Space Marine 2’s Vanguard build is based on the classic Primaris style of Astartes who became the Emperor’s new Angels of Death, effectively replacing Tactical Marines. Here’s how to assemble the build and use it effectively.
Those who’ve played the Warhammer 40K tabletop game will know that a Vanguard Marine is the latest model of Adeptus Astartes. After returning from his ten thousand-year slumber, the Ultramarines Primarch, Robute Guilliman unveiled his new upgraded Space Marines, then encouraged all the Chapters to incorporate them.
In Space Marine 2, all the Marines are Primaris, but their main combat style, the “Intecessor Primaris” is represented by the Vanguard build. In the game’s story campaign, Titus has just been upgraded to a Primaris having gone through the “Rubicon surgery.”
Recommended build for Vanguard
Here are the best weapons, items, and perks for the Vanguard build:
| Category | Item |
|---|---|
| Weapon | – Auto Bolt Rife– Chainsword |
| Grenade | – Frag Grenade |
| Perks | – Moving Target– Duellist– Melee Mastery– Conviction– Honed Reactions– Consecutive Execution– Emperor’s Blessing– Retribution |
Best weapons explained
Primary weapon – Instigator Bolt Carbine
While you can use more, these are the best perks for the Instigator Bolt Carbine:
| Perk | Description |
|---|---|
| Head Hunter | Headshots do 10% more damage. |
| Magazine Restoration | When your health drops below 30%, your ammo reserve is restored by a full magazine. |
| Fast Reload | Reload all weapons 10% faster. |
| Adamant Reload | When your health drops below 30%, the equipped weapon instantly reloads. |
| Perpetual Fire | Fire rate increases by 10%. |
| Fast Regeneration | Killing an enemy restores armor 0.5 of a second earlier. |
| Perpetual Range | Range increased by 1 metre. |
| Extended Magazine | Magazine size increases by 15% of the maximum. |
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 Vanguard 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 – Combat Knife
The Combat Knife is the fastest and most efficient melee weapon in the game, so it’s perfect for the Vanguard build. Here are our recommended perks:
| Perk | Description |
|---|---|
| Armored Strength | When you have full Armor, Melee Damage increases by 10%. |
| Sharp Impact | Right and Left Skull Crusher AOE damage radius increases by 50% |
| Perpetual Strength | Melee Damage increases by 5%. |
| Chaos Slayer | 10% damage increase against Chaos. |
| Reeling Blow | Enemies hit by Whirlwind Slash deal 30% less damage. |
| Hard Target | While performing a Light Combo, you take 15% less Ranged Damage. |
| Tyranid Slayer | 10% damage increase against Tyranids. |
| 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 Combat Knife is ideal for slaying enemies quickly, but its limited reach makes it not as good as the Chainsword for crowd control. The purpose of this weapon is to kill a few enemies quickly, and then get back to shooting.
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With this in mind, we’ve focused on perks that make it more deadly, so you can do more damage in a faster window of time. However, we’ve also added defensive perks and upgrades that buff your overall damage such as the Chaos and Tyranid Slayer perks. This way, you can receive the buff quickly, and then apply it to your firearms.
Best grenades for Vanguard – 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 Vanguard build:
| Perk | Description |
|---|---|
| Moving Target | Each melee attack you land reduced ranged damage by 1%. |
| Duellist | Perfect Parry Window increased by 50%. |
| Emperor’s Blessing | Taking lethal damage restores all armor instead of incapacitating you. |
| Conviction | Take 15% less health damage when armor is depleted. |
| Melee Mastery | Melee damages increased by 10%. |
| Honed Reactions | When your health is less than 50%, your Perfect Dodge window is doubled. |
| Consecutive Execution | Killing 10 enemies in rapid succession restore Equipment Charge by 1. |
| Retribution | Deal 20% more melee damage after getting knocked back for 10 seconds. |
These perks all work passively to buff your Vanguard skills and weapons. Used in tandem, they’ll also make sure you’re as powerful as possible. We’ve focused on skills that buff and help you perform parry and dodge enemies, ensuring you can remain mobile and do increasing amounts of damage as enemies fail to land a hit on you.
We’ve also tailored to the build to help you recover from being knocked back quickly, and use the Retribution perk buff to come back swinging with a 20% damage increase. The Emperor’s Blessing perk will also keep you alive for longer, allowing you to keep fighting after a killing blow. This also works in tandem with the Conviction perk, making you extra hard to kill.
How to play the Vanguard
The Vanguard build is essentially the classic rogue setup, focusing on speed and maneuverability instead of strength and power. The combat knife in this build is for close encounters, but it’s mostly designed to keep you alive and send you right back to shooting, buffed, and more dangerous than ever.
Therefore we recommend you welcome melee combat, then take advantage of the buff to gleefully mow down more Tyranids. Just know that you’re not as powerful in prolonged melee battles as you would be using other builds.
The Vanguard setup is a specialist build for those who want to play as an Intercessor Marine rather than one of the “First Born” Space Marines, enjoying all the benefits this style of combat brings. Your mantra for this build should be move, shoot, stab, repeat.
If you want to use a more specialized loadout, check out our breakdown of the Bulwark and Assault builds.