PLAY
Armored
Takes far less damage from the front of the magazine.
How to deal with it: Slow and steady beats spray: aim, do not flood.
VELM CASEBOOK
Bestiary
Everyone you will meet beyond the wall: bosses, infected types, elite traits, wave events and boss modifiers. What each does and how to deal with it — straight from the game’s own casebook.
Bosses
THE RAVAGER
Charges, then works in a frenzy and slams the ground.
How to deal with it: Break the line of the charge and punish the recovery.
1500 Health22 Damage82 Speed3 Phases
THE BROOD QUEEN
Lays eggs and screams. Left alone, the arena fills up.
How to deal with it: Kill eggs between her attacks, not instead of them.
2400 Health26 Damage60 Speed3 Phases
THE SIREN
Screams to stun, teleports, and calls in support.
How to deal with it: Stay out of the rings and never be caught reloading after a blink.
1900 Health18 Damage118 Speed3 Phases
THE GRAVEDIGGER
Burrows and comes up under you with a shockwave.
How to deal with it: Keep moving while it is underground; the ground tells you where.
2800 Health26 Damage74 Speed3 Phases
THE WARDEN
Carries a shield across its front that eats what you fire at it.
How to deal with it: Flank. Damage only counts from where the shield is not.
3200 Health30 Damage70 Speed3 Phases
THE SHEPHERD
Bound to its thralls: while they live, it barely feels you.
How to deal with it: Cut the thralls, then use the window — it is short.
3400 Health26 Damage78 Speed3 Phases
THE USURPER
Fights like a squad leader, and the squad is the horde.
How to deal with it: Fight it where the horde cannot join in.
3300 Health28 Damage76 Speed3 Phases
THE SOWER
Backs away and walks a fan of spores around you. Retreating loses.
How to deal with it: Close the distance and do not let it open again.
2600 Health20 Damage96 Speed3 Phases
THE EYE
Turns a burning beam around itself. Open ground is where it kills you.
How to deal with it: Put something solid between you — a wall, a wagon, your own barricade. Running does not help; hiding does.
3400 Health18 Damage62 Speed3 Phases
THE FIRST
The end of the sector. Drags the map into a burning ring.
How to deal with it: Inside the ring is the only safe ground, and the ring is where it stands.
5200 Health34 Damage70 Speed3 Phases
THE MAW
Pulls everything in — you and the horde alike — and eats what reaches its mouth.
How to deal with it: Run straight away from it, never sideways, and clear the infected around it before it breathes in.
3600 Health26 Damage46 Speed3 Phases
THE SHUTTER
Sealed behind plates that shrug off almost everything. They only come apart when it swings.
How to deal with it: Bait the swing, step off it, and put everything into the opening. Firing at a sealed shutter is how the fight is lost.
3000 Health34 Damage78 Speed3 Phases
THE HOUR
Every second it lives, it and the whole horde move faster. Nothing ever slows back down.
How to deal with it: The first half-minute is the cheapest it will ever be. Spend everything then — playing safe is what kills you here.
4100 Health30 Damage96 Speed3 Phases
THE HUSH
It has no eyes. It walks to the last sound and brings its fists down on that spot, whether anyone is still standing there or not.
How to deal with it: Fire, then leave. Never fire twice from the same place. A grenade thrown across the street buys a whole approach.
4600 Health38 Damage104 Speed3 Phases
THE CLAMP
Its armour stays shut while the two floor plates are up, and the plates are at opposite ends of the ground.
How to deal with it: One body cannot stand on two plates. Send someone to each — a squadmate counts — and shoot only while both are down.
3900 Health42 Damage92 Speed3 Phases
JUMBO
A circus elephant that charges through anything — including the wall you are hiding behind.
How to deal with it: Do not stand in line with it and a wall. Step aside when it lowers its head.
3000 Health30 Damage70 Speed3 Phases
THE BROOD WIDOW
Covers the streets in web and lets her brood out of her back.
How to deal with it: Fight where the web is not. Burn the eggs before they hatch.
2300 Health24 Damage90 Speed3 Phases
THE ROGUE MECH
Keeps its distance and carpets the block with rockets. The blasts bring walls down.
How to deal with it: Close the distance — up close it cannot fire the salvo. Leave the circles on the ground.
2800 Health26 Damage64 Speed3 Phases
THE PLAGUE DOCTOR
Swings a censer that rains green smoke; where it lands, the ground stays poisoned.
How to deal with it: Keep moving across clean ground. He runs from you — cut off his way out.
2100 Health22 Damage84 Speed3 Phases
IRONHIDE
A mutant wearing a tank turret. Shells from across the street, a shield of plates up close.
How to deal with it: Shoot around the plates, not into them. When the gun goes quiet, it is reloading.
3400 Health30 Damage58 Speed3 Phases
Infected
Husk
Walks at you and swings. The horde is mostly this.
How to deal with it: Nothing special — but never let a crowd of them close the last step.
42 Health8 Damage92 Speed
Sprinter
Runs. Reaches you long before the rest of the wave does.
How to deal with it: Kill it on the approach: in contact it out-swings you.
26 Health6 Damage195 Speed
Stalker
Invisible until it is on you, and it waits rather than walks.
How to deal with it: Watch the shimmer. Marked, burning or shocked, it cannot hide.
48 Health16 Damage150 Speed
Harvester
Ignores you and eats your resource nodes. Fed, it comes back stronger.
How to deal with it: Break off and kill it at the node — the node is the fight.
120 Health14 Damage104 Speed
Spitter
Keeps its distance and spits acid in a straight line.
How to deal with it: Put a wall between you: its shot does not bend.
58 Health11 Damage72 Speed
Bloater
Walks up and detonates. Dies in a blast too.
How to deal with it: Kill it far away, and never while standing in a doorway.
150 Health42 Damage62 Speed
Carapace
Armoured from the front, soft in the back. Backing away is the worst answer.
How to deal with it: Go around it. Its turn is slower than your step.
190 Health22 Damage74 Speed
Weaver
Hangs back and lays webs across your path. Almost no damage of its own.
How to deal with it: It binds movement, and movement is your armour — kill it before the fight goes to the webs.
58 Health5 Damage104 Speed
Howler
Never attacks. Everything around it heals and speeds up.
How to deal with it: Shoot it first, through the crowd. The crowd is the point.
70 Health0 Damage96 Speed
Dragger
Does not touch anyone standing. It comes for whoever is down.
How to deal with it: Drop everything and kill it: a fallen squadmate dragged out of the circle is gone.
120 Health0 Damage128 Speed
Breaker
Comes for what you built, not for you. Hits structures seven times harder.
How to deal with it: Decide what you are willing to lose — or meet it before it reaches the turret.
320 Health18 Damage62 Speed
Vaulter
Leaps the wall between you instead of going round it.
How to deal with it: The crouch before the jump is the warning: it aims at the spot, so leave the spot.
66 Health14 Damage122 Speed
Lobber
Throws in an arc. Cover does not stop it.
How to deal with it: Useless up close. Close the distance, or move off the marked circle.
62 Health16 Damage66 Speed
Screen
Wide and slow, and it puts itself between you and whatever walks behind it.
How to deal with it: Do not out-shoot it — go around it, blow it up, or bring rounds that punch through.
260 Health12 Damage58 Speed
Courier
Does not fight at all. It runs for the edge of the sector, and if it gets there the next wave comes heavier.
How to deal with it: Drop everything and chase it down — it is the one target that leaves on its own.
90 Health0 Damage235 Speed
Brood Egg
Hatches into a fresh body if left alone.
How to deal with it: Free experience while it sits there. Take it.
70 Health0 Damage0 Speed
Infected Nest
Breeds the horde for as long as it stands.
How to deal with it: Burn it down early: every second it lives costs you a wave.
520 Health0 Damage0 Speed
Midge
A living cloud. Bullets pass through it and barely take anything with them.
How to deal with it: Explosives, fire and abilities hit it in full. This is the one that decides whether you brought the right weapon.
55 Health7 Damage128 Speed
Ashen
Comes with the last waves, in place of the ordinary dead. Everywhere it walks, the ground burns behind it.
How to deal with it: It never has to reach you. Drop it before it crosses your line, and never retreat along a path one has already taken.
95 Health12 Damage88 Speed
Stillwalker
Stands perfectly still while it is in front of your sights, and runs the moment you look at anything else.
How to deal with it: Holding it in your aim is free — but the rest of the wave walks in while you do. Decide whether to spend the magazine now or the attention later.
170 Health30 Damage104 Speed
Listener
Hangs back and listens. The moment someone starts reloading, it closes the whole distance in one dash.
How to deal with it: Reload early and behind something, not when the magazine runs dry. The crouch before the dash is your window.
240 Health22 Damage96 Speed
Mourner
Walks in the crowd and raises what you have already killed. Every few seconds one of the fallen nearby gets back up.
How to deal with it: Pick it out of the crowd and drop it early, or fight somewhere other than the pile you have been making.
300 Health16 Damage92 Speed
Bellman
Does not fight. While it rings, the infected around it stop advancing and gather to it — then arrive all at once, in a frenzy.
How to deal with it: Two answers, both real: push through and break it, and the pack comes at once but on your terms; or let it gather and be ready when it lets go.
260 Health0 Damage88 Speed
Tunneler
Goes under the floor, where nothing can touch it, and comes up where the squad is standing.
How to deal with it: The spot it marks does not follow you. Step off it — and put rounds in it while it is still above ground.
230 Health26 Damage105 Speed
Gorger
Stores every point of damage you put into it and gives it back as a blast.
How to deal with it: Drop it in one burst, or stop shooting and let it come to nobody. Hurting it slowly is how it kills you.
520 Health22 Damage82 Speed
Clown
The circus crowd. Walks at you in a pack, a little tougher than a husk.
How to deal with it: Nothing clever — just never let the pack close the last step.
48 Health9 Damage96 Speed
Mime
Invisible until it is already next to you. It does not make a sound, obviously.
How to deal with it: Watch for the shimmer. Burning, shocked or marked, it cannot hide.
52 Health15 Damage145 Speed
Juggler
Keeps its distance and throws knives. Faster than a spit, and no puddle left behind.
How to deal with it: Break its line of sight: a knife flies straight and stops at the first wall.
55 Health9 Damage80 Speed
Acrobat
Leaps over the wall between you instead of going round it.
How to deal with it: The crouch before the jump is the warning: it lands on the spot, so leave the spot.
60 Health13 Damage128 Speed
Strongman
Comes for what you built. Bends barricades and turrets like horseshoes.
How to deal with it: Meet it before it reaches the line — or decide which structure you can spare.
300 Health20 Damage64 Speed
Fire-Eater
Leaves burning ground behind every step. It does not need to reach you.
How to deal with it: Drop it before it crosses your line, and never retreat along its path.
90 Health12 Damage90 Speed
Bouncer
Arms up in front — shots to the face barely land. Hits like a door.
How to deal with it: Go around. It turns slower than you step.
180 Health20 Damage80 Speed
Jammer
Stands there and stops your charges from coming back. Never part of a wave — it is dropped on you.
How to deal with it: Nothing you carry will out-wait it. Cross the sector and break it, or fight the rest of the wave on what you already have.
900 Health0 Damage0 Speed
Elite traits
Toxic
Leaves acid where it dies.
How to deal with it: Kill it somewhere you were not planning to stand.
Frenzied
Much faster, slightly frailer.
How to deal with it: It arrives first. Meet it first.
Volatile
Explodes when killed.
How to deal with it: Do not be the one standing next to it when it dies.
Warded
Shields everything around it — the pack, not itself.
How to deal with it: The pack is unkillable while it stands. Kill the ward.
Leeching
Heals itself from the damage it deals you.
How to deal with it: Do not trade with it. Burst it or break contact.
Splitting
Breaks into a brood when it dies.
How to deal with it: Kill it with room around you, not in a corridor.
Undying
Gets up once, at a quarter health.
How to deal with it: Count on the second body. Leave the ammo for it.
Tethered
Comes as a pair, with a burning line strung between the two.
How to deal with it: Never fight in the middle. Kill one and the line dies with it.
Brood
Lays an egg every few seconds for as long as it lives.
How to deal with it: The wave grows while you ignore it. Kill the layer, then the eggs.
Phasing
Blinks out of reach every few seconds and keeps walking.
How to deal with it: Hold your fire while it is see-through — every round into it is wasted.
Wave events
Horde Surge
A pack breaks through nearby and walks in on top of the wave.
How to deal with it: They come from one side. Turn to face it before they arrive, not after.
Supply Airdrop
Not a threat: a supply crate lands somewhere on the map.
How to deal with it: Go and get it. It stays only for a while, and the wave does not pause for you.
Elite Squad
A formation of elites arrives together, each with its own trait.
How to deal with it: Break them apart. Fighting all of them at once is how the wave is lost.
Blight Storm
Spore storm: the whole horde goes into a frenzy, wave after wave of it.
How to deal with it: Biomass drops from every kill while it lasts. Survive it and it pays.
Hunter Pack
A pack of stalkers hunts the squad, and they wait rather than walk.
How to deal with it: Clear them for the bounty, but never with your back to open ground.
Acid Rain
Acid falls around the squad and leaves burning puddles where it lands.
How to deal with it: Keep walking. Standing still is the only way this hurts you.
Blackout
The lights die. You see a fraction of the map, and every infected on it senses you.
How to deal with it: Give up the far corners and hold something tight with a short line of sight.
Manhole Eruption
They come up out of the ground instead of walking in from the edge.
How to deal with it: The hole is marked before it opens. Do not be standing on it.
Salvage Raid
Scavengers go for your resource nodes, not for you.
How to deal with it: Intercept them at the node. Ignored, your materials leave with them.
Breach
Two breaches open on opposite sides at once and close the squad in.
How to deal with it: Pick a side and break it first. Splitting your fire loses both.
Carrion
The fallen fester. Some of them burst a moment after they drop and leave a spore pool behind.
How to deal with it: The longer you hold one spot, the worse that spot gets. Kill forward and keep walking.
The Vein
Not a threat: rich ground opens somewhere far out, and it pays materials and gathering work.
How to deal with it: It closes on its own, and the wave does not wait. Decide whether the trip is worth the position you give up.
Brownout
The grid dies: turrets and traps go cold until it comes back.
How to deal with it: For a while you are worth exactly what you can shoot yourself.
The Column
The whole wave arrives from one side, in one line, in batches.
How to deal with it: A corridor beats open ground here. Being spread out is what it punishes.
Jammer
A jammer lands on the map, and ability charges stop coming back while it stands.
How to deal with it: Nothing you carry outlasts it. Cross the sector and break it, or finish the wave on what you have.
Exodus
A group of couriers leaves at once, and everyone that reaches the edge makes the next wave heavier.
How to deal with it: For twenty seconds the wave is a chase, not a stand. Catch what you can.
The First Stirs
The sector draws itself in with a burning ring, the way the First will.
How to deal with it: Hold the ground inside it. It lets go on its own; the map does not.
Boss modifiers
Armored
Takes far less damage from everything.
How to deal with it: Bring your heaviest burst; chip damage will not finish it in time.
Regenerating
Heals itself whenever you stop hurting it.
How to deal with it: Never break off for long. Reloading in cover is what saves it.
Shielded
Carries a shield that must come down before its health does.
How to deal with it: Spend the cheap rounds on the shield and keep the good ones for after.
Brood Mother
Calls in infected for as long as it lives.
How to deal with it: The adds are endless and the boss is not. Decide which one you are fighting.
Volatile
Leaves what it dies on: the ground around it turns dangerous.
How to deal with it: Do not finish it standing on top of it.
Enraged
Gets faster and hits harder the lower its health goes.
How to deal with it: The last third is the whole fight. Save your cooldowns for it.
Relentless
Never stops to recover: its abilities come back faster than they should.
How to deal with it: The gaps you are used to are not there. Stop planning around them.
Bloodfeast
Heals from every infected that dies near it.
How to deal with it: Kill the trash away from it, or do not kill it at all.
Cinder
Burns the ground it walks on and leaves it burning.
How to deal with it: The arena shrinks as the fight goes on. Move early, not when it is tight.
Siphon
Inside its aura, ability charges barely come back.
How to deal with it: Position becomes a price: the ring is the fight, not the boss.
Mirror
Returns part of the damage you deal back to the shooter.
How to deal with it: Continuous fire is what costs you. Burst, break, breathe.
Gravebound
Near it the fallen cannot be picked up and bleed out twice as fast.
How to deal with it: Drag the fight away from the body, or lose whoever is on the ground.
Rust
A pulse empties every magazine around it.
How to deal with it: The circle is drawn before it fires. Be reloaded and be outside it.
Echo
Every ability it uses comes a second time.
How to deal with it: Never count on having dodged it once. It is more fragile for the privilege.