Warhammer 40,000: Darktide: Indignatus Crusher Guid

The Crusher is a combo-oriented crowd control weapon. One of the main benefits of the Crusher is its very strong crowd control capabilities, capable of staggering even Ragers out of their attacks. It isn’t going to reach the same DPS as a Rashad Combat Axe or Heavy Sword, but it provides a great amount of safety while dealing very solid amounts of damage versus any enemy type in the game.

The strong crowd-control of the Crusher allows you to deal damage while also providing utility to both yourself and teammates. Proper use of its combos and knowing when to activate (and what type of activation to use) will allow you to lock down elites and keep them off both you and your allies. In particular, it shuts down Bulwarks and Ragers – two of the most threatening and annoying melee elites in the game – and allows for you to engage them aggressively in melee, whereas other weapons will have to wait to bait Bulwark swings or play more passively versus Ragers.
Beyond that, the weapon has no glaring weakness – it deals good damage versus every type, is safe in mixed hordes and dense elite patrols, opens bulwarks with an activated hit, and isn’t struggling for boss damage.

Light one (L1) is a horizontal sweep starting from the right, light two (L2) is a low-cleave strikedown from the left. The next two lights are a diagonal (L3) and a horizontal sweep (L4) that loops back into the L1.
Heavy one (H1) is a high-damage strikedown, and heavy two (H2) is a horizontal sweep from the left with the highest impact value out of any move (It will stagger a rager out of their combo/a crusher out of its swing on a headshot with no impact stacks up).
The push attack (PA) is a diagonal strike-up starting from the bottom right of the screen with a high finesse (critical/weakspot damage) modifier. It chains into both the H2 and L2, making it able to rotate into both crowd and single target combos. Two characteristics of the Push Attack is that it has the fastest chain-time to the Heavy 2, beating out the L1, which means if you want quick-access to the H2 you should always push attack if possible, and it has the highest headshot damage vs Carapace.

L1 -> H2 -> L3 -> H1[streamable.com] (Heavy -> Light alternating) is the simplest and most straightforward combo. If you wish to optimize this, the L1 has a longer chain-time to the Heavy 2[streamable.com], whereas the Push Attack chains much faster and applies Skullcrusher to horde mobs on the push, getting the full Skullcrusher stacks for the H2.
This makes PA -> H2 -> L3 -> H2 [streamable.com](Push Attack, Heavy, Light, Heavy, Repeat L/H) better for getting to the H2, which is the single strongest move vs Hordes/Crowds.

H1 -> L2[streamable.com] (repeat) is the most straightforward and consists of two overhead strikedowns, which are fairly easy to aim for bonking elites in a horde. The push attack fits into any part of the single-target combo, but if you begin with it you chain it as PA -> L2 -> H1,[streamable.com] since it chains into the light strikedown.

The H2 on the Crusher has a lot of stagger, and higher cleave than any other move. It can hit two Scab Ragers (the lights only hit one) and two Maulers on a body-shot. For initiating fights without impact stacks, the only move that staggers a Rager is the H2 on a headshot.[streamable.com] Likewise for Crushers[streamable.com]

The Crusher’s special activation has different properties depending on the attack. It is worth noting that enemies hit by both the explosion on charged attack and the cleave of the strike will receive two instances of Skullcrusher[streamable.com].

The primary characteristic of an activated H1 is the explosion centered on the first target hit in the swing. If you are flanked on multiple sides or completely surrounded by enemies – particularly elites – an activated H1 is a strong safety tool [streamable.com] (panic button, really) that can buy time for you to get out of a situation. Effectively, you can treat it as a pause button for enemies that get right in your face.

An infinite cleave with a much smaller AoE suppression upon contact,[streamable.com] mostly used when fighting elites that have taken up space in front of you. If you have 4 lined up maulers and you want all of them staggered, an activated L1 will cleave all of them. Similarly, it will stagger every Bulwark the swing touches, which is useful when facing Bulwark Phalanxes.

Considerably more niche than the previous two activations, what the activated push attack shines at is single-hit carapace damage. If you can land one at the start of the combo, you can pretty significantly increase your DPS vs Crushers (Less so for Maulers). My +Carapace Crusher goes from ~1300 to ~1700 when I start a fight with an activated push attack.

Some general pointers for starting fights vs specific enemy types, of course when you’re in the middle of a game the actual combo/activation usage will vary depending on the specific context.

A Push Attack headshot will stagger a single Mauler, while a H2 bodyshot will cleave through and stagger two. If you have +Carapace or a Duellist proc, it is better to hit headshots on the H1-L2 Combo, while with +Flak, +Elites, or no perk, H1-L2 does (slightly) better bodyshot damage. The Push Attack always wants to hit headshots on Maulers with its higher Carapace damage.

If you have Hammerblow, you can use a Push-Attack headshot to stagger them with no setup. Otherwise I would start every fight with them with an activated attack or a H2 headshot (which can cleave up to 3 Dreg Ragers, and two Scab ragers), as both will stagger them and you can swap into a single-target combo to finish them off.

I use an activated light or Push Attack to open their shields. As mentioned before, an activated light will open any bulwark it or its (smaller) blast radius touches, while also swinging faster. So long as you hit headshots, you should be able to kill a Bulwark in a single stagger cycle.

Generally, any combination of Elites/Flak/Maniac/Carapace/Unyielding will work, depending on what you want to kill faster. The crusher is not as breakpoint-intensive as other weapons, because a main function of the weapon is the relative safety due to crowd-control while dealing damage.

This is my preferred Crusher, although I’ve made many with different perk combinations. Maniac is another strong choice in place of either carapace or unyielding, but I prefer dealing with ogryns/bosses faster. Defences is the obvious dumpstat as it has the least impact on weapon performance, only governing minor dodge stats and push/sprint cost.

Skullcrusher is the must-have blessing on Crusher. It significantly boosts your damage output on any enemy that isn’t a boss or a Mutant. With an Impact blessing, you have a much easier time staggering enemies and keeping them staggered for longer, which synergizes with Skullcrusher. The damage from Skullcrusher only applies while an enemy is in a stagger animation (such as being knocked off-balance, or put on the floor), but the stacks persist for the listed duration. This same condition applies to Thunderstrike, which is why it’s the only blessing you must avoid on the Crusher, as the other two provide much more consistent buffs.

Generally speaking, Hammerblow is better. It stacks on enemies cleaved in a swing, which means an L1 or H2 into a horde will get you stacked to full instantly. As an example of why this is beneficial, only a Hammerblow Crusher can stagger a rager out of their combo without setup using a push attack.[streamable.com] Trauma also requires repeated hits, which means the first time you swing you don’t get any impact stacks. However, strangely enough, Trauma will actually stack to full if you push, activate Fury of the Faithful, or use an activated attack on a sufficiently dense horde. [streamable.com]
Overall, both stack very quickly in real play – the differences are minute, and the difference between Hammerblow and Trauma isn’t going to make or break your Crusher gameplay. The weapon is defined by how well you’re able to utilize its moveset and activations.

• Duellist: Crusher is a weapon with good Finesse (Headshot/Critical damage multipliers), so Duellist is a good boost to its damage output while active.
• Desperation: The Push Attack is a versatile move you should be using often on the Crusher, and you should be sprinting into most engagements, which means it’s +20% damage with near-constant uptime.
• Faithful Frenzy: Swinging faster is always good. I personally run this talent on every build.
• Sustained Assault: Another “Must-have” in my builds, Sustained Assault is free melee damage with good up-time.
• Thy Wrath Be Swift: It makes you immune to all stagger, from both ranged and melee, which allows you to get into melee range much more effectively, since it provides such huge freedom of movement when fighting ranged enemies.
• Inebriate’s Poise (Inexorable Judgement Upgrade): This node allows you to keep your Momentum stacks sustained in combat, and dramatically increases the effectiveness of the Inexorable Judgement Keystone. I wouldn’t run the Keystone without this upgrade node.
• Second Wind: It’s 15% toughness on successful dodge with an unlisted 0.5s cooldown. It’s one of the most versatile toughness replenishment talents in the game, and allows you to regenerate toughness while fighting ranged enemies or bosses when you otherwise wouldn’t.
• Immolation Grenades:The Crusher’s strong crowd control allows you to keep enemies within the fire circle very easily. I prefer Throwing Knives on my zealot builds, but Immolation Grenades undoubtedly destroy dense elite packs better than most other weapons in the game.

Breakpoint Analysis will primary center around enemies where building to reach specific breakpoints is reasonable. For Ragers, Maulers, Crushers, etc, you’re more focused on keeping them crowd-controlled while dealing damage, rather than killing them as quickly as possible.
+Carapace helps on Crushers and Maulers (since you should be headshotting), Flak/Maniac will help with their respective Rager types, etc. Flamers are always one-shot with a H1 to the Head (even without setup or +Maniac) due to their 3x damage taken, and hounds are one-shot with a H1 or H2 to the head. +Maniac helps with Mutants, but often enough you will be shooting them or someone else will have damaged them enough that worrying about individual breakpoints isn’t a huge concern. Likewise, Crusher isn’t top-tier for horde clear speeds, but it does it safely enough that worrying about trash BPs is pointless.

All breakpoints are calculated with two implicit 5% melee damage nodes, one above Until Death/Duellist (and below Stun Grenades), and one above Sustained Assault (below Stealth). There is also a 1-4% variation in the Damage (79-75) and Penetration (80-76) stats of the different Crushers used to test these breakpoints, so if a BP has an odd number of Momentum stacks you may have slightly different breakpoints with an otherwise identical build.

*Requires baiting a Duellist proc on an enemy you normally stagger, so 1v1ing a Bulwark it isn’t really going to happen. Beyond that, you can still kill a Bulwark w/o +unyielding or +elites before the stagger resets, this is measuring a specific BP to speed up TTK, baiting a swing slows it down. Probably doable with a high number of Martyrdom stacks.
**Assuming you have Sustained Assault as a talent and are stacking it while hitting the Bulwark

*Pick any two of those 3

Since Patch 14, Crusher is a headshot-focused finesse weapon. Blazing piety can add a decent bit of damage on crits, though Crusher does not get extra base crit chance or a blessing like Shred to further boost it, which means you should pick up Scourge to further (somewhat conditionally) boost your crit rate. Of course, Blazing Piety’s main function is still tied to using Invocation of Death (1.5s ult cooldown reduction per enemy hit by critical swing) to spam your Combat Ability, but it does provide a decent bonus to the Crusher’s damage output.

Martyrdom is good with any melee weapon. I don’t personally use it, nor like it really (just because I don’t find it interesting), but it’s solid and can get you some decent damage output. If you’re grabbing Bleed for the Emperor (40% hp DR on attacks bringing you to the next wound), I would still path through Immolation Grenades, as stuns do absolutely nothing useful for the Crusher.

My favorite keystone by far, Inexorable Judgement is a solid damage/attack speed buff to both your melee and ranged. it also actually buffs Crusher’s otherwise mediocre dodge stats. Each stack of Momentum increases dodge speed and distance by 0.5% and dodge reset time by 1% per stack. With Crusher being hard-limited to an effective dodge limit of 3, the buffs to dodges from Momentum helps mitigate its poor mobility and allow you to maneuver in a fight more effectively.

The utility of Stun Grenades is that they function as a pause button if you get caught in a bad situation and need to reposition or to get a quick revive/rescue off. Unfortunately, the Crusher makes this space just as effectively while also killing enemies. It only really has utility if you need to revive someone in the middle of an elite swarm while losing most of its effectiveness if there is a bomber at range pelting the downed teammate with grenades (or a sniper watching that sight line, etc). Do not recommend pairing with Crusher.

Pairs extremely well with Crusher. The strong crowd control of the weapon allows you to keep enemies in the fire circle as they burn, and can absolutely destroy an elite patrol/wave when it comes down to it. Crusher handles mixed hordes very safely, and Immolation grenades can deal a lot of damage.

Fun. Throwing knives are not replacements for a gun in any way, but they are a nice compliment that have decent range and functionally infinite ammo economy. I like them for IAGs or braced autos, not so much for shotguns or revolvers. Requires getting used to the throwing arc and a bit of aim, but you can get value out of them. Part of the appeal is also the pathing talents above it – Scourge and Enduring Faith are good for crit builds and Second Wind is one of the strongest toughness regen talents in the game.

You can swap Enduring Faith (50% Toughness DR on crit for 4s) for Second Wind (15% toughness on Successful Dodge), although with Invocation of Death you have chastise off cooldown so often I don’t think you’d need the extra toughness regen. This build is mostly about spamming ults and using the crit cooldown reduction to have another one back near instantly.

My personal build, focusing on ranged/melee damage output with good mobility. All of the talents that proc on dodge provide decent buffs, and the aesthetic of being a nimble monk guy with a quarterstaff is cool.

Crusher is an extremely versatile weapon. It does not have any enemies that it finds particularly problematic, so pairing a ranged weapon is a matter of personal preference.

I quite enjoy the Columnus Brauto – particularly since my build runs throwing knives, giving it a more consistent ranged special-sniper and a way to deal ranged damage between reloads. You can also run an Agri Brauto with the same perks/blessings.

The Columnus Infantry Autogun is one of the strongest ranged weapons in the game, and it pairs particularly with with Blazing Piety due to it having crit strings of 4 shots (one critical hit proc will make the next 4 bullets critical hits) and good finesse damage multiplers. You mainly want Flak + Dumdum, second perk can be Elites, Maniac, or Unyielding. Second blessing can be Fire Frenzy, Deathspitter, Hit and Run, or Stripped Down, though I prefer damage blessings generally.

The Kant shotgun is another strong generalist pick, with good close-range elite/special deletion and respectable long-range sniping capabilities. The flame shot is nice for hordes and dense elite packs, but the primary fire is solid enough to carry the weapon on its own. Generally I shoot for No Respite + Flak, ideally +Maniac as the second perk but Elites/Unyielding both aren’t bad. Second blessing can be Deathspitter, Fire Frenzy, or Full Bore depending on preference.

The Revolver is another one of the strongest guns in the current meta. Dumpsters any type of special, can one-shot two ragers with a crit hand cannon headshot, guaranteed crits from Surgical, etc. For perks you can do Maniac + Flak or + Carapace, I would prefer flak but I got stuck with Carapace. For Blessings, Surgical/Hand Cannon is the undisputed king (at least for the Zarona).