Warhammer: Vermintide 2 News

Welcome to the fourth out of five weekends of the Versus Spotlight events. Every week, we’ll take a closer look at one of the Ubersreik 5 and one of the Pactsworn Specials. Unlock unique time-limited rewards, learn more about the spotlight Hero and Skaven, and do it all while having fun. This week's spotlight will be on good ol' One Eye Saltzpyre and the cruel Packmaster!

[h2]Previous Spotlight's Rewards[/h2]
An update on the way the rewards are handed out:
Due to feedback from the community, as well as some technical issues on our end regarding this, we've decided to change how rewards for the Spotlight are given out.

All rewards for the spotlight will now be earned upon completion of the kill counter. That means all of the currency, portrait frames and Hero poses will be unlocked for the community (alongside the Pactsworn skin, as before).

This change is retroactive and will also affect the rewards of the first weeks of the spotlights.

The rewards for the previous spotlight have just been delivered, so check your inventory! As a note, the Hero Pose might take a few restarts before it applies properly to your account. Sorry about that!


There are unique rewards to unlock weekly, all earned by the community as a whole through completion of the Kill-Counter. There are currency rewards, portrait frames, skins, and weapon poses to be earned.

Saltzpyre & Packmaster Spotlight rewards will be earnable between December 5 - December 8. All rewards will be granted the following week.

[h2]Kill-Counter[/h2]
Rally together as community to eliminate Heroes in Versus to complete the Kill-counter. If the community completes the counter, you will all unlock:

• An exclusive skin for the Packmaster!
• 120 shillings.
• 100 Helmgart Sellsword Marks.
• A brand new Portrait frame.
• A Hero Pose for Saltzpyre!

Since all rewards are tied to the kill tracker, and since you've all been smashing through every target so far, we've decided to up the ante and increase the target kills from 40K Hero kills to 250K! Get crackin', players, that's a lot of Heroes to kill.



[h3]Victor Saltzpyre[/h3]

For Victor, life has ever been a never-ending battle against heresy and destruction – the beleaguered Reikland is but a vaster stage upon which to strut his hour. Though it is hardly in Victor’s nature to trust such outcasts as are his companions in these dark days, he accepts that righteous work can sometimes be accomplished by stained souls and soiled hands.

Learn more about Victor Saltzpyre here!

[h3]The Packmaster[/h3]

The Packmasters of Clan Moulder excel in driving packs of ravening beasts into battle, but in the crush of the swarm they favour other tactics. Clan Moulder is ever seeking new subjects to further its vile breeding experiments, and every Packmaster covets the bounty paid for a particularly noteworthy prize.

Learn more about the Packmaster here!

Welcome to the third out of five weekends of the Versus Spotlight events. Every week, we’ll take a closer look at one of the Ubersreik 5 and one of the Pactsworn Specials. Unlock unique time-limited rewards, learn more about the spotlight Hero and Skaven, and do it all while having fun.

[h2]Previous Spotlight's Rewards[/h2]
You guys continue to smash through these! The target for the Community Challenge was surpassed in no time and so the community as a whole has unlocked the Ratling Gunner skin.



For everyone who played during the last spotlight, you've earned these goodies, depending on your playtime:

The rewards for the previous spotlight have just been delivered, so check your inventory! As a note, the Hero Pose might take a few restarts before it applies properly to your account. Sorry about that!


There are unique rewards to unlock weekly through the Kill-Counter and personal rewards to unlock through a small ‘win-track’. There are currency rewards, portrait frames, skins, and weapon poses to be earned.

Sienna & Poison Wind Globadier Spotlight rewards will be earnable between November 28 - December 1. All rewards will be granted the following week.

[h2]Kill-Counter[/h2]
Rally together as community to eliminate Heroes in Versus to complete the Kill-counter. If the community completes the counter, you will all unlock an exclusive skin for the Poison Wind Globadier.

[h2]Spotlight-track[/h2]
Meanwhile, the win-track rewards will be unlocked depending on how much time you spend in Vermintide 2. Don’t worry, it won’t be too difficult, we promise. You can play Adventure, Chaos Wastes, Weaves, or Versus to unlock the rewards*.

• Playing for at least half an hour earns you 60 shillings.
  
• Playing for at least an hour earns you another 60 shillings as well as 30 Helmgart Sellsword Marks.
  
• Playing for at least two hours additionally earns you a brand new Portrait frame and 70 Helmgart Sellsword Marks.
  
• Playing for at least three hours additionally earns you a Hero Pose for Sienna!
  

This playtime is tracked across all game modes, but is only tracked while in an actual match.

*You cannot actively check on your track progression. All rewards will be granted the following week



[h3]Sienna[/h3]

Sienna Fuegonasus is an addict, forever torn between her will to control the destructive magics of Aqshy – the Wind of Fire – and a burgeoning desire to set the world alight for no other reason than the rush of magic in her bones. Another being might succumb to such temptations, and indeed, many have. But Sienna’s compassion and wry sense of humour keep her grounded.

Learn more about Sienna here!

[h3]Poison Wind Globadier[/h3]

Tattered robes and ramshackle gas masks grant Poison Wind Globadiers a sinister silhouette. This is a harbinger well-deserved, as are the rasp of rotting lungs and the acrid stench of warp-gas that sours the air about them.
Globadiers care nothing for the lives of their fellow skaven, and will happily slaughter dozens of their own kind to fell a single foe. Life is cheap in the Under-Empire, and victory forgives all.

Learn more about the Poison Wind Globadier here!

[h2] Hotfix 6.0.7 - 28th of November [/h2]
[h3] Fixes [/h3]

• Fixed an issue that made it so that Hero levels past 30 did not continue increasing the minimum item power from gear received from crafting, as introduced in a previous hotfix.

We've also applied all of the rewards from last week's spotlight! It might be necessary to restart the game a couple of times to get them applied, sorry about that!

[h3]Status update for the players who lost progression during the update:[/h3]
Our Backend Service Provider have now confirmed that they are unable to restore/provide us with a snapshot of the missing account data, sadly. Though, we would like to reassure you that after working with them on this issue, new measures are in place that should a similar issue arise in future (we certainly hope not!) that we will have the necessary data backups in place.

What does this mean?
We will be proceeding with our plan B to restore the missing account data.

What will Fatshark be doing?
Our backend developers will be working with our analytics team to rebuild the missing account data ourselves, and then merge this into your current account data.

How long will this take?
It's difficult to give an ETA currently, as our teams are planning the most effective way to proceed, and it is a lot of account data. We'll hopefully have a clearer idea of this soon, and will continue to communicate on the issue as regularly as we can.

Is it safe to continue playing on my account with missing progression?
Yes. We will be merging the missing account data into your current data - so any recent progress should be kept.

Are there any risks?
There is a small risk that merging the missing account data with current account data may lead to some slight discrepancies and cause minor elements of recent progression to be lost. Though, this would be far less than the current missing progression, and we will do our best to assist anyone should this happen. Though we will be doing all we can to best avoid this.

You can follow the status on this issue here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/552500/discussions/9/4631483655073586117/

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.





Good news, master!

The warlocks have devised a new means of powering the farsqueaker. It runs now on warp energy harnessed directly from the collapsed Skittergate, with only the tiniest of chances of an explosion. Less than one in five! It is better than the scamper wheel they used before, they say, and I am minded to agree as listening to their huffing and whining at the controls while I try to think-speak was growing most tiresome.

But this is not the good news. No-no. The Gutter Runners we hired from Clan Eshin have finally made good on their promise to find-find the Furless Five.

Their leader, a treacherous shadow of a rat who calls himself Sly Scarpaw, claims to have followed two of the brigands’ number, the man-thing, Kruber, and his mulish companion, Bardin, to a drinking place in the nearby man-burrow of Bögenhafen. Naturally, I demanded to know what progress he had made in locating this ‘Taal’s Horn Keep’ that the locals we torture squeal so excitedly about, but he made his usual excuses.

‘It is home to a powerful magician.’

‘Illusions and shadows keep it from being found.’

And other such chitterings.

I sense your skepticism, master, and I share it. Clearly, Sly Scarpaw over-promised and now makes excuses for his failures (behaviour that would shame the tail off an honest skaven), but better a mouse in the hand than two in the burrow as my litter-mother used to say. So I found-sniffed my sword and my shield and gathered thirty of your fiercest clanrats and scurried off to Bögenhafen-place to see-smell for myself if Scarpaw squeaked true.

There, indeed, were Bardin and Kruber, engaged in the ritual consumption of weakly poisonous beverages and bouts of play-fighting that the furless races seem to find pleasurable. This was even better than I dared hope, master! Not only were the hapless duo separated by many miles from their mighty allies, but they were intoxicated to boot. I ordered the clanrats to secrete themselves around the tavern, ready to heroically slaughter any who dared stagger from its doors.

My plan was foolproof!

But if there is one thing I learned from the late, unlamented Skarrik Spinemanglr, it is to never underestimate a fool.

It is truly a testament to the visionary nature of your plan, master, the sheer audacity of it, the genius, that it occurred to quite a lot of other skaven as well.

It was while we were bravely seeking out hiding places that we found ourselves, in my case literally, treading on the tails of a second skaven war-party who had got there just ahead of us. These skaven followed a chieftain called Snifh Weeviltongue, who had with him a not-inconsequential host numbering well over hundred clanrats – did I say a hundred? I meant three hundred – supplemented by two dozen hulking stormvermin and a veritable arsenal of Clan Skryre weaponry.

To this moment, I am unsure if this was not some elaborate ploy of Sly Scarpaw to sell us out, for no sooner had a poisoned throwing star left his paw on its way to Snifh Weeviltongue’s left eyeball than a ratling gun started up from somewhere across the street and there were several hundred clanrat warriors squealing murder and going for it claw and tooth.

The tavern caught fire, I am not certain how, and before a rat could squeak Pestilent Brotherhood there was the Ubersreik Two with axe and halberd, carving their way through fearless skaven warriors still more intent on murdering each other.

I had, of course, bravely and selflessly distanced myself from the worst of the fighting, the better to report the good news to you, most demanding of despots.

The Furless Five live! To be kill-stabbed by you at some later time.

While they sleep, maybe.

Just a thought.

Your tireless and ever-loyal servant, Skratch Dirtnose…

[h2] Hotfix 6.0.6 - 26th of November [/h2]

[h3] Features & Tweaks [/h3]

• (Versus) Capture points now displays a flag that lowers and raises as the Heroes capture it.
  

[h3] Fixes [/h3]

• Fixed bug where pre level 30 level up chests didn't play sound when opened up.
  
• Fixed a crash when selecting a random map in VS player hosted lobbies.
  
• Fixed a crash that happened when a handbook popup was forcefully destroyed.

Welcome to the second out of five weekends of the Versus Spotlight events. Every week, we’ll take a closer look at one of the Ubersreik 5 and one of the Pactsworn Specials. Unlock unique time-limited rewards, learn more about the spotlight Hero and Skaven, and do it all while having fun.

[h2]Previous Spotlight's Rewards[/h2]
But first, congratulations is in order! The first week's spotlight, Kerillian VS Gutter Runner, was a smash hit! The target for the Community Challenge was surpassed in no time, reaching a whopping 270,000 out of 40,000 by the time the event had ended, and was just shy of a million before the reset today! That's a lot of Heroes slain, you devilish Pactsworn!



For everyone who played during the last spotlight, you've earned this Kerillian Hero Pose and this portrait frame (provided you accumulated enough playtime!):

[h2]This Week's Rewards[/h2]
There are unique rewards to unlock weekly through the Kill-Counter and personal rewards to unlock through a small ‘win-track’. There are currency rewards, portrait frames, skins, and weapon poses to be earned.

Kruber & Ratling Gunner Spotlight rewards will be earnable between November 21 - November 24. All rewards will be granted the following week.

[h2]Kill-Counter[/h2]
Rally together as community to eliminate Heroes in Versus to complete the Kill-counter. If the community completes the counter, you will all unlock an exclusive skin for the Ratling Gunner.

[h2]Spotlight-track[/h2]
Meanwhile, the win-track rewards will be unlocked depending on how much time you spend in Vermintide 2. Don’t worry, it won’t be too difficult, we promise. You can play Adventure, Chaos Wastes, Weaves, or Versus to unlock the rewards*.

• Playing for at least half an hour earns you 60 shillings.
  
• Playing for at least an hour earns you another 60 shillings as well as 30 Helmgart Sellsword Marks.
  
• Playing for at least two hours additionally earns you a brand new Portrait frame and 70 Helmgart Sellsword Marks.
  
• Playing for at least three hours additionally earns you a Hero Pose for Kruber!
  

This playtime is tracked across all game modes, but is only tracked while in an actual match.

*You cannot actively check on your track progression. All rewards will be granted the following week



[h3]Kruber[/h3]

Although still world-weary and marked by his experiences, Kruber has found purpose in the aftermath of Ubersreik. As a soldier first, last and always, he understands that some battles have to be fought, no matter the cost. And who better to fight them than Markus Kruber?

Learn more about Kruber here!

[h3]Ratling Gunner[/h3]

The Ratling Gun is a six-barreled monstrosity of unparalleled fire-rate, powered by warp steam and operated with a hand crank. This fearsome weapon is normally operated by a Clan Skryre weapons team, but lighter, experimental versions have been sighted in the Reikland. These variants require only a single ratman to act as crew, with little apparent trade-off.

Learn more about the Ratling Gunner here!

[h2] Hotfix 6.0.4 - 20th of November [/h2]
[h3] Features & Tweaks [/h3]

• Tweaked the power of items received from crafting: Each Hero level past level 30 increases the minimum power of crafted items by 1. This means that at sufficiently high levels, crafted items are guaranteed to be 300 item power. Only the level from the highest level character is considered.
  
• (Versus) Tweaked the Helmgart Sellsword Marks received from playing matches: Players now receive 5 coins for playing a match, plus another 5 if they won.
  
• Tweaked the rarity of some of the Skaven skins.
  
• Added the ability to equip Hero Poses on the Deprecated UI.
  
• Removed fade to black when exiting the handbook.
  
• (Versus) Increased the window where players will count as having assisted or caused an enemy player kill based on how long it's been since you've last dealt damage to them.
  
• (Versus) Various quality of life improvements to the Custom Game lobby:
  
  • Added the option to create private versus custom lobbies. Private games can be joined by friend joining through Steam or the in-game friend UI.
    
  • Added more sound effects to various actions in the lobby.
    
  • Added the option to make the level random.
    
  • Added gamepad support for the custom game menu and lobby.
    
  • Changed so your team is always blue and the enemy team is red.
    
  • Added Steam avatars in custom game lobbies.
    
  • Changed the position of the leave button so it is harder to misclick.
    
  • Added an message for when a player-hosted VS lobby cannot be started (eg. everyone is on the same team).
• (Versus) Made improvements to how versus lobbies are displayed in the lobby browser.
  
• (Versus) Slightly reduced the XP gained from winning matches, completing matches, and eliminating heroes.
  
• (Versus) (Fort Brachsenbrücke) Added another ladder back up on the first bridge to more easily revive downed Heroes
  
• (Versus) Pactsworn can no longer hear key pickup on Against the Grain.

[h3] Fixes [/h3]

• (Versus) Fixed an issue where the Pactsworn keybind prompts would overlap with the subtitles.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a missing sound when clicking the 'continue' button on the end screen.
  
• (Versus) Fixed an issue where the text would overlap in the end screen in some languages.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a bug where destroying all 9 chains in Screaming Bell would progress the related challenge by 10 instead.
  
• Fixed an issue where some cosmetics on Lohner's Emporium would say "Equippable by all Heroes and Careers" when they weren't.
  
• (Versus) Fixed various issues in Righteous Stand, including a spot where players could get stuck, a potion that was hard to pick up, some visual bugs, and more.
  
• (Versus) Fixed the rumbling sound effect not stopping if you die while shooting as a Warpfire Thrower.
  
• Fixed the Mission Select tutorial showing up in non-Adventure keeps.
  
• Fixed DLC rewards and handbook popups showing on top of each other.
  
• Fixed a visual glitch on the pagination buttons in the handbook.
  
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible to open the handbook with controller in the pause menu.
  
• Fixed an issue where you couldn't scroll the text on handbook popups using a gamepad.
  
• Fixed an issue where the talents where half transparent in the tab menu.
  
• Made bots in Versus always use default loadouts in both Dedicated Servers and player hosted games, avoiding various crashes.
  
• (Versus) (Custom Game) Fixed gamepad input description being incorrect.
  
• (Versus) (Custom Game) Fixed confirm input not being confirmed when selecting a map.
  
• Fixed the reward tooltips in difficulty select showing the best earned chest instead of the chest the player would earn at their level.
  
• Fixed crash that could happen when a player left while in a loading screen.
  
• (Versus) Added a lever to open the Ruins in Engines of War to avoid the mission being soft-locked.
  
• Fixed an issue with Bile trolls portrait frames not showing the correct description
  
• Fixed a visual glitch on the next/prev page arrows in the handbook when using a controller
  
• Fixed strings not being uppercased in a locale-dependant way (eg. `Botín de guerra` was `BOTíN DE GUERRA`).
  
• (Versus) (Engines of War) Fixed a bug where Skaven players can get soft-locked when they Q to Heroes that are AFK in the safe zone
  
• (Versus) (Engines of War) Added a fix to prevent Skaven players from entering the Hero safe zone before the round starts
  
• (Versus) (Engines of War) Added a fix to prevent Hero players from leaving the safe zone before the round starts
  
• (Versus) (Engines of War) Climb point improvements
  
• Fixed a bug where allies that left the game early would be shown in the enemy team's scoreboard.
  
• (Versus) Fixed bug where pact sworn climb points blocked interactions for heroes.
  
• (Chaos Wastes) Fixed a crash caused by the damage sharing curse.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a crash caused by joining a match and trying to sync things that the joining player hadn't loaded yet.
  
• Fixed a bug where "Player eliminated" badge showed to the Sienna player when Sienna dies from overheating. As hilarious as it was.
  
• (Versus) (Fort Brachsenbrücke) Fixed an issue where the cannon balls can get stuck in the elevator
  
• (Versus) (Fort Brachsenbrücke) Fixed an issue where players can not pass the destroyed Ram gate easily on both sides
  
• (Versus) (Fort Brachsenbrücke) Fixed some areas where players can get stuck or end up inside geometry
  
• (Versus) Versus lobbies now show the difficulty as 'Versus' in the browser.
  
• (Versus) Fixed an issue that could cause player-hosted VS lobby level selection to sometimes fail saving.
  
• (Versus) Fixed a crash when trying to reserve a spot in a custom versus game before joining.
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen when closing the handbook.
  
• (Versus) Fixed kill and knockdown confirmation badge in Versus not properly showing when players are credited eliminations but are not dealing the final blow.
  
• Fixed a crash when spawning as a DLC career if purchasing it while the game is running. Purchasing a dlc career no longer prompts the user to restart.
  
• (Versus) Fixed victory and defeat sound stingers being muffled at the end of a match

[h3] Status update for the players who lost progression during the update: [/h3]
Hey all,

Apologies for the wait on an update to this issue. We hear your frustrations and concerns, understandably.
We are still working with our backend service provider in an attempt to restore missing player data. A list of all affected player accounts has been provided to our backend service provider, and they are working to provide a snapshot of the lost player data before the issue occurred (which would be the fastest resolution); with which we can merge this back into your post update-6.0.0 account progression.

However, to be fully transparent, we have been informed that this is not guaranteed. It will take a little more time to know for sure. We appreciate this is concerning to hear, and we want to reassure affected players that we have a plan B should it be needed.
Our second option, involves using other existing logs and data we have, to create a ""backup"" that can bring your account data as close as possible to what is was prior to update 6.0.0, and then merge this with your post update-6.0.0 account progression. This is an extensive task and will take longer to deploy - so we are hoping it won't come to this.

In the meantime, this hotfix includes a part-fix to unlock Cataclysm again for any players who previously had it unlocked.
We'll continue to provide updates and share more information as soon as we can. Thank you for your continued patience.

You can follow our progress on this issue through this thread on our forums.
[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

• Selecting a map in Custom Game and then switching to Random Map will crash the host.
  
• Players joining a Custom Game that is in the Hero selection phase will crash.

We’re hoping to get those issues fixed as soon as possible.

[h2] Hotfix 6.0.5 - 22nd of November [/h2]
[h3] Fixes [/h3]

• Fixed a bug that caused the Warrior Priest to not gain any fury from nearby enemies dying when playing as client.
  
• Fixed the issue that allowed a Grail Knight with the 'Virtue of Audacity' talent to interrupt the second swing of the career skill to avoid going on cooldown.
  

We've also applied all of the rewards from last week's spotlight! It might be necessary to restart the game a couple of times to get them applied, sorry about that!