How to Dodge Hounds, Trappers and Mutants in Warhammer 40K: Darktide Guide

In Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, there are several types of specialized enemies, often referred to as just "specials". These enemies all try to disrupt your team in various ways, often using area denial attacks to pin you down in unfavorable situations. 

Often the most troublesome special enemies are those who possess disabling attacks. Currently there are three of these in the game - the Pox Hound, Scab Trapper and Mutant. 

All three of these have attacks that will lock the player in a stun of some kind. The victims of the mutants will be released after a few punches, but players attacked by the Pox Hound and Scab Trapper won't be able to break free without help from an ally.

This guide will give you some tips that will help you avoid getting grabbed by each special. 

Pox Hounds can be tricky to deal with because they are small, fast and move in an unpredictable manner, often zig zagging erratically as they run, making it difficult to shoot them. It's easy to panic in this situation and get grabbed, at which point the dog will keep biting your character, doing corrupting damage (making your healthbar purple) until someone frees you. If you're the last player alive, it's game over. 

If you know you won't be able to kill an attacking hound before it charges you, then your best bet is to dodge the pounce. 

Wait until the dog is about to pounce and then dodge to the left or right. There's a reliable audio cue that can help you here - the dog will make a high pitched bark just as it is pouncing - this is the moment you should dodge.

Dodge timed correctly, the hound will usually miss you, giving you a small window of opportunity to turn around and attack it before it runs away. Hounds that miss their attack or are pushed off a victim will always try to run away before making a new attack a little later. 

If you master this technique, then Pox Hounds will be much less of a threat for you, as you'll be able to reliably avoid their attacks unless you are completely bogged down by other enemies. 

Mutants are pretty difficult to take down, and often you won't be able to do this before they attempt to charge at least one player. 

It's not possible to stagger them out of their charge exceptwith a Career ability like the Ogryn's charge. You can however avoid it by dodging, but you want to do this at the right moment. Too late and they'll still hit you. Too early and they will simply adjust their charge direction and grab you anyway. There's a visual cue to help you with the dodge - watch the Mutants arms. He will extend an arm to the side to prepare to grab you. Dodging to the opposite direction of the extended arm is the most reliable way of avoiding his grab.

Beware that even if you successfully dodge their charge, they are much more aggressive than other specials and will charge again as soon as they realize that they failed to grab you. Mutants will relentlessly focus on the same player, and can really put their victim in a bad situation by damaging them and then throwing them into a bad position away from help. So it should be everyone's priority to get rid of the mutant asap. 

The final special that disables players is the Scab Trapper. These guys have no melee attacks at all and will always try to run away after firing their net. 

Once again, dodging is your friend here. As soon as you hear the first "click" as he starts to fire the net, dodge to the left or the right and you should be fine. There's quite a bit of room for error here, this is generally the easiest one to dodge as long as you see it coming. The main problem with the trapper is that they move around quickly and don't make much noise, so they can take you by surprise especially in high intensity situations. 

If you're close enough to the trapper then dodging might not be necessary, you can charge forward and attack him instead. But if in doubt, opt for the safer dodge option. 

After netting or failing to net a player, the trapper will run away for a while before settling on a new target. 

While Snipers are a little bit out of the scope of this guide, I thought it was worth giving them a quick mention. 

You can always see where they are aiming by their laser, and you can pretty reliably throw off their aim by dodging. If you're timing it right then they will almost always miss you, giving you time to shoot back, or simply to keep them busy while another player gets the angle on them. 

Beware that if you miss a dodge here then you will take heavy damage from the sniper. 

The overarching theme with this guide is definitely dodging. It's probably the single most important skill to learn in Darktide - when you get good at it you will find yourself taking much less damage and therefore able to play more aggressively. 

We hope you found this Warhammer 40K: Darktide guide useful.