Warhammer 40K Darktide BEST Psyker Build

Psyker is among the four different classes in Warhammer 40K Darktide that, although it can be tough to utilize properly, can be one of the most versatile and fun classes to use. But if you use some of the best Psyker Builds in Warhammer 40K Darktide, you won’t have any trouble fully utilizing everything the class offers.

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The Rundown

• Psyker Psykinetic is one of the four classes and is mostly focused on ranged attacks with its iconic “Brain Buster” ability. 
• A strong build can be centered around the “Brain Buster” ability but builds that focus more on acting as a support unit from afar can also be created. 
• Much of Psyker’s build power lies in the Feats that you choose and can heavily determine your playstyle.
• Certain weapons, such as Force Staffs or Blaze Force Sword, work well with Psyker. 

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Best Feats

What truly defines a build is the feats that you pick for it. Although weapons can definitely make a difference, Psyker is the type of class that relies more on using the right feats than the actual weapon.

As you might know, Feats are unlocked per each fifth level that you unlock (5, 10, 15, and so on), and you get three Feats per level. All of those Feats are useful in their own manner and can go towards different types of builds. We’ll discuss most of the useful skills and how you could implement them to create an extremely strong Psyker Build. However, if you just want a summary, you can look at the table below.

Level	Brain Buster Build (Advanced)	Leveling/Beginner’s Build
Level 5	Warp Absorption	Quietude
Level 10	Wrack and Ruin	Inner Tranquillity
Level 15	Cerebral Lacerations	Psychic Communion
Level 20	Kinetic Shield	Mind in Motion
Level 25	Kinetic Flayer	Warp Battery
Level 30	Ascendant Blaze	Kinetic Barrage

Level 5

Your first set of three Feats will be unlocked as soon as you reach level 5. Most of the skills focus on replenishing your Toughness in unique ways, with some being more useful than others.

Warp Absorption

By far, one of your most useful Feat at level 5 is Warp Absorption. It lets you replenish 10% of your Toughness when you kill an enemy with a Warp Attack. Although 10% is not as much as the other Feat, you’ll use Warp Attacks more often, which is why it is a great option, especially for max-level builds.

Warp Attacks are essentially your abilities, Force Sword special actions, and staff attacks. Even your special ability, Brain Burst, comes under Warp Attacks, and as Brain Burst is heavily used at later levels, you’ll be able to use Warp Absorption well.

Quietude

Quietude is one of those Feats that you can use early on, especially if you’re trying to go for a leveling build for Psyker and are still learning how to use the class. That is because you’ll need to get a good grip on how to use Peril and how to manage it, so you don’t overload it and explode.

Quietude essentially offers you +5% toughness each time your Peril meter drops by 10%. On its own, Quietude doesn’t seem handy until you make it work side-by-side with Psyker’s passive ability, Battle Mandellion, which gives you a 10% chance of reducing Peril by 10% each time you get a kill.

With the combination of these, you will not only be able to keep your Peril in control, but you will also be awarded Toughness for doing so.

Essence Harvest

If you’re trying to create a build that solely focuses on taking out a single enemy with the use of Brain Burst, then Essence Harvest is a must-have Feat. It essentially regains 30% of your Toughness for the next five seconds each time you get a Warp Charge.

In case you don’t know, you get a Warp Charge each time you use Brain Burst. Furthermore, Psyker also has another passive ability, Warp Siphon, that grants you a 3% increase in damage each time you get a Warp Charge, stacking all the way up to a 12% increase in charge.

Therefore, if you combine all three of these and use them together, you’ll have great defense and offense. The only thing worth considering is that most of your damage will be focused on one single enemy, perhaps an elite, rather than groups of enemies. 

Level 10

The Feats that you unlock at level 10 are really more focused on making it easier to deal with Peril or things that can help you hurt more than one enemy at once.

Wrack And Ruin

Probably one of the most prominent Feats that sticks out the most at Level 10 is Wrack and Ruin. Whenever you kill an elite or a specialist with Brain Burst, enemies within a three-meter vicinity get afflicted with Soulblaze, damaging them over time.

If you’re going for a build that is heavily focused on the use of Brain Burst, then Wrack and Ruin is a no-brainer. Considering the fact that there are usually many enemies near an Elite, the Feat will come in handy in many situations. But, if you’d rather focus on Peril control, other Feats are available.

Inner Tranquillity

Inner Tranquility is a great Feat to have for a leveling build or if you have trouble with Peril but still want to use Brain Burst as one of your main abilities. You get Warp Charges each time you use Brain Burst, and for each Warp Charge, Inner Tranquility will make it so the Peril meter fills up 6% slower.

That will let you get a total of 24% resistance at Level 10. But it is worth mentioning that as you reach Level 15, you will be able to get more Warp Charges and bump up that resistance to 36%.

Psykinetic’s Wrath

Psykinetic’s Wrath is a high-risk high, reward kind of Feat and probably more useful for max-level builds, where you’re already comfortable with Peril. That is because Psykientic’s Wrath scales damage bonus on your melee weapons according to how high your Peril meter is.

If you want to get the most benefit of the Feat, you’ll need to have quite a high Peril meter, allowing you to get a maximum +15% increase in damage. The Feat is most useful for those that use Force weapon attacks and applies to staves and swords.

Level 15

Most of, in fact, all of the Feats that you will unlock at Level 15 will be targeted towards working with your allies and using the abilities to either benefit them or get the benefit for yourself by sticking close to them.

Cerebral Lacerations

Out of all the Feats at Level 15, which help out your allies, Cerebral Lacerations might be one of the best ones for a Psyker build in Warhammer 40K Darktide. Whenever you damage an enemy with your Brain Burst ability, they will get +15% damage from all non-Warp sources (mostly ranged attacks) for five seconds.

Although many of the lower-leveled enemies will get one-shot with the Brain Burst, the Feat comes in handy while dealing with the bigger threats and bosses. Five seconds of increased damage will definitely give you a leg up, especially if your entire team attacks together.

Psychic Communion

Psychic Communion is great if you’ve got a build that relies on the use of Warp Chargers (for example, Feats like Inner Tranquillity or Essence Harvest), as it lets you get Warp Charges more often. Essentially, whenever you or an alley kills an enemy in Coherency, you have a 4% chance of getting a Warp Charge.

There’s really not much else to the Feat, and it depends highly on the build you’re running with. If it is some sort of a leveling or starter build, then it might be useful. The only thing that you have to be cautious about is that although Coherency sounds simple, you’ll need to have a good understanding with your group to pull it off properly. Thus, keep that in mind before choosing the Feat.

Level 20

There are only two Feats in level 20, which are worth considering. That is because Kinetic Deflection uses Peril to block attacks instead of stamina which isn’t ideal as you’ll already be building up Peril through other actions. Regardless, the other two Feats can be used effectively according to your build type.

Mind In Motion

Mind in Motion is yet again good for those who struggle with Peril and find the slow speeds of reducing Peril quite limiting. With the Feat, you’ll be able to move at full speed while holding the reload button to reduce your Peril.

If you’re using Brain Burst often, then Mind in Motion will also come in handy. Brain Burst builds up Peril quite a lot so if you don’t want to be vulnerable and want to better position yourself for the next Brain Burst, then having your regular movement speed instead of slow crawly speed is certainly an advantage.

Kinetic Shield

Perhaps one of the less common yet useful options is Kinetic Shield. If you’re comfortable with handling Peril and are looking for an alternative Level 15 Feat for a max build, then Kinetic Shield is worth a shot. It allows you to take between 10% and 33% reduce Toughness damage from Ranged Attacks based on your current number of Warp Charges.

With Psyker, or almost any Psyker builds, trying to get more Warp Charges is always going to be key as it’ll increase your overall damage and also give you other buffs depending on the type of Feats you have. Therefore, if you can get some sort of extra protection as well with those added Warp Charges, then it definitely seems like a win-win situation.

Level 25

The Feats you get in Level 25 are all equally good and have a place in different builds. Therefore, consider what kind of Feats you already have and choose one of the following accordingly.

Warp Battery

The most obvious and perhaps the simplest yet effective Feat that you can pick at level 25 is Warp Battery; it increases your maximum number of Warp Charges to six (instead of four). That will increase all of your stackable buffs that rely on Warp Charges, making it extremely useful if you’ve got a build that uses Feats like Inner Tranquillity.

Kinetic Flayer

If you want a more offensive build that is bursting heads left and right, then Kinetic Flayer would suit your build better. Anytime you hit an enemy, you’ll have a 10% chance of performing a Brain Burst on them.

The only downside to the Feat is that there is a 15-second delay in the Brain Burst activating again, and you can’t use it if your Peril meter is red. Regardless, it is truly great for those that love using Brain Burst.

Kinetic Overload

If you’re not looking to increase your total Warp Charges and don’t use Brain Bursts as often in your build, then Kinetic Overload is your other option which is great for passively attacking enemies when you have maximum stacks of Warp Charges.

That is because, with Kinetic Overload, when you have maximum stacks, if you are to gain another Warp Charge, instead of granting it to you, it’ll inflict Soulblaze on a nearby enemy. Although the targeted enemy can be random, it appears as if Elites are more likely to be affected.

Level 30

Once you’re level 30, you’ll have a good idea of what your build is capable of and what kind of Feat you should pick. All of the Feats focus heavily on Psyker’s active ability, and Psykinetic’s Wrath, with the difference being whether you want to keep your Warp Charges or not.

Kinetic Barrage

An easy to use Feat that might be useful if you’re struggling to make the most of the other Feats is the Kinetic Barrage. After you use Psykinetic Wrath, you’ll be able to use Brain Bursts with a 25% faster recharge time and 50% reduced Peril build-up, allowing you to use the ability multiple times.

You don’t have to worry about losing your Warp Charges with this Feat, making it great for maintaining your damage output and other buffs that might rely on it.

Ascendant Blaze

If you want to play more riskily and are willing to sacrifice all of your Warp Charges, then Ascendant Blaze is a good option. All of your Warp Charges will be removed, and all of the enemies that get hit by the Psykinetic’s Wrath will get affected by the number of Soulblaze stacks equal to the number of Warp Charges that get removed from you.

What that means is that you’ll be able to perform an attack that damages enemies over time. Additionally, you’ll have a 10% chance of gaining a Warp Charge each time an enemy is killed by Soulblaze damage. That Soulblaze doesn’t have to be the one from the Psykinetic’s Wrath, making the Feat work well with the Wrack and Ruin Feat.

Best Weapons

Although the Feats are truly what make the Psyker Build in Warhammer 40K Darktide as best as it can be, you need to have a good selection of weapons as well to maximize the build. Here are some suggestions for weapons that you could choose from.

Purgatus Force Staff

There are multiple force staffs that you could use with the build. However, the Purgatus Force Staff might be a better option as it is great for dealing high amounts of damage. For the perks, you can choose Damage to Unarmored Enemies and Increased Ranged Critical Strike Chance.

Blaze Force Sword

If you’re using Warp Absorption or Psykinetic’s Wrath as your Feats, then having some sort of sword is vital. You can equip it with Melee Critical Chance and Slaughterer as the perks and blessings. It is worth noting that although simple sword swings don’t contribute to the buffs of Warp Absorption, the charged ones do.

Voidstrike Force Staff

If you’ve steered your build in the direction of focusing on a single target at a time, perhaps through the use of Brain Burst, then Voidstrike Force Staff will definitely complement that build. It can inflict a great amount of damage on a single enemy if you can get used to its aiming. You can use perks like Damage to Unyielding enemies and Damage to Carapace Armored Enemies to take down single big targets.

Psyker Playstyle

Creating one of the best builds for Psyker in Warhammer 40K Darktide is achievable but knowing how to play with Psyker is equally as important. The main role of a Psyker in the team is to provide support to the melee-heavy characters and to create openings by either using abilities like Psykinetic’s Wrath or weakening elites with Brain Bursts.

One thing that Psyker has to worry about more than others is the Peril meter. Reducing it takes more time than reloading a simple gun, which is why they often need to be covered by teammates while they do so.

Although certain Feats allow Psyker to get up close and perform melee attacks, you’re better off staying at a distance due to the lack of Toughness regeneration abilities compared to some other classes.

Psyker is quite different from the other classes as instead of grenades, you get to work with “Brain Bursts,” which essentially blow opponents’ heads off. And as you progress further with Psyker, you might opt to use other weapons besides a gun, such as a force staff that shoots lightning or different forms of psychic force.

With that, you know plenty of information to come up with your own best build for Psyker in Warhammer 40K Darktide. Your selection of Feats truly determines what kind of build you’ll have. And with such diversity, you can almost go for any build, whether it be single-enemy focused or a crowd controller.  

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