With Winds of Magic, players will face new enemies in the Beastmen — “warp-spawned hybrids of animals and primitive humans” with twisted horns and deadly weapons. Indeed, fans will need to be careful with the Beastmen, as they promise to be the game’s “toughest enemy faction.”

According to Phil Savage of PC Gamer, who was given access to a prototype build of Winds of Magic, this difficulty emerges from the tactical design of the Beastmen, which is intended to “introduce new types of problems for players to tackle.” These challenges include the Beastmen’s ability to attack from distance as well as the buffs they receive, such as invulnerability, by way of their Standardbearer’s totems. 

Additionally, Winds of Magic looks to bring a new gameplay option to Vermintide 2. Rather than introduce a new campaign with the expansion, PC Gamer reports that Fatshark has opted to implement an endless gauntlet of challenges that increase in difficulty as a player progresses through them. 

Each of these challenges will be affected by a modifier related to the eight winds of magic, and players will need to complete tasks and prevail in a final arena, to complete them. It is indicated that there will be a finite number of unique challenges, but challenges can be continually repeated at higher and higher difficulty levels.

Players that are dedicated to progressing through these new challenges will also encounter another of Winds of Magic’s additions: a leaderboard. This will give heroes an opportunity to compete, as a player’s standing will be directly connected to the difficulty of the challenges that they are able to complete.

The addition of a new enemy faction, and a new approach to Vermintide 2’s end-game, is certain to get many fans excited about the release of Winds of Magic. In the interim, players can simply prepare for the new challenges that await them.

More details on Winds of Magic can be found on PC Gamer.