New 10th Edition 40k Drukhari are here – from Stratagems, Datasheets, and army rules; here is our review guide on how to play them.
In 10th Edition Warhammer 40k, each army has a new style of play, rules, and plenty of changes. If you’re wondering how to play Dark Eldar or if you should start playing them, this review gives you plenty of info to mull over. They are a hard-hitting army with tons of fast units, interesting mechanics, and cool synergies. However, they are quite fragile, so take some practice to understand when and where to sacrifice your units for victory! The new Drukahri seems to be worth considering if you’re looking for a new army in Warhammer 40k.
Find out more from our guide on how to play Drukhari by jumping to any of the sections below, or dig in from the beginning!
- Drukhari Detachment Rules
- New 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Drukhari Datasheets
- More New Weapon Rules
- New Dark Eldar Warhammer 40k Stratagems
- Latest 40k Rules Updates For the Drukhari
- How To Play Warhammer 40k Drukhari: Points
- Drukhari YouTube Review
- Is It Still Worth Playing Drukhari?
How to Play Drukhari in 10th Edition 40k: Rules Guide
The new 10th Edition 40k Drukhari rules come from Warhammer Community.
The Drukhari are cutthroat corsairs who conduct lightning-fast realspace raids that prey on the mortals they see as little more than cattle or playthings. They feed on the souls of those they slaughter in order to reach new heights of ecstatic violence, gaining yet more Power From Pain.
Power From Pain is being changed quite a lot. It might be easier to remember all the effects now, but losing Feel No Pain for such a lightly armored army might be quite harsh.
On top of the cache of Pain tokens each Drukhari army starts with, you earn more for doing the sort of things they love – murdering whole squads and conducting mind-breaking massacres to remind the lesser species of their place in the grand scheme of things. You can then cash these tokens in at the start of a relevant phase.
Now, you can use the tokens to re-roll advance and charge moves or get full hit re-rolls. This is pretty cool, but again, losing the FNP might be huge.
Dataslate changes to the army rule.
They got a huge buff in for melee, as they get an additional AP in combat. Then, Archons can finally lead Incubi, as it should be!
Drukhari Combat Patrol
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Drukhari Detachment Rules
Drukhari society is totally inscrutable to an observer, as warring cults, kabals and covens struggle for dominance through duplicitous schemes, displays of decadent wealth, and outright violence. Realspace Raiders Detachments don’t suffer from this internecine competition – instead, they thrive on the challenge, goading each other to new levels of sadism.
With how the new detachments work, you can more or less take anything you want, so you do get some advantage for fielding all three of these units.
Drukhari is the first faction to get a second detachment outside of the codex, and this has made their win rate skyrocket! The new detachment gives you fewer pain tokens but does improve your melee and transports. The detachment comes with all new stratagems and enhancements as well.
New 10th Edition Warhammer 40k Drukhari Datasheets
A realspace raid isn’t anything without a flotilla of lightning-fast transport craft to deliver its combatants into the thick of the action. The Venom is nimble enough that it can fly low to avoid incoming enemy fire with the Stealth core ability, which subtracts 1 from shooting Hit rolls that target it.
The Venom’s light carrying capacity often made it difficult to squeeze an entire squad onto its deck. In the new edition, you won’t have to – you can split your Kabalites or Wyches into two units, boarding one on the Venom while the other makes its own way. What’s more, these Athletic Aerialists can pull off gut-wrenching aerobatic manoeuvres, snatching up units that have finished with combat to deposit them into a fresh melee elsewhere.
With a transport capacity of 6, you can put a character in the unit and keep them “protected.” It seems like they are saying Warriors and Wyches must be squads of ten, but if you want to put them in the Venom, you can split them.
Venoms still have the minus -1 to hit, but their invulnerable save goes to a 6+. However, they gain a tremendous ability with Athletic Aerialists, as they can pick units back up so the models on foot don’t get shot at as easily.
Splinter weapons get better against infantry with a 3+ instead of a 4+ and have D2 and -1AP. Also, Firing Deck 6 means every model inside can shoot as well!
There is no shortage of INFANTRY units that can make use of this sadism-fuelled taxi service, but Kabalite Warriors make a particularly attractive proposition. These Sadistic Raiders will ensure the objective they just grabbed remains yours after they abscond – even if you claimed it while they were aboard a TRANSPORT.
They can also make great use of the Firing Deck rule found across Drukhari transports to let rip with their signature splinter weapons. These cruel guns fire shards of crystalline neurotoxin designed to overcome the hardiest biologies and inflict maximum agony, so even their mainstay splinter rifle has the Anti-Infantry 3+ ability.
So, while they don’t have FNP, they do get a 4+ save and a 6+ invulnerable. Next, they can control objectives after moving off them (even in a transport). Their weapons have got some exciting changes as well.
First up, Splinters all go to 3+ anti-infantry, the Blaster goes to D6+1 Damage, the Dark Lance goes to Strength 12 and D6+2, and the Blast Pistol goes to D3 Damage.
More New Weapon Rules
Like any good torturer, a Haemonculus has a suite of tools that they can use to inflict maximum pain on their subjects. The Talos are the most versatile of these brutal implements, sentient pain engines which boast inhuman resilience and are fitted with an armoury of advanced weapons – such as Drukari haywire blasters that bypass armour plating to directly disable tanks, providing easy access to the terrified occupants.
From this, it looks like the Haywire ability may have morphed a bit. This particular weapon gets two shots with Anti-Vehicle 4+, Devastating Wounds (so it can still do mortals), and Damage 3.
So this can still take down tanks, and luckily, with Twin-linked, they get to re-roll wounds. This means they should be able to do a decent amount once they get the hits through.
A fearsome facet of Drukari society are the Wych Cults, arena combatants who make a spectacle of slaughter up close and personal with their foes. Lelith Hesperax is an exemplar of the art of murder who uses humble knives, the better to showcase her personal skill as she tears apart entire squads of hapless INFANTRY.
Once per battle, Lelith can put on a Thrilling Spectacle, which increases the number of attacks she makes to 12 and increases her invulnerable save to 3+, turning her into a living blender of untouchable blades.
Lelith will be great at taking down infantry, as she will hit and wound on a 2+, not to mention every 6 to hit will get you three hits in total for that one attack. Then, when you bump her up to 12 attacks, she should, on average, get 14 hits and 12 wounds against infantry.
Plus, we haven’t seen many 3+ invulnerable saves in this edition yet, so that will be key for her survivability, along with potentially being protected inside a squad of Wyches.
New Dark Eldar Warhammer 40k Stratagems
While the Drukhari compete amongst themselves to prove their superiority, the Realspace Raiders Detachment offers tools for those who put their antagonism aside out of enlightened self-interest. The Alliance of Agony Stratagem allows an Archon, a Succubus, and a Haemonculus to all benefit from the same Pain token – now that’s a bargain.
This basically gives you three Pain Tokens for one Command Point and one Pain Token. So, if you have all three types of characters in your army, they will benefit from being powered by pain.
Latest 40k Rules Updates For the Drukhari:
The latest updates for the Drukhari 10th Edition rules will be released in what Games Workshop calls a Balance Dataslate, sometimes along with accompanying points changes as well.
You can see all the latest Balance Dataslate updates here in our post, which breaks down the most recent changes.
How To Play Warhammer 40k Drukhari: Points
You can find the latest points for playing this faction in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k here on our Munitorum Field Manual Points Updates Page.
Drukhari YouTube Review:
Watch the video below for some more insights into the faction until they get their codex book!
Is It Still Worth Playing Drukhari?
The Raiders of the Grimdark are always a super fun army to play! With the new detachment, price reductions, and Dataslate changes, their win rates have gone way up! So not only are they one of the most fun armies to play, they are a menace on the battlefield.
You can play good games with them, and they take a while to learn, which is really fun when you start figuring them out.
Updates, in general, for any game are just good business. That being said, it also seems like in 2023-2024, GW will have its hands full trying actually to get out all these codexes.
However, Dark Eldar isn’t even on the list, meaning you will have to use the index for a while, which gives you plenty of time to learn the faction before the codex drops.
The new Drukhari army rules in 10th Edition Warhammer 40k provide exciting changes to the gameplay, rules, and style of the army. Drukhari can dominate the battlefield with their hard-hitting and fast units, but they are quite fragile. The army’s squads, vehicles, and Stratagems provide players with a lot of options to defeat their enemies and have some really fun games. Overall, the new Drukhari army is a force to be reckoned with in Warhammer 40k.
All the Latest Warhammer Rules & Model Rumors
Do you like the Drukhari rules for 10th Edition Warhammer 40k in this guide? Will you be playing them?
About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
