The best Heavy Space Marine build - Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Published September 5, 2024 6:30 AM, by Aidan O'Brien

The Heavy Class in Space Marine 2 is designed to put down as much devastating long-range damage as it can. The balance comes from the fact that it cannot bring a melee weapon and should focus on nuking heavy enemies and large groups as quickly as possible.

The best Heavy Space Marine build in Space Marine 2

For this build, we want to lean into the strengths of the Heavy Class in a way that fully protects and supports our team by using one of the most iconic weapons in Warhammer 40,000 history, the Heavy Bolter.

Class Ability

The Heavy ability is the Iron Halo. When active, this creates a barrier that will stop all ranged attacks. This is especially useful as a counter to enemy snipers. It will also provide a 10% damage reduction to all friendly units within 50 meters when active, so that becomes our desired operating range from our fellow Space Marines.

Perks

You have access to eight columns, each of which contains three perks. You need to level up your character by playing Operations and Infernal War to get access to all of them. You may only have one active perk per column. 

Core

• Auxiliary Ammunition - When your primary weapon is out of Ammo, killing 15 enemies in rapid succession restores ammo reserves by 20%.This has a 30-second cooldown.
• Thermal Boost - When you hit 50% Overheat status, you get a ranged damage boost of 15%.
• Versatility - Switching weapons will cause your secondary to do 20% more damage. This lasts until reloading or switching back to your primary. This will really help you rack up those 15 kills to get your primary ammo back.

Team

• Encompassing Aegis - All squad members take 20% less damage from ranged attacks. This is a great perk, as while melee damage might seem like the bigger deal, ranged damage constantly chipping away at you is a nightmare on harder difficulties.

Gear

• Adamant Will - After Iron Halo deactivates, you take 20% less health damage for 5 seconds.
• Obdurate Bastion - Iron Halo’s durability is increased by 20%.
• Brute Force - When Iron Halo is on cooldown, you get a 15% increase to your ranged damage.

Signature

• Conversion Field - When Iron Halo is active, all squad members within 100 meters regenerate their ability charge 50% faster.

Weapons

For this build, we are going to bring the Heavy Bolter and the Plasma Pistol as our secondary. As you level through the weapon tiers, focus more on maximum damage than on ammo capacity, as our class perks will help us stay stocked. We will grab a capacity perk along the way, though, to help out a little.

Build into Fast Venting, then Perfect Cooling, Increased Capacity, Head Hunter, Perpetual Penetration, Adamant Hunter, and then the full Artificier tier. Then, when you finally get to the Relic tier, go into Discipline and pick your preferred perks to cover any weakness you see in the build from there. I am always inclined to prioritize overall damage over ammo capacity but feel free to alter the build to suit your preferences.

The trick for this class is to stay reasonably close to squad members and cover them. This means you can help them with your wide-radius buffs, and then they can help you if you get swarmed in melee range. Don't be afraid to get into the middle of a fight, as there is a lot of built-in survivability to this build. 

Now, there are two other weapons to explore, and this build should support them both pretty well, so don’t feel locked into the bolter. If you want to try different things, I would suggest you grab the weapon-specific perks instead.

For tactics, watch your team and try to help set them up for finishers against tougher enemies, as they will likely be grateful to get the armor back. Make sure you are also getting the close-range support you need by pinging enemies that might be a threat to you.

For more helpful guides, be sure to check out our Space Marine 2 page.