Update 2 - Taal’s Keep
Let’s get things started, we’ll be going through the things around Taal’s Keep, the hub for the game. Rather than having you just go through menus alone the lobby for Vermintide 2 is its own world. First you’ll have to select a character then you’ll be placed within Taal’s Keep. Taal is an ancient god of humans in Warhammer, a god of nature.
You are able to explore the keep. At first it won’t have too much to explore, mainly a courtyard, the bridge of shadows, and a few spots where you can do things like craft and deal with item management. It should be noted that you can just pull up the item menu at any time and do whatever you need to do such as open lootboxes without needing to interact with specific environmental objects.
As you level up characters so too will the Keep. For instance since I have Bardin at a high enough level he has a room now in the Keep rather than just a cot in the main room. Each character will have their own rooms depending on how leveled up they are. You can also have a statue of the main god of the Empire, Sigmar, in the main room if you own the Collector’s Edition.
To set up a game you’ll need to approach the map and interact with it.
From the map you’ll have some different options to set and decide upon for what you’ll be doing. You can matchmake with others or play with friends, you can do a mixture of both which will still grant you the quickplay bonus to loot. When setting up a game you can decide on one of the 13 levels to play, you’ll have to progress through them to unlock later missions so at first you’ll only have the first 1 of each story arc available. The game has Twitch integration, the way this works is as you stream your chat will be able to vote on enemy spawns, difficulty adjustments, loot, boons, and debuffs.
The Bridge of Shadows is also found in Taal’s Keep. This is what you use to teleport to and from missions. It is said that it is more powerful magically at night.
As I mentioned you’re able to bring up the in game menu at any time and deal with your items, talents, crafting, and cosmetics. This game is big on loot. You can break it down for materials and craft new items.
Whenever you level up you gain a commendation box, and when you beat a mission depending on how many tomes, grimoires, loot dice, and perform, you will get better loot. You cannot buy lootboxes. They are only earned in game.
Lootboxes will drop gear that is near to your level. As you get higher equipment level you’ll get better gear. Each difficulty can only give a maximum level for equipment earned in it, for instance Recruit equipment will not exceed level 100.
In the courtyard are dummies you can check your damage on. Some have armor and allow you to test the armor penetration of the weapons you have.
Franz and Olesya can also be found in the Keep but offer little dialogue at the time being.
That’s just about it for Taal’s Keep.