Fatshark is sending the Sisters Novitiate into Warhammer 40,000: Darktide on December 7 as the game's fourth paid class. The twist is that these trainee warriors of the Adepta Sororitas don't get blitz or combat abilities at all. They get faith, and they get a lot of it.
Every other class on Tertium leans on grenades and cooldown skills. The Novitiates instead pick from six Acts of Faith, and any two can be equipped at a time. Those Acts draw on a reserve of Faith that builds up during combat, so the more zealously you fight, the more miracles you have on tap.
How that reserve fills, and how it gets spent, comes down to the Doctrines and Pledges in the class's talent tree. The examples Fatshark gives range from brutal Neural Whip attacks to the Icon of Purity and a set of protective prayers. It's a genuinely different way to build a character in a game where most of us have been clicking the same grenade button for years.
The Novitiates aren't pure glass cannons, either. Fatshark pitches them as a mix of support and frontline toughness: they weaken enemies, control the battlefield and keep allies in the fight, holding the line wherever the squad needs them most. In a four-player co-op game, a teammate who can take a hit and keep everyone else standing is worth their weight in plasteel.
Arms of the Ecclesiarchy
The arsenal is the fun part. The headliner is the Condemnor Stake Thrower, which, per Fatshark, pins what remains of its targets to the walls. That's the most Warhammer sentence we've read all week. The rest of the kit is pure Ecclesiarchy:
- Condemnor Stake Thrower
- Ministorum Hand Flamer
- Mace of the Righteous
- Penitent Eviscerator
- Novitiate Sword and Shield
- Meltagun (shared with the Veteran class)
About that Meltagun: it arrives with a free update on the same day, so Veterans get to melt things too, even if they skip the new class. Fatshark says more details on that update are coming in the weeks ahead.
The class comes in two flavors. The Standard Edition is €11.99, and the Deluxe Edition is €18.99. The Deluxe version adds the Cherub, a floating mechanical companion that follows your Novitiate around. It's purely cosmetic, which is probably for the best, because nothing that looks like that should have stats.
After the Arbites, Hive Scum and Skitarii, the Novitiates are the most openly zealous addition to the roster yet. They aren't full Battle Sisters yet, but between the stake crossbow and the chainsword, Tertium's heretics probably won't be splitting hairs about rank.
The Sisters Novitiate class and the free Meltagun update arrive in Warhammer 40,000: Darktide on December 7 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. You can wishlist the class on Steam here. Stay tuned to GamingTrend.com for more on the class when it lands, and for all your upcoming reviews, previews, and gaming news!
