Monster Guide

Everything you need to know about fighting the boss monsters in game.

Video Guide

This guide is available as a video. You may find it below.

Video Guide

If you prefer a text guide, scroll right on by this, because there's no content in the video that will not be covered here.

Roger the Rat Ogre

Our old buddy pal Roger has returned from Vermintide 1 and his style is much the same as it always was. He's a big, brawny bully that likes to smash your face. He...really doesn't do much else.

Moves

Roger really has only 4 main moves:

Ground Pound
There are 1 and 2-handed varieties of this move, but they're basically the same thing. He smashes the ground in a big overhead strike and the shockwave will damage you even if you're guarding.

Catapult Punch
A massive right hook that will send you flying if it connects, which it probably will if you're in melee range and in a 180 degree arc of his face. You can always block this attack, but it takes ALL of your stamina.

Smash Cascade
An uninterruptable combo of three overhead smashes. Roger will continually advance on his target while using this move.

Good Morning Punch
A quick hook from his left arm that comes out much faster than the Catapult Punch but neither launches you nor instantly breaks your guard.

Surviving

Surviving Roger is really just a matter of keeping your wits about you and your guard up. He has no means to hurt someone he is not directly focused on, so if he isn't facing you, you're safe. If he turns to face you, immediately block and dodge backward to get out of Ground Pound's range. When you're still learning his pattern, just block and back up consistently, trying to keep your back faced to a wall or other safe point, and away from any hordes or add-on enemies that might be lurking around.

Roger has a long recovery time from Smash Cascade, long enough for you to dip in and whack him in the face even with the shortest reach weapon. You may also take this time to pull your ranged weapon and blast him in the face - it all depends on which character you're playing and what you're most comfortable with.

If he connects with Catapult Punch, he will almost always change his target, so keep your head in the game if you see an ally take the hit. If you're the target, and you manage to dodge Catapult Punch, it's another opening to bop Roger.

Killing

Roger's weak point is his head, which is small, frequently jiggling around, and concealed by his massive bulk when he's faced away from you. You can only count on hitting it if you're behind the player he's focused on, and even then you are best off targeting it with the Waystalker's Trueflight Volley or the Pyromancer's Burning Head (which will auto lock on). So, ultimately, killing Roger boils down to hitting him very, very hard when he is not focused on you. Ranged classes do best against Roger since he is pretty quick when he wants to be, and closing to melee range can take time best spent shooting him a lot. While simple, Roger is difficult to predict moment to moment and will trigger hordes to show up if he lives too long, so big damage weapons like the Blunderbuss, Grudge Raker, Volley Crossbow, and Beam Staff (via detonating the beam) are all recommended. The Shade's backstab ability and the Bounty Hunter's magnum/guaranteed crits are also brilliant.

Stormy the Stormfiend

Stormy is Roger's bigger, dumber brother. He comes with heavy armor over almost all of his body and warpfire throwers off both arms. If you think the inclusion of flamethrowers would make him hesitant to smack someone at close range, think again. He is, however, really dumb and requires a little buddy rat on his back to help him do his thinking for him.

Moves

Stormy's pattern is exceedingly simple.

Warpfire Blast
Stormy locks onto someone he doesn't like and sprays a stream of warpfire at them. As he has two warpfire throwers, he can do this twice in a row if he chooses to. Each stream can target a different hero, but does not have to. Warpfire will stay on the ground after it has been fired for approximately 10 seconds.

Catapult Punch
Stormy has Roger's most jarring move and will lash out with it at anyone who gets close. Hitting the Krang-like Pack Master on his back absolutely guarantees that he will spin around and try to Catapult Punch the player who hit it. It can still be blocked, it still consumes all your stamina to do so, and it still boots you away quite a ways. His overall reach with Catapult Punch is not as great as Roger's, but the move comes out quite a bit faster.

Surviving

Stormy's lack of variety makes him very easy to predict, and therefore, generally easy to survive. Warpfire Blast is well telegraphed and dodging to the side will neatly avoid the attack. Catapult Punch can be baited by getting close to Stormy, and his shorter reach means that it's fairly easy to avoid by dodging backward. Be aware that if you hit his brain buddy, there is a 100% chance of him spinning around to deck you with Catapult Punch in the next 2 seconds.

The main threat from Stormy relates to the persistent burning of his Warpfire Blast. If allowed to remain at standoff range, he will paint an area in warpfire and force players to walk through it. Occasionally, he will take advantage of the terrain to perch on a high area the players cannot reach and continually torch the battlefield below in warpfire. If Stormy starts doing this, leave the area. Back up through the level or dive forward as hard as you can - it scarcely matters. Just get away from that area to force Stormy off his perch.

Killing

Stormy is unique among the bosses in that he actually has two weak points. The brain rat on his back is the major one, but Stormy's head still gives you a damage multiplier for hitting it. It is heavily armored, though, and only particularly gutsy weapons can do any real damage through it. Ideally, you want to be hitting the back as much as possible. Since Stormy really, really hates anyone messing with his brain rat, he can effectively be locked into an endless spin of Catapult Punches by having two players on either side of him hitting the brain rat and dodging backward to avoid the incoming Catapult Punch. As always, big damage abilities help a lot, but Stormy is the one major monster that they are not really required - being able to lock him into a behavior loop makes the fight much easier than the other bosses.

Trollface the Bile Troll

Trollface is the first of the two new Chaos-themed monsters. He's basically the most gross basement dweller you can imagine, and just as hard to make go away.

Moves

Trollface has the standard array of powerful smash attacks, but it's spiced up a bit by the fact that he uses an axe. He also has a way to control ground, and a way to shake off a big alpha strike.

Filthy Regeneration
Trollface is constantly regenerating. The regeneration is very small, and even smaller on Recruit difficulty, but he will get healthier if left alone.

Puke Spray
Trollface plants himself for a moment, drops open his jaw, and projectile vomits a blinding, sapping acid a surprising distance. Getting hit with this directly will completely blind you, kill your movement rate, drain your stamina, and do damage over time. It sucks, big time. The puke will remain on the ground for about 30 seconds after it lands, and stepping in it will kill your movement rate, drain your stamina, and do damage over time.

Be aware that Puke Spray can hit ground that's well over Trollface's head. Having the high ground is not a real defense.

Claw Swipe
Trollface takes a jerky swipe with his free hand. This looks ilke an exceedingly harmless attack, but can surprisingly do damage through a guard.

Halfmoon Slash
Trollface uses his axe to do a broad, sweeping strike that can even reach behind him. Halfmoon Slash can boot you much like Roger and Stormy's Catapult Punch, but again, it can do some damage through a guard.

Overhead Hack
Trollface uses a big overhead motion to smash his axe down on his target's head. You'd better believe this attack does damage through a guard, but thankfully its impact zone is fairly narrow.

Second Wind
Trollface takes a knee and tries to heal from the damage he's taken so far. He must have taken at least 50% of his maximum health to use this move. When he uses it, he collapses to the ground and ceases making any attacks until the move completes. He gets 50% of his maximum health back as temporary HP. The heroes have about 10 seconds to attack him and reduce how much temporary HP he has. Trollface CANNOT lose any real HP during Second Wind. At the end of this time period, Trollface rises, and half of the temporary HP becomes real HP. At this point, the highest health he can possibly attain is set to his current HP.

This is a little confusing in writing, so I will include a few examples:

1) Trollface uses Second Wind at exactly 50% health. The players knock off half of his temporary health before Second Wind completes. Trollface stands back up and heals to 62.5% health. Filthy Regeneration cannot heal him past this amount. He cannot use Second Wind again until he is at 12.5% health or less.
2) Trollface uses Second Wind at 40% health. The players back off and do nothing to interfere. Trollface stands back up and heals to 65.5% health. Filthy regeneration cannot heal him past this amount. He cannot use Second Wind again until he is at 15.5% health or less.
3) Trollface uses Second Wind at 50% health. The players knock off all his temporary health and continue wailing on him, doing more damage besides. Trollface stands back up with 50% health - the extra damage has been wasted. Filthy Regeneration cannot heal him past this 50% amount. He cannot use Second Wind again.

Surviving

Trollface is much slower than the other bosses, enough so that a player with a head start can lead him around for quite some time. His attacks are also substantially slower than any other boss's. However, the tell for Puke Spray is much more subtle than most attacks, and can be easy to miss. This is a real problem, because if you are hit by Puke Spray, you are almost guaranteed to go down, especially on higher difficulties. Trollface will stop, lean back, and burp slightly before calling up the vomit, but the entire motion is not very exaggerated, and at the range he will puke it can be hard to tell if you're the target or not.

The easiest thing to do is to start dodging to the side the instant you see Trollface's feet stop moving, and do not stop dodging until the puke has landed. If he's even facing your general direction, dodge. The stakes are too high to risk getting hit by Puke Spray. Beyond that, if Trollface is focused on you in melee, you want to dodge either backward, or sideways toward his empty hand. Claw Swipe smarts, but it is not nearly as dangerous as Overhead Hack or Halfmoon Slice. Stay away from Trollface's axe.

Keep trying to move Trollface to new areas and around whatever arena you have available. His puke stays on the ground for a long time, and stepping on it means damage, loss of stamina, and loss of speed. If you try to stay in one place, he can paint you into a corner.

Killing

Trollface, unlike all other bosses, must be fought somewhat conservatively. Second Wind is practically guaranteed to activate at some point during the fight, so dumping all ranged firepower, bombs, and cooldowns against him from the get go is actually somewhat counter-productive. It's fine to use some consumables against him early, but it is important to remember that you can't just putter over the finish line with Trollface. You need to have a Round 2 ready for him.

Predictably, his head is his weak point, and he is slow enough that someone with a little bit of height can get a good sniping streak going as he plays with other heroes. Consistent or low-cooldown sources of such as the Shade's backstab, Bounty Hunter's Blessed Shots, the Slayer's Leap frenzy, or the Foot Knight's power bonus after charging (with appropriate level 25 talent) are all great sources of damage for round 1. You can also safely get an attack or two in every time you dodge a hit from Trollface, owing to his slowness.

During Second Wind, everyone needs to pile on and stab him many, many times. Trollface is harmless while attempting to regenerate, so you have no excuse for not getting in there. Depending on the team composition and hero power for your difficulty level, knocking off all of his temporary health might be a pipe dream. That's okay. Just keep stabbing him as much as possible during this time. Back off if his temporary health bottoms out - you cannot hurt him, just stop him from healing. Just reload your weapons and get ready for round 2.

Round 2 is when it all hangs out. This is the time for your big trump cards and massive moves. But unless you are confident Trollface cannot use Second Wind again, hold onto them until he is lower health. Many big moves will stun or stagger him, which will give the team some extra leeway to cheating him out of a round 3 if one's possible. If you're confident Trollface cannot use Second Wind again (because he came out of his first one with 50% health or less), then dump on him mercilessly.

Spaghetti-o the Chaos Spawn

Spaghetti-o is the second Chaos monster in Vermintide 2, the Cronenberg result of failed Chaos Champions. He combines Roger's speed and brawn and Trollface's staying power to become one serious pain in the neck.

I mean that literally, because he'll be chewing on that neck soon enough.

Moves

Spaghetti-o superficially behaves a lot like Roger, with one critical difference. But that difference is a DOOZY.

Thrashing Rampage
Spaghetti-o starts marching toward his target, smashing with his arm and lashing with his tentacle the whole way. Thrashing Rampage can comprise either 3 or 4 hits, all of which are blockable. The rampage itself comes out quickly and wraps up just as fast.

Catapult Smash
Functionally the same as Roger's Catapult Punch. Spaghetti-o lashes out with his tentacle, and anyone caught by it will be thrown backward. It is blockable, but it will take all of your stamina to do it.

Lunch Time!
Difficult to discern from Catapult Smash until it hits, Spaghetti-o reaches out with his tentacle and tries to grab a player. If it connects, he picks them up, roars at them, and then shoves the player into his mouth, gnawing on the player's head and neck. This does a substantial amount of damage and heals Spaghetti-o for an even more substantial amount of damage. If this attack is not dodged consistently it becomes very, very diffcult to put Spaghetti-o down.

Lunch Time! may be interrupted with a bomb or any active ability that staggers enemies. The Witch Hunter Captain's Animosity, Mercenary's Morale Boost, and Foot Knight's Valiant Charge are all examples of these actives. If interrupted, Spaghetti-o drops the captured player and is denied healing.

Surviving

The basic survival pattern here is very similar to Roger. If Spaghetti-o isn't looking at you, you're safe. If he is, get your guard up and start dodging backward immediately. After Thrashing Rampage, take a quick look around to make sure you are aware of your surroundings. It's the closest moment Spaghetti-o will ever have to being still, and if he corners you, it is over. Lunch Time! is not blockable.

It is possible to dance around his Thrashing Rampage by dodging toward his arm (and away from his tentacle) at the right moment, which will allow you a good opportunity to whack him in retaliation - but unless your team is seriously on the back foot or dying rapidly, don't even try it. Your one and only responsibility as Spaghetti-o's target is to dodge Lunch Time! - nothing else matters.

Killing

Unfortunately, there is really no clever, articulatable strategy to Spaghetti-o. His weak point is his gaping mouth, but it is tiny and completely inaccessible to anyone except his current target - and his current target should be entirely absorbed with dodging Lunch Time! Beyond that, if Spaghetti-o is not targeting you, hit him very hard with everything you have and try to clear out any hordes that join the party if you do not have the ability to hit him very hard at that specific moment.

Spaghetti-o's major pattern of attack is to alternate Thrashing Rampage with either Catapult Smash or Lunch Time! - he will frequently switch targets after using his tentacle.

Conclusion and Take-aways

That was a lot of words about the bosses in this video game. Enough that you probably won't be able to keep all of it in your head right away when you go play after reading this guide. That's okay. Keep it in the back of your head and it will start to come to the fore as you get more comfortable with the game and can more readily identify what the boss is about to do. Until then, what are the major points to take away from this guide?

• Defend when you're targeted, attack when you're not. If a boss is looking at you, get your guard up and get ready to dodge. The bosses are way tougher and way stronger than any hero. They will eat you alive if you don't respect them.
  
• Use your big buttons. Don't be afraid to throw bombs, drink potions, use your active, and anything else against these bosses. They need to go down fast and any effort spent on that is well applied. It's fine to wait until you have the perfect opportunity so you're sure you won't miss, but don't be afraid to use your resources. This is the time to use them.
  
• If you can't affect the boss, clear out something that will affect your teammates. Many team support classes such as Ironbreaker, Battle Wizard, and Handmaiden will frequently feel underpowered against bosses. You will do less damage than your allies and sometimes feel like you are cutting down an oak with a tiny hatchet. That's okay, because that's not your role right then and there. The boss simply existing will cause hordes to spawn and interfere with your allies' attempts to kill the boss. If you can't cut down the boss, cut down the horde so your allies can focus on the boss!

Try not to die out there! :)

[Coolguy]

@Marty Yeah I keep meaning to make mention of it but he uses it so rarely I keep trying to find a good thing to say about it

[Marty]

Stormie also has a charge attack, not that it matters though.

[Rawzone]

I was hoping to see something on fighting the sorcerer guy that pukes every where when you fight him in the room with the bodies.

[Helgos]

@Coolguy: Thanks for replying. It's good to know we just had bad luck. Anyway, your guide has already improved our play sooooo much. Thanks mate :)

[Coolguy]

I just realized you might be talking about holding block while grabbed - if this is the case, that does not work. I tried it literally 2 minutes ago: get grabbed, hold block. I took damage in conjunction with Spaghetti-o healing as expected. It's possible this was a bug in a previous patch that was quietly fixed, but it's certainly not a thing in 1.0.3.

[Coolguy]

@Internet e-boy That is because he was using Catapult Smash. The only thing that really distinguishes Catapult Smash and Lunch Time in terms of animation is that Lunch Time has a longer wind-up. Catapult Smash has buggy hit detection, as well, so sometimes it just totally whiffs you for no discernable reason.

Lunch Time does not care if you are guarding. Spaghetti-o will grab you and munch you regardless.

[Koal]

im pretty sure when spaghetti tentacle monster grabs you, you can block it and it wont do any damage whatsoever. Tried it a couple times as kerillian.

[Coolguy]

@Helgos A new patch dropped and it could have inadvertantly changed something about Trollface. He's supposed to only be able to use Second Wind when he's taken a bit of damage, but that isn't how he worked on launch day. He could kind of just drop Second Wind whenever he damn well pleased.

I know Trollface is killable in two rounds because I routinely do it myself - but the numerous patches recently have had a lot of undocumented changes, so something might have happened.

I will run a game or two on Recruit tonight to try to figure out what's up - but my gut right now is that you had some unintended behavior!

[Helgos]

Thanks for the guide ;) I was exactly looking for that.

Maybe some advice from you: you seem to say we can kill a Bile Troll in 2 rounds. But yesterday night, my crew and I faced a bile troll that used Second Wind four times. Yes, it was tedious ^^
We were on Recruit difficulty. It activated instantly when he reached 50% of his current health. And we destroyed all his temporary health each time.
Do you know what we missed or did wrong? :)