Controls are one of the most important thing about playing a game, especially an FPS style game. The default control scheme for Vermintide works well and is easy to pick up and learn if you're coming from an FPS background. I think that everyone who is serious about their Vermintide play should revisit their control scheme and try to refine it to their playstyle and needs.

I come from a Quake background and one of the most important parts of the game was finding a good config. I've tried to apply the same reasoning in to Vermintide.

My Keyboard layout is designed around the way my hand naturally sits on the keyboard in a relaxed neutral position. Everyone's hands and keyboards are different so what works for me might not seem natural to you.

My setup is using a basic 7 button mouse (two thumb buttons). Steel Series Rival 300 for anyone interested.

Simplified :

WSAD - Standard UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT movement
SHIFT - Dodge
CTRL – Crouch
SPACE - Jump

Mouse Left – Attack
Mouse Right – Block/Charge/Zoom
Mouse Middle – Reload/Vent
Mouse Side Bottom – Tag/Ping/Mark
Mouse Side Top – Potion/Grimoire

E – Use/Pick up
Y - Chat
X – Grenade
C – Weapon Special
V – Quick Switch
B – Healing/Tome

\ - Push to Talk (Rarely use)

U – Forge
I – Inventory
O – Shrine
P – Contracts
K – Lorebook
L – Lobby Browser

Here's the reasoning behind my bindings and why I've set it up this way. Once I made the switch it did take a few days to become comfortable with it. In the long run I feel I perform much better with this set up and I've improved more as a player after making the changes.

Your first step should be to remove dodge from the jump key. The last thing you want to do is eat an overhead because you jumped instead of dodged.

The big issue I found with having R as the default reload/vent key was that when holding it on the default control scheme as a Wizard or Drakefire Bardin meant it was almost impossible to dodge right whilst venting. Whilst venting slows you down and isn't really meant for movement, being able to dodge allows you to play more aggressively and can save your life in a pinch. With middle mouse button as vent I can sit in front of a horde with the blast and then vent and dodge backwards or sideways to infinitely spam the blast without overheating. Also if you're venting you're not using block or attack so you have both fingers on your right hand free. Why complicate your left hand by needing to press another key?

My main goal was to remove the mouse wheel which is the main cause of people getting hit due to picking the wrong weapon/item or accidentally throwing a grim (we've all done it). Rebinding items to the buttons under your thumb makes ergonomic sense. Keeping the mouse wheel unbound means you can vent/reload without worrying about triggering another key.

There's only two weapon types in the game so you don't really need two keys to switch between them. I used to have C and V as Ranged/Melee but I simplified it to just V on quick switch. Less fumbling about in the heat of the moment and quick switch seems to help with the bug where some weapons won't switch if you start the reload animation whilst holding block.

I've kept Use as E and whilst it's true it's hard to move right when pressing the button it's an extremely rare scenario when you'll actually need to unlike venting and dodging.

I did have C left unbound but now I bound it to special attack as it's nice to have that extra zoom on a true-flight if I'm playing elf. I could bind it to USE and might in future as the weapon special is rarely used.

X is bound to Grenade as it's a stretch and I can't hit it accidentally. This is also the reason why my potion/grimoire key is on the mouse as I have to actively think to hit it. The chance of accidentally dropping a Grim with this set up is near on impossible.

B for healing is good as you have to also stretch a little to use it. It'll stop you accidentally pulling out a health pack whilst changing weapons. It's still close enough to be able to push rats, pull out a draught and down it in tense situations.

Bottom side mouse as my tag button is great. I can actively spam it whilst looking around and moving for searching out specials in a crowd. I can also aim, shoot and tag a special all in one movement in case I mess up and don't kill it with the first shot.

Dodge and Crouch being on your pinky finger means you can do anything whilst dodging and moving.

If I'm playing with friends I'll have my VOIP on all the time or be using discord. Having \ on push to talk means I can't chat whilst dodging which does suck but I don't use it often. Ideally I'd set up a foot pedal or something but that's way beyond the scope of this guide.

I've based my "Inn" hotkeys around the defaults and just pushed them together so they're easy to switch between one after another. Like wise with the "Inspect character" and "Inspect Weapon" keys.

I've not unbound any default keys that don't affect me such as the "next/previous" or default "1 + 2" key binds. The same is true for the default F keys for voting.

I don't have a "Walk" key bound and don't see a need for it. If anyone wants to educate me on a need for it I'll definitely take a look :)

These aren't really related but do affect some of the key bindings.

I play inverted mouse and always have done. This means nothing, just personal preference, the same with mouse sensitivity.

Weapon Switch Scroll Type – Doesn't really matter since I've disabled the mousewheel.

Disable Give on Defend – I like to use E to ive items. This is personal preference.

Enable Dodge on Jump Key – Disable this if you rebind Dodge which I highly recommend.

Dodge on Diagonal forward Input – I suggest leaving this on. I've not done much testing with it disabled though.

Double Tap Dodge – This is a valid play style though I believe using a key to dodge is superior.

Disable Intro/Bobbing/Shake – Personal preference.

Max Upload Speed – Highly recommended to set to the maximum value unless you have potato internet.

Ingame Tutorials – Suggest setting to off once you know the basics so you don't have something blocking the left side of your screen.

Player Outlines – I think this should be defaulted to Always On. Highly recommended.

FOV – Up to you, experiment for yourself! I find 75 gives me a good balance of visibility and my own (and the rats) attacks line up with what I see on screen. The numbers aren't normal FOV like you'll seen in another FPS. In Vermintide it seems to be horiontal FOV as opposed to Vertical.

Blood and Gore – Personal Preference.

Chat settings – Personal preference.

Toggle Crouch – Personal preference.

Overcharge Opacity – How much the over heating colors your screen with Sienna/Bardin.

Name Tag/Alien FX – Wut? Turn off :)

This is not supposed to be "the definitive" controls guide. I'm just showing what works for me and my set up. Hopefully this will encourage people to dig in to the control scheme, experiment with what works for them and improve their play.

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions don't hesitate to let me know :)