Darktide is getting a new extraction-esque mode where you go outside and try not to die from radiation poisoning: ‘If time runs out and you die, you get nothing’

Darktide sure is a dark game. That’s both because it’s set in the dreariest of dreary sci-fi settings, the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and because missions mostly take place in shadowy, industrial environments familiar to anyone well-versed in the tabletop game’s lore or numerous videogame adaptations. If it’s a bit too shadowy and claustrophobic for you, rejoice, as it’s about to lighten up—though it’s no less grimdark.

A blog post and teaser trailer from earlier this week showed off a new mode from the Beyond the Hive update where players can expect to leave the confines of Hive Tertium and journey into the sunny dunes of Atoma Prime. Called “expeditions,” these new missions involve traveling to explorable scavenge zones and trying to safely get out with precious Tech-Remnants in tow. It’s sort of like an extraction shooter without the PvP.

It should still be plenty dangerous, though. Roaming patrols of enemies in a wide-open map will require a different approach to hordes fought at close quarters, and the blog post notes “radiation and pollution means you can’t stay there for too long.” To succeed, you can either reach the end of a mission alive or decide to call it early; “if time runs out and you die, you get nothing. It’s a high risk, high reward.”

There’s a degree of randomization, too. While the blog post states the new expeditions are “not truly procedurally generated,” they are “very randomized” and “should feel quite unique every time you go for a new run.” The game will also spawn additional enemies if you get into scraps too much, so it seems like a tactical approach might just triumph over mindlessly squashing every heretic in sight.

It sounds like a nifty twist on the extraction formula, and if you’re chomping at the bit to try it, you can do so when the update releases March 17.