The brutal tactical fights in Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters are about to get a lot tougher – but fortunately, the new expansion for the turn-based strategy game also provides powerful new tools to help your Grey Knights get the job done. In Duty Eternal, which launches December 6, you’ll be able to add the hulking venerable dreadnought to your squad, which can also include the new Techmarine support class.
With Duty Eternal, the Grey Knights face a new threat: a technophage outbreak in Tyrtaeus Sector. Frontier promises this new mission type will be the toughest the Grey Wolves have faced yet, and so the Baleful Edict will need some heavy reinforcements to take on the threat.
Fortunately, early on in the campaign, you’ll be able to recruit the venerable dreadnought – this huge battlefield walker is a reliquary for the remains of a fallen space marine hero, and in Chaos Gate, you’ll be able to customise it with a range of weapons and wargear to suit your tactical needs.
When embarking on technophage outbreak missions, you’ll be able to bring along the dreadnought as a fifth member of the squad, and from the sounds of it, you’ll need every ounce of additional firepower you can bolt to the thing. These missions feature boosted reinforcement numbers, new warp surge effects… and higher costs for failure.
The dreadnought isn’t the only new weapon at your disposal in Duty Eternal, however. In the barracks, you’ll also be able to recruit new Techmarines, which are a completely different unit type from the rest of your Grey Wolves. They go into battle armed with a range of servitors, each of which has a specific battlefield role and can be thought of as a “more disposable” unit. Techmarines can repair and augment both the servitors they deploy and the dreadnought itself, so they’re sure to become vital members of your squad.
As our friends at Wargamer point out, you’ll also be able to take the Baleful Edict’s resident tech-priest, Dominus Lunete, into combat to fight back against the Technophage in a key story mission. In the base game, Lunete manages the ship’s onboard systems and repairs, but in Duty Eternal, she’ll be heading planetside to do some real damage (and no doubt offer some withering commentary on the way).
Meanwhile, at the strategic layer, Duty Eternal adds a secondary strike ship to command. After starting a new campaign with Duty Eternal enabled, you’ll quickly come across a chance to liberate and commandeer the Gladius Frigate. This secondary ship can be loaded full of Grey Wolves and sent across the system, where it will automatically deploy and resolve encounters off-screen. While you won’t play these missions, they’ll be fraught with similar risks and offer up the same rewards you’d earn if you’d played with your primary squad.
Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters – Duty Eternal is available on Steam and the Epic Games Store for pre-order. You’ll be able to jump into the expanded campaign December 6. Check out our Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate – Daemonhunters review to find out what we thought of the base game.