Vermintide 2 is the critically acclaimed groundbreaking melee horde slayer, which recently saw 10 million players during its recent free-to-play event before the release of Darktide. Vermintide 2 is set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe and focuses more on melee rather than Darktide’s hybrid melee and ranged weapon combat.
If you are one of the many new players experiencing Vermintide 2 for the first time or returning to experience the fantastic hack-and-slash combat, we have assembled 10 of the best Vermintide 2 tips and tricks to help you along.
1. Learning Gear/ Power Progression
When you first start playing Vermintide 2, or any career/class, you will have a full set of basic weapons and trinkets, each having five power. Power is the primary way the game scales up your damage, defenses, and other stats.
You can get up to 300 power from having maximum power on all of your weapons and trinkets. Additionally, you also get 350 power for fully leveling up your character to level 35, even though you obtain your final talent row at level 30.
You can obtain better weapons and crafting materials by opening chests from completing missions, earning achievements, or finishing a Chaos Wastes run. If you’re leveling up a character for the first time, we recommend prioritizing obtaining higher power-level gear rather than worrying about stats until late in the game.
Once you hit 300 Power on all your item slots, we suggest worrying about secondary stats or traits. The higher your average Power is, the higher your chances for better rewards. Also, remember that your reward chests will improve if you play on higher difficulties. This is especially important because Recruit and Veteran chests have a Power cap, so we recommend moving on to Champion difficulty as soon as you are able to do so.
2. Temporary Health is Vital for Survival in Vermintide 2
Temp Health is one of the key features for staying alive in Vermintide 2. Temp Health acts as a way to recover lost HP. Whenever you take damage and lose a chunk of your health, you can slowly generate Temp Health, which acts like a shield by utilizing your character’s career talent. Let’s use Kruber’s Mercenary career as an example.
The first row of talents for each career is similar to one another, and you should consider two options out of the three. For Mercenary, there is Drillmaster which gives Temp Health for hitting multiple enemies in a single swing, or Mercenary’s Pride which grants Temp Health from landing killing blows.
Each career also has a talent that grants you temporary health from using a healing item. One of our best tips for beginner Vermintide 2 players is to consider never taking the third option. Your first talent is vital for gaining temporary health in combat, and for Mercenary, we would choose Drillmaster because it ties into the career’s strengths.
3. Blocking & Parrying
There are a lot of dangerous enemies in Vermintide 2. This next Vermintide 2 beginner tip will help you a lot as you are getting started.
Aside from acquiring Temp Health, blocking and parrying are the main benefactors to staying alive in Vermintide 2. The number of attacks you can Block is indicated by the amount of Stamina shields you have.
Gaining more Stamina is beneficial, but obtaining Block Cost Reduction is by far more important. Block Cost Reduction allows you to take more hits before your Stamina shield breaks.
It’s also worth mentioning that heavy attacks take more Stamina to block, so we avoid dodging them instead since heavy attacks are much more readable. You can also Shove enemies back by spending a Stamina shield and following up with an attack which can vary in usefulness depending on the weapon. Still, regardless of weapon, you should also implement shoving into your attack combos.
Parrying is a little more advanced and requires learning enemy attack patterns. To parry, you must start your blocking animation before the enemies attack lands. If you successfully parry an attack, you will hear a small metallic clash from your weapon, and the enemy will stagger back. You can practice parrying on the lesser Skaven in between hordes since they deal minimal damage.
Practice these methods often. They will pay dividends by the time you reach higher difficulties and face off against more special enemies.
4. Dodging is Living in Vermintide 2
Dodging is more vital than blocking. It lets you quickly shift left, right, or backward to avoid enemy attacks. Not only will dodging enable you to prevent oncoming damage, but you can also dodge while attacking, blocking, or performing nearly any action. Most newer players underestimate how vital dodging is to save their lives – but we assure you this Vermintide 2 tip is one of the key differences in conquering higher difficulties.
In combination with dodging and shoving, you should dodge whenever possible during combat. Even while swinging away into crowds of enemies, dodging will help you avoid strikes from behind or in front, even if you don’t realize it.
We also previously mentioned that it is better to dodge heavy attacks from your enemies, especially if they are Chaos Warriors, as their overhead slam can cut through five Stamina shields. Dodging also allows you to avoid hits from bosses or monstrosities, which is far more cost-effective than attempting to block their blows.
5. Always Stay Together
It’s a simple yet effective tip: Vermintide 2 is a team-based horde slayer, and if someone goes ahead or falls behind, they may be overwhelmed. Some Vermintide 2 veterans may boast that they can handle themselves, but while it is possible, everyone eventually gets caught out by an unexpected Gutter Runner.
It is also beneficial to stay together because certain careers can provide you with buffs by staying close to each other. It differs from Darktide’s Coherency system, but staying with your team is still a good rule of thumb. Even weak enemies can become overwhelming in large enough numbers.
There are two healing items in Vermintide 2: the Healing Draught and Medical Supplies. Both of these healing supplies heal you, but they have different advantages.
The Healing Draught allows you to drink and heal while on the move. It can also be passed to allies with an open slot for healing items. These health potions are a great option if you anticipate needing to heal in the middle of combat or prefer to stay mobile. The Healing Draught heals for 75 health, replaces temporary hit points, and clears all wounds.
Medical Supplies require you to stand still to heal, but they can also be used directly on allies. Medical Supplies work by restoring 80% of a player’s missing health while replacing Temporary health and clearing all Wounds.
Healing an ally will also clear one’s own Wounds, but won’t restore Health Points unless the player has a trait that allows it. The animation for healing someone with Medical Supplies will always heal the target, even if they move away, as long as the animation finishes.
We will always choose Medical Supplies over a Healing Draught between the two healing items. We offer this Vermintide 2 tip to you as well because it can provide more healing when used on players with lower health and can heal those carrying Tomes.
7. Using Potions
Three potions temporarily buff your combat effectiveness. The Potion of Concentration (purple) boosts your Career Ability recharge rate for 10 seconds, allowing you to recharge your Career Skill quickly, often enough to use it multiple times before the effects wear off. We would prioritize giving this potion to carries who use their Career Ability often, such as Battle Mage or Waystalker.
The Potion of Speed (blue) boosts your movement and attack speeds for 10 seconds. This is beneficial for all careers, but we would prioritize giving it to classes that thrive on higher attack speed, such as Slayers or Witch Hunter Captains.
Lastly, the Potion of Strength boosts your Power for 10 seconds; this is an immediate boost to your Power, which influences both melee and ranged damage. Typically, slower-hitting careers like this potion, but we recommend it for everyone.
8. Bombs For All
The fifth equipment slot is where characters can hold bombs. There are two types of bombs in Vermintide: the regular Bomb and the Incendiary Bomb. These explosives are generally useful, but each has strengths that make them better suited for certain situations.
Regular Bombs deal Stagger and armor-piercing damage, making them ideal for armored enemies and Elites. Using regular Bombs against Bosses, Elites, Patrols, or single-target fights will cause them to take a significant amount of damage or interrupt their attacks. Combined with the Shrapnel trait, they can be made easier to kill afterward.
The Incendiary Bomb deals minor stagger and damage, but it coats the area around the initial impact in fire that deals damage over time. You can use Incendiary Bombs to stagger Elites and Bosses, though they will be less effective than regular Bombs. Incendiary Bombs are ideal for eliminating hordes or blocking off choke points; this sometimes forces enemies to go around to avoid the fire patch left behind.
Another great pro tip for Vermtinde 2 beginners: never underestimate the power of bombs in this game. They can save your life or make fights significantly more manageable. Their effectiveness in combat only improves once you have seen their strengths in action and gotten some practice with throwing them.
9. Tips to Surviving with Tomes and Grimoires in Vermintide 2
Tomes and Grimoires are collectible items found on every level in Vermintide 2. They are hidden, sometimes easily found or requiring parkour. Both collectibles grant additional XP and points to the “loot bar,” which upgrades your spoils of war chest upon mission completion.
Tome occupies the third slot, otherwise known as the healing slot. Every mission has three Tomes that can be found, so three out of four players should have one upon exiting the mission. When carrying a Tome, access to a healing item is not available and one must swap the Tome for either a Healing Draught or Medical Supplies in order to heal oneself or be healed by an ally with Medical Supplies.
Grimoires offer more XP and contributions to the loot bar, but they also apply a Curse to all party members. This Curse reduces everyone’s maximum HP by 30%; if a second one is picked up, the total HP reduction is 60%.
This makes the mission more challenging to complete, and Grimoires will vanish from a player’s inventory if they die while holding it. Be sure to protect whoever is holding the Grimoire, or else you might lose out on bonus XP.
10. Learn Weapon Combos – The Most Important Vermintide 2 Tip for Beginners
Lastly, it is essential to learn weapon combos. Compared to Darktide’s more extensive arsenal, Vermintide 2 has a smaller yet more refined assortment of melee weapons and guns. Every melee weapon can interweave light and heavy attacks to build new combo chains rather than merely chaining light or heavy attacks.
We could talk about this topic for hours, and it would take even longer to showcase a dozen weapons. Therefore, we will briefly highlight one weapon in Vermintide 2 to discuss its combos and illustrate what we mean in this tip. The Bretonnian Longsword is one of the best melee weapons in Kruber’s arsenal.
The Bretonnian Longsword has amazing heavy attacks which have vertical or wide sweeps. One of the many combos that can be used for the sword is for crowd control, since some moves only hit one target instead of cleaving through multiple.
If you want to cleave with the Bretonnian Longsword, we recommend starting the combo with the following:
- Two Heavy Attacks
- Followed by one Light Attack
- One Heavy Attack,
- One Light Attack
Repeat the combo by interchanging one heavy attack and one light attack.
You will disrupt the cleaving combo if you use an extra heavy or light attack. The weapon needs two heavy and one light attack to start, then alternate between one heavy and one light attack. It may sound complicated on paper, but putting it into practice on a target dummy will help you start cleaving through hordes of rat men.
All weapons have some combo you can find or try to learn on your own; some are more complicated than others. We recommend reading the weapon’s tooltip to find out its strengths and roles before taking it out into battle.
Conclusion to Our Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Vermintide 2 Beginners
That’s our list of the best tips and tricks you should learn in Vermintide 2 as a beginner. Hopefully, these tips will help you on your long path of battling against the hordes of Skaven and Chaos worshippers. If you enjoyed our list and want to learn more about the game, check out our tier list for the best and worst classes in Vermintide 2.
For now, Happy Hunting!
