"I don't know what they want with it, but if even half the stories of Athel Lithri are true, you better go up there and stop them."

We've been teasing it for a while now, but it's finally time to reveal the next step in the Ubersreik 5's adventure! The first of three missions in the new Verminous Dreams campaign, 'The Forsaken Temple' is coming out next week, free on all platforms!

Devoted readers of Lohner's Chronicles (spying on someone's personal journal is very rude, by the way) would know that dear Franz was recently visited by an Elf of the Divine persuasion, who gave him a cryptic warning of things to come.

While he never spoke a word about this to our Heroes, his investigations nonetheless led him to uncover hints of Skaven presence in the ruins of what could be an ancient and even mythical Elven temple: Athel Lithri.

Whatever it is that the Pactsworn plan to do with that temple, it can't be anything good. Time for our Heroes to take a peek and hopefully put a swift end to any verminous schemes going on there.

Just in time for the new adventure, Lohner got a glorious shipment of new outfits and hats, all inspired by some of the most iconic characters from Warhammer Fantasy!

• Bardin and Kruber get to pair up as an iconic duo, wearing vestments inspired by Gotrek Gurnisson and Felix Jaeger! These hero skins and hats are equipable on Bardin’s Slayer career and Kruber’s Mercenary career, respectively.
  
• Proving that he ALSO can sport a magnificent beard, the imposing Count Boris Todbringer-inspired hero skin and hat are equipable by Saltzpyre’s Bounty Hunter career.
  
• Delving into mysticism, Kerillian has access to an outfit inspired by Naieth the Prophetess, equipable on all of Kerillian’s careers.
  
• With a sudden propensity for walking around with a cup of wine (at least, we think it’s wine!), Sienna gets a new regal look with this armour inspired by Isabella Von Carstein. This hero skin and hat are equipable on her Pyromancer and Necromancer careers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more about Victor Saltzpyre here![www.vermintide.com]

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

Learn more about the Packmaster here![www.vermintide.com]

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

You guys continue to smash through these! The target for the Community Challenge was surpassed in no time and so the community as a whole has unlocked the Ratling Gunner skin.

For everyone who played during the last spotlight, you've earned these goodies, depending on your playtime:
The rewards for the previous spotlight have just been delivered, so check your inventory! As a note, the Hero Pose might take a few restarts before it applies properly to your account. Sorry about that!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more about Sienna here![www.vermintide.com]

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

Learn more about the Poison Wind Globadier here![www.vermintide.com]

Hotfix 6.0.7 - 28th of November

Fixes

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

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

Status update for the players who lost progression during the update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can follow the status on this issue here: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/552500/discussions/9/4631483655073586117/

Few things are constant among the Skaven, but their scheming and plotting is one of them. While our Heroes may have foiled Rasknitt, there’s plenty other vermin are eager to hatch their own devious plans. The farsqueaker, a verminous piece of Skryre engineering, allows some of these would-be masterminds to instantly communicate across vast distances with their networks of agents and spies.


Good news, master!

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

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

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

‘It is home to a powerful magician.’

‘Illusions and shadows keep it from being found.’

And other such chitterings.

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

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

My plan was foolproof!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

While they sleep, maybe.

Just a thought.

Your tireless and ever-loyal servant, Skratch Dirtnose…

Hotfix 6.0.6 - 26th of November

Features & Tweaks

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

Fixes

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

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

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

For everyone who played during the last spotlight, you've earned this Kerillian Hero Pose and this portrait frame (provided you accumulated enough playtime!):
There are unique rewards to unlock weekly through the Kill-Counter and personal rewards to unlock through a small ‘win-track’. There are currency rewards, portrait frames, skins, and weapon poses to be earned.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn more about Kruber here![www.vermintide.com]

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

Learn more about the Ratling Gunner here![www.vermintide.com]

Hotfix 6.0.4 - 20th of November

Features & Tweaks

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

Fixes

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

Status update for the players who lost progression during the update:

Hey all,

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

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

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

You can follow our progress on this issue through this thread on our forums.[forums.fatsharkgames.com]

Known Issues

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

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

Hotfix 6.0.5 - 22nd of November

Fixes

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

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

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

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

Kerillian & Gutter Runner Spotlight rewards will be earnable between November 14 - November 17. All rewards will be granted the following week.

Rally together as community to eliminate Heroes in Versus to complete the Kill-counter[www.vermintide.com]. If the community completes the counter, you will all unlock an exclusive skin for the Gutter Runner.

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

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

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

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

Like all wood elves, Kerillian feels the pull of both light and dark. First, as a Waywatcher, and now as a more experienced Waystalker, she has kept those aspects in balance. Indeed, Kerillian’s reason for journeying to Ubersreik was an attempt to help her reclaim her moral poise.

[url=https://www.vermintide.com/news/2018/12/6/dev-blog-kerillian
]Learn more about Kerillian here![/url]

A deadly, nimble Assassin of Clan Eshin, capable of pouncing an unsuspecting Hero from anywhere! The Gutter Runner is one of our two Disablers.

Learn more about the Gutter Runner here![www.vermintide.com]

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!

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[www.vermintide.com]
Learn more about playing as the Pactsworn (yes-yes!)[www.vermintide.com]

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.

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

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

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.


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.

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

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


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)!

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!

We’ll be celebrating Versus’ launch with a very special stream! Join us tomorrow at 17:00 CET on our Twitch[twitch.tv]!

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…

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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

• 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.

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!

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

• (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.

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)

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

• (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

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.

It is that spooky time of the year, when the Chaos moon Morrslieb is full, the Winds go wild and things go bump in the night. While we have been all too busy working on both Versus and Adventure content, we always have time to celebrate this dreaded Night of Mysteries! Geheimnisnacht is upon us.

The event will be running from October 31st to November 10th! It will feature nurglings, Double XP, challenges with new rewards, and the return of previous Geheimnisnacht rewards! Did we mention nurglings?

A returning favourite, the Skull of Blosphoros has gone loose again! Find his cultists in secret locations across Helmgart (we’ve listed them below, ‘cause we know you want those rewards fast) and disrupt their ritual.

If you dare, you can also pick up his Skull! Holding onto it will empower enemies greatly (and give them glowing eyes!), but carrying it to the end of the level will complete challenges and unlock their rewards!

The Skull of Blosphoros can be found in the following levels:

• Against the Grain
  
• Athel Yenlui
  
• Halescourge
  
• Convocation of Decay
  
• A Parting of the Waves

It's up to you to seek them out and take them on if you want to earn the new goodies!

There are new Quests available at Okri's Challenges! These can only be undertaken for the duration of the event, but they'll reward you with an exclusive new frame and five new illusions, with a golden glow of Myrmidia's blessing!
For those who have missed previous years' Geheimnisnachts, we'll be giving you a small opportunity to obtain the rewards you missed!

For the duration of the event there will be a section in Lohner's Emporium of Wonders where you may purchase the frames and illusions from past years (but not this year's rewards!)

Once the event ends, this section will close! Make sure to save up your shillings, there's only so much you can earn in a few days!

Read the patchnotes here:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4465975096247320629