Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 just received Patch 5.0, also known as the Obelisk Update. With it, Saber Interactive has brought a massive number of features and changes to the hit cooperative shooter, including a brand-new Operation, a fresh type of enemy, a parry rework, XP changes, and much more.
The new Operation mission is titled Obelisk. It will be sending squads to Demerium, with the scenario taking place right alongside the final events in the main campaign. At the same time, players will encounter the new Tzaangor Enlightened enemy across all Operation missions from now on, a "disk-flying, melee/ranged-hybrid unit" that can get annoying to Space Marines in groups.
Moving towards gameplay, Saber has reworked the parry and guard system to break the monotonous Parry -> Gun Strike combo and offer more options. Following the patch, players will see much higher melee damage across all weapons. Moreover, perfect blocks will build up new "Adrenaline Surge stacks" that can be used when attacking enemies, which do massive area damage and stagger everything nearby while also providing armor segments.
The studio is also adding a new "Extermination Bonus" for killing the most spawned enemies in each Operation level, incentivizing players to meet all encounters without skipping. Killing over 60% of enemies grants 110% XP, while going above 85% grants 120% XP over simply just completing the level.
On the performance side, PC players will now find AMD FSR 3 and DLSS 3 Frame Generation available in-game for smoother gameplay. PlayStation 5 Pro support has also landed, bumping up the resolution in some scenarios to 4K with the use of PSSR but still keeping the 30FPS frame rate cap.
These quality-of-life changes have landed for the title, too:
- 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.
The complete patch notes can be found on the Patch 5.0 launch blog post here. The update is now available across PC and consoles.