Best Tactical build in Space Marine 2: Weapons, perks & how to play

Space Marine 2’s Tactical build is the classic look and loadout for the Emperor’s Angels of Death. Here’s how to assemble the build and use it effectively.

Those who’ve played the Warhammer 40K tabletop game will know that a Tactical Marine is the standard template for the Adeptus Astartes. While the term has been largely replaced by Primaris in the current setting, the term Tactical is still used to describe the default, and most versatile, Space Marine loadout.

Space Marine 2 also uses it to describe this combat style in the game’s story campaign, Operations, and PvP mode. So, here’s how to assemble the classic Tactical build to become a Tyranid-slaying beast.

Recommended build for Tactical

Here are the best weapons, items, and perks for the Tactical build:

Category	Item
Weapon	– Auto Bolt Rife – Chainsword
Grenade	– Frag Grenade
Perks	– Balanced Distribution – Relentless Pursuit – Emperor’s Vengence – Steady Aim – Final Shot – Radiating Impact – Heightened Vigour – Versatility

Best weapons explained

Primary weapon – Auto Bolt Rifle

While you can use more, these are the best perks for the Auto Bolt Rifle:

Perk	Description
Head Hunter	Headshots do 10% more damage
Extended Magazine	Magazine size increases by 15% of the maximum
Fast Reload	Reload all weapons 10% faster
Great Might	Damage increases by 10% against Terminus enemies
Cleaving Fire	Shots will penetrate enemy Block Stances, dealing 25% of the usual damage
Fast Regeneration	Killing an enemy restores armor 0.5 second earlier
Chaos Eliminator	Damage against Chaos enemies increased by 10%
Tyranid Eliminator	Damage against Tyranids enemies increased by 10%

These perks will help you do more damage to all enemies while ensuring your armor stays topped up at all times. We’ve also targeted perks that help you reload quicker and carry more ammo so that you can stay in the fight longer.

Secondary weapon – Bolt Pistol

The Bolt Pistol is the ideal secondary weapon for the Tactical build, use the following perks:

Perk	Description
Great Might	Damage increases by 10% against Terminus enemies.
Retaliation	After a perfectly timed Dodge, you deal 25% more Damage for 5 seconds.
Gun Strike Reload	After a Gun Strike, the equipped Weapon instantly reloads.
Perpetual Precision	Maximum Spread decreases by 10%.
Head Hunter	Headshots deal 10% more Damage.
Elite Hunter	After killing a Majoris-level or higher enemy with a Melee Weapon, Headshots deal 50% more Damage for 5 seconds.
Extended Magazine	Magazine size increases by 15% of the maximum.
Divine Might	Damage increases by 10%

The Bolt Pistol is intended to be your backup weapon, but there are some perks that make it much more deadly. Ensuring it instantly reloads, does more damage, and can carry more ammo will help the weapon feel like more than just a sidearm.

The Elite Hunter and Retaliation perks also mean that when used as part of a combo, the bolt pistol is a powerful tool, and not only does it buff you, your other skills can buff it.

Melee weapon – Chainsword

The Chainsword is the default melee weapon for the Tactical build and is optimized by the below perks:

Perk	Description
Armored Strength	When you have full Armor, Melee Damage increases by 10%.
Crushing Heel	Enemies hit by Stomp deal 30% less Damage for 4 seconds. Cooldown is 10 Seconds.
Perpetual Strength	Melee Damage increases by 5%.
Reverberating Impact	Stomp AOE radius increases by 50%.
Chaos Slayer	Melee Damage against Chaos enemies increases by 10%.
Hard Target	While performing a Light Combo, you take 15% less Ranged Damage.
Trampling Stride	After performing a Stomp, hold the attack button to perform an additional Stomp.
Extremis Slayer	Melee Damage against Extremis-level enemies increases by 10%.
Kill Streak	After killing 10 enemies in rapid succession with a Light Combo, you do not lose control upon taking Heavy Hit and you cannot be knocked back for 5 seconds. Cooldown in 10 seconds.

The Chainsword will be your best friend for most of the game, especially if you stick to this build. The above perks not only increase its damage, they also increase the powerful stomp radius which will be a great help in controlling mobs. We’ve also opted for some defensive perks to support you when you’re in the thick of combat.

Best grenades for Tactical – Frag grenade

Frag grenades are the most common form of explosives you’ll find in Space Marine 2 and are effective crowd control options as well as being effective against elites. They’re also more common than Melter Bombs and Krak grenades can be restocked quickly.

Our advice is to use them as your main form of explosive throughout your sessions and throw them liberally due to them being so easy to come by. Slower, more ponderous enemies will be especially vulnerable to their blast radius.

Best perks for Operations

While PvP gets a choice of grenade, the Operations get character perks, which can be perfect for expertly crafting a powerful Space Marine. Thankfully, you can grab multiple — and we’d suggest prioritizing the following ones for the Tactical build:

Perk	Description
Balanced Distribution	Your Primary Weapon deals 10% more damage, but your secondary weapon does 10% less damage
Relentless Pursuit	After a Gun Stroke, Ranged damage increases by 25% for 5 seconds
Emperor’s Vengence	Killing a Majoris-level or higher enemy restores your Primary Weapon’s ammo by 1 magazine.
Steady Aim	Recoil is reduced by 10%
Final Shot	After a finisher, the equipped ranged weapon reloads automatically
Radiating Impact	A melee finisher deals significant AOE damage
Heightened Vigour	After a perfectly timed dodge, you do not lose control upon taking heavy hits and cannot be knocked back for 5 seconds
Versatility	After switching weapons, your secondary weapon does 20% more damage

These perks all work passively to buff your Tactical skills and weapons. Used in tandem, they’ll also make sure you’re as powerful as many of the other more specialist builds. For example, we buff your main weapon at the cost of the side arm but make up for this with the Versatility perk.

Decreasing recoil also means you’ll be able to blast enemies more accurately from a distance and by having our ammo reloaded after a finisher, it means we’ll never need to find cover to do so. We can essentially go right back to shooting without needing to find those precious seconds. Theoretically, if we move, shoot, melee, and execute in that order, we’ll never need to even bother reloading.

Essentially, the above perks will optimize the Tactical setup to make it as effective as it can possibly be.

How to play the Tactical

The Tactical build is essentially the default Space Marine setup, Bolt Rife, Bolt Pistol, and Chainsword, without any of the fancy gimmicks of the other builds. On the tabletop, this is the standard Space Marine loadout. While it appears basic, it’s actually the most well-rounded and versatile build you can use.

It’s reliable and you’ll be able to weather any storm the game throws at you, be it in PvP or PvE. You’ll have a solid main weapon for ranged encounters, a mid-range but effective melee weapon, and a backup sidearm should you run out of ammo. So switch between these weapons as you need.

Don’t be afraid to tailor the build to suit your needs as you get more confident using it. For example, there’s no harm in upgrading your Bolt Rife to the grenade launcher option for more firepower. Or you could decide to take advantage of the Plasma perks and use a Plasma Pistol as your sidearm instead.

While it’s not as good for crowd control, you could decide to use the Combat Knife or Power Sword instead of the Chainsword. Especially, the Tactical build offers you an excellent foundation from which you can customize and create your ideal Ultramarine.

If you want to use a more specialized loadout, check out our breakdown of the Bulwark and Assault builds.