10 Space Marine 2 tips to turn yourself into a flawless killing machine

GamesThird Person ShooterWarhammer 40000: Space Marine 210 Space Marine 2 tips to turn yourself into a flawless killing machineWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Titus staring at a destroyed moon

Crush the enemies of the Imperium(Image credit: Focus Interactive)How to customise armourSpace Marine 2 classes explainedBest Space Marine 2 weaponsSpace Marine 2 PvP builds

Crush the enemies of the Imperium

(Image credit: Focus Interactive)How to customise armourSpace Marine 2 classes explainedBest Space Marine 2 weaponsSpace Marine 2 PvP builds

(Image credit: Focus Interactive)

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 promo art - three Space Marines standing in formation

How to customise armourSpace Marine 2 classes explainedBest Space Marine 2 weaponsSpace Marine 2 PvP builds

Up for someSpace Marine 2 tips? It’s tougher than you think being a lumbering 2000 lb angel of death. You might hurl yourself into the fray, clad in power armour, chainsword in hand, but it takes a fair bit of finesse to master Space Marine 2’s combat system, especially if you’re playing on the higher difficulties of co-op.

For one thing, you have to learn how to parry and follow up enemy attacks with Gun Strikes—quick cinematic pistol shots you can unload into your foes. There’s also the armour system and making sure you’re executing enough enemies to keep yourself healthy in the thick of the fighting. And that’s not mentioning the unique class abilities you can employ tactically during combat to the benefit of your squad.

Knock back and double tap

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Gun Strike

The parry system in Space Marine 2 is fairly well explained—targets that show a blue circle when attacking can be parried, while orange circle attacks have to be dodged. If you perform a perfectly timed parry on a small enemy, you’ll instantly kill it, while big enemies get staggered and you can follow up with a Gun Strike. The same is true if you perfectly time a dodge as well. What you might not realise is that you can often fit two Gun Strikes into the duration of the stun, letting you double tap a big enemy.

Certain melee attacks also knock enemies back and open them up to Gun Strikes, such as when you hold the melee attack input on the chainsword or when you stomp while carrying a heavy bolter. Since killing an enemy with a Gun Strike recovers armour—just like an execution does—this can be a great way of recovering it from the small enemies swarming you.

Not all attacks have parry indicators

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - An Archmagos

The main flaw with Space Marine 2’s parry system is that if you don’t execute a perfect parry, you’ll often have to deal with follow up attacks from enemies that have no parry indicator at all. There are lots of attacks that simply don’t have a blue parry circle, though that doesn’t mean that they aren’t parryable. Tyranid warriors are especially bad for following up on attacks you thought you parried with another, so be mindful. It also pays to watch out for ranged attacks, such as the slowly building green beam that shows a tyranid ranged enemy has zeroed in on you.

Executing different enemies grants a different amount of armour

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Tearing a Lictor’s arm off

Though this isn’t the case in Operations—every enemy grants a stingy single segment of armour there—in the campaign, executing different enemies grants a varied amount of armour based on their difficulty. Execute a basic tyranid grunt, for instance, and you’ll get one segment, whereas a big enemy like a tyranid warrior grants two. Special enemies like ravenors or lictors (and some others you’ll encounter later) refill your armour fully. You can also recover this armour if you kill an enemy with a Gun Strike, though since these aren’t guaranteed to kill, good ol' executions are your best bet for staying alive in the thick of it.

Smash Astra Militarum crates for armour boosters, grenades, and ammo

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Supply crates

Dealing damage recovers lost health and you can heal Mortal Wounds

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Deathwatch

Similarly, you can heal Mortal Wounds you sustain in co-op or campaign. Essentially, you get a Mortal Wound if you get downed a certain number of times—which varies based on difficulty—and if you are incapacitated with a wound, you’ll die. Provided other players are still alive in co-op, you’ll respawn after a while, but if they’re also dead or you’re solo in campaign, it’ll mean failure. To heal a Mortal Wound, simply use a medicae stim when you’re already at full health.

Be on the lookout for guardian relics, gene-seed, and armoury data

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Guardian relic

There are some powerful items hidden in Space Marine 2’s missions. Guardian relics are self-revival tools that you can find in both the campaign and Operations mode, while gene-seed and armoury data are specific to Operations. You won’t be able to carry a guardian relic as well as gene-seed, but the latter will give you bonus XP if you extract from a mission carrying it—think of it like a tome in Vermintide or Darktide. Armoury data is even rarer and more important. You can extract these little floating Servo-Skulls to acquire more armoury data that you can use to unlock new tiers of each weapon for your co-op classes.

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Titus in a mound of tyranids

Always use heavy weapons and experiment with others

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Investigating a body

Though this doesn’t apply to co-op, heavy weapons like the heavy bolter and multi-melta don’t take primary weapon slots, so I’d recommend always grabbing them. The campaign gives you plenty of opportunities to change weapons during each level and often provides a selection based on the enemies you’ll be fighting. You may be comfortable with the standard bolter, but it pays to experiment with your loadout a little to find the weapon that best suits your preferred playstyle.

Learn your melee combos and use alternate slashes

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Eternal Crusade

Be mindful of corruption

(Image credit: Saber Interactive)

Space Marine 2 tips - Corruption

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Knock back and double tap#

Not all attacks have parry indicators#

Executing different enemies grants a different amount of armour#

Smash Astra Militarum crates for armour boosters, grenades, and ammo#

Dealing damage recovers lost health and you can heal Mortal Wounds#

Be on the lookout for guardian relics, gene-seed, and armoury data#

Always use heavy weapons and experiment with others#

Learn your melee combos and use alternate slashes#

Be mindful of corruption#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Knock back and double tap

Not all attacks have parry indicators

Executing different enemies grants a different amount of armour

Smash Astra Militarum crates for armour boosters, grenades, and ammo

Dealing damage recovers lost health and you can heal Mortal Wounds

Be on the lookout for guardian relics, gene-seed, and armoury data

Always use heavy weapons and experiment with others

Learn your melee combos and use alternate slashes

Be mindful of corruption

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals