Best Arbites build in Warhammer 40K: Darktide

Looking for the best Arbites build for Darktide‘s new skull-bashing, body-blasting Lex Imperialis enforcer? It’s been a very long time coming, but this new class is extremely fun, channeling those Judge Dredd vibes into an unstoppable juggernaut of justice, along with his little heretic-hungry cyberdog pal.

Having played the Arbites extensively over the past two weeks, I’ve channeled my Zealot sicko-try into what I think is a very strong, primarily melee-focused build for the Arbites (sorry Veteran players). This setup had me soloing (with bots) Heresy level missions, since there weren’t any other players, but with a team of actual humans I reckon it’d be solid for far harder content.

More generally, the Arbites is an all-rounder class, especially in terms of builds. If you want to focus on ranged gun-fu, marking targets to take down for bonuses, you can, or you put everything into your Cyber-Mastiff and watch as it does its best to maul a Chaos Spawn. Either way, here’s my best Arbites build which I had the most fun with in early access.

The best Darktide Arbites build

So, this best build for Darktide’s very own copper doesn’t, wait for it, include the Cyber Mastiff. I know, I know—what’s the point of using the class if you aren’t bringing your doggo to bite heretics. Having played extensively both with and without said pooch, I found that, actually, dogless Arbites feels a lot stronger, thanks to the Lone Wolf talent, and still provides those Judge Dredd enforcer vibes.

You can still use the dog while levelling, but generally, the mutt’s playstyle is all about marking targets for it to kill and gaining benefits when it does. While this is handy, it feels properly inconsistent in terms of managing uptime for those buffs—while your dog is killing, what are you supposed to do in your weaker state?

In many ways, the dog Arbites has the exact same problem many Necromancers do in ARPGs: the buffs you get from not bringing a minion feels better than the minion itself. However, if you do decide you’d prefer to spec entirely into doggo, you basically just have to hug the left side of the talent tree, where all its buffs and abilities live.

Best Arbites weapons and curios

Thankfully, the Arbites actually starts with what I think are the two best weapons, which makes creating a good build that much easier.

• Melee weapon: Arbites Shock Maul
  • Blessing 1: Execution (+X% damage bonus vs. staggered enemies)
  • Blessing 2: High Voltage (+X% damage vs. electrocuted enemies)
  • Perks: Melee crit chance, melee crit damage, weak spot damage

This is the Branx Mk III Arbites unique Shock Maul and I think it’s far stronger than the Agni Shock Maul we all know and love, despite the fact that weapon unlocks at a far higher rank. The reason this weapon is so good, besides its cracked attack speed and nice blessing pool, is its special action, which weaves electric blows into your regular combo for DoT damage and stuns. It’s far easier to use than the Agni’s poke-and-shock special attack.

Blessing-wise, I recommend Execution (staggering enemies with weak point hits is the heart of this build) and High Voltage, both of which will provide easy-to-get damage bonuses of up to 50%. Hammerblow (stacking impact on hit for more stagger) and Confident Strike (toughness on chained hit) are other good blessings to watch out for.

For perks, I recommend improving your crits or weak spot damage, since you’ll be bonking a lot of heretics on the head with this build.

• Ranged weapon: Exterminator Shotgun
  • Blessing 1: Fire Frenzy (Gain +X% close damage for 3.5 seconds after killing an enemy at close range, stacking five times)
  • Blessing 2: Speedload (+X% reload speed for 3 seconds after close kill. Stacks five times)
  • Perks: Reload speed, ranged critical hit damage, or ranged critical hit chance

The Exterminator Shotgun is a properly good weapon, a real show-up for the somewhat lacklustre shotgun roster in the game already. It has high damage, meaning you can use it to kill most unarmored specials, but also a wide projectile spread and plenty of ranged cleave, so you can fire into hordes for maximum carnage. This gun synergises well with this build for two reasons.

The first is the Withering Fire talent (+15% ranged damage for five seconds after reloading), extremely easy to keep active when you get it for loading each shell. The second is the Terminus Warrant talent, granting up to 30 stacks of Melee Justice (an impact and damage buff for melee weapons) when you hit enemies with ranged attacks. The Arbites Shotgun is ideal for firing into hordes to quickly farm up these stacks for when you switch to your Shock Maul.

Blessing-wise, I suggest Fire Frenzy and Speedload for optimal blasting into groups of enemies at close range, though you could also take Born in Blood for a little survivability, farming up toughness on close kills as well. Powderburn (more damage against suppressed enemies and more suppression dealt) could also be decent, considering the extra suppression the Arbites already gets from other sources like the Nuncio-Aquila. For stats, build into crits again, and potentially take reload speed if you don’t use Speedload (so you can maximise the Withering Fire buff’s uptime).

Lastly, in terms of curio bonuses, you’ll want the universal stuff you take for other classes, namely, more wounds, health, toughness, and a little corruption resistance for grabbing grimoires and coping with Beast of Nurgle slime

Best Arbites talent and keystone levelling path

Let me be frank: this is a bonk build. It’s all about bonking baddies on the head with your zap truncheon like every good space copper should. The Concussive talent (melee weakspot hits make enemies staggered for 4 seconds) and stacking impact buffs makes it easy to stagger enemies, and this build makes it so doing that gives you a whole heap of bonuses.

As with any good build, it also dips into the different talent trees to yoink their best stacking bonuses. The secondary layer of the build is discarding your cyber pooch with the Lone Wolf talent to gain extra damage, attack speed, toughness, five grenades, as well as an additional grenade regenerating every 60 seconds.

Lastly, the final layer of this build is Terminus Warrant, a complicated-sounding talent that’s actually rather simple: hitting enemies with melee weapons grants up to 30 stacks of Ranged Justice (+15% Ranged Damage, +50% Ranged Cleave, and 50% Suppression) and hitting enemies with ranged weapons grants up to 30 stacks of Melee Justice (+15% Melee Damage, +25% Melee Impact).

Luckily, you have a fast-whacking Shock Maul and a shotgun that can decimate hordes to switch between when farming these mid-play. After all, you only consume these stacks when you hit with either weapon.

Arbites build playstyle

Now your brain has melted from reading through that talent and keystone overview, here are some tips for how this build actually works in practice. It sounds more complex than it is, honestly. The key fundamentals to remember are:

1. Bonk em with the bonky end (hit weakspots)

Since hitting a weakspot provides a stagger with this build, and staggering enemies gives you a whole truckload of bonuses, you’ll want to bonk enemies on the head. If you want to hit even harder, periodically throw in some heavy attacks. They’ll give you the 15% Weight of the Lex damage bonus, but also they’re a more damage-efficient way of spending your Melee Justice stacks against tougher single foes. Don’t forget your special attack on the Arbites Shock Maul will also stun annoying enemies like Ragers.

2. Farm up Melee Justice by blasting groups with your shotgun

To be frank, Melee Justice is more important than Ranged Justice in this melee-focused build, especially as you’ll spend your Ranged Justice stacks super fast when it’s based on enemies hit and you’re blasting shells into hordes. The Arbites Shotgun is very powerful, but remember that killing stuff with it will make your melee hit even harder, and vice-versa, so you should swap between weapons frequently to spend and accrue stacks.

3. Nuncio-Aquila is a clutch anti-ranged ability

The Nuncio-Aquila is a clutch ability, by which I mean, it can save a run from wipe if you use it correctly. Its damage reduction, toughness regen, and revive speed increase from Inspiring Recitation mean that it can help you save your squad from the most dire of straits. It’s especially effective against bosses or big groups of hard-hitting ranged enemies, giving you a little bolthole where you can blast and suppress them while resisting their deadly fire.

4. If you have five Arbites Grenades, chuck one

Pretty simple: since you can regen a grenade every 60 seconds, it’s a straight-up waste to have full grenades at any time. The Arbites Grenade is great for quickly tossing at a group of tricky enemies, and you have five of them thanks to this setup. Make corpses while you have grenades etc.

5. Dodge instead of blocking

With your extra dodge from Street Smarts and dodge-based damage bonus from Arbites Revelatum, it just makes sense to be ducking and dipping out of the way of enemy attacks. If you are in a situation where you have to block, why not push instead? Spending stamina should activate Walk it Off, which grants 15% toughness over three seconds; a little bit of extra survivability.