Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Update 5.0 patch notes – big melee changes and more

Find out what Update 5.0 for Space Marine 2 has in store

Saber Interactive / Focus Entertainment

Update 5.0 for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 has been published on December 10, 2024, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, bringing a new co-op mission, a challenging enemy type, and sweeping balance changes to melee combat.

Additional customization options for helmets have been added to the game as well. In addition, we got information about the developers’ future plans, such as an upcoming overhaul of how perks work in the game – but that’s for next year.

Find the full Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Update 5.0 patch notes below.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Update 5.0 patch notes

New Features

• New Operation: Operation Obelisk – In this new Operation, you’ll be sent to Demerium and your mission is to rotate a replica of the obelisk to disrupt the flow of energy protecting the Aurora device. This operation takes place in parallel to the final events of the campaign. To reach the console control of the obelisk, you’ll have to make it through a tomb plunged into darkness.
• New Majoris Enemy: Tzaangor Enlightened
• Cosmetic content of the Dark Angels Chapter Pack
• Added: FSR 3 / DLSS 3: Support of "Frame Generation" component for DLSS and FSR.

Balancing

• Melee Damage increased across the board.

Blocking Weapons:

• By blocking enemy attacks, the player will accumulate up to 3 stacks of Melee Damage buffs. Attacking while having those stacks of buffs will spend them and will result in massive AoE Damage discharge.
• Master-crafted versions: Damage increased by 20%.
• Artificer versions: Damage increased by 20%.
• Relic versions: Damage increased by 20%.

Perfect Block: 

• All Block Weapons have been reworked with a new mechanic: Perfect Block and Adrenaline Surge. 
• Perfectly timed blocks grant up to 3 Adrenaline Surge stacks. Adrenaline Surge stacks greatly increase Melee Damage and are consumed after the next melee attack. Attacking with 3 stacks of Adrenaline Surge deals massive AoE Damage, staggers enemies, and restores 1 Armour Segment. 
• Note that the right wrist glows in yellow after the Parry, which signifies that the Adrenaline Surge is ready to use. When used, a red explosion detonates on the enemy hit, deals AoE Damage, and regenerates an Armour Segment.

Fencing Weapons:

• Perfect Parry AoE stagger radius slightly reduced.

Balanced Weapons:

• Perfect Parry AoE stagger radius greatly increased.
• Master-crafted versions: Damage increased by 10%.
• Artificer versions: Damage increased by 10%.
• Relic versions: Damage increased by 10%.

Unarmed/Firearm Melee:

• Stomps can now be chained indefinitely.

“With these changes, Fencing Weapons will still be great versus limited numbers of enemies, Balanced Weapons will be good versus big crowds, and Blocking Weapons will become ‘damage dealer’ type weapons,” the developers explained.

Neo-Volkite Pistol:

• Volkite Damage sensitivity has been increased from 1 to 1.5 for these enemies: Devourer Tyranid Warrior, Barbed Strangler Tyranid Warrior, Venom Cannon Tyranid Warrior, Rubric Marine, Flamer Rubric Marine, Zoanthrope

Bolt Carbine:

• Max Ammo of all SMG-type Bolt Carbines increased by 1 magazine.

Extermination Bonus:

• Rank A: killing more than 85% spawned enemies grants +120% XP pre-patch value.
• Rank B: killing more than 60% spawned enemies grants +110% XP pre-patch value.
• Rank C: killing less than 60% spawned enemies grants +100% XP pre-patch value.

Quality of Life

• Dodge invulnerability logic is now client sided, meaning that Dodges will be responsive and more accurate with higher ping.
• Players are now invulnerable to new instances of damage while in Knockback animation.
• Added 10 frames of invulnerability at the start of Jump Pack launch animation (Campaign and Operations only).
• Dodge and Parry sound notification clarity has been greatly improved.
• Heavy’s Barrier can be activated in more player states (e.g., during stagger animation).
• Player controls are slightly more responsive after using Vanguard’s Grapnel Launcher.
• Added spawn protection in PvP.
• Added Neo-Volkite Pistol in PvP.

AI

• Shielded Zoanthrope will now attack much less frequently.
• You will no longer fight Extremis-level enemies on your first encounter right after the start of a Mission.
• Lots of minor animation fixes for various enemies.

Customization

• Added: Lenses colour customisation.
• Fixed shading of Balthasar Gold and Ushabti Bone colours.
• Fixed a number of small bugs with certain armour pieces not applying colours correctly.

Operations

Fall of Atreus

Made adjustments to scripting to make this level shorter and more in line with the duration of other levels:

• The second sequence with the Dreadnought (Repel the Assault) is randomised now and may not happen.
• The fusion battery needs to be charged only once in the final sequence.

Large amounts of small fixes in level geometry collision and Terminus enemies getting stuck in some areas.

Fixes

• Getting kicked out of a session will still grant kicked player XP rewards based on checkpoint completion.
• Exiting the Turret Charging Wheel in the “Termination” Operation is now quicker.
• Improved a few enemies counting for Purge Them All Achievement.
• Fixed a bug where Combat Knife charged attacks would occasionally Heavy Hit every time without charging.
• Fixed a bug where Heavy’s Primary Weapon was not shooting after joining in progress.
• Fixed a bug where party leader could get stuck on a loading screen in rare cases.
• Fixed Hierophant’s damage sensitivity to certain weapons (it can still be damaged by normal weapons, but the damage is reduced).
• Fixed a bug where Heldrake was not taking any damage from shots in rare cases.
• Fixed a bug where Heldrake could be knocked off its pedestal by shots from an under-barrel Grenade Launcher.
• Fixed a bug where Imurah would not take any damage from shots in the final mission in rare cases.
• Fixed a rare bug where players were shown a long black screen instead of death screen in PvP.
• Fixed a bug where players could not see each other's customisation in rare cases.
• Fixed a bug where the Neo-Volkite Pistol would deal damage further than its actual visual FX.
• Fixed a bug where enemies were able to pierce Block stance with double attack.
• Fixed a bug with Bulwark’s Armour of Contempt Perk not triggering correctly and dealing friendly fire.
• Fixed an issue where the Neo-Volkite Pistol would sometimes trigger a chain of explosions and cause performance issues.
• Fixed a rare bug with Vanguard’s Zone of Impact Perk not triggering correctly.
• Fixed Perks that grant player immunity to Heavy Hits and Knockback during charging melee attacks not working with charged attacks unlocked via Weapons Perks.
• Combat Knife charged attack buffs from other Perks (e.g., Sniper's Shadow Stab) are now correctly applied on both damage instances.
• Large number of minor fixes in Perks, how they stack, and how they trigger in rare cases.
• Minor UI fixes and improvements.
• Localisation fixes.
• Crash fixes and general stability improvements.
• General connectivity improvements.
• Slightly improved performance.
• Slightly improved texture streaming speed.
• Improved Anti-Cheat.