Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Players Praise the Emperor as Dev Rolls Back Controversial Balance Changes

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 developer Saber Interactive has announced Update 4.1, set to hit the game on October 24, and detailed its patch notes.

Update 4.1 follows hot on the heels of last week’s controversial Update 4.0, widely criticized by Space Marine 2’s community for making the game significantly harder, even on easier difficulties. The backlash to Update 4.0 spread to Space Marine 2’s Steam page, where disgruntled players review-bombed the game.

The Update 4.1 patch notes were published alongside a message to fans from game director Dmitriy Grigorenko, who, having digested the criticism of the last week, admitted: “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.”

To that end, Saber will establish Public Test Servers (PTS) that will let players try out major balancing updates and make their voices heard before they are pushed onto public branches. Expect PTS to go live early 2025.

As for the changes made with Update 4.1 there’s plenty to dig through (patch notes below), but overall they should make Space Marine 2’s PvE Operations mode feel easier via a series of buffs to weapons and the Space Marines, nerfs to the enemies, and in some cases the removal of controversial mechanics entirely.

Players of Space Marine 2’s new Lethal difficulty will be delighted to hear the universally hated ‘Tight Formation’ system, exclusive to Operations mode’s hardest difficulty, is not long for this world. Grigorenko revealed that the system was designed as a first step towards the introduction of gameplay modifiers down the line, both negative and positive, “but your feedback showed that the proximity requirements felt too restrictive.”

“Classes like Assault and Vanguard felt especially penalized as playing them effectively requires a certain freedom of movement,” Grigorenko added. 4.1 ditches the Tight Formation system entirely, and Saber will continue to work on modifiers until they’re ready.

There’s a nerf to the Tyranid’s dreaded Zoanthropes, too, with a reduction in their shield’s effectiveness. Indeed, enemy spawns have been nerfed across the board. From 4.1, Extremis enemy 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.

Finally, Bolters are finally getting a buff. Ever since Space Marine 2’s explosive launch last month Bolters have underperformed, much to the disappointment of Warhammer 40,000 fans who love the weapons from the Games Workshop tabletop and lore. From 4.1, damage across the Bolter family of weapons is increased.

And if you were wondering whether 4.0 had nerfed the Space Marine roll, Saber confirmed that it had, although this was a bug and not a design decision. 4.1 fixes a bug that caused roll distance to be shorter than before.

These are all welcome changes, and players have already reacted positively, but what caused Saber to go so hard with 4.0 in the first place? Grigorenko said that Patch 3.0 had caused an increase in win rates (Ruthless went from 60% to over 80%, for example), and it had received feedback that Space Marine 2 had become too easy even at its maximum difficulty.

In addressing this, 4.0 went too far in a number of areas, particularly spawn rates even on lower difficulties. “Your feedback made it clear that the game had become more intense and stressful on lower difficulties, and this was never our intention,” Grigorenko said. “As I’ve personally emphasized in interviews, Space Marine 2 is all about the power fantasy, and Patch 4.0 negatively impacted it for many of you.”

IGN has plenty more on Space Marine 2, including a deep-dive on the game’s burgeoning modding scene and accompanying complications. Last month, Saber Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits told IGN how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 had “changed everything” for the company. And eagle-eyed fans 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.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Update 4.1 patch notes:

Gameplay and Balancing Tweaks – Operations mode

AI director and enemy spawns

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

Weapons (only in Operations mode)

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%

Difficulty

⚙️ 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%.

General Fixes & Tech

• 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.

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.