Heroes and Pactsworn!
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!
What is Versus?
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!)
How to access Versus?
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.
Familiar Grounds, new battles
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
Climb the ranks! Versus Progression system
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
New Cosmetic Type: Pactsworn Cosmetics
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.
New Cosmetic Type: Hero Poses
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.
Focus Week: Kerillian VS Gutter Runner!
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
Vermintide 2 Progression Rework
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
Introducing: The Handbook
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)!
Invite your friends - Vermintide 2 on a 95% discount!
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!
Developer Stream - November 14th - 17:00 CET
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…
Patch 6.0.0 Patch Notes
Main Features
- 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.
Balance Changes
- 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.
Other Features & Tweaks
- 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.
Versus-only Tweaks (compared to last beta)
- 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.
Fixes
- 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
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!
- 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.
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
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)
- (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.
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
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.
- (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