If you are a solo player, or just can’t find many players in your lobbies, you will often have to rely on bots to help you out. However, Vermintide 2’s bots do not make for very competent teammates. This doesn’t spell doom for your solo games– there are some specific strategies, loadouts, and classes that you can give your bots to make them helpful to you.
#3: Mercenary
Mercenary adorned with the flashy "Flamboyant Sellsword" skin.
Despite Mercenary’s soldier-ly appearance, Markus Kruber’s first class actually offers some very useful support options when built as a bot. Having a Mercenary bot will give you bonus offensive potential as well as keep you alive.
There are two important perks for a bot Mercenary: “Strike Together” and “On Yer Feet, Mates!” The first of these will spread his “Paced Strikes” passive to the whole team, including you. The latter perk will cause his career skill, “Morale Boost,” to instantly revive as well as heal any downed teammates. As a bot, Mercenary will use this quite frequently, which is very useful since bots tend to struggle with reviving players under most circumstances.
As for equipment, give him a melee weapon with wide swings, like a Two-Handed Sword, Spear and Shield, or Executioner’s Sword, so that he can activate “Paced Strikes” as frequently as possible. Also give him a Handgun or Repeater Handgun– since bots have aimbot, giving them high-damage, high-accuracy weapons yields great results.
#2: Ironbeaker
Ironbreaker, ready to shrug off the mightiest of blows.
Ironbeaker is a waist-high walking wall of solid steel. Despite his offensive shortcomings compared to other characters, his crowd control abilities and survivability are unmatched, making him an effective bot to have on your team.
There are actually a few choices to make when building a bot Ironbeaker, but a great perk to choose is “Rune-Etched Shield,” which grants brief bonus power to his team’s melee attacks every time he blocks an attack.
Each of his final perks which affect his career skill “Impenetrable” are very good. “Drengbarazi Oath” boosts his team’s power (bonus damage, cleave, and stagger for melee, bonus damage for ranged attacks) by 20% for 10 seconds.
“Oi! Wazzok!” will pull the attention of every enemy to Ironbeaker, giving you a chance to attack freely.
“Booming Taunt” will increase the radius of “Impenetrable’s” stagger by 50% and raise its duration.
Finally, taking “Gromril Curse” will cause a wide knockdown effect every time Ironbeaker’s invincible armor is broken.
As for equipment, a Hammer and Shield will give Ironbreaker great crowd control with its shield bash, and a Handgun will be helpful for the same reasons as Mercenary. Alternatively, a Trollhammer Torpedo could give your Ironbeaker bot a serious advantage when fighting bosses.
#1: Warrior Priest of Sigmar
Warrior Priest of Sigmar preparing to decimate a puny rat.
The Warrior Priest of Sigmar is a bastion of strength and resistance who provides great defensive support to your team. Having a Warrior Priest will provide your team with greatly enhanced survivability.
Warrior Priest has a variety of strong perks that benefit your team. The first is “From Fury, Fortitude,” which will cause the Warrior Priest to give health back to his team whenever he kills an enemy while under the effects of “Righteous Fury.” “Prayer of Hardiness” is a great passive, giving the whole team a flat 15% bonus to their health, but you may also wish to pick “Prayer of Might” when playing with a shield or hammer weapon since it will boost the team’s stagger power.
The most powerful perk available to a Warrior Priest bot is “The Comet’s Gift,” which causes Warrior Priest’s career skill, “Shield of Faith,” to heal all damage taken in the last 3 seconds as well as revive a player if they are downed. This is capable of immense amounts of healing and can undo even some of the biggest mistakes.
As an honorable mention, if you are playing Vermintide 2 on PC, check out the “Loadout Manager” mod, which allows you to save equipment loadouts for bots that they will use even when you have different items equipped!
