Warhammer: Vermintide 2 News

Vermintide 2 Six Year Anniversary, Versus Alpha Test - Now Live!

Patch notes for the hotfixes after this patch can be found in our Hotfix 5.3.X Megathread

Heroes!

It’s time! The Sixth Anniversary event for Vermintide 2 has started and is now live on all platforms! It will run from today March 7th to March 18th, so make sure to enjoy it while it lasts!

Six years, huh? That’s quite a while! We said this before, but we really wanna hammer it home: We are SO grateful to you guys that this community is still going strong after all this time, having fun and enjoying the shenanigans of the Ubersreik Five. Here’s to many more years, here’s to all of the content coming in the future! There’s still a lot in the works, and not just the Versus Game Mode!

[h3]Developer Stream: 16:30 CET / 10:30 EST[/h3]
We’ll be hosting a stream with Joakim our Design Director, and Erik our Product Owner today at 16:30 CET / 10:30 EST. Tune in to chat about Vermintide and all the years that led us up to this point, the Versus test that’s happening during these weeks, and watch developers play a round or two of Versus themselves!
Link to stream.

[h3]A Quiet Drink[/h3]
As always, the celebratory map of ‘A Quiet Drink’ will be re-enabled during this anniversary event, letting you go out partying with your friends as the Ubersreik Five look for another place to drink! Access it through the Weekly Event tab in Adventure Mode Matchmaking!

[h3]New Portrait Frame[/h3]
Complete the anniversary map ‘A Quiet Drink’ during the event to earn a brand-new anniversary portrait frame!

Another Round

[h3]Double XP[/h3]
For the new players joining us, this’ll be a treat! We’ll also be doubling the XP earned from all matches for as long as the Anniversary event lasts! So, time to power level if you’re not maxed already!

[h3]The Great Versus Alpha Test[/h3]
Of course, that’s not all! For the entire duration of the Anniversary event, you’ll also be able to try out Versus! Available to all owners of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, you’ll get to hop onto the Versus-specific lobby from the main menu.

We had a ton of fun (and a ton of feedback!) from the Closed Alpha Test we held early February, so we’re really excited and hopeful to see that and more during this one, where everyone gets to participate!

What is Versus? Versus is a free new Game mode for Warhammer: Vermintide 2! It’s an asymmetrical PvP+E 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 the Hero team must play a regular game akin to Adventure mode, while the Pactsworn players have to stop them.

In case you missed it, here’s a link to our latest Dev Blog, where we go over our thoughts and takeaways from the Closed Alpha Test:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4139441932569145653

For those of you who have participated in the Closed Alpha Test, or just those curious, we’ve compiled a list of the major changes between the previous Test and this one:

Current testing map has changed! New map is Righteous Stand.
Added a scoreboard at the end of the match.
Team scoring has been reworked a bit to be more granular.
Enabled all 5 premium careers.
Tweaked some more outliers in abilities and talents. Of note, Outcast Engineer’s bomb spam has been toned down for this round of Versus testing.
Developer’s note: We know that Outcast Engineer currently needs looking at in the adventure mode as well, but we’re only touching him in Versus for now as a quick patchwork before giving him a proper thought out adjustment in the base game.
Increased the amount of NPC enemies.
Reduced the amount of pick ups scattered around the map (both ammo and health).

And for those who haven’t tried out Versus yet or want to know more, have a look at our Versus FAQ.

[h3]Premium Careers Complete Bundle[/h3]
Now that the final Premium career has been released with the coming of Necromancer Sienna, we have added a complete package bundle that includes all of the Premium Careers together, as well as a bundle that includes all of the Premium Careers and the cosmetic upgrades. If you don’t already own all of them, this is the best way to complete your collection!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38849/Warhammer_Vermintide_2__Careers_Bundle/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38850/Warhammer_Vermintide_2__Careers__Cosmetics_Bundle/

We hope you enjoy celebrating this new Anniversary with us, and we look forwards to hear your opinions on Versus! Without further ado…
[h2]Patch 5.3.0 Patch Notes [/h2]
[h3]Features & Tweaks [/h3]

Added brand new dialogue and level banter to the following levels:
- The Screaming Bell
- Righteous Stand
- Festering Ground
- Hunger in the Dark
- Into the Nest
Several improvements, fixes and optimizations for better sound performance and prioritization in high intensity combat
Improved memory optimizations across different sound categories.
Necromancer can no longer command skeletons to attack enemies behind obstacles.

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

Fixed more issues with geometry being invisible or visible when it shouldn't in Righteous Stand and Mission of Mercy.
Taught Sienna's skeletons how to not get stuck in the end arena event of The War Camp.
Fixed some sound issues with elevators.
Fixed some audio issues with specials that were nearby.
Tower of Treachery’s alchemy puzzle had the labels for Distillate of Shyish and Azyr swapped. Whoops...! That explains a few explosions.
Trail of Treachery: Fixed the collision on some fences so that you can't phase through them and fall to your death anticlimactically.
Fixed an issue where Sienna’s Beam Staff would sometimes lower music and ambience sounds for other players
Fixed an issue where the Bounty Hunter career ability would not trigger its sounds correctly in first person.
Fixed issues with Beastmen Wargor that made them play too many sounds sometimes.
Fixed issues with Outcast Engineer’s Piston Power talent that made it play too many sounds in some situations.
Fixed the initial cutscene sound on Dark Omens not playing if music was turned off.
Fixed some sound cues sometimes cutting out in Dark Omens’ end event in high intensity combat.
Fixed the Grudge-raker’s Weave illusion not playing any firing sound.
Fixed Saltzpyre’s Brace of Pistols triggering two shot sounds every single shot.
Fixed damage taken sound effects sometimes not playing when taking damage from globadier gas.
Fixed an issue where Keep painting Voice Over would not stop playing when switching painting or exiting the menu. Lohner gets the hint now.
Mission of Mercy: Patched a hole in the ground with rocks. Rocks always fix things.
Fixed the fog from the valve event in Mission of Mercy not always going away properly.
Fixed a bug where the barrels in the end event of Mission of Mercy could spawn outside the map. Also made them stick to the detonation points easier.
Removed an invisible wall in Khazukan Kazakit-ha! that could get players stuck.
Removed a floating test object in the background in Khazukan Kazakit-ha!
Fixed a bug where you could shoot the same bird multiple times to get more than one point of progress in the Eyes of the Crow Father challenge. You monsters.
Fixed some wonky terrain and ledge collision in A Grudge Served Cold.
Fixed a gap in the ceiling in A Grudge Served Cold.
Fixed collision for some spots in A Trail of Treachery where players could previously get stuck.
Fixed a spot where Battle Wizard could teleport out of bounds in Fortunes of War. Of course it was Battle Wizard, up to no good.
Fixed an issue where the cannonball in Fjord Brush-n-Buckle could spawn in a place that is sometimes inaccessible.
Fixed a door in A Grudge Served Cold and in Khazukan Kazakit-Ha! where enemies could phase through. Not today, Tzeentch!
Added missing spawners for Ravaged Art in Khazukan Kazakit-Ha!
Fixed a spot where players could jump off the castle in Tower of Treachery.
Fixed an exploitable spot where you could get out of bounds in The Pit.
Fixed a bug where bots would die when crossing the Skittergate. Lore accurate, really.
Fixed some spots in Festering Grounds that could result in instant death for no reason. Also lore accurate, really, that’s a nasty place.
Fixed a respawn spot in Trail of Treachery where players could respawn under the map.
Fixed a bug where the respawn in the finale of Khazukan Kazakit-Ha wouldn’t be used under some circumstances.
Adjusted a ledge in A Grudge Served Cold so it doesn’t trigger prematurely.
Fixed some flickering walls & roofs in Tower of Treachery.
Fixed some rattling skulls in the intro for Tower of Treachery that were making unnecessary noise.
Re-added Bardin's handgun missing hammer (it was clipped inside the weapon all along).
Fixed the bug where the cannon in Fort Blargula didn’t display a moving progress bar while interacting with it to aim it.
Fixed a bug where players who hotjoined into Trail of Treachery would still see the illusory village if they joined after it had disappeared. Olesya’s magic was just that strong.
Fixed Olesya not teleporting away into the night for clients at the end of Tower of Treachery.
Fixed an issue where aiming with the crossbow would play the sound twice.
Added missing sound effects to certain gates in The Pit.
Fixed bug where Packmasters kept their outline after pinning heroes on their hook.
Fixed an issue where certain light sources wouldn’t show properly behind spiderwebs or in certain lanterns.
Fixed a client crash when another player starts helping the client up from hanging on a ledge just as the client is about to fall.
Fixed an issue with the first person view of the Champion of Ubersreik Waystalker skin that would cause clipping when using the javelin.
Fixed some Tzeentchian looking noses for Slayer when using hats with built-in beards.
Tweaked the ice illusion for the Moonfire bow so that it doesn’t block the crosshair.
Fixed some localization issues.
Taught the bots how to use the ladder in Halescourge.
Fixed a bad respawn point in A Grudge Served Cold.
Moved a pickup and a bucket in Khazukan Kazakit-Ha! to prevent players from getting stuck.
Removed a leftover prototype object in the pyre for Khazukan Kazakit-Ha!
Fixed a spot where enemies could fall into the abyss and not die in Khazukan Kazakit-Ha!
Adjusted a spot where players could hang in midair, rather than from the edge of the cliff, in A Grudge Served Cold.

Vermintide 2’s 6th Anniversary event starts on March 7th!

Heroes,

It’s been six years! You’ve been slaying rats, northlanders, goats, and sometimes each other (More on that later, eh?) and we couldn’t be more grateful that you’re still around, having fun with our game. At the end of the day, this game wouldn’t be worth making if it wasn’t for you guys, so from the bottom of our hearts, thank you for being part of this great community!

The 6-year anniversary event will start on all platforms on March 7 and finish on March 17. As always, our heroes will be able to celebrate by having a proper night out in the ‘A Quiet Drink’ map, which will be enabled alongside the event. There’s also a brand-new portrait frame to go along with it, as well as double XP!

But that’s not all! We’re doing something special to go along with this particular celebration…!

[h2]Versus Alpha Test, open to all owners of Vermintide 2 on PC![/h2]
You probably know this if you saw last week’s dev blog, but we’re holding another Alpha Test for the Versus Game Mode, this time open to all who own Warhammer: Vermintide 2 on PC! The test will run on the main game client and last for as long as the anniversary lasts! That means it starts March 7th and ends March 17th.

Tell your friends! Tell everyone! It’s gonna be fun! We’re really looking forward to seeing you all play, share your thoughts and most fun moments, and tell us all your feedback!

See you all during the anniversary! Thank you for sticking with us, and we hope to keep you guys entertained for more years to come!

Warhammer Vermintide 2's new versus mode will start public tests soon

The new Warhammer Vermintide 2 versus mode is an exciting addition to one of the PC's most gloriously hectic co-op games, and its initial round of closed alpha testing has gone so well that you'll be able to give it a try very soon. First teased several years ago by developer Fatshark and finally on the brink of arrival, the versus mode follows in the footsteps of multiplayer greats such as Left 4 Dead 2 and Dead Space 2, allowing you to take on other players on both sides of the asymmetrical conflict between the Heroes of Ubersreik and the Skaven.

Read the rest of the story...

Developer Blog: Versus Closed Alpha Test

Greetings Heroes and Pactsworn alike,

My name is Joakim and I’m the Design Director for Vermintide 2. In this dev blog, I want to look at some findings from the Versus Closed Alpha Test and give you an update on the state of Versus.

To kick this off I want to extend our deepest gratitude to all of you who participated in the Closed Alpha Test. From a developer standpoint, it is always a scary feeling putting things out to you players for initial impressions, but we came out of this with the feeling of overwhelming success. You seemed to have a good time, we got a ton of good feedback, the servers were fairly stable and we did not see any overly alarming crashes or issues preventing play. In short, we couldn’t have hoped for anything more.

Now, on to some stats!

The Closed Alpha Test saw slightly over 3600 players on PC participating in a total of 6056 rounds across 2093 games. The overall majority of those ended up with a clear winner, with 7% ending in draws, and with matches concluding in general within 20-30 minutes on the Screaming Bell Versus mission.

For the Heroes, the top career picks were Mercenary, Battle Wizard, Ranger Veteran, Waystalker, and Witch Hunter Captain, with an overall meta solidifying around handguns and the longbow. For the Pactsworn the spread was fairly even across all specials but (not surprisingly) with a higher pick rate, playtime, and damage rate for the Globadier.

More than a thousand of you also answered our survey, which together with the forum and Discord posts made for some (long and) great reading. Again, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to provide us with thoughts and feedback for the good and the bad.

94% of the survey respondents have played Vermintide for more than 60 hours, and 85% of those usually play on Legend or Cataclysm difficulty (with an additional 13% players on Champion). Naturally, this showed in the test as well: high-performing Hero teams were outplaying the Pactsworn early on, although we did see a shift toward the end of the test as players were getting more familiar with kill-slaying as Skaven.

In terms of feature requests the majority of the feedback touched on the following:

Balancing being too much in favor of the Hero side, with a low amount of AI-controlled enemies and an abundance of healing items and THP.
Requests for playable bosses or elites.
Requests for a training area for the Pactsworn specials.
Requests for abilities or talents to deepen the Pactsworn gameplay.

All of this feedback aligns with our current goals and we aim to bring you more news soon on our plans going forward. As for balancing, we're continuously tuning it and further tests will help us figure out a sweet spot where a majority of players can enjoy Versus. Given that the Closed Alpha Test feedback is skewed towards more experienced players though, we are hoping to get more Recruit and Veteran players into the next tests to get their input.

Rest assured, we are tuning things for the next test to mitigate some of your frustrations. Matches were often too close in terms of scoring, and the Hero team reached the safe zone far more often than we liked. As a starting point we have upped some of the Pactsworn specials’ damage output, tweaked the amount and type of pickups in missions, as well as having adjusted some of the Versus Hero talents and abilities.

For the next test, you will play on a new map, see the addition of premium careers, get kick and mute options, see a match score screen, and Versus specific menu settings. We’re also aiming to do the next test directly in the Vermintide game and not on a testing app, and for this reason, we’re adding a title screen, just like for consoles, with shortcuts to Adventure, Chaos Wastes, and Versus.

Speaking of consoles, you are due a clarification here. Unfortunately, the outlook is not great for seeing the game mode on Xbox or PlayStation. There are a number of reasons for this, but primarily it's due to technical limitations on the memory and network side. Vermintide 2 was not built with Versus in mind, and as we are bending the game and engine even for PC there are no good alternatives available for console at this point. We could of course have decided not to pursue the game mode at all, but from what we’re seeing we strongly believe that PvP+E is a great addition to Vermintide and an innovation worth pursuing. In the end, we’re making the call that it is better to release it to some than not at all.

Deciding to separate the platforms and player base is not an easy one, and we understand that we are letting our console players down in that regard. To some comfort for you, as well as for the ones uninterested in Versus, know that we have exciting things in the works this year.

As for the next Versus test, we’re delighted to announce our next alpha will launch very soon, and will be open to all owners of Vermintide 2! We hope that you are as excited as we are and that you watch this space for any updates! On behalf of the team, thank you so much for your continued support. Together we can make Versus a great addition to our beloved Vermintide.

See you in a poison wind gas cloud soon,

Joakim, and the Vermintide team

Hotfix Megathread 5.2.x

Heroes!

This announcement will catalogue all the hotfixes we have released for patch 5.2.0 that came in with the 2023 Rebalance patch, and will be kept current with the latest hotfix release added to the top of the patch notes.

[h2] Hotfix 5.2.3 - February 6th [/h2]
[h3] Balance changes [/h3]

Reverted the monster damage nerf to Dual Daggers and instead applied a 15% damage nerf to Shade's career skill, to follow along with the general nerf to monster killers in patch 5.2.0

Increased the base crit chance of Dual Dagger heavy attacks by 10%

Reduced the base crit chance of Sword & Dagger's second heavy attack by 10%.

Outcast Engineer: Increased "Ingenious Ordnance" bomb craft time to 120 seconds.

Outcast Engineer: reduced the bonus crit chance from "Perilous Overclock" to 8%

Falchion, Crowbill, One-handed Flail: Reduced stamina cost for pushing to 1 (half a shield)

Reduced the Masterwork Pistol's damage modifier vs monsters by 22%

Chaos Wastes: Reduced Grudge Mark bonus health modifier by 16%

[h3] Fixes [/h3]

Fixed issue where some Gifts of the Wolf Father illusions were not showing up in the crafting menu for certain players.

Fixed the issue that caused Frame generation technology to not work.

The Shade nerfs are meant to bring her in line with the nerfs to other monster killer careers without targeting the Dual Daggers and instead nerfing her directly. Since we've also received feedback that the dual daggers could use some love and that the Sword & Dagger are a bit too good, we've done a tune up there.

The Masterwork Pistol nerf is also part of the overall effort to reel in all monster killers.

Outcast Engineer is a tad overtuned which is why we're applying these nerfs to these two talents. We'll be monitoring the community response to these to see if these changes are enough or if more needs to be done to reel him back a bit.

The Falchion, Crowbill and One-handed Flail have been changed to go along with the general buff to one-handed weapons that was done in the initial balance pass.

[h2] Hotfix 5.2.2 - December 20th [/h2]
This one is tiny, I promise!
[h3]Fixes[/h3]

Fixed Bestigors and Minotaurs ending their charge early if they have to run around an obstacle.
Fixed an exploit where an Outcast Engineer with the "Bombadier" talent gained 3 new grenades when leaving and rejoining a game. Cheeky!
Fixed a bug where Outcast Engineer's "Superior Gaskets" talent did not provide power on clients.

[h2]Hotfix 5.2.1 - December 19th[/h2]
[h3]Fixes[/h3]

Fixed crash when bots use true flight attacks like Waywatcher ability or Necromancer "Lost Souls" which target enemies that get removed from the game.
Fixed a bug where a Sienna premium cosmetic item was missing its store icon.
Fixed a bug where "Lingering Flames" DoT stacked. Sorry, Battle Wizard mains!
Fixed a bug where Engineer's "Bombardier" talent did not give Bardin three bombs on first spawn. Engineer mains can now once again aim for the back of the elf's head!
Fixed rare crash where Mercenary's talent "Strike Together" could crash the game when the target ally was removed on the same frame as when buff was applied.
Fixed a bug where Warrior Priest's talent "Blazing Bright" granted him Fury when he was knocked down. You're not a Necromancer, Saltzpyre!