Darktide has come under some pretty heavy criticism from fans, thanks to the largely confusing gameplay terms and a distinct lack of an in-game glossary. However, it appears the community is starting to come together to figure things out. The result is that the mysterious Rending stat in Darktide is non-other than armor penetration.

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Rending will make you beat these armored lads up much easier.

Darktide’s Rending stat explained¶

Rending is something that players will want to add to their weapons to penetrate armored enemies. These can be enemies wearing Flak Armor, or the Carapace enemies who are in full plate in every possible spot. The result is that your weapon will deal more damage, thanks to the blue hit markers you get against armored foes not being as strong as they once were.

It’s an ideal stat you want on your anti-elite and specialist weapons, such as the Zealot’s Thunder Hammer, or on a Veteran’s heavy-hitting rifle or even Chainsword. The higher the rending stat on the weapon, the better the weapon will perform on those enemy types.

This stat is not so important in the early game, thanks to the lack of real armored enemies, other than the occasional Scab Mauler. But, it becomes much more needed the more you enter the higher difficulties.

If you thought it was bleeding, there is another stat and gameplay mechanism that Ogryns, Veterans and Zealots do, which is something worth looking into if you thought it was a bleed mechanic.

The rule comes from the tabletop version of the game, with many of the strange keywords being references to the tabletop game. Rending on the tabletop affects the armor saves of the rolls you make on the tabletop game. Which essentially acts as your armor does less versus this stat. The same can be said to the Wounds stat, a life bar feature in Tabletop that reflects how many wounds, or affected life bars the model has before it dies on the board. If another stat confuses you in the game, chances are look at the tabletop keywords, and they test it out in the Meat Grinder and see the similarities between the two gaming mediums.