Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s largest content update since the Skitarii arrived has hit Steam today, bringing the “Depths of the Damned” patch that introduces a sprawling new “Spillway” mission set within Tertium’s rotting water treatment facility. The live-service operation adds a full-length campaign-style challenge, two new weapons, and a three-phase boss encounter, marking the grimdark co-op shooter’s most ambitious addition since it first opened its Hive City to players.
For a live-service title that has repeatedly re-sparked interest through fresh content, the Depths of the Damned update follows that established pattern. It centers on a mission as revolting as it is compelling, sending squads deep into the gushing, previously unexplored depths of Tertium’s water infrastructure rather than the criss-crossing sectors of the Hive City that define most Darktide excursions.
A Descent into Tertium’s Wettest Abyss
The Spillway deployment drops players into a spectacularly horrible environment. Fetid green liquid rushes through the facility’s caverns as blasphemous new life sprouts from the moisture, with dark moss covering the cages that the complex’s former gangster owners likely never intended for decoration. The current residents exploit the space’s long sightlines to unleash lasgun fire, while fellow cultists charge into melee range.
Deeper within the Spillway, the environment grows even nastier. Entire rooms are covered floor-to-ceiling in daemonic growths that appear structurally integral to the facility itself, while the pipe network is so thickly coated that it resembles a diseased intestinal tract. The result is a playable Fantastic Voyage through a warren of filth.
A Bumper-Sized Challenge
Structurally, the Spillway is a more conventional oscillation between fierce wave combat and quieter traversal, echoing the design of earlier post-launch operations rather than radically reinventing the format. Rolling Steel, 2024’s runaway train caper, and the Hive Scum update’s No Man’s Land op both pushed the game in bolder directions. Those missions, however, were comparatively tight, short-form jaunts.
The Spillway is a full-length, even bumper-sized new challenge that attempts smaller twists along the way. Players encounter light memory-puzzling, guided by a particular daub of gang graffiti that marks the safe-ish path through the mazelike pipes – provided they can find it among all the other gang graffiti. Ambushes await as well, including a surprise encounter with a traitor Captain, a foe usually reserved as the final boss for Assassination and Rolling Steel runs.
New Weapons and a Three-Phase Boss
The Spillway’s actual final boss offers a burst of freshness amid the filth, standing as the most bosslike among Darktide’s chunkiest adversaries. He advances through phases, unleashes ruinous area-of-effect attacks, and cackles through invulnerable periods like a mad space wizard.
May your squads be smarter and more attentive than my gang of AI bots, or you’ll end up like me: a psychically flayed corpse, fallen without glory inside a lair made of poo chutes.
A Gamer24h reviewer
Players can also take on the challenge armed with two of the update’s new weapons, both slightly overtuned in keeping with Darktide’s patch tradition. The Thugshot is a slug-firing, crowd-penetrating breachloader capable of slicing through shamblers with ease, while the Cruncher sledgehammer can thwack lesser enemies clean off ledges in a satisfying sideswipe. Both deliver heavy damage but do so slowly, encouraging players to find the rhythm in Darktide’s swinging combat.
Looking Ahead
With the greater time investment and firmer teeth-clenching requirements that a mission of this size demands, the Depths of the Damned update offers a compelling reason to keep Darktide’s presence on your SSD. As the game continues to cling to players’ installations through relentless fresh content, the Spillway stands as its most memorable descent yet – and one that, for those unprepared, promises to be a deeply unpleasant one.
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