The launch of Warhammer 40K:Darktide was somewhat unusual: throughout the two-week pre-order beta, developer Fatshark rolled out a host of new missions and features, along with frequent bug fixes. The obvious missing piece was the crafting system, which was still mostly missing on launch day. Only one of the four crafting systems is currently available, with the rest listed as "Open soon." Some players noted that the premium cosmetics store was ready for launch, but not the crafting. So I spoke with Fatshark's lead developer about why they made this decision.

"We spent a fraction of the time on the store compared to the craft system. In fact, I think we spent too little time on the premium store. We should have spent more time getting the bundle right," said Martin Wahlund, co-founder of Fatshark. (Wahlund is referring to the store's ability to allow players to purchase the exact premium currency they need.)

Victor Magnuson, Fatshark's head of design, elaborated on why the crafting system was not ready for launch.

"We had another crafting system, but we realized it wasn't good enough. So we tore it down and started over, creating a whole new craft system that was far superior." When we made this decision, it was not a happy day at the office. But we knew we had to do it. And it will happen soon.

According to Wahlund, Fatshark's focus at Darktide was the long-term longevity of the game. He said the studio made "some errors" early in the development of 2018's Vermintide 2 that affected what new features could be added and what could be changed throughout its lifespan.

"If we release a system and it's out there and people are using it, it's really, really hard to remove that system and replace it with another," Magnusson said. 'People are already invested in the previous system. From a back-end perspective, it would be a nightmare. From a player experience, it will be really bad. So if we release a game with a bad crafting system and decide we need to redo it, that's major surgery and we don't want to do that. It was a really difficult decision, but I think players will ultimately agree that it was the right one. Of course, we will never know how bad the original craft system was, but it was never as good as this one"

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In an interview, game director Anders de Geer described each step of the crafting system that Fatshark intends to roll out in stages.

Consecration: upgrading the rarity of a weapon; unlike in Vermintide 2, upgrades do not increase the rarity of that weapon. It is more controllable. De Geer: "There is a basic rating for the weapon, where you can see how much of the total budget of the weapon is devoted to damage, maneuverability, ammunition, and things like that. This does not change when you upgrade the weapon. So, if you have a white weapon that has 90% allocated to damage, and you upgrade it to orange, 90% of the total budget will be allocated to damage. In other words, a white weapon with a high percentage of damage will become a high damage orange weapon when upgraded." This is a big difference from "Vermintide.

Refined Item: Re-roll the weapon's perk. It has passive stats such as a 20% damage bonus against armored enemies.

Earn Blessing: removes special traits from a weapon; De Geer: "You can actually take traits out and move them between weapons. It is like a jewel, so to speak. You can take a trait from one weapon and put it on another weapon. In other words, you can get any combination of traits you want. And there are three levels of rarity for the traits."

Combine Breath: This feature allows you to combine these traits into a higher rarity tier. Once you find a Rarity 1 trait and a Rarity 2 trait, you can combine them to maximize the Rarity 3 trait. De Geer - "This is a way to upgrade. You can put it on your favorite weapon."

Re-breathing: Attach the trait you worked so hard to level up to your favorite weapon.