Darktide teases two new enemies: Ogryn Pack Master, Armoured Pox Hounds

Fatshark’s official Warhammer 40,000: Darktide channels dropped a short dev blog and teaser trailer revealing two new enemies, the Ogryn Pack Master and a plated variant called the Armoured Pox Hound, and confirmed both “will both appear in the next update.” The blog’s teaser copy, reposted on r/DarkTide and Fatshark’s forums, closed with the team’s signoff: “See you on the Mourningstar! - The Darktide Team.”

The teaser trailer, listed under the title Warhammer 40,000: Darktide - Official Ogryn Pack Master Teaser Trailer, links viewers back to Fatshark’s dev blog and the studio’s social channels for more information. Fatshark’s post repeats the line, “Hope this little teaser has made you ready to fight the Pack Master when he and his new armoured friends enter the fight in Darktide,” but offers no firm release date beyond the phrase “the next update,” leaving the community waiting for a patch number or calendar timing.

Gameplay details distributed in the dev blog and community reposts sketch how the encounter will play out: the Pack Master arrives with Pox Hounds in tow, and those hounds may be normal, armoured, or a mix depending on the situation. Designers warned that the Pack Master can spawn new hounds while he remains alive, making it strategically important to “take him down as quickly as possible.” The dev blog also notes players will hear him roaming, stating “you will be able to hear him as he walks around,” a cue that community members say can be used to prepare ambushes.

Technical changes to the Pox Hound family are explicit: the Armoured Pox Hound is presented as a sidegrade to the existing Pox Hound, trading speed for durability. Sources describe it as having more health and being slower because of its plating, and specify a stagger interaction — “if you manage to block this enemy in midair you can stagger it” — after which players are advised to circle around and strike an unarmoured weak spot on the hound’s back. One community excerpt attributes the tactical shorthand to a commenter named Jonathan: “Best thing is to stagger them and then circle around and hit them in the… yeah, haha.”

Reaction across community channels was immediate and mixed. An aggregated report noted “thousands of likes” on the dev blog and trailer posts; r/DarkTide and Fatshark’s forums carried the teaser text verbatim and dozens of comment threads, image attachments labeled IMG_4012, and quick takes including “Awesome news.” Other forum posts raised concerns about a perceived trend toward “armor spam,” with comments such as “Okay cool? Sounds like more armor spam though” and a caps-locked plea demanding changes to the Uncanny Strikes mechanic: “PLEASE IF YOU ADD ARMOURED ENEMIES DON’T FORGET ABOUT NERFING/REWORKING UNCANNY STRIKES PLEASE, otherwise it’s just more painful for non OP weapons [...].”

Fatshark left a clear trail of follow-up questions for itself: confirm the update’s release date, clarify whether Armoured Pox Hounds will have distinct audio cues so players can tell them apart from normal hounds, and indicate if balance changes to weapons or mechanics like Uncanny Strikes will accompany the new enemies. For now the studio’s message is deliberate and minimal: “So for now we will have to leave this as just a teaser! Keep your eyes on our community space and social media channels for information when we are ready to talk more about this!” Fans and speed-runners alike will be watching those channels closely as the Mourningstar’s next update approaches.