A unique gameplay mechanic in Rogue Trader is Veil Degradation. When a Psyker, either you, or a companion such as Idira, reach deeper into the warp to power your abilities, you add a point for minor psychic abilities, and three for major abilities to the Veil Degradation bar, of which there is a maximum of twenty. As this bar fills up, negative effects begin to take place, and the higher it gets, the worse the effects become which can change the outcome of battle. Read on to find out what these effects are, and what you can do to prevent it.
What is a Psyker in Rogue Trader?¶
Before we get on to Veil Degradation, let’s talk about Psykers as they will be the ones who cause this effect. Aptly named, Psykers are a selection of people who can use psychic powers. However, to do so, they have to draw their powers from an extradimensional realm known as Warp, among other names. Due to this, they will often risk possession, insanity, or even ultimate corruption.
Why Does Veil Degradation Happen?¶
In the Warhammer universe, humans utilized psykers to access the warp, which facilitated their traversal of the galaxy. Warp is an alternate dimension of pure energy and madness, existing as a mirror to realspace. This place is where psykers get all their powers from, but it is dangerous to do so as it is the home dimension of the Chaos Gods as well as daemons. So, when a psyker “taps” into this realm to use their powers, it comes at a cost, and this cost is Veil Degradation.
Veil Degradation Effects¶
The more you use your psychic abilities, the quicker the Veil Degradation bar fills up. When you get up 15 points of Veil Degradation, negative effects begin to occur which are called psychic phenomena, and perils of the warp. At the start of each battle, Veil Degradation will always start at 0 unless there is a reason for the story to have it. Every time you use a psychic power, Veil Degradation will either get one point or three points, depending on if it was a minor or major power.
(1 of 2) In short, keep your Veil Degradation level below 15 unless you want to deal with the negative effects.
In short, keep your Veil Degradation level below 15 unless you want to deal with the negative effects. (left), You can read the description about Veil Degradation by hovering over the purple bar in battle. (right)
Below 14 Veil Degradation¶
This is called the normal state and is the safe space, sort of. The chances of anything bad happening are extremely low, so you’d have to be unlucky, but they can still occur. While at or below 14 points in the Veil Degradation bar, this is what it looks like when you cast a psychic power.
- Minor psychic powers have a (5 + psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
- Major psychic powers have a (20 + psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
- Sanctioned psykers using a minor psychic power have a (5 + 2 x psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
- Sanctioned psykers using a major psychic power have a (10 + 2 x psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
Above 15 Veil Degradation¶
When you are above 15 points of the Veil Degradation bar, you should prepare for the worst, and be pleasantly surprised if something bad doesn’t happen. This is called the degraded state, and the chances of triggering a psychic phenomena quadruples! Here are the negative effects for the degraded state:
- Chances of triggering a psychic phenomena quadruples.
- Major psychic powers may trigger perils of the warp.
- Unsanctioned psykers using minor psychic powers have a (20 + 4 x psy rating) % chance to trigger a psychic phenomena.
- Unsanctioned psykers using major psychic powers have a (20 + psy rating + veil degradation) % chance to trigger a psychic phenomena.
- Sanctioned psykers using a minor psychic power have a (10 + 2 x psy rating) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena.
- Sanctioned psykers using a major psychic power have a (10 + psy rating + veil degradation) % chance to trigger psychic phenomena whenever perils of the warp do not occur.
Perils of Warp¶
Perils of Warp can occur when the Veil Degradation bar reaches 15, and you use a major psychic power. The negative effects of Perils of Warp are:
- Push party members away from the psyker resulting in said members being pushed out of cover.
- Damage own party members.
- Summon hostile Daemons (difficult enemies) onto the battlefield.
- Fill the area with Motive Force charges.
- Many more.
(1 of 2) When you reach the 15 points mark of Veil Degradation, bad things happen.
When you reach the 15 points mark of Veil Degradation, bad things happen. (left), One of these effects is a daemon to spawn. These are powerful creatures that you will not want to fight. (right)
Psychic Phenomena¶
Psychic Phenomena are more disconcerting than dangerous, but they will reduce the party morale and momentum. This effect occurs more often with unsanctioned psykers than sanctioned ones, but it can still happen to them.
Psy Rating¶
Psy Rating provides you with more psychic powers the higher the rating becomes. One can obtain an additional psy rating by selecting it during a level-up. On top of giving you more abilities, it also strengthens the abilities too. The maximum level that you can reach with Psy Rating is five. When the above math states “20 + 4 x psy rating” it means that if your psy rating is at level five, you would calculate it as 20+4 x 5 = 40% chance.
You can increase your Psy Rating by picking the talent when you level up. This occurs approximately every ten levels.
How to Remove Veil Degradation¶
The obvious answer is to only use one psyker, and even then, use their psychic abilities sparingly, but that’s not fun! If you stop using those abilities for a few turns, the Veil Degradation will decrease slowly, one point at a time. Outside of that, you can get talents that can reduce it. Here are a few of them:
- Stable Routes: Whenever the Navigator uses a Navigator’s ability, veil degradation is reduced by -1.
- Stabilizing Factor: The first psychic power used each turn increases veil degradation by 2 points less. If this talent reduces the effect on veil degradation to less than 0, veil degradation is instead decreased by 1.
- Enforce Reality: Usage of a heroic act by the psyker decreases veil degradation by the psyker’s INT bonus.
(1 of 3) The Stable Routes Talent allows you to reduce the veil degradation by -1 when a Navigator uses an ability.
More Rogue Trader Guides¶
Rogue Trader is a difficult game to understand, so why not check out our other basic gameplay mechanics guides?
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