Updated Title Publisher
Updated Title Publisher
Updated Title
Published Title Score Editor's Choice
Published Title Score

Warhammer 40000: Darktide

Purchase on Amazon

Dartkide Ogryn Skullbreaker Class Guide: The Tank Build

By
Craig Robinson

The Ogryn is one of the toughest classes available in Darktide. Its feats, auras, and other goodies make its the perfect support playstyle, offering players who want to do objectives an easier time, while also being a good lad and looking out for his team. Moreso, it comes with a bunch of unique weapons that no other class can get. If you fancy being the unique big guy with plenty of tank and support options available, the Ogryn is a perfect class.

We have a tanky Ogryn class build for your Darktide sessions if that sounds like you. Here you can see the ideal feat setup, along with the weapons of choice, and other general tips and tricks you can use too.

Here is a look at how to build a Darktide Ogryn for a tank playstyle. Image via Fatshark.

Ogryn Build Class Overview

The Ogryn is a big character, with an extended attack range, and has the best damage reduction and toughness in the game. The class is all about being in the thick of it, giving big slaps and taking big slaps without much thought of it.

There’s also some other tools, such as the Ogryn’s Blitz button, which throw a grenade box This is heavy-hitting throwable, which does some massive damage to weakpoints and heavy armored enemies. While it feels useless, it’s great for choosing the most annoying enemies.

Your Aura give allies in the coherency range 10% heavy melee attack damage. For the most part, this wont bother enemies on lower levels, but it certainly helps to whack specialist and elite enemies in Flak and Carapace armor, adding solid value to Malice and higher difficulties.

As for the Ogryn’s passives, you have Thick Skin, which grants 20% toughness and health damage reduction. You also get 35% bonus melee stagger, which makes pushing the heavier armor foes to the ground. Finally, you have Loyal Protector, which makes reviving allies easier, as attacks don’t cancel the revive progress bar. The Ogryn also seem to walk quicker while carrying objective items, which is a stealth perk of their class. They also have one more wound higher than other classes by default.

Overall, the Ogryn is a tanky and supportive character, with some interesting gameplay niches.

Pros Cons
Tanky Lacks range
Great support reviver Limited Builds
Amazing Crowd Control

Recommended Ogryn Tank Weapons

The main focus of your weaponry is your Slab Shield. This item is a great weapon for the tank build, as its special allows you to raise your shield and cover your body in a 90 degree arc. Anything hitting your the front, whether its a ranger, or melee-themed character will hit the shield, and not drain your toughness or stamina. Moreso, this weapon draws lots of aggro, so you can easily control a horde or other annoying specialists.

In addition, the Slab Shield also grants some of the best melee clear in the game. This is great for when you need to control hordes, you can inflict your Stagger bonus, alongside your feat benefits (more on this later).

As for your ranged weapon, your two options are the Twin Stubber, and the Ripper Gun. The Stubber is a great option for when you need to fight enemies at ranged, and mow hordes of Poxwalkers down when your shield isn’t necessary. Meanwhile, the Ripper Gun is much shorter ranged, but also annihilates hordes at close range, which is perfect for when you’ve Bull Rushed through hordes or to get closer to range and smash other targets down. The choice of ranged weapon is largely a personal preference choice to round your out your build. It can also depend on your team, especially when you can coordinate loadouts with pre-made allies on many harder difficulties.

Ogryn Feats for the Tank Build

Potential Feats Description Notes Level
Situational All three talents grant toughness replenishment, either through a single enemy hit heavy attack, cleave heavy attack, or aura bonus. This is situational, as some weapons have better cleave or single-target heavy attack damage. When you get a shield, you’re likely to prefer the aura buff, especially if zealots or other classes are playing in close range to benefit from it. There’s also significant buff at level 15 too. You’ll likely use one of the first two options while leveling, depending on your preferred weapon type Level 5
Level dependent Heavy Weight is a very nice defensive upgrade when fighting most of annoying specialist enemies. Meanwhile, Bombs Away adds extra damage to your thrown object and grants some AOE if the situation allows it You take the first option largely when you’re not using a shield, and the other option on higher difficulties as Carapace enemies becomes very common from Malice difficulty onwards (the full thick armor plated enemy Ogryns). The bleed talent adds bleeds for cleaving enemies with a heavy attack. It’s not great on its own, but works much better when you get the Shield and it becomes your main choice going forward. Level 10
Preference Coherency radius buff, movement speed buff after Bull Rush, or 10% CDR on elite kill. Bull Fighter is very good when playing against Endless Horde conditions as Elite enemies are everywhere, and you want to CC hordes as often as possible to make life easier. Meanwhile, Towering Presence is great if you use the Lynch Pin aura buff in the level 5 talent. Level 15
Bloodthirst +10% damage resistance per bleeding enemy in melee range. Stacks 5 times. Your shield heavy attack can easily apply cleave to hordes, Once you reach this level, change to Blood and Thunder talent in the level 10 row, and you now pretty much have a 50% damage reduction buff up like 80% of the time in combat. If your stacks drop, you can leave your shield and reapply the bleed with another heavy attack when applicable. Level 20
Payback Time When an enemy damages you, gain +20% damage bonus against that type of enemy for 5 seconds. This is much better for DPS improvements when you do want to take damage. And will likely offer more DPS than Raging Bull, especially for taking hits deliberately from bigger enemies. For better horde control, Raging Bull is better, but your Vets and Psykers should be able to handle hordes for you. Level 25
Bull Gore + 2 bleed stacks on enemies hit by bull rush. The idea behind this is so the Ogryn can charge shooters down if they are causing trouble and get bleeds, or charge through the hordes and spread bleeds everywhere. This then scales with keeping your toughness snuff up for much longer periods while you need to tank and spank. It’s generally a better synergy for your toughness bleed buffs. Non-Stop violence is also good if you need to get toughness back after being drilled by rangers or regular shooters, and there’s no horde near about. But its situations are niche compared the general effectiveness of Bull Gore Level 30

The core of this Ogryn tank build in Darktide is about getting the most efficient use out of your toughness and damage reduction. As a tank, you’re responsible for controlling the hordes, getting the attention of the enemy gunners and shooters and making it so your Psykers can pop elites, while Veterans kill the gunners, elites and then the hordes, and your Zealots fill the gaps. When things get tough, the Ogryn also has solid bleed and CC control to get their downed allies up, while also maintaining their health and toughness, thanks to those buffs. Overall, these feats should make it so the Ogryn can maintain its tank health and toughness while also serving as a support by limiting risk when needing to pick allies up, or cover their downed allies or those on the objective.

Ogryn Gameplay Tips in Darktide

Here are the best Ogryn tips and tricks for this tank playstyle. Image via Fatshark.

Here is a list of tips we recommend paying attention to and trying to incorporate into your playstyle. If you have any tips, feel free to let us know in the comments below.

  • Tank the horde: If a horde is coming your way, raise that shield and activate the special attack. The shield will raise and protect your body in a 90-degree direction.
  • Tank the Assassination boss: Same as above. Tank the big whacks from the Assassination mission type target, so your squishies can avoid getting two shot.
  • Terrain positions: Using your shield at certain positions on the map are more beneficial. If there’s a funnel, tank that area. Need to rotate? Cover the flank while your team moves safely.
  • Protect objective users: Placing your shield in front of an ally who is working on repairing the machine for your objectives or even reviving an ally is incredibly valuable
  • Bull Rush Interrupts: Bull rushing creature like Dogs and Mutants can act as an interrupt. The result is that you can potential save an ally from getting whacked by a Mauler or other dangerous situations.
  • For when you revive allies: Bullrush through hordes beating up your downed allies, or do your heavy cleave and bleed attacks to replenish toughness. These feats used in this way will make you tanky, and lose much less than you would picking an ally up from the ground if it comes to it.
  • Grenade Box: The Grenade Box is especially effective against big plated Flak or Carapace enemies. This can easily one shot one specialist or elite, making the fight easier when you can throw those boxes. Moreso, this can one-shot Corrupter Eyes, making it very effective on maps like Chasm Terminus when you need to kill three Corrupter Eyes.
  • Wounds: The Ogryn has one more wound then other classes. When you get + 2 wounds, you can then take max health increases around the 20% value. The health improvement formula is Base Health + Wounds x Health multiplication stats. Having 300 HP (200 HP base + 2 wounds) will then allow you get 60 hp if you have a high-level curio with around 20% max hp bonus, making ti more desirable than third wound for example. It’s worth monitoring to make you as tanky as you can be.
No Comments
Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Fatshark
  • Platforms,
    PC, XB X|S
  • Genre
    Action, FPS
  • Guide Release
    16 November 2022
  • Last Updated
    27 November 2023
    Version History
  • Guide Author
    Craig Robinson

Share this free guide:

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is a coop horde shooter, created by Fatshark, the developer and self publishing stdio behind the Vermentide series. In this game, players head to the 41st millennium, using a mixture of Vermentide’s excellent melee combat, with added ranged focus, along with the thematics and threat from the 40k franchise where there is only war.

In this guide, expect to find the following:

Get a Gamer Guides Premium account: