After several rounds of testing, it’s finally time! Versus has officially been released! This free new update includes the Versus game mode itself, available to all owners of Vermintide 2, as well as balance changes, a Progression Rework for the entire base game, the introduction of The Handbook, tons of new cosmetics, and lots of bug fixes!

Versus is a free new Game mode for Warhammer: Vermintide 2! It’s an asymmetrical PvP+E experience pitting up to 4 Heroes against our AI enemies and up to 4 Special players, what we call Pactsworn. A match will take place over several rounds, with each team swapping places between playing the Heroes and the Pactsworn each round. To simplify, each round consists of the Hero team playing a regular game akin to Adventure mode, while the Pactsworn players, controlling the Specials, have to stop them.

Versus will let you experience Vermintide like never before!

As Heroes, you’re no longer against a mindless horde of enemies but against real human players who will do their best to outwit and ambush you; the challenge should be greater than ever!

As Pactsworn, take control of the Special enemies for the first time! The Skaven are short-lived and die easily, but as the Pactsworn players you get to choose a new Special and jump back into the fray in no time! When the moment calls for the big guns, summon The Horde! Or better yet, jump back in as a bigger threat…


Learn more about playing as the Heroes in Versus
Learn more about playing as the Pactsworn (yes-yes!)

Similar to Chaos Wastes, Versus can be played by entering its own bespoke hub, the Versus Keep. Players can do this either by choosing the ‘Versus’ option in the Main Menu or by taking the route down to the basement in the Adventure Keep.


Once inside, you can approach the map table or press the hotkey (Default: M) to open the matchmaking menu and find a match! Choosing Quickplay will find you (and your party) an open Versus Dedicated Server to start a match right away!


You can also choose to create a custom game lobby to let you and up to seven friends play a Versus match amongst yourselves. Custom games do not use Dedicated Servers and will instead be hosted by the lobby host.


Versus matches will play in new versions of existing Adventure missions, although heavily modified to better fit this new PvP experience! Face fresh challenges of player-controlled specials as the Heroes, and skulk about previously inaccessible nooks and crannies as the sneaky Skaven!

There will be five levels available to play at Versus launch:

• Righteous Stand
  
• Screaming Bell
  
• Against the Grain
  
• Fort Brachsenbrücke
  
• Engines of War

While playing Versus matches will still give experience for your Heroes in the base game, it will also come with its own separate system of progression: Versus Ranks!

Playing Versus matches, winning Versus matches, and completing Versus-specific Okri’s Challenges will all add experience to both your Hero and your Versus progression, granting you level ups in your Versus Rank.


Each Rank Up will level up your Insignia, displayed next to your portrait during Versus matches, as well as grant you a reward of Helmgart Sellsword Marks - A new in-game currency obtained exclusively from playing Versus.

These Marks can be exchanged at the Emporium for various new goodies, including:

• New Weapon Illusions
  
• New Portrait Frames
  
• Pactsworn Cosmetics
  
• Hero Poses packs

It just wouldn’t be the same if you couldn’t dress up your rats, ey? With the release of Versus, we’re adding a series of equipable cosmetic skins for each of the playable Pactsworn specials: the Ratling Gunner, Warpfire Thrower, Poison Wind Globadier, Gutter Runner and Packmaster.


Once unlocked, you can equip your new skin on that Pactsworn, changing your in-game appearance in Versus when spawning as that particular Skaven. At launch, we will have a bunch of Pactsworn Skins available for Helmgart Sellsword Marks (obtainable only through in-game play, see Versus Progression above) as well as one Premium Skin for each special, available for direct purchase like the Heroes’ Premium Skins.




You can now purchase packs containing various poses with Helmgart Sellsword Marks (obtainable only through in-game play, see Versus Progression above), which will allow you to perform brand new emotes while in-game for the Hero you unlock these poses for! Some of these poses are also equipable as your end-screen pose when ending a Versus match.



To kick off the launch of Versus, we’ll be running a series of Community challenges for all of you guys! Each week will be focused on one Hero and one Pactsworn special!

• During each focus week there will be individual rewards of Shillings, Helmgart Sellsword Marks, a Portrait frame, and a Weapon Pose for the focused Hero based on your playtime that week.
  
• There will also be a community-wide reward of a Pactsworn Skin for completing the Community Challenge based on performing feats as the focused Pactsworn during the focus week! Everyone has to contribute!
  
• The very first Focus Week will start tomorrow on November 14th, focused on Kerillian and the Gutter Runner!
• You can read all about the current Focus Week, including the challenges and rewards, on vermintide.com/counter

With this update, we’re also launching a thorough rework of various systems involved in the progression, aimed at improving the New Player experience by making the process of leveling up and obtaining gear smoother, as well as dealing with some issues that have plagued new players over the years. Now’s the time to invite your friends to try out Vermintide 2!

You can read more about the Progression Rework here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4540283856248373497



To pair with the improved progression systems, we’re introducing a new in-game resource for information: The Handbook. The Handbook is a collection of images and short videos explaining the mechanics and systems of Vermintide 2. For now, we’ve focused on the basics, but there is room to expand this feature in the future to dig deeper into specific game knowledge for our various game modes. Make sure to feedback and comment for features that you would really have liked to see when starting out (or even have missed as a veteran player)!

To kick off the launch of Versus and all of these additions and improvements with a bang, we’re putting the game at a massive discount of 95% off! Invite your friends, spread the word, there’s no better time to jump on Vermintide than now!

We’ll be celebrating Versus’ launch with a very special stream! Join us tomorrow at 17:00 CET on our Twitch!

We’ll kick things off with Product Owner Erik, Team Manager Tom, Design Director Joakim, who will be reminiscing on the journey of Versus since conception to launch, how we got here, what Versus means to us and answer any questions you might have!

BUT! After that, we have a special treat for you! Cubicle 7 will be joining us to stream a live TTRPG session of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, with Tim Bentick (Voice of Victor Saltzpyre!), Andreas Rylander (Voice of Rasknitt Grey Seer & the Skaven Packmaster!), and Olof Jönsson (Voice of the Skaven Warpfire Thrower!), all playing Skaven! Don’t miss it!

Without further ado…

• Added the Versus game mode to Vermintide 2.
  
  • Introduced a Versus-specific progression. Playing Versus increases your Versus Rank, which nets you rewards such as Commendation Chests, Shillings, and a new currency: Helmgart Sellsword Marks
    
  • Added a Versus section to Lohner's Emporium, where you can buy brand new Weapon Illusions, Portrait Frames, Pactsworn Skins and Hero Poses in exchange for Helmgart Sellsword Marks.
    
  • Added an Insignia that displays your Versus Rank.
• Introduced The Handbook, an ingame resource for new players to learn about the mechanics of the game beyond the Prologue.
  Developer's note: This feature is still being fleshed out! We welcome all suggestions and feedback on how to improve The Handbook.
  
• Reworked the Progression System
  
  • Removed the Hero Power requirement from Veteran Difficulty.
    
  • In private games, removed the Hero Power requirement from all difficulties.
    
  • Reduced the Hero Power requirement for Champion and Legend difficulty.
    
  • Cataclysm difficulty is now playable for the entire lobby if the Host has said difficulty unlocked and available (players must still meet the Power requirement, however).
    
  • Re-introduced experience multipliers based on difficulty.
    
  • Introduced an account wide experience multiplier that increases as players level up their characters.
    Developer's note: The main goal of this addition is to make leveling up characters other than your main faster.
    
  • Added an experience bonus for the first time players complete each mission, per character.
    
  • Completely reworked Spoils of War and obtained gear.
    
    • Obtained Item Power is now based on chest type and the level of your highest level Hero at the time of obtaining the chest.
      
    • Tweaked the rarity drop rates of every single chest. Obtained Item Rarity is now based entirely on chest type. Reworked rarities, Veteran rarity items (reds) can now also drop from Veteran and Champion difficulty chests.
      Developer's note: The Veteran rarity gear obtained from weaker chests may have an item power lower than 300. Keep in mind that, for max level characters, this change does not affect the item power from chests which could previously give Veteran-rarity items; those will still be at 300 item power, as before.
      
    • Gear obtained from Commendation chests from levels 1 to 30 now cannot give Veteran rarity items and have a maximum of 260 item power.
      
    • Added a new type of Commendation chest from levels 30 and above, with the same reward types as pre-patch Commendation Chests.
      
    • Gear obtained from Veteran difficulty chests are now capped at 200 item power.
      Developer's note: Keep in mind that players can still obtain items above 200 item power through Commendation Chests and Crafting, even without playing difficulties above Veteran.
      
    • Chests now show detailed information regarding the rarity and item power that can be obtained from them.
      
    • DLC weapons can now drop from chests.
      
    • When obtaining gear with illusions, the game will prioritize illusions that you have not yet unlocked.
  • Crafting changes:
    
    • Reduced the amount of scrap necessary to craft items, but added a small Dust cost.
      
    • Gear obtained from crafting now has its rarity and item power based on the level of your highest level Hero.
      
    • Upgrading gear to Veteran rarity is now restricted to level 30 and above.
      
    • Increased the amount of dust obtained from downgrading dust.
      
    • Upgrading gear no longer re-rolls the traits or properties of the upgraded item.

• All talents which gave Temporary Health on Headshot and Critical Hit: Now grants a baseline of 0.5 THP on regular hits as well.
  
• Developer's note: This should make the talent more reliable and in-line with other Temp HP talents, while still fitting within the headshot-hunting, crit-maxing gameplay that these Heroes usually revolve around.
  
• Trollhammer Torpedo: Removed 'Scrounger' and 'Conservative Shooter' from available traits. Added 'Off-balance' and 'Parry' instead.
  Developer's note: This change was made to prevent players from bypassing one of the Trollhammer Torpedo's main weakness, which is its low ammo sustain.
  
• Outcast Engineer: The 'Bombardier' talent has swapped places with the 'Combined Arms' talent to make it mutually exclusive with Ingenious Ordnance.
  
• Outcast Engineer: The 'Ingenious Ordnance' talent has been reworked. The bombs crafted by Bardin through this talent are now unique and have a smaller explosion radius and stagger values compared to standard bombs. Cooldown reduced to 80 seconds.
  
• Bounty Hunter: The 'Tithetaker' talent has been replaced from giving Temporary Health on Kill to giving Temporary Health on hitting multiple enemies.
  
• Bounty Hunter: The 'Steel Crescendo' talent has been changed from triggering upon running out of ammo to triggering upon emptying your magazine. Power bonus now only applies to melee. Buff duration reduced to 10 seconds.
  
• Warrior Priest: Fury can no longer be gained while the Warrior Priest is knocked down.
  Developer's note: This is to make it impossible for the Warrior Priest to revive himself through talents, as well as to prevent an early and useless trigger of Righteous Fury.
  
• Warrior Priest: The 'Prayer of Vengeance' talent has been reduced from 25% bonus damage to Monsters to a 15% bonus.
  
• Grail Knight: The horizontal slash from the 'Virtue of Confidence' talent has been given infinite cleave.
  Developer's note: This change should allow the talent to dive much deeper into its role, and let players become the crowd-controlling menace they’re already trying to be.

• Players' own character is now faded out in third person view when invisible.
  
• Tweaked the voicelines related to Globadier gas to not trigger instantly, but rather when spending some time in gas. Anyway stop straying into it!
  
• Added new sound effects to Kerillian’s Greatsword to make it match its animations better.
  
• The end zone on A Parting of the Waves (the escape boat) no longer muffles the sound.
  
• Lowered the chance of friendly fire VO playing.

• The cooldown for the Summon the Vermintide Pactsworn ability is now affected by score difference and team size (as well as individual damage dealt, as before).
  
• Tweaked the Horde Composition for Hordes summoned with the Summon the Vermintide ability.
  
• The Summon the Vermintide ability has been changed to share a keybind with the Career Skill keybind (default: F)
  
• The Pactsworn Respawn Timer is now affected by Score Difference (as well as team size, as before).
  
• The Gutter Runner's Smoke Bomb ability has been changed to share a keybind with the Reload keybind (default: R)
  
• Added crosshairs to the Warpfire Thrower and Ratling Gunner.
  
• The Bile Troll's Vomit Attack's default keybind has been changed to Right Mouse Button.
  
• Increased wind-down for Bile Troll Light Attacks.
  
• Lowered the Bile Troll's overall movement speed, and tweaked rotation speed while performing Melee Attacks to give a greater sense of weight and commitment to attacks.
  
• Tweaked the Fireball Staff to prevent massive damage when QQ cancelling the weapon.
  
• Reduced the starting bombs for Outcast Engineer's 'Bombardier' talent to 1.
  
• Outcast Engineer's 'Linked Compression Chamber' talent now cuts the charge rate in half, rather than starting at full speed.

• Fixed major bug where Necromancer skeletons would freeze intensity like enemies do when attacking, causing issues with the pacing and conflict director.
  
• Fixed an ancient bug that prevented Bots' Hero Power from scaling based on the host player's gear and level.
  
• Adjusted the ranges of Sword & Shield (regular and Bretonian) push follow-up attacks to reach further and be more precise and reliable.
  
• Unfortunately fixed bug where necromancer's skeletons remain after sienna's is replaced by another character due to it causing negative side effects
  
• Fixed a bug where the bomb lighter may block Bardin's view when aiming down sights if throwing a free bomb and drinking an ale afterwards.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "Kill all lords on Legend" requirement for Cataclysm wasn't taken into consideration when allowing player to play or not.
  
• Fixed an issue with the conflict director on Veteran difficulty.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Unchained skin "Vol Tarnus' Armour" lacked a metallic shine.
  
• Fixed an issue that made the Sister of the Thorn challenge "Sheltering Thicket" impossible to complete.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented Hero banter for killing a Bile Troll from triggering.
  
• (Chaos Wastes) Fixed a bug where the boons "Myrmidia's Cleansing Flame", "Atharti's Venomous Affection", "Drakira's Flensing", and "Hekarti's Prophetic Bolt" triggered on all allies abilities instead of the boon owners.
  
• Fixed a bug where the challenges "Sweet Science", "Booked and Hammered", "Old-Fashioned Learning", "Stout Heart, Steady Aim", "Fundamental Force", "Drained", "Catch a Dying Breath", and "Dance of the Willow" didn't track progress in Weave levels.
  
• The explosion caused by throwing cannon balls a certain distance in Fort Blubberingbrooke no longer damages players. No more tragic wipes at the very end!
  
• Fixed a bug where the bolts were not visible on crossbows with Weave skins applied.
  
• Fixed a bug where one of the bots would spawn without a health potion in chaos wastes on Recruit difficulty.
  
• Fixed a bug where Tome and Grimoire quests were able to be granted to Grail Knights in Weaves. Can you imagine if Lohner had also lost some of his books in the Weaves?
  
• Fixed a bug where various talents and buffs that trigger on kill didn't function properly in the Tzeentchian Twins modifier.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Waystalker and Grail Knight bots sometimes got stuck holding their career skill.
  
• Fixed a bug where Necromancer could get stuck mid career ability cast when releasing the career ability button the same frame as pressing it.
  
• Fixed the Warrior Priest talent "From Fury, Fortitude" not giving extra fury for non-host players.
  
• Fixed a bug where non-standard skeletons took friendly fire from friendly hitscan ranged weapons. No more Hero on Skeleton violence!
  
• Fixed an issue with invisibility first person VFX not showing when the player is wounded, but not on the last wound.
  
• Fixed an issue with synchronized buffs never clearing, resulting in crashes for clients when too many appeared in a match.
  
• Fixed a crash when interacting with something very close to the camera.
  
• Fixed a rare crash when joining a game with a Necromancer that is transitioning between levels.
  
• (Prologue) Fixed a bug where Sienna did not explode from Overcharge in the tutorial.
  
• Fixed a buG where pressinG the voice chat keybind button would activate voice chat even while writinG in the text chat.
  
• Fixed some Saltzpyre voicelines being attributed to Kerillian instead. Blame Tzeentch, I always do.
  
• Fixed a bug where using the Conflagration staff charged attack would spawn two indicators when playing as host.
  
• Fixed rare crashes if players change equipment while other players are in a later stage of joining.
  
• Fixed an issue where charged fireballs from Sienna's Fireball Staff did no damage to berserker-type enemies.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Grail Knight talent 'Virtue of Heroism' that said this talent increased Power, when it actually increases Damage.
  
• (Chaos Wastes) Fixed a bug where the Blessing of Isha could trigger if there are two heroes left and one gets dragged by a Packmaster, instead of waiting for the last hero to be disabled.
  
• Fixed a bug where a Zealot wielding Skull Splitter Hammers used Warrior Priest animations.
  
• Fixed a bug where Necromancer lost souls were targeting patrols when the Necromancer player was not host. Hehehe, whoops.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Sister of the Thorn wall wouldn't stop a charging Minotaur. Now he smacks his face into it and gets all cross, like he should.
  
• Fixed a bug where ranged weapons with ammunition would get stuck on 0 ammunition if inspecting during the reload animation.
  
• Fixed a rare crash sometimes occurring when a client Necromancer with the "Army of the Dead" talent recasts her ability just as a skeleton dies.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Bile Trolls at the end of Hunger in the Dark show health bars if attacked.
  
• Fixed a bug where Chaos Spawns were unable to continue attacking if a Hero dies during its grab attack.
  
• Fixed a bug where the AI enemies would get stuck after a climbing animation if their target goes invisible mid climb.
  
• (Chaos Wastes) Fixed Morr's Protection softlocking the game if the owner is hogtied and remaining players are knocked down next to them.
  
• Fixed a bug where the firebomb would stack multiple infinite Damage over Time effects when thrown by a Battle Wizard with the "Lingering Flames" talent.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Sister of the Thorn glowy light fingers would get stuck permanently on after using her Career Skill. Sometimes.
  
• Fixed a bug where the selected difficulty in Custom Game shows up as "N/A" after failing to join a match where the player doesn't meet the difficulty requirements.
  
• (Versus) Fixed early win conditions not accounting for dead players.
  
• (Versus) Fixed an issue where the Globadier globe impact sound lacked proper directional sound for the globadier player that threw it.
  
• Fixed the Bile Troll sliding around in third person when walking at max speed.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a bug where hoisted and pounced down players don't count towards eliminations if round ends before the disabled player is knocked down.
  
• Fixed the Adventure mission end scoreboard ambience SFX not working properly
  
• Fixed an issue where loading screen briefing VO would continue if you get disconnected during the loading screen.
  
• Fixed inconsistencies on loading screen briefing VO when playing in surround.

Hotfix 6.0.1 - 13th of November

Fixes

• Fixed the default skaven cosmetics not being equipable for new players during first boot
  
• Fixed a bug where non-event specials stops spawning in all other game modes after entering the versus keep
  
• Made it easier to interact with the prisoner cages in Versus maps.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Benchmark and the Prologue would crash when Bots spawned in.
  
• Fixed crash when attempting to friend join a player who is hosting a custom versus lobby from another game mode.
  
• Fixed a store issue where Warrior Priest cosmetics would be shown on a Witch Hunter Captain model.
  
• Fixed a crash when opening the traits tab on the Trollhammer Torpedo
  
• Fix lobbies 'Join' button not working
  
• Failsafe added for door not opening in round 2 if not all Heroes are present when slotting in the gargoyle heads.

We've also had to temporarily remove the Against the Grain map from the Versus pool while we fix some issues with the map. Should come back soon!

Hotfix 6.0.2 - 14th of November

Note: We've retroactively re-numbered the patch version for the Versus launch patch to 6.0.0!

Features & Tweaks

• (Versus) Lowered the screen shake for the player controlling the Bile Troll.
  
• (Versus) Re-enabled Against the Grain.

Fixes

• (Chaos Wastes) Fixed a Necromancer crash when a lost soul skull hits a Chest of Trials.
  
• Fixed a crash from Globadiers damaging players with the "The Lady of the Lake's Vigil" boon.
  
• (Versus) Fixed various terrain issues with Against the Grain.
  
• Fixed an issue where Map selection loops when pressing escape, instead of actually quitting out of the menu.
  
• Various other crash fixes.

As an additional note, we attempted to fix the issue with Team Chat not being available on Versus Quickplay. Unfortunately, despite the progress, the issue is still not fixed (you can now attempt to send messages to Team Chat, but your teammates will not see them)

Hotfix 6.0.3 - 15th of November

Features & Tweaks

• (Versus Dedicated Servers) Reduced the timeout until an unresponsive player is disconnected from 60 to 15 seconds.

Fixes

• (Versus) Fixed an issue where players could not see Team Chat. Team Chat is now fully functional again, frfr.
  
• Fixed a crash on warpfire thrower gun particle.
  
• Fixed various crashes in Lohner's Emporium for players in certain regions.
  
• (Chaos Wastes) Fixed a crash when upgrading a Deepwood Staff.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a crash on Custom Versus games where the host would crash because the bots were using the wrong loadout.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a rare server crash related to emotes.
  
• Various other crash fixes

Players, during the launch of patch 6.0.0 (originally numbered 5.7.0) on Wednesday, there was an issue that could cause any player who interacted with the Daily or Weekly Quests to lose a chunk of their progression on the backend. These include various Okri's challenges like missions completed, Cataclysm difficulty unlock, Fortunes of War unlock, etc. The issue was quickly fixed on the same day (it is safe to interact with those quests), but unfortunately we still don't have a solution for the players who lost their progression before the fix was implemented.

Rest assured that we are working with our Backend Service Provider and doing all we can to rectify the issue with missing progression and challenges. Though we don't have a concrete resolution just yet, we'll continue to work on it until we have a way to solve this issue, and we hope to be able to share more on this soon.

Please bear with us, and we thank you for your continued patience.

Hotfix 5.6.1 - November 4th

Fixes

• Fixed a crash when cancelling Host Migration.

The most ill-omened night of the year is finally upon us! The green glow of Morrslieb in full moon heralds it: Geheimnisnacht has arrived!

Starting today and until November 10th, there will be Double XP for all actions taken in Vermintide 2, along a spooky makeover of the Keep, new challenges and rewards for Geheimnisnacht, and the return of old Geheimnisnacht rewards in exchange for shillings at Lohner's Emporium! For more details, please read the original announcement here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4512135360811161102

But to sum up, play the event, complete the challenges, earn the rewards, have fun!


Join us today at 17:00 CET on our Twitch!

We'll be hosting a stream with Developers Tom, Emil and Theodor to celebrate Geheimnisnacht and talk about upcoming changes to Vermintide, including the upcoming Progression & New Player Experience rework that will arrive with Versus!

Come hang out and ask questions or just chill with us! Looking forwards to seeing you all there!

Without further ado...

• Enabled the Geheimnisnacht event and Keep decorations.
  The Skull of Blosphoros will be active in the following locations:
  
  • Against the Grain
    
  • Athel Yenlui
    
  • A Parting of the Waves
    
  • Convocation of Decay
    
  • Halescourge
• Enabled double XP for the duration of the event.
  
• Added the rewards from previous Geheimnisnacht in-game events to Lohner's Emporium of Wonders.

• Fixed bot priorities not saving when exiting the game.
  
• Fixed an issue where players would not get that week's rewards after a Host Migration during a Chaos Wastes Weekly Expedition
  
• Fixed some Cataclysm challenges not being greyed out in Okri's book for players who don't own the Winds of Magic DLC.
  
• Fixed a bug where Outcast Engineer's talent 'Ingenious Ordnance' would exit cooldown early. Woops.
  
  • More changes to come!
• Fixed bosses not taking damage from Ungor archer arrows. Now only player controlled bosses are immune to friendly projectiles. That friendly fire was a bit TOO friendly.
  
  • This also makes it possible to complete the related Minotaur challenge once again.
• Remastered the dialogue for Drachenfels and Dark Omens to fix a few audio issues and to bring the quality in line with other level VO.

Hi, my name is Joakim Setterberg and I’m the Design Director on Vermintide 2. The season of Geheimnisnacht, pumpkins, and general spookiness is upon us, and on behalf of the team, I’d like to share some upcoming changes coming to Vermintide 2.

Over the last year, we’ve touched on nearly all areas of Vermintide 2 to improve the core experience of the game with a wide range of features, updates, and improvements. I’m sure Saltzpyre would agree that like an old Reikland wine, we are not aging, we are delicately maturing. One thing we haven’t done though is to address some of the frustrations and issues we’re seeing for players that are new to the game. With the upcoming Versus mode being an opportunity for new players to jump in and experience the End Times, we want to make some improvements to our onboarding and progression to help those new recruits to stick around.

Let’s start out with the issues we’re seeing:

• If you’re starting as a new player, the restrictions on Hero and Power levels make it hard for you to play together with experienced players until you have leveled up. This is particularly tough if you’ve been recommended to play Vermintide 2 by a high-level friend.
  
• The time investment to level up a Hero or career is quite significant, making it a slow grind to unlock a fun playstyle and/or promote a behavior where players feel the need to play (Screaming Bell) repeatedly on lower difficulties.
  
• The Spoils of War chest rewards are varied enough, but the gear journey can be unsatisfying due to random factors, and promotes Commendation Chest hoarding until you’ve reached higher Item Power levers.
  
• The drop rates for the Spoils of War are not visible to players, which results in community guesswork and a lack of motivation to play certain difficulties.

So going forward, what are we changing to improve the Ubersreik 5 experience?


First off, we’re removing any Hero Power restrictions for Private games. This should make it easier for a mixed group of friends to find a difficulty they can tackle together (and if said friends think your first experience should be Legend then… well, friendship carries a long way). It is also a chance for new players to check out the higher difficulties and practice for those Legend runs.

We’ve also removed the Hero Power restriction for the Veteran difficulty for Public games. We believe that Veteran can be a suitable entry point for players familiar with similar games, like Darktide, and are looking for a more challenging experience. However, we are keeping the Public restrictions for Champion and Legend as a necessary skill-check (although we have lowered those requirements just a tad) - the same goes for Cataclysm.


To tweak the time investment for leveling we are (re-)introducing Difficulty Multipliers to the experience gains when playing a mission. When completing a mission you will now get the regular XP gain multiplied by an additional 0.25 for each difficulty level:

• 1x for Recruit (same as current)
  
• 1.25x for Veteran
  
• 1.5x for Champion
  
• 1.75x for Legend and Cataclysm

We hope that this better motivates and rewards players leveling - especially when progressing their other careers that have unlocked and gotten access to better equipment like necklaces, charms, and trinkets.

For our PC players, Versus will have its own game mode-specific progression, but doing things like completing matches will also feed into the main progression.


To make the journey to get better gear both faster and more interesting, we are making some significant changes to the way Spoils of War rewards work.

All gear has an Item Power value attached to it that indicates how good it is. Without going into detail, the way Item Power rewards are currently calculated is based on an average obtained Item Power level with a random modifier attached to it, which leads to players getting generally slightly better loot than they previously have obtained. We are now changing this to be a range based on Hero Level, Difficulty played, and Chest Tier.

So when completing a mission you will get a Spoils of War chest, like normal. The rewards it contains will be within a range defined by your Hero Level, with a floor and ceiling cap based on the Difficulty. Recruit is capped out at an Item Power level of 100, Veteran at 200, and Champion and beyond at 300. Chest Tiers, upgraded by Ranald’s Blessings, Tomes, Loot Die, and Grimoires, will raise the floor of the range to push the rewards to higher Item Power levels. As you level up your Hero, the range first expands and subsequently narrows toward the higher end of the range.

With Spoils of War rewards being dependent on the Hero level when obtaining the chest, a chest obtained in level 1 will now yield level 1 Item Power rewards, regardless of when opening it. Thus, we are removing an incentive to hoard chests when leveling up, and instead aim for players to continuously open chests for more satisfying “jumps” in Item Levels (over the current flattened grind).

Related to this we are also changing the Rarity rates for rewards to not factor in Hero Levels. Again, we are simplifying the way the system works to make rare loot drops possible in every game. You will now almost always have a chance to get Common, Rare, Exotic, and even Veteran items from a game, but by playing on higher Difficulties and upgrading your Chest Tiers you will simply increase your chances for the rarer items. This means that you don’t have to have that perfect book run to get a cool reward and that you might get lucky finding a rare weapon even when starting out playing the game.
Veteran items will always be maxed out within your current Item Power level range.


In addition, we're also changing how we decide what weapon skin you get when opening a Veteran weapon in a chest. You will now, if possible, get a non-unlocked veteran skin before defaulting back to a random skin. We're also making it possible to obtain DLC weapons from chests (as long as you've unlocked all requirements for said weapons)

We hope that these changes will incentivize players to open Spoils of War more regularly as they progress, especially Commendation chests, rather than hoarding them - but we will of course be open to your feedback for any adjustments to all of the systems previously mentioned.


“Hold on, drengbarazi, surely you aren’t reworking crafting as well?”
Well, we are making some changes to it to align it with the rewards rework. So first off the items you craft will be based on your Hero level, similar to chests, with Veteran rarities set to the max of your possible range. However, upgrading to Veteran will only be available for Hero level 30 or above to ensure that players don’t spend their crafting materials at a point where they will come to regret it later.

The crafting economy will see some tweaks where we’re generally lowering upgrade costs by decreasing the amount of Scraps needed, but also requiring a small amount of Dust. To balance this we will be giving players more Dust when converting higher rarity Dust into lower rarities.

Oh, and we are also making sure that item properties and traits remain after an upgrade, so you will now be able to more reliably tinker with your favorite gear.


As you can see, these are significant changes we are doing to the item and rewards system. Our intention is simplification, but we can’t do that without making it all understandable in-game. With this update, we are providing additional information in the Difficulty Select menu screen, as well as for individual Spoils of War chests, where the Item Power range and rarity percentages are clearly visible. Again, we hope that this clears up any confusion and motivates players to push for harder Difficulties and increased Chest Tiers, as the Ubersreik 5 can more clearly see what to expect in terms of potential rewards.



On the note of showing things, there is a lot of information a new player needs to understand about how the game works. Everyone gets to play the Prologue in the beginning, but after that we are pretty much throwing the players into the fight against Skaven, Chaos, and Beastmen without further onboarding. So far it’s been working OK, but there are a lot of nuances and mechanics to the game that you as a community have (very helpfully) had to relay through forums and social posts. We want to provide that same information in-game without adding more tutorials you need to play through, so we are happy to announce the in-game Handbook, available both as a Menu, with an interaction point in the Keep, and as helpful pop-ups when reaching key moments in the progression.


The Handbook is a collection of images and short videos explaining the mechanics and systems of Vermintide 2. Initially, we’ve focused on the basics, but there is room to expand this feature in the future to dig deeper into specific game knowledge for our various game modes. Make sure to feedback and comment for features that you would really have liked to see when starting out (or even have missed as a veteran player)!


We’re aiming to have this out for the release of Versus later this fall. Due to certification and submission processes on consoles being slower than on PC, we’re hoping to get those platforms on an even footing shortly after.

We will also get around to some additional career balancing around the same time - more details at a later date - but for Geheimnisnacht we’ve snuck in an initial fix addressing the Outcast Engineer bomb cooldown bug.

Also we haven’t forgotten about Adventure - here’s a little teaser image for something that will come out in just a bit.


On behalf of the Vermintide production team and Fatshark, thank you for all the support and memes throughout the year - and stay hyped for a packed finale of 2024!

It is that spooky time of the year, when the Chaos moon Morrslieb is full, the Winds go wild and things go bump in the night. While we have been all too busy working on both Versus and Adventure content, we always have time to celebrate this dreaded Night of Mysteries! Geheimnisnacht is upon us.

The event will be running from October 31st to November 10th! It will feature nurglings, Double XP, challenges with new rewards, and the return of previous Geheimnisnacht rewards! Did we mention nurglings?


A returning favourite, the Skull of Blosphoros has gone loose again! Find his cultists in secret locations across Helmgart (we’ve listed them below, ‘cause we know you want those rewards fast) and disrupt their ritual.

If you dare, you can also pick up his Skull! Holding onto it will empower enemies greatly (and give them glowing eyes!), but carrying it to the end of the level will complete challenges and unlock their rewards!

The Skull of Blosphoros can be found in the following levels:

• Against the Grain
  
• Athel Yenlui
  
• Halescourge
  
• Convocation of Decay
  
• A Parting of the Waves

It's up to you to seek them out and take them on if you want to earn the new goodies!



There are new Quests available at Okri's Challenges! These can only be undertaken for the duration of the event, but they'll reward you with an exclusive new frame and five new illusions, with a golden glow of Myrmidia's blessing!


For those who have missed previous years' Geheimnisnachts, we'll be giving you a small opportunity to obtain the rewards you missed!

For the duration of the event there will be a section in Lohner's Emporium of Wonders where you may purchase the frames and illusions from past years (but not this year's rewards!)


Once the event ends, this section will close! Make sure to save up your shillings, there's only so much you can earn in a few days!

Read the patchnotes here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4465975096247320629

Few things are constant among the Skaven, but their scheming and plotting is one of them. While our Heroes may have foiled Rasknitt, there’s plenty other vermin are eager to hatch their own devious plans. The farsqueaker, a verminous piece of Skryre engineering, allows some of these would-be masterminds to instantly communicate across vast distances with their networks of agents and spies.




I am much pleased with your timely report, Skratch, and heartened by the news of your many successes. The minions I placed in your unworthy paws are clearly moderately capable. Use them well, Skratch. Do not think-think you are my only proxy in the Grey Mountains. Just because I plucked you from your runtish litter as a whelp, it will not displease me too greatly to have to devour you should you fail. I will start at the tail end, yes-yes, and work my way up from there.

The situation in Karak Gnol is more chaotic even than that which you left behind. My predecessor (may he lay forever in the boiling stomach juices of the Great Horned Rat) was too stupid to do away with his more competent and ambitious underlings while he still lived. He thought his cronies in Clan Pestilens would shield him, and they did, but more fool-fool them because now he is dead and a dozen rival chieftains scheme to replace him. None yet recognize my rightful claim, so you see the risk I take sending away so many clanrat warriors, even under the leadership of an expendable deputy like you, and why I demand results.

Not in seven months, Skratch, but now.

I had taken to displaying the heads of my would-be assassins before the entrance to my burrow, but I eventually ran out of spikes. There is a lair-wide shortage of them, I am told. So I have begun adding them to the skavenbrew with the rest of the bodies. The slavemasters inform me that the extra meat is gratefully received in the under-warrens, and perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. The skavenslaves could do with some fattening up. The way things are smelling around here, I may soon need the wretches to fight as well as die-die in the mines.

Given the glowing reports of your progress under Helmgart-place, I have decided that you obviously do not need the reinforcements or the extra funds you requested. My warp tokens are not infinite and I have instead spent your overly generous stipend for this moon-cycle on a Rat Ogre bodyguard for my protection. A far wiser allocation of limited resources, I think-think you will agree.
Now stop chasing after low-hanging tails and give me something I can actually show to my enemies! Bring me a head from the so-called ‘Ubersreik Five’ for starters. Their legend is, I am sure, greatly flattered by the gross incompetence of the skaven they have faced so far, but their deaths by my paw will undoubtedly impress the ignorant masses of Karak Gnol.

Oh, and one more thing, Skratch.

This is important, so listen-hear very closely.

The Pestilent Brotherhood may have done more harm to Clan Fester than the Bloodblight or Rasknitt’s vacuous promises, but I need their warriors and their warpstone if I am to become Warlord. They have their own reasons to loathe the Furless Five, so however you choose to be rid of them – make certain-sure that it is suitably dramatic…

Few things are constant among the Skaven, but their scheming and plotting is one of them. While our Heroes may have foiled Rasknitt, there’s plenty other vermin are eager to hatch their own devious plans. The farsqueaker, a verminous piece of Skryre engineering, allows some of these would-be masterminds to instantly communicate across vast distances with their networks of agents and spies.



Is this thing on?

Do you hear me, master?

The cretinous cog-brained tinker-fool who claims to be master of this farsqueaker contraption insists you can hear me even if I cannot hear you. Something to do with power still bleeding from the failed Skittergate and the great-great mass of this mountain above our heads. For myself, I think-think he must squeak less and work harder. Maybe then his farsqueaker machine will have the power he claims it should.

Excuse me one moment, most patient of potentates. I must supply one quick-quick zap of warplightning to the minions…

…

…

There, that is better.

I swear on the honour of all skaven that Clan Skryre sends only the stupidest and laziest of Warlock Engineers in exchange for your warp-tokens. Their whiskers do not tremble at the first sniff of Clan Fester as once they did. No. But they will learn fast-quick. Yes-yes, master! You can count on Skratch Dirtnose to get the best from your hirelings.

Which brings me to my first, most eagerly expected report…

As you have no doubt already guessed, we have arrived in what remains of the man-thing fortress of Helmgart-place. Even now, we dig out fresh burrows for your warriors and the work so far has been an unmitigated success. Re-opening the collapsed tunnels took slightly longer than promised, it is true, but only because Clan Skryre provided so many defective warp-grinders, forcing us to rely on skavenslaves. Alas, their overseers were too sparing with the warp-prod. But we are here now. Yes-yes! An ALMOST ENTIRELY unmitigated success.

Much of the lair itself remains buried. It will take lots-much work to excavate the most valuable of Rasknitt’s trinkets and to know for sure if any of his misguided lackeys yet live. To sniff this place is to wonder how the Helmgart-place did not sink into the earth when it fell. They say that one should not speak ill of the chosen of the Horned Rat, but to me this seems typical of the Grey Seer’s performance since conniving his way into our great clan’s favour. He could not even fail in a manner befitting of a true skaven!

Despite these minor delays, I assure you that your designs (thanks in no small part to my most humble leadership) remain firmly on track. Give me just three more months. No-no. Better make it seven. Yes-yes. Seven. In seven months, this warren will teem with fearless skaven warriors once again. We shall rebuild all that Rasknitt managed to destroy. We shall win back the pestilential favour that Spinemanglr so recklessly squandered. We shall earn the praise of all skavendom by ridding it of meddlesome heroes.

And then Clan Fester will be ours!

I mean yours, of course.

Yes-yes.

Yours.

I fear I must end my report here, most puissant one. The farsqueaker loses power, and the Warlock Engineer has had to… er… lie down. I wait eagerly for your further instruction and remain, until then, your humblest, unworthiest, and most subservient of servants…

Starting now, the Versus Beta August Test (or BAT!) is live! If you haven't already, make sure to sign up by heading to Vermintide 2's Steam Store page and hitting 'Request Access' on the Playtest!



As mentioned before, this Beta is open to ANYONE, even non-owners of Vermintide 2! Make sure to spread the word to anyone who might be interested! Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets, tell strangers!



Versus is an upcoming free new Game mode for Warhammer: Vermintide 2! It’s an asymmetrical PvP+E experience pitting up to 4 Heroes against our AI enemies and up to 4 special players, what we call Pactsworn. A match will take place over several rounds, with each team swapping places between playing the Heroes and the Pactsworn each round. To simplify, each round consists of the Hero team playing a regular game akin to Adventure mode, while the Pactsworn players have to stop them.

Learn more about playing as the Heroes
Learn more about playing as the Pactsworn (yes-yes!)

Plenty! We have two big features to highlight: Matchmaking changes and The Horde ability. Alongside that we've also done various balance adjustments and quality of life changes based on previous tests' feedback!

One of the bigger features in the Beta is the Pactsworns’ new Horde Ability, available to each of the Pactsworn players on their own individual cooldown. When fully charged and ready, Pactsworn players are able to rally a small horde, spawning a group of AI enemies fighting for them onto the battlefield. This means that Packmasters can summon cover-kin to blend in for sneaky charges, Ratling Gunners can distract Heroes with melee fodder before laying down fire, or the team can sync up and trigger all Hordes at the same time and overwhelm the opposition.

• Cooldown Reduction: While the ability re-charges slowly over time, it is possible to quicken the progress by damaging the enemy team. Play well, and you’ll be able to send barrage after barrage.
  
• Carry over: Ability bar progress is carried over between deaths.

In the Alphas there were no guardrails preventing (for instance) solo queuing new players to meet an experienced four-stack, meaning that the experience could vary wildly from session to session. This, along with other reported issues, led to us reworking our matchmaking systems.

The new system should, on average, result in lower queue times, finding servers closer to you (resulting in lower latency), and more even games (for example, by trying to pair together premade groups). It will also allow us to more easily monitor the matchmaking in real-time and act quicker if we notice that something isn't working as intended.

It won’t stop variously skilled players from meeting up occasionally, but at least the system should be able to favour other match setups. We hope that this will lead to more balanced and fun games, as well as lay a better foundation for future feedback.

Controllers/Gamepads are now properly supported for Versus! Now that we are rounding up the core set of features we can finalize button assignments and focus on input tweaking to bring the controller experience up to par. For gamepad gamers out there, please let us know any feedback you have about the new implementation in this Beta!

We have re-done a lot of the Pactsworns’ heads-up-display in terms of art, gameplay and general quality of life.

• New Horde Ability progress bar.
  
• Updated Health bars.
  
• Ability Bar: Each Pactsworn has all of their available moves and abilities listed in the HUD, with cooldowns and input clearly shown in an effort to make the characters easier to pick play.
  
• Updated enemy health bars: Wounds, Streak Damage, Regular– and Temporary HP are now displayed directly above the Heroes’ heads.
  
• Ally information: Your fellow Pactsworns’ respawn timers are now displayed above their heads along with their names, hopefully making teamwork easier to pull off.

The ping/tagging system has been adjusted to be more responsive, particularly noticeable for the Hero side. As in Adventure mode, pings should now be instantaneous and prioritize marking enemies better. This should make the system more responsive, intuitive and fluid, while still retaining the ability to place world markers and use the Social Wheel for more detailed callouts.

We are reconsidering how we should view health pick-ups in Versus. We want healing to have intent and consequences, and to be something that Pactsworn are able to make use of as well.

• Level placement: We have moved all healing supplies to be more prominent on each level’s main path. By becoming easy to see “hot spots”, we should be able to create even more interesting and intense scenarios, inviting the Pactsworn to use them for ambushes.

• Updated the visual effects on the Warpfire Thrower and the Poison Wind Globadier. On top of looking better, these new VFX should better reflect the effective Area of Effect of their abilities when active.
  
• Adjusted objectives in Against the Grain to deter speedrunning and running ahead of the team.

The Globadier has remained an undisputed menace throughout the Alpha period, and we still want to keep him that way, but things will be a little different for the Beta. We've lowered the base damage of a globe's gas, but also added a ramping damage curve to Poison Wind tick damage, meaning damage increases exponentially over time.
Mindlessly throwing globes won’t be as effective anymore, but catching unfortunate Heroes in a bad spot will create just as much chaos as before.
The Ratling Gunner has received a healthy check-up on some basic values that should make him a bit more dexterous and effective at range (where he should be shining best).

• Decreased start up and reload duration.
  
• Increased effective range and bullet speed.
  
• Decreased bullet spread.

When a Packmaster hooks a Hero and walks off an edge, the Hero will now hang from the ledge instead of falling to their doom. Was fun while it lasted, hehehe.

Introduced in our last test, the Bile Troll is a rare, playable boss that one random player will get to play as each round. He is large, in charge, and full of gross green stuff. For the Beta, we have focused on getting in a bit more polish and making him more fun to use.

• Adjusted movement acceleration to give a more sluggish and weighty feel to the character, as well as to limit twitchy movement.
  
• Reworked the Bile Vomit attack on a few different points:
  
  • The ability now has the option to be charged and held, letting players aim more accurately and prepare their attack. Hold the F key to start charging and let go to puke.
    
  • Added an aim indicator to better display where the vomit will land and the rough ground area that gets covered.

As always, we hope you have tons of fun playing Versus! Enjoy the Beta, invite your friends, and give us ALL of your feedback! We rely on you, your experiences and your opinions to perfect this exciting new game mode!

If you have any more doubts or questions, check out our FAQ.

Hi my name is Joakim Setterberg and I’m the Design Director on Vermintide 2. In this devblog I want to talk about Versus’ upcoming Beta August Test - or BAT - coming August 21st. With the BAT we’re wrapping up most of the larger systems and features of the core game mode. With a few exceptions, our main focus up to release will be to work with surrounding systems and refining the content, to polish the Versus experience and, to quote the team, “fix the jank”.

First, a note on feedback. For every test we do we collect as much of your feedback as possible to find out what we can improve and fix. We sort it, rank it, and talk about what we want to accomplish for the next test. Sometimes there’s a straight-forward way to solve a problem or to implement a suggestion, but other times we’ll go in a slightly different direction, if we believe a problem lies elsewhere. That takes us to our two big features we’re introducing for the BAT: the Pactsworn Horde ability and matchmaking.

Feedback from the last test, the RAT, showed that you wanted something more for the Pactsworn gameplay - like abilities or talents. We also saw requests for notifications when director controlled Hordes were about to spawn, or calls to introduce a Pactsworn special with horde summoning as a singular purpose. These were good requests, but we felt that the Pactsworn side would play even stronger if Hordes were more integrated in active player combat, rather than being played reactive. In the finest Clan Moulder tradition we stitched everything together.

The Horde ability gives all Pactsworn specials a way to summon a small Horde on their own, introducing a tactical element to the gameplay loop. This means that Packmasters can summon cover-kin to blend in for sneaky charges, Ratling Gunners can distract Heroes with melee fodder before laying down fire, or the team can sync up and trigger all Hordes at the same time and overwhelm the opposition. The Horde ability is on a timed cooldown, which decreases faster with successful attacks with your current Pactsworn special and carries over between deaths.
We are excited to see how you interact with this new feature and hear what you think about it, looking forward to your feedback on this one.

A bit trickier were various feedback regarding Pactsworn or Hero balancing, speed running, match quitters and a general feeling of unfairness: all valid points, which we’ll be tackling moving forwards, but this also highlighted one big underlying issue: the lack of matchmaking. In the Alphas there were no guardrails preventing (for instance) solo queuing new players to meet an experienced four-stack, meaning that the experience could vary wildly from session to session. We believe that some of the “unbalanced experience” feedback may originate from this.

For the Beta, we’ve opted to rework our current matchmaking system. It's always been in our mind to improve it as much as possible, and after hearing your feedback from the Alphas we decided to go with a new solution for Versus. The new system should, on average, result in lower queue times, finding servers closer to you (resulting in lower latency), and more even games (for example, by trying to pair together premade groups). It will also allow us to more easily monitor the matchmaking in real-time and act quicker if we notice that something isn't working as we intended.

It won’t stop variously skilled players from meeting up occasionally, but at least the system should be able to favour other match setups. We hope that this will lead to more balanced and fun games, as well as lay a better foundation for future feedback.

On the usability side we are adding gamepad support for those who enjoy button mashing over keyboard smashing. Now that we are rounding up the core feature set we can finalize button assignments and focus on input tweaking to bring the controller experience up to par.

On the quality of life, balancing and bug fixes side there’s a number of things that are changed since the RAT. Some highlights include:

• We’ve updated the Pactsworn UI to display more useful information.
  
  • Enemy healthbars now also display stuff like remaining Wounds and shows regular and temporary HP as separate.
    
  • Your Pactsworn’s abilities and moves are all displayed in the HUD and it also shows their cooldowns.
    
  • Allies now have their names and respawn timers shown above their heads, hopefully making teamwork easier.
• We have moved all healing supplies to be more prominent on each level’s main path. By becoming easy to see “hot spots”, we should be able to create even more interesting and intense scenarios, inviting the Pactsworn to use them for ambushes.
  
• Based on prior test feedback we’ve made the Bile Troll a bit slower and less twitchy, but also gave him the ability to hold his vomit attack to aim it better before launching it.
  
• Buffed the Ratling Gunner by speeding up his ramp up and reload times as well as improving his effective range.
  
• Nerfed the Globadier slightly by making the initial damage of a globe lower but making that damage ramp up dramatically over time.
  
  • Mindlessly throwing globes won’t be as effective anymore, but catching unfortunate Heroes in a bad spot will create just as much chaos as before.
• Tweaked some objectives on Against the Grain to deter speedrunning and running ahead.
  
• Tweaked the VFX for the Warpfire Thrower and Globadier. On top of looking better, these should be easier to read in first person and more accurately show the actual area of effect.

For all of these features we are of course looking for further testing and feedback.

After the BAT ends, we aim to do at least one more Beta test focusing on some final systems and whatever adjustments come from the feedback we receive during this test. We unfortunately can’t give any details on what it’ll contain at this time, but we’ll tell you guys more when we get there.

On behalf of the entire Vermintide team, thank you for helping shape Versus into something great. See you in a BAT!

It is time to sharpen your blades, polish your whiskers, and get ready to sneaky stab-stab in the Versus Open Beta on August 21.



You heard that right, we're moving up from Alpha testing to Beta testing! This Beta will be open to ANYONE who signs up, including non-owners of Vermintide 2! Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets, everyone should come check out Vermintide Versus!

To sign up, head to Vermintide 2's store page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/552500/Warhammer_Vermintide_2/

You should see a button to sign up to the Warhammer: Vermintide Versus - Open Beta

Simply click the 'Request Access' button to sign up! Once the Beta goes live next week, you'll be notified and immediately able to play it!

We also have a Versus Dev Blog coming up ahead of the Beta so keep your eyes open for that, as well!

My name is Joakim, Design Director on Vermintide 2, here with a game update recap just in time for the summer.

As you all know, we started this year with a Closed and an Open Alpha Test for Versus, we celebrated the 6th Anniversary with a Quiet Drink and then wrapped up the Karak Azgaraz storyline with A Parting of the Waves - where Kruber’s team building excursion led to an encounter with a new type of Chaos Warrior.

A bit over a month ago, for Warhammer Skulls 2024, we released a big Chaos Wastes and Things™ update where we introduced Weekly Expeditions with new boons and rewards. Per popular demand, we added a loadout system to the game as well as the (even more requested) option to equip weapon illusions outside of Weaves. Both game modes saw some quality of life- and bug fixes, which increased their popularity and hopefully set you up for some fun games over the summer.

As for the Skulls event itself we once more had you collecting daemonic skulls and killing enemies - this year we set the aim for 1 billion kills, which you reached on the last day of the event. We did notice an issue with kills not counting correctly for losses in Versus or Chaos Wastes and we mitigated that halfway through the event in honor of some of the more devout pilgrims of you (Shoutout to Lancerkils and his 113 Cataclysm attempts in the first Weekly Expedition! Cousin Okri would be very proud indeed!)
Also, being able to purchase last year’s frame and weapon illusions with shillings during the event seems to have gone down well, so we’ll take that into consideration going forward.

Halfway through Skulls, we booted up the Returning Alpha Test, or RAT, where just over 25000 Steam players kill-slayed together in over 16000 games of Versus. Compared to the last test, the GOAT, the test ran for a bit longer and introduced the playable Bile Troll boss, pre-made Hero loadouts, and the PvP version of Against the Grain. Based on previous feedback we addressed the hotjoin hero picker, tweaked and tinkered with balancing for some of the Pactsworn, as well as adjusted some Hero temp HP gain and decay.

The survey made an appearance again, and the responses show that you’re still happy with the way Versus is progressing, giving it an 8.38/10 rating, with the score increasing for every test we do. Pactsworn are still perceived as more fun (no surprises there) but the Hero side is lagging behind. Part of this is due to class- and talent-specific balancing and tweaking, but other big requests relate to preventing speed running, onboarding & practicing, as well as clearing up objectives and scoring; some being specific to Against the Grain while others apply to the mode as a whole.

Speaking of Against the Grain - it does play quite differently compared to the previous missions and we were really keen on seeing what you’d do with the open fields and long sightlines. So far the feedback is a bit mixed, but now we can compare your opinions on the Screaming Bell, Righteous Stand, and Against the Grain missions. Aside from being popular Adventure missions, they represent a cross-section of Vermintide’s environments, map lengths, and topologies that will guide future PvP mission work.

The Bile Troll was generally perceived as a good (although squishy) addition to the game mode that made boss-killing Hero careers more relevant; the Bounty Hunter, Outcast Engineer, and Zealot made it into the top 10 list for the first time, with weapon preference staying mostly the same apart from the addition of the Blunderbuss. On the Pactsworn side, the Globadier is still strong and the buffed Warpfire Thrower got a better rating in RAT.

As always - a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the test, to all of you who filled out the survey (we got nearly 750 responses to read through), as well as everyone posting videos, streams, and thoughts on social media, discord, and forums. We can’t do it without your invaluable feedback!
We’ll be looking over all the feedback and bug reports to see what’s feasible for the next iteration - but as a lot of you wanted more mechanics for the Pactsworn side we’re looking into if we can expand their gameplay with some form of ability. We’re also making progress on matchmaking to pair up similarly skilled players for the next test, but we’re saving up on a Versus progression and reward system for release.

We are of course working on other things as well outside of Versus. As a fun teaser, here’s an animation reference prop for a potential upcoming weapon. Care to guess what it is and who it is for? You might win a pumpkin, you lucky bleeders.



Vermintide will take a bit of a break in July, but keep an eye out for updates and be hyped for an exciting autumn. By Sigmar, the Hammer, and the Empire - have a very pleasant summer!

Joakim, and the Vermintide team