Blackstone Fortress is now on pre-order, offering you hours of dark adventure exploring one of the 41st Millennium’s most enduring mysteries – that is, provided you survive.
This being Warhammer 40,000, the Blackstone Fortress is teeming with horrible hostiles more interested in feasting on your still-warm remains than delving into the rich treasure trove of history within. Fear not – we’ve compiled a guide to some of the deadliest hostiles you’ll face, and have some top tips for dealing with them.
In Blackstone Fortress, enemies are known as hostiles. Most engagements with hostiles are randomly generated when the explorers draw a combat encounter card, with enemies generated through hostiles cards, ensuring that no two battles are quite alike.
Each type of hostile offers unique challenges and has a behaviour table that determines how it acts in-game, meaning even without a player controlling them, they behave in an appropriate and thematic way. Where a Traitor Guardsmen might opt to hold back, for example, a berserk Negavolt Cultist will rush in with wild abandon.
Spindle Drones appear to be native to the Blackstone Fortress, acting as guardians and stewards of the ancient star-citadel. While initially fairly easy to dispatch, Spindle Drones escalate in power and aggression in response to some kind of alert system triggered by the destruction of their companions.
How They Work
Spindle Drones are flexible foes capable of engaging threats at any range with equal effectiveness. Early on in an encounter, they’re no great threat, but each time one dies, or one rolls to raise the alert on its behaviour table, they’ll get a little bit deadlier.
How To Defeat Them
The trick to taking out Spindle Drones is to slay their entire group as quickly as possible. Killing them piecemeal just allows them to raise the alert level and become a greater threat – don’t tackle one unless you think you can slay them all.
Natives of the webway, Ur-Ghuls are rapacious predators who hunt by scent, thriving in the pitch darkness found in Commorragh’s deepest reaches and beyond. Nobody knows why the Blackstone Fortress is infested with Ur-Ghuls, but their deadliness and brutality is beyond doubt.
How They Work
Ur-Ghuls are simple but brutal hostiles that can devastate an uncoordinated pack of explorers with ease. While these guys don't have any guns, they’ll attack anyone they’re next to up to three times, making them brutal in close quarters. What’s more, they’re fast and durable, meaning they can be very tricky to take out before they hit your lines…
How to Defeat Them
Caution is key when battling Ur-Ghuls. While you might be tempted to get stuck in, you’ll want to hang back and force the Ur-Ghuls to come to you – thinning their numbers with some well-placed ranged attacks will pay dividends when they finally reach you! Make sure to keep a durable fighter like UR-025 at the front of your party to draw in any stragglers and soak up their attacks.
To be a psyker in the 41st Millennium is a horrible curse, marked by your genes to ever be prey for both the Daemons of the warp and the forces of the Inquisition. While some psykers are officially sanctioned by the Imperium, many seek refuge with Chaos, voluntarily turning to witchcraft and serving alongside warbands like the one found on the Blackstone Fortress…
How They Work
Rogue Psykers, unlike many other hostiles, are capable of messing with your explorers even when you’re not directly engaged with them. Rather than charging in, Rogue Psykers outside of your line of sight will either hold position, cast the Disrupt power (which weakens your abilities) or Empower themselves.
Once you do engage them, Rogue Psykers are no less deadly, unleashing a barrage of unpredictable attacks. They can even regenerate lost wounds!
How to Defeat Them
If you find yourself in a combat encounter with one or more Rogue Psykers, taking them out should be a priority. Getting line of sight with a long-ranged explorer like the Amallyn Shadowguide or Dahyak Grekh is key – the longer you leave them alive, the more damage they can do.
Brought to the Blackstone Fortress in a freak warp-translation accident, the Black Legion warlord known as Obsidius Mallex now seeks mastery over the ancient weapon. Racing against the explorers to unlock the secrets of the Blackstone Fortress, he will happily crush anyone who gets in his way…
How He Works
Obsidius Mallex is the deadliest threat you’ll face in Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. He's a brutal combatant capable of putting an early – and terminal – stop to even the most well-prepared expedition. With 12 Wounds, you’ll have to make a seriously dedicated effort to take this fearsome champion of Chaos out.
While his plasma pistol is pretty deadly, Obsidius Mallex is utterly brutal in close combat – in fact, you won’t even be able to make a defence roll against his thunder hammer. If you let him get close, it’s probably game over for your explorers.
How To Defeat Him
There’s no simple way to deal with Obsidius Mallex, and fighting him will test your skills to the absolute limit. Stripped of any defensive protections in close combat, you’ll want to keep your distance, only moving in to engage in close combat if no better alternative is available. If you really, really don’t want to get hit, try to use the battlefield itself to prevent him from getting line of sight on you. Good luck!
With these tips in hand, you’ll be able to ensure your survival in the Blackstone Fortress, but be wary! There are more hostiles to face and more challenges to meet…
You can pre-order your copy of Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress today – secure your copy online.