Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 News

[h2]Hi Space Marines! ⭐ [/h2]

The Public Test Server opens March 13! Check out this quick FAQ to help you get started and ready before launch.
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[h2]What’s a Public Test Server?[/h2]

Space Marine 2’s Public Test Server works as a separate version of the game featuring WIP content and features. Share your feedback to help us refine the patch before its official release. Your input provides an important perspective that will be reviewed by the developer team and have an impact on further game updates.

Since this is a test environment, expect the unfinished content and possible bugs. As you will access it through a different game version, your progression will not be tracked. For each PTS update, you will land on the game with levels maxed out and all weapons unlocked.

Please note that the DLCs won’t be available, regardless of whether you own them.
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Since the PTS is "Public", you are free to create content based on it. No NDA will be included.

[h2]Which platforms can access the PTS?[/h2]

The PTS is only available on PC via Steam. It is not accessible on consoles (PlayStation/Xbox) or through the Epic Games Store.

Now, let’s see how to install it 👇
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[h2]📝 Tutorial on how to access PTS via Steam:[/h2]

[h3]Just follow these simple steps:[/h3]

1. Open the Steam client.
   
2. Log in with the account that owns Space Marine 2.
   
3. Go to your Steam Library.
   
4. Look for “Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 - Public Test Server” under your Space Marine 2 entry.
   
5. (Optional) Right-click on your Library entry and go to Properties. In the “General” tab, set the game’s default Language to “English”. Translations may still be work-in-progress when you try the new content out on the PTS. As a result, we recommend setting the game to English.
6. Once you’ve clicked on this entry, install the Public Test Server content. This install instance is not related to the base game, your files will remain in separate directories and all future updates will also be distinct, meaning that your current progression will not be affected by the time you spend on the PTS.
   

When the install is complete, the Public Test Server is ready to launch!

Click “Play” like you would with any other game!
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[h2]Can I try every single feature that will be implemented with the next Patch?[/h2]
Most upcoming content will be available to you. However, we won’t share content that is too buggy or hasn’t undergone the necessary approvals on our side at the time of the PTS release. Also, some content might be present on the PTS, but not accessible to the players. For instance, you may see new Champions in the Armouring Hall but won’t be able to try them.
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[h2]How long will the PTS be active?[/h2]

The PTS will run until Patch 7.0 officially launches.

After that, it will go dormant until the next major PTS update.
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[h2]Will my progress be saved?[/h2]

No, because the PTS runs as a completely separate game version. It does not carry over your previous progress in the game; instead, it provides all players with a default maxed-out level and weapons. This ensures that you won’t have to spend time to unlock all the features, especially the Prestige Ranks.

It will also not save your progress nor transfer it to the official game version afterwards.
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[h2]Is multiplayer available on the PTS?[/h2]

Yes, even private PvP lobbies will work so you can invite your Brothers and Sisters to play!
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[h2]Do mods work with the PTS?[/h2]

Mods won't work with the PTS. Enabling them will cause the PTS to crash at launch. Please, make sure to disable them beforehand.
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[h2]How can I give feedback?[/h2]

We need your feedback!

As mentioned in previous Community Updates, the primary purpose of the Public Test Server is to gather your feedback on new content, changes, and balancing tweaks we plan to implement in the game.

Our main focus will be on PvE Prestige Ranks and Weapon Perks. Feedback on these two items will be the most beneficial.

We’ve set up dedicated forum threads on Focus Together to let you voice your opinion, which you can find here.

Thank you for helping us make Space Marine 2 the best it can be!
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[h2]What’s included in Patch 7.0 on the PTS?[/h2]

For this first session, you’ll be able to check the upcoming content of Patch 7.0, which includes:

[h2]PvE[/h2]

• PvE Prestige Ranks
• PvE New Map - Exfiltration (excluding final bossfight). Please note that when reaching the final boss arena, the "Victory" screen starts as soon as you interact with the terminal and the classic mission end behaviour follows (loadings, result screens and return to Battle Barge).
  
• Weapons Class Restrictions changed (PvE Only: classes now have access to more weapons)
  
• Improved PvE Matchmaking (reduces the chance of joining a team with the same class)
  

[h2]PvP[/h2]

• Custom PvP Lobby
• Matchmaking improvements for better team balancing
  

[h2]GENERAL[/h2]

• Weapons Perks Rework
• New Secondary Weapon - Inferno Pistol (PvE and PvP).
• New Colors available in the Armouring Hall: Volupus Pink + Thousand Sons Blue
  
• Cloth coloring for Bulwark
  
• Option to color hands separately from arms
  

[h2]DLC[/h2]

• “Space Wolves” Chapter Pack: present in-game but not playable.
  
• "Imperial Fist" Champion Pack: present in-game but not playable.
  

Thank you for your dedication.
[h3]The Emperor Protects.[/h3]

[h2]Hello Space Marines,[/h2]

As announced in the February Community Update, hotfix 6.2 has been deployed on every platform.
This is a small patch that mostly focuses on crash fixes and minor balancing tweaks in preparation of a major Patch 7 that would focus on weapon perks and weapon loadouts rebalance.

As usual, if you encounter issues with this update, let us know by making a bug report here.

You'll find the complete patch notes down below.






[h2]General Fixes[/h2]

• Datavault ordeal Shredding Shrapnel now requires to kill 2 enemies simultaneously with a single frag grenade instead of 3.
  
• Fixed an issue with the AI Director that could sometimes spawn too many spore mines for a very long period.
  
• Fixed several issues that would cause Assault class to teleport back after using its Jump Pack ability.
  
• Minor localization fixes.
  

[h2]Perk PvE Updates[/h2]

Overall we are quite happy with 6.0 perks rebalance, we are seeing way more build variety for all classes across all difficulties and seeing people experimenting with their builds more. That being said, there are still some perks that will require more attention or even full rework. We will be monitoring the situation and will be making necessary tweaks.



Heightened Vigour:
- Fixed not triggering by perfect Parry or Block in some cases.

Close Targeting:
- Damage increased from 15% to 25%.

Concentrated Fire:
- Bonus duration of the Auspex Scan zone increased from 40% to 60%.



Perseverance:
- Damage reduction bonus increased from 15% to 25%.



Restless Fortitude:
- Damage reduction bonus increased from 20% to 40%.

Tactical Prowess:
- Minimum enemy HP for auto finisher increased from 25% to 33%.

Unmatched Zeal:
- Health regen bonus increased from 20% to 30%.



Block Break:
- Damage increased from 25% to 50%.

Evasion:
- Fixed typo in the description, now it shows correct cooldown of 30 seconds instead of 15 seconds.

Efficient Readiness:
- Fixed typo in the description, now it shows correct 20% movement boost instead of 10%.

Pattern of Excellence:
- Fixed typo in the description, now it shows correct cooldown of 30 seconds instead of 180 seconds.

Note: This perk was buffed in the 6.0 patch, but localization was not updated and it was missing in patch notes.



Chapter Banner (starting perk):
- Bonus health increased from 20% to 30%.

Emergency Countermeasure:
- Cooldown reduced from 120 to 90 seconds.

Defensive Mastery:
- Cooldown reduced from 120 to 90 seconds.

Glory's Shield:
- Now the perk protects not only from Ranged Damage but from all incoming Damage.

Note: This should improve support Bulwark build a lot, since this perk doesn't impact Banner cooldown

Invigorating Icon:
- The ability regeneration slowdown has been fixed, but the regeneration penalty is now -50% instead of -100%.

Note: This perk has been discussed a lot in previous patch notes and here are my honest thoughts on this.

We've made a mistake making this perk in the first place. It changes the class behavior too much from what was originally intended. Bulwark is supposed to tank enemies and support his team mates, he isn't a dedicated healer. But players are now used to this playstyle a lot and now absolutely any change to this perk will cause negativity from the community.

The perk itself is so powerful that it is simply mandatory, plus it also changes how the ability is used. Unlike other classes where abilities are used whenever the player wants, it turns the banner into an ability that the player saves for the very last moment.

In our game it is absolutely fine, if you want to use it that way, but the problem is that with certain other perks you can bring its cooldown to ~20 seconds. This means that not picking this perk will be detrimental to your squad. No matter what the numbers on the neighboring perks, players will always stick to the ability to fully heal when needed.

We want to come back and rework this perk or, rather, perk column in later patches, but this requires some time of experimenting and testing. For now we are tweaking numbers to make a compromise between previous patch and community feedback.

- Dmitriy Grigorenko, Game Director.



Fortitude:
- Health increases from 20% to 30%.

Conversion Field:
- Radius increased from 10 to 20 meters.


[h2]Weapons Balancing[/h2]

[h3]Power Sword[/h3]
We are very happy with the current melee balance. All melee options are now viable and getting picked by players across all difficulties. However, we see that Power Sword isn't strong enough, compared to much easier to wield Chainsword. It takes more skill to use the Power Sword properly, but the benefit wasn't that great. We want to adjust this a little.

• Overall base damage increased by 5%
  
• Power Stance combo damage additionally increased:
  
• Attack 1 +10%
  
• Attack 2 +20%
  
• Attack 3 +30%"
  

[h2]Tech[/h2]

• Crash fixes and general stability improvements.
  
• General connectivity improvements.
  

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 developers Saber Interactive are pushing back on player calls to add an even-harder difficulty mode, following the introduction of an Absolute difficulty setting this spring via game update.

Apparently, some of you muscleheads have been finding Absolute "a bit easy", or at least, not enough of a shake-up from the preceding Lethal difficulty. Saber are open to suggestions, here, but game director Dmitriy Grigorenko also reckons that "we are almost at our limit in terms of how we can make the game harder without making it unfair and not fun".

Read more

[h2]Hello Space Marines 🫡[/h2]

Let’s recap what occurred in February on Space Marine 2 a bit and then we’ll tackle future topics! We know you're eager for Patch 7 to drop! There's still a bit of a wait, but in the meantime, we'll be sure to tease you a little.



This month we released the 6.0 Datavault Update, containing new free and Season Pass content. You may check the entire changelog here! 📖

Mostly, the biggest features that were added to the game are:

• The Datavault, with new cosmetic rewards
  
• The Biovore
  
• New PvP Map “Tomb”
  
• Salamanders Champion Pack
  
• Raven Guard Cosmetic Pack including its Successor Chapters
  
• FOV Slider
  
• Perks rework
  

Following that, we released the 6.1 Hotfix to help with a few remaining bugs and connectivity issues, mostly. Again, you can read the patch notes here.
We are aware that with these two updates, a few issues remain, such as:

• FPS drops
  
• Too many spore mines spawning at the same time
  

We’re actively working on it.
Hotfix 6.2 will arrive next week. It shall fix the spore mines issue and bring some balancing tweaks.



We heard about your desire to have an emblem-less Mk VIII Errant Helmet, so here’s your chance! ✨ This cosmetic is entirely free, the only requirement is to link your PROS account to Space Marine 2.
Here’s your brief: “Achieve a victory with each of 6 classes in Operations Mode to win the emblem-less Mark VIII Errant Helmet”



The event lasts until March 3rd.



We have noted that the Community Events have received cold feedback since we introduced them as an additional way to unlock cosmetic items. We saw that many of you mentioned FOMO generated by the events. Rest assured, we are not looking to transform Space Marine 2 into a full live service game. The items available through events WILL be available later, for everyone. We want Community Events to be a way to unlock the items in advance, for the most dedicated players, and not to be a source of frustration and stress for everyone.

However, that means we must provide a smooth experience in unlocking said items, which has not been the case so far. We deeply apologize for the trouble, and are currently working on a simplified process to unlock the items, to make the experience less constraining.



The 7.0 Update is in the making! ✨ We’re working on it and we’ll give you a more precise date once we get one. 🙌

This update will bring several awaited features:

• One Chapter Pack
  
• One Champion Pack
  
• Private PvP lobbies
  
• A new weapon (only in PvE for now)
  
• New Operation
  
• Weapon perks rebalance
  
• Class weapon loadouts rework
  
• PvE Prestige Rank: once you reach level 25 on a class, you can buy a Prestige Level that will unlock a unique Prestige Perk. Choose them wisely, because you won’t be able to change your selected Prestige Perks before unlocking the 4 Prestige Levels. On top of that power boost, each class will have a unique cosmetic reward that emphasizes the class’ iconic armour part.
  
• and more!
  

Stay tuned, we’ll soon come with more info.





…..So apparently you’re waiting for the Horde Mode.

You’re very eager to get more info on the Horde Mode, it’s one of our top priorities right now.
One thing we can say is that it will be very different from the Space Marine 1 Horde Mode, and that there are surprises we can’t wait for you to find out about. 😉

Once we get really interesting things to show you about it, we will do it!

Bear with us 🙏



We’re also excited to share our goal to launch our Public Test Servers in just a few weeks! 🙌 Expect it to take place in March and before Patch 7.
Once we get a specific date, we’ll make an official statement on our socials and Discord!

This will give you early access to upcoming features and the opportunity to share your feedback, helping us refine the content before its official release.

It will exclusively happen on Steam, neither on EGS nor consoles. It will be very easy to install because it will act as a separate game.




[h3]We would like to hear your opinion regarding Absolute difficulty.[/h3]

Overall, we are quite happy with how intense the difficulty itself is. We see that it requires a lot of concentration and we feel like it’s fun in terms of how many enemies you have to face, how hard they hit you etc.

At the same time, we see some comments that it’s a bit easy. Yet on the other hand we don’t want to mess it up and would like to hear the voice of the community first.
Here is some data and context.

According to our stats, the average win rate on Absolute difficulty is ~60% (significantly higher than Lethal difficulty that sits at 50%), which seems a bit higher than we expected.
At the same time such high win rate is explained by three facts:

1. Absolute difficulty is locked for new users
   
2. Only ~12% of daily play time is spent on Absolute difficulty.
   
3. Only ~15% of weekly active players play at least 1 match on Absolute difficulty
   

This means that only a small portion of very hardcore and well-prepared players are playing the Absolute difficulty, and we must find a proper balance between wishes of the hardcore players and more casual players that simply want to have fun.

I will be completely honest; I think we are almost at our limit in terms of how we can make the game harder without making it unfair and not fun. We can’t significantly increase the number of enemies for performance and memory reasons. Greatly increasing enemy damage and hp will make it so players will die randomly and will make enemies bullet sponges, which will not be fun.

We do not want to implement a new difficulty, because that would split the matchmaking pool even more. We have to stick to the existing 6 difficulties.

The proper way of doing this would be implementing a set of gameplay modifiers (i.e. tight formation gameplay modifiers that we’ve tried to release earlier), combination of which would make each challenge unique. And I’m happy to announce that we are already working on the system, however this will take some time.”

[h3]For now, we can tweak some parameters and we would like to hear your opinion on specific items:
[/h3]

[h3]❔ Poll 1:[/h3]
Would you like to see Dual Terminus enemies and more Terminus enemies in general on Absolute difficulty?

We can make it so there will be way more Terminus enemies on a level, potentially 2 at the same time. Plus we can lift restriction that prevents Terminus enemies from spawning on levels that have final bosses (i.e Hive Tyrant)

Vote here

[h3]❔ Poll 2:[/h3]
Shall we slightly increase enemy health and damage on Absolute difficulty?

Some of the builds can break health thresholds and start one-shotting enemies. We are only talking about small health and damage tweaks that should not cause enemies to become bullet sponges.

Vote here

[h3]❔ Poll 3:[/h3]
Would it be better to have more limited ammo refills on Absolute difficulty?

Vote here

[h3]❔ Poll 4:[/h3]
Do you want even more aggressive enemies on Absolute difficulty?

Vote here

We will try to implement the adjustments as soon as we can.

- Dmitriy Grigorenko, Game Director.

[h3]​Please do not take into account the total number of points spent on an answer. We will only consider the number of entries each answer has received for equity reasons.[/h3]



Twelve new exclusive Space Marine 2 wallpapers have dropped on our community platform Focus Together. Make sure to create an account here and get them for free!
Here’s a sneak peak of some of them:

Once you’ve created your account, you can directly link your Steam account to it. By doing so, you will earn different badges, avatars and titles to pimp your profile, so sign in now!





Since the release of the Datavault Update, you’ve shared countless screenshots showing the different emotes, and we love it!!

Here’s a little compendium but if you want to see more, you should definitely check the wall of screenshots on our Discord!

Props to adomic. , husky_jb, sisokalis and marcel_nemet for the shots!

[h2]That’s it for this month![/h2]
Don’t hesitate to provide feedback on the upcoming content in the comments below, and in the ideas section of Focus Together.
We’ll see you next month for another Community Update.

With love & respect,
From Saber and Focus.

[h3]The Emperor Protects! 🙏[/h3]