Vermintide 2

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Vermintide 2, also known as ratclick 2, is the sequel to The End Times: Vermintide, made possibly due to the fact that the first game surpassed expectations and did pretty fucking well for a relatively niche title (2 million fucking copies sold!). Fatshark sensibly shortened the name from "Warhammer The End Times: Vermintide 2" to avoid sounding like a Japanese light novel, much to the joy of nerds who hate The End Times (pretty much everyone).

On October 10th, 2018, Vermintide 2 was announced, bringing a host of new additions. Most notably the Warriors of Chaos are being added as an enemy type. Specifically the jolly ones that don't mind being pox bloated messes. Along with the new enemy race, the Skaven also have a few new additions, such as the Stormfiends and Warpfire Throwers. Around a year after release, everyone's favorite non-Welsh sheep shaggers were added as well.

The game was released on March 8, 2018, and quickly surpassed its prequel's success with 1 million sales in its first month alone.

The game became truly playable after a patch was released on April 12, 2018 to which brought back Saltzpyre's signature voiceline (actual patch notes banner).

It is Awesome.

Setting

Vermintide 2 is set during the End Times, an indeterminate amount of time since the ending of the previous game. After falling into Rasknitt's trap (and thus letting Ubersreik fall), the Ubersreik Five (or Four, doesn't matter) have ended up in their own castle and banded together again to face the Skaven forces of Clan Fester, along with their new allies: a Chaos Warband dedicated to Nurgle known as The Rotbloods. Both forces came together as the Pactsworn, their eyes gazed on the fortress town of Helmgart (the border town Bretonnia always conquers within the first 10 turns of an Empire Total War: WARHAMMER campaign).

Lohner has dialogue indicating the timeline is smack dab in the middle of the End Times as Louen Leoncouer is already dead (Please have mercy Matt Ward)! Due to the presence of a Nurgle-aligned warband, it is possible that the game is set during/after the Fall of Marienburg. The Skaven are up to their usual hijinks (Pillaging, slaughter, slavery... You know, a normal day in Warhammer). Their main objective is trying to build something called the Skittergate (it's different from that movie which they have never seen, so how would they copy it?), a portal between Norsca and Helmgart, explaining how the Skaven and their new allies overran the region. The Rotbloods are here to help the Skaven with murder-fucking everyone in the Reikland and bringing great death-death to poor Helmgart. Clan Fester's also out for blood as payback for Ubersreik, even though Ubersreik apparently fell anyway.

There are a total of thirteen maps in the base campaign. These span: the town of Helmgart itself, where the heroes create a diversion at the Temple of Sigmar before the Hammerman himself purges it of vikings and rats; an Elven temple ruin in the woods where the gang uses a slow-moving puzzle to raise a magic shield; Ussingen, a farming town where the heroes rescue prisoners and later blow up a Chaos supply cache; a Nurgle-blighted canyon with a fortified Chaos Lord's tomb, which the gang destroys to stop the Rotbloods from harvesting his energy; a dense swamp, where the heroes assault the Rotbloods' main war camp and slay their leader, a Nurgle Champion; and quite a lot more besides, culminating in a double assault on the Skittergate and the Rotblood hometown in Norsca, obliterating both of them and saving Helmgart, or what's left of it. The gang is so badass that the shitty army left at Ubersreik was enough to take over while a Skaven-Rotblood alliance couldn't do jack to them. Such is life as a video game protagonist.

The Shadows Over Bögenhafen DLC has the gang end up in the titular town where they wipe out the Pactsworn a second time and keep a scary daemon sword out of Nurgle's grubby hands over three more maps. Back To Ubersreik has them enter a magic simulation of Ubersreik being run by Olesya to try to locate some mysterious runes of power in the real Ubersreik, re-defeating the Skaven in it because she's trying to keep it as "believable" as possible (and also the Rotbloods, who either found a way to break into the simulation or are part of the simulation because Olesya likes messing with our heroes), with three levels from the previous game and a secret fourth you can try out after finding runes from the past levels through a series of tedious puzzles. In the Winds of Magic DLC the Beastmen get involved because the increasingly fucked Reikland now has a meteor crash onto it, and the angry goats surge out of the woods to make a herdstone out of it. Then there's the roguelike Chaos Wastes, given for free to everyone who got the game, wherein Saltzpyre sets up a pilgrimage through the wastes to assuage his waning faith.

An event for the 1 year anniversary (March 2019) gave us "A Quiet Drink," in which the party decides they've done a very good job so far, and deserve a night on the town! Worth playing just for the many custom voice lines for the utterly sloshed characters. ("Queen Kerillian demands MORE ALE!") ("It wouldn't be the same! It wouldn't have the whistle!") While the map was only available on the official realm during the event, it can still be played through a mod.

Where the storyline doesn't advance as much through the game, more details can be found on the main site's dev blogs by way of the "Franz Lohner Chronicles", where the old bartender writes down his musings about current events.

Gameplay

The good old Vermintide core gameplay remains intact, which means that the game still has a robust and surprisingly skill-based melee system at its core. Rather than fuck with anything that was already functional, Vermintide 2 focuses instead on adding more content to play around with. Light attacks, heavy attacks, blocking, dodging, pushing, etc., are all still here. All weapons also now have a "push attack" which is performed by holding down the attack button while blocking, causing an attack after you push.

Aside from the new enemy types, there are a couple of other new features, such as specializations for the classes (referred to as "careers"), each representing different possible paths the heroes took after Ubersreik. For example, the Dwarf can be a Slayer or an Ironbreaker, or the Wood Elf can be a Shade or Handmaiden of Isha, each one with diffferent passive abilities and active "Career Skill". This comes packaged along with a talent tree for each character and new weapons to go around for everyone. Each talent tree also comes with talents for granting temporary health (Health that's both easily lost and generated, basically allowing you to endure until the next heal) and stagger bonuses (damage bonuses against enemies you get off-balance). Alternatively, you can heal others when you use a potion on yourself, or gain more power to replace these talents.

The loot system got an overhaul too, with the devs acknowledging the first game's system was kind of bullshit. We now have lootboxes like every other dev under the sun, but entirely earned through gameplay and they come unlocked, so it's basically just normal random loot drops with a loot box skin slapped on. A "Heroic Deeds" system has also been implemented, consisting of consumable quests that mix gameplay up by dramatically changing objectives, mix of enemies faced or limiting your own tools (many combinations of which are pure Anal Circumference), along with a Challenge system that's basically an alternative achievements system, rewarding you when you finish missions or sets of missions with certain difficulties, different heroes and/or harder conditions, tracking other milestones and more. These give you more chests, skins, frames for your portraits, and other goodies.

Aside from those additions,and quality of life improvements it seems to mostly be the same game, which is okay since most people just wanted it to be the first one with more stuff to begin with. For the cherry on top, the game also supports modding to the point that the devs maintain a list of "Sanctioned Mods" which can be safely used with the base game, a lot of which are pretty sweet. There's also entirely separate "Realms" for the base game and modded games. On the negative side, there's no dedicated server, instead relying on peer-to-peer connection. Better hope your host has good internet...

Three DLC campaigns, and a free game mode, are currently out. The first one, Shadows over Bögenhafen, has the heroes searching for a runesword in the titular city, while Back to Ubersreik features remade versions of some of the original Vermintide missions along with new melee weapons as the Heroes of Ubersreik head off to an illusionary copy of the city to find a hidden set of runes for Olesya. The third DLC, Winds of Magic, added Beastmen, a higher level cap and difficulty level, and a set of endgame challenges in the "Winds of Magic" mode. The fourth, Chaos Wastes (released for free) added another game mode which has the Ubersreik FiveFour It Doesn't Matter go on expedition into the titular wastes, choosing to go through a number of randomized locations with roguelike elements, allowing players to exchange or power up their equipment and get special boons while going through areas cursed with various dangers and debuffs. This will itself be further expanded by the fifth (also free) update, Be'lakor, which will task players to find the Daemon Prince's Temple of Shadows to end his schemes in the Chaos Wastes, adding new areas and dangers as well as new rewards. Then there's the Trail to Treachery, which involves Sienna's sister Sofia and finally brings everything about her past to a (burning) head.

A fourth DLC campaign, Karak Azgaraz was announced during Warhammer Skulls 2023, with a plot set on exploring a lost Dwarf hold. Released on June 13th, it was almost the same three maps than from the previous tide game, but this time 7 years have passed since the Five of Ubersreik visited the Karak in the year 2530 of the Imperial Calendar...which is 2 years after the end of the world in the End Times in 2528 I.C.

The Ubersreik Five and Careers

Each character now has three different Careers, which affect their weapon choices, abilities, and talent trees, allowing a great deal of customization for each one. Lore-wise, the three careers are based on how each of the heroes might have reacted to the fall of Ubersreik: Either they barely changed at all and simply became the elite version of their old jobs (the starter career, canonically their choice), were inspired for a higher calling, or became traumatized and jaded. The exception is Markus, whose three careers all end up being good for him.

A fourth career, canonically advanced to from the starter career after the events of the previous DLC from when each is released, is on the way for each character, though it's locked behind DLC. So far, Markus, Bardin, Kerillian and Victor have their fourth class, with Sienna on the way.

It's later revealed that the career switching in between missions is canon. How? As Lohner writes, Tzeentch has taken a gander at the team, changing their histories and lives and nobody notices because "that's how it's always been". It takes a conscious effort for everyone to notice and dispel the illusion. Now, whether that was actually Tzeentch or Olesya fucking with everyone is anyone's guess...

Victor Saltzpyre (aka Grand Lector Saltzpyre)

The Witch-Hunteriest Witch Hunter continues to hunt... More Skaven and Rotbloods than witches, but he hunts all the same. After the Ubersreik campaign, the Order of the Silver Hammer still stupidly tried to deny the existence of the ratmen, spinning the invasion as a myth. How "Salty" he was in his reaction formed the crux of his future: Either he gained more political power in the chaos, allowing him to secretly fight the ratmen (The canonical choice), spoke out against the stupidity and abandoned the order to become a bounty hunter, or he lost faith in humanity entirely and relished in fanatical worship of Sigmar. As the events of the game go on however, even this faith in Sigmar is shaken, and he organizes a pilgrimage to the Chaos Wastes to assuage his fears. Journals reveal that he's coming on more to preaching and thinking on the Eternal Flame... After the Chaos Waste pilgrimage, he rededicated himself to Sigmar and became a Warrior Priest, somehow managing to become even more of a fanatic in the process.

• Witch Hunter Captain: The deaths of several Captains over the course of the End Times has allowed Victor to rise in rank, but he has had to accept that the Witch Hunters won’t recognize the fact that there’s an entire fucking empire of ratmen just below their cities; Saltzpyre now uses his new political position to fight the menace in secret. In addition to a fancier hat, Victor as a Witch Hunter Captain can do everything he could in the first game and also gets some abilities that help him support his allies.
  • Base Health: 125
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Witch Hunt- Enemies pinged by Victor take extra damage
    • Eternal Guard- Blocking light frontal attacks does not consume stamina
    • Killing Shot- Crit headshots, melee or ranged, instantly kill human-sized enemies (i.e. any non-boss enemy smaller than a Chaos Warrior)
  • Unique active ability: Animosity- Victor screams lets out his RAGE. All nearby allies have their critical rate enhanced for 6 seconds, and nearby enemies are knocked back. Can be upgraded to give yourself guaranteed crits, refund 40% cooldown if the shout hits ten enemies, or ping everyone hit by it with Witch Hunt.
• Bounty Hunter: When his order attempted to cover up what happened at Ubersreik, Salty removed his heraldry to fight the Skaven himself, taking odd-jobs on the side to pay for his endeavors. While officially he's still a witch hunter, he doesn't associate much with other witch hunters anymore after the threats they made in response to Saltzpyre snapping and speaking his mind about the Skaven. He's less of a religious fanatic and more pragmatic as a result. As a Bounty Hunter, Victor focuses on ranged weaponry to blast away Skaven and Chaos Warriors alike. He also dressed in a similar appearance with Brunner, a canon bounty hunter.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Blessed Shots- Guaranteed ranged critical every 10 seconds
    • Ammo Pouches- +50% ammo capacity
    • Quick Release- Improved reload rate
  • Unique active ability: Locked and Loaded- Fires a powerful shot that pierces multiple enemies...and potentially allies too, so everyone involved really should try to be careful with the Bounty Hunter around. Can be upgraded to have massive cooldown reduction on headshot, get more pellets on the next shot based on the number hit on the current shot, or have ranged crits reduce the cooldown by 20%.
• Zealot: The horrors of Ubersreik and the Witch Hunters' refusal to admit the threat the Skaven pose have caused Victor to give up on earthly organizations entirely and place his trust in Sigmar alone, with the rest of the world fit only to be cleansed in righteous fire. Victor as a Zealot favors vicious melee combat, and not only is his armor some of the best in the game even without the Flagellant talent (which is mandatory while playing the class), a heaping helping of faith and holy rage makes him even more dangerous as he loses health - after all, the end is upon us, why not shed as much blood as possible before it goes? As a nice bonus, picking up grimoires will count towards his health-based attack boosts.
  • Base Health: 150
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Fiery Faith- Attack power increased by 5% for every 25 health lost (up to 20%)
    • Unswerving Strikes- Heavy attacks cannot be interrupted by enemy attacks.
    • Heart of Iron- Ignores death upon taking lethal damage (long cooldown)
  • Unique active ability: Holy Fervor- Charge forward and gain 25% attack speed boost for 5 seconds. Can be upgraded to be unkillable during the skill, or gain stacks that either reduce cooldown or increase attack power.
• Warrior Priest: His tenure as Witch Hunter Captain came only as a process of elimination to Victor. His faith was deeply shaken by the sheer depths of incompetence that his supposedly inviolable comrades in the Templar Witch Hunters, the officially sanctioned Witch Hunter Order of the Empire and the Cult of Sigmar, could show. After the risky pilgrimage he persuaded the others to go along to the Chaos Wastes, he found his faith again and became a Warrior Priest of Sigmar, divine power flowing through his veins. Nominally retaining his Witch Hunter Captaincy, he simply stopped bothering with the bureaucracy and found his true calling in applying hammers to heretic skulls while preaching. While he loses access to his ranged weapons, he does get exclusive access to the Flail and Shield, the Skull-Splitter and Shield, and the Skull-Splitter and Blessed Tome weapons.
  • Base Health: 150
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Righteous Fury- Gain Fury when nearby enemies die. When Fury reaches 100%, attacks Smite the enemy for 20% of weapon damage. Fury depletes outside of battle.
    • Enemy of Chaos- 30% bonus power against Chaos Warriors and Beastmen Standard Bearers
    • Incorruptible- 100% curse resistance
    • Implacable- Damage taken is reduced by 20%, with a further 20% of incoming damage being dealt over 3 seconds (this damage cannot kill).
  • Unique active ability: Shield of Faith- Saltzpyre generates a barrier on himself or his allies, making them invincible for 5 seconds. The shield explodes when it expires, dealing damage to nearby enemies. Can be upgraded to affect both Victor and someone else simultaneously, extend its duration to 8 seconds while granting the ability to trample weaker enemies, or provide a revival and healing effect.

Markus Kruber (aka Markus de Mandelot)

Faithful, dependable Markus, always willing to help out, continues to serve against the Ratmen for both coin and conscience. The universe seems to have rewarded him for being a nice, simple guy because none of his careers turn out badly for him. Either he gets deeper into merc life (the canon choice), he takes some time off to breathe as a Huntsman, or he's recognized for his achievements and gets inducted into the Order of the Reikhammer as a Foot Knight. Later in the story, his ancient bloodline is revealed and he becomes an official Grail Knight of Bretonnia. This means he somehow made the journey to Bretonnia, fought all manner of beasts and monsters (while drunk) and even proved himself to The Green Knight before finally sipping some elven goddessLake Lady bathwater, gaining the requisite powers, stupid French accent, and... "chivalric" manner. Let's just hope his good luck continues to hold, eh?

• Mercenary: The life of a mercenary has suited Markus well, in no small part due to not having to answer to incompetent leaders like he used to. Being a Mercenary allows Markus a good degree of versatility, with medium armor that grants protection without losing maneuverability and a focus on using sweeping attacks to clear out hordes.
  • Base Health: 125
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Paced Strikes- Hitting 3 enemies in 1 swing boosts attack speed by 10% for 6 seconds
    • Hitting the Sweet Spot- 25% more cleave (attacks hit more enemies at once)
    • No More Laughin' Now- Critical hit rate improved by +5%
  • Unique active ability: Morale Boost- Staggers nearby enemies and grants nearby allies temporary bonus health. Can be upgraded to give a defense buff for all alies, reduce the cooldown or immediately revive allies.
• Huntsman: After Ubersreik, Markus found a degree of inner peace by devoting himself to Taal and Rhya, the gods of nature (though not devoted enough such that gunpowder weaponry is disallowed on him). As a Huntsman, Markus trades away his access to heavier armor for greater proficiency with ranged weapons of all kinds. He also gets to use a bow, a ranged weapon unique to the Huntsman career that, while much slower than Kerillian's, holds a lot of ammunition and does considerable damage. Had a hilarious bug that pretty much gave him an AK-47 and absolutely melted bosses.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Waste Not, Want Not- Ranged headshots return 1 ammo
    • Poacher's Mark- Effective range for ranged weapons doubled
    • Call Out Weakness - Aura that boosts critical rate by +5%
    • Deep Pockets - +50% ammo capacity
  • Unique active ability: Hunter's Prowl: Become invisible for a short time; automatically reloads ranged weapon for no ammo cost, improves reload speed, and adds 1.5x damage multiplier to ranged attacks while invisible. Can be upgraded to reduce the cooldown, increase the duration or have ranged attacks not break stealth.
• Foot Knight: For his part in the defense of Ubersreik, Markus was made a Knight of the Order of the Reikshammer. Markus may not have been aiming for the position, but his heavy armor, protective aura, and highly disruptive ultimate make him an excellent tank as a Foot Knight.
  • Base Health: 150
  • Unique passive ability:
    • Protective Presence- Aura that reduces damage taken by 15%
    • Taal's Fortitude - Extra stamina shield
    • No Guts, No Glory - Reduces damage taken by 10%
  • Unique active ability: Valiant Charge- Charges forward, knocking back any enemies hit by the charge. Also interrupts and stuns bosses and specials. Can be upgraded to make Kruber temporarily invincible, have increased size and the ability to knock over greater enemies, or grant increased attack speed for every enemy hit.
• Grail Knight: MOTHERFUCKING GRAIL KNIGHT!!! The first unique class introduced and locked behind a DLC wall. It was revealed one day Kruber found out his Bretonnian lineage after he received a mysterious letter that was addressed to him with the de Mandelot surname. According to Lohner, he used his huge information network to trace back Kruber's bloodline and found out his father was actually a Bretonnian! but not just any Bretonnian: Foricarl de Mandelot! who used to be a well-known grail knight in Parravon after he saved the city from a dragon with style! He was widely worshiped since then with arts, music, and clothes referencing him. It wasn't until the duke's son, an arsehole by the name Willibald who is jealous of the hero's deed that he killed his father, the duke of Parravon, and framed Foricarl for it. The lady had to intervene herself and turned the fucktard into a frog but it was all too late, for Foricarl had already self-exiled in shame. Despite that, he continued to slay beasts and killing chaos shit like a badass until he finally settled at Ubersreik Hills and impregnated Kruber's mama, only to leave her before Kruber was even born. With the lady's blessing, Kruber is now Markus de Mandelot! And he now has the privilege call his teammates peasants, acting cockier and mightier than even Kerilian, while Bretonnian dancing all the way to the waystone, one-shotting any foe he came across with his magical sword ability (a voiceline while waiting to start on a Chaos Wastes expedition really has him imply he's been talking down to Saltzpyre after becoming a Grail Knight just to be a troll). Just like Slayer Bardin Markus can't use ranged weapons in this career (because peasant weapon dislike and chivalry bullshit), and he doesn't even have the option of throwing axes like Slayer Bardin does (again, see above), but his special buffs, move speed and ability make him a fantastic boss killer and crowd controller.
  • Base Health: 150
  • Unique passive ability:
    • The Lady's Duty- Get 2 random quests that grant buffs to the party when completed, lasting until the mission is over. Can be upgraded to have a third quest, stronger buffs, or a repeatable quest that grants a potion of strength each time it's completed.
    • Knight's Challenge - 25% extra damage to the first enemy hit.
    • Thirst for Glory - 10% move speed increase.
    • Bastion of Bretonnia - Your shields can now block Warpfire.
  • Unique active ability: Blessed Blade- Smite a target with a holy blade. Can be upgraded to deal even more single target damage with a slash and stab, change into a horizontal crowd cleaver or stay the same and increase movement speed upon kill.

Kerillian

The elf continues to be a standoffish, if slightly nicer, jerk, though her sensitivity masks hidden scars. Her faith forms the crux of her careers, whether remaining a faithful, if conflicted, Waywatcher promoted to Waystalker (this is canon), a Handmaiden more devoted to Isha and protecting others, or losing herself to bloodlust and becoming a Shade of Khaine. The Drachenfels DLC reveals that Kerillian basically has the biggest impact on the story out of the whole party, with consequences reaching to the rest of Warhammer. She received a vision about how Ubersreik MIGHT have to do with the fall of Athel Loren. With pride and without any thought, she ambushed two regiments of soldiers from Nuln meant to reinforce the city, leaving it undefended... From the Skaven. That's right, because of her pride, she's responsible for ALL of the slaughter and death caused by the Vermintide, and contributed more than a fair bit to bringing about the End Times. This explains her biting behavior, a shield to her own failures. The pilgrimage to the Chaos Wastes broke her resolve and caused her to question her faith, giving up her regrets to Isha and becoming a Sister of the Thorn, losing part of herself and becoming more cynical than ever.

• Waystalker: Frustrated with the clumsiness of her companions, Kerillian has resolved to further hone her skills to compensate further for the "lumberfoots". As a Waystalker, Kerillian further specializes in her longbow, both for precision sniping and for raining arrows on enemies.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Amaranthe- Automatically regenerate health (3 health per 10 seconds, up to a maximum of half your total hit points)
    • Arrow-Storm- +50% ammo capacity
    • Waywatcher's Bow- Effective range for ranged weapons is doubled
  • Unique active ability: Trueflight Volley- Fires a volley of homing arrows. Can be upgraded to fire one more arrow, refund ammunition when killing specials, or turn into a single piercing arrow that deals massive damage and has no cooldown when you get a headshot.
• Handmaiden: Through the subtle guidance of the Everqueen, Kerillian came across a long-lost shrine to Isha and gave herself up to serve her. Kerillian's Handmaiden Career focuses primarily on dancing around enemies in direct melee combat, and is her most durable career option through both maximum health, stamina, and mobility. The career for players that are allergic to standing still.
  • Base Health: 125
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • The Dance of Seasons- 15% longer dodge distance
    • Aura of Renewal- Aura that increases stamina regeneration speed by 100%
    • Ariel's Benison- Cannot be interrupted when reviving allies
  • Unique active ability: Dash- Quickly dash forward through enemies, stunning enemies that are hit and causing them to bleed. Has a hilariously low cooldown, the lowest of all of the game's abilities. Can be upgraded to become invisible after the dash, make anyone you hit bleed or gain crit chance based on how many enemies you hit.
• Shade: One of Kerillian's dreams spoke of an ancestor of hers who dwelled in Clar Karond, and with it came the voice of Khaine urging her to reclaim the mantle of her ancestor. Kerillian as a Shade is an assassin, focused on rapidly killing elite, special, and boss enemies. She also gains access to the volley crossbow in this career. This is the class to play if you really like killing the absolute shit out of Chaos Warriors and bosses.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Murderous Prowess- 50% damage bonus when attacking enemies from behind
    • Assassin's Blade- Critical hit backstabs instantly kill man-sized enemies
  • Unique active ability: Infiltrate- Become invisible and intangible for 10 seconds, or until performing an attack. Also has a unlisted effect where any melee attack that ends Infiltrate gets a massive damage boost; depending on the weapon this can increase the power of Kerillian's melee attacks to the point where they 1-hit kill a Chaos Warrior on Legendary difficulty, and can even reach the maximum damage value possible for a single attack. Can be upgraded to have less cooldown and grant more crit chance after it ends at the cost of losing the damage bonus, cause her to blink forward while damaging enemies, or allowing her to attack without breaking stealth exactly one time.
• Sisters of the Thorn: The 3rd microtransaction DLC career. In truth, Kerillian has been losing faith in her goddess Lileath for some times, and it finally reached a critical point after the Citadel of Eternity shenanigan where the said goddess did not answer her. Hoping to rededicate herself to the weaves once more, she began courting other goddesses (even Ereth Khial, the kind of goddess only the mentally ill elf would worship). She ended up going back to Athel Loran to seek answers, and offered up her uncertainty and regrets to the forest. Doing so allowed her to become a Sister of the Thorn , a handmaiden of Isha who can raise up a thorn bush wall to block enemies (or just turn them into a deadly thorn spike that bleeds anyone it targets) as well as providing extra healing to her teammates, leeching extra temporary health from them in exchange. She now also calls her teammates "meat", as if flesh is weaker compared to her, a superior plant fused being. She also gains access to the Deepwood Staff, a weapon with similar mechanics to Sienna's staffs that can make enemies levitate, temporarily disabling them.
  • Base Health: 125
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • A Cluster of Radiants- Gain a radiance charge that allows free use of your active every 60 seconds.
    • A Murder of Sprites- Deals more damage to wounded units depending on their remaining health, up to 50%.
    • A Sustenance of Leeches- Gain temp health if a party member gains temp health when they're at full health.
    • An Attendance of Munificents- +25% healing for everyone.
  • Unique active ability: Thornwake- Raise a thornwall that blocks movement. Can be upgraded to last longer, deal more damage and apply bleed at the cost of duration or explode with poison when it expires, increasing damage dealt to enemies caught.

Bardin Goreksson

Short, stout and sure to stomp your arse, Bardin is here to help out his Dawis and slaughter some rakis (and anything else that comes in the way). Either he continued his quest for Karak Zorn as a Ranger Veteran (Which is canon), returned to his roots as an Ironbreaker, or forsook life in pursuit of honorable death as a Slayer. After the trip to Drachenfels however, the regrets that surfaced made him look to his old passions of becoming an Engineer, and thus, became an Outcast Engineer. Life STILL isn't smooth sailing for him, as Lohner's journals reveal that his daughter has gone missing. Whether she'll be found is anyone's guess...

• Ranger Veteran: Karak Zorn is yet to be found, but the defense of Reikland currently comes first for Bardin. Bardin the Ranger Veteran favors the use of ranged weaponry to punish foes from a distance, but he's more than able to hold his own in melee if a hail of crossbow bolts doesn't do the trick. Cousin Okri would be proud. While this used to be the least powerful of the range-focused careers due to lacking a consistent means of generating ammo for itself, recent balance updates have made it into an extremely versatile and powerful support class. Of particular note is a talent that gives a chance for every special enemy you kill to drop a bomb, which is just hilariously strong.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Survivalist- Special enemies drop ammo on death
    • Loaded for Battle- +50% ammo capacity
    • Fast Hands- Increased reload speed
    • Ingenious Improvisation - 10% chance to not consume health items, potions, or bombs on use
  • Unique active ability: Disengage- Drops a smoke bomb that staggers enemies and turns Bardin invisible as long as he remains within the cloud. Lasts ten seconds. While invisible, Bardin gains increased ranged attack power. Can be upgraded to remain stealthed even outside the cloud, grant everyone attack speed and temp health while in it, or basically allowing you a free bomb throw.
• Ironbreaker: Bardin used to be an Ironbreaker in Kazak Norn, and following the defense of Ubersreik he took up his old oaths and gromril armor once more. The heavy armor and shield of the Ironbreaker makes Bardin a superb tank that can take whatever the enemy can dish out, and then return it in kind. In addition, he gains access to a drakegun and drakefire pistols, which let him spew out gouts of flame. Like in the first game, they do not use ammo and instead use a heat meter, like Sienna. Be mindful that this also means that they'll kill you if the heat gauge maxes out.
  • Unique passive abilities:
  • Base Health: 150
    • Gromril Armor- Negates all damage from 1 hit every 20 seconds.
    • Dwarf-Forged- Reduces damage taken by 30%
    • Doughty- Grants an extra stamina shield
    • Resilient- Decreases stun duration after getting hit by an attack by 50%
  • Unique active ability: Impenetrable- Briefly staggers nearby enemies, then forces all man-sized enemies among them to attack Bardin exclusively. Bardin also takes no stamina damage while blocking for the duration, and can block normally unblockable attacks. Can be upgraded to give everyone a power increase, increase its range and duration, or the ability to affect even monsters.
• Slayer: Bardin had been carrying a secret burden in his heart even before Ubersreik, and by the time the Skaven came to Helmgart he had taken up the Slayer's Oath in the hopes of an honorable death. As a Slayer, Bardin can't use ranged weapons at all but becomes a melee powerhouse, with exclusive access to the Dual Axes weapon and the ability to take a second melee weapon to replace his ranged weapon slot. Despite his deceptively low base health, he's one of the tankiest things in the game due to his Oblivious to Pain talent, which is practically mandatory while playing the class. He even has another talent that can increase his base health, as if this weren't enough. With the addition of the generally-superior Grail Knight and Warrior Priest classes and the comparatively situational nature of the classes' key abilities however, Slayer is often considered the most underpowered class in the game - hopefully a rework will bring it back into the light.
  • Base Health: 125
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Trophy Hunter- Stacking damage buff gained upon hitting an enemy
    • Path of Carnage- +7.5% attack speed
  • Unique active ability: Leap- Leap forward, stunning enemies and gaining a temporary boost to attack speed.
• Outcast Engineer: Bardin's fourth unique DLC locked class (chronologically the 2nd paid class DLC). Ever since he returned from castle Drachenfels, Bardin has been busy locking himself alone studying machinery. According to Lohner, his uncle Drakki Dagsson used to be an engineer whom Bardin looked up to, much to the dismay of his traditionalist dad Gorrek Dagsson who shuns technology and often came to disagreements with his brother Drakki. Upon learning Bardin was going to become an apprentice engineer, Dagsson went to disengage pneumatic supports at the mine out of anger and caused an earthquake, which also happened at the same time when Bardin was about to receive his apprenticeship. Dagsson managed to get most of the Dwarf to safety before the debris and stones swallowed him alive with the remaining Dwarfs. This forced Bardin to quit his passion to follow in his father's footsteps, becoming an Ironbreaker, and good ol' Drakki took the blame for the mining accident and became a slayer out of guilt (because of how heroic Dagsson was) and died in a troll cave. Still, tragedy did not end there for Bardin for he would later fail to defend his home, his family and his beardling son just because he wasn't strong enough to fight off a gutter runner, even led his entire team of sentry dying saving him in the process. Filled with grief, Bardin decided to leave his hold and search for Karak Zorn as an excuse to exile himself (because seeker sounds better than exile) but ended up joining Victor's anti-ratman crusade at Ubersreik instead. The demon living in castle Drachenfels read everyone like an open book, including a magic resistant Dwarf, and it sarcastically mocked Bardin of his old shame. Having realized maybe he should never have followed his father's path and perhaps he was never suited for being an Ironbreaker, he went back to his old tinkering passion. With Lohner's help, Bardin acquired materials and minerals needed for his various tools of destruction like his signature crank gun (read: handheld Gatling gun, or handheld super repeater handgun because Richard Jordan Gatling doesn't exist in the Warhammer world) and is now out to destroy all those Thaggrakis and Dumals with it!... Unfortunately, despite the sheer and undeniable cool factor of the class, the Outcast Engineer often stands rock-bottom of Vermintide career tier lists; he is very squishy (despite his appearance) and has no options to buy himself some space so he will go down quickly if he's in the hands of a player who doesn't know exactly what they are doing, nor does he have any abilities that synergize with and support his teammates (unlike the Ranger Veteran). Outcast Engineer can be a decent boss killer and do OK in support of a ranged-focused party if the player behind him is good, but there are better options out there.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Build Pressure- Holding reload with the crank gun equipped builds pressure, gradually restoring the ability bar. Stacks are lost when you fire.
    • Gunsmith- +50% Max ammo.
    • Spotter- +10% Ranged Power to nearby allies.
    • Utility Belt- Allows you to carry three different bombs, cycling through them with the bomb key.
  • Unique active ability: Steam-Assisted Crank Gun (mk2)- An interesting active ability that's more like a third weapon, activating Bardin's special gun. Switching to the gun doesn't use up the bar, nor does it build up automatically. You "Reload" the gun in order to fill up your ability bar over time, and you can fire it as long as you have "ammo" in it. Can be upgraded to fire slower but stronger slugs, immediately start out firing at full speed, or have a longer ability bar that temporarily isn't used when you kill a special.

Sienna Fuegonasus

As fiery and feisty as ever, the U5's witch is here to blaze a trail through rat and rot alike. How she does it forms the basis of her paths in life: She either made an attempt to discipline herself as a Battle Wizard (Canon), split between freedom and control as a Pyromancer or lost herself to the flame as an Unchained. It's eventually revealed in Lohner's journals that Sienna "had" a sister named Sofia. They weren't on the best terms, but they were family, so when Sofia was accused of being a Necromancer, Sienna burned the town responsible for accusing her. And then it turns out she WAS a necromancer, so Sienna burned her too. Note the quotation marks, as Lohner recently got a letter from someone claiming to be Sofia, blackmailing him to do her a favor or else some of his unsavory secrets would be revealed. This fiasco finally blew up in everyone's faces (which fits Sienna) when Sofia finally made her appearance known in the Trails to Treachery, and now the 5 have to deal with whatever madness she has.

• Battle Wizard: Ubersreik taught Sienna the value of self-control, and while she was reluctant to do so she has learned to control the flame for the first time. The greater degree of self-discipline Sienna has as a Battle Wizard allows her to focus on perfecting her spellcasting, letting her cast spells more quickly, more often, and for more damage.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Tranquility- Passively vents overcharge after 6 seconds of not casting spells
    • Reckless Haste- Overcharge increases spell charge rate
    • Pyromantic Surge- 10% increased ranged damage
  • Unique active ability: Fire Walk- Quickly teleport forward, leaving a trail of fire behind you. Can be upgraded to have lower cooldown, a bigger and stronger explosion with no more fire trail, or the ability to double-cast within 10 seconds.
• Pyromancer: While far from having the control of a proper Battle Wizard, Sienna has enough self-awareness to restrain herself from the most ostentatious of fire magic. Sienna the Pyromancer trades in the consistency of her Battle Wizard career for more explosive moments of burst damage. Of special note is a talent which lets her activated ability also instantly clear all overcharge.
  • Base Health: 100
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Critical Mass- Critical chance increases based on overcharge level
    • Searing Focus- 10% increased ranged damage
  • Unique active ability: The Burning Head- A powerful fire blast that initially travels directly forward, but after a short time it will attempt to home in on the closest enemy; holding the active ability key down allows the user to designate a target for the fire blast to home in on instead. It will jump from foe to foe, killing until it runs out of power. Anything not killed by the blast is staggered, including bosses. Can be upgraded to refund cooldown on crit, vent her overcharge on cast or give her temporary health.
• Unchained: Sienna's addiction to magic has finally overwhelmed her, and now she lives only from one magical high to the next. As an Unchained, Sienna favors magically-boosted melee, with a focus on generating as much overcharge as possible before moving in for the kill.
  • Base Health: 150
  • Unique passive abilities:
    • Blood Magic- 50% of damage received is converted to overcharge. Do not get hit while at high levels of overcharge, lest you accidentally explode yourself like a dunce.
    • Slave to Aqshy- No overcharge slowdown
    • Unstable Strength- High overcharge increases melee attack power up to 60%
  • Unique active ability: Living Bomb- Expends all overcharge to produce a massive explosion centered on Sienna, dealing heavy damage to all nearby enemies. Fortunately, this can be done even while beginning to explode from too much overcharge. Can be upgraded to increase power based on how many you hit, gain a scorching aura after it's finished or give everyone temp health.
• Unknown Fifth Class: Revealed during the announcement of the Karak Azgaraz DLC, it seems like it's finally time for the pyro-witch to get her paid DLC class, with a release date of Fall 2023. From what little the trailer showed, it looks like she had fallen in with some other form of magic if the multi-colored flames had anything to say about it, and according to her dialogue it might very well piss the rest of the Ubersreik Five something fierce. Some guesses before were Magister Vigilant, Myrmidia Priest, or some other kind of Pyromancy user like Unchained was...but after the teaser, many propose that Black Magister (magic users that gamble on using the Dark Arts, or just trying to use more than one Wind dangerously), could be the more probable option for Sienna 4th. It would not be the most lore-friendly option, but it would not be lore breaking unlike her just switching to another Wind of Magic just because. But alas, noone is a soothsayer so we cant guess what Fatshark will make. we can only wait until it releases.

Other Characters

• Franz Lohner: The bartender of the Red Moon Inn, transferring over to the Taal's Horn Keep. You guys do the heavy lifting, he does most of the behind the scenes stuff: Keeping your home nice and cozy, getting intel, stocking up on supplies, you get the drill. Unfortunately, he also runs the Emporium of Wonders, aka, the microtransaction shop. Seemingly knows everything and everyone, including any secrets your own characters have. Talking to him has him rattle off various nods to the lore of Warhammer and more specifically, The End Times. The devs also use him to write journals and story bits about the game through the "Franz Lohner Chronicles", which are tidbits for his journal. Journal entries and random conversations heavily imply that he's Morgan Bernhardt from Shadow of the Horned Rat and Dark Omen.
• Olesya Pimenova: The carriage handler from the first game turned out to be a Gray Witch. Whod've thunk? As usual, your ride in and out of your jobs, this time using a Bridge of Shadows teleporter instead of horses. Helps make plans along with Lohner while occasionally working alongside you on your missions, secretly doing magic stuff while you not-so-secretly kill everything. Heavily implied to be the true form of the Grey Wizard Christoph Engel from the first game. She also has the hots for Kruber, a fact which he's unfortunately aware of.
• Catrinne of Aldenstein: The artist making some the paintings you can decorate the keep with once you find three pieces of Ravaged Art in a mission. You never see her, but you can sometimes hear her. She's haunted by visions which inspire her paintings, but Lohner's wary of how ominous she describes them. She apparently has a crush on Saltzpyre (A fact which Salty himself doesn't know, but hilariously enough, Kruber does), and she sometimes has to fight off Bardin from eating her brushes because he finds them delicious.
• Cousin Okri: In the vein of Left 4 Dead 2's Keith, Okri is oft-mentioned by Bardin and rather implied by him to be the most-asskickingest Dwarf since Gotrek, yet he is never actually seen and understandably is doubted to even exist by a number of fans and even the U5 at times (though Lohner has insisted in written lore excerpts that he's actually read letters from Okri and is in written contact with him). You will never be as good as Cousin Okri.

Enemies

Bosses

• Grey Seer Rasknitt: The same asshole in charge of invading Ubersreik is back, and he's the final boss of the main campaign. Having captured the heroes in the first game, he attempts to sacrifice them to fuel the Skittergate, a portal contraption capable of bringing in huge armies in a flash. With it, he and the Rotbloods swarmed Helmgart and the countryside, though as is typical of technology made by mice, it breaks in the prologue. It's fixed soon after though, and much of the game is dedicated to destroying it. During the final showdown, he sent his precious Stormfiend called Deathrattler (who uses dual-ratling guns instead of the flamethrowers) against you, only to call it a worthless piece of junk after the heroes killed it. He then attacks the heroes with his Skaven magic, teleports around at lightning speed while summoning special Skaven of all types, then is blown the fuck up once the rat bastard's health is at its end. You then get his helmet as a trophy for the Keep, and the fact that it has voices whispering into it explains MUCH about how insane this rat-bastard is.
• Chaos Champion Bödvarr Ribspreader: Here to spread ribs and smiles in Papa Nurgle's name, Ribspreader is a Champion of Chaos and the scary dude on the box cover. The leader of the Rotbloods, who are said to be insane even by Chaos Warbands' standards, he's here to slaughter and destroy, and has allied himself with Rasknitt for that purpose. He berates the Grey Seer for the portal's failure, but interestingly enough doesn't spread's his ribs for it, though it's probably because Rasknitt is more powerful than he is. Figures mainly into Act 3, where the gang messes with everything he has. After hitting a breaking point as the heroes foil his plans and kill his men and free his slaves, he sends out most of his army to scout for and attack the Keep, but thanks to Olesya reading the script, they learn about this, attack his under-staffed camp, and kill him in his own arena. Despite claiming that he can take care of the heroes all by himself, he displays cowardice, ranting and bawwing about the precious slaves and loots he lost to the Ubersreik Five/Four/Doesn't Matter when he starts losing and calls his warriors for aid, with a horde attacking as he loses health. Interesting to note that despite being a Nurgle worshipper, he has a magic axe (which the axe itself is alive, noted by the growing eye skull on the axe) that he can call back to him if he ever throws it out against the players. Saltzpyre would often refer to it as "flying axe witch" whenever it was thrown. You gain this axe as a trophy for the keep, and study of it reveals that Ribby is just one of many, many Chaos Warriors who wielded the thing.
• Burblespue Halescourge: The Nurgle sorcerer lord that the Skaven met back at Stromdorf, and the boss of Act 1. Has a good manner like papa Nurgle himself and he can do everything that the Nurgle sorcerer can do in the game (AKA life drain & Nurgle Vortex) only tougher and more AOE green plague in the oxygen, with a couple of unique abilities like summoning a swarm of flies to chase and stun one of the players, summon green images of himself to attack the players as well as erect an even bigger green vortex in the center of the battlefield. He will absolutely make you fucking rage with his lack of visual cues for his attacks, his billion and one hit points, and his habit of teleporting around like a fucking asshole whenever someone so much as sneezes on the fucker. Has a large number of very angry nicknames from the fandom, several of which have even made it into official patch notes (e.g. "Bunglesnatch Humbledink", "Vorpalblade Noobhurl", "Hailstorm Barbeque", "Bubbly-Spurge" and "Bubblespit Halleberry", among many others). You get his staff and tome from killing him, and you find out the latter was made from human skin and inked in blood. Lovely.
• Skarrik Spinemanglr: The "Scary" Skaven Warlord in charge, and the boss of Act 2. Seem to be heavily inspired by Queek Headtaker in both his looks, size, and unskavenly bravery, although he uses a more traditional halberd alongside dual shortswords. Just like Queek, he is the largest non-monster Skaven of them all, towering over the players. He will regularly summon Stormvermin and Skavenslaves, if you don't take care of them quickly it can snowball into a horde no player could ever hope to kill. He is also fully armored like Ribspreader, but unlike him, Skarrik is much faster, forcing the player to have a frustrating time of chipping his health away with their seemly ineffective charge attack. Also, he calls you cat fondlers and is responsible for Saltzpyre's lost eye. After he dies, civil war and general chaos erupts throughout the Skaven underground, decreasing the amount of forces guarding the Skittergate. You also get his armor and spears for the keep.
• Nurgloth the Eternal: A new boss for the new Drachenfels DLC map and another one of Nurgle's stinky boy. He used to be the chief rival of shitstorm sorcerer from above, and has been trying to take over his rival's throne. Like every dumbass heretical sorcerer, he went after old Drachenfels' castle in search of his old research about demons and other crazy shit to make himself even more powerful, which he did and was possessed or at least is in contract with a demon, but was driven mad after he glimpsed the realm of chaos. Still, it allows him to see a bit of future sight as well as gaining much higher power than before. After our heroes defeated the two walking-toilets above, he began his no-good operation in Drachenfels' castle and started to sacrifice captured villagers from nearby for his ritual. His little scheme didn't go unnoticed under Lohner's ear and was dealt with by our heroes after a trilogy of missions. In combat, he wields a giant scythe for slicing while he hovers (only the last phase), shoots flies that explode and snare the player, summons his rotblood minions, and using a magic attack that resembles an AoE ability from a typical MOBA game. Currently the hardest boss due to the amount of health he has and the bullshit last phase where he seeks out players and knocks them to his magic fart zone with his rotblood minions still roaming around him. He also explodes when you kill him, and you acquire his scythe and armor for your victory.
• Gatekeeper Nagfahr: A Ribspreader look-alike, even shares the same axe design....until the recent patch came and changed its entire outlook. He now only uses a normal axe with his head exposed: pale bald head, probably the only chaos warriors that showed his face in the game. Responsible for guarding the skittergate key staff. Was blessed during the battle and turned into...It-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named. Far easier than Ribspreader, being a level's mid-boss to build up to the final battle with Rasknitt.
• Baron Justus Francke: Not an enemy you fight but nonetheless important to the plot. Besides the Skaven having a portal underneath Helmgart, Fucko Francke is the other reason Ussingen and the countryside were overrun so quickly. It's revealed he made some kind of deal with the Rotbloods and Clan Fester, and like a lot of shitty nobles, might've been in league with the Chaos Gods even before the invasion. His fortified mansion, the only undamaged building in Ussingen, is blown up accordingly by the heroes. His fate is unknown.
• Sofia Fuegonasus: Sienna's sister. They weren't the closest, but they were close enough that when Sofia was accused of being a necromancer, Sienna immediately burned the accusers... Then Sofia because as it turns out, she was one. Being a necromancer, she didn't quite stay dead. She first made her "appearance" in Franz Lohner's Chronicles and tried to blackmail him into having a talk with Sienna. He didn't take the bait, but it all came to a head as she became the main antagonist of the "Trails to Treachery".

Skaven
Clan Fester's back, and they're pissed. Sore after getting thwarted at Ubersreik, they want revenge. They almost managed to get it by capturing the heroes and finally managing to capture Ubersreik, and with the Rotblood alliance for constructing a Skittergate portal to Norsca, things seem to be in the bag... Until it malfunctions and frees Kruber, leading him to free everyone else. Still, they're stronger now, with Clan Pestilens rats joining their ranks and being just as determined as ever to spread the power of the warp and stave off their extinction.

• Skavenslaves: Still the most piss-poor enemies in the game. Even though they come in huge swarms they're only dangerous if they blindside you or if you're too busy dealing with actual threats.
• Clanrats: Rank and file of clan Fester, only slightly better than slaves. Now come with a shield and hand weapon variant that could hopefully block one or two hits from the front and make dealing with the horde slightly more difficult.
• Plague Monks: A more durable Skaven with fast attacks designed to exhaust the player's stamina. Weak to ranged fire but hit like a freight train and knock you back. They let out a loud howl when they charge, but can be hard to spot in a swarm. Usually, spawn in triplets and tend to focus a single target just to make sure even 7+ stamina would not be enough to withstand their attack.
• Stormvermin - The most common breed of Special Skaven, Stormvermin will spawn at random among the crowds of Clanrats seeded throughout the various levels. Unlike the rest of their ratty brethren, the Stormvermin have actual armor, actual weapons, and actual training, making them a serious threat. Their halberds do more damage than the standard Clanrat improvised weaponry, and hits against them that don't aim for the head (or have the Armor Piercing trait) will glance off their armor. Even blocking their attacks is difficult, since they do significant Stamina damage and therefore have a high chance of breaking your block and putting you into stun, making you an easy kill. At higher difficulties, they become one of the most significant threats in the game, and require careful combat to take down safely or make ranged weapons good at taking them down quick very desirable.
• Stormvermin (Sword & Shield): Elite troops who still sound vaguely like Bane, except some of them now have swords and shields that give them multiple attacks and near-immunity to frontal hits (but mercifully deals less damage than the halberd wielders), plus their shields are metal and can't be broken. All around assholes, and a definite reason to consider having a handgun on the team since it's one of the only ranged weapons capable of easily handling them from the front.
• The Stormvermin Patrol - Once or twice per map, if you're listening carefully, you'll hear the sound of rats shouting out a ratty little marching drill. And if you're smart, you'll hide. If you're not smart, you'll die, because the Patrol is a massive mob of Stormvermin that all aggro at once if they spot any of the heroes, and will never back down from a fight. Their numbers are slightly randomized, but rule of thumb is for +5 rats for each difficulty level, so at Legendary difficulty you're facing patrol sizes that wouldn't be out of place in an actual game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Yeah. Have fun with that.
• Gutter Runner - Representing Clan Eshin, we have these stabby little ninja rats with warp-dust coated knives strapped to their hands. They lurk in the shadows, trying to find a hero that's cut off from the rest of the group or waiting for you to be otherwise distracted, then pounce and pin one hero to the ground while they stab and stab and stab until the puny man-thing stops moving. Once you're pinned (but you can hope to dodge their jumps at you by dodging to a side), you're helpless. It's up to the rest of the team to save you. So if you hear that strange whispering in the distance, make sure to stay close to your team.
• Packmaster - Clan Moulder's representatives, the Packmasters have taken up capturing humans for slaving. To this end, they cart around giant spiked collars on poles; if they get close enough, they'll snap that collar shut around your neck, disabling you like the Gutter Runner. The good news is that the collar doesn't hurt nearly as much as the knives and you can dodge it if you time it right. The bad news is that the Packmaster will drag you off into the distance, probably through a mob of Clanrats, and then hang you up to die - or at least for the rest of their companions to stab while you wriggle helplessly.
• Poison Wind Globadier - A Skryre-rat in a gas mask, with a miniature plague factory on its back. At a distance, it will constantly lob spheres full of gas so poisonous that it eats into the skin like acid, covering the battlefield in green clouds of death. The good news is that these are as poisonous to the other Skaven as they are to our heroes. The bad news is that you'll still die like a bitch if you stand in one. And if you get too close, they'll rig the tanks on their backs to explode, taking you with them in one final kamikaze assault.
• Ratling Gunner - Clan Skryre is pulling overtime here. This rat's got a miniaturized, one-man version of the tabletop Ratling Gun strapped to its back, and the rest of its body is covered in heavy armor. When it finds a good firing line, it'll wind up that gun and then unleash a hellstorm of warp-shot onto one of the heroes, tracking them as best as it can. The good news is that it's not very accurate, kills Skaven who enter its firing line, and tends to jam after a while. The bad news is that it's firing so many bullets that it's probably going to hit you anyway, and while it's not as powerful as a full-sized "kill both knight and his horse with a single bullet" ratling gun it still hurts a lot. Got a significant buff compared to the original game by taking body amour and revving up his gun quite a bit faster.
• Warpfire Thrower: Another Skryre-rat, now with a flamethrower strapped to its back, which it uses to spew out gouts of green fire at anything in range. The good news is that it has a shorter range compared to the Ratling Gunner and gives even less fucks about torching other Skaven and Rotbloods in its path. Bad news is it hurts even more than the Ratling Gunner, knocks you back, and blocks your vision as well - not a Special you'd want to see while you're out of ammo. The warpstone crystal on its back is its weak spot, but it violently explodes if said weak spot is hit, leaving a sizeable puddle of the flaming warpstone on the ground. While it can take out a lot of enemies with the explosion, it also makes engaging it in melee even more suicidal, especially if you use wide-sweeping weapons.
• Barrel Rat: Special Skaven enemy type that exists only in special game modes like the Weave or in Weekly Events. Their role is simple: SUICIDE BOMBER! Try to shoot them down before they reach you! A bane to melee only characters like Bardin's Slayer (without the throwing axe) and Kruber's Grail Knight.
• Rat Ogre - The triumph of Clan Moulder's scientific prowess. The Rat Ogre, like the Stormvermin Patrol, is a once-a-map event, barring special mission rules, and is always announced by a throat-peeling bellow of rage. It's a giant, hulking brute that rampages across the battlefield, pummeling and punching its way through any heroes it can find. It is possible to kite the Ogre, but the problem is that it's rarely alone; the true difficulty arises in managing the Ogre and the accompanying Clanrats at the same time, since they limit your mobility just by existing.
• Stormfiend: If you thought the Rat Ogres were a huge pain in the ass, say hello to their upgraded cousins, the masterwork of Clan Moulder and Clan Skyre! They are clad in heavy armor from the front and wield twin warp-fire throwers attached to their arms. Unlike the warpfire throwers on regular Skaven, these ones leave a burning trail on the ground for quite a time, turning a battlefield into a maze of green fire if you let it disengage and rain fire on you from distance - it's worth it to backtrack to more open areas if you come across a Stormfield because of this. Their major weakness is the smaller Skaven acting as a second brain that's stuck on their backs.
• Sack Rat - A Skaven with a big sack full of loot. Pretty rare to spawn. It doesn't attack on its own, but kills teams anyway as the people in it tunnel vision on it before being killed by all the other enemies in the level (seriously, a loading screen tip jokingly tells you to do this). If you can kill it before it runs off you'll get to claim its stuff. One of its notable dialogues is MINE! MINE! MINE! whenever it walks, so it's easy to spot it from such obvious dialogue.

Warriors of Chaos
The Rotbloods, a Nurgle Warband so fanatical to the Rot-Father that they make typical fanatics look tame. They're in league with Clan Fester to work on the Skittergate while plundering Reikland's countryside. They're generally tougher and hit harder compared to Skaven, but come in smaller groups, are slower on flat ground, even slower at climbing vertical obstacles, and most importantly spawn from the same points rather than crawling out from every nook and cranny including those on the ceiling.

• Nurgle Cultists: Your typical cannon fodder of Nurgle about as tough as a Clanrat. Fill the same role as Skaven slaves in the Chaos horde, though they might last an extra hit compared to slaves.
• Chaos Marauders: Plague-ridden warriors that come in four flavors:
  • Raiders (hand weapon) and Bulwarks (hand weapon and shield) are the basic units for the Chaos Forces and fulfill a similar role to Clanrats, but they are significantly more durable than the former.
  • Savages(Frothers) (dual-wielding weapons) are pretty much carbon copies of Plague Monks and work exactly the same except its attacks aren't as fast.
  • Maulers (great weapons) huge guys with huge axes and huge horned helmets. Fill the niche of a Stormvermin in the Chaos horde, leading packs of marauders and acting as a primary threat in them, except they hit even harder, depleting all the stamina in one hit, are only armored on the head and heavily so (seriously, it's not worth shooting them there with non-guns), and have more health.
• Chaos Warriors: ASININE MORTALS!! The great axe variant. The toughest non-boss enemy in the game. Has nearly three times as much health as a Stormvermin, and their armor is so thick that even headshots from guns hardly faze them. They can down you in a hit or two from full health but are very slow targets, and they'll trash talk one of you to let you know who they're aiming for. For extra fun, they sometimes spawn two or three at a time.
• Chaos Patrol: when you thought Stormvermin patrol was bad, these guys come in with their chaosy march song... Include at least SIX Warriors and Maulers even at the lowest difficulty with the rest filled with Raiders and Bulwarks. A tougher patrol by far compared to the Stormvermin's.
• Chaos Sorcerers of Nurgle: Come in two variants - the Lifeleech (also known as "Chester the molester" by many players), who teleports around and attempt to bind a character to leech their health, and the Blightstormer, who casts a Nurgle-flavored green vortex spell that sucks in both the enemies and player characters, damaging and preventing them from moving. (The Blightstormer also likes to talk about how Papa blessed them with sniffles and brings forth much joy.)
• Bile Trolls: Chaos Trolls of Nurgle. Wield huge blunt weapons and spew acidic bile that slows you and drains your stamina as long as you're exposed to it, much like Stormfields it's absolutely worth turning around to a more open part of the map to be able to better avoid the puke. They can also attempt to heal themselves over time, both as a passive effect and as an ability they channel when their health is low. When this happens, they fall to their knees and gain a temp health bar. You and everyone else better start dogpiling the FUCK out of it to empty it and prevent full health regen, or life will only suck harder.
• The Unnameable Beasts: Tough boss monsters that like to chew you to regain their health. They are also probably the worst thing to face with pubbies, as they devour you, smack you into other players damaging and potentially downing them, and each snack they grab heals them. You will definitely want to use your bombs and any other knockback abilities you have to stop their chow time. Oh and they are about one of the fastest boss enemies just like the rat ogres with the exception being their head isn't as noticeable, therefore harder to deal big damage with headshots. Have fun with that.

Beastmen
The Cloven Ones are an enemy faction that premiered in the "Winds of Magic" expansion pack. They are the true children of Chaos, born amidst the collapse of the Polar Warp Gates and the subsequent release of Chaos energy into the world. As such, they serve the Chaos Gods without question, as their souls are forfeit to Chaos at the moment of their conception. Although the Beastmen vary in appearance, as true to their Chaos heritage, they are mainly comprised of humanoid mutants and abominations with bestial features such as cloven hooves, horns, and goatlike heads. Warpstone meteor falling into Reikland got their attention, and now they seek to claim it as a Herdstone. Afterwards, they have a chance to appear in any mission.

• Ungors: Ungors are the weakest and most humanlike of the Beastmen, with most possessing diminutive horns or no horns at all. However, they are no less hateful and repulsive than their larger cousins. They use spears and bows, making them the first common enemy type to have a ranged attack.
• Ungor Raiders: The weakest specials in the game, they look similar to regular Ungors but have much darker skin and white body paint across their upper body. Despite falling over in a stiff breeze, their arrows do lowish damage and they have an average rate of fire. The real threat is when you're caught out of cover by large packs of 8~10+ Ungor Raiders who will sustain fire their arrows so there's no safe opening to close the gap, and being exposed leads to a lot of damage quickly. Since they often shoot from far away at an area where melee can't reach them like a balcony or a cliff, they must be taken out with ranged weapons, which is a required waste of ammunition for some characters, unless the player is an Ironbreaker armed with a drakepistol, Bardin with a throwing axe, a Huntsman Kruber with a knack for headshots, or Sienna.
• Gors: The most common of the Beastmen, Gors form the backbone of the Beastmen Brayherd. Each Gor is recognized for their resplendent rack of horns, with larger horns denoting higher status within the Beastmen hierarchy. Prerelease screenshots and artwork show Gors wielding Man-cleavers and two-handed axes, although more variations are possible.
• Bestigors: Bestigors are the elite of the Brayherd as their name would imply. They can use a charge attack to knock down players and are heavily armored (not as much as chaos warriors despite being chaos and is more akin to Stormvermin armor), though this charge attack can be interrupted by a good hit/shot to them while charging to trip them or dodged.
• Standard Bearers: Beastmen who carry foul standards into battle to increase the Brayherds morale. They can place their magical standards to buff their comrades with a buffer of temporary health on top of their max health, and regeneration of their base health which can make fights take longer if players don't finish off enemies. Best to fight your way to the flag and smash it before things get harder.
• Beastmen Patrol - The patrol for the Beastmen. Unlike the previous two patrols, it contains some Ungor Raiders for ranged fire support and two standard-bearers with the rest filled with Bestigors.
• Minotaurs: A new monster-boss enemy, Minotaurs are the most Beastmen-like of Beastmen: extremely strong, extremely ferocious, and extremely dumb. Minotaurs are more aggressive than any other boss type, beelining for the nearest hero and attacking them relentlessly. They have a charge ability like the Stormfiend and can deal serious damage to players and enemies alike in their path. One of the nastier differences is that Minotaurs get the healing benefits of Battle Standards, but not the bonus health. This isn't too noticeable on Recruit or Veteran, but Champion and above the health regeneration makes it the hardest boss when both enemies are present together. Oh, and they're bigger than the other regular bosses, meaning more reach and having to aim higher for the head. Have fun.

Gameplay Tips (aka How To Avoid Dying Like An Asshole)

1. Don't be That Guy who wanders off alone and dies due to getting incapacitated due to the half-dozen or so methods an enemy can do such a thing. I don't care how badass you think you are, nothing actually makes you immune to being pounced by a Gutter Runner, hooked by a Packmaster, yote by a Blightstormer, et cetera. Seriously, wandering off alone is one of the certain ways you can get kicked from a match, along with going AFK during horde or boss attacks.

2. If someone starts grabbing Tomes and Grimoires, fucking follow them and hope they know where to show you where the others are. Because if you are not grabbing them, you're not optimizing your loot and XP gain, thus you are shit and should uninstall this game (and/or kill yourself). Or don't, whatever, I'm not Asmodai.

3. If you play Sienna and overheat more than twice in a match, don't be butthurt when you get kicked. Learn to manage your overheat, or learn to play anything else. (Same goes for playing an Ironbreaker with drakefire guns.)

4. The game is actually really great about audio clues for your enemies; if you hear something suspicious, start looking around for the source of the sound. Nine times out of ten, you can spot a Gutter Runner or other special enemy fast enough to kill it. The other tenth time? Hope your buddies didn't rush forward and leave you for dead.

5. Consider taking weapons with Shield Breaking and/or Armor Piercing if you're consistently getting fucked up by the heavier enemies. Instead of having to charge up a heavy attack, you just make regular attacks as fast as you can and watch enemies like Stormvermin and Chaos Warriors get fucked up.

6. Mix in side-dodges and pushes with your melee swings in order to defend yourself. The different weapons each have optimal attack/push/dodge patterns unique to them. Learn yours. Blind offense is a good way to get yourself killed by stray hits from trash mobs. Side-dodging repeatedly also has the benefit of helping you not get surrounded as the hordes have to relocate to you.

8. Trying to outrace other players for DPS is only going to get everyone killed, which means nobody gets loot and very little XP. Don't be that asshole who tries to "prove" something to the others by trying to outperform them. The only stat that matters is how much damage you took. Kills will happen eventually. Focus on keeping yourself alive and healthy first and foremost.

9. This is a fucking co-op game. Heal other people, leave stuff they need behind, try to watch their backs. If you can't handle this concept, then you really need to try a different game; "lone wolf" types are wasting both their time and everyone else's.

10. When the coast isn't clear, don't make forward progress in the map. You don't want to trigger a boss fight while knee deep in a horde. While dealing with shit and you have to move around, go backwards, not forwards.

11. Don't be afraid to use those bombs and potions the moment things are beginning to look dicey. One thing (horde, patrol, special) can be handled without too much trouble, but the multiples are what kills teams. Also, Strength potions oddly enough do affect ranged weapons and bombs.

12. Dash abilities (such as Foot Knight's or Zealot's abilities) can be canceled part of the way by blocking, allowing you to gain value from them while not charging away from your group if you're already with them.

13. You can block-cancel other things too, depending on your weapon. Attacks, pushes and other actions can be stopped with a block either for defense or speeding up your combos.

Gallery

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  HELLO I'M FUCKING FAT TOO

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  WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY SWAMP???

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  How Kerillian came to live in a tent.

Links

• Website
• Announcement Trailer plus a little bit of gameplay