All the Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 weapons for each class

Warhammer 40k has one of the best armories in all of sci-fi. Forget your "elegant weapons for a more civilized age" – the guns, swords, and explosives in the grim darkness of the 41st millennium are big, ugly, and ridiculously fun to play with. This guide to Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 weapons covers the games entire arsenal.

Sadly, Space Marine 2 has proven not to be the best Warhammer 40k game ever made, as we had hoped it might be – though it's a lot more complicated than simply being 'bad', as our Space Marine 2 review explains. However, every one of its vicious implements of war is a delight to play with. We have a separate guide to the Space Marine 2 classes if you just want to check the loadout available to your class in multiplayer.

Here's everything you need to know about Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 weapons:

Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 Primary weapons

You can only carry one main weapon at a time in Space Marine 2 combat, so pick one to suit your playstyle.

Bolt rifle

The bolt rifle is the standard armament of a Primaris Space Marine, an automatic fire gun that launches self-propelled, mass-reactive explosive rounds.

Bolt Rifle with underslung grenade launcher

Exclusive to Space Marine 2 missions in the main campaign, this variant of the Bolt Rifle has an underslung grenade launcher with its own pool of up to four frag grenades. Though less powerful than the handheld variety, these can be launched a great distance. You can switch between regular fire and grenade launcher ammunition while aiming down the sights by pressing the 'zoom' button (depressing the right analogue stick on most controllers).

Auto bolt rifle

The Auto Bolt Rifle has a rapid ammo loader, allowing it to put down a far more rapid rate of fire. Accuracy falls off greatly over range, even when aimed, but this can unload a punishing hail of bullets at close range. In PVE and the campaign its a great tool for 'Gaunts and the best way to clear Spore Mines, but needs to be very close to do any real damage to elites. In PVP a key advantage is the ability to hip fire without losing much accuracy.

Heavy bolt rifle

As the name suggests, this is a higher-bore variant of the standard bolt rifle with better armor piercing power and a higher rate of fire and range. It has good accuracy at all ranges, but isn't as well suited to hip-firing.

Stalker bolt rifle

Another bolt rifle variant, the stalker bolt rifle has scoped aim – it's effectively a sniper rifle. Though it fires in single shot mode, its rate of fire is sufficient that you can consistently focus down a single target without giving them time to recover.

Bolt carbine

The bolt carbine is a cut-down bolt rifle with a foregrip that's quicker to aim on the move. It fires incredibly fast, at short range.

Marksman Bolt Carbine

Another scoped bolter variant, this provides rapid, continous fire, and is extremely accurate when aimed. Despite the scope, its low firepower and piercing compared to other sniper rifles mean it isn't a tool for delivering lethal damage at long range – its main strength is versatility.

Instigator Bolt Carbine

A scoped carbine with good accuracy, little recoil, which fires in three bullet bursts. Relatively weak, this is another versatile gun that requires good targeting to be effective, but which supports that at all ranges.

Occulus Bolt Carbine

This rapid fire, low-damage carbine provides targeting assistance from its multiple specialised lenses.

Heavy bolter

The heavy bolter is a belt or box-fed fully automatic version of the bolt rifle, firing even larger explosive shells. Its rate of fire is phenomenal, increasing as the weapon heats up. Human fighters need to use the heavy bolter as an emplaced support weapon, but Space Marines can wield them in their hands. The heavy bolter doesn't need to reload, but does overheat if fired continuously.

Plasma Incinerator

Plasma weapons use a magnetic containment chamber to superheat gas into a plasma state which the gun then shoots as a projectile. They are capable of melting through Space Marine armor, and are prone to catastrophically overheating, melting down and potentially killing the wielder.

The plasma incinerator is versatile – ordinarily it functions as a semi-automatic, but holding the trigger down builds up charge within the gun, which you can fire off in an explosive blast. All forms of attacks with the gun cause it to build up heat, which will take longer to vent if the gun overheats.

Heavy Plasma Incinerator

The Heavy variant of the Plasma Incinerator has a larger charging coil. It's slower to fire and even more powerful.

Melta Rifle

Melta Rifles are short-range, man-portable anti-tank weapons that use concentrated bursts of microwave radiation to superheat and melt the particles in their target. In-game, this manifests as a very short range explosive burst with damage that falls off with range – it is lethal at very close range, and will hit a large cloud of enemies.

Multi-melta

The Multi-melta is a twin-barelled heavy variant of the melta-rifle with even more power, ordinarily mounted on light vehicles as anti-tank ordnance. It has the same point blank range as the melta rifle

Pyreblaster

The Pyreblaster is a handheld flamethrower with a compact fuel tank, used for close range engagements, trench clearance, and dealing with hordes of lesser enemies. It's a very, very weak gun, only used in certain specific sections of the campaign to clear out creepy, flesh

Bolt Sniper Rifle

Using bolter technology with a sniper rifle's elongated barrel and superior sights, the bolt sniper rifle is used by Space Marine Eliminators to pick off targets of opportunity. It packs a punch and does extreme headshot damage, but despite being semi-automatic it is very slow to fire.

Las Fusil

A long range, laser-powered equivalent to an anti-tank rifle, the Las Fusil must charge before firing each shot, and automatically discharges as soon as the shot is charged. It is effectively useless when not being aimed, but nothing does more damage at long range.

Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 pistols

The Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 pistols are back-up ranged weapons that never run out of ammunition, though they still need to reload. It's quicker to swap to a pistol than to reload any of your main weapons, and you'll often whip out your pistol for a quick execution shot. They are all accurate at close range.

The Plasma Pistol shows up in the Space Marine 2 gameplay trailers, but wasn't available in the demo build that Wargamer played.

Bolt pistol

Bolt pistols are semi-automatic pistols, which fire self-propelled explosive rounds. The basic bolt pistol is the weakest of these, but still capable of taking apart lesser enemies and clearing space to allow you to reload a main gun.

Heavy bolt pistol

Heavy bolt pistols fire large calibre bolt rounds with more stopping power, at the expense of a smaller clip and slower fire rate. They have the edge when it comes to executing larger foes, as a heavy bolt pistol head shot is more likely to take a Tyranid Warrior's head clean off than a basic bolt pistol.

Plasma pistol

The plasma pistol uses a magnetic chamber to heat gas into a plasma state which it can then fire as a projectile. This weapon can be fired semi-automatically, or charged up for more powerful shots. Rather than reloading the clip, you need to manage the gun's heat.

Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 melee weapons

Space Marine 2 has a full melee combat system, with parries, dodges, stuns, and Space Marine 2 executions. Warhammer 40k has a massive arsenal of melee weapons, though we've only been able to play with a few so far. Even when equipped with a two-handed Heavy Bolter, you're still able to club your enemies with its metal bulk.

Combat Knife

The Space Marine combat knife would be the length of a shortsword in normal human hands. It's a fast weapon with limited range that makes it ill-suited to large hordes of enemies, but excellent for a sustained assault on a single target.

Chainsword

The iconic chainsword is a sword that is also a chainsaw – it's great. It's hefty, delivering powerful cuts against enemies in a wide arc. Its wide swings will deal damage to foes all around, but it doesn't have the same ability to knock back the foe as some heavier weapons.

Heavy weapon smash

If you end up in melee while holding a heavy weapon, like the heavy bolter, you're able to make a slow and cumbersome swipe with the gunstock. This is powerful enough to smash one or two smaller foes, but it won't disengage you from a serious threat.

If you're swamped and no allies are available to cut you loose, in the story campaign you're better off dropping your heavy bolter to draw a real blade. In PVP and PVE multiplayer, the lack of a real melee weapon is a weakness of the Heavy class.

Power sword

The Power Sword looks like a sword covered in lightning, but the blade is actually wrapped in a disruption field capable of explosively severing molecular bonds. This weapon has two modes, an unpowered fast mode, and a slower powered mode that can be activated while holding down the melee attack button outside of a combo.

Thunder hammer

A massive weapon normally wielded in two hands, the thunder hammer's head contains a disruption field generator. Unlike power weapons, which constantly project a solid disruption field, the thunder hammer's head fires its field only when it makes contact with an enemy, with explosive force, capable of ripping apart tanks and the largest xenos monsters.

Basic attacks with the Thunder Hammer have a wide, if slow, arc, and its charge attacks deal particularly powerful area of effect damage.

Power fist

This heavy armored gauntlet is equipped with a disruption field, meaning blows from this weapon land with catastrophic force. It projects waves of damage that can hit enemies besides the initial target.

Storm shield

The storm shield is only available to the Bulwark class. Fitted with forcefield generators as well as thick armor plates, the storm shield provides protection from light ranged and melee attacks. Heavy attacks – including melee attacks, krak grenades, and sufficiently powerful shots – will knock the shield aside and stagger the marine.

Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 grenades

There are four classes of grenades in Space Marine 2, which can be equipped to any class in PVP and PVE modes.

For more on this game, here's what you need to know about Space Marine 2's length. If you're a fan of third-person action games but you're new to Warhammer 40k, we actually have a guide answering the question "What is Warhammer 40k?" just for you. You can also check out our guides to the many Warhammer 40k factions, which go in depth into the lore of the many warring species in the setting.