Warhammer 40,000: Darktide has a lot of systems for players to deal with, ranging from different status effects and abilities to the multiple resources you will need to keep track of in your heretic hunting. One of the most important is your Toughness, and you’ll want to get familiar with how this works in the grander scheme of the game’s combat. If you are wondering what Toughness is and how it works in Warhammer 40k: Darktide, we’ve got the details for you in this guide.
Related: How Weapon Stats work in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
What is Toughness in Warhammer 40k: Darktide?
Toughness in Warhammer 40K: Darktide is an additional health bar that acts as a shield, and gives you some extra defense against enemies before your HP starts to take the hits. You can see your Toughness in the blue-colored bar above HP, and you’ll have a different amount of this extra shield depending on your class, with the Veteran having 200, and the Ogryn, Zealot, and Psyker with 100.
As you’d expect, you won’t keep your Toughness for long when dealing with the hordes of enemies the game throws at you, but there are more than a few ways you can get it back. The simplest is getting up close and personal with enemies and using your melee weapon. Each hit you make with your melee weapon gives you a small amount of Toughness, making it sometimes a valid strategy to get into the thick of the action and cut down as many enemies as you can.
You also regain Toughness when you stick close to your allies, with the speed you regain Toughness depending on the number of allies near you and each other. Your level 5 feat also affects Toughness, with classes gaining and recovering more Toughness from certain conditions such as killing enemies via their weak spots or hitting multiple enemies with a heavy attack.
From that description, you can see why Toughness is one of the most important systems in Warhammer 40k: Darktide, and one that you’ll want to keep an eye on during missions. Our advice for keeping yourself topped up is to stick with allies when possible, and pick the right feat(s) for your playstyle to make sure you are always in the best fighting order you can be, especially if you plan to take on higher difficulties.
