Achieving the rank of Veteran in the Imperial Guard is quite an impressive feat when you consider that most members of the Astra Militarum end up dead shortly after joining. Those who do manage to survive fighting xenos in some distant corner of the galaxy might just find themselves running around an Underhive purging heretics. Such is the case with the Veteran Sharpshooter from Warhammer 40K: Darktide.
The Sharpshooter is the starting career of the Veteran subclass, and their role on the field is pretty self-explanatory. Veteran Sharpshooters are the closest you can get to a dedicated ranged class in Warhammer 40K: Darktide. While they can use melee weapons just like everyone else, Sharpshooters are generally far more useful blasting enemies from afar.
9 One Shot, One Kill
Veterans get a pretty neat class ability known as Volley Fire. When used, the ability automatically equips your ranged weapon, highlights elite and specialist enemies as priority targets, and buffs your ranged damage by a whopping 50%. Even though Volley Fire doesn’t highlight bosses, monstrosities, or hostile Ogryns, you will do increased damage against those types of enemies as well.
Volley Fire has a shorter cooldown time compared to other class abilities in Warhammer 40K: Darktide, so don’t hesitate to use it often. The ability only lasts for 5 seconds and is best used for quickly dealing with Gunners, Pox Hounds, Mutants, Snipers, Bombers, and other pesky enemies that can cause a lot of problems for your party.
8 Point Them Out
Arguably the most useful aspect of Volley Fire is the fact that it highlights enemies and allows you to see them through walls. Thanks to its short cooldown, you can use the ability from time to time outside of combat to see what’s going on in front of you. Normally, only you can see highlighted enemies, but you can allow the rest of the party to see them as well by upgrading Volley Fire with the Bio-Optic Targeting perk at level 15.
Maps in this game tend to be pretty dark and, just like in Vermintide 2, there’s a modifier that turns them pitch black. Of course, you could simply avoid maps with the Power Supply Interruption modifier, but you’ll struggle less with them as a Veteran Sharpshooter because Volley Fire allows you to easily spot important targets -- even in complete darkness.
7 Exploit Thy Enemy’s Weakness
Veteran Sharpshooters deal 15% more weak spot damage thanks to one of their iconic abilities, Make Every Shot Count. If you’ve played Warhammer 40K: Darktide for a while now, you may have noticed that most enemies in this game don’t have obvious weak spots. The only noticeable exception is the Beast of Nurgle, which does indeed have a big yellow blob on its back that acts as a weak spot.
The usefulness of Make Every Shot Count may seem a bit limited at first glance, but it actually applies to more enemies than you may think. For instance, the head is a weak spot for pretty much every enemy. Landing headshots is challenging when you’re surrounded by hordes, so try to make use of this passive ability only when you’re fighting strong enemies. Headshots will do a good chunk of damage even against heavily armored targets, but you’ll want to aim for the slits in their visors or other exposed areas elsewhere on the body in order to take full advantage of Make Every Shot Count.
6 Ammunition Galore
While other classes in Darktide tend to struggle with keeping their ammo reserves full at all times, that’s very rarely the case with the Veteran Sharpshooter. This is thanks to Be Prepared, the Veteran’s other iconic ability that increases their ammo reserves by 40%. That said, a lot of the weapons used by the Sharpshooter have short reload times, which can be decreased even further with Feats, so you can still eat through your ammo reserves pretty fast if you’re not careful. It’s a good idea to pick up ammo tins on occasion, even as a Sharpshooter.
In addition to Be Prepared, Veterans also benefit from an Aura called Scavenger Hunt that grants them free ammo whenever they kill an Elite enemy. The amount is indeed very small -- we’re talking only a couple of bullets -- but it adds up over time. The best part about Scavenger Hunt is that it applies to all allies in Coherency, so expect everyone to benefit from the free ammo regardless of who makes the kill.
5 Fire In The Hole
Every class in Warhammer 40K: Darktide besides the Psyker gets access to grenades. While they’re all useful in their own right, the Frag Grenades used by the Veteran Sharpshooter are easily the best of the bunch. For starters, they deal significant AoE damage, and you can hold up to four of them at any one time. With the appropriate Feats, the Sharpshooter can also replenish their grenades at a much faster rate than other classes.
Frag Grenades are pretty straightforward, but it’s worth keeping in mind that they don’t explode immediately after they hit the ground. Just like with the Preacher’s grenades, there’s a fuse timer, and while it only lasts a couple of seconds, it can seem like an eternity when you’re in the thick of it. Ideally, you’ll want to throw your grenades in front of incoming hordes instead of in the middle of them. As with all things that deal AoE damage, you’ll want to be especially careful when using Frag Grenades if you’re playing on higher difficulties because of the friendly fire.
4 Astra Militarum Arsenal
Imperial Guardsmen are infamous for primarily using weak laser-based weapons, but some of them do get to wield extremely powerful guns as well. Case in point, the Plasma Gun, a weapon unique to the Veteran Sharpshooter that can melt even Elite enemies in just one or two shots. You can get your hands on Plasma Guns starting with level 25 or so and they will change the way to play the Veteran Sharpshooter in a pretty drastic way.
Plasma weapons have a heat meter that goes up every time you take a shot. This means you can only fire it a limited number of times before you’ll need to switch to your melee weapon as you wait for the meter to go down. One might expect the overcharge meter to replace ammo, but it doesn’t. You’ll still need to reload the Plasma Gun and do it fairly often since every shot eats multiple rounds of ammo. You can charge up the Plasma Gun to inflict devastating amounts of damage, but doing so will cause it to overheat faster and consume more ammo.
3 Aspiring Space Marine
The Power Sword is another interesting weapon available exclusively to Veteran Sharpshooters. Commonly associated with Space Marines, the Power Sword is going to be your best friend if you decide to use a Plasma Gun as your main weapon. Power Swords work similarly to the Force Swords used by Psykers in that they can be charged to deal extra damage. However, Veteran Sharpshooters charge their swords using a built-in mechanism rather than Warp power.
Getting used to the Power Sword takes a bit of time. Upon charging the weapon using the special action button, you’ll find that it only stays powered for a few seconds. Unlike the Force Sword, which stays charged for only one attack, you can swing your Power Sword at enemies multiple times before it loses its charge. It’s best to avoid charging it when you’re already being swarmed because there's an animation that, while short, can still make you vulnerable. The best way of using the Power Sword is to charge it before engaging, step back, charge it again, and repeat the process.
2 At Arm’s Length
At higher levels, you’ll find yourself spending quite a bit of time in melee if you’re using the Plasma Gun/Power Sword combo due to the aforementioned overcharge meter. However, when you’re just starting out, you’ll want to stay away from melee as much as possible -- not just because it will make you less vulnerable but also because, with the right Feats, you can gain other benefits from it as well. This also applies to high-level Veterans who prefer using conventional weapons.
Named appropriately At Arm’s Length, the first of these Feats comes at level 5 and replenishes 5% of your Toughness per second while you’re more than 8 meters away from enemies. Then, at level 10 you can pick the Sniper perk, which increases your damage by up to 20% based on the distance between you and your target. You won’t be able to find similar Feats past level 10, but you can still greatly benefit from those two even at max level.
1 Team Player
Thanks to their background serving in the Astra Militarum, Veteran Sharpshooters are highly disciplined and make for fantastic team players in Warhammer 40K: Darktide. They let party members see high-value targets through walls, give allies free ammo, and clear out waves of pesky Poxwalkers using their Frag Grenades. Plus, they’re generally the best at quickly taking out enemy Gunners and Snipers before they can bother the rest of the party.
If you’re trying to become the ultimate team player in Darktide, you may also want to consider grabbing Demolition Team or Covering Fire once you reach level 15. The first Feat gives allies a 5% chance to gain a free grenade on every enemy kill while the second one replenishes 10% of their Toughness whenever they’re standing close to a target you’ve just killed with a ranged weapon. The bad news is that Bio-Optic Targeting also unlocks at level 15, and you can only get one of these three Feats since they are all mutually exclusive.