Darktide BEST Zealot Builds: Leveling & End-Game

Learn about how to create the best build for the Zealot in Warhammer 40 Darktide.

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December 13, 2022

8 minutes read

zealot best builds in warhammer — A guide on Warhammer 40K Darktide: BEST Zealot Builds

Zealot Preacher is one of the starting classes to choose and players who have plans for maining this class should know about how to create the best build for Zealot In Warhammer 40K Darktide.

Key Takeaways

The Zealot Preacher is a melee-based class that performs its best in close-range combat.
Equipping the best Zealot’s feats will be an element in making an efficient build.
Since the Zealot is a powerhouse in close-range combat, it is important to choose the primary Zealot weapons with high damage so the Zealot can live up to her name.
Since the Zealot is found lacking in long-range combat, choosing the right secondary weapons is important so they can compensate for it.

To make things a little more convenient for you, here is a quick look at our Build Summaries for Zealot:

Build	Feat (LV. 5)	Feat (LV. 10)	Feat (LV. 15)	Feat (LV. 20)	Feat (LV. 25)	Feat (LV. 30)	Weapons
Leveling Build	Purify in Blood	Bloodletting	Benediction	Faith Restores All	Rising Conviction	Purge the Wicked	- Crusis Mk II Thunder Hammer - Ius Mk II Shredder Autopistol
End-Game Build	Enemies Within Enemies Without	Punishment	Benediction	Thy Wrath Be Swift	Honour the Martyr	Purge the Wicked	- Crusis Mk II Thunder Hammer - Ius Mk II Shredder Autopistol

The Zealot Class In Warhammer 40K Darktide

The Zealot Preacher is a melee-based class that performs its best in close-range combat, similar to the Ogryn class. However, the Zealot can very easily be considered the most effective melee class thanks to her ability to cut through tough enemies with ease while charging up weapons to deal with bosses or elite enemies.

Here we will be listing two separate builds- one for leveling up quickly and one that you can use in higher-difficulty missions/ endgame. But before we start, let us first list all the abilities and the passive abilities that the Zealot has.

Zealot Abilities And Passive Abilities

Your abilities are your best friends in the game, especially in the higher difficulty as they can get you out of tricky situations seamlessly if you use them at the right time. Choosing the right feats can further complement your abilities but we will get to that later.

The Zealot Preacher has 6 abilities and here we will explain all of them in detail.

Chastise The Wicked
Stun Grenade
The Emperor’s Will
Swift Exorcism
Martyrdom
Until Death

Chastise The Wicked ability makes your character dash toward the targetted enemy and do devastating damage on the target. It also replenished all toughness and increases the damage of your next melee strike by +25%.

As the name suggests, the Stun Grenade ability enables the Zealot to throw a stun grenade toward the enemy. It stuns all the enemies within the blast radius. It is extremely useful in higher difficulties as it can give you a small breather when you are overwhelmed with hordes of enemies.

The Emperor’s Will ability increases your Toughness Damage Reduction by +7%. This buff will also apply to those allies who are in the range of the Zealot.

Wish to be quick and agile? Then the Swift Exorcism got your back as it increases your melee speed by +10%.

The Martyrdom ability increases by +5% for every 15 missing healths. You can stack this up 3 times so potentially, this ability can increase your damage by +15%.

And finally, the Until Death ability can be a lifesaver, especially in higher difficulties. After every 90 seconds, if you take damage that was high enough to kill you, you will instead gain invulnerability for 5 seconds. So if players end up making a small mistake in higher difficulties then this ability can save them from potentially losing all their progress.

The Zealot Leveling Build

Now that you know about all the abilities of the Zealot, we will now list which combination of feats you need to be able to quickly complete missions and level up as soon as possible. Here is the list of all the feats we will recommend for this Zealot build.

Levels	Feats for the Leveling Build
Level 5	Purify In Blood
Level 10	Bloodletting
Level 15	Benediction
Level 20	Faith Restores All
Level 25	Rising Conviction
Level 30	Purge The Wicked

Purify In Blood

The Purify In Blood feat will replenish 100% of toughness whenever you kill an enemy with a melee attack. It is no secret that in the initial difficulties, players will be focusing much more on offense rather than defense. This feat fits perfectly within the leveling-up build.

Bloodletting

The Bloodletting feat directly complements the Purify In Blood feat as upon hitting Bleeding enemies with a melee strike, this feat will increase your chance for a critical strike by 10% for 3 seconds. Thus, increasing your damage even more and allowing you to end more enemies in less time.

Benediction

The Benediction ability increases your toughness damage reduction by +15%. This buff is also applied to your allies who are in the range of the Zealot. In simpler words, this feat increases your survivability.

Faith Restores All

Similar to the Benediction feat, the Faith Restores All feat increases your survivability as whenever you take damage, you will automatically regain 25% of the damage you may take in the next 5 seconds. For the leveling-up Zealot build, we are mainly focusing on feats that boost your damage and increase your odds of survival.

Rising Conviction

The Rising Conviction feat increases your damage by +5% whenever you hit an enemy, and you can stack up this feat 5 times. It is very easily one of the best feats that the Zealot has. At this point, you can start creating your endgame build but if you’ve come this far, why not see this build to its end?

Purge The Wicked

Purge The Wicked ability allows you to perform your ultimate move- Chastise The Wicked twice. Your ultimate move is already one of the most powerful moves that you have. Now having the ability to use it 2 times without any delay can give you a huge upper hand when fighting tougher enemies.

The Zealot End Game Build

zealot build in warhammer — The End Game build feats [Image Captured by eXputer]

Players can start creating this Zealot build as soon as they hit level 25 however, it is still preferred that you first reach level 30 before you start creating the Zealot end-game build to complete higher-difficulty missions in Warhammer 40K Darktide. In any case, here is the list of feats that we would recommend using for this build.

Levels	Feats for the End Game Build
Level 5	Enemies Within, Enemies Without
Level 10	Punishment
Level 15	Benediction
Level 20	Thy Wrath Be Swift
Level 25	Honour The Martyr
Level 30	Purge The Wicked

Enemies Within, Enemies Without

This feat will replenish the Zealot’s toughness by 7.5% each second as long as they are within the 8-meter radius of the enemy. Using this feat is preferred because as a Zealot, you will be spending the majority of your time in close-range combat anyway so this feat is bound to help you out a lot.

Punishment

The Punishment feat will increase your damage by 10% if you successfully hit 3 or more enemies in a single strike. You can stack this up to 3 times so basically, this feat will allow you to potentially increase your damage by 30%. That is not a small figure as it can give you the damage you need to overcome the mission.

Benediction

We have already explained this feat in the previous Leveling Up build but you decided to skip that and started reading directly from the End-Game Zealot build, then allow us to explain it again.

This feat increases your toughness damage reduction by +15%. This buff will also apply to your allies who are in the range of your character.

Thy Wrath Be Swift

With this feat, you will no longer get stunned by an enemy melee attack, which is extremely useful in higher-difficulty missions, as the last thing you’ll want is to be to get stunned for a short period while being surrounded by a horde of enemies.

Aside from getting invulnerability from stun, you will gain +30% movement speed for 2 seconds whenever you take damage.

Honour The Martyr

The Honour The Martyr feat is an upgrade to your Martyrdom ability. Originally, your ability increased your damage by +5% for every missing 15 health. You could stack it up 3 times but with the Honour The Martyr feat, the stack limit is increased to 6 thus allowing you to potentially increase your damage by +30%.

Purge The Wicked

We’ve already explained this ability as well so we will only cover the main points.

This feat enables the Zealot to use their ultimate ability twice. The Chastise The Wicked ability is already as devastating as it is and being able to use it twice puts you at an advantage.

Weapons For The Zealot Build

The right weapons can give you the help you need to complete the high-difficulty mission you’ve been struggling with. The weapons we are about to list here will increase your chances to get critical strikes and overall increase your survivability.

Primary Weapon

zealot build warhammer — Preferred primary weapons for the Zealot class [Image Credit: eXputer]

This weapon has more damage than most weapons in the game and it fits perfectly with the personality of the Zealot Preacher class as that entire class revolves around close-range combat.

Aside from that, the Crusis Mk II Thunder Hammer increases your melee critical hit chance by +5% and your sprint efficiency by +15%. This weapon offers +10 Impact for 2 seconds on repeated hits. Which can stack up to 5 times. And finally, this weapon also offers +4 power for 3.5 seconds on hit, which can also stack up to 5 times as well.

If the Crusis Mk II Thunder Hammer doesn’t strike your fancy then the Tigrus Mk II Eviscerator is also a solid option as it offers devastating damage and can inflict +4 Bleed Stacks from special attacks as well. The Eviscerator is great at clearing out hordes of enemies with ease.

Secondary Weapon

Since the Zealot class mainly specializes in close-range combat, your character is not exactly a powerhouse in long-range combat. That can be an issue since a lot of enemies use ranged weapons in higher difficulties however the Ius Mk II Shredder Autopistol does compensate for it due to its decent damage.

This weapon will be your best friend in long-range combat so be sure to use it at the right time. This weapon also suppresses enemies within a 5-meter radius on close-range kills.

If the Ius Mk II Shredder Autopistol is not for you then another great option is the Artemia Mk III Purgation Flamer. It offers +20% damage to unyielding enemies and infested enemies. It is extremely satisfying to use and can melt through hordes of enemies with ease. We wouldn’t recommend pairing this weapon with the Tigrus Mk II Eviscerator as you do not want both your primary and secondary weapon to ultimately do the same thing but in the end, it is your choice anyway.

The Artemia MK III Purgation Flame also increases the chance of the elite enemy exploding when you kill it and it is well deserving to be considered one of the best if not the best secondary weapon for the Zealot in the game.

How To Play As The Zealot

Now that you know about the Zealot’s feat and best weapons. The question still remains about which playstyle should you adopt while using these Zealot builds in Warhammer 40K Darktide. Fortunately, the answer is really simple and straightforward.

As a Zealot, you are a close-range powerhouse, so you need to live up to those words. Stay with your team and eviscerate the hordes of enemies coming your way to take the pressure off your team.

One thing many players get confused about is how to use the ultimate ability. If you don’t use it properly then you’ll only end up wasting it. Remember that if you only press the ultimate ability button then the zealot will only rush toward the enemy while not doing anything else.

The proper way to use the ability is to first hold down the ultimate ability button, select your target, hold down the attack button, then release the ultimate ability button, and see your opponent get absolutely destroyed.

Wrap Up

That concludes our guide on the best build for the Zealot Preacher in Warhammer 40K Darktide. We also have guides for BEST Psyker, Ogryn, and Veteran builds just in case you are interested but that’s all from us for now.

Warhammer 40K Darktide is available now on Xbox Series S/X, and PC. We hope our guide helped you out, do let us know your thoughts. Are you using the Zealot right now? If yes then if you think that we missed something worth mentioning or if you have another Zealot build idea then let us know about it in the comment section below.

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