Warhammer: Vermintide II

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Warhammer: Vermintide 2 (aka Vermintide II) is the sequel to Vermintide. It features first-person co-op with melee action.

In the End Times of the Warhammer world, players face untold enemy hordes in a desperate struggle to save the Empire from devastation. Players choose a career for their Hero, climb the talent tree, pick from a vast range of unique weapons and gear, and hack through the ranks of the monstrous invaders.

The five Heroes of Übersreik are back for more blood-splattering battles against overwhelming odds. The 15 unique careers provide different playstyles and add variety and depth to character progression. Each career has an individual talent tree, active and passive abilities, and access to unique weapons and equipment.

Story

Warriors of Chaos

Skaven

The Warriors of Chaos have joined forces with the relentless Skaven ratmen, forming a Dark Pact to ravage the realms of men. Their combined horde is bristling with terrors and is supported by a wide array of specialized units, always ready to punish any arrogant southlander trying to play the hero.

Warriors of Chaos

The Rotbloods are a clan of extremely vicious Norsemen, bordering on the insane, who worship Nurgle, the God of Pestilence. They have allied themselves with the Skaven and launched a devastating offensive, and don't intend on slowing down until the whole Empire is nothing but a putrid mire of disease and decay.

Ratmen

The vile and cunning ratmen once again swarm from below, killing, consuming, defiling and enslaving wherever they strike. Clan Fester has returned with a vengeance after their debacle in Ubersreik, and this time they will not let some band of pathetic man-things ruin their plans.

Features

General

• Level up Heroes (five total) to unlock new talents, abilities and access to powerful gear.
• Each Hero has three careers to choose from, for a total of 15. All careers include a unique talent tree, allowing players to spec their Hero to best suit their playstyle.
• The Heroes are bolstered with one active and passive ability, each unique for every career. Abilities can be crucial in turning the tide of a battle, so learn to use them effectively to increase the killing capacity and survival chance.
• Mod support

The Keep

The Keep is the Heroes’ new base of operations. Here players will plan the ongoing war by choosing what missions to partake in as well as try out new weapons, talents, and abilities in the practice room. The keep can be decorated with battle trophies, showing off accomplishments.

Spawn Director

The enemy is guided by the Spawn Director, ensuring that every playthrough will be different. Enemy spawning and formations are always unpredictable.

Loot System

The completely revamped loot system ties rewards to the Hero and career currently played. Combining a vast number of weapons and accessories with a wide range of properties and traits, players will be able to tinker with character builds.

Matchmaking

With an improved matchmaking system and support for dedicated servers, the multiplayer systems have been overhauled and enhanced.

Heroic Deeds System

These consumable quests will place players in strange new settings, dramatically change the mix of enemies they face, limit the use of weapons and abilities, or give them unusual mission objectives.

Heroes

Bardin Goreksson

• Ranger Veteran: Still searching for his lost dwarfen hold and facing dangers with boisterous merriment, Bardin Goreksson has through his adventures in Ubersreik become a Ranger Veteran.
  
  A dead-eye shot with a multitude of ranged weapons and more than capable of sending limbs flying or pulverising skulls in melee should the need arise, the Ranger Veteran wreaks havoc on any battlefield.

• Ironbreaker: Ironbreakers are peerless tunnel fighters, armed and armoured for the never-ending contest against Skaven and other monsters of the depths. As an Ironbreaker, Bardin will be the indomitable wall upon which the enemy’s charge will break, and a bastion of steel for his comrades to rally around.
  
  Before becoming a Ranger, Bardin cut his teeth as an Ironbreaker, serving in the throng of Kazak Norn. Pondering upon the events transpiring during the Ubersreik campaign, and in the world at large, Bardin decides to don the heavy armour of the Ironbreaker again.

• Slayer: Slayer Bardin is a melee whirlwind of carnage. A true specialist in close quarters slaughter, the Slayer Oath prohibits Bardin from using any ranged weaponry.
  
  Bardin has been carrying a heavy burden in his heart, and after joining the band of heroes who saved Ubersreik, he finally allowed himself some time for brooding and introspection. A life changing, or rather life ending, decision was made. Bardin became a Slayer, a warrior that seeks nothing but an honorable and glorious death that shall expunge the shame.

Ranger Veteran

Ironbreaker

Slayer

Kerillian

• Shade: The Shade is a master of stealth, a deadly assassin striking from the dark, able to outmaneuver any foe with fleet-footed movement and otherworldly agility. With her new faith, the Shade prefers weapons favored by Khaine, the elven God of Murder, to do her bloody work.
  
  As the pain of exile continues to fester within Kerillian, a new voice introduced itself in hushed tones within her mind and in her dreams. The whispers promised guidance and purpose and Kerillian, sick to death of the world of men, paid attention. It was the voice of Khaine. Having accepted to heed his call, Kerillian embarked on a sinister journey to find her true self.

• TBA
• TBA

Victor Saltzpyre

• Bounty Hunter: As the Bounty Hunter, Saltzpyre dons heavy armour and prefers to kill his enemies with ranged weapons, before he has to suffer their foul stench up close. The Bounty Hunter combines melee and ranged combat, with more brute force (and less finesse) than the Witch Hunter of old.
  
  When dealing with his superiors, Saltzpyre learned the hard way to temper the zeal of his obsession with the Skaven. After Ubersreik, he could no longer contain himself and spoke his mind. His superiors responded harshly, threatening Saltzpyre with severe reprimands. Victor, feeling betrayed and disillusioned, cut his mental ties with the order. Officially, he remains a fully authorized Witch Hunter. In his mind, however, Victor continues his quest alone, and will now, if the need arises, secure funds for his quest by working as a Bounty Hunter.

• Witch Hunter Captain: As a Witch Hunter Captain, Saltzpyre is all that he was during the Ubersreik campaign and more. He has improved his combat movement, deftly darting to advantageous positions, and sharpened his skills with an impressive array of weapons.
  
  Unexpectedly, the day finally arrived when Victor Saltzpyre was promoted to Witch Hunter Captain. Saltzpyre had long since given up hope of advancing in the Order as his radical theories about the Skaven had gained him many enemies within. Fate, it seems, would have it otherwise. The Witch Hunters had suffered crippling losses in these turbulent times. With no other options, the Order was forced to choose Saltzpyre as a Witch Hunter Captain.

• Zealot: In battle, the Zealot is a furious melee fighter, thrashing heretics, heathens and monsters with flails and maces in a holy rage. Although lightly armoured, the zealot is capable of suffering grievous wounds and still continue fighting, bolstered by his faith alone.
  
  Since losing his eye in a fateful encounter with the Skaven, and the obsession with the ratmen that followed, Victor Saltzpyre could no longer handle the Orders lack of support for his convictions. Deeming all worldly organisations insufficient for the monumental tasks ahead, Saltzpyre slowly descended into a fanatical worship of Sigmar.

Bounty Hunter

Witch Hunter Captain

Zealot

Sienna Fuegonasus

• Battle Wizard: As a Battle Wizard, Sienna unleashes powerful area of effect spells, immolating large numbers of enemies, turning onrushing hordes into smouldering piles of ash.
  
  In order to find peace, Sienna had to temper her addiction. Her flame-lust will always be there, but she now dims it through more structured and organized means. She chose a touch of military discipline to deal with what she ultimately is – an addict.

• Pyromancer: The Pyromancer career turns Sienna into an efficient single-target annihilator, specialising in incinerating the hardiest of enemies at a brisk pace, one at the time.
  
  As the Pyromancer, Sienna revels in her power but is careful not to overstep the mark, at least when out of battle. Through instinct and the half-remembered lessons from the Bright College, she balances the magic she wields with enough discipline to skirt damnation.

• Unchained: As the Unchained, Sienna’s focus now lays in magically enhanced melee combat. She can channel the winds of Aqshy to provide both an armour of flame that protects her and a mighty spell of fiery destruction, detonating around herself.
  
  Sienna Unchained has thrown caution aside, embracing every possible scrap of power from the Winds of Magic to strengthen her. She lives from one dizzying magical high to the next, getting as close to the foe as she can – the better to witness that sublime moment when flesh and bone succumb to the glorious flame she now serves.

Battle Wizard

Pyromancer

Unchained

Markus Kruber

• Foot Soldier: Foot Knight Kruber is strong as steel in defence and fearsome in offence, able to shrug off the mightiest of blows or shatter enemy ranks with a formidable charge. Standing tall in the thick of combat, the Foot Knight is the epitome of a heavily armoured, frontline melee warrior.
  
  Knighted for his heroic contribution to the defense of Ubersreik, Kruber has – somewhat reluctantly – climbed the social ladder. Not fully comfortable in his new station, Kruber has nonetheless found new method and purpose in his never-ending battles, be they against the enemy horde or his inner demons.

• TBA
• TBA

Notable units

Bile Troll

Bile Troll

Trolls are known for their indiscriminate appetites and raw, physical might. Bile Trolls, their being forever altered by the warping might of the Dark Gods, are even more ferocious.

Though Trolls are dim-witted in the extreme, it is a foolish soul who underestimates such an opponent. Should a blade penetrate its tough – almost-rocky – hide, the Troll’s formidable regenerative abilities will knit the wound together in a matter of moments. Worse, the attacker will now find himself in easy range of beady-eyed retribution. A fortunate soul will contend only with a pulverising blow fit to shake the hillside. The unlucky perishes in a flood of seething, acidic vomit that scours flesh from bone.

Chaos Spawn

Chaos Spawn

All worshippers of the Dark Gods strive for their patron’s recognition. Every life they claim, every barbarous act, is in furtherance of this one goal. Alas, the gods are fickle, and ladle out their blessings with an uneven hand. The mortal form was never meant to bear such gifts – when the tipping point is reached, mind and body collapse beneath their weight. Thus is born the Chaos Spawn.

The vaguest outline of a man can be recognised beneath the Spawn’s thrashing bulk. The barest glimmer of reason in its bellowing voice. But the man who was is there no longer, trapped in a prison of his own mutating flesh, driven to madness by his nightmarish existence. The man-that-was fought for glory, and for pride. The Spawn-that-is battles on only to soothe its own pain, and because it knows no other life.

In combat, the Chaos Spawn is surprisingly fast and erratic despite its towering height. Blinded by its rage and pain, it will constantly overwhelm its opponents, forcing them to split their ranks. Any poor fool who is left standing alone against the Chaos Spawn will soon find themselves inside its maw, razor-sharp fangs biting through armor and skin alike. The only means of killing it is to attack from all sides, dividing its attention and preventing it from targeting any one individual.

Chaos Warrior

Chaos Warrior

A Chaos Warrior is a living weapon, encased in warped armour and imbued with raw, superhuman strength. Having shed the concerns of petty mortality, he dons the mantle of war in the name of the Dark Gods. His is a life of unending battle.

Slaughter is the Chaos Warrior’s only comfort; the mercurial affection of his blasphemous patron the only love he seeks. Carnage is his nourishment, destruction his muse. His armour slicked with the blood of countless foes, the Chaos Warrior stalks the face of the Old World as an instrument of godly death, implacable as the master he serves.

Towering brutes with horned helmets, these battle-hardened veterans of Chaos are skilled fighters that use their superior strength, size and thick armour to their advantage. Not only do they swing a massive two-handed axe with phenomenal strength, but they also adjust their techniques to match and counter their opponent, making them especially formidable in combat. Keep your tactics fluid, watch out for his axe, and remember that it will take numerous heavy blows to make this armoured foe fall.

Plague Monk

Plague Monk

Of all the Horned Rat's children, Plague Monks are undeniably the foulest. Zealots dedicated to the spread of corruption and decay, they are recognisable through their ragged, soiled garments and a putrid stench that fogs the surrounding air.

Plague Monks are zealots, and hurl themselves into the fray without thought for their own lives. So scarred and swollen have their bodies become that pain is a distant memory, held at bay by diseases yet gnawing at their flesh, and callouses hardened into knotted lumps of flesh. Only death can still their fanatical ardour.

Poison Wind Globadier

Poison Wind Globadier

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. Each of a globadier’s gas spheres swirls with tendrils of a lurid, poisonous gas. Upon impact, the globe shatters, releasing a cloud of toxic fumes that eats away at flesh and armour alike. Those caught within the cloud approach their last, panicked moments. Eyes weeping and lungs burning, they must fight their way clear before the poison takes hold.

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.

Rat Ogre

Rat Ogre

Few enemies are as terrifying or as dangerous as Clan Moulder’s Rat Ogres. Though their precise provenance is clouded by history and the shrouded nature of Skaven society, it is clear that the brutes are well-named, melding a rat’s ferocity and cunning with the bullish, lumbering might of an Ogre. Doubtless the breeders of Clan Moulder have made many other ‘improvements’ beyond the obvious, but proximity to such a beast encourages the broadest and swiftest of analyses if one is to survive.

Veterans of Skaven conflicts know too well not to underestimate a Rat Ogre’s strength and speed. They rapacious and unstoppable, covering ground with great speed and undaunted by all but the most serious of wounds. Many a triumph has been cut short by the pounding of a Rat Ogre’s fists, the jellied pulp that remains after such a blow serving little purpose save as fodder for the beast’s prodigious appetites. Those same veterans, therefore, take care to hunt a Rat Ogre only when well-prepared to do so, lest they join the roster of its victims.

Ratling Gunner

Ratling Gunner

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.

Encumbered by the unwieldiness of his weapon, the Ratling Gunner is far from quick on his feet, but once he cranks up his weapon a torrent of warpstone hail is unleashed. Such gunners are known for their single-mindedness. Having chosen a target, they track it continually, firing relentlessly until either the weapon jams, needs to reload, or the victim lies shredded beyond recognition. It is therefore not unknown for many skaven to perish in a Ratling Gun’s volley, torn apart as their comrade’s fire tracks towards its target.

Stormfiend

Stormfiend

An enhancement of the already formidable Rat Ogre, the Stormfiend counts amongst the crowning achievements of Clan Moulder’s breeding experiments. Hardiness is granted by warp-metal armour fused directly to twisted flesh, reason by the brain-beast melded to the creature’s spine.

And yet Clan Moulder cannot claim full credit for the Stormfiend. Clan Skryre weaponry grants the monster a capacity for slaughter that other Rat Ogres lack. Thus the Stormfiend’s maddened roars are often blotted out by the seething rush of warpfire, gouted from projectors bolted to its forearms.

When facing a Stormfiend, the choice of battleground can mean the difference between life or an agonizing death. Thanks to the tactical awareness of the brain-creature on its back, the towering rat-beast will engage his foes from a distance with lethal gouts of warpfire. As the battle commences, the ground will quickly become a maze of flames, making it crucial that you choose your terrain carefully. The brute is heavily armoured and comes with one crucial weakness – the wicked little mastermind on its back. Interrupt his attacks, watch your step, charge as a team, target the mastermind, and who knows, you might even make it out alive.

Warpfire Thrower

Warpfire Thrower

The Warpfire Thrower is whispered of in many quarters – chiefly for the horrors it has wrought in the cramped confines of dwarfen holds. Though little more than a vat of unstable warp-fuel and an ignition source, it is a weapon to be feared, as many charred skeletons would perhaps attest, could they speak of it. With the smouldering projector aimed, the simple flip of a switch births roiling clouds of warpfire that scours all from the gunner’s path.

Though the Warpfire Thrower is frequently seen wielded by weapon teams of two skaven, particularly deranged gunners have been known to take the field without the aid of a fuel-bearer. Eager to earn favour with their masters, such ratmen readily trade the additional burden for the chance to deny another skaven a share of the glory.

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External links

• Official game site