Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is releasing hotfix 4.1, directly addressing player backlash over recent gameplay changes introduced in Patch 4.0. In response to this negative feedback, developers Saber Interactive also announced the upcoming launch of public test servers in early 2025.
Space Marine 2 Nerfs Reverted: Patch 4.1 and Public Test Servers
Nerfs Reverted Starting October 24th
Patch 4.1, arriving October 24th, will revert the most controversial balance changes from Patch 4.0. Following significant player criticism and negative Steam reviews, game director Dmitriy Grigorenko stated, "We’ve been monitoring your feedback since last Thursday’s Patch 4.0 and have decided to address your most pressing concerns with a new balancing update, coming this Thursday. This is why, moving forward, we’d like to harness this energy by establishing Public Test Servers," aiming for a launch around early 2025.
The initial changes in Patch 4.0 aimed to increase enemy spawns, rather than buffing enemy health, in response to feedback that the game was too easy, even on the highest difficulty. Unfortunately, this negatively impacted lower difficulty levels.
With the reversion of Patch 4.0 changes, Extremis enemy spawn rates on Minimal, Average, and Substantial difficulties will return to pre-Patch 4.0 levels, while being significantly reduced on Ruthless difficulty. Additionally, player armor on Ruthless difficulty will receive a 10% increase, and bots will deal 30% more damage to bosses.
Hotfix 4.1 also includes a significant buff to Bolt weapons, addressing their underperformance across all difficulty levels. Specific changes include:
- 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% (x2)
Grigorenko concluded, "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."
