Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader Momentum: What is It?

Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader may not be an easy game in some situations, so you may feel like you are at a disadvantage at some point. Fortunately, the game gives you the opportunity to understand how the battle is progressing, whether in your favor or your opponents, thanks to the Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader momentum. This is a very interesting mechanic that can be used both if you are at an advantage because you can pull off the finishing move and if you are at a disadvantage because you can use it to get out of the bad situation you find yourself in.

What is the Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader Momentum?

Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader momentum is nothing more than a statistic measured with a meter located on the right side of your HUD, right above your character's origin and abilities. The thing to know is that by default, as soon as a battle starts, the momentum will be set to 100 and will have small increases every time you start a new turn, being able to oscillate in a range between 0 and 200.

It goes without saying that to ensure that the meter fills up more and more, you will have to inflict damage on your opponents, while if you suffer them, the meter will empty more and more. Furthermore, know that the gain or loss is increased in the event that the character is killed or incapacitated by the attack, so our advice is to focus on this and avoid becoming victims yourself.

Heroic Arts and Desperate Measure

Once you've risen through the ranks with your Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader archetype, you'll have the chance to unlock your archetype's Heroic Arts and Desperate Measures. The first are very powerful skills that can only be used if your Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader momentum is at least 175; the latter, however, are capable of inflicting penalties on your opponents and can only be used if you are running out of momentum.

Obviously, since Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader offers its players several different archetypes, each of them, with the exception of the Exempler, has different Heroic Arts and Desperate Measures from the others. Below, therefore, we provide you with a more in-depth description dividing it into categories of archetypes.

Basic Archetypes

Officer

• Heroic Art: Finest Hour
• Effects: A comrade instantly gains an additional turn, complete with maximum Action Points (AP), Movement Points (MP), and without any restrictions on attacks.
• Desperate Measure: The Officer's Fellowship is reduced by half for the duration of the remaining battle.

Operative

• Heroic Art: Dismantling Attack
• Effects: All adversaries accumulate a single stack of Exploit. The Operative executes a complimentary strike using their present weapon. The recipient of this strike experiences a thirty percent reduction in both Dodge and Armor for the remainder of the conflict.
• Desperate Measure: The Operative's assaults require an extra Action Point throughout the remaining engagement.

Soldier

• Heroic Art: Firearm Mastery
• Effects: The Soldier reloads their gun right away without any cost. They can do extra attacks equal to how fast their gun shoots, and it won't use any Action Points. If the Soldier hits a new enemy during this turn, it's an automatic critical hit.
• Desperate Measure: The Soldier decreases their total Action Points by one for the duration of the entire battle.

Warrior

• Heroic Art: Daring Breach
• Effects: The Warrior quickly gets back all the Action Points and Movement Points they used. They also get extra Movement Points based on how agile they are. The Warrior can do as many close-up attacks as their Action Points allow this turn. Doing these attacks won't make the Warrior lose any Movement Points this time.
• Desperate Measure: The Warrior now has 3 less maximum Movement Points for the entire battle. The Warrior can't use Charge anymore for the rest of the battle.

Advanced Archetypes

Arch-Militant

• Heroic Art: Steady Superiority
• Effect: The Arch-Militant can now do one extra attack every turn in the entire battle. The first attack the Arch-Militant makes each turn doesn't require any Action Points.
• Desperate Measure: The Arch-Militant is Bleeding, losing ten percent of their maximum health every turn. The Arch-Militant's Toughness is lowered by 30 until the battle is over.

Assassin

• Heroic Art: Dispatch
• Effect: The Assassin uses their current weapon to attack, dealing damage twice the amount of their current reductions in dodging, parrying, and penetrating armor. If it's a ranged attack, it always hits. This attack causes fifty percent more damage than usual. It also inflicts extra damage equal to one-fourth of the target's lost health.
• Desperate Measure: The Assassin receives twice as much damage from any attacks for the duration of the entire battle.

Bounty Hunter

• Heroic Art: Wild Hunt
• Effect: The Bounty Hunter attacks as many times as there are enemies marked as Prey. These attacks only go for the marked Prey and are shared as evenly as possible among them. Every Wild Hunt attack is a guaranteed critical hit.
• Desperate Measure: The Bounty Hunter's Ballistics Skill, Perception, and Agility are reduced by 20 until the end of combat.

Grand Strategist

• Heroic Art: Take and Hold
• Effect: The Grand Strategist picks one of their active Strategic Areas. When the Grand Strategist's next turn begins, all allies in that area get an extra turn with 2 Movement Points (MP) and 1 Action Point (AP). The MP and AP of those extra turns go up for each enemy that gets defeated in the chosen area before the Grand Strategist's next turn.
• Desperate Measure: The Grand Strategist's maximum MP is set to one for the rest of the combat.

Master Tactician

• Heroic Art: Orchestrated Firestorm
• Effect: The Master Tactician picks a 3×3 area. Everyone in the team, including the Master Tactician, who can see an enemy in that area, instantly makes one attack with their current weapon if they're close enough. If there are multiple enemies in the chosen area, each ally randomly selects their target.
• Desperate Measure: The Master Tactician's Fellowship drops by 40 until the battle ends. Each ally involved in the attack lowers their Weapon Skill and Ballistics Skill by 20 each on their following turn.

Vanguard

• Heroic Art: Unyielding Guard
• Effect: The Vanguard can counterattack in melee as much as they want until their next turn. In that time, the Vanguard will also strike any enemy who attacks one of the Vanguard's friends within three spaces of where the Vanguard is standing.
• Desperate Measure: The Vanguard takes an additional thirty percent damage from any attacks for the duration of the entire battle.