If you have trouble finding skilled and disciplined team members on the internet, playing with bots might be the option for you. Given the right equipment, you can do full book nightmare runs very well. Even full book cataclysm is possible, but certainly challenging. This guide will tell you what your bots are capable of, where they need support, and how best to equip them.

What are the requirements of successfully playing with bots? Simply put: the "Quality of Life" (QoL) mod. This wonderful work of art lets you customize your bots' behaviour, such as making them stay closer to you during hordes, if you so choose - which I greatly recommend - and it eliminates Sienna as a bot in favour of Saltzpyre, if that is what you want, it lets them pick up pinged items, and there are other useful options. It enables them to fight and survive the End Times, if you guide them well.

Everything I say in this guide pertains to bots modded with the Quality of Life mod. This mod also has a load of other useful or just aesthetic improvements. Get it!

https://www.steamoss.com/app/235540/discussions/1/1368380934264836915/

So what are the advantages of playing with bots? Bots carry the exact equipment you assign to them. Bots make you the host of the game, resulting in as little lag as possible. Most importantly: Bots will not decide that running after that sack rat during a simultaneous ogre and horde spawn is a great idea. Bots will not charge a stormvermin patrol or throw a strength-buffed grenade right into the middle of your team. Bots will not run away from your team for no apparent reason and get caught by a packmaster on the other end of the map. Bots will not gobble up every single health potion before you have a chance to pick them up. Bots love you, rever you, and will follow your every step. They will sacrifice their last potion, their last grenade, even their last healing draught only for you, their beloved master.

There is also a sort of indirect advantage of playing with bots: Once you're dead, the game is over. That means you have to play more conservatively than you perhaps would with players who can bring you back from the dead. This is a good preparation for cataclysm difficulty, in which avoiding damage is paramount.

And yes, of course, there are also disadvantages of playing with bots. These will be covered in the next section.

The skills required to succeed in Vermintide might perhaps be grouped as follows:

1. Proceeding quickly though the levels
2. Not taking damage
3. Cooperating with the team
4. Mopping up hordes
5. Killing special rats
6. Fighting stormvermin
7. Fighting the ogre

So how do the bots do it?

1. Proceeding quickly though the levels
This obviously is your responsibility, as the bots will follow you. However, the bots unfortunately have a tendency to get stuck, mostly in narrow spaces or when a jump downwards is required. This is extremely infuriating for the player since you will lose runs: You jump down a ledge, the bots stay behind, a horde and an assassin spawns, and that was it. The bots "beam" to you when you get too far away, when you ping an item or enemy, or when there are enemies near you, but that doesn't always work. Therefore, there are some maps which I wouldn't recommend for bot play (see below). Bots also tend to engage enemies you would prefer to leave behind, thereby slowing your advance. It is for these reasons, as well as because of the limited damage output of the bots, that completing a level takes more time than with a skilled team of human players.

2. Not taking damage
This is probably the one skill that makes elite players stand out most. And, believe it or not, the bots actually do it quite well. This is because they tend to push and block a lot. Therefore, it is obviously wise to give them equipment which facilitates blocking and pushing. The two things they don't do well, however, is get out of that poisonous green gas cloud, and avoid halberd strikes. In case of gas, help them by running away a good distance yourself. You might also want to give them gas resistance (see the equipment section below). In case of stormvermin, smash the things as soon as they appear.

3. Cooperating with the team
As said before, bots will stay close to you, which is one of the most important things to do in the game, and one of the most often overlooked among players. Bots will not use potions or bombs themselves, but they will carry them for you and give them to you as soon as you empty your own potion/bomb slot. This is highly useful, because even in the midst of fighting a huge swarm, a bot can and will hand over his stuff, provided he is close to you. Thereby, you can, for instance, throw several bombs in quick succession. Trinkets boosting bombs or potions thus become very effective assets for you to carry.

Bots will also pick up tomes and grimoires, the latter only if you ping them (aim and press "T"). If all bots carry a healing item, you'll have to ping the tome in order for a bot to pick it up. It is a useful strategy to turn your bots into tome carriers and handle the healing yourself.

What bots won't do at all is carry explosive barrels, sacks of wheat or stone gargoyles. They also won't attack support pillars in warehouses or the chains holding the ramshackle towers that grey seers tend to stand on. You'll have to do that yourself.

That being said, I have completed "Supply and Demand" (which requires you to carry 5 sacks of wheat across a rat-filled square to the wagon) on cataclysm with bots, with two tomes, everyone in good health and one health item left over. They do not carry, but they stay close to you and protect you.

4. Mopping up hordes
Bots do stay alive quite well, but their damage output is rather low. Chopping down a swarm of rats will therefore take you considerably longer than with a bunch of human players who know what they're doing. Be prepared to do most of the mopping by yourself. However, bots stay close to you, which makes supporting one another during a swarm attack easier. Also, they will push the rats around, lowering their damage output considerably.

5. Killing special rats
Given the right equipment, bots can very quickly and very accurately kill any special rats. This is definitely their strong point. Once you have some levels with bots under your belts, feel free to choose any ranged weapon for yourself which does other things well than kill specials.

6. Fighting stormvermin
Fighting stormvermin requires careful positioning/dodging, timing your strikes and hitting small rat heads. Bots do not do that well. They can dish out some good damage with armour-piercing weapons, but they will, more often than not, eat that overhead strike. You might even want to adjust your playstyle and *push* stormvermin instead of *dodging* them: It happened frequently to me that I approached a stormie, triggered the overhead strike, dodged it safely, while my most loyal and stupid bots came running in right after me and right into the halberd. Therefore: as soon as a stormvermin appears, it should be your first priority to take it out yourself. Do not let it strike even once!

This point cannot be stressed enough, especially if you're playing cataclysm. One overhead strike by a stormie will bring down a hero from full health. On "The White Rat", I lost all bots in a matter of seconds when approaching the first pedestal guarded by a couple of blackfurs. You have to take stormvermin out as soon as possible if your bots are to survive!

7. Fighting the ogre
This is all the more true for the rat ogre. Bots do not dodge properly. Neither do they use the right mouse button for their ranged weapons: no volleys from Saltzpyre's super crossbow, no machine gun Kruber. You have to bring down that ogre yourself. This is your most important task in any of the levels containing one (or two...). Equip accordingly.

The bots seem to regard the ogre as a priority melee target, i.e. they tend to ignore other rats in order to swing at the ogre. This usually leads to at least one bot being crushed by the ogre while the others get backstabbed by his little friends. On a simultaneous ogre and horde spawn on cataclysm, that is a matter of seconds. Also, since the bots will engage the ogre and ignore the other rats, they do not protect you while you wind up your repeater handgun or prepare your volley crossbow. Keeping your bots alive and killing the ogre quickly is a true challenge.

In conclusion: Bots stay alive quite well, and they kill specials reliably. They are, on the whole, surprisingly good teamplayers, if lacking in initiative. There is one area in which bots are sub-average (mopping up hordes) and two in which they suck, sometimes horribly so (fighting stormvermin, fighting the ogre). You should, and you can, equip the bots in a way that makes them suck less. Moreover, you should yourself bring equipment that enables you to shine in the areas the bots don't shine.

There have been very long and detailed discussions on how to equip bots. These links below are very useful recources, though no more entirely up-to-date.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermintide/comments/5svywp/best_gear_for_bots/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermintide/comments/60e44u/what_loadouts_work_best_with_the_bots/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermintide/comments/5mz0wr/best_bot_loadouts_for_15/

Highly useful is the recent (1.11) Reddit discussion on all available weapons. It has a ton of detailed information and interesting opinions from players:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Vermintide/comments/80dfsg/centralised_weapon_discussion_v3/

If you want to craft a bot weapon, you might want to check if your desired trait combination actually exists. This list will help you (it includes most DLC weapons):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gmvGJKYfT5BfbKhvd4hQRPulfPrtlkMlOYBvj3wpJjc/edit#gid=1359083408

You can most certainly equip bots in a way that makes them suck less. Personally, I try to balance their weaknesses and emphasize their strong points. Since, as said above, bots tend to block and push a lot, shields with their powerful push are a good option for them, as well as any weapon with Devastating Blow (increases the power of the push) and Perfect Balance (quicker stamina regeneration, +1 stamina), or even better, Improved Pommel (50% push costs, gives chance not to consume any stamina on push). Also, you should have healing on a bot's weapon.

Aside from traits, useful melee weapons are those which enable armour-piercing and/or crowd control. As mentioned above, bots really struggle with stormvermin, which is why I always try to equip them with weapons that offer armour-piercing light attacks. Useful ranged weapons are those that kill specials - which is what bots are very good at.


Good trinkets include those with gas resistance, heal share, faster revive, faster respawn, and, of course, the Lichebone Pendant (decreases the health loss from carrying a Grimoire), where applicable. My preferred bot trinkets are Pouch of Relaxing Herbs (less damage from gas clouds); Charm of the Hedge Wizard (heal others upon healing oneself); Lichebone Pendant; and, in levels without Grimoires, the Rainbow Fish (chance to duplicate healing item on use). You might also consider the Symbol of Shallya (regain health when healing another hero), but since you cannot control which of your bots pick up the medkit, I do not consider it very useful. Other players recommend the Bone Saw (quicker revive) and the Taurus Head (more health when downed).

In the following sections, you will find my preferred weapons for each bot. Of course, you do not have to equip your bots like I do. There are various other viable options other players have been successful with. I encourage you to try different setups and check the post-game stats to find out what works best for you; things to check for each bot are damage taken (best indicator of effective bot-work), special Kills, stormvermin Kills.

Melee:
Tests by Grimalackt, an elite player and modder, have indicated Saltzpyre-bot is best with rapier and crossbow. If you want the rapier, Bloodlust (chance to heal on kill), Improved Pommel, and Devastating Blow would be a good combo.

I however prefer the axe for him since it lets him kill stormvermin quite well, and on Nightmare, the axe anyway is a fine trash remover. Again, Bloodlust/Improved Pommel/Devastating Blow seems the best trait combination here.

Another fine choice is the falchion with the same traits, i.e. Bloodlust, Improved Pommel and Devastating Blow. This weapon hits two targets in one swing, not only one like the axe, and therefore makes Saltzpyre do better against groups of clanrats and slaverats than the axe. He can still push Stormvermin around, and he uses the charged attack against them quite well. I have now done some maps with Saltzpyre-bot carrying this weapon, and he seems to take a little less damage than he did with the axe, while dishing out very nicely.

You might also consider a rapier with Killing Blow (chance to insta-kill any rat besides ogre and Krench with a normal strike) and Regrowth (normal) (chance to heal on hit with normal strike). The third trait will be Off-Balance, which is good for you, since you do more damage to targets Saltzy blocks. In theory, that weapon is great bot equipment. However, I have tested it with Saltzpyre-Bot some hours (5 maps done). All I can say so far is: Stay away. The 5% Regrowth is not nearly enough to keep him in good health. He also uses charged attacks frequently, even on clanrats, which renders the weapon traits essentially useless.

I therefore prefer the axe or the falchion. Which one you you choose is of course up to you and depends on whether hordes or stormvermin are more of a problem for you.

Ranged:
As for his ranged weapon, I use a variety of crossbows with combinations of Bloodlust, Regrowth, Scavenger, Ammunition Holder (more max. ammo) and Master Crafted (faster reload). These weapons let him reliably kill specials and heal him. You can craft a crossbow with both Bloodlust and Regrowth, which is an excellent healing tool - though a little less for a bot, since bots aim for individual targets, not for several rats in a line. You could also use Hail of Doom (chance to double projectile) and Skullcracker (chance to create headshot, for which the crossbow has a nice modifier). My favourite crossbow turned out to be one with Bloodlust, Ammunition Holder and Scavenger. Master Crafted, the single must-have trait on a crossbow for a human player, is probably useful for a bot, but appears a bit superfluous since digital companions do not seem to do quick follow-up shots with this weapon at all.

Melee:
A glaive with Regrowth (normal) and Scavenger (chance to gain ammo on kill) lets Kerillian kill stormvermin at leisure, and she can cut any clanrat apart in one swing on Nightmare, meaning decent damage output. She will also heal and regenerate arrows nicely. Luckily, I have not yet seen her use the charged attack (which takes an eternity to charge and is therefore useless for a bot). As a third trait, you'll want Improved Pommel, which is highly useful since bots even push solitary slave rats and therefore use up stamina quickly.

For alternative traits, you could use Bloodlust or Regrowth (normal), Improved Pommel and Devastating Blow. Such a glaive makes Kerillian a better melee fighter. I do, however, prefer Scavenger on her glaive, because her bow is a fantastic asset (see below) and should be supplied with fresh arrows constantly.

A possible alternative to the glaive and a nice companion to the bow is Glinting Songblade, Kerillian's red sword, if you can get it. I love it, it has Scavenger/Killing Blow/Bloodlust. It is not ideal for a bot, but lets Kerillian do decent damage even on cataclysm, as well as regenerate health and ammo. A dagger/sword combo with Bloodlust/Perfect Balance/Devastating Blow would be decent as well, if you have no access to a glaive.

I have also tested the red dagger/sword combo with Regrowth (normal) (10% proc chance as opposed to the usual 5%), Killing Blow, and Off-Balance, and it works out well vs. hordes, but leaves Kerillian helpless against stormvermin, unless Killing Blow triggers, which it can do only on headshots. I don't think this is the best bot weapon (though certainly a viable one). Stick with the above glaive instead, it offers good pushing and armour-piercing attacks, and that is what a bot needs.

Ranged:
Kerillian has a very nice array of ranged choices for a bot. The hagbane bow does poison damage over an area, and if a bot uses it, it does not cause friendly fire. She can do some impressive damage with it, but the ammo supply is limited, as is damage against armoured enemies. Useful hagbane traits would be Regrowth, Ammunition Holder and Hail of Doom.

A swift bow with Bloodlust/Ammunition Holder/Scavenger is a nice way to turn Kerillian into a rat-killing, self-healing machine gun. The sheer ammo supply of the Swiftbow and the fact that each scavenger proc gives 6 arrows means your bot will kill enormous numbers of rats and stay healthy in the process. A longbow with the same traits has less ammunition, but it will hurt armoured enemies, which the swift bow will not. I therefore prefer the longbow for my Kerillian-bot.

You do not need a trueflight. Bots generally hit what they aim at. Since they even score many a headshot, the trait "Inspiring Shot" (regenerates team's stamina on headshot) might be interesting for you; I have found it to be of limited use however.

Melee:
Bardin has a fine array of melee choices available. The axe & shield offers armour-piercing light attacks which one-shot clanrats on nightmare, and a good deal of crowd control. With Bloodlust, Improved Pommel and Devastating Blow, you cannot go wrong. The axe & shield is the weapon that my Bardin-bot consistently takes least damage with. On nightmare, it is probably the best choice for him. On cataclysm, however, light attacks will not kill clanrats in one swing anymore, and you are better off with the pick.

The pick is a weird mixture of can opening tool and rat pusher. It has armour-piercing light attacks, which will hit and stagger up to four rats in one swing. The stagger effect is very pronounced and bounces rats around like crazy, which makes for excellent crowd control almost on par with a shield. Damage is not spectacular, but Bloodlust will work fine on nightmare. For cataclysm, Regrowth (normal) is much better, and it can come with Scavenger, which refills Bardin's ammo. If you want Scavenger, I suggest picking Improved Pommel as a third trait. However, no Devastating Blow means decreasing Bardin's rat-pushiness factor. Regrowth (normal), Devastating Blow and Improved Pommel seems to me the best option all around, especially on cataclysm. This pick is my favourite bot weapon.

For a higher kill count, use the great axe. It has high-damage armour-piercing light attacks; one swing will kill a clanrat on cataclysm. Bloodlust is the obvious healing choice. Crowd control is less effective though, even with Devastating Blow and Improved Pommel. Therefore, damage taken will be considerably higher.

As another option, you might consider hammer & shield, and that is a viable choice. However, I would not go without some armour-piercing ability for bots, not with those stormvermin everywhere. You will read on the internet that the hammer & shield has a quicker charged attack for bots, as opposed to axe & shield, which might or might not be true. Anyway, bots do not use the charged shield attack too often, so don't overestimate the importance of that.

Ranged:
A crossbow which heals and offers lots of ammunition is a good choice. The handgun is arguably better for special-killing and a great bot weapon - Kruber-bot does very well with it - but for Bardin, I prefer the crossbow's higher ammunition supply. The drakefire pistols are an alternative, especially for Last Stand Mode, in which ammunition is scarce.

Melee:
My preferred weapon for Sienna-bot is the sword with Regrowth normal, Improved Pommel and Devastating Blow. She can push all day and will heal enough to keep her going. This works well up to and including Cataclysm difficulty. Her sword has more crowd control than Victor's axe and Falchion (it hits, and therefore staggers, more targets), and thus makes Sienna take a little less damage on average than Victor. Unless you really need Stormvermin-killing power for your bots, I suggest you take Sienna along instead of Saltzpyre.

Ranged:
Sienna-bot does some good damage with the bolt staff and even uses the charged attack. Specials are frequently barbecued by her before I even get the chance to aim. I haven't seen her vent so far, therefore Channeling Rune (less damage for venting) might be useless for a bot. Pick Stability (less heat build-up) instead; Bloodlust and Hail of Doom are very viable traits as well.

Melee:
Shield weapons work very well for bots; they offer excellent pushing and lots of stamina. Either sword & shield or mace & shield are fine for Kruber-bot. My favourite has for a while been the mace & shield with Regrowth (normal), Endurance (chance to refill stamina on hit), and Scavenger. Kruber-bot will not kill many Stormvermin with that - although he does use the charged attack on them - but his crowd-controlling abilites are unmatched. Endurance is an excellent trait for the mace & shield because all attacks hit unlimited targets, and each proc fully regenerates stamina. Regrowth (normal) obviously is nice as well.

However, as of recently I have found that Kruber seems to take less damage with a sword & shield with Regrowth (normal), Improved Pommel, and Scavenger. I assume this is because the sword swings faster than the mace and Kruber-bot's attacks get interrupted less often. Given that bots aim at individual rats only and the sword hits a good three targets, the mace's unlimited targets might be superfluous in 95% of all situations Kruber-bot finds himself in. I nowadays go with the faster swinging speed of the sword & shield.

If you think your bot can do without Scavenger, you might pick either Devastating Blow or Berserk (chance to increase attack speed on kill for a few seconds; less damage taken for duration of effect). Both appear useful; I would prefer Devastating Blow (crowd control keeps the team alive).

Ranged:
The obvious choice to facilitate a bot's special-killing is the handgun. For traits, I prefer healing and more ammunition, but if you wish the bot to do more damage, you can go for Hail of Doom and/or Skullcracker. Rupture (chance to penetrate 2 more targets) is less than optimal for a bot, because bots do not consciously align their targets.

a) Characters and weapons

From what was said above, it should be clear that you have three tasks in order to compensate for the bots' weaknesses: Firstly, crowd control. Secondly, stormvermin-killing, which the bots will need considerable help with, and thirdly and most importantly, ogre-killing. It is therefore a viable path to choose Kruber or Saltzpyre for yourself, and equip them with a melee weapon with armour-piercing attacks and/or lvl. 3 push - that means either a shield or Devastating Blow - to interrupt those Stormvermin overhead attacks which your bots are unable to dodge.

You should also equip a designated anti-ogre weapon: A Volley Crossbow with Extra Capacity (=increased magazine size), Scullcracker and Hail of Doom for Saltzpyre, and for Kruber, a Repeater Handgun with, for instance, Extra Capacity, Master Crafted (increased attack speed) and Ammo Holder. Kerillian works fine as well; her hagbane bow is, especially when strength-buffed, an excellent ogre-killer.
Of course, if you're good, you can succeed with any character and any weapon, but Bardin with a hammer and drakefire pistols might make it a bit more difficult when the rat-ogre appears.

b) Trinkets

One of the nice things about playing with bots is that many trinkets which were ok, but not great, now become truly interesting. Since bots will not use grenades or potions, but rather give them to you as soon as your inventory slot is free, you could turn yourself into a veritable grenadier: pick the Gunnery School Guide, Expert (bigger grenade area, no friendly fire) and the Master Engineer's Tools (30% chance to not consume grenade when thrown), or use potion share with every potion on the map! You could also be a healer and use the Rainbow Fish, a health share trinket and/or the Shallya symbol. This is actually viable when you use your bots to carry tomes. Apart from healing, potion and grenades, the trinket increasing your movement speed is also fine, since you have to carry all the stuff around that some levels require to be carried around. Finally, the luck trinkets are quite useful since you'll be the only one opening chests.

Equipping your bots and yourself is important, but there is more to successful bot-babysitting. You have to teach bots how to be less stupid. The Quality of Life mod gives you a wide array of options to influence your bots' behaviour to decrease artificial stupidity. You can access these options in the game's options menu under "mod settings". Most of these settings are self-explanatory - choosing Saltzpyre-bot over Sienna-bot, for instance - but three of them might need a bit of additional information. These are Manual Bot Healing, Ratling Fire, and Faster Bot Aiming.

a) Manual Bot Healing:

You can let the bots decide for themselves when to heal, but this might lead to inefficient use of your healing items, which, on full book cataclysm, is not what you want. I therefore recommend switching to "Instead of auto". Manual healing works like this: Each hero has a numpad key. 1 is you, 2 is the leftmost bot in your HUD, 3 is the one in the middle, and 4 is the rightmost one. In the example below, Kerillian is numpad 2, Bardin is 3, Kruber is 4, and the player, as always, is 1.



So when you want to heal a bot, press its corresponding key. If that bot has a healing item, he will heal himself. If the bot has no healing item, but another bot has a medkit, that other bot will use the medkit to heal the bot you designated. You can also let bots heal you (by pressing numpad 1).

To make a bot use a healing draught, pressing the key once is enough. To make a bot use a medkit, you will have to press and hold the corresponding key for a short time. Be careful if you want to make a bot heal himself with a medkit and a healing draught lies nearby: If you press too long, the bot might consume the medkit, pick up the draught, and consume the draught as well.

Of course, controlling all bot-healing by yourself means a bit of micromanagement and button-pressing, which can be quite the hassle in the middle of a horde. You might therefore prefer to let the bots do the healing for themselves. Just try and find out which option you feel most comfortable with.

b) Bots Should Ignore Ratling Fire:
This is a difficult choice. If you leave this off, the bots will run away as soon as a ratling starts firing, in order to hide behind the next corner. They do that well and stay out of fire nicely. However, this self-preserving behaviour overrides the bots' otherwise fine combat AI: Bots hiding from a ratling will not move to engage rat-men, they will not come to your aid if you are downed, and sometimes, they do not even defend themselves against attacking clanrats. Essentially, a ratling turns your bots into chicken, and this can easily ruin a full book run or a "Well Watch" game.

If you, therefore, let bots ignore ratling fire, they will go about their business as usual, unflinchingly taking every steaming warpstone bullet. They will come to kick that assassin from your tummy or pull that packmaster from your throat, and they will guard any well with steadfast heart, but they might die faster than you can say "ratling". You better be VERY quick with your anti-special weapon if you decide to let the bots ignore ratling fire. You might also want to equip them with the anti-gunner trinket, which lowers the damage taken from warpstone bullets.

I have now played many hours with the bots ignoring ratling fire, and it works out really well, even without the trinket. I recommend you have your anti-special weapon equipped - leave those Drakefires or the Blunderbuss at home - and you will usually kill the ratling while he charges his engine. Sometimes the bots even will take him out before you can. If you can't kill him, just run around the next corner, and the bots will follow you to safety. Having the bots ignore ratlings is in my opinion the clearly better choice because it doesn't mess up their fighting AI.

c) Faster Bot Aiming

This will make your bots much more trigger-happy. Disable this option if you want the bots to save ammunition for those specials; otherwise, they will shoot clanrats and slaverats frequently and quickly drain their ammo supply. You might not want this. Trigger-happy bots, however, do kill quite a lot of rats, which is why I leave this option always on - it is just more fun to play with bots if your teammates are more than damage sponges and ogre distractions. This is also the reason why I give my bots weapons with Scavenger, sometimes on both melee and ranged weapons: An elf-bot with Scavenger and Ammunition Holder on her longbow and Scavenger on her glaive will happily keep shooting throughout the entire level and acquire quite some kills!

So now that you have your bots equipped and their artificial stupidity maximized, which maps should you play with them? In principle, every map is possible, but I do not recommend Last Stand mode - the bots' damage output and their mobility is too low to deal with those huge hordes. Among the adventure mode maps, there are certain ones that do not work too well. Since bots sometimes get stuck in narrow spaces or when jumping down a ledge, getting the grims in "Castle Drachenfels", the first grim in "The Enemy Below", the second grim in "The Cursed Rune" or "Khazid Kro" can be a royal pain in the buttocks. Generally, leaving your bots behind when advancing to get a grim is a recipe for disaster because that might be the exact moment at which a rat ogre + horde + assassin spawns. As said before, when your bots are away from you, ping stuff and pray to Sigmar; they might "beam" to you. "Reikwald" and "River Reik" are ok, the bots do not seem to get stuck too often, despite the many drops. "The Dungeons" with its jump-and-run-passages is possible with bots, yet for the grand finale, you will only have one torch instead of two, unless you go back to get the second torch yourself (bots don't want torches).

The levels in which you have to carry stuff are surprisingly easy considering you are the only one doing all the carrying. I have completed "Castle Drachenfels", "Wheat and Chaff", "Supply and Demand", "Khazid Kro", "Black Powder" and "The White Rat" on cataclysm with bots only.

There are three other levels which I cannot recommend for bot play. One is "Trial of the Foolhardy", simply because of the large ogre and Stormvermin population. The two others are "Well Watch" and especially "Summoner's Peak": The limited damage output of the bots, as well as their unwillingness to target faraway enemies or rats who swing buckets makes it very hard to defend wells and generators. "Summoner's Peak" and its second generator is a literal nightmare with bots, because you'll have to defend the generator all by yourself, while simultaneously fending off hordes, specials, and an ogre. Your bots will not target the furry fire brigade, and the ogre will easily kick them off the cliff, if they don't fall down by themselves anyway. I'll wager that this level is impossible to complete on cataclysm with bots.

As for defending the wells: Even on nightmare, the damage the ratties do to the wells with their magic buckets is considerable. Since your bots will disappear as soon as the first ratling enters the scenery, you'll have a hard time defending those wells. Bots are experts at hiding from ratling fire, which is usually good, but not if you have to stay close to a well - see the section above for how to disable this beaviour.

Irrespective of the map you play, expect any "team protection:specials" contract with bots to be an absolute nightmare. Globadiers will completely wreck your percentage since bots do not care much about gas clouds. You can (and should!) quickly move away and pull the bots with you, out of that cloud, but they might not care if already engaged in melee. Globadiers are a prime threat to any bot-assisted 70% special protection run!

So which level should you play? As said above, almost all are possible. A reliable level full of easily accessible books without bots getting stuck is everyone's favourite grinding ground "The Horn of Magnus". So equip your bots and get grinding!

So lots of words and little illustration so far? True. Enter .xXx.W4R10KK.xXx., a highly skilled player who is doing a video series on Cataclysm runs with bots. He suggested I include his videos in my guide, and I do so happily. His videos contain full information on his and his bots' equipment plus a comment (turn on English subtitles). He does things a little differently from what I recommend above, but his results speak for themselves. Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtTaNA0MyDs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyym7R9a4ws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EbRFMpIYsI

https://youtu.be/Y5J8WOFt0Gg

I hope this guide had some valuable information for you. I am grateful for any feedback that doesn't say "you suck", and I wish you successful hunting for those red weapons - be it with bots or with human players!

March 29, 2020
- Engines of War video included

July 27, 2019
- Wizard's Tower is up

July 24, 2019
- Begun new section: Example videos. Videos linked: Horn of Magnus, Supply and Demand.

Nov 5, 2018
- Added info to ogre section in "How good are bots": Bots will consider ogre a priority melee target over other rats

September 3, 2018
- section "Viable maps" slightly changed; warning to play "Summoner's Peak" with bots only

August 30, 2018
- moved change log to the bottom
- linked a list with all possible trait combinations for each weapon (section on bot equipment)

August 28, 2018
- after many hours of testing, recommended to activate "bots should ignore ratling fire" option (section "Artificial Stupidity").
- Bot equipment images updated, slight changes to bot weapon descriptions (most notably Bardin's pick).
- turned the changelog into a section of its own
- added introductory image to the bot equipment section

August 8, 2018
- Sienna section re-done (images are still the old ones). Recommended to use her instead of Saltzpyre. Suggested Weapons: Sword (Regrowth Normal/Devastating Blow/Improved Pommel) and Bolt Staff (Stability/Bloodlust/Hail of Doom)

June 6, 2018
- added the glaive (Regrowth Normal/Scavenger/Improved Pommel) to Kerillian-bot's equipment
recommendations [Pommel is more useful to her than Devastating Blow since bots push very often, even single slaverats]
- added the great axe (Bloodlust/Improved Pommel/Devastating Blow) to Bardin-bots equipment recommendations
- added new images with alternative weapons for bot equipment recommendations
- little changes here and there

March 7, 2018
- added the sword & shield (Regrowth normal/Improved Pommel/Scavenger) to Kruber-bots equipment recommendations
- Slight changes on ratling fire in the section "Artificial Stupidity"

March 3, 2018
- added the falchion (Bloodlust/Improved Pommel/Devastating Blow) to Saltzpyre-bots equipment recommendations
- added a link to the excellent Reddit weapons discussion V3
- added the recommendation not to dodge stormvermin, but to push them, in order for your bots not to run into the halberd

Feb 11, 2018
- Slight changes to sections "Introduction" and "Artificial Stupidity"

Jan 21, 2018
- Images included
- Section on bot equipment reworked and sub-divided for each bot
- New section added: Artificial Stupidity
- Section titles redone