In my time of playing Vermintide 2, I learned a few tricks and I hope some of them will help you on your missions.
Some of the things written here are basics everyone should know about, while other sections describe how you should approach the mission, showing shortcuts and give tips, also there are parts that describe talent effects, weapon advantages and traits.

This is the updated version of this guide with new content and descriptons, including new maps and a different design.

In this map there is a shortcut that might coming handy if your allies died.
You can skip the wine cellar by going through the house nearby.
Just stand in front of the doorframe when you jump and use your career skill simultaneosly to get through the door.
Once there, go up the stairs and jump down the other side of the house where your companions waiting to be rescued, if you give them enough time to respawn.
This only works with Slayer, Zealot, Warrior Priest with the Blessed Tome, Handmaiden and
Battle Wizard.


If you play as one of the other careers there is another way to skip the cellar, but you have to jump along the wooden beams.


There are five jumps to make:
1. Jump from the ground at the vertical beam.
2. Jump on the other side.
3. You have to jump before you move to the other side or you will fall down.
4. Jump from there to the lamppost.
5. Stand at the outermost side before you jump to the doorframe, otherwise you hit your head and you have to do it all over again (along with headache).

This takes not much skill to do it, but you need to know how to do it right.
Stick to the description from 3. and 5. and you will probably make it in one or two attempts.

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In the end event you must load the cart with three barrels.
The barrel in the cellar is harder to collect because you have to walk a longer way back to the cart and the swarming enemies don't make it easier, but there are two options to deal with it.
1. Your group can stay up and focus on defeating the incoming enemies while you can carry the blackpowder in moderate safety, or 2. you can throw the barrel upward and someone picks it up.

After placing the first Gargoyle head on the statue, a group of Chaos Warriors will spawn behind the gate near the second head.
You might want to kill the Chaos Warriors first instead to go to the basement, because they can be a much greater problem if they mix up with the frequently spawning Plague Monks, Hookrats and Ratling.
You can also pick up the Gargoyle head nearby and go to the two remaining heads after.

The end event in this map can be a bit tricky due to the Berserkers, armoured enemies, Blightstormers, Life Leeches and the monster.
Many people use the crypt in the arena to defend themselfes, because the enemies will only come from one side (except Leech) and you have access to an infinite supply of ammunition.
But what if you forget or couldn't lite the beacons along the way?
The shack with the healing supplies before the arena will be locked and you can't get into the crypt that gives you an advantage in the fight.
You can still reach one or two draughts in the shack from outside, but if you switch items you can't reach your Tome anymore.


And I will show you a trick to enter the crypt without lighting the bonefires.

Step 1: Stay in front of the left side of the crypt.
Step 2: Jump diagonal to point 2.
Step 3: While in midair press D (go right) so you perform a semicircular movement around the pillar, so you land at point X.
If you done it correctly, you should notice that you stand closer to the pillar than you could before.
(point 1 and 2 on the picture are a bit far of , just make sure you jump close around the pillar)

Step 4: go left around the wall and stay close to it and it should be possible to enter the crypt now.
And don't forget the supplies at the basement.

After the monologe of Sofia you must destroy the four Wards in the library.
After destroying them, three of the four will always spawn the same special unit at the same place in every of your runs.


1. Will spawn a Ratling from where you came from.


2. Will spawn a Globadier upstairs.


3. Will spawn a Hookrat.
Make sure you kill it right away or it will likely jump down and return when you least expect it.


Ward 4 will spawn nothing.

Soon after, you will reach the Lustria area.
You might want to use this shortcut to reach the top.Pass this route to get to the top much faster and without risk of falling down and you can turn the head of the Sentinel of Lustria to prevent fall damage in this sector of this mission.

As you proceed, you will eventually reach a big room with six different levers that have numbers on it.


You can pull all levers in any order to open the door or you can enter a specific four-digit code that can give you an advantage in the mission.
These five codes are:

5123
It can be repeated as long as you want and will spawn healing items and potions on the table.
3421
It is one way to open the supplyrooms in the arena at the end.
4361
It can be repeated and it will always spawn a Rat Ogre.
This way you can farm Loot Dices as long as you want and that makes Tomes and Grimoires unnecessary.
1532
It opens a path where you can find a few items along with one of the 10 Interloper Skulls and there is a lever that can also open the door to proceed.
4512
This one cannot be found in the mission and that's probably the reason why it is not mentioned elsewhere, neither in other guides nor in the wiki on the internet.
It only opens the door like it would when you simply pull all levers in the room.

On the right side of the room behind a illusion wall is the place where the code is entered.

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In the bossfight you have to throw barrels into the Well of Souls, but a few people do it wrong.
They walk alone and get hit or stay too close at the well of souls and get targeted by the shadow skulls that are always trying to ignite the barrel, which causes in both cases the barrel to explode.
In order to prevent this, clear out the enemies nearby or use a career that can dash forward or stealth, the blackpower barrel you can find at the start of the mission also works and it will not trigger any shadow skulls, but have to be brought all the way to the end.
When you move forward and throw the barrel at the same time in a 45°angle you should be close enough at this distance:


After that, two lines of bone hands emerge from the ground and damage players (not Bots) on contact.


To prevent damage you must run in circles.
Stay together when it begins or you will be seperated and than you are an easier target for Leeches and Assassins.
It is possible to avoid the need for this by hiding in one of the two supplyrooms located at both sides on the outer ring of the arena.


You have to unlock the supplyrooms first, either with the 3421 code in the room with the levers or by picking up all 10 skulls you find across the whole map.
While being inside, you won't receive any damage from the bone hands (assuming you don't stand too close to the entrance) and inside you will find potions, bombs and an endless supply of ammunition.

Previously, not even enemies could enter the room, (with the exception of the Life Leech and the Gutter Runner with his leap) but now every enemy can walk inside making it a death trap.
If you can't outkill the enemies that come inside the only exit will be blocked and you die.

As you march through the Skaven-infested dwarfhold Khazid Kro you will pass the Temple of Valaya.
Pause for a moment and take a rest there, give your body time to recover.


If you use the Sit (Ground) emote and wait for a moment you will restore your health and clear all wounds you have.
It heals you for 50% of your maximum health and is affected by gear and talents that increases the maximum health as well as the increased effectiveness of healing on you like the trait "Boon of Shallya" and with the level 5 healshare talent the healing spreads to nearby allies.

This can be repeated and it makes the use of healing items in that area unnecessary and you don't even have to sit in front of the statue, but only somewhere inside the temple.

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In the end event you have to blow up the 3 Skaven tunnels with blackpowder barrels.
You have to fend off hordes and specials while you are waiting for the next barrel to appear and once it is there you have to carry it safely through the enemy crowd without getting hit.

If this is too annoying for you, than you could skip the end event by taking the barrels lying near the start of the mission with you and if 3 players carry a barrel with them it will also don't slow you down too much.
Once there, you can simply throw them into the holes without triggering the event, that makes it much easier and you don't have to wait for the next barrel while fighting Skaven.
Normal hordes and specials can still appear, but less frequently as they would in the event.

From the middle to the end of the mission you will encounter several Nurgle Growths that you have to clear out with whale oil barrels.
Nearby you can find a cart at which you can infinitely fill barrels if one gets destroyed, but there are already enough barrels lying around in this mission so you don't have to waste time filling barrels.
Just look for already existing barrels nearby and use them.

In the end event you can find all barrels you need in a storage room around the corner along with an ammunition crate and healing items.



Just throw the barrels through the hole in the wall so you and others don't have to carry them so far.
You only need to carry 3 barrels to the Nurgle Growths nearby, at the 4th one near the cart that got stuck there is already a barrel you can use.

In this mission, Lohner sends the Krubersreik Five off to a sewer (again), just this sewer is completely dark and you will see this:

Fortunately you can find torches and lite fires to brighten up your way.
But if this isn't enough or you want to complete the two Blightreaper challenges from Okri's book, you can bring a Moonfire Bow or a Coruscation Staff that also light the way.
This also works in the mission "Hunger in the Dark".

An even better way to bring light in the dark is to use either Sienna's Bolt Staff or Bardin's Drakefire Pistols.
With them you can shoot projectiles which illuminates the impact area (enemy or terrain) for a second and that's most of the time enough to see, especially if you fire more than one shot.


This way you can light yourself and your teammates the way and see dangers from a greater distance.
The projectile also lights the area while it is in the air, but it flies by too quickly to be of use.

---

In the mid event you must defend yourselves against the incoming enemies while you wait for the sewer gate to open.
If you get past the first gate you should stay on top of the ledge instead of jumping into the second basin.


Standing on top of the ledge brings a clear advantage in this situation, because enemies have to climb up to you to first.
The enemies only come from one side, Plague Monks can't charge at you, Shielded Stormvermin can't block your attacks and in their climbing animation they count as staggered with the stagger count of 2 which means that they take 40% more damage from your attacks.
If they still manage to climb up to the top, they can simply be pushed back down with a shield weapon.

If your allies already jumped down you can still stay at the top when your character has a good ranged weapon.
Help the others by sniping down Stormvermin and Berserkers while most of the enemies focus their attacks on them, but beware that some enemies will still trying to climb up to you.

This game mode works differently than the campaign missions.
You start with the default version of your weapons and without a necklace, charm and trinket, only your talents will remain.
In order to survive you must upgrade your weapons at an altar and seek boons from the Chest of Trials, the Seer's Altar or purchase them at Shrines along the way.

At Holseher's map you can choose which path you take and at the end of the mission you gain a property depending on which way you go (like +40% Damage vs Monster).
Every mission has it's own modifier and enemy factions , some will have more roaming enemies but less elites, in others you can find more Pilgrim's Coins but have a higher special spawn rate.
Some locations are even cursed by the Chaos Gods, which makes the journey more difficult.



In my opinion Tzeench has the worst curses.
In "Bolt of Chance" lightning bolts will transform your enemies into more dangerous ones, and who wants to be persued by a horde of Plague Monks, Stormvermin, Warpfire Throwers or worse?

The "Crystal Egg" curse gives you 90 seconds time to reach and destroy the egg, if the timer runs out you have to fight a monster that will spawn at the same location.
The only good thing is that the monster will drop Pilgrim's Coins on death.



The curses of Slaanesh are rather harmless or even helpful.
In "Glory to Greed!" you will find no items, but hexed enemies will spawn an orb on death that drops all kinds of supply (including coins).
That means that you have an endless supply of healing items, bombs, ammunition and potions.
You can also use them to farm Pilgrim's Coins and other items at the end, the yield compared to the time depends on what modifiers the mission has, because not every enemy spawns an orb.
Only elites, specials and for some reason even Gors (Bestmen Infantry with axe or flail) can be hexed and therefore you can get high amounts of supply from missions with Beastmen together with an inceased amount of specials or elites.
Strangely the orbs will not drop any Potions of Prophetic Strike.

The curse "Unquenchable Thirst" can also be helpful, even if you take damage over time.
In those missions you can find more potions than usual and they act like healing items, restoring health on use and even clear wounds.
That makes the use of Healing Draughts or Medical Supplies in this mission not necessary.

If you walk on paths that are cursed by Be'lakor and you get the curse "Shadow Skulls", don't shoot or hit an ally that is incapacitated, it will not shorten the time in which they cannot move but taking damage from your shot.
The effect of the skulls has it's own cooldown time, so if you really want to help them you should defeat the enemies nearby.

The maps in this game mode are shorter and if you're near the end of one section you should avoid using healing items because at the start of the next section you get up to 50% of your health back and all wounds are cleared.
If you're not the host and lost connection you will be sent back to the Pilgimage Chamber without coins and no reward, but as long as the lobby exists you can come back and you will still have all boons you got and also the same weapons, rarity of weapons and Pilgrim's Coins from the point you left the expedition.
This only works when you rejoin with the same career, because even with the same character the other career will have no boons or weapon upgrades, only the coins stay.
If you joined a already ongoing expedition you will start with the rewarded properties from the completion of the maps.



After destroying the Shadow Locus, you can enter the Temple of Be'lakor.
It has its own small map and it is always set up the same way.
When you reached the temple itself, you have to activate the three Shadow Locus around the statue, kill the Shadow Lieutenants and use the Ulgu Crystals they drop to overload the Locus.
Note that after every destroyed Locus two specials will spawn.
There are five different places where the Shadow Locus will stand:
Right in front of the statue, when you go left on the ground level, on the back of the temple, on the right side of the upper level and in the basement.
There will always be supply on the right side near the entrance and a ammunition crate in the back near one of the two the stairs that lead into the basement.

Is it even worth it to complete the Temple of Be'lakor or is it better to skip the temple?
The Pilgrim's Coins are not the problem, you will find plenty enough coins on your way and inside the temple and they have always the same locations, so they are easy to find.
Some locations and curses might just as difficult as the Temple of Be'lakor, because it has no modifier and no curses from one of the Chaos Gods.
The problem is the reward:
After completing the temple you will only get two random Veteran boons and not all of them are useful.
Any other map has Altars on which you can receive a random boon or upgrade your weapon, a Chest of Trials that lets you choose a boon and a property as reward for completing the map.
Because of that, the reward from the Temple of Be'lakor can't compete with what you get on the other maps.

In the Chaos Wastes you'll find items that you can't find in the other game modes, some of the effects they have are not mentioned in the description, so I will explain them instead:

Potion of Stealth: It lets you pass through enemies and the effect remains, even if you attack an enemy.
Potion of Wrath: It slows you down for a few seconds after drinking.
Potion of Lifesteal / Lifeshare: The description is wrong, even dealing damage heals you or your team.
Not only that, but also damage you take restores health, that includes friendly fire, venting damage, overcharging, standing inside the area of a destroyed lamp oil barrel and fall damage.
So almost everything without getting hit from an enemy restores health.
The best way to heal with those potions is to throw a bomb because the health of the enemy doesn't matter since it is the damage that counts.
This way you can get full health from one bomb even if you throw it at a small group of 4 - 5 Skaven.
Potion of Agility: It takes some time until the effect begins, but than your dodges are so wide that you can move faster just by dodging to the side.
Morgrim's Bomb: Not only it has a larger area of effect but it also deals no friendly fire.
Potion of Endless Bombs: It decreases your movement speed for the whole duration, but it can give you a bomb even if you didn't had one before.
It also works with different types of bombs, so you can throw endless Incendiary and Morgrim's bombs.
The former is very useful against Rampart Grudge-Marked monsters, since they don't get any damage from ranged attacks including bombs, but the damage over time effect from the Incendiary bombs still works and make this potion useful even against Rampart monsters.

After you upgraded your weapon to exotic (orange rarity) you can get in addition to normal traits that you can find in the Adventure mode also traits that you can only get in the Chaos Wastes.
If you get a good one, you might want to consider not to upgrade your weapon any further, because even if the new weapon has more power, the trait of your current weapon can compensate that, while a stronger weapon with a bad trait can be worse.
Some traits are really worth keeping, like this four:

Taal's Twinned Arrow:
Your ranged attacks now fire one additional projectile so you deal twice as much damage as before and the ammunition cost remain the same.
This trait can also apply on the Trollhammer Torpedo, as if it wasn't deadly enough.

Bloodthirst:
It increases your attack speed every 5 kills by 2% and can stack up to 5 times, the effect resets after 30 seconds without a kill.
It gives your slower weapons enough speed to fight large and dense hordes without including too many push attacks and the duration is long enough to constantly maintain the effect.

Regrowth:
You get 5 permanent health for every critical hit and together with a career with a high critical strike chance you will regenerate more health as you can lose.

Vaul's Anvil:
All attacks will be blocked while holding this weapon, but it has a 10 second cooldown when your guard is broken.
It is one of the best traits you can get, because it has a strong defensive, as well as offensive utility.
It can prevent most situations where you accidentally receive damage, from getting hit while you strike to enemies that come from behind.
This trait works similar to the special attack of the Rapier or Spear and Shield, you can strike while blocking the incoming attacks, that makes it very useful against elites like Berserkers and you can chain attacks without interrupting the attack combo because you had to block.


There are also a few noteworthy boons in this game, some of them come with hidden advantages, others bring an obvious benefit.
Some of the boons work well with each other and even if you can't reliably get the boons you want, you can still look out for those that complement each other.
The boons described below are a mix of just that, some bring additional advantages, others have rather obvious advantages and others that work well together.
You can tell the rarity of the boons by the colour of the outline, blue is Rare, orange is Exotic and red is a Veteran boon.

Ladrielle's Veil:
Every 30 seconds after taking damage, you will get invisible for 5 seconds, attacks end stealth sooner.
In that time you can pass through enemies and that gives you a possible escape chance if you have been cornered.
It also works as a protection against disablers, because Gutter Runner and Life Leech let go of you after entering stealth.
Together with Morai-Heg's Doom which causes all attacks to be a critical hit, it can be used as a powerful counterattack that can deal great damage, especially as Shade because she can benefit from the stealth and the critical hit to regain lost health with the thp from the kills.

Mathlann's Storm Strike:
Your career skill calls down lightnings on nearby enemies that damage and push them away.
Weak horde enemies like Slave Rats will burn away and the heavy stagger effect from this boon makes most enemies fall over and that gives you time to attack.
Careers with access to stagger thp can get full health when it is used against a horde, assuming they don't die from that.

Ulapt's Cunning:
Picking up ammunition restores 15 health.
This boon is unusable for anyone with a weapon that does not use ammunition, but for those who can, it will turn any ammunition crate into an endless supply of healing as well as the Survivalist Ammunition bags from the Ranger Veteran.
Since you can find ammunition pickups with the Miracle of Ranald, in levels with the Slaanesh curse "Glory to Greed!", dropped by a Ranger Veteran and normally lying around on the map you will frequently be able to restore your permanent health, making it one of the best low rarity boons.

The Great Maw's Resurgence:
Gain 2 health each second if you fall below 30% health.
I takes also thp in account, so you will only regain health when you're below that mark together with temporary health.
It can prevent death at a tight spot with no healing in sight, so that small damage sources like friendly fire and area damage doesn't kill you.
It also sets you on a good amount of health from which you can generate temporary health without getting killed from the first horde enemy.
Surpisingly, it can also prevent you from getting downed by overcharging if you had more than 80% of health.

Khaine's Might:
You gain 25% power but also 50% curse.
This boon halves you maximum health, but not if you are playing as Warrior Priest, because with his 100% curse resistance he can take advantage of the increased power without any disadvantage.

If you're not playing as Warrior Priest the heavily reduced health can cost your life and allows almost no room for mistakes, but the boon Ursun's Fortitude may compensate that due to the it 50% increased maximum health it provides.

Grimnir's Implacability:
Falling below 10% health grants 15% attack and movement speed and prevents damage for 10 seconds with a cooldown of 30 seconds.
It does not prevent damage that goes over the 10% mark, so the effect might start at 4hp even with a maximum of 100hp, but never down to 0.
It works like the "Heart of Iron" perk from Zealot just with twice the duration, a four times faster cooldown, and a attack and movement speed bonus.
You can also go from 1hp to 1hp without dying and it prevents death from overcharging.

Isha's Embrace:
Increases healing received by 50%.
It also counts for temporary health and through that even careers with bad thp generation will have more than enough health available and careers with high thp generation will have more than they could ever use themselfes and that's where Shalyak's Charity comes to use.
With that you're able to share your surplus on thp to the others in your party.

Valaya's Brew:
Using your Career Skill has a 50% chance of granting you the effect of the potion you are currently carrying.
If you have career with a fast cooldown rate you can use your favorite potion over and over in a short period of time and with a Potion of Lifesteal or Lifeshare it can make healing items to you and your team almost unnecessary.
Combine it with the Bomb of Alchemical Concentration boon together with a Potion of Endless Bombs and you're able to create an endless circle of death and destruction by using your career skill and throwning bombs and you don't have to worry about friendly fire from bombs and Trollhammer Torpedos anymore, because all alchemical bomb boons remove the friendly fire they deal with the exception of a direct hit on an ally.
A Ranger Veteran with the talent "Ranger's Parting Gift" can make use of the alchemical bomb without the use of a bomb potion.

Kalita's Barter:
It duplicates one of the items you're carrying with you, the cooldown depends on the item that was duplicated.
Any item you carry has the same chance to be picked, so drink / use the items you don't want to create.
Holding the item in your hands is not necessary neither does it increase the chance to be picked.
This powerful boon can provide an endless supply of everything you want including unique items from Shrines like Morgrim's Bomb.
All items have a 60 second cooldown with the exception of Morgim's Bomb and Rhya's Jade Censer (180 seconds) and the Potion of Endless Bombs (120 seconds).

Lileath's Blessed Destiny:
Increases your career skill maximum charge by 1.
It is always good to have a additional use for a tight spot when things go wrong or when you need an extra career skill use to kill patrols and monsters.
Besides, every second that passes while at full charge will be wasted and with this boon you still have one use left and you can effectively use the cooldown time of your career skill.
The effect from the Footknight's talent "It's Hero Time" only gives one career skill charge.

Sigmar's Comet:
You throw an additional bomb of the same type.
This boon is pretty self-explanatory, you use one bomb but throw two and it deosn't matter which bomb it was, even with a Morgrim's Bomb you throw two of the same type.
If you move your camera while tossing, you can cover a bigger area because the second one will not land at the same place.
If you're lucky and receive the Hashut's Echo boon, you can now cause four times the destruction, because both bombs will now explode a second time after a short delay.
Even a Rampart Grudge-Marked monster will die in mere seconds if you use it in combination with a Potion of Endless Bombs and a Incendiary Bomb, the only problem will be the heavy fps drop.

Eldrazor's Deflection:
Parrying and attack makes you immune to damage for 2 seconds.
Unlike some other boons in the game this one is a Veteran boon for a reason, because it can make the stamina you have useless, except for push attacks.
Even when you run out of stamina, if the last attack was parried you're immune to all incoming damage including damage that cannot be blocked and before the effect expires you have enough stamina again to parry the next attack.
The only catch is that you always have to block in the right time, but with the right boon even that is no longer necessary.
With Hoeth's Sword-Craft every block counts as a parry and this removes the skill needed to block every attack, no matter how hard it is or if they hit one after another.
It may protect you most of the time, but take note that there are situations that prevent you from blocking an attack, like being disabled and it also doesn't protect you from getting knocked back.

Djaf's Rejection:
You will always be downed rather than outright killed, but you can still bleed out.
Be aware that it does not protect you if you got downed before, so you might want to heal yourself after receiving the boon.
You will still get a grey vision after you get knocked down, but it doesn't add a wound to your character, so the decreased thp depletion rate does not occur.
As long as your allies are fast enough to pick you off the ground, you can get downed as many times as you like.
With Isha's Gift you can even make use of it.
Every 120 seconds you will be revived at full health and this way, it can even act as healing.
The boon itself does not not clear wounds, but in combination with Djaf's Rejection are healing items no longer required, but rather optional.


You might want to share what boon you received so that others can react on it.
For example, if you can duplicate items now, your allies will give you items they want you to multiply, or they head for the shrine of strife / harmony due to their special items.

In this section I will describe some weapons in more detail and compare them with each other or explain the interaction of weapons with talents, but I will also introduce traits and properties for your gear.


Kruber - Sword and Shield, Bretonnian Sword and Shield:
Both weapons share the same light 1, heavy 3 and push attack with the same power and both can chain the push attack into heavy 3, but the difference between the two lies in the way they are used.
The Sword and Shield can immediately perform a shield bash with heavy 1 without the need of a push.
It has a higher speed, a reliable attack combo and its light attacks make it a better weapon for fighting hordes.
The Bretonnian variant is slower and its attack combo takes some practice, but it is better at fighting armoured elites, it can break the enemy's shield and it is the only weapon that can chain two shield bashes in each other.
The Bretonnian Sword and Shield allows a variety of possible combinations that chain into a shield bash, for example, you can skip the push attack and chain the push directly into a shield bash and that many times in a quick succession so that Chaos Warriors can be stunned and Maulers will fall over, but this will use up much stamina in short time.
A stamina-saving method would be: light - heavy - light.
Or against armoured enemies: heavy - heavy - light.
This saves you stamina, but in that time the enemy can recover or attack.

Kruber - Executioner Sword, Bretonnian Longsword:
The Executioner Sword has a greater headshot bonus, a simple attack combination and stronger heavy attacks compared to the Bretonnian Longsword, but it has a lower attack speed, cleave power and weaker light attacks.
Furthermore, The Executioner Sword does not protect you during heavy attacks.
The Longsword can deal with both hordes and elites and with some practice in the attack combo it might be the better choice of the two.

Bardin - Cog Hammer, Great Hammer:
The Coghammer has faster light attacks, a more powerful heavy attack and a higher headshot multiplicator, even if it's not mentioned in the description.
It uses light attacks for hordes and the heavy attack for single enemies.
Despite the advantages of the Cog Hammer, the Great Hammer is not inferior.
Its heavy attacks have wider sweeps and a greater stagger power and that makes them ideal for fighting mixed hordes and generating stagger thp.
It might not have the same single target dps, but it can still take out armoured elites very efficiently.
The light attacks are for single targets and the heavy attacks for hordes.

Bardin - Axe and Shield, Hammer and Shield:
The Axe and Shield can deal more damage against armoured enemies, but it lacks the ability to fight hordes, because only the shield bash (heavy 1) and the heavy 2 attack hit multiple enemies.
The Hammer and Shield however, can also deal with armoured enemies while it is also capable to fight hordes.
If you chain the push attack into light 3 you can deal a lot of damage in short time even against armor, while keeping most enemies staggered.
The first two light attacks have higher speed and cleave than the heavy 2 from Axe and Shield and if timed well, you can block cancel after the first light attack and repeat for even more attack speed.

Bardin - Handgun, Masterwork Pistol:
The Masterworks Pistol can fire 6 shots without reloading, it has the same headshot bonus and deals the same damage as the Handgun at short distances.
But you can't aim with the Pistol and together with the high damage loss that starts at medium distance, makes it ineffective at long range.
The benefits of this weapon are the higher ammunition capacity, and its secondary fire mode for rapid fire.
With the secondary fire mode you can deal high amounts of damage, despite the loss of accuracy and because of this, it can quickly take out monsters.
It can also be used to kill armoured elites one after another and you can use the delay between the shots to aim at a new target.
The benefits of the Handgun in compare to the Masterwork Pistol are that it can pierce through shields and super armor and it has no delay before it fires.
It is also very precise while aiming so you can easily score headshots and with Conservative Shooter you will lose only very little ammunition during your way.
The ability to pierce super armor will come in handy by killing Standard Bearers before they can place down their flag and by fighting Chaos Warriors and Rotshields.
Since it can penetrate shields, it is one the best weapons to kill a Shielded Stromvermin.

Saltzpyre - Rapier:
It is an excellent weapon with fast attacks, increased headshot damage, a special attack and it is also easy to handle.
Its light attacks are weaker than the other weapons, but it will compensate that with speed and an adequate cleave power.
All heavy attacks are a stab straight forward and that makes it easy to hit the enemy's head and with the additional headshot damage it has more than enough power to deal with armoured enemies.
With the weapon special you can use the pistol in the other hand to shot distant enemies without using ammunition.
The Off-Hand Shot has good damage, a greater stagger power than the other attacks and it can be used while blocking.
That way, you can stagger even Chaos Maulers and it can also be used to safely kill Plague Monks and Berserker during their attacks.

Sienna - Her Staffs and the interaction between the talents of the Battle Wizard:
With her level 10 talents, the Battle Wizard can greatly change the damage behavoir of her weapons.
Volcanic Force increases the power of fully charged attacks from staffs by 50%.
It has no effect on the Beam Staff's secondary attack, even if the icon shows up after a while.
Famished Flames doubles the fire damage you deal at cost of 15% of your direct damage, that also counts for your melee weapons.
With Lingering Flames the damage over time effect cannot stack, but it lasts until the enemy dies and it always takes the highest fire damage the enemy has received in account.
It also halves the interval in which the enemy takes damage from the over time effect.

The Bolt Staff can't cause any damage over time and that's the reason why only Volcanic Force would make sense while using this weapon, but with that it can kill every special with a single bodyshot.
It can also kill a Chaos Warrior on Cataclysm with only two headshots, which is not that hard due to the high accuracy of the weapon.

The Coruscation Staff can stagger and cause a good amount of damage with its primary fire, but the real damage potential lies in the fire pillars of the secondary fire.
The pillars deal only fire damage and the over time effect stacks quickly, that is why Famishes Flames is the best choice for this weapon.
You may want to combine it with a melee weapon that can frequently apply damage over time like the Fire Sword, to make full use of this talent.

The primary attack of the Beam Staff is useful against a single target, but it needs time to rack up damage and if you accidentally hit another enemy you have to build it up again.
Famished Flames would only be useful when you constantly hold the attack and it might be better at fighting monsters, but it would lower any other damage.
With Lingering Flames you would simply have to apply the fire damage and than go into melee, while the enemy suffers the damage over time.
The Beam Staff can also make the most damage with Lingering Flames because it has the highest fire damage per second.

The Conflagration Staff deals more damage to enemies that are closer to the center of the explosion, but the over time damage is the same.
Since the explosion radius of the Conflagration Staff is larger than you can see, Lingering Flames can inflict permanent damage to a large part of the horde and provides the best damage bonus in this situation.

For the Fireball Staff you could choose the Volcanic Force talent, because the secondary attack ignores the enemy's armor and it would increase its single target damage, but you have to hit it directly and the staff is better suited for fighting against hordes.
In that case you should definitely take Lingering Flames, because the damage over time remains only for one second, so Famished Flames would be useless and would even reduce the impact damage.

For the Flamestorm Staff you should take Lingering Flames, because the fire damage the staff deals will only stay for one second.
For some reason it will even double the damage over time during the attack while the reduced damage interval that this talent causes remains the same, but only for this staff.

Conservative Shooter:
This trait restores 1 ammunition when you score a headshot and it counts for every ammunition used, so that weapons like Bardin's Grudge-Raker will only get one shot back, while Saltzpyre's Volley Crossbow with its alternative fire mode restores all three.
The trait works with all weapons it can be applied to, even if they have infinite ammo.
It allows rapid fire with weapons like Javelin and Throwing Axes, because the only reload they have is the recovery of the weapon and that way it will greatly increase their attack speed and therefore the damage they deal.
It also works on the Trollhammer Torpedo together with the Grenadier trait for the Trinket.
This way you can miss around one out of four times the head and you'll still have full ammunition and that's supposed to be one of the downsides of this weapon.

Grail Knight - Virtue of the Penitent:
This talent gives you a repeatable quest and grants a Potion of Strength for killing enemies.
The number depends on the difficulty and the game mode.
In the Adventure and Winds of Magic game mode you need 100 kills on Recruit and it increases by 25 for every difficulty level so that you need 200 kills on Cataclysm.
In the Chaos Wastes you will only need 50 kills on Recruit and it increases to 60, 75, 85, and to 100 at Cataclysm.
You should bring a Charm with the Concoction trait, so you can get all effects from your infinite supply of potions.

Ranger Veteran - Master of Improvisation:
This talent reduces the cooldown time of you career skill by 2 seconds.
It is most useful when used with a weapon that reloads after each shot like the Crossbow or the Handgun.
But the best weapon to make use of this talent are the Throwing Axes.
Not the reload reduces the cooldown time, but everytime you throw an axe and you hold the next one in your hands.
After you have thrown the last axe you will get no cooldown reduction, only after you retrieved the first axe you will get the reduction.

Enhanced Power:
If you use a build that focuses heavily on the use of your ranged weapon you should take this talent, because it is the only one in this row that also affects the power of your ranged attacks.

Boon of Shallya, Barkskin:
Barkskin will reduce incoming damage by 40% for 2 seconds after you get hit, but it can only trigger every 2 seconds and this way it will only reduce the damage from following attacks in that short time.
It is useful in emergency situations like when you've been downed and you can't defend yourself and while being disabled by a Gutter Runner, Packmaster or Life Leech.
It will greatly reduce the damage in that situation and gives your allies more time to rescue or revive you before you die, even if the first strike after 2 seconds will deal full damage.
It can also greatly reduce the damage from enemies that attack fast and deal constant damage over short time like Berserker, Plague Monks, Ratling Gunner, and Warpfire Thrower.
With this trait you'll have more room for heavy mistakes that will kill you in short time, but Boon of Shallya gives a benefit for every situation.
It will increase the healing effectiveness by 30% and that also includes temporary health.
Every healing item, every career skill that gives temporary health and every enemy will give more healing and that's why this trait keeps you alive.
Not only with a Mercenary or Unchained in the team or when you play as Sister of the Thorn, Zealot or any other career that can quickly gain temporary health it is useful.
Every character uses healing and thp as a buffer and so is Boon of Shallya useful for
every single career in the game.

Curse Resistance:
If you play with others, you can notice that almost everyone will go for a book hunt, especially on Legend difficulty.
You might want to bring a Trinket with Curse Resistance, so you have more maximum health and more room for mistakes that could cost your life, despite the lowered health from the Grimoires.
The Warrior Priest already has 100% Curse Resistance and with the additional resistance from the property he will gain increased maximum health for every Grimoire.
On Cataclysm however it is unusual to pick up Tomes and Grimoires, so it is not needed there.

What never shoot at you, usually follows you every step of the way and keeps your back free, but than leaves you literally hanging or don't help you up?
If you just answered "The Bots" than you win a pumpkin you lucky ones.
Because only a Hookrat, Leech or a distraction is needed to kill a Bot I will not show you how to make them survive.
Instead I will show you how they help you the most.

The distribution of roles in the group is essential.
Not only the career, but also the weapons and talents determine the behavoir of the Bots.
You also have to keep in mind that some weapons are better or worse suited to a particular task.
Some are better at fighting hordes, while other weapons have a greater power against armor and just because a weapon can do both jobs doesn't mean the Bot knows how to use it.

Bots aren't as good as Players at fighting, but they serve as a support on your mission and that is why the career of the Bot should also have their way to support you, either with buffs, talents that gives you a benefit or high defense so they stay long enough alive to revive you.
Some good Bot careers are:

Mercenary: With the Strike Together talent he can share his passive for 10% more attack speed, his career skill grants 25 temporary health to all nearby teammates and with the level 30 talents he can give either 25% damage reduction or revive every downed ally instantly.

Foot Knight: It is a defensive career that can keep most enemies staggered while his talents can provide a buff for the whole party.
His passive ability is an aura that reduces damage taken by 15% at default, but his level 20 talents changes its effect.
With Rock of the Reikland the size of his aura is doubled and grants 20% block cost reduction in addition.
With Comrades in Arms he gains 10% power and the closest ally to him gains 10% power and 50% damage reduction, but his aura no longer effects other teammates.
The level 25 talent Inspiring Blow increases the cooldown rate of neraby allies by 100% for half a second every time he staggers an elite enemy.

Grail Knight: A powerful career with two melee weapon slots.
At the start of a mission you receive random quests that grants the whole team a buff for every fulfilled quest.
Some quests require you to pick up books, but they can be dropped afterwards.
The buff remains until the end of a mission and its effect is still active, even if the Grail Knight dies.
The talent Virtue of the Penitent can provide an endless supply of strength potions and it's very useful in combination with the Concoction trait.
His career skill can deal great damage to a single target or with the talent Virtue of Confidence he can take out multiple elites with one strike.

Ranger Veteran: With his passive ability you will never run out of ammunition and with the level 20 talents it can be adapted to your needs.
Take Scavenger if you need potions and bombs, Grungni's Cunning if you require even more ammunition and Drunken Brawler for an Ale that increases the attack speed and reduces damage taken.
Exhilarating Vapours will grant 3 temporary health and 8% attack speed while you stay inside the smoke of his career skill.

Ironbreaker: He is probably the last surviving Bot and distracts enemies like no other.
Since Bots are vulnerable to disablers you should take Gromril Curse so he breaks free and pushes nearby enemies back.
With his high damage reduction and stamina he will be able to take a lot of damage without dying and alive Bots are more useful.
The Ironbreaker can even increase your power by 20% with his talent Drengbarazi Oath.

Outcast Engineer: A bit cranky, but the gun part works well.
He will become your personal bomb dispenser because with the Ingenious Ordnance talent he will give you every 180 seconds either a Bomb or a Incendiary Bomb while he can store up to three bombs for emergency situations.
Your ranged attack power is increased by 10% while you are near him because of his aura.
The Outcast Engineer can also withstand a lot of damage, as he can generate thp from stagger and the Ablative Armour talent gives him up to 25% damage reduction.
I suggest the use of the Gromril-Plated Shot talent, because he will also use it against armoured elites and specials.

Waystalker: Very delicate, but also good for taking out specials with her career skill.
With Rejuvenating Locus she can share the healing effect of Amaranthe and that gives
everyone in the team 3 health every 10 seconds when they are below 50% health.

Sister of the Thorn: One of the best careers for Bots.
She increases the healing received by 25% for the whole party and stays alive as long as you generate thp.
The Blackvenom she inflicts with her melee attacks cause the enemy to take 12% more damage and together with Recursive Toxin it can stack twice so they take 24% more damage instead and with that is the Sister of the Thorn the best support in fighting monsters and Lords.
You might want to pick Blackvenom Thicket as level 30 talent, because she actively use it against specials and saves you quickly from the grasp of a Packmaster or Gutter Runner and she can also apply Blackvenom with it.
Consuming a stack of Radiance with the talent Radiant Inheritance will grant nearby allies 15% power and 5% critical strike chance for 10 seconds.
With the Deepwood Staff she disables even specials that other Bots most of the times ignore, like Life Leech, Warpfire Thrower and Packmaster.
The Sister of the Thorn can even lift a Blightstormer before he can cast his spells.

Warrior Priest of Sigmar: It is a great support career with high defense.
The From Fury, Fortitude talent lets him heal nearby allies with each kill while Righteous Fury is active and his career skill can make you immune to all incoming damage for 5 seconds.
With the talent The Comet's Gift he can also revive you instantly while restoring all health you lost in the last 3 seconds.
He also gives one out of three buffs for everyone in the party with his level 25 talents.
Prayer of Vengeance increases the power vs monster by 25%, Prayer of Might increases your stagger power by 25% and Prayer of Hardiness increases your maximum health by 15%.

Unchained: She can withstand huge amounts of hits as 50% of the damage is transferred to overcharge, but you should take the Abandon talent so she doesn't die because of that.
You can also use the Enfeebling Flames talent from the same row, which reduces the damage that burning enemies deal by 30%.
She can restore 30 temporary health to the whole party by using her career skill together with the Bomb Balm talent.


If you are playing on high difficulties as a career without damage reduction the Bots might not pick you up soon enough before you die.
In that case, you could take a Mercenary or the Warrior Priest with you.
With their talents "On Yer Feet,Mates!" and "The Comet's Gift" they can revive you instantly.

The Bots have their weaknesses, they ignore most overhead attacks, get stuck at many places on the map, they can't handle most specials like Warpfire Throwers and sometimes they forget how to defend themselfes, but they have also some advantages in compare to a Player.

They always try to stay close to you and you can fire a shot without getting stabbed from behind.
Darkness has no effect on the Bots and that gives them an advantage in maps like "Hunger in the Dark" or at the weekly event modifier "The Darkness of Heresy" and if you play solo with Bots you will never get any damage from the "Curse of Comradeship" modifier.
They also know how to properly dodge the attacks from a Rat Ogre, as long as they have enough space.

This small section contains basic tips for beginners that you should know.


The rarity of equipment means nothing, Exotic items can have the same stats as Veteran ones and not only the power level but also the properties.

Every Weapon has its own inner and outer block angle, if an attack hits your block inside that angle it will cost less stamina.
You can also block attacks outside of that angle, but it will also consume more stamina depending on the block cost modifier of that weapon.

Take care not to rely too much on the stagger power of your attacks and be prepared to block.
On low difficulies the enemies can be easily staggered, but the higher the difficulty, the harder it is to stop them from attacking.
The enemy's attacks give them an additional stagger resistance and if you can't stagger him you get hit.
Some examples would be the flurry of a Plague Monk or the overhead attacks from Stormvermin, Mauler and the Chaos Warrior.

If you play as a character that makes a dash forward with its career skill you can use it to set an ally free or revive him.
Hold the key to help him up and don't let go while you use your career skill, this way you can help your allies even if you're surrounded and your block will break before you help him up.
This works best with the Battle Wizard together with the "Burnout" talent.
With that she can jump in, stagger nearby enemies and jump out again while she leaves a burning trail of flames that damages the enemy.

If you and someone else in your team is wounded and you have Medical Supplies at hand you should use it to heal him and not yourself.
I may not restore your own health, but both of you will receive wound clearing.

Temporary health decreases over time, but the rate in which it is depleting changes after you got downed.
If you're wounded, your temporary health decreases only at half speed and that makes it easier to stay alive when you don't have any healing items.
Some people use this fact to their advantage when they play as career that can easily generate thp like Zealot, but it would be too much of a risk on higher difficulties, because sometimes you take too much damage in a short period of time and you die.

One last advice: If you got seperated from your group and you've been cased by elites and have to get some distance to them, you need to jump of platforms, climb over fences or jump over other objects to make at least a bit of distance.
The enemies are in most cases faster than you and hold their speed while attacking, but they get slowed down by climbing or if they have to move around things.
You can use this short time to reaload, taking out specials or to buy some time.


I hope you could learn something from this Guide and I wish you good luck by fighting the Pactsworn!