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Warhammer Vermintide 2 update makes big changes for the holidays

The Warhammer Vermintide 2 Gifts of the Wolf Father event is live, alongside big balance changes to help you enjoy the holiday celebration.

Warhammer Vermintide 2 patch 5.2.0 and Gifts of the Wolf Father event arrive - A grizzled man with a large, grey beard.

The Warhammer Vermintide 2 Gifts of the Wolf Father event has arrived for the holidays, but developer Fatshark has another special present for us all. Not content with simply deploying a seasonal special, it’s also unleashed Vermintide 2 patch 5.2.0, with a big number of balance changes to help make the holiday season more fun for all. The team also talks about its bot AI, addressing some common concerns that have arisen following the launch of the Necromancer.

Warhammer Vermintide 2 remains one of the most glorious co-op games on PC, and there’s something unquestionably festive about smashing and slashing your way through the hordes of Skaven and Chaos that stand in your way. To help make things feel a little more seasonal, however, the Wolf Father has returned to Vermintide 2 with plenty of lovely gifts.

The Warhammer Vermintide 2 Gifts of the Wolf Father event runs from Wednesday December 13, 2023, to Sunday January 7, 2024. You can log in each day to claim a new gift from the team, with a two-day grace period to claim each of the items (meaning you’ll be able to claim any missed items if you log in regularly). Developer Fatshark says, “We want to take this moment to thank you guys for being with us throughout the years, and to express our hope that you continue accompanying us into the content that awaits us in the future!”

Along with the festivities, Warhammer Vermintide 2 patch 5.2.0 is out now, and there’s a sizable list of changes on the cards. Fatshark says it’s been targeting “some of the biggest offenders,” so it’s not too surprising to see the likes of the Battle Wizard, Pyromancer, and Outcast Engineer get some significant tweaks. Among the weapons, Sienna’s Coruscation Staff and Kerillian’s Javelin see some nerfs, but both one-handed and two-handed swords get some welcome buffs. There’s also native support for Sony’s DualSense and DualShock 4 controllers.

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Fatshark also addresses concerns around bot AI, given that the popular Bot Improvements mod was unsanctioned alongside changes made in the Warhammer Vermintide 2 Necromancer update. It explains, “While most of the features in said mod had already been integrated into the base game, there’s some features that are still missing and that we’ll be looking into adding in the near future, such as making bots not heal Zealot players unless they’re on their last wound.”

The team adds, “A lot of the complaints related to Bot AI are not related to those missing features, but rather to bot performance lacking in other areas. We are investigating these issues to hopefully also address them in the future.” For the meantime, however, there’s certainly plenty of reasons to come back to Vermintide 2 for some season’s beatings.

If that’s not enough Chaos for you, there’s plenty more to be found in the best Warhammer games on PC. Alternatively, our list of the best rat games is always a personal favorite, and there’s more of note than you might think.

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