What Are Groaners in Warhammer 40K: Darktide? – Answered

Warhammer 40K: Darktide has some surprising enemy diversity for how many pieces you’re inevitably going to turn them into. Sure, there’s a wide array of both Specialist and Elite enemies, but even the standard horde folks have three central forms in Scabs, Dregs and Poxwalkers. What you may not know is that there’s secretly a fourth horde enemy type. Here’s what Groaners are in Warhammer 40K: Darktide.

Who Are Groaners in Darktide?

The place where you likely first noticed this was through certain weapon perks. These boost damage against Poxwalkers/Groaners though doesn’t make clear who those are. Poxwalkers are the zombie-esque creatures with plague quite literally growing out of them, though Groaners aren’t necessarily these enemies. There’s a good reason they’re grouped in with Poxwalkers though.

Groaners are the Poxwalkers before they became so grossly infected and distorted. They still do hold some of the early stages of the Pox infection, though they still retain some semblance of their self-awareness. You can easily pick them out of a crowd due to their casual street clothing but tend to lack the mindlessness of Poxwalkers alongside the disregard for outfits. This is also compared to the Dreg enemies, which wear all sorts of rags and look almost like a militia version of the Poxwalker/Groaner enemies.

Related: What are Scab and Dreg Enemies in Warhammer 40K: Darktide? – Answered

Either way, you can rest assured with the fact that anything that isn’t a Dreg or Scab is going to be a Poxwalker or Groaner. It’s not entirely clear why Fatshark decided to split the two up (perhaps because of 40K lore reasons?), but it’s a stat in the game that we need to contend with. Once you’ve gone through enough missions though, it’ll be much easier to distinguish them. Just don’t go mistaking them for a Beast of Nurgle, as we know the similarities are through the roof.