Ahead of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Patch 8, Fans Believe Datamines Have Revealed Everything From the New Class to a New, Much-Wanted Melee Weapon and a Surprising New Gun

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 will soon see the release of Patch 8, which publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Saber Interactive have already said heralds the arrival of the hotly anticipated Horde mode.

But what else might it include? Recent datamines of Space Marine 2 itself may hold clues.

Warning! Potential spoilers for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 follow:

Let’s start with perhaps the biggest question Space Marine 2 fans have right now: what is the new class? Datamines suggest it is the Techmarine. Why? Because in the files was mention of a perk called ‘shoulder gun bolter,’ which is a clear indication that Techmarines are finally in play.

For the uninitiated, a Techmarine is a Space Marine engineer-type class who’s a big fan of the Cult Mechanicus as well as their Chapter. They’re big on technology and specialize in fixing and maintaining vehicles and other big stuff, such as Dreadnaughts.

You can see how a Techmarine might slot into a Space Marine 2 squad, which currently lacks a class of this type. And this ties into another datamined detail: the apparent ability to “summon” a Dreadnaught in Horde mode. Dreadnaughts are a part of the Space Marine 2 campaign (one viral moment involves a Dreadnaught being particularly heroic and badass), and you also fight alongside one in a PvE Operations mission. Could you earn the right to summon a Dreadnaught and, as a Techmarine, keep it alive, in Horde mode?

Now onto the promised new melee weapon. Datamines suggest Space Marine 2 will finally get a Power Axe, which again, makes sense in the context of Games Workshop’s big Space Wolves push for the tabletop game. And let’s remember, in December, IGN reported on Space Marine 2 modders who put the axe from Secret Level’s Warhammer 40,000 episode into the game.

THIS is why I’m a fan of Warhammer 40k! Hats off to @PrimeVideo for producing Secret Level: And They Shall Know No Fear. Watch it here: https://t.co/Gf0i2d0Rus

I highly recommend giving the entire 19 min episode a watch. It’s immersive and awesome. It’s a happy grim dark ray of… pic.twitter.com/iuYxprAo2J

— MiniWarGamer Dave (@MWGdave) December 10, 2024

There’s more! As discussed in a recent video by Warhammer 40,000 YouTuber Chapter Master Valrak, dataminers recently unearthed evidence of a Grav-cannon in Space Marine 2. This is, typically, a big gun used by Space Marines that manipulate gravity to cause a target to crush itself to death. Could the Techmarine class, should it be a genuine upcoming arrival, exclusively wield the Grav-cannon? If so, I imagine there will be many players who gravitate towards it with the release of Patch 8.

It’s worth noting that Patch 8 remains under wraps for now, but we’re expecting Space Marine 2-related announcements during the upcoming Warhammer Skulls livestream this Thursday, May 22. Perhaps we’ll find out more there.

There’s a lot happening in the world of Space Marine 2, despite the surprise announcement that development of Space Marine 3 development had begun. Space Marine 2’s year one roadmap remains in place.

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.