Darktide slashes Vanguard health and reshuffles the Skitarii's Blitzes

Fatshark has rolled out patch 1.12.4 for Warhammer 40,000: Darktide on every platform. The change you feel first is the health cut to Vanguard enemies, the shield-carrying grunts that used to soak half a magazine before going down.

The numbers are blunt. The Scab Vanguard drops from 1700 to 1250 health on Damnation and from 2125 to 1675 on Auric; on Uprising it falls from 850 to 450. The Dreg Vanguard goes from 1300 to 1000 on Damnation. Their blocking arc narrows from 120 to 100 degrees, and fewer of them spawn at once during mid and end mission events.

There's also a new answer to them: two pushes in quick succession send a Vanguard stumbling backwards and leave it open. Both types have been added to the Meat Grinder, so the timing is something you can drill before meeting one on a live run.

The other big block is the Skitarii. Arc Grenades now deal damage through a 0.5-second debuff instead of a direct hit, arc jump range goes from 8 to 12, the initial explosion radius from 8 to 10, and every elite or specialist they kill returns 4% Capacitance. The Purgator and Medicae Servo-Skulls drop from 4 to 3 base charges, though running both together brings that up to 5.

The Decapitator blessing shifts its threshold too: it triggers on enemies at 80% health instead of demanding untouched ones, and stacks decay one at a time rather than all at once. In exchange, duration is now a flat 5 seconds across every weapon family and the Finesse bonus came down.

On Xbox Series S, a black pre-loading screen now appears before the Valkyrie loading screen. Fatshark added it to free up memory and prevent crashes, and says the normal screen will return once other memory fixes land. The rest of the fixes, including several Skitarii and Expedition crashes, are in the full patch notes.