Steel oneself for a new challenge in Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's Operation mode with the arrival of Lethal difficulty. It's one of the biggest additions to the game as part of patch 4.0.

That's not all, either. The update--available now--introduces a new Operation named Termination as well as a photo mode. Termination takes place on Kaduku, and Space Marine 2 players can test out the Lethal difficulty there. Just be prepared for deadlier, enraged Majoris foes; limited refills on ammo crates; and the fact finishers must be executed near squadmates to receive armor restoration.

As for photo mode, Focus Entertainment points out the functionality is only possible in solo mode for Operations. One neat feature is that space marines will look at the camera as it moves around. On top of this, Space Marine 2 also got gameplay tweaks, additional customization options, and more with patch 4.0.

Last month, a major Space Marine 2 patch brought a laundry list of changes to the third-person melee shooter, such as ultrawide PC support and private lobbies for PvE in the Operation mode. The game has already broken Warhammer franchise records, and developer Saber Interactive has talked about how Space Marine 2 can be successful without achieving absurd sales numbers.

Be sure to check out GameSpot's Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 review. The full patch notes can be seen below:

NEW FEATURES

New Operation - Termination

This new Operation takes place on planet Kadaku. New dreadful foes have arrived. Make good use of the artillery to annihilate them.

Added Lethal difficulty for Operations

Major highlights of it:

• Ammo Crates have limited refills per player.
• Majoris enemies can become enraged and will be more deadly and harder to kill.
• Armour restores from finishers only if you stay close to your battle-brothers."
• Overcoming such a challenge will grant you new cosmetics...

Added photo mode in Operations (works only in solo). Also, characters can now follow the camera with their eyes.

GAMEPLAY AND BALANCING TWEAKS

Melee Archetypes: Fencing weapons' perfect parry window will now have the same duration as balanced weapons but it will start from the first frame of parry animation.

Melee Perks: Chainsword, Power Fist, Combat Knife charged attacks perks get significant damage increase.

Basic Auspex Scan: bonus damage on bosses is reduced by 30%.

Melta Charge: damage to bosses is reduced by 70%.

​Enemy Spawn Director PvE:

• Tweaked idle spawns.
• Enemy variety within waves is now less random while enemy variety between waves is bigger.
• Extremis enemies can now spawn have additional enemies.

Difficulty:

• Ruthless: Ammo crates have limited refills per player.
• Ruthless: Player's armour reduced by 20%.
• Substantial: Player's armour reduced by 10%

Note from the devs:

"With Patch 3 we have noticed that Operations mode became noticeably easier, especially Chaos operations. We are happier with what we have right now compared to what we had on release, because before Patch 3 Chaos missions were unpopular. Still, we think that currently Operations mode is a bit too easy.

Overall these changes are going to make Operations mode harder, but it is difficult to measure by how much. We will continue to monitor those changes and will continue to adjust the balance of Operations mode. This is not the last change."

PVP

• Increased delay between announcer messages in PvP.
• The starting animation of the Grapnel Launcher for the Vanguard is shorter in PvP.
• Fixed Power Fist in PvP dealing too much damage with short charged attacks.

AI

• Enemy Dodges: Globally replaced full invulnerability on dodge moves of enemies with heavy melee damage resistance.
• Rubric Marine with Boltgun: Disengage teleport max distance is slightly reduced.

CUSTOMIZATION

• More options for colours customisation for Chaos:
  
  • Tertiary colours: Sotek Green, Night Lords Blue, Death Guard Green, Khorne Red.
• Decal colours: Sotek Green, Khorne Red.
• Colours: Added Liberator Gold colour to default for primary and secondary colours palettes.
• Fixed a lot of issues with display of colours, now they should be more lore accurate (Mechanicus Standard Grey, Ushabti Bone, Phoenician Purple, The Fang, Iron Hands Steel, Retributor Armour).
• Decals: Added new Chaos faction decals for the right shoulder.

LEVELS

• Vox Liberatis - Daemonhost: Disabled respawn until the last altar in the final arena.

GENERAL FIXES

• Fixed a bug where the Assault perk "Ascension" could kill its owner.
• Fixed a bug where the Sniper perk "Targeted Shot" wasn’t always working in some cases.
• Fixed an unintended animation cancel with the Bulwark by using the block, which resulted in faster attacks.
• Fixed an issue with the Tactical team perk "Close Targeting" not triggering properly.
• Fixed: Tactical perk "Radiating Impact" not triggering properly.
• Fixed an issue with the Sniper perk "Guardian Protocol" cooldown not working properly.
• Fixed an issue where sound was lost after switching the speaker configuration.
• Fixed several issues in Trials.
• Fixed several issues that were causing loss of saves.
• The Thunder Hammer perk "Patience Rewarded" description is now accurate with its actual effect (added "When your Health is below 30%” part).
• Lots of minor UI fixes and improvements.
• Lots of minor animation fixes and improvements.
• Localisation fixes.

TECH

• Crash fixes and general stability improvements.
• Fixed several connectivity issues causing disconnects for players.
• Slightly improved performance.
• Fixed issues controllers not working with Steam Input enabled.

RENDER IMPROVEMENTS

• General improvements and fixes.

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