Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 News

[h2]Greetings, Space Marines! 🫡[/h2]

This month we released new content: the new Termination map and the new Lethal difficulty. We’ve loved seeing you provide feedback and challenge yourself with the new difficulty. We also took into account the constructive criticism and have implemented some balancing features and tweaks into the game. We truly hope you’re enjoying the game.

[h2]4.5 M PLAYERS 🎊[/h2]

Let’s start this off with great news: we are now over 4 and a half million Space Marines defending the Imperium!

Seeing the community grow so wide, so fast, makes us incredibly proud. We’re working hard to provide new content for you, listening closely to your feedback, and we cannot wait for you to discover what’s next for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2!

So, thank you, four and a half million times 💙



[h2]IMPROVEMENTS BROUGHT TO THE GAME[/h2]

As for every single release, we closely read the feedback from the players. Therefore, we’ve seen that the new content did not meet everyone’s expectations and that the adjustments disappointed many of you.

To make amends and fix the issues that Patch 4.0 brought, we released a hotfix (4.1), which you may find right here. It brings gameplay and balancing tweaks on weapons, difficulty, AI and much more. Make sure you read the patch note! ⚙️

[h2]UPCOMING CONTENT[/h2]

Another update is coming soon with a brand new weapon: The Neo-Volkite Pistol!

The Neo-Volkite Pistol is a thermal weapon with accumulative damage. Its heat rays have a deadly impact on organic matter, incinerating flesh into ash with explosive force and jets of flame. A weapon of choice against Tyranids! ☢️🔥
The Bulwark, Assault and Vanguard will have access to the Neo-Volkite as a secondary weapon.

On top of this addition, this update will also come with buffs for several firearms.



Later this year – around early-December – will come the much awaited Dark Angel Chapter Pack, along with a new enemy, the Tzaangor Enlightened and a new PvE map set on Demerium: “Obelisk”.

On another note, we’ve seen your feedback about “Blocking” weapons feeling unsatisfying to play with, and are currently in the process of reworking them!

Be patient Marines!


[h2]YOUR IDEAS[/h2]

You are constantly submitting new ideas on Focus Together to our great delight. Let’s answer some of them:

[h3]CONTENT ADDITIONS[/h3]

New Melee weapons
→ Adding a new melee weapon is something we’d love to have later. However, it also takes a lot of time and production resources to integrate. Be sure that we’ll let you know once we’re more advanced on that subject.

More Campaign missions
→ We’re currently not thinking about adding new campaign missions in Space Marine 2. We rather focus on creating new Operations and Eternal War content.

Eternal war party size
→ We’re currently working on implementing custom PvP lobbies. You’ll be able to invite your friends, alongside various other options to customise your experience (score limit, time limit, class limit and so on)..

Heretic Astartes playable in Operations
→ This will not be implemented due to Space Marine 2's specific setting, how Operations are designed and even the game as a whole. All of the dialogue is written as Astartes talking to other Astartes for example. Missions are also designed so that our characters fight to help the Imperium's war effort.

Add the possibility to replay the Campaign Prologue
→ Whilst not a priority at the moment, this is something we might consider in the future.

Consider adding a bonus reward for players using quickmatch
→ This is something we are considering adding in the future.


[h3]CUSTOMISATION[/h3]

Colour lenses
→ We are ready to release the colour lenses with the next big update, which will bring the Dark Angels Chapter Pack.

More than 4 customisation slots
→ This is not a priority right now, we prefer to focus on developing other features at the moment. We’ll come back later on this.

Customisation add-ons
→ More customisation will come in the future. More precise customisation options is a must have as well.

More helmet customisation and patterns
→ This is something we’re actively working on. It will arrive in the lifespan of the game.

Ability to recolor cloth pieces / tabards
→ We can consider adding this option later down the line. But creating a satisfying level of quality for this feature is harder than it looks.

Lieutenant colour customisation
→ This has been greenlit. More customisation is coming for helmets, corresponding to other Chapters.

Change the skin colour of your Marine
→ We’re currently working on an option to add head customisation to your Space Marines.

Allow Deathwatch icons to be placed on the right shoulder
→ Yes, this is something already in the works.

[h2]LET’S CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN 🩸🕷️[/h2]

Our VP community is very prolific so let's do a quick shoutout to some creators, by highlighting the GORE in Space Marine 2!!


[h3]Titus crushing Tyranids as a Deathwatch warrior, shot by @JoniTrasel on X.[/h3]


[h3]In the midst of a battle on Avarax, Titus strikes a pose among his victims. Shot by @MaraKnightVP on X[/h3]


[h3]@Selka_VP shared this shot of Titus ripping a Lictor in half! How cool.[/h3]


[h3]Last but not least: A Helbrute covered in organic matter while getting slayed by a Space Marine. Shared by @foxhoundrep on Discord.[/h3]


[h2]THAT’S IT FOR OCTOBER 🦇 [/h2]

To keep yourself updated on the latest news about Space Marine 2, make sure you sign up to Focus Together! And join an already-wide community of players on the official Discord!

See you next time.

[h2]For The Emperor. ⚔️[/h2]

[h3]Hi, Space Marines![/h3]

As we discussed late last week, we’ve been monitoring your feedback since last Thursday’s Patch 4.0 and have decided to address your most pressing concerns with a new balancing update, coming this Thursday.

Before we get to the details of the new patch, we want to thank you all for being so involved with the game and making your opinions heard. While we noticed criticism with regards to difficulty adjustments—and rightly so—we’d also like to thank you for your very positive feedback on the new “Termination” map. No matter the feedback, we’re grateful that you feel so passionate about Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. The key takeaway for me, personally, is that I forgot that once the game comes out, it's no longer a dev's game. It's yours first and foremost.

This is why, moving forward, we’d like to harness this energy by establishing Public Test Servers. They would let you try out major balancing updates and make your voices heard before they are pushed onto public branches. We’re hoping to make these available around early 2025, so stay tuned to our channels for more info.

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ - Dmitriy Grigorenko, Game Director



[h2]Gameplay and Balancing Tweaks - Operations mode [/h2]

[h3]AI director and enemy spawns[/h3]

DG: Here was our reasoning before Patch 4.0: When the game came out in September, the Ruthless difficulty win rate hovered around 60%. Weeks later, and with the changes introduced by Patch 3.0, we saw that the same win rate had jumped to over 80%, and we received a lot of feedback stating that the game had become too easy—even at its maximum difficulty (at the time).

With Patch 4.0, our aim was to tweak enemy spawns to increase the overall number of enemies rather than reverting to buffing their Health. Unfortunately, this had an impact on the easier difficulty levels as well.

For example, the win rate on the easiest difficulty dropped slightly after Patch 4.0, from 95% to 93%. This may not look like a lot, but numbers aren’t everything. Your feedback made it clear that the game had become more intense and stressful on lower difficulties, and this was never our intention. As I’ve personally emphasised in interviews, Space Marine 2 is all about the power fantasy, and Patch 4.0 negatively impacted it for many of you.

This is why we’re rolling back these changes. Extremis enemies’ spawn rates in Minimal, Average, and Substantial difficulties will revert back to their pre-Patch 4.0 levels and will be significantly reduced in Ruthless difficulty to hopefully strike a balance between how hard the game was at launch and how “easy” it became with Patch 3.0.
‎

Minimal, Average, and Substantial Difficulties:

• Reduced spawn rate of Extremis enemies to match pre-Patch 4.0 levels
  

Ruthless Difficulty:

• Significantly reduced spawn rate of Extremis enemies
  

[h3]Weapons (only in Operations mode)[/h3]

DG: We've been wanting to address the Bolter family for a while, as they've been underperforming across all difficulty levels. This has been a frequent piece of feedback from many of you, and the data confirmed improvements were needed across the board. The percent Damage increase is based on which classes have access to which kind of weapon and how the Bolters compete with the other options available.
‎

• Auto Bolt Rifle -> Damage increased by 20%
  
• Bolt Rifle -> Damage increased by 10%
  
• Heavy Bolt Rifle -> Damage increased by 15%
  
• Stalker Bolt Rifle -> Damage increased by 10%
  
• Marksman Bolt Carbine -> Damage increased by 10%
  
• Instigator Bolt Carbine -> Damage increased by 10%
  
• Bolt Sniper Rifle -> Damage increased by 12.5%
  
• Bolt Carbine -> Damage increased by 15%
  
• Occulus Bolt Carbine -> Damage increased by 15%
  
• Heavy Bolter -> Damage increased by 5%
  

[h3]Difficulty[/h3]

⚙️ Ruthless: Player’s Armour is increased by 10%

DG: We are partially rolling back the change from the previous patch on Ruthless difficulty following your feedback. With Patch 4.1, we’re hoping to find the right compromise between how easy Ruthless difficulty felt after Patch 3.0 and how it felt after last week’s Patch 4.0.

The reason why it was reduced last week was that we noticed a very substantial bump in win rates on Ruthless after Patch 3.0, as Minoris enemies would no longer remove the entire Armour bar with their attacks, ranged AI Damage was nerfed across the board, and the ability to regenerate Armour by parrying normal Minoris attacks was added.

Additional note: Despite the last patch notes listing a decrease in Armour in Substantial difficulty, this change was mistakenly left out of our last update, hence why you won’t see it being reverted as part of this week’s patch.
‎

⚙️ Lethal: “Tight Formation” system is removed

DG: Before anything else, let us clarify our reasoning for the introduction of this mechanic. As we worked on adding a new difficulty tier, we needed to make sure this new challenge was meaningful and interesting. With “Tight Formation”, our objective was to add a new layer of challenge for our most skilled players by adding horizontal progression rather than just vertical progression (i.e., dealing more damage to ever stronger enemies). This game is about the power fantasy, and enemies that take dozens of melee hits break it. Thus the challenge needed to come from other sources.

This system was also designed as a first step towards the introduction of gameplay modifiers down the line, both negative and positive—something World War Z players will be familiar with—but your feedback showed that the proximity requirements felt too restrictive. Classes like Assault and Vanguard felt especially penalised as playing them effectively requires a certain freedom of movement.

As a result, we’re removing the system entirely and will continue to work on modifiers until they’re ready. We will continue to monitor your feedback after the deployment of Patch 4.1 to make sure Lethal difficulty feels as challenging and rewarding as it should.
‎

⚙️ AI

DG: A recurrent piece of feedback we’ve seen is that the AI allies can feel useless at times. We already improved allies’ behaviour in Patch 3.0, and we hope this additional buff will help solo players complete their Operations.

• Bots deal 30% more damage to bosses.
  

DG: Fighting Zoanthropes is often reported as a source of frustration. Alongside the changes to the AI Director, we’re taking away some of their shields’ effectiveness to alleviate some of that frustration.

• Zoanthrope: Shield swap cooldown with another paired Zoanthrope is increased by 10%.
  

[h3]General Fixes & Tech[/h3]

• Fixed a bug that caused roll distance to be shorter than before.
  

DG: This was probably the most impactful and annoying consequence of Patch 4.0. While i-frames were the same, the distance difference made it much less effective versus ranged attacks. With this bug fixed, you should feel a great improvement in your fights against ranged enemies and bosses.

• Fixed bug with unlocking Lethal difficulty rewards decals.
  
• Crash fixes and general stability improvements.
  

Our teams are constantly working on improvements to the game’s stability. This patch is no exception, so you should encounter fewer crashes.



That’s it for Patch 4.1! Your feedback is absolutely invaluable to us, and we’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this new update.

[h2]The Emperor protects.
[/h2]

The Space Marine 2 team