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After a long wait,Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2has finally graced the Machine Spirits of the ninth-generation consoles and latest PC hardware. This game is quite similar to Relic’s original title, complete with crunchy melee combat and swarms of enemy units, but a few notable changes have occurred since Titus' journey on Graia.
Parrying, gun strikes, perfect dodging, extensive customization, and a reworked armor system make Space Marine 2 a slight departure from the previous entry. Getting used to these new systems will take some time, but these tips are here to help. Follow these useful tips and tricks, and you’ll be standing atop a mountain of Tyranid corpses in no time.
Always Execute Targets
Space Marine 2 places a ton of emphasis on melee combat, so much so that nearly half of this guide is dedicated to melee tips. Getting up close and personal with xenos scum is part of the Astartes lifestyle and one you’ll need to get comfortable with.If you attempt to play this game like a cover shooter, you will not survive.You’re the 41st Millennium’s version of the Doom Slayer, not Marcus Fenix.
The best way to get into that mindset is toexecute every major enemy you’re able to.Anything that rivals the size of your Space Marine is vulnerable to execution when its HP is low enough, showcased by a dazed animation and visible red outline on the target. Executing targets has three benefits:
Shoving a Tyranid’s spare appendage up their ribcage is inspiring to the Astartes and demoralizing to the Tyranid swarm, so much so thatHormagauntsinstantly die from seeing their superior’s unsightly demise.If you’re surrounded by enemies, attempt to execute a larger foe.Don’t retreat. Get more aggressive.
Unique Melee Abilities
Power SwordSpamming light attacks in Space Marine 2 will only get you so far.You want to mix light and heavy attacks into your combosto be effective in melee combat. Performing a heavy attack after a few light attack strings will end the combo with a powerful AoE attack, usually a shoulder charge or a ground slam. The more light attacks you lead with, the stronger the heavy attack will be.
The tutorial makes this clear enough, but it’s not obvious thateach melee weapon has a unique heavy attack gimmick, referred to in-game as a melee stance.
Melee Weapons Determine Parry Behavior
Your chosen melee weapon doesn’t just affect your moveset.Each melee weapon also has unique parry timings.Smaller, more agile weapons tend to have more forgiving parry windows but lack area damage, making them ideal for dueling. Larger melee weapons have short parry windows or can’t perfect parry at all.
You can parry virtually every melee attack in Space Marine 2, even attacks not marked with a parry indicator. The only things you can’t parry are projectiles and unblockable attacks.
If you find that parry timings in Space Marine 2 are inconsistent, this is likely why.Your choice of melee determines how responsive your parry timings are.Block weapons trade parrying for blocking, while fencing weapons trade AoE attacks for easier parrying. Exact parry behavior can be found below.
Long perfect parry window
Short perfect parry window
Cannot perfect parry
Thunder Hammer
Campaign and standard multiplayer melee weapons all have Balanced defense, although this doesn’t seem to be accurate based on our testing. This could be a bug.
Weapons with the Block defense type cannot perform perfect parries, making it impossible to open enemies to gun strikes solely through parrying; you’ll need to perfect dodge instead.
Dodging Versus Parrying
Speaking of perfect dodges, when should you dodge in place of parrying?Any attack with a red indicator cannot be parried and should be dodged.This is covered in the tutorial, but what isn’t mentioned is thatperfectly dodginganyattack opens a target to a gun strike, regardless of which melee weapon you’re using. This is crucial for counteringLictorsand other high-value targets.
In general,parrying is easier but doesn’t work with all attacks. Dodging works with all attacks but has a tighter window.Chaining back-to-back perfect dodges is also downright impossible while you’re getting swarmed, but chaining parries is trivial if you’re a Combat Knife or fencing weapon.
How To Trigger A Gun Strike
We’ve mentioned gun strikes a few times already, but let’s cover how they actually work.A gun strike is a powerful, hipfire shot you may perform immediately after a perfect parry or perfect dodge.Enemies marked with a red crosshair will be targeted by a gun strike. Simply fire your weapon from the hip to trigger the gun strike animation.
Gun strikes cost no ammo. They can even be used while your magazine is empty.
For most players, we recommend youperfect parry a targetif you’re fishing for gun strikes. Any weapon tagged as “Fencing” under its defense stat will have no trouble with this. And remember:gun strikes restore one armor if the target dies.Some class upgrades restore armor from gun strikes regardless of damage dealt, although that only applies to PvE Operations.
Replenishing Health
Space Marine 2’s healing mechanics mimic Bloodborne’s rally system.When your HP receives damage, you have a few seconds to restore that HP by dealing damage.This is shown as a white overlay on your health bar. If you wait more than two seconds, the damage becomes permanent and must be healed with a Medicae Stimm, consumable items scattered across each map.
All Astartes also have a set number of armor pips that absorb damage first. In the campaign, your armor rating is based on the chosen difficulty. For multiplayer, your maximum armor is determined by your selected class. Armor can’t absorb much damage on its own, butarmor will start to regenerate after 25 seconds of not receiving any damage.That’s a fairly long recharge delay, but your armor regenerates in mere seconds once this is triggered.
Aim For The Head
Headshots in Space Marine 2 are incredibly useful for getting rid of fodder enemies.Most swarm units die from a single headshot, a massive reduction from the three to five rounds it normally takes. For the sake of conserving ammo and effectively clearing hordes, keep your crosshairs trained on the target’s head. This also goes for larger units. Headshots make short work of Tyranid Warriors and other out-of-reach foes.
Remember To Throw Grenades
Remember that your Astartes has a reserve of grenades they can use in the thick of combat. Most campaign missions and Operation levels have dozens of grenades scattered across the battlefield. Holding onto your grenades is no good when a small batch is right around the corner.Always throw grenades.There aren’t many cases where it’s a waste.
You shouldalwaysuse grenades against tougher foes.Krak Grenades and Melta Bombs make short work of Extremis-class targets.
