Efficient progression guide

Want to know how to get the most out of your loot? Wondering if there are certain boxes you should save or if you should open everything? This guide will explain how item power is calculated and what actions you should take to efficiently progress in Vermintide 2.

Opening Loot

When you open a box the game needs to answer 3 questions:

• What weapon should it be?
  
• What power should it have?
  
• What color should it be?

What weapon should it be?
It will match the character you are currently playing

What power should it have?
The item's power is calculated through the algorithm described below. It does matter if the box is a crate/coffer/chest. But power is not influenced by your current level or equipment. You will not get worse stuff by opening chests on your lower level characters.

What Color should it be?
The item's color is gated based on your character level. You must be a certain level to see Greens/Blues/etc. Color is also influenced by the merchant/soldier/general/etc aspect of the box.

Power vs Color

There are two axis of quality for a piece of equipment, power and color. Power ranges from 5 to 300 and determines Hero power, which in turn determines damage and cleave strength.

Color follows the table below:

Color	Properties	Trait
White	0	0
Green	1	0
Blue	2	0
Orange	2	1

Reds are an apotheosis of these two axis.They are like Oranges but have max power (300) and their properties are maxed. Reds will be your end game gear.

How Power is Calculated

The game tracks a variable "highest item power seen" (which I will shorten to as "highest seen"). When you gain an item the power level will be equal to "highest seen" +/-10. If the new item has more power than "highest seen" then the variable ratchets up. Thus, as you open more boxes your "highest seen" will increase and you will progressively get higher and higher power items.

How does crate/coffer/chest play into this?
Crates have a cap of 100. Crates can not generate items of power more than 100. If you have a "highest seen" of 150 and open a Crate you will only get an item of power 100.

Coffers have a cap of 200 and Chests have no cap.

Conclusions and Ramifications

What boxes should I save?
The caps mean it is not worth saving any Crates or Coffers. The only boxes that could be worth saving are Chests and Commendation Chests (from leveling up). You still need to open Chests to progress in "highest item power seen" so if you are going to save Chests, prioritize saving Emperor Chests and open the rest.

When should I increase difficulty?
Due to the caps on Crates you should up the difficulty when you start getting items in the 90s at the latest. For Coffers you should up the difficulty when you start getting items in the 190s at the latest.

What should I Craft?
Crafting weapons will help increase your "highest item power seen" faster. But upgrading Blues to Oranges can be a large spike in strength since Traits can be decisive. Those are the two most efficient ways to spend your scrap before you get Reds.

[Lentil]

I'm not sure if it was different in 2018 but I thought I would let anyone seeing this guide know that it is not worth saving any loot boxes for later. If you get a red early on, that is a good thing, it will be 300 power, and just the same as getting a red later.

[IfUSeeKay]

Right now the Veteran Chests are 300 caps.
Then do I still have to save Commendation Chests?
I'm only lv18 now.

[Machiavelli]

Yes, since they can drop reds. It is best to open them on level 30 characters.

[Hispanvs]

the emperor crates are worth saving?

[Athang]

Where do commendation chests fall compared with chests from runs, are they directly equivalent to some chest, right now? Or are they even better than Emperor Chests? I can't imagine they're worse than all chests.

[Serjekk]

Machiavelli, Are you certain about that? I have only seen progress on my items individually not as a collective. But the differentiation between item power and hero power is something of semantics. I was under the assumption that the items had power and they contributed to your overall hero power. That is what I was discussing in my comment.

[Machiavelli]

Serjekk, there is only one "highest item power seen", not one for weapon or trinket slots. Also, there is a difference between Hero power and item power. Hero power is not relevant for calculating the power of items you get from chests.

[Raszoar]

thank you!

[V wie Falko]

They should really explain he whole HeroPower-System better in-game...Thanks a lot for this guide!

[Serjekk]

@Miloš Obilić When you craft an item, the crafted item has the chance to go up (or down) 10 Hero Power levels. So if you your "highest seen" hero power for your weapon slot is 100 and you craft a new weapon and the crafted weapon is 110 then your "highest seen" for the weapon slot is now 110. Doing this over and over will increase the "highest seen" quicker than running missions. IMO it's not worth crafting gear unless you have a slot that is just falling behind and you want to bump that slot up quicker.

To answer the second question, the gear you get from the map completion chests is based on the highest Hero Power you have attained on any of your characters. So if you have all Hero Power 100 in every slot and open a chest on a level 1 Bardin you have the chance of getting gear from 90-110 (assuming it's not a recruit chest). At least that's my understanding from the Dev Blog information they have put out on the loot system.