This hotfix includes a handful of fixes and tweaks for Feast of Grimnir, as well as some grimoire fixes that mostly affect Horn of Magnus.

• Feast of Grimnir changes:

  • Added and re-shuffled placements of ammo boxes.

  • Tweaked grenade spawners.

  • Made sure all grenade spawners also spawn fire grenades

• Fixed collision issues in Horn of Magnus.

• Tweaked the collisions of Grimoires to prevent issues where they weren’t grabbable when they should.

• Feast of Grimnir fixes:

  • Added extra collision in various places to prevent the Cog or Barrels from getting out of bounds.

  • Filled in some small holes in walls

The Feast of Grimnir is upon us! Our brave Heroes must venture into the troll-infested hold of Karak Dal to prove themselves worthy of the title of ‘Drengbarazi’ by slaying every troll in sight!

Feast of Grimnir is a brand new, limited time, annually recurring event. This year’s event begins today and will last until September 14. For the duration of the event, the new event level, ‘The Feast of Grimnir’, will be accessible via the Weekly Event Game Mode. Play the level to complete event specific Okri’s quests and unlock rewards!

On top of that, Lohner’s Emporium of Wonders’s event section is open again, where you’ll be able to purchase a brand new cosmetic frame, alongside old event rewards from other recurring events!

As always, there will be double XP for all actions for the duration of the event!

If you’d like to know more about The Feast of Grimnir, check out the most recent entries in Lohner’s Chronicles (Part 1 and Part 2), as well as this dev blog about the level!

Without further ado…

• Enabled the new Feast of Grimnir event.

  • Complete event-specific Okri’s Quests during the event to receive exclusive rewards.

  • Taal’s Horn Keep has received a summery makeover that some of you might be familiar with!

  • Heroes will gain Double XP for the duration of the event.

• Added a new event level ‘The Feast of Grimnir’, available for the duration of the Feast of Grimnir event.

• Bots now avoid damage circles in Enchanter’s Lair.

• Bots are now able to detect attacks from multiple enemies at once that don't directly target them.

• Bots are now less prone to dodge into enemies.

• Boss health bars no longer disappear until bosses are dead. 

• Teammates attacking bosses will now make the health bar appear for oneself as well (similar to pinging). 

• Additional health bars will now appear if more than one boss is active at once.

• Players joining mid-match can now spawn while other players are riding an elevator

• Fixed the Chaos Spawn contemplating existence if a grabbed player disconnects.

• Fixed an issue with an illusion for Kerillian’s Dual Swords where it had the wrong name (Now correctly named ‘Eternos-Ichor Dual Swords’)

• Fixed an issue in Fort Bringing Bacon where the intro dialogue would not play if either Bardin or Saltzpyre were missing.

• Fixed playback limits for Blightstormers and Lifeleeches where audio issues could occur if a huge amount of them were spawned at the same time.

• Fixed an issue with the barrel pit in the finale for Tower of Treachery. Throwing barrels into it should be far more consistent now.

• Fixed a bug where the whole party immediately returns to the keep when the host presses "Return to The Keep" after losing a level, instead of the 45 second timer appearing.

• Fixed a crash when a source damaging a player is destroyed while dealing damage when the Baleful Empathy curse is active

• Fixed a bug where enemies hit while Aqshy's Incineration is active in a Bright Delving weave don't visually catch on fire while they are affected by the damage over time effect.

• Fixed a typo in the Louen Leoncoeur skin for Grail knight.

• Feast of Grimnir - Slightly moved pickups before boss drop (to hopefully make bots pick them up)

• Fixed various boons playing sound cues for the host when bots proc them during weekly chaos wastes runs.

• Fixed a crash entering the chain end event in Garden of Morr.

• Fixed a crash related to bot navigation.

• Feast of Grimnir fixes:

  • Filled in small hole in ground just before boss drop

  • Added extra collision in space under stairs (and platform)

  • Fixed a crash when the Troll Chief stands back up from the knocked down state if Troll Chief is in a very tight spot where no barrel socket manages to fit.

  • Fix for trolls not seeing players in the elevator.

  • Fixed a spot where players could get stuck in the Waterwheel section.

  • Fixed the music so that it’s properly synchronized between Host and Clients.

A brand new limited time mission! The Ubersreik 5 must venture into a Dwarfen hold that’s been overrun with Bile Trolls and exterminate them.

We’ve interviewed the main level designer for the new and upcoming Vermintide 2 event mission: The Feast of Grimnir!

“My name is Mikael Sundvall, I’ve been at Fatshark since 2016. I joined production of Vermintide 2 when they had just started as a Level Designer. \[...] I’ve been a Level Designer and a Level Artist, right now I am both. I’ve been involved in all the levels except for Bögenhafen.” ~ Mikael

From the beginning we knew we wanted to have a new recurring event sometime during the end of Summer to complement the rest of the yearly events. Mikael was asked to come up with ideas for a map that was unique and experimental enough to fit the celebratory nature of the event!

Mikael came up with about five different pitches, each more extravagant than the last. While this time we picked Feast of Grimnir, there’s always a chance to revisit those other ideas for later maps!

“That was kinda the pitch: adding ‘Dwarf’ and ‘Nurgle’ as a setting, and then focusing on Trolls as a gameplay theme.” ~ Mikael

The dwarf setting also gave Mikael the opportunity to use some assets he had already prototyped before, such as the giant statue setpieces used in the beginning of the level.

As always, after the pitch was selected, a Level Design Document was crafted that outlined a rough map of the level, showing each area with reference images and concept art to give an idea of what each area is meant to look like. From there, a basic blockout version of the level was made. Since we already had a lot of dwarfen assets, those were used instead of the typical gray boxes we usually use for blockout maps.

Once this foundation was established, Mikael, along with our other designers and artists, began to work on fleshing out and polishing the level through various iterations and tests, bringing it to life.

Beyond the troll theme, one of the more unique aspects of this map is its non-linear nature! It was also one of the biggest challenges. Unlike most maps, which start you from point A to B (with some maps also having different paths you can take to reach point B!), this level has a portion in the middle where there are multiple paths the players must take, each its own section of the map. Players can choose the order in which they tackle each path, but eventually they must go through all of them to complete the level!

“The idea for the whole setup is that \[...] there should be differences in each area depending on the order. So, for instance, if you take the cog first you gotta turn off all the lights, which will make the other areas dark. If you turn on the water, you’re going to raise the water level in the other areas \[…] I hope that players at least try to go through it in different order and realize that there are differences and find their own preferred path.” ~ Mikael

While that might not sound overly complicated, it actually proved quite challenging because of how the game’s Enemy Director functions, since it was designed with linear paths in mind. Near the end of Vermintide 2’s original production, Mikael had attempted and prototyped making entire levels out of this concept – an entire map split into different chunks that players could tackle in any order – but it had proven too incompatible with the Enemy Director’s linear nature. This map provided an opportunity to tackle it at a smaller scale; a section of the map being non-linear rather than the entire thing.

“This kind of level is kind of a test for it. If this is really cool we’ll see if maybe we want to try this in something bigger but… Anyhow, this was years ago that we were talking about this and now I finally got the chance to do this, to try it in a simpler setup.” ~ Mikael

In case you’re curious, the way we went about this is to make the AI director consider the entire multiple paths section (along with its central ‘hub’) to be one unified area. It’s only once you exit it through the elevator that the Director finally acknowledges the players moving to a different area!

“\[Originally] that was really the main thing, the end event. So it would be a section of traversal leading up to that area and that would be the main event in the level. But then \[...] we knew we wanted to have this ending where players could choose to not kill the trolls. \[...] It felt like that’s kind of anti-climactic for an ending, so that’s why we kind of said ‘we need something more at the end there’.” ~ Mikael

While escaping from a pack of trolls by the skin of your teeth is exciting enough, a troll hunt would not be complete without a proper slaying of trolls at the end, ey? But you’ll have to find out what that ‘something more’ at the end is yourselves. We’re really proud of how it turned out! There’s even some additional secrets to be found by those with a keen eye and a drive for exploration!

“I really like the statues. \[...] I mean the big, big statues. Even though it might be kind of simple from a gameplay perspective, it’s still like a cool moment I think.” ~ Mikael

That’s all we have for today! We hope you have a blast playing Feast of Grimnir!

~The Vermintide Team

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

Well, it took them long enough but the Ubersreik Five are back in residence, after chasing after… something. They don’t always tell me what they’re up to these days, but I suppose that’s to be expected. 

I can’t say that they were all entirely thrilled to find Cousin Okri and his grumble of longbeards camped outside the keep. “Just what we needed: more dwarfs,” is how Kerillian put it, but I suppose she has her reasons, good and bad. Kruber and Sienna just joined in with the quaffing as if nothing was out of place, and while Saltzpyre clearly wasn’t happy to have Okri hanging about and giving him competition for his otherwise uncontested mantle of “disapproving presence”, it was actually Bardin of all people who seemed least at ease. At least to start with.

The air cleared a little when Okri laid out his intentions, in a voice as close to walking on gravel as makes no difference. No, the Ubersreik Five hadn’t yet earned the title of drengbarazi but he, Cousin Okri, was prepared to give them a fine opportunity to do so.

The dwarf hold of Karak Dal isn’t what you’d call a particularly thriving settlement, so when a particularly belligerent troll chieftain stomped his way into its upper levels, they quickly found out that they didn’t have enough steady dwarfen warriors to chop the brute into strips of easily-cured meat. Though the elders quickly petitioned aide from other holds, times are tough, and with the ratmen running hither and yon across this part of the world, no help has readily been forthcoming.

Enter the Ubersreik Five! Or, at least, that’s the plan. Okri’s claiming that tomorrow marks the first day of the Feast of Grimnir, and that such times are best marked by finding the biggest and nastiest troll you can and letting your axe do the talking. I don’t know how much of that’s actually true. Both Bardin and Hedda were giving Okri funny looks. Could be that he’s just spinning a tale  - you never can tell with dwarfs.

However, Feast of Grimnir or not, some facts aren’t for questioning. The Ubersreik Five have to prove themselves to Okri’s discerning eye, and the dwarfs of Karak Dal need a bit of good old-fashioned derring-do and elbow grease to put an end to their troll troubles. Okri’s even wrangled Olesya’s crystal ball away from her so he and his grumble can keep an eye on what my bold heroes get up to down in the depths.

Win, lose or draw, it’s definitely going to be a fight to remember. 

And then, if I know my dwarfs, the drinking’s going to begin all over again.

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

I can’t tell you what a relief it is to have this chronicle back in my hands. It’s been missing so long, I couldn’t even tell you when I’d lost it. Turned the keep up and down, I have, and took every scoundrel in the place to task into the bargain. 

Sienna insisted Saltzpyre had nobbled it to ascertain as to whether or not I’d been scribbling down heretical musings. Heretical! Me! And this from the man who set us all looking for the Citadel of Eternity! Anyhow, when I’d had a good rummage through Saltzpyre’s chamber without success - some of the things I found there are better left uncommitted to the written page, I can tell you - Kerillian blamed Bardin, Bardin blamed Kruber, and Kruber just gave me that long, patient look I’ve been seeing a lot lately, and ushered me back downstairs with a stiff drink and a pat on the back. 

Where, naturally, I found this wretched book in a pile of unsorted stock for the Emporium of Wonders. Where’d I left it in the first place, most likely. Still, I don’t feel entirely unvindicated. There’s been a lot of little notes left in the margins in at least three different styles of handwriting. It’s a damned liberty is what it is, but I suppose under the circumstances I’d be better off not making more of a fuss. They’re all halfway to thinking that I’m just a foolish old man already,

Anyway, I’ve more troubling things to think on.

We’ve got guests. And not more of those “we took a wrong turn on the mountainside, and are powerfully averse to getting gored by beastmen” sort of guests. Dwarfs, in point of fact, and not any old dwarfs at that. This is no less a personage than one Cousin Okri, and a good grumble of longbeards. I’m pretty sure that a “grumble” is the collective noun for longbeards. If it isn’t, it should be, because so far as I can tell that’s all they do apart from fight endless bouts of practice combat and drink honest men out of their meagre stocks of ale.

What brings Cousin Okri – who I have to say is shorter than I expected, which is a strange thing to say about a dwarf – to my door? It’s a matter of honour, because of course it is. Turns out, that the title of “drengbarazi” is a weightier one than I’d realised, and Okri’s not best pleased to hear that Bardin’s chosen to bestow it on the other four-fifths of the Ubersreik Five. He’s insisting that their right to bear it be proven in suitable fashion, and forthwith – which I don’t mind saying is awful hasty for a dwarf. In the meantime, Okri and his grumble have set up camp part way down the mountainside, and the nights have been full of drunken singing and the clash of gromril axes ever since. 

I tell you, I can’t wait for the Five to return so we can get this matter sorted out. I’m not getting any younger and I need my beauty sleep.

And besides, I’m sure whatever Okri has in mind won’t trouble my merry band too much.

Almost sure.

It's a time for quaffing and settling old grudges — The Feast of Grimnir approaches, Heroes.

https://youtu.be/iQtJlHxZ6Lg

Modding

• This hotfix is a small patch to allow for a sanctioned update to the Crosshair Kill Confirmation mod

This hotfix includes the fixes missing from the Steam version.

Hotfix 6.6.4 - 30th of June

Fixes

• Fixed Necromancer’s flames being orange in the Victory screen.

• Fixed an issue where poses wouldn’t work at the end screen after playing Weaves

Hotfix 6.6.2 - 28th of May

Fixes

• Fixed players not being able to progress in Weaves.
  
• (Versus) Fixed recent balance changes unintentionally removing certain passive buffs from various careers.
  
• Fixed a crash if a skeleton attacks an enemy that is exactly on top of the skeleton
  
• Fixed a crash if a skeleton's target enemy is despawned the same frame that it starts its attack.
  
• Fixed an issue where random poses wasn't used in the end screen when completing weaves
  
• Fixed a bug where "reset" and "switch hero" descriptions switched places when crafting or salvaging items depending on if an item is selected or not.
  
• Fixed a bug where Handmaiden's "Asrai Alacrity" talent didn't increase power level when not being the party leader.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a crash when attempting to join someone from the main menu via Steam friends while they are hosting a Custom Game.
  
• Fixed a bug where the player would end up in an infinite loading screen if they are in a friend's level, go to the Main Menu, and then join their friend via friend joining.
  
• Fixed occasional enemy related crash when on very low framerate.
  
• Fixed a bug where the cursor got stuck on screen until shutdown if having viewed a cinematic in the main menu.
  
• Weave Skins are now available for Weapon Poses.
  
• (Chaos Wastes) Added the ability to scroll through the list of boons while in the Pilgrimage map.
  
• Patched a bug in the 'Neuter Ult Effects' mod that was breaking the Huntsman's career skill invisibility.
  
• (Chaos Wastes) Fixed the weekly expedition reward skin not displaying its name properly.
  
• The Well of Dreams fixes:
  
  • Fixed a crash when a players character despawns while inside a spotlight in The Well of Dreams
    
  • Fixed a client crash when walking into a spotlight area in The Well of Dreams just after losing connection to the host.
    
  • Fixed a spot where you could fall into a pit and get stuck.
    
  • Fixed a bug where you could turn the pages on the event books after the event was over.
    
  • Fixed a bug where interacting with the pages too fast will make the symbols look funky.
    
  • Fixed a crash involving shaders in the map.