What is Coherency in Darktide? What does Coherency do?

Coherency is a new mechanic in Darktide, Warhammer 40,000. The developers introduced this mechanic to improve teamplay in missions, but does it really do that?

Coherency: Blue glowing line at the ground of a character

The Benefits of Coherency in Darktide

A lot of the Talents in the game resolve around the Coherency mechanic, especially the Toughness. Toughness is a shield that your character has, when it breaks you take damage to your health.

lets take a look at Talents and Abilities that have Coherency functions in them on each class.

Veteran Sharpshooter Coherency Mechanics

Scavenger Hunt - You and allies in Coherency gain a small amount of Ammo whenever any of you kill an Elite enemy.
Bio-Optic Targeting - Volley Fire now highlights enemies for all allies in Coherency.
Demolition Team - You and allies in Coherency have a 8% chance to gain a Grenade on enemy kill.

Zealot Preacher Coherency Mechanics

The Emperor's Will - +10% Toughness damage reduction (Allies in Coherency).
Litanies of Hate - Your Coherency aura now also grants 1% critical hit chance for each stack of Martyrdrom.
Benediction - +20% Toughness damage reduction (Allies in Coherency).
Inspiring Excoriation - Using Chastise The Wicked replenishes 15% Toughness to allies in Coherency).

Ogryn Skullbreaker Coherency Mechanics

Intimidating Presence - +10% Heavy melee attack damage (Allies in Coherency).
Lynchpin - +100% Toughness replenishment (Allies in Coherency).
Towering Presence - +50% Coherency radius.
Lead The Charge - When you activate Bull Rush, allies in Coherency gain 25% movement speed for 4 seconds.
That's What Friends Are For - 50% of the damage taken by the closest ally in Coherency is transferred to you. This talent has no effect while you are below 25% health.
Bullfighter - +10% Bull Rush cooldown reduction when you or an ally in Coherency kills an Elite enemy.

Psyker Psykinetic Coherency Mechanics

Kinetic presence - Allies in Coherency gain +10% damage against Elite enemies.
Psychic Communion - Whenever you or an ally in Coherency kills an enemy, you have a 5% chance to gain a Warp Charge.
Psykinetic's Aura - +15% Combat Ability cooldown reduction on Elite kill (Allies in Coherency).

As you can see staying together has a lot of benefits if the players actually pick these talents. You get strong buffs and regeneration while staying close together.

Stay together for Coherency in Darktide

The Problem with Coherency in Darktide

While this all sounds great it doesn't really work in practice. Especially when you have characters that focus on ranged gameplay and characters that focus on melee gameplay. You won't be able to stay together and thus lose most of the Coherency buffs. The Coherency circle is fairly small and it also opens you up to enemy attacks from grenades or charges.

And especially on higher difficulties Coherency becomes even more important, because you want to get all the buffs possible to survive. But when the Ogryn or the Zealot charges ahead with his ultimate that means you will also lose all the benefits of his Coherency because the circle is too small.

How to fix Coherency in Darktide

While the idea of Coherency in Darktide is great, it definitely needs some extra work. One suggestion would be that the effect of Coherency gets lowered the further away you are and is increased when you are closer to the group. That way even when the group is split you still gain some of the effects of Coherency, just not as powerful of an effect when you stay together.