Warhammer 40K Darktide: Zealot BEST Feats

Among the four different classes in Warhammer 40K Darktide, Zealot tends to be the underrated one, despite having some of the best feats out there. With a good blend of melee and ranged attacks, the class is great for those that want the best of both worlds.

However, knowing how to use a Zealot effectively can be tricky, especially if you haven’t set up the right Feats. By considering your Feats in accordance with what kind of gameplay you want, you’ll be able to play many times better.

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Key Highlights

• You will unlock three Feats per every fifth level – a total of 18 different Feats.
• You can reset your Feats anytime during a match.
• Zealot has Feats that are suited for both ranged and melee-based players. 
• Many of Zealot’s Feats are primarily focused on regenerating Toughness, increasing damage output, or making abilities more effective.
• You can combine Feats from different levels to come up with many builds, such as Crit-based, Aggressive, or Defensive Build.

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Level 5

Level 5 Feats for almost every class in Warhammer focuses on ways of restoring or making use of your Toughness (shield) so that you don’t die immediately. Here’s a brief explanation of where each Feat might be useful:

• Enemies Within, Enemies Without: Most likely every Zealot’s favorite pick, you’ll always be close to an enemy, especially if you’re a melee player, making the Feat useful.
• Purify In Blood: Great if you’re taking out multiple enemies and are a melee build, but the Feat becomes useless against a single boss.
• Faith Restored: It might not be useful for beginners who have a low crit chance, but it’s great for those with other Feats that have increased their Crit chance.

With the summary out of the way, here is a more detailed guide on each Feat and how you can make the most out of them.

Enemies Within, Enemies Without

Probably the easiest to use Feat at Level 5 for Zealot will be the Enemies Within, Enemies Without Feat. It states that whenever you are within 8 meters of an enemy, you will replenish 7.5% of your Toughness.

If you’re just starting out with Zealot or perhaps don’t want to rely on getting kills or critical hits to replenish your Health, then Enemies Within, Enemies Without is the safest bet. You’ll always be close to an enemy, especially when you’re taking out Hordes.

Purify In Blood

If you’re a more aggressive melee player and tend to get relatively more kills in your squad, then Purify in Blood will be a great Feat for you. You’ll replenish 100% more Toughness on Melee Kills. You tend to regain Toughness on regular melee kills as well; Purify in Blood will essentially make it so that you get twice the amount of Toughness.

Although the Feat is quite useful if you’re fighting tonnes of enemies, it does have its drawbacks. If you’re fighting a boss, the Feat will be rendered useless because you won’t be able to get enough kills to make proper use of it.

Faith Restored

Faith Restored is a slightly hard Feat to use. For every Critical Hit, you will get a 50% Toughness Damage Reduction for three seconds. The only time you could make actual use of Faith Restored is if you’ve got a build that is highly focused on Critical Hits. But if you’re just starting out, it is unlikely that that’ll be the case, making it not as effective for beginners.

Level 10

Many of your Level 10 Feats will be focused on making your attacks more efficient. Some of the Feats are situational, while others can be used more often. Here is a quick summary of how each Feat can be used:

• Bloodletting: Great choice for aggressive melee players, especially against boss fights due to the bleed effect.
• Punishment: Another useful Feat for melee players as they can ultimately get a +30% increase in damage.
• Retribution: It can be tricky to use due to the low health requirement, so it might not be worth the trouble.

With that said, here is a more detailed explanation for each of the Feats and where they can be used.

Bloodletting

There are two advantages to Bloodletting. First of all, you’ll be able to cause bleed to your enemies by hitting them with a Critical Melee Hit. That will already deplete their health over time. But on top of that, you will have a +10% Melee Crit Chance for three seconds on enemies with bleeding already on them. 

Therefore, if you’re a melee-focused aggressive player and have other items that can help you out with bleed, Bloodletting is a great option. The only issue is that there aren’t many other Feats for Zealot that focus on bleed, so you can’t further expand on it.

Punishment

Punishment is also another great Feat for aggressive players. If you hit three or more enemies, you’ll be granted +10% damage for five seconds. The buff can be stacked thrice for a total +30% damage increase. All you need to do is use melee attacks, and you’ll be able to activate the buff, making it an equally great pick for melee players. 

Retribution

Retribution is a tricky one. It increases your Attack Speed by +10% if your health is below 50%. And the bonus is doubled (meaning +20%) if your health is below 20%. Health maintenance is a huge part of Warhammer Darktide; therefore, purposely getting 50% health or below just for the bonus doesn’t seem to make much sense.

However, if you know that on a certain mission, your health is bound to be low due to a lack of healing terminals, then you can opt for Retribution. Otherwise, for most players, it might not be worth the low health.

Level 15

Level 15 Feats are usually focused on making use of Coherency and teamwork. Zealot has some good Feats that can help increase damage or strengthen your Toughness. It mostly falls down to what kind of player you are. Here’s a general overview of when you can use each Feat:

• Holy Fervour: Useful for squads that are trying to maintain their ground against a large number of enemies.
• Inspiring Excoriation: Useful if you tend to use your active ability often during fights.
• Benediction: If you just want a simple defensive Feat without worrying about performing certain actions, Benediction is a good choice.

Here are further explanations for each of the Feat, so you know which one to pick.

Holy Fervour

Holy Fervour can be quite tricky, as if you want to make use of its effects, you’ll need to lose a bit of, or maybe even a lot of, your health. You’ll be granted a stack of Martyrdom each time you lose 15 health, which will grant you a +5% increase in damage.

You can get Martyrdom three times, or six if you’ve got a Feat from the later levels, meaning you can make use of the Holy Fervour 3-6 times which allows you to get +20% power for five seconds each time you get a stack of Martyrdom. 

+20% power for five seconds is great as you’ll be able to dish out a good amount of damage during that time period without having to worry too much about defense. But it can get quite situational where your entire squad needs to be together to reap the benefits. 

But the Feat works well in situations where the entire team is fighting off a huge number of enemies and are trying to maintain their ground. Of course, you’ll be taking damage, but Holy Fervour will ensure that you can hit your enemies even harder. 

Inspiring Excoriation

If you rely heavily on your active ability, Chastise the Wicked, then Inspiring Excoriation is the best Feat for Zealot at Level 15 in Warhammer 40K Darktide. Using Chastise the Wicked will replenish 20% of Toughness for you and your allies in Coherency.

The only thing that you need to take care of is being able to use your active ability as much as possible during a mission. Otherwise, there’s no exact point in having the Feat. So, if you’re the type of player that doesn’t rely too much on Chastise the Wicked, it’s best that you skip this Feat.

Benediction

If you don’t want to complicate things too much and want a simple yet effective defensive Feat, then Benediction is a great option. It offers a 15% reduction in Toughness damage to you and your Allies in Coherency.

As it helps you and your squad, it can be useful and an incentive to remain in Coherency. Furthermore, you don’t need to rely on performing some sort of action to get the buff except just sticking together, making it the easier choice.

Level 20

Your Level 20 skills are mainly focused on keeping you alive by offering some sort of regeneration or buffs when you’re taking too much damage. Here is a quick explanation of the use case for each Feat:

• Holy Revenant: Useful health regeneration method for those players that know how to manage their cooldowns and have a melee-focused build.
• Thy Wrath Be Swift: If you’re sick of enemies breaking your combos or know how to use fast movement speeds, this Feat can work for you.
• Faith Restores All: Safest option and offers a guaranteed method of health regeneration.

In case you want to know more about each Feat, we’ve enlisted their details below.

Holy Revenant

If you’re a player who heavily relies on melee and is often in near-death situations, then Holy Revenant could be quite a useful Feat for you. Essentially, whenever your ability, Until Death, gets activated, you’ll be granted Health based on the damage that you deal during Until Death. And if you’re dealing Melee damage, you’ll get twice the amount of health.

In case you don’t know Until Death lets you remain invulnerable for five seconds if you take damage that would kill you otherwise. The only drawback is that the ability can be only used once every 90 seconds. Therefore, once you do regain your health, you might need to remain defensive and more careful during those 90 seconds.

But, once you factor in the fact that your Martyrdom ability will get activated as well, the amount of damage that you theoretically should be able to inflict is quite high. That is why you’ll probably gain enough health to remain alive for the 90-second cooldown.

Thy Wrath Be Swift

Thy Wrath Be Swift is sort of a tricky Feat. It isn’t exactly that great for dealing with damage, but it can be good for maintaining combos. Usually, your entire combo chain gets disturbed if an enemy stuns you with its melee attacks. With the Feat, that won’t be the case.

Additionally, the Feat grants you +25% movement speed for two seconds any time you get hit. Few people are fans of increased movement speed due to their lack of use in many situations. However, for those situations where you just need a quick escape from perhaps a horde of enemies or a sticky situation, the extra movement speed can help out.

Faith Restores All

Probably the simplest yet effective Feat for Level 20 is Faith Restores All. Each time you get hit, you will regain 30% of the damage taken over five seconds. Although it might not be as much as the other Feat, Faith Restores All offers a guaranteed and safe method to regain health.

Level 25

The Feats in Level 25 also seem to target different methods of increasing your overall damage. Depending on whether you’re using ranged, melee, or any other high-level weapons, you’ll find something that can truly add value to your build.

• Emperor’s Executioner: Useful for those with a ranged build.
• Rising Conviction: Well-rounded Feat, which can be used for any casual build.
• Honor The Martyr: Great for those that love playing on the edge and will do anything to increase their overall critical chance and damage output.

Emperor’s Executioner

If you’re using a ranged build for Zealot in Warhammer 40K Darktide, then Emperor’s Executioner might be the best Feat for you. It lets you deal up to a 25% increase in ranged damage based on the proximity to the target. Therefore, the further you are, the better your chance of landing more damage.

Rising Conviction

Rising Conviction might be a popular pick for many Zealot players as it offers +4% damage for five seconds on hit. It can be stacked five times, totaling a 20% increase in damage. Keeping the buff stacked up isn’t quite difficult, as all you need to do is keep hitting different enemies.

As it doesn’t specify whether the attacks need to be melee or ranged, you can likely use your ranged weapon to keep the combo going.

Honor The Martyr

Honor the Martyr might not seem as effective on its own, but if you’ve got the right Feats, you can make great use of it. The Feat allows you to increase your Martyrdom stacks to six instead of three. Meaning you can get +30% damage if you lose 90 of your health and are near death.

You can combine the Feat with Retribution from Level 10 to get +20% attack speed. And with Litanies of Hate, you can get a +6% increase in critical hit chance for not just yourself but also your squad in Coherency. And as a safeguard, you can use Holy Revenant from Level 20 to make sure you get your health back if you ever end up getting taken out.

Level 30

The final few Feats for almost every class tend to focus on improving its active ability, which seems to be the case with Zealot.

• Invocation of Death: A good pick if your playstyle focuses on Chastise the Wicked, has a high critical chance and wants a reduced ability cooldown.
• Fury of the Faithful: If you prefer attack speed over damage, and have Retribution in your build, then this Feat can be quite useful.
• Purge the Wicked: Overall great pick for any casual build due to the additional charge.

Invocation Of Death

If you’ve got a build that relies on using Chastise the Wicked as often as possible, then Invocation of Death will be quite useful. It lets you reduce the cooldown for the ability by 1.5 seconds each time you land a critical melee hit.

So, if you’re usually waiting around 30-ish seconds for the cooldown, you’ll be able at least to reduce it to two-thirds or even a half. If you combine the Feat with others that increase your critical chance, such as Litanies of Hate, you’ll be able to make the most out of Invocation of Death.

Fury Of The Faithful

Fury of the Faithful will essentially let you land more hits after you’ve activated Chastise the Wicked, as it increases your attack speed by +20%. It’s great for opening attacks on enemies to try and deal as much damage to them as possible. You can also combine the Feat with Retribution to get an overall +40% increase in attack speed.

Purge The Wicked

Purge the Wicked is probably a great pick for most players, as it offers you two charges for the ability. You’ll likely be able to use it to refill your Toughness bar immediately and land two solid critical hits on your enemies. The Feat will be extremely useful against bosses as those two critical hits can be focused on a single target.

With that, you know about the best Feats for Zealot in Warhammer 40K Darktide. The fact that the class can be used as a ranged/support class and melee can make it confusing to figure out the right Feats. But once you know what type of playstyle you want, a good amount of Feats can support each playstyle!

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