A Parting of Waves is the first completely new level released for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 following a host of levels released for the game that were essentially remasters of fan-favourite levels from the original Vermintide. The level involves players ending up in a whaling village after chasing down fleeing Skaven, and slowly uncovering more darkness in the village.

You can check out A Parting of the Waves in the new trailer released below. Also check out the complete patch notes for the update, which also brings with it some bug fixes and other enhancements.

Fatshark has also been working on bringing a new Versus Mode to Warhammer: Vermintide 2. The mode will pit players taking on the role of the protagonists against another group of players taking on the role of the Pactsworn—special enemies among the Skaven faction.

Patch notes:

New Features

• Added a brand new map: A Parting of the Waves
  • This map is considered the 4th and final entry in the Karak Azgaraz saga for Vermintide 2.
  • Includes its own set of Okri’s Challenges and rewards! New paintings and portrait frames!
• Added a new enemy type: Chaos Warrior with Shield. Sigmar preserve us…

• Outcast Engineer: Increased the Cooldown of the bomb generated by ‘Ingenious Ordnance’ to 180 seconds (up from 120 seconds).
• Outcast Engineer: Decreased the starting bombs from the ‘Bombardier’ talent to 2.

• Fixed an issue with Outcast Engineer talent ‘Linked Compression Chambers’ not increasing fire rate properly.
• Fixed an issue with Necromancer not being able to see her Chaos Wastes potions when checking her inventory.
• Fixed some spots where bots would get stuck in Trail of Treachery and Tower of Treachery.
• Fixed a tome not spawning in Khazhukan Kazakit-Ha!
• Fixed an issue with the ‘Eyes of the Crowfather’ Okri’s achievement being impossible to complete. Something something Tzeentch ravens.
• Fixed the skulking sorcerer from that one Nurgle curse on Chaos Wastes breaking entirely when lifted by the Lifestaff.
• Fixed a placeholder localization line on the ‘Quit to Menu’ button.
• Fixed a host crash when a Kerillian bot spawns and is being attacked the same frame.
• Fixed rare host caused by a bot Warrior Priest with ‘The Comet’s Gift’ talent being replaced by a human player while they have their ability active on another player.
• Fixed a rare crash while spectating.
• Fixed rare crash when local game receives info about a projectile, but the projectile or hit unit was already removed locally.
• Fixed a crash when someone hotjoins the same frame as a pinged unit is destroyed.
• Fixed a very rare crash related to player despawns.
• Fixed a bug in the launcher that sometimes caused the wrong GPU to be selected when multiple GPUs were available (mostly affecting laptops).

In Versus mode, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 players will find themselves playing the game against a group of four other players taking on the role of Skaven specials (known as the Pactsworn). The gameplay is based on the title’s Adventure Mode maps, but has been split into multiple sections.

As players try to complete their objectives, the Pactsworn players are tasked with getting points by killing or disabling the Uberseik Five. Each Pactsworn player will have access to their own set of special abilities, depending on the type of Pactsworn they’re playing.

The Versus mode is based largely off the same game mode in the classic co-op zombie shooters Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, where a team of four survivors were tasked with finishing levels while also fending off special infected controlled by four opposing players.

As part of the closed alpha, Fatshark is looking for feedback from both experienced Vermintide players, as well as newer players as it continues to fine tune the mode’s gameplay. The company points out that, since this is the first major alpha test of the mode with a large playerbase, decisions are going to be constantly in flux.

The Necromancer career taps into Sienna’s backstory, revolving around a fight with her twin sister Sofia. This fight culminated in giving her the power and abilities needed to raise the dead. To give us a better look at the Necromancer career, Fatshark has released a trailer.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 has seen quite a few updates and expansion releases since the game’s original release back in 2018. It has seen the release of five adventure map campaigns, as well as two new game modes, and, as of currently, four new careers spread out over its characters.

Earlier this year, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 got the free Tower of Treachery DLC, which was meant to be a conclusion to the game’s Treacherous Adventure saga, and revolves around the Ubersreik 5 investigating a neighbouring town.

Tower of Treachery is meant to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the co-op hack-and-slash RPG. The DLC will have the Ubersreik 5 investigate a neighbouring town, and will pit them against necromancer Sofia Fuegonasus.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 producer Sacha Karsenty has described the Tower of Treachery DLC as the second and final instalment of the Treachery storyline, which started with Trail of Treachery.

With the release of the DLC, Warhammer: Vermintide 2 players will see a new mission that will continue the storyline. In terms of gameplay, the DLC features a host of content, including a new zone, and 13 new in-game challenges to go along with it.

Check out the trailer for Warhammer: Vermintide 2‘s Tower of Treachery DLC below.

The update brings Chaos demon prince Be’lakor to Vermintide 2, bringing along a new theme and challenges for players to overcome. As part of the update, the Temple of Shadows is a new level coming to the game, where players take on the full force of Be’lakor. The update also brings along a new enemy type—Shadow Champions.

The Be’lakor update for Warhammer: Vermintide 2‘s Chaos Wastes expansion will be available on June 14 as a free update on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 takes place during Warhammer Fantasy‘s End Times event, where the Old World is essentially facing an apocalypse. Players have to team up and fight against hordes of Chaos worshippers, including Skaven, Beastmen, and even Demon Princes.

Fatshark has been working on a follow up to Vermintide 2 in the form of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, which recently got a new cinematic trailer. Darktide is also now available for pre-orders on PC.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is set to release on September 13 on PC and Xbox Series X/S. There is currently no word on whether it will see a release on PS5.

ZUBAT (POKEMON)

If you’ve spent even a couple of minutes in a cave in a Pokemon game – especially one of the earlier ones – you’ve cursed out at the sight of a Zubat. These pesky Pokemon appear with far too much regularity, forcing players to exit out of battles what feels like one every few seconds. If you don’t have some Repels handy, you’re in for a true test of patience.

Check out the previous part here.

Shadow Warrior 3

The one where Wang gets a grappling hook. Shadow Warrior 3 does away with its predecessor’s wide array of melee weapons and focuses on one single constant – the Dragontail katana. Being able to quickly whip it out and slice an opponent feels more intuitive, and each slash feels more responsive. Upgrades also allow for directional inputs to call down lightning, shoot fire or unleash a wave of water which is also nice.

There aren’t many deals as good as Xbox Game Pass right now. Extending to the Xbox One, PC and now even to mobile via Xbox Cloud Gaming, it offers a pretty unprecedented amount of games for you to play. September has already seen quite a few games added, but Microsoft isn’t done yet, as a lot more is still slated to come.

The company announced a new slate of September titles to look forward to starting this week. First and foremost, on the 17th, you can get the RTS title Company of Heroes 2 on the PC version of Game Pass. On the 22nd is a double whammy of the shooter kind as you’ll be able to get access to Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and Forsaken on Xbox One and Android as well as Halo 3: ODST on PC and Android. On the 24th, you’ll get access to the indie sensation Night in the Woods across all three versions of Game Pass as well as the 4-player co-op action title Warhammer: Vermintide 2 for Xbox One and Android.

You’ll be able to have access to those title listed above soon, and you can read more about them as well as a list of most recent additions as well as soon to leave titles through the official website here.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 launched in February 2018 but is still receiving new content. Today marks the launch of Season 2 for PC which adds Drachenfel, a map from the first game, for free. This is the first of three free maps that will drop during the season.

Other features include Quick Play Weaves (which now support bots and sport different queues for each of the five difficulties) and Lohner’s Emporium of Wonders. The latter is the previously discussed in-game shop where players can purchase cosmetics. You can earn in-game Shillings to purchase new skins and hats by finishing daily and weekly quests. Though there are cosmetics that can be purchased with real money directly through Steam, their number is far less than those acquired with Shillings.

It also doesn’t hurt that each player who owns one of the previously released DLC will receive a bag of Shillings for each as a one-time gift. They can also take up additional quests, potentially increasing the amount earned. Check out some of the patch notes below for more details.

Vermintide 2 patch 2.1.0

Levels

Against the Grain

• Fixed an issue where a player who dies during the escape sequence respawns in an illogical location.

Convocation of Decay

• Fixed a patrol path to stop a particular patrol spawn from getting stuck.
• Fixed a location where enemies would do a long leap to players at a specific location instead of just pathing as expected,
• Players should now be able to complete “Feed Me Sinner!” on Cataclysm difficulty.

Fortunes of War

• Fixed a spot where players could mitigate enemy attacks entirely.

Old Haunts

• Fix for lamp oil and explosive barrels (and general pickup tweaks).
• Fixed a situation where a player who died could respawn behind a closed door in the Gargoyle area.
• Fixed a few sticky spots where players could get stuck.
• Enemies can no longer phase through the closed tavern door in the village area.
• There was a particular place where bots loved to suicide. We gave them some jump assist in this area.

Skittergate

• Fixed a spot where the AI navmesh was floating ever so slightly above the terrain.
• Fixed a few hang-ledges so players don’t just drop off an edge to immediate death where intended.

Weaves

• Changed how bar is filled to complete the Weaves, now objectives are always 80% of the bar and the rest of the 20% is collected by killing at least 80% enemies spawned by terror events (roamers are worth very little).
• Enabled Bots for use in Quickplay Weaves.

Fatshark has been in an interesting position with Warhammer: Vermintide 2 over the past two years or so. Critically acclaimed at launch and fairly successful commercially, feedback to the game’s changes and paid content has been mixed. This sentiment could continue as the developer recently announced an in-game store for purchasing cosmetics.

On Twitter, while asking for queries on Season 2 or its beta, Fatshark said that it would have an in-game cosmetics store in the future. Players will be able to use both “soft and hard” currency, which presumably means in-game currency and real money respectively. A release window for the same wasn’t outlined.

On the surface, it’s easy to blame Chinese publisher Tencent, which acquired a 36 percent stake in Fatshark back in January 2019. However, the reasoning could just be as simple as generating more revenue for the developer’s continued working. Whether this will help fund future projects, expansions or more free content remains to be seen.

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

In the future, we will add an in-game store with both soft and hard currency where you will be able to purchase cosmetic items.

— Warhammer Vermintide (@VermintideGame) January 17, 2020