Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Brace yourself, because this is pretty random. Sometimes you can breeze through a level, and other times you'll get mopped on the same level. It just depends on quite a few things. And note that this will stack with the Champion achievement if you wish to skip that (My Legend achievement was delayed until my team got to the lobby, so that was scary for a minute).


Team Composition

My team was a Bounty Hunter Saltzpyre, a Handmaiden Kerillian, a Grail Knight Kruber (me), and an Ironbreaker Dwarf as a Bot. Bounty Hunter/Grail Knight are huge for taking down specials, and more importantly, Monsters. Handmaiden can provide some clutch revives and can also "loop" with enemies. The Dwarf went to the bot because that's the only class where the bot can somewhat hold their own on Legend. If you bring in Grail Knight (which is nice, but not necessary), make sure your other teammates have ranged enemies on lockdown, as you're stuck with 2 melee weapons. You can bring your talents into the mode, so make sure to get things that enhance Saltzpyre's/Kruber's Career Skills (like the blade hitting twice).

Chaos God Debuffs

Most levels have a Chaos God Debuff, and the final 2 levels will ALWAYS have one. Here's what to look out for:

Nurgle
Infested Foes- Some enemies have green smoke that creates a poison cloud when they die; kill them at range if possible. Annoying if you have an objective to hold out somewhere.

Miasma of Pestilence- The whole level is poisoned, but you can bring a cleansing torch with you throughout. Not too bad to deal with; the torch should come back if you drop it somewhere unreachable.

Skulking Sorcerer- A black Life Leech enemy will occasionally spawn behind you. Very easy to deal with.

Khorne
Skulls of Wrath- I don't think I really had this one much, but enemies have a chance to drop an exploding skull on death. Treat this similarly to the poison enemies from Nurgle, though you can't predict when this will happen.

Blood God’s Fury- Enemies with skulls on their heads double the HP of nearby enemies. Very difficult to deal with the wrong combination of specials. That being said, this modifier was the one we had on the very last level.

Blood Tornadoes- Small but annoying red tornadoes spin up all throughout the level. These deal some amount of damage to you, but they're pretty easy to avoid and they don't fling you around like a Blightstormer.


Tzeentch
Twin Blight- Stronger enemies sometimes spawn weaker enemies on death. Very easy to deal with for the most part.

Bolt of Change- Lightning bolts will attempt to strike your team every now and then, and whatever enemies are hit by the lightning can transform. Probably the worst modifier on the list if enemies get hit a lot, especially beastmen.

Crystal Egg- Some eggs will spawn on the map; if you don't kill them, they apparently spawn a monster (Chaos Spawn, Rat Ogre, etc.). We were always able to destroy the egg easily.

Slaanesh
Glory to Greed!- There won't be anything to pick up during the level, but sometimes enemies spawn an orb that can be killed for items. This can be beneficial depending on how thorough you are when you explore, and more healing is always nice.

Baleful Empathy- You will share damage with others near you, up to 50% of the damage taken. If you're all good about blocking, great. If not then try to spread apart.

Unquenchable Thirst- Another one I didn't really have: You constantly take damage, but drinking a potion restores health. No health items spawn, but more potions spawn. It sounds like this one is really bad, but I can't say for sure.



Knowing what to expect from these is important because these will affect your choices you make on the map. Speaking of . . .

The Map

The map for selecting each level is random every time, and you won't ever really have the same layout ever. BUT . . . the final two levels will always be back to back, always be the two unique levels exclusive to the Expedition to the Citadel of Eternity, and always feature the Chaos God debuffs of the featured God when you first select the Expedition in the hub (for us, this was Khorne).

Each level you complete gives you a random buff from a list, but we always tried to get +40% damage to monsters, as you are seemingly guaranteed one or two very difficult to kill monsters on the final level. Since we had two monster killers, this was very nice to have.

There are also Shrines on the map. Shrines are not levels to play, but shops. The Shrine of Strife features Miracle of Morgrim, which gives you a super powerful bomb for 200 coins. On the final level, one of our characters pretty much instantly killed one of our bosses with this bomb, plus some boons to go with it. The Shrine of Harmony features the Miracle of Isha, which is a second chance for the last person on the team who goes down, and the Miracle of Rhya, which gives you a really nice healing circle for 2 minutes. Note that this takes about 5 seconds to deploy however. Both of these Miracles are also 200 coins, and both should be bought. The Shrine of Fortune just gives more coins/drops, and should be avoided if one of the other shrines is available. All shrines also feature a random list of buffs to choose from for coins.

Buffs, Chests, and Coins

I'm not going to go over every buff, but generally speaking, look for things that
-Enhance HP/Temporary Health or regen it somehow
-Enhance your bombs or gives you a chance not to use one (great with Miracle of Morgrim)
-Give Damage reduction/Improves your block/push ability (stamina is good too)

Some are really good, most are somewhat good, and a few are bad or even harmful for you to get. Buffs can come from Seer Statues (the yellow guy flexing) for 150 coins, from Shrines for 200 or so coins, or from the Chest of Trials.

The Chest of Trials is always a gamble. I'd only open it if your team is in a good spot, the Chaos God debuff isn't terrible, and your team actually could use some good buffs. Generally speaking, the Chest will summon a whole lot of specials, so depending on the circumstances, these can be really easy, or they can end your run. But if you do clear the chest, you will get to pick from 4 buffs, so it can be worth it if you get the right things.

Pilgrim Coins. Keep an eye out for them! Having a lot will mean you have more chances to buy things, and more chances to get something good from Seer Statues. Most of my coins went towards these and Shrine purchases, and I only upgraded my weapon when it was possible to get it to red rarity. Since I was Grail Knight, I just had one weapon to really upgrade, which was nice.

The Final Two Levels

Getting through your first 3 levels will either be a breeze, or it will be a complete nightmare. At stated, the final two levels will always have the same layout, plus the Chaos God debuffs of the god you saw when you loaded the expedition up. The 4th level isn't that hard, but beware that it's pretty easy to fall in some spots, especially the final stretch of the level if you have lots of enemies still.

The final level is also manageable, until the end however. Hopefully you've brought along one or both of the Miracle items (the Bomb and the Healing Circle), and your characters have buffs affecting them. You start by defending 3 square platforms that are missing some ledges, so once again, watch your step. Once you get to the large square at the top, it gets hectic. This square is ALSO very easy to fall off, especially when monsters start to show up. Find a corner to start, and defend as long as possible. If it's getting a little intense, pop the healing circle. Note that depending on specials however, a corner strategy might quickly fall apart, so be prepared to start running around the square. When a monster shows up, it will have a whole slew of its own modifiers, including the potential to regen health or resist knockback from bombs. We threw one super bomb at it, and Saltzpyre/Kruber popped their Career Skills, and it was dead. But then . . . another monster eventually appeared. We had pretty much nothing for this one, and our Saltzpyre went down and kept getting spawn killed by enemies after we revived him.

BUT the really nice thing about this that we only found out about on our successful run . . . you don't have to kill everything, the monster included! Me (Kruber) and the Handmaiden ran around, constantly trying to revive Saltzpyre/Bardin, and eventually the objective updated to "Approach the Altar" and I ran right to it, with the monster right there with me. The mission completed and we got our achievements!

Final Notes

In short, the Expedition mode is very random, from the buffs you get, to the enemies you fight. It took us only two attempts of getting to the final level to get this done, but both times getting there we had very good setups, and even then, we barely scraped through the ending, thanks to some cheese. However, there must have been 20+other runs that died within the first 3 levels, and a few that died on the 4th. Hopefully with this guide, it's just a small bit easier to get through. Good luck, you'll need a lot of it.