Space Marine 2: Lethal Difficulty Rewards Guide

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2‘s new Lethal-tier difficulty mode is a kind of an exercise in frustration as of Patch 4, and we don’t know if that’s going to change anytime soon. The good news is that Lethal Mode does have some exclusive rewards, should you choose to pursue them.

For those who really are fine with tanking dozens of Zoanthropes in Lethal Mode per mission, the developer Saber Interactive has cooked up a few admittedly cool cosmetic items. There’s no new tier of weaponry tied to Lethal Mode (thank the Emperor for that), but I’m all but certain that the availability of fancy new difficulty-exclusive cosmetics will have players itching at the bits to unlock them. Here’s what you need to do, and what Lethal Mode’s exclusive rewards are.

All Lethal Difficulty Rewards in Space Marine 2

In the broadest possible sense, there are two all-new exclusive Lethal Mode rewards released as part of Patch 4:

• Survivor’s Helm: a battle-damaged Astartes helmet
• Unique battle-damaged Power Sword skin

To unlock the Survivor’s Helm, you’ll need to complete each and every one of Space Marine 2‘s Patch 4 Operations on Lethal difficulty (seven in total). Getting the Power Sword skin is comparatively easy, though still punishingly challenging for regular players: complete the new Termination Operation on Lethal difficulty.

Of course, there’s a host of other rewards to keep in mind, too. For example, there are unique decals tied to the completion of each Operation on every difficulty, and Termination comes with an assortment of these as well.

Are Space Marine 2 Lethal difficulty rewards worth it?

Saber Interactive has already promised a ton of new content coming to Space Marine 2 in 2024 and 2025, and it just so happens that Lethal Mode was a part of the game’s first major update. Patch 4 introduced the Termination Operation, Lethal difficulty, and the exclusive rewards tied to it, but it also heavily nerfed players in some key ways. As it stands, I’m not sure I’d recommend chasing after these if you’re not already extremely familiar with Space Marine 2‘s meta and have a capable fire team of players ready to go.

Space Marine 2 is already loaded with an impressive selection of cosmetics that are far easier to unlock, so unless you’ve already cleared up everything the game’s got to offer, Lethal exclusives may be easier to get later down the line.

As previously discussed here at Destructoid, Space Marine 2 comes with a curious progression and difficulty curve. It’s not entirely intuitive at a glance, and jumping straight into anything higher than ‘Minimal’ is just about useless before you rank up a tad. So, unless you’ve got nothing else to chase after, maybe wait for the next patch to drop before trying out Lethal Mode.