Chaos Wastes – General Information, Boon list, Potions

Overview

Just a collection of general information concerning the new Chaos Wastes gameplay mode. Covers Holseher’s map, Equipment as well as Boons and Potions

1. General Information, Goal, etc.

Welcome to the Chaos Wastes, Fatshark’s latest addition to Vermintide 2. And welcome to this small guide covering some general information for the players.

1.1 Chaos Wastes – What are they

Lore-wise the Chaos Wastes are the area covering the northern part of the world (not to be confused with the Wastes of Chaos in the south or the Realm of Chaos) near the portal to the Warp. Due to the proximity to the chaos portal and the general harsh environmental conditions the Chaos Wastes are not a place for the civilized man. As such they are mostly inhabited by nomadic tribes and Beastmen. Many, many Beastmen.

Gameplay-wise the Chaos Wastes are a new rogue-lite gameplay mode for Vermintide offering 15 new locations with more randomized set-ups including the acquisition of new boonsand equipment over the run to get even more powerful for slaying your foes.

1.2 Chaos Wastes – What is the goal

The “end goal” of the Chaos Wastes story-wise is to reach the Citadel of Eternity in order to communicate with the gods. Gameplay-wise this relates to a total of four expeditions which have to be performed – each with their respective final area:

• Expedition of Fortitude – Arena of Fortitude
• Expedition of Courage – Arena of Courage
• Expedition of Determination – Arena of Determination
• Expedition to the Citadel of Eternity – Citadel of Eternity (one full map & one arena)

The first three are to find scrolls in order to gain the favour of the gods and to open the way to the Citadel of Eternity which makes up the fourth and last expedition. Each expedition has one final area which has to be reached by completing a series of four maps before. There is a total of 11 available maps which are about half the length of most adventure maps – and with one exception completely new locations – and with multiple different branches inside the maps themselves:

• Bel’sha’ziier’s Mine
• Cinder Peak
• Count Mordrek’s Fortress
• Grimblood’s Stronghold
• Holseher’s Tower
• Pinnacle of Nightmares
• Slaughter Bay
• The Foetid Gorge
• The Forbidden Trail
• The lost City of Marakza
• The Pit of Reflection

Each of the expeditions is cursed by a different Chaos God meaning that the final area of an expedition will always have a curse of this specific Chaos God. Additional curses of other gods can be encountered on the maps inbetween based on randomness. The Chaos Gods curse per expedition are changing each week to add more diversity.

1.3 Chaos Wastes – Equipment, Talents, Bots, Late Joiners

Due to the rogue-lite nature of the Chaos Wastes there will be more randomness involved. This means that you start rather weak and grow more and more powerful over the course of each run. The good news though is that you start with the exact equipment and talents you have chosen in the Keep.

Equipment: For your equipment traits and properties as well as power have been removed and reduced (power level depends on difficulty). You basically play with white equipment. This can be upgraded over the course of the run in exchange for Pilgrim’s Coins (which can be found randomly over the course of the maps as well as for slaying monsters). Depending on the reliquary you find you can either upgrade your current equipment or trade in for a random new equipment for a cheaper price.

Talents: Situation looks better as you start with all your Keep talents and only add up on that one. Over the course of the expedition you can gain several new boons/talents. This can range from the missing talents of your career you haven’t chosen (yes, you can get two or even three of the talents in the same row), Charm/Trinket/Necklace traits or completely new boons exclusive to the Chaos Wastes. There are a lot of new interesting boons all together allowing really powerful combinations and gameplay not being possible before.

Bots: For the solo players depending on bots the situation looks rather mixed. While Bots start with their Keep talents they do not gain any additional boons over the course of the run. However, bots will follow the power-level of the host: [link]
Also, the more bots you have in the team the more coins will be gained per pick-up: [link] . The amount of coin increase for playing with bots has increased with Patch 4.4: [link]
With this they stay halfway relevant over the course of an expedition, however due to the missing CW boons they are missing out on power. As such they will alwys feel weaker in comparison to their adventure counter parts. Up to Champion and Legend difficulty they have their usage. Cataclysm is better doable with other human players.

Late Joiners: The good news is that in contrast to the Weaves new players can join over the course of the whole expedition. Due to the in-expedition progress nature of the Chaos Wastes it comes with issue though. Namely, the player has no boons while and still white equipment while his team mates may have already gained multiple boons and more power. So you are comparatively far weaker. It is only slightly compensated by the gainage of some Pilgrim’s coins. On the bright side, map completion bonus of all prior maps count for joining players.
As minor sidenote for late joiners: Upon joining a map in progress you can hear if the Chest of Trials has already been opened or not by its characteristic sound.

2. Holseher’s Map

Holseher’s Map is the starting screen of every expedition. You start at the left side and can see the first two locations of every branch as well as the goal of your current expedition. The rest is hidden in the mist of the Chaos Wastes. By hovering over a location icon with the mouse you can get some information about the next destinations.

The information (second screenshot can be enlarged by opening in a new tab) presented for the next location(s) covers:

• Potential map curse (not the specific curse, only which Chaos God is cursing you)
• Name of the map
• Which enemy combination you are fighting
• Combination of the two Map modifiers: more/less horde, more/less specials, more Pilgrim’s coins, more health items, more/less monsters, more/less elites, more/less specials etc.
• Reward upon completion of the map

The first subsequent location is also visible having mostly the same information minus the enemy combination. Every location after this is hidden in the mist until you beat more maps. Chaos Gods curses can also be seen in the form of a colored halo around the specific icon.
The information shall help you to make a decision where you want to go next by comparing which modifiers you want to have / to avoid as well as which map reward will be the most helpful for you / your team / your build. As different people might have different preferences, disagreement may be possible. As such the next to-be-played map is decided by a simple majority vote. It shall also be noted that it is possible to get/play the same location twice in succesion on Holseher’s map.

As can be seen in the second screenshot there are not only map locations on Holseher’s map but also Shrines – identifiable by the sun symbol atop – which function as “store”. There you can buy for Pilgrim’s coins additional boons for yourself (four to chose and all can be bought if enough coins) or for your team (two or three depending on the specific shrine). The shrine specific miracles will be covered later.

3a. Equipment & Upgrades

As mentioned in Chapter 1 before, the player and bots start with the same equipment they have chosen in the Keep, although far weaker. Basically, you start with white equipment without any traits and properties and a reduced power level. The starting and maximum power level of the weapons in Chaos Wastes hereby depend on the difficulty. For Cataclysm for example you start with a power level of 400 and you can upgrade up to a power level of 700 (red weapons).

There are two ways for upgrading your equipment split over three different altars:

The two left altars are for melee and ranged weapons respectively while the right altar can be used both for melee and range depending on what you are currently holding. The two left altars provide one random weapon upon activation, the right one does improve the weapon you currently hold. The altars are hereby colour-coded. This means green altars upgrade to green weapons, blue altars to blue weapons and so on. Each upgrade does not only improve the power level but also give access to traits and properties depending on colour. Altars for weapon upgrades can only be used if your current weapon is of “weaker” colour. All of the upgrades as mentioned before cost Pilgrim’s coins dependent of the kind of upgrade. The costs and colour effects are summarized in the following table:

So basically if you want to keep control and the weapon you are currently using, you have to pay twice the amount of Pilgrim’s Coins in comparison to the random altars. Coins which can’t be used for other upgrade like Boons and Miracles. Also, if you want to get properties, traits and more power you have to improve your equipment.
For clarification, the power+ values are in comparison to the starting values of the white equipment you start with. So for Cataclysm the power levels would be: 450 – 500 – 550 – 600 – 700
Also, it is noteworthy to mention that the Upgrade Altars are indeed “just” upgrading. This means that properties and traits you roll on lower rarities will keep the same while upgrading. If you get – for instance – + Pilgrims coins on a green weapon, the property will stay throughout the whole upgrade cycle. Same for the traits and upgrades from orange to red rarity. Conversely, this means that if you want to change traits and properties using the random weapon altars is your only choice.

Sidenote: As runs are rather long, you might sometimes forgot what weapons (and especially properties) you have. This can be easily countered by pressing the inspection button (default on “i”):

As you can see, the weapon power, rarity, traits and properties are shown both for your melee and your range weapon. In addition, you can also what items you are carrying and what their effect is. While this is rather pointless for healing items and bombs, it will be a real help for your potions as the Chaos Wastes have several new potions with new effects (see Chapter 6 for more information). Furthermore, active miracles are also shown on the inspection page.

3b. Exclusive Weapon Traits

There are a few Chaos Wastes exclusive weapon traits which I will list here. I am still missing a screenshot of the metallic shard trait. Take also note that in contrast to the Boons I had from the preview build I have only the german version here, so the translation might not be 1 to 1 to the english original. Also for reasons unknown four of the five listed traits has the same icon. This is not an error (at least on my part).

Depiction

Name

Description

Divine Shield

Damage taken is reduced to 20 damage or half of its original value, whichever is highest.

Shockwave

Critical hits stagger nearby enemies.

Regrwoth

Critical hits recover 5 Health.

Elite Marksman

Every headshot increases the damage of the next attack by 10 % (up to 20 times). If you hit an enemy anywhere else than the head 1 stack will be removed.

Bloodthirst

Increases attack speed by 2.0 % for every 5. kill (up to 5 times). Will be resetted if you don’t kill for 30 seconds.

4. Miracles, Boons, other Bonuses

As previously mentioned each Chaos Wastes run will start with the talents you’ve chosen in the Keep. In addition to this you can gain further Boons, Miracles and other Bonuses over the course of your expedition. While they are mostly random, there are minimal influence possibilities.

4.1 Other Bonuses

Let’s start at the back. As shown in the screenshot in Chapter 2, completion of each map during an expedition run grants you a bonus. These bonuses are more or less equivalent to the properties currently available in adventure mode:

• + 10 % Attack Speed
• + 30 % Block Cost Reduction
• + 20 % Cooldown Reduction
• + 10 % Crit Chance
• + 40 % Crit Power
• + 20 % Health
• + 5 % Movement Speed
• + 60 % Push/Block Angle
• + 30 % Stamina Recovery
• + 4 Stamina

So by chosing your route through the Wastes you have one tool to influence your build in your favour.

4.2 Seer’s Altar and Chest of Trials

These bonus boons can be gained during a map run, so make sure to search well. There are two different possibilities. The first one is the Seer’s Altar:

The usage of the Seer’s Altar will grant you one random boon of random rarity for 200 Pilgrim’s Coins. It will appear for a short time in the middle of the screen with a short description of its effect. As mentioned before unused talents from the career skill tree (meaning you can have two or even all three talents of the same talent row), Charm/Trinket/Necklace traits as well as boons unique to the Wastes can be gained. Seer’s Altar have a random chance of appearing during a map with multiple Seer’s Altar being able to appear in a single map. So you can gain multiple boons in a single map. If you have the coins for it ……

The second possibility for new boons is the Chest of Trials:

Upon activation of a Chest of Trial a random boss will appear on the map with the clear intention to murder you. For better chances, it is recommanded to activate the Chests after the last horde. Upon defeat of the boss or a prolonged passage of time (about 130 seconds) – in case boss bugs out for example – the Chest of Trials will unlock and will provide you with a choice between three different boons of which you can chose one, giving you another possibility to influence your build. So the Chests of Trials have both the advantage of not costing Pilgrim’s coins (actually you gain coins by killing the boss unless you ledged it) and giving you an actual choice for your talent upgrade. Per map exactly one Chest of Trials will spawn. Don’t miss it.

4.3 Holseher’s Map Shrines

Instead of a new location, you can also find Shrines on Holseher’s map. Usually you will cross a Shrine on all branches and at least once per expedition:

On the right side, you can see the boons. These will only influence and have a cost depending on the rarity of the specific boons (Rare for 200 Pilgrim’s Coins, Exotic for 250 Pilgrim’s Coins and Unique for 300 Pilgrim’s Coins). There are four boons for choice and ALL can be bought if you have enough Pilgrim’s coins. On the left side, you can see the Miracle’s of the Gods which functions as “group boons” and are most of the time either one-use items or one-map bonuses. These miracles are always the same per Shrine with three different Shrines existing in total:

Special Sidenot: Similar to the weapon properties, you might sometimes forget what kind of boons you have picked up on your run. Actually, for boons this issue is even more prevelant due to the insane amount of potential boons. As such you can also inspect your boons at all times by pressing “i”.

Further information can be accessed by pressing the right mouse button and hovering over the specific boon icon showing its description. In addition, current active Miracles are shown.

5a. Exclusive Boons – Part 1

As mentioned before the Chest of Trials, the Seer’s Altar and the Holseher’s Map Shrines have all the chance for providing either unused talents from the career skill tree, Charm/Trinket/Necklace traits or boons exclusive to the Chaos Wastes. As the career skill tree talents and the Charm/Trinket/Necklace traits are well known or can easily be looked up I will just provide information on the Chaos Wastes exclusive boons (total of 50) as I gather them:

Depiction

Name

Description

Rarity

Ranald’s Surprise

Powder Barrel’s you ignite deal 300 % increased damage.

Exotic

Djaf’s Reaping

Landing 3 Melee headshots in a row grants 15 % increased Melee Power for 10 seconds.

Rare

Drakira’s Thirst

Killing a Special replenishes 10 % of your ability bar.

Rare

Dazh’s Peculiar Mirth

After killing an elite with a melee attack the next enemy you kill will explode.

Exotic

Ellinill’s Withering

Attacks against full health enemies deal 20 % more damage.

Exotic

Ptra’s Endurance

Standing still grants you 30 % damage reduction.

Rare

Ursun’s Fortitude

Max health increased by 50 %.

Exotic

Valaya’s Brew

Using your Career Skill has a 50 % chance of granting you the effect of the potion you are currently carrying.

Exotic

Hekarti’s Jealousy

Each time a nearby ally uses their Career Skill you replenish 10 % of your Ability Bar.

Exotic

Atharti’s Malice

Damaging enemies with damage over time effects grants 0.25 health.

Exotic

Ereth Khial’s Pride

Gain 100 % Power and rapid health regeneration for 10 seconds when all your allies are downed.

Exotic

Vaul’s Anvil

While wielding your melee weapon all attacks made against you count as being blocked. When your block is broken you lose this effect for 10 seconds.

Unique

Eldrazor’s Deflection

Parrying an attack makes you immune to damage for the next 2 seconds.

Unique

Esmeralda’s Solace

Reviving a teammate grants both of you health regeneration for 15 seconds.

Rare

Caxuatn’s Frenzy

Taking damage grants you guaranteed critical hits for 3 seconds.

Exotic

Shallya’s Rejuvenation

Regenerate 1 health every 3 seconds.

Exotic

Grimnir’s Implacabilitiy

Falling below 10 % health grants you 15 % Attack Speed and Movement Speed and prevents incoming damage for 10 seconds.

Exotic

Verena’s Inspiration

Increases Ability Bar cooldown rate by 10 %.

Rare

Lileath’s Grace

Removes the limit on dodging efficiently.

Exotic

Geheb’s Brawn

Pushing increases Cleave by 50 % for 3 seconds.

Unique

Hukon’s Strength

Reduce push cost by 50 %

Exotic

Estreuth’s Abstinence

Taking damage while incapacitated grants you 50 % damage reduction for 10 seconds.

Rare

Quetzl’s Protection

Gain 2 stamina shields.

Rare

Khaine’s Fury

While above 50 % health, you gain 25 % more melee power but deal 3 damage to yourself every swing.

Unique

Myrmidia’s Great Leveller

Striking 5 enemies in one swing increases stagger power by 50 % for 3 seconds.

Exotic

5b. Exclusive Talents – Part 2

Follow Up due to the character limitation or whatever.

Depiction

Name

Description

Rarity

Loec’s Wardance

Gain up to 20 % Attack Speed based on your missing Ability bar.

Exotic

Morgrim’s Resourcefulness

Using a consumable makes range attack fire 1 additional projectile for 15 seconds.

Exotic

Stromfels’ Savagery

Killing 10 enemies with melee attacks in quick succession grants 20 % attack speed and movement speed for 10 seconds.

Unique

Xokha’s Duty

Using your Career Skill returns 10 % of nearby allies’ Ability Bars.

Rare

Kalita’s Barter

Using your Career Skill will drop a duplicate of one of your inventory items.

Unique

Khsar’s Speed

Gain 10 % Attack Speed.

Exotic

Isha’s Embrace

Increase healing received by 50 %.

Exotic

Hoeth’s Sword-Craft

Every block countes as a parry.

Exotic

Morr’s Protection

Downed friends near you are invulnerable.

Unique

Ladrielle’s Meditation

Each 5 seconds not getting hit increases your Career Skill regeneration by 5 %. Max stacks 5.

Exotic

Salyak’s Charity

Gaining temporary health while at full health will give the temporary health to the nearest ally instead.

Unique

Gork’s (or possibly Mork’s) Might

Pushing an enemy makes you do a short charge forward.

Exotic

Kurnous’ Precision

Increases headshot damage by 50 %. Lowers non-headshot damage by 10 %

Exotic

Asuryan’s Wrath

Melee Attacks that kill enemies have a 50 % chance to deal damage to an additional nearby enemy.

Unique

Ualapt’s Cunning

Picking up ammunition grants 15 health.

Rare

Addaioth’s Splendour

Ranged critical hits explode for 30 % of their damage in area around the target.

Unique

Mork’s (or possibly Gork’s) Onslaught

Using your career skill grants 40 % movement speed for 5 seconds.

Exotic

The Lady of the Lake’s Vigil

When you are above 75 % Health you take of the damage inflicted on nearby allies instead of them.

Exotic

Sigmar’s Comet

Throwing a bomb throws one additional bomb (of the same type).

Unique

Ulric’s Grim Resolve

Your attacks cannot be interrupted.

Exotic

Asaph’s Vengeful Rain

Picking up ammunition increases your range penetration by 2 for 15 seconds.

Rare

Manann’s Tempest

Critical strikes trigger a chain lighting that jumps to the nearest 5 enemies.

Unique

Taal’s Twinned Arrow

Range attack now fire one additional projectile.

Unique

Anath Raema’s Swiftness

Picking up ammunition grants 50% decreased reload time for 10 seconds.

Rare

6. Potions

Potions are another big change in the Chaos Wastes. Nowhere to be found are the usual strength, speed or concentration potions. However, as replacement we got 8 new potions with new (although familiar) unique effects. Sad part, is that they are all red making them kinda hard to distinguish.
However, there are two helps for this. The first is the weapon inspection button as described in Chapter 3 which will show you which Potion you are carrying together with a description of its effect. The second one is that each potion got an unique icon attached to them, making distinction possible. Familiarization with the specific icons will help you to remember which potion you or your bots / fellow human players are carrying.

Depiction

Potion of …

Description

Agility

Grants you the reflexes of Loec, improving your Dodge distance for 30 seconds.

Endless Bombs

For the next 10 seconds, grim Hashut grants you unlimited bombs (don’t ask how).

Life Share

Empowered by the Great Maw, for the next 10 seconds, your kills restore health to other players.

Lifesteal

Khaine fills you with bloodlust. For the next 15 seconds, your kills restore health.

Poison Aegis

Artharti grants you immunity to all poison for 60 seconds.

Prophetic Strike

Morr grants knowledge of foes’ weaknesses. Improves your Power for 25 seconds.

Stealth

Vengeful Drakira grants you invsibility for 5 seconds.

Wrath

Verena enhances your means to smite the guilty. Improves your damage for 20 seconds.

7. Curses

Most of the guide so far (with the exception of the potential map modifier) has been about the boons, bonuses and miracles the heroes can acquire as well as their equipment. However, these are the Chaos Wastes and the influence of the Chaos Gods is ever prevelant.
As such each map has the chance to be cursed by one of the four Chaos Gods (Khorn, Nurgle, Slaaneseh and Tzeentch), indicated by the halos around the map symbols on Holseher’s map. Upon moving the mouse over the map you can also see which Chaos God is cursing it, however not which of his three potential curses is active. In addition to the random chances for curse, you have one guaranteed curse and that is for the final arena map which is identical to the “expedition curse”. This one will rotate every week. The Chaos Gods’ curses are summarized in the following table:

Chaos God

Curse

Description

Blood God’s Fury

Beware of hexed enemies. Their fury enhances those who fight at their side.

Blood Tornadoes

Blood tornadoes move randomly around the level, inflicting bleeding on those they touch.

Skulls of Wrath

On death, enemies drop an exploding skull totem.

Infested Foes

Hexed enemies deal poison damage and create poison clouds when they die.

Miasma of Pestilence

The level is covered in a poisonous miasma that inflicts the Curse effect. Stand close to the Purifying Torch to quell the curse.

Skulking Sorcerer

A malevolent spirit haunts this level. It cannot be slain, only driven off.

Baleful Empathy

A portion of damage inflicted on a player is also inflicted on other players in close proximity.

Glory to Greed!

Pickups are disabled on this map, but hexed enemies spawn items for the taking!

Unquenchable Thirst

Players suffer damage over time. Drinking potions restores health lost to Unquenchable Thirst.

Bolt of Change

Tzeentch launches arcane bolts from the skies, dealing damage to players and randomly transforming enemies.

Crystal Egg

Destroy the crystal eggs before they hatch, or face the fury of the beast within!.

Twin Blight

Enemies have a chance to be reborn as smaller enemies upon death.

8. Rewards

So what are the rewards for playing the new Chaos Wastes game mode? One of the largest criticism for Weaves was that there was no reward which could be used in the Adventure Mode. This has been solved for Chaos Wastes as you get normal loot chests. You get one – after beating the first map – with increasing value depending on how much Pilgrim’s Coins you collected, how many Chest or Trials and Curses you conquered. So the farer you get in the expedition the better this chest will be. You get two more Emperor Loot Boxes if you successfully finish the Expedition. So for a time frame of about one hour you can get three chests which is about equal to the acquisition rate of the Adventure Mode.

That said, there is no loot or some other kind of meta-progression for Chaos Wastes mode itself. You always start anew the same as before with the same strength. So the loot chests are kinda redundant for the Chaos Wastes mode itself.

In addition to the regular rewards there are also one-time rewards in the form of frames which can be earned for conquering an expedition for each of the four Chaos Gods and also for finishing the Citadel of Eternity with each character on Champion, Legend and Cataclysm.

9. Final Remarks

Guide is mostly done and should be about 98 % finished. Looking for screenshots of missing stuff. Will add them as soon as I get a screenshot of them. Also will replace the current screenshotted boon icons with the cleaner versions.

Sadly my gif is to large to present it here. As such:

Thank you for reading.

If you have any further questions feel free to post them and I’ll check if I can answer them.

Acknowledgement: Better looking (and not screenshotted-and-paint-modified) boon icons have been provided as a courtesy by Royale w/ Cheese. Also in the doubtful case you haven’t noticed, you can find his guide here:
[link]
It has some smaller additional sections like Grail Knight, Potion Decanter Effect or Base Game ported Boons.