Tips For Playing A Zealot In Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

A pious fanatic that’s always the first into the fiercest firefights on the frontlines, the Zealot in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a raging worshipper of the Emperor that looks for nothing other than throwing his life away for the holy throne of Terra. They’re an aggressive class that operates a bit like a Rogue in a fantasy game, and with the right setup the Zealot is nigh unstoppable.

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They’re a high DPS focused role that favors those that like getting stuck in amongst the minions of chaos. So if you like getting stabby, this religious lunatic should be right up your alley. If his calls of faith and piety intrigue you, then here’s a handy guide to using the Zealot in Darktide.

The Zealot Class

Overall you can look at the Zealot as one of the most melee focused classes in the game. Their entire tree is tuned around being at close range with your targets, so don’t try to run this one like a Veteran or Ogryn.

Their attacks are empowered by their holy wrath and as their health drops closer to empty they gain damage buffs to help them press on. It’s a very aggressive class that can be a lot of fun with the right setup of weapons and perks.

Zealot Weaponry

Like the Ogryns, the Zealots weaponry is a little unique. They still have access to a wider range of things to stab and shoot with that the others do. Like shotguns, lasguns, auto pistols, and some melee weapons like chainswords and knives.

But for the Zealots there’s also some extra toys that only they get to play with. They’re fittingly religious themed, and they really help you settle into the mindset of a holy warrior as you purge heretics with flames and blessed weaponry.

Here’s what they get to shoot with:

• Flamer.
• Boltgun.
• Bolt Pistol.
• Autogun
• Autopistol.
• Shotgun.
• Lasgun.
• Laspistol.
• Stub Revolver.

For melee weapons you also get

• Relic Blade.
• Thunder Hammer.
• Eviscerator.
• Crusher.
• Combat Blade.
• Duelling Sword.
• Axe.
• Chainsword.
• Chain Axe.
• Maul.
• Heavy Sword.

So you’ve got quite a big selection of things to stab, slash and pummel with as you’re running around proclaiming the Emperor’s greatness. It allows for a fair amount of versatility for your Zealot so you can experiment around quite a bit to find a role that suits you. It’s also a larger list than the Ogryn class which is a bit more confined to bigger over sized armaments.

The Zealot Class Talents

Overall the talents for the Zealot are a great selection of abilities, as well as being unique enough that each one allows for a completely different build for this pious murderous maniac.

For example, you can lean into the god warrior role by making yourself tougher and hit faster. Or go into a support role that buffs your allies with a holy relic that makes them have stun immunity and invulnerability briefly. Or head for the sneaky assassin route by activating stealth and gaining a massive boost in damage and critical hit chance.

Their Blitz’s, which are just the different types of throwable you can use are also different after the big rework. As an example, now you can choose between a stun grenade, fire grenade, or a holy knife for big damage on a single target.

Finally, their keystones offer options for turning into a Critical Hit god, smashing harder the closer to death you are, and buffing your movement and attack speed to superhuman ninja levels. It’s a great list of things to tweak with and it makes the Zealot more interesting to use.

Zealot Abilities

The Zealots abilities are a nice collection of skills that really enhance your ability to go absolutely berserk on some chaos cultists. Whether that’s boosting your damage with their base ability Chastise The Wicked, which in turn can be upgraded into three different skills later.

Or using their overall Critical Hit focused class passives to deal an ungodly amount of damage on some pretty dangerous targets. Here’s what you can get your hands on for picking up the Zealot.

Fury Of The Faithful

When it activates, Fury of the Faithful dashes the Zealot forward whilst also replenishing your Toughness by 50 percent and applying a 20 percent increase to your attack speed. As an added bonus for triggering it, your next hit gets a 25 percent damage boost and is a guaranteed Critical Hit.

It all lasts for about 30 seconds, and it’s ideal for starting a damage dump on a big squishy target. Such as a Beast Of Nurgle, Plague Ogryn, or a large Elite that’s giving the team a bit of grief. It also comes with the least amount of modifiers compared to the other abilities of the Zealot.

Chorus Of Spiritual Fortitude

This is a great ability choice if you’re leaning into a support role as a Zealot. Like the other religious fanatics in the Imperium, the Zealot keeps a relic close to their heart for times of need. With Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude, they pull it out to release a pulse of holy energy.

The pulse flies out every eight seconds, and whilst in Coherency with your allies you all gain immunity to being stunned as well as invulnerability. But that’s not all. The relic also replenishes 45 percent of your allies Toughness if you all stay in Coherency. So it rewards those that stick close to you and encourages teamwork.

Worth noting is that this ability has a 60 second cooldown, which is the longest out of all the classes. But this is fair as it’s a very strong ability in the right hands. Plus, you can modify it to pop off more often anyway.

Shroudfield

This is the ability to choose for those that like to disappear into the shadows then flash back onto the scene with big damage dumps on a target. Kind of like an evangelical assassin.

With Shroudfield you can pop into Stealth for three seconds. Which isn’t long, but for that brief respite you gain a 20 percent boost to movement speed, and a huge 100 percent buff to backstab damage, finesse damage and critical hit chance. So it’s worth activating right before you slip behind and then do a big stab on a target. Ideally an Elite or monstrous type enemy. It’s got a 30 second cooldown, which isn’t too bad, plus it can be modified three times.

Zealot Blitz

The Zealot’s Blitz’s are extremely varied and you won’t find your standard pattern grenade here. Instead you’ve got a rather useful stun grenade by default that lets you go into damage burst mode. Plus, you can augment the blast size of it as your first Blitz choice.

The other option is the choice of crowd control with a big flaming oil spill left on the ground. Or a massive amount of damage inflicted on a single target with a thrown holy knife. Which sounds not great, but it’s really good at chunking the health bars of mini-bosses, or one-shotting Elites and big lads like Chaos corrupted Ogryns.

Stunstorm Grenade

An upgraded version of the Zealots starting stun grenade, the Stunstorm increases the blast size of your stun bomb by 50 percent. It’s recommended to pop this right before you dump damage on Elites, armored, or monstrous targets such as Chaos Spawn. Or, against a horde right before you release some heavy attack crowd clearing swings.

Consider it as a combo opener and once you get that one-two rhythm down of toss and then swing you’ll find melee fights an absolute breeze.

Immolation Grenade

This handy little Blitz keeps with the purgation theme of the Zealot by leaving a big layer of flaming promethium on the ground. It applies direct damage to anyone that walks into it, plus it applies Burning and Stagger on anyone that it ignites.

It works the best against unarmored targets like Nurgle zombie hordes, but it can still fill the gaps if you get a few armored Dregs or Scabs in the mix. Or, toss it on a big monster to help the team wear down its health bar a little quicker. It’s a handy little molotov cocktail that’s always worth defaulting to if you can’t pick a Blitz.

Blades of Faith

If you rarely use a grenade and instead would like a complete overhaul, then may we present the Blades of Faith. This removes your grenade entirely and replaces it with a throwable knife.

It’s a consecrated blade that deals a high amount of damage, and is ideal for assassinating big threats like Elites or monsters. Although, it does struggle against anything with a carapace or armoured. So just be aware it’s not an instant-kill against everything.

A fun bonus of this blade is that it has a very quick throwing animation, and if you kill a Special or Elite you’ll earn one knife back. So if you’re very accurate with your tosses, you could essentially never have to worry about running out of knives. But if you do, just grab a normal ammo box as that will refill them.

Zealot Aura

The Zealot got some fun new things in the rework, chief of which is the new Aura’s. These are essentially three big passive buffs that you can pick as you’re going down the Talent Tree and they help enhance a particular build you’re going for.

For example, you can make yourself and the team more tanky, heal corruption, or keep yourself in constant Coherency. That last one is particularly powerful as a lot of the Zealots passives and other buffs from certain abilities only apply if you’re in Coherency. But if you’ve got constant Coherency then you’re always buffed.

The Aura’s the Zealot can unlock are:

• Benedictions: Whilst in Coherency with allies, gain a 15 percent toughness damage reduction.
• Beacon of Purity: Whilst in Coherency, heal one and a half Corruption from you and your allies current Wounds every second.
• Loner: The Zealot constantly has at least two Coherency active.

On their own these passives are already pretty powerful and useful. Plus, there’s also 34 other minor passives to unlock that boost everything from your attack speed, to damage, toughness, and there’s even one that trades damage taken for health. So there’s a fair amount of things to tweak.

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Zealot Keystones

Finally we’ve got the Keystones. These are big buffs right at the bottom of your class’s Talent Tree and they’re your reward for sticking with a particular build all the way to the end. Each one suits a distinct play style, and like the Blitz and Aura’s above, selecting one will lock you out of the others.

There’s three in total, and they lean into substantially boosting your Critical Hit chance, enhancing damage dealt for wounds taken, and also making you move and hit up to 15 times faster. It’s a nice selection of things to spec into and they all come with some modifiers, although one has substantially more than others.

Blazing Piety

This is the best Keystone for those that are all about seeing those big damage numbers pop off on their screen. When it’s unlocked it provides a 15 percent Critical Hit chance for eight seconds whenever the Zealot is in their Fury state.

Fury is a mode that activates when you have this Keystone and kill 25 enemies within 25 metres of the Zealot. So it rewards you for wading right into the masses to cull them quick. A good way to use it is if there’s a monster joining the fight. Stack Fury by mincing through minions, then use the buff to damage dump on the big lad. Blazing Piety also comes with four modifiers, the most of any of the Zealots Keystone’s.

Martyrdom

This is a Keystone for those that love to be a glass cannon. What Martyrdom does is reward you for being low health at all times, and it’s a tricky spot to balance yourself in. But it’s worth it for the benefits.

With Martyrdom you’re given an eight percent melee damage buff for every missing wound you have. So the lower your health bar, the better. It stacks up to a maximum of seven, but you can gain extra buffs for being in this state by unlocking the modifiers for this particular Keystone.

Inexorable Judgement

When a melee focused build like the Zealot is standing still they’re not doing their job. They’re at their strongest when they’re constantly on the move, and this Keystone really rewards that. With Inexorable Judgement you gain stacks of Momentum when you move.

This stacks up to 15 times, and when you hit an enemy whilst these stacks are built you’ll spend all that Momentum to deal a hit that does one percent in base damage. Plus, melee or ranged damage based on how many stacks you have. It also applies an extra one percent in attack speed based on each stack of Momentum carried.

So it really incentivises you to be constantly moving about. Either scouting the room for more threats, diving headlong into a fight, or zipping around taking out Elites and Specials. Plus, it can be modified further.

Zealot Builds

You can make some really fun and powerful builds with the Zealot. When Darktide first launched they were considered the strongest role out there, and even after the rework and a few overhauls, they’re still ridiculously strong at times.

You can augment them further with a specific kind of build if you know what you’re doing. But for those struggling to find them to be fun, or are looking for something interesting to do with their particular flavor of flagellant, then here’s a few community recommended builds to tinker with.

The Daemon’s Bane

First up we’ve got a Daemon Hunter. In Warhammer this is essentially the bread and butter of every Zealots day to day, and in Darktide you can be just as fervently faithful. To run this build you’re going to want to grab a hammer and an autogun as your weapons. Then enhance those for strength and either Critical Hit or Weak Spot damage.

From there grab curios that boost Toughness and your health, then get the entire right side of the first tier of passives but get the Immolation Grenade Blitz instead of the knives. For the second tier of passives you’ll want to hit the entire left side, but then head right on the tree with Shroudfield and just fill the entire right side after that.

It’s a little bit fiddly, but once you do that you’ll have a melee setup that’s good for hordes and large monsters, a gun that hits for enhanced Crits, Stealth to boost your damage, and a flame grenade that can melt through horde chaff. It’s a solid all-rounder setup that should carry you far in the name of the Emperor.

The Relic Hunter

Zealots love very old holy things, and in the Imperium those are literally everywhere. The Relic Hunter build leans into the Zealots love of antiquity by having them focus on using old tech for a new job. It’s a surprisingly good front line role that can counter everything from hordes to big bosses if built right.

To start off, grab a relic blade and a boltgun. Then enhance those to focus on increasing Weak Spot Damage, Brittleness and Bleed if possible. Ideally you want your ranged option to wear something big and nasty down, before finishing it off with your sword.

For your Curious, primarily grab anything that boosts Toughness. Damage resistance and stamina regeneration are also recommended if you can. For your Talents, you’re going to want to funnel the right side of the tree up to and including the Blitz. Then fill in the first three on the right side, before switching to filling in the left side right down to the Aura and Ability.

After picking up Fury of the Faithful, you’ll want to then dump your remaining Talent Points in that entire left side. Done right you should have a class that not only relies heavily on Fury of the Faithful for damage boosts, but overall can melt anything armored whilst also dealing a massive amount of Critical Hit damage with those old holy relic weapons.

The Hammer Of Heretics

This is a great build for those that like to bonk things with big hammers. This hammer centric Zealot is great at melting monsters, atomising armored lads, and barbecuing hordes. It’s a bit of a silly, yet very fun loadout that will win you around to using the Zealot if you’re still on the fence about them.

To begin, grab a hammer and a flamer. Then enhance the hammer with anything that boosts damage against armored targets or strength. For the flamer you’re looking at raw damage and anything that boosts you for using continuous fire. In terms of Curious, anything that increases your Wounds or Toughness is ideal. Regeneration for your abilities and stamina regeneration are also a plus.

For your Talent Tree, you’re looking at filling in the entire middle section of the first tier as well as grabbing the Immolation Grenade to increase the amount of fire everywhere. Then pick up the first two passives on the right, before then filling out the entire left side to Fury of the Faithful.

You’ll then want to grab the first passive on the far right end, then focus everything else into the middle branch of the last tree. So that’s anything toward the Martyrdom Keystone. Done right you should have a flame spewing Zealot with a good amount of health that can smash anything that comes at them with your big hammer.

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