The hardcore adepts of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide are getting what they want, it seems, with a variable-modifier difficulty mode harder than the current hardest level coming in the neat future. Fatshark announced Havoc this week, a system of escalating difficulty levels for the already-maxed-out player to fight through against ever-increasing penalties. To be clear, I'm not complaining, I just think it's funny that a year after it got the always-hardest-modifiers Auric Mode the players of Darktide are like "yeah, we've had one hardest, but what about even hardester?"
"We’ve long seen the comments from players saying they want more of a challenge from Darktide. Players would like to continually challenge themselves and improve their skills. You want to face the horrors of the tide," said Fatshark in an announcement. "If you’re a player who relishes overcoming obstacles and seeks to measure and improve your abilities, then Havoc has been crafted specifically for you."
Players of the highest level—Trust Level 30—will be able to access Havoc and complete 40 tiers of increasing Order Levels. Each new order level will incrementally increase in difficulty with increasingly negative modifers and mutators, including four new mutators—like the recent Infected 21st Moebians from the community event and I'd hazard a guess the goopy exploding tentacle guys from the current community event.
Havoc will update based on a fluid ranking system each week with new difficulties, missions, and mutator combos for players to attempt. They'll stay at the same rank they'd previously achieved, though you can drop down in rank by failing your current challenge three times.
Havoc will integrate pretty cleanly into cooperative play, of course, since that's at the heart of Darktide.
"Players are not alone in their journey. Havoc encourages inviting friends to help progress through the Havoc Ranks together. While using the Party Finder to form a team, players will choose which friends’ Havoc Order to challenge together. The only requirement is to be at least level 30. If players form a group, it doesn’t matter if one friend is Havoc Rank 1 and the others are Havoc Rank 20. They can all play together," says Fatshark.
Players that beat a high rank together will all move up to the high rank the next week, no matter where they were beforehand.
You can find a complete overview of Havoc Mode on Steam, which is also where you can find Warhammer 40,000: Darktide itself.
