14 DAY TRIAL // Duty Eternal is the first major content DLC for Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters, the XCOM-like game developed by Complex Games and published by Frontier Foundry. This isn’t post-content though, so if you’ve already finished the game, you’ll have to load an earlier save if you plan on buying the recently released DLC.
The Duty Eternal DLC is available for purchase via Steam and Epic Games Store for $15 / €15, but before you spend your money on this new piece of content, here are a few things you should know. First off, the new DLC introduces two new units, the awesome Dreadnought that everyone will want to play with, and the Techmarine.
Unfortunately, the Dreadnought can only be played in select missions, which not only significantly decreases the appeal of the DLC, but also lowers the usefulness of the other new unit added, the Techmarine.
Before we go into the intricacies of Duty Eternal though, here is how you can access it. Because this isn’t a post-content DLC, if you’ve already finished the base game, you’ll have to reload an earlier save (it doesn’t really matter the moment). One the save is converted to a Duty Eternal save, you should get a pop up on the Star Map after advancing time.
A new mission called “Allies Under Siege” will start the new DLC and introduces players the Dreadnought. It’s one of the few missions where you get to play with the iconic mission. At the same time, once the mission is successfully completed, you’ll gain access to the Techmarine class.
For those who didn’t finish the game or just want to start over, the first DLC mission will appear on the Star Map 15 days after hitting Threat Level 4. I decided to start over and the Allies Under Siege mission appeared around day 100 in my game.
The second missions in the DLC, Honor of the Ancients, will actually unlock the Dreadnought, so make sure you tackle this as soon as it pops up on your Star Map to make your life easier in some missions. Duty Eternal adds a total of four story missions to the base game, but the Dreadnought and the new class will remain available for the entire campaign.
Along with the new story-driven missions, the DLC also introduces so-called Technophage missions, which are basically Bloom missions on steroids. Typically, these missions are a bit harder, so you’ll have to play as skillfully as possible. On the other hand, the Techophage Outbreak missions are balanced around the Dreadnought, but there aren’t too many “tough” enemy units, so they’re quite doable if you have any sort of good area-of-effect damage (grenades and Psychic Onslaught are amazing).
Remember that I said the Techmarine class is not as useful as the other classes in the game when not grouped with the Dreadnought? Well, here is the thing: most of Techmarine’s abilities are meant to heal and buff mechanical units like the Dreadnought. The Techmarine is a very weak class on its own, which is why it employs the help of servitors.
There are multiple types of servitors that the Techmarine can dispatch in the field (support, combat), which is why the class’s tech tree is built around buffing and healing mechanical units. Unfortunately, even when you take into consideration the use of servitors, the Techmarine is only decent in very few scenarios.
Now, if you plan on keeping your Dreadnought alive when doing those special missions, you absolutely must take a Techmarine with you just in case shit hits the fan. Of course, that means locking one spot of your group of Grey Knights with a not that useful unit, the Techmarine, which is mostly there to buff and heal the Dreadnought, and occasionally offer support with its servitors.
While I did like the idea of being able to add a member of the Adeptus Mechanics to my Grey Knights group, I was completely disappointed by the Techmarine’s tech tree. The new class doesn’t have any synergies other than with its own servitors, which wouldn’t be that bad if they were any good, but their performance on the battlefield is quite underwhelming.
Beyond the new unit and class, the DLC adds a new type of currency called “archaeotech,” which is specifically used to “purchase” equipment for the Techmarine class. You can’t use requisition points to unlock new gear for the newly-added class, but you will be able to use archaeotech collected from locations of the Technophage missions.
One other thing that I did enjoy in the DLC is the new Gladius Frigate, which opens up additional missions in new locations with great rewards. It’s another time sink if you’re not pressured by the Bloom Eruptions spreading in the main campaign, not to mention that the rewards are well worth the time. Make sure to finish all Duty Eternal missions to get access to the Gladius Frigate though.
Conclusion
While I did not encounter any game-breaking bugs, I did have an issue during the first missions, as the game would simply not let me scroll up and down on the map. However, reloading the game after saving it did fix the issue for me.
On the one hand, I understand why developers didn’t make the Dreadnought available for all missions the game. Obviously, the entire game would have to be balanced again to take into consideration the very powerful Dreadnought. On the other hand, I don’t understand why they included the Techmarine, which is a class designed to support mechanical units.
Lore-wise, that makes perfect sense, but without the Dreadnought and with servitors underperforming compared to the other classes, it’s hard to consider the new class over the powerful Grey Knights. Perhaps I didn’t find a viable build for the Techmarine, but right now it’s not a fun to play class even if you’re a hardcore fan of the Adeptus Mechanics.
Review code provided by the publisher.
