Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2’s First Major Post-Launch Update Out Now, Adds New PvE Map and Lethal Difficulty

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has launched its first major update, adding a new PvP map and Lethal difficulty for free to all players across all platforms.

Update 4.0 adds new PvE map Termination, which is available in the Operations game mode. As revealed this week, Termination sees players battle against a huge Tyranid Hierophant Bio-Titan, added to the game for the first time, on the planet Kadaku.

Elsewhere, the update adds a new, even harder difficulty called Lethal. This is difficulty five of five for Operations mode. And photo mode is now available in Operations (works only in solo), with characters able to follow the camera with their eyes.

It's worth noting that from a balance perspective, Update 4.0 makes a number of significant changes, with the upshot of making Operations mode harder. Check out the patch notes below, where the developers explain the tweaks.

Coming later is the new weapon, the Neo-Volkite pistol (this is also free for all players). Termination, the Bio-Titan, the Neo-Volkite pistol, and the Lethal difficulty are all part of Space Marine 2 Season 2, which runs until the end of 2024.

The hotly anticipated cosmetics for the Dark Angels chapter of Space Marines, available through the game’s premium season pass, are due out at some point during the Season 2 period.

These cosmetics, when they do hit the game, will add new weapon styles, armor pieces, and color schemes featuring the Unforgiven (the name given to the Dark Angels chapter following the disastrous events of the Horus Heresy in Warhammer 40,000 lore). The Dark Angels Champion Pack, meanwhile, includes a full armor set for the Bulwark class.

Publisher Focus Entertainment has teased what’s to come with Seasons 3 and 4, including a new PvP game mode and PvP arena, as well as a Horde mode. Eagle-eyed fans, meanwhile, have spotted the Space Marine chapter now all-but confirmed to get a cosmetic pack after the Dark Angels, and even an unannounced new Thousand Sons enemy type.

Saber recently released Space Marine 2’s game-changing patch 3.0, which made a seemingly innocuous change to the ending that got Warhammer 40,000 fans excited. Meanwhile, IGN interviewed Tim Willits, Chief Creative Officer at developer Saber Interactive, about Space Marine 2’s record-breaking success. He revealed the boost he expects the PS5 Pro will give Space Marine 2, discussed how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 had “changed everything” for the studio, and how protective Games Workshop is over the Warhammer 40,000 brand.

This week, Focus announced Space Marine 2 had sold an incredible 4.5 million copies in just over a month. It’s already the most-played Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000 video game of all time on Steam.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Update 4.0 patch notes:

NEW FEATURES

New Operation - Termination

This new Operation takes place on planet Kadaku. New dreadful foes have arrived. Make good use of the artillery to annihilate them.

Added Lethal difficulty for Operations

Major highlights of it:

• Ammo Crates have limited refills per player.
• Majoris enemies can become enraged and will be more deadly and harder to kill.
• Armour restores from finishers only if you stay close to your battle-brothers."
• Overcoming such a challenge will grant you new cosmetics...

Added photo mode in Operations (works only in solo). Also, characters can now follow the camera with their eyes.

GAMEPLAY AND BALANCING TWEAKS

Melee Archetypes: Fencing weapons' perfect parry window will now have the same duration as balanced weapons but it will start from the first frame of parry animation.

Melee Perks: Chainsword, Power Fist, Combat Knife charged attacks perks get significant damage increase.

Basic Auspex Scan: bonus damage on bosses is reduced by 30%.

Melta Charge: damage to bosses is reduced by 70%.

​Enemy Spawn Director PvE:

• Tweaked idle spawns.
• Enemy variety within waves is now less random while enemy variety between waves is bigger.
• Extremis enemies can now spawn have additional enemies.

Difficulty:

• Ruthless: Ammo crates have limited refills per player.
• Ruthless: Player's armour reduced by 20%.
• Substantial: Player's armour reduced by 10%

Note from the devs:

"With Patch 3 we have noticed that Operations mode became noticeably easier, especially Chaos operations. We are happier with what we have right now compared to what we had on release, because before Patch 3 Chaos missions were unpopular. Still, we think that currently Operations mode is a bit too easy.

"Overall these changes are going to make Operations mode harder, but it is difficult to measure by how much. We will continue to monitor those changes and will continue to adjust the balance of Operations mode. This is not the last change."

PVP

• Increased delay between announcer messages in PvP.
• The starting animation of the Grapnel Launcher for the Vanguard is shorter in PvP.
• Fixed Power Fist in PvP dealing too much damage with short charged attacks.

AI

• Enemy Dodges: Globally replaced full invulnerability on dodge moves of enemies with heavy melee damage resistance.
• Rubric Marine with Boltgun: Disengage teleport max distance is slightly reduced.

CUSTOMISATION

• More options for colours customisation for Chaos:
  • Tertiary colours: Sotek Green, Night Lords Blue, Death Guard Green, Khorne Red.
• Decal colours: Sotek Green, Khorne Red.
• Colours: Added Liberator Gold colour to default for primary and secondary colours palettes.
• Fixed a lot of issues with display of colours, now they should be more lore accurate (Mechanicus Standard Grey, Ushabti Bone, Phoenician Purple, The Fang, Iron Hands Steel, Retributor Armour).
• Decals: Added new Chaos faction decals for the right shoulder.

LEVELS

• Vox Liberatis - Daemonhost: Disabled respawn until the last altar in the final arena.

GENERAL FIXES

• Fixed a bug where the Assault perk "Ascension" could kill its owner.
• Fixed a bug where the Sniper perk "Targeted Shot" wasn’t always working in some cases.
• Fixed an unintended animation cancel with the Bulwark by using the block, which resulted in faster attacks.
• Fixed an issue with the Tactical team perk "Close Targeting" not triggering properly.
• Fixed: Tactical perk "Radiating Impact" not triggering properly.
• Fixed an issue with the Sniper perk "Guardian Protocol" cooldown not working properly.
• Fixed an issue where sound was lost after switching the speaker configuration.
• Fixed several issues in Trials.
• Fixed several issues that were causing loss of saves.
• The Thunder Hammer perk "Patience Rewarded" description is now accurate with its actual effect (added "When your Health is below 30%” part).
• Lots of minor UI fixes and improvements.
• Lots of minor animation fixes and improvements.
• Localisation fixes.

TECH

• Crash fixes and general stability improvements.
• Fixed several connectivity issues causing disconnects for players.
• Slightly improved performance.
• Fixed issues controllers not working with Steam Input enabled.

RENDER IMPROVEMENTS

• General improvements and fixes.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

via Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2’s First Major Post-Launch Update Out Now, Adds New PvE Map and Lethal Difficulty
by Wesley Yin-Poole