The Ironbreakers are stalwart protectors, considered by many to be elite warriors of their kind. Donning hearty runic armor and wielding weapons created only by Runesmiths, an Ironbreaker is a wall of iron and their knowledge in defensive warfare is unmatched. They fight in the deepest, darkest tunnels, warding off endless foes against Skaven or worse.
Every character in Vermintide 2 has access to three career paths and one DLC path, representing the hero’s potential paths after the events of Vermintide 1. Today, we will focus on the Ironbreaker, the best tanking career in Vermintide 2, who can shrug off any blow from the weakest of Skaven to the ferocious Minotaur.
For other great builds, check out our ranked Vermintide 2 heroes tier list to find other strong characters you might want to try out.
Ironbreaker Skills and Traits
Career Skill: Impenetrable
- Bardin taunts all nearby man-sized enemies, gains increased defense, and can block any attack for the next 10 seconds. All damage taken is reduced by 50%. Block cost reduced to 0.
Impenetrable is one of the strongest career abilities in the game. When Bardin uses Impenetrable, he taunts all non-monster enemies to attack him, gains 50% damage reduction, and can block all attacks, even from behind.
This ability allows you to taunt an entire horde of enemies, even Patrols of Elites, and take zero damage, even from behind. Impenetrable is fantastic on Ironbreaker, and its only downside is that it has the longest cooldown of any build’s skill in Vermintide 2.
Passive Abilities
- Gromril Armour: Absorbs one hit every 20 seconds.
Gromril Armor is one of the many reasons why Ironbreakers are so hard to defeat. If used appropriately, this armor can block a heavy overhead slam from a boss, which would take out any other class. This ability is simple to utilize but can be a lifesaver on higher difficulties.
- Dwarf-Forged: Reduces damage taken by 30%
- Doughty: Grants an extra Stamina shield.
- Resilient: Decreases stun duration after getting hit by 50%.
All Ironbreaker Melee Weapons
- Great Hammer
- Great Axe
- Axe
- Hammer
- War Pick
- Axe and Shield
- Hammer and Shield
- Dual Hammers (Requires Back to Ubersreik DLC)
Best Melee Weapons for Ironbreaker Builds in Vermintide 2
There are plenty of weapons the Ironbreaker can use and still perform reasonably well with. However, despite lots of Ironbreaker mains like to use the Dual Hammers to bring more DPS to the team, we enjoy sticking to the unbreakable tank fantasy this class is cemented in.
For our tanky Ironbreaker build, I recommend Vermintide 2 players use the good old Hammer and Shield because the moves easily build temp health with the shield push and bash moves, and the hammer offers some good cleave for staggering multiple targets.
The Axe and Shield is a good alternative if you like cutting down armored foes more, but it’s significantly weaker when fighting hordes due to the lack of cleave.
Honorable Mentions for Melee Weapons
As previously mentioned, if you want to provide more damage while having less defense, you can use the Dual Hammers in your Ironbreaker build in Vermintide 2. They provide excellent cleaving attacks when clearing hordes of Skaven.
Alternatively, the Great Hammer is also decent for dealing with hordes and provides more Stamina for blocking; however, it heavily relies on charged attacks.
All Ranged Weapons for Ironbreaker
- Crossbow
- Handgun
- Drakefire Pistols
- Drakegun
- Grudge-Raker
- Trollhammer Torpedo (Requires the Forgotten Relics DLC)
The Best Ranged Weapon for Your Ironbreaker Vermintide 2 Build
When choosing a gun for Ironbreaker, there isn’t an overall winner in this category, but there are some favorites. For our build, we recommend the Handgun.
The Handgun has a lot of range and is capable of picking Specials off from a mile away while dealing significant damage. However, the Handgun needs to be reloaded after each shot, and it has relatively low ammo. Yet, it’s great for taking care of ranged threats that your teammates aren’t focusing on.
Honorable Mentions for Ranged Weapons
The Trollhammer Torpedo is an excellent alternative for dealing with hordes or wiping out half a patrol of elites, but it has an extremely lengthy reload time and doesn’t have much ammo.
Alternatively, suppose you are interested in using the Drakegun or Drakefire Pistols. In that case, we recommend them since they deal a decent amount of AOE damage with every shot but have low damage.
Moreover, if you are using the Drakegun or Drakefire Pistols in Vermintide 2, take the Under Pressure Talent for your Ironbreaker Build. This talent makes these weapons significantly better, though not as deadly as the Handgun or Trollhammer Torpedo.
If you are really interested in a powerful ranged loadout, check out our Battle Wizard build for Vermintide 2. This character class is currently the most powerful ranged hero in the game.
Best Ironbreaker Talents
Level 5 Talents to Start Off Your Ironbreaker Build in Vermintide 2
| Rock-Breaker | Grudge-Borne | Hearthguard |
| Staggering enemies with a melee attack grants temporary health. Health gained based on stagger strength. | Melee killing blows grants temporary health based on the health of the slain enemy. | Healing yourself with a First Aid Kit or a Healing Draught also heals nearby allies for 20% of their maximum health, also removing any Wounds. |
If you choose to use the Hammer and Shield or the Dual Hammers, you must take the Rock-Breaker talent, as these weapons easily stagger enemies. However, if you want to use the Axe and Shield, take the Grudge-Borne talent instead, as the axe is a single-target weapon that relies on damage over stagger.
Level 10 Talents
| Under Pressure | Blood of Grimnir | Rune-Etched Shield |
| Drake Fire damage increases from -80% to 120% and ranged attack speed reduces from 100% to -50% depending on overcharge. Removes overcharge slowdown. | Each nearby ally increases power by 5%. | Blocking an attack increases the power of Bardin and his nearby allies by 2% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times. |
Vermintide 2 players should use the Rune-Etched Shield with for shield-based Ironbreaker builds unless you are using a Drake Fire weapon. The benefit of supplying your entire team with additional Power buffs for blocking attacks works hand in hand with Ironbreaker’s playstyle.
However, Blood of Grimnir works better if you are in a pre-made group that knows how to stick together.
Level 15 Talents
| Bulwark | Smiter | Enhanced Power |
| Enemies that you stagger take 10% more damage from melee attacks for 5 seconds.Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect. | The first enemy hit always counts as staggered.Deal 20% more damage to staggered enemies. Each hit against a staggered enemy adds another count of stagger. Bonus damage is increased to 40% against enemies afflicted by more than one stagger effect. | Increases total Power Level by 7.5%. |
Because our Ironbreaker build is focused on staggering as many enemies in Vermintide 2 as possible, Bulwark is the best choice. It helps boost the Ironbreaker’s lack of damage due to their tank playstyle.
However, take Smiter instead if you’re not using a weapon with good cleave or stagger capability.
Related Guide: The Perfect Bounty Hunter Build in Vermintide 2
Level 20 Talents
| Vengeance | Gromril Curse | Tunnel Fighter |
| Periodically generate stacks of Rising Anger every 7 seconds while Gromril is active. When Gromril is removed gain 10% attack speed per stack of Rising Anger. | When Gromril Armour is removed, all nearby enemies are knocked back. | Reduces the cooldown of Gromril Armour to 10 seconds. |
For this talent row, take Gromril Curse. This causes a knockback whenever your Gromril Armor breaks, providing your team with more crowd control.
It is worth noting that this shockwave does stagger monsters and huge enemies, such as Chaos Warriors.
Tunnel Fighter is an excellent alternative if you want a passive ability on a lower cooldown.
Level 25 Talents
| Dawi Defiance | The Rolling Mountain | Miner’s Rhythm |
| When Bardins guard is broken there is a 50% chance to instantly restore all stamina. | Killing enemies with melee attacks while on full stamina reduces the cooldown of Impenetrable by 2%. | After landing a charged attack Bardin recovers stamina 40% faster for 2 seconds. |
We take The Rolling Mountain for this rotation due to Impenetrable’s long cooldown. Gaining any way to reduce the downtime of your core skill is always beneficial.
For those that want an ability that helps in emergencies within Vermintide 2, take Dawi Defiance for your Ironbreaker build. Dawi Defiance is great if you take too much damage and your guard gets broken.
Level 30 Talents – Finishing Off Our Vermintide 2 Ironbreaker Build
| Drengbarazi Oath | Oi! Wazzok! | Booming Taunt |
| Impenetrable increases power of nearby allies by 20% for 10 seconds. | Impenetrable taunt now forces monsters to attack Bardin. | Increases the radius of Impenetrables taunt by 15%. Increases the duration of Impenetrable to 15 seconds. |
Lastly, we recommend “Booming Taunt.” Extending the duration of your “Impenetrable” is unrivaled in utility, plus extending the skill’s range lets you Taunt even bigger hordes. Booming Taunt is the best option, but a good alternative is “Drengbarazi Oath” because of the power boost.
Oi! Wazzok! isn’t good enough to pick, but it’s a good choice if it pops up in the Chaos Wastes.
Conclusion to Our Vermintide 2 Ironbreaker Build & Guide
That’s our build and gameplay guide for the Ironbreaker class in Vermintide 2. The Ironbreaker is easily one of the best tank classes in the game, as it can provide the best frontline defense.
Even though it may not deal the most damage or have good ways to eliminate Elites or Specials, providing your team with space and crowd control will carry lobbies. Never underestimate tank classes because they don’t score high on damage or kills at the end-game scoreboard.
If you enjoyed our guide and want to learn more about Vermintide 2’s other great classes, check our guide for Bardin’s brutal Slayer build. Alternatively, you may be interested to read more about Vermintide 2’s Warrior Priest of Sigmar build if you are looking for something similar to Ironbreaker.
For now, Good Hunting!
