at bay. Plus, the Veteran helps keep the Ogryn resupplied on ammo and grenades to help keep the big lug’s firepower rolling.
Tips & Tricks for Playing with the Veteran Sharpshooter in Darktide
Even if your sword is as sharp, your guns are far deadlier. Stick to the strengths of the Veteran and stay in the backline. They have a lot of talents we didn’t cover that involve them being as far from the enemies as possible, but even that’s difficult in a horde-based shooter. Only go into melee range when you need to or if you’ve managed to run out of ammunition.
Remember that your power comes at a high responsibility, taking into account your abundance of ammunition. Other classes have significantly smaller ammo reserves than you, so be mindful of when you can take more ammo and when you need it.
Be careful about friendly fire when playing and building the Veteran Sharpshooter in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. Given their size, it can be extremely difficult not to hit the Ogryn, so take aim and make your shots count. Melee swings don’t harm your allies, but your Lasgun does.
Be mindful of your Frag Grenades delay before exploring. Darktide has an extra function to let you toss or underhand your grenade; pick which is better for how close the horde is.
A small but necessary tip is to become familiar with the limits and powers of your gun. The Lasgun is a staple of the Imperial Guard because of its extreme versatility, but there are a plethora of other ranged weapons the Veteran: Sharpshooter can utilize. The Plasma Gun is great for melting highly armored targets but can’t be fired frequently without overheating. As more weapons are introduced, the capabilities of the Veteran will grow, but find your preferred gun and learn its limits.
Wrapping Up Our Guide on How to Play and Built the Veteran Sharpshooter in Darktide
That’s our guide for the Veteran: Sharpshooter in Darktide. We are delighted that Fat Shark has nailed the feeling and esthetic of playing a simple guardsman from Warhammer 40,000. Even if playing as a soldier from the Imperial Guard is more common than seeing an ordinary citizen in 40k, we know that thousands of Warhammer fans will be delighted to hold a Lasgun for the first time. Cadia still stands.
If you are just getting into Warhammer 40K: Darktide, you should check out our beginners guide to help you get started.
Good hunting, Rejects!
