"We've been wanting to address the Bolter family for a while," Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is getting Public Test Servers in 2025 — and there's big gameplay changes coming soon.

What you need to know

• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 recently got a large content update adding a new Operation, as well as the Lethal difficulty and a variety of gameplay balance changes. 
• In response to player feedback, the developers at Saber Interactive are rolling back some of these changes, while also planning a comprehensive buff for several weapons in the game. 
• The developers are also planning to implement Public Test Servers in 2025, allowing players to test changes and provide feedback before an update launches for everyone.

War never ends and always changes. 

Saber Interactive shared a community update for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 on Wednesday, explaining how the developers are taking in player feedback after balance changes in the most recent content drop — which also added a Tyranid Bio-Titan in a new Operation — weren't received well. In response, Saber is is working to revert most of these changes a hotfix slated to arrive on Thursday, as well as providing a comprehensive buff to various Bolters.

"We've been wanting to address the Bolter family for a while, as they've been underperforming across all difficulty levels," the team explains. Moving ahead, the developers are also planning to implement Public Test Servers in early 2025, allowing some players to test updates and provide feedback before it's live for everyone. 

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Titus has crossed the Rubicon Primaris, and he's ready to stop the forces of Chaos and the all-consuming Tyranids from overrunning more Imperial strongholds. I've enjoyed my time with the game, so get ready to jump in, as DLC and even a sequel could be on the horizon.

Buy from: Amazon | Best Buy | GreenManGaming (Steam)

Further down, you'll find the patch notes for update 4.1, separated by categories of topics.

🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃

• 📺LG Curved OLED Monitor (32-inches) | $839.99 at Amazon (Save $660!)
• 🎮Amazon Fire TV Xbox Game Pass bundle | $74.99 at Amazon (Save $62!)
• 💻Alienware m16 R2 (RTX 4060) | $1,399.99 at Dell (Save $300!)
• 🔊2.1ch Soundbar for TVs & Monitors | $44.99 at Walmart (Save $55!)
• 💻HP OMEN Transcend 14 (RTX 4050) | $1,099.99 at HP (Save $500!)
• 🎧Sennheiser Momentum 4 ANC | $274.95 at Amazon (Save $125!)
• 📺LG C4 OLED 4K TV (42-inches) | $999.99 at Best Buy (Save $400!)

AI

• Bots deal 30% more damage to bosses.
• Zoanthrope: Shield swap cooldown with another paired Zoanthrope is increased by 10%.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that caused roll distance to be shorter than before.
• Fixed bug with unlocking Lethal difficulty rewards decals.
• Crash fixes and general stability improvements.

Difficulty

• 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
  • Player armor increased by 10%
• Lethal difficulty:
  • Tight Formation system removed

Weapons (only in Operations mode)

• 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%

An ever-changing game

While I haven't personally been playing on Lethal yet, and as such cannot speak to the Tight Formation system, I'm glad the developers are staying responsive and keeping track of player feedback.

Test servers are just a good in general in order to avoid bugs like the roll issue that recently cropped up. With Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 selling over 4.5 million copies so far, I just hope the developers can maintain the cadence of updates and fixes they've managed so far. 

I also really want to see HDR support added to the game. The lack of HDR was one of my main complaints when I reviewed the game, and with its success so far, I don't see a reason it can't go into the update pipeline at some point. 

Still, I'm having a blast taking out the Hierophant Bio-Titan. The newest Operation is a fair bit harder than the other six, but that's not a bad thing.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is available now on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5, with cross-play support for all platforms in Operations and console cross-play in PvP.