Introduction: The Hidden Mechanics of Cleave and Hit Mass

Cleave and Hit Mass are core combat mechanics in Darktide that directly impact how your attacks interact with enemies, but the game offers little to no explanation on how they function. These mechanics determine how many enemies you can damage, stagger, and cleave through in a single swing. Understanding them will improve your ability to clear hordes effectively and optimize weapon choices.

If you’ve ever wondered what 100% cleave means on Savage Sweep or how increased cleave on Man Stopper affects combat, this guide will break it all down.

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1. What Are Cleave and Hit Mass?

Every enemy in Darktide has a specific Hit Mass value, representing the resistance they provide against attacks cleaving through them. Every attack (both melee and ranged) has a cleave limit, which acts as a Hit Mass budget—if an attack’s remaining cleave is higher than an enemy’s mass, the attack passes through and hits additional enemies.

For example:

• A Devil Claw 7 light attack has 5.4 cleave.
• A Poxwalker has 1.5 mass.
• This attack can hit up to 4 Poxwalkers before it runs out of cleave.

Key Detail: If an enemy is staggered, its Hit Mass is reduced by 25%, allowing attacks to cleave through them more easily.

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2. Damage Cleave vs. Stagger Cleave

• Damage Cleave: The number of targets that can be damaged in one attack.
• Stagger Cleave: The number of targets that can be staggered in one attack.

These two values are usually aligned, meaning that if an attack staggers an enemy, it usually damages them as well. However, some attacks have a damage cap, meaning that they hit many enemies but only damage a few.

For example:

• A Club’s heavy sweep can cleave through multiple Poxwalkers but will only deal damage to three of them due to a damage cap.
• On the other hand, some weapons distribute damage among all targets (e.g., a Heavy Sword’s strike-down attack maintains full damage on the second target).

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3. How Ranged Weapons Interact with Hit Mass

Unlike melee weapons, most guns do not distribute damage across targets—they apply full damage to every enemy hit. The exception to this rule is the Lawbringer’s special shell, which does scale with target number.

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4. How to Find Cleave and Hit Mass Values for Weapons & Enemies

Because the game doesn’t display this information directly, you’ll need to use two external resources:

(A) The Darktide Breakpoint Calculator

• Allows you to view detailed breakdowns of all weapons and attacks.
• Lets you test how different attacks perform against specific enemy types or armor classes.
• Helps you optimize weapon choices for damage, stagger, and cleave.

How to Use It:

1. Pick your difficulty level.
2. Set damage mode to Raw and target mode to All.
3. Select a weapon and attack type.
4. View the detailed breakdown of how it affects different enemy types.

(B) The Darktide Enemy Mass Spreadsheet

• Lists the Hit Mass values for every enemy in the game.
• If multiple values are listed, the second-to-last number corresponds to Damnation difficulty.
• Also highlights enemies with armor-specific mass modifiers.

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5. How Blessings Affect Cleave

Certain weapon blessings modify cleave values, allowing attacks to cut through tougher enemies or multiple targets:

• Wrath & Savage Sweep: Provide a simple cleave increase (e.g., 300% cleave means 3x normal cleave).
• Perfect Strike: Allows Critical Hits to cleave through Carapace armor and reduces enemy hit mass by 75%.
• Sunderer: Lets energized attacks cleave Carapace armor while also reducing enemy hit mass.
• Unstoppable Force: Allows all heavy attacks to cleave through Carapace.
• Man Stopper: Critical hits cleave infinite hit mass, but still stop at Carapace armor.
• Pierce: Reduces enemy hit mass by 75% for special attacks and lets them cleave Carapace.
  • (Currently bugged: The extra stagger effect does not work.)

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6. Understanding Power and Damage Scaling

Power is a universal stat in Darktide that increases:

• Damage output
• Cleave potential
• Stagger strength

However, not all power buffs work the same way:

• Some blessings only increase power for melee attacks or ranged attacks.
• Global power buffs increase all outgoing damage, including damage-over-time effects (DoTs).

Power Blessing Stacking Mechanics:

• All cleave-based blessings stack additively.
• Cleave and power-based blessings stack multiplicatively.
• All power-based buffs stack additively.
• Power buffs stack multiplicatively with damage buffs.

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7. Special Case: Brutal Momentum & Death Blow

These two blessings function identically, despite having different names.

• How It Works:
  • Headshot kills prevent the attack from consuming hit mass, allowing infinite cleave.
  • The attack will continue cleaving through enemies up to three times.
  • The fourth enemy hit will consume hit mass and start reducing damage as usual.
  • No longer works on Maniacs.

This makes Brutal Momentum/Death Blow weapons ideal for Horde clearing, as you can carve through waves of enemies without losing damage output.

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Conclusion: Why This Matters

Understanding Cleave and Hit Mass allows you to:

• Choose weapons that fit your playstyle (e.g., crowd-clearing vs. high-damage single-target weapons).
• Optimize your build with the right blessings and perks.
• Plan your attack strategy based on enemy mass and armor type.
• Avoid wasted attacks by knowing which weapons will stagger, cleave, or damage multiple targets effectively.

Mastering these mechanics will give you a significant advantage in high-level Darktide gameplay, allowing you to cut through the enemy hordes efficiently and effectively. Now, take this knowledge to the battlefield and purge the heretics with precision!