This guide will help you to develop an etiquette and playstyle that will let you play better as a team, even together with random strangers. Teamplay is key. 1. My blood is the Emperor's, keeping up my health and armor is my first duty. Learn how to regenerate contested health, how to replenish armor, use finishers, etc - health and armor are your two most important currencies. Keep them up at all times, and prioritize that above anything else. There are exceptions, when you have perks that deal extra damage with low health, so you want to keep it at a specific level, but that is high level gameplay. 2. I fight for my brothers and my brothers fight for me. Keeping up their health is my second duty. Goes without saying, I try to aid my brothers in keeping up their health, too. I am full health and have an execution ready, but my buddy has low health? I leave that execution for them, etc. 3. I do not duel a majoris a brother is duelling, I help clear around him. A brother can judge the flow and parries better if he duels alone 1 vs 1. I also do not launch granades into brothers in melee, it staggers them. I support them with ranged fire instead. (The exception are heavies who always need support in melee.) 4. I do not steal finishers and executions from my brothers. I do not steal finishers and executions from my brothers, unless it is a last ditch effort to survive. If my health and armor are good, I even prepare finishers rather for them instead. 5. I share stims, armor boosts and ammo with my brothers. Health goes to the gene seed carrier first, then the one who can heal a deadly wound with it, then the one with the lowest health, only then will I consider it for myself. On the other hand I do not hesitate to pick them up, if I fit in the categories mentioned above. I use TAB (on PC, or else "show objective") to check the inventory of my brothers and to see who needs what. 6. I dont gobble up stims in arenas where a fight lasts longer. (Like the inferno prometheum bomb section, or the decapitation bridge section, etc.) Instead I leave these stims till the end if possible, to see which brother will need them the most at the end. 7. I ping everything, even stuff that I pick up. This helps my brothers learn locations of what they do not know yet. This goes double for armory data and gene seeds. 8. I prioritize targets ALWAYS in this order: 1. spores; 2. reinforcement callers; 3. ranged minoris, especially cultists; 4. ranged majoris and extremis; 5. melee majoris; 6. terminus. A lot of ppl do this the wrong way around. The reason is very simple: ranged minoris, gaunts and cultists alike, chew through your armor and health like nothing in numbers, especially on ruthless and lethal. Furthermore, dealing with a single terminus or extremis is very easy, when nothing else is clawing at you. Many also call gaunts etc "chaff" - this is not true, left unchecked, they can be deadly. However, they are easy to deal with, so you always get that out of the way first. If a sniper is harassing your team, by all means, prioritize it first. But generally: ranged units first, minoris and majoris alike. Then melee majoris. Then you can easily deal with any terminus and/or extremis. On Chaos missions, ranged cultists in numbers can make or break your day. One bullet gets rid of them. There are exceptions ofc. Zoanthropes should be prioritized, but arguably they are ranged extremis. A lictor messing you up may need attention, too, ofc, etc. In the end it always depends on the situation. Note also that with Tyranid missions, killing a majoris helps clear minoris around it, as they lose the synaptic connection and most of them die, while the remaining stay in trance for a while. This only counts for minoris close to the majoris. Careful though: this does not work with chaos, and tsangors and cultists should never be neglected. My personal flow is to go minoris, majoris, minoris, majoris, as I work myself from ranged majoris to melee majoris one by one. 9. The gene seed is sacred. Bringing home the memory of my fallen brothers is my greatest honor. Therefor, I do not pick it up, if I am assault, or any other class that gets in the mix a lot and has potential to die. If you know you won't die, pick it up. If not, let the tanky classes carry it, like Bulwark. 10. Death is my craft. Therefor I hone my skill. The most important skill that I hone is parry (block) and dodge. I parry a lot, in fact, I parry more than I strike. Note: Almost every player attack animation can be cancelled by pressing the parry or block button. It is very important to learn to animation cancel your own attacks, when needed, especially heavy or charged attacks with prolonged animations and/or wind-up. For example: do not follow through with a charged attack like thunder hammer after shock, if a parry is incoming. Animation cancel it instead, parry, and then see if you find a window to do your charged attack again. Parry/ block and dodge comes above anything else. Pro tip: learn to resist taking each and every gun strike if you risk getting hit. Gun strikes do not give you invulnerability frames, and thus leave you completely vulnerable to attacks while carrying them out. You cannot animation cancel gun strikes. Thus only take them, when you do not risk getting hit while carrying it out. Parry/block/dodge first, then gun strike if you can. Finally: positioning is an important skill to master. Run away if you have to, separate yourself from the big clump that is surrounding you, stretch it into a row if you can, take them on one by one. You can slowly pivot even while parrying, to align yourself for the parry coming from behind you next. Now both will be in front of you. As a heavy and sniper, hang back (depending on build), if you play melee class use the fast side stepping agility to maneuver yourself free, dodge away if you can, and if nothing else works: roly poly for your life. There is zero shame in a tactical, temporary retreat. Be smart, let the xenos and heretics be dumb. 11. I play my class in support of the other classes. I do not get points for kills. I get points for finishing objectives with my brothers. I do what I can to support the team with my class. As a Tactical I use auspex to help clear majoris groups. As a bulwark I place banners that refill contested health next to brothers about to perform finishers, as a sniper I take out majoris, as a heavy, I clear away the chaff and terminus, etc. However, I also do play into my brother's abilities, for example: I won't groundpound into a group of majoris as an assault, before the tactical can place his auspex, or vice versa frag a group in half, when I see an assault preparing a ground pound for that group, etc. Note: as a bulwark I can greatly support my team by placing a contested health banner (end level perk), right when a brother initiates an execution. Likewise, as a bulwark, I never execute a terminus. Instead, I place the banner, and if the team is close-by, it heals the entire team. For how and when to place the flag on terminus execution as a bulwark, check out this guide on reddit with short video clips to illustrate the timing, by u/Mugen8YT. 12. I do not linger. Lingering invites the xeno and the heretic to come for more and triggers new waves. Especially on higher difficulties, I keep moving forward. Especially when the team can close a door behind them. I still diligently clear all waves to get extermination rank A - but I do not linger without reason. Note: With the new extermination rating, of course now finishing all waves is a good thing. But weigh the extra XP vs maybe potentially losing a round. As so often, it depends on the situation. Generally though, when the wave is cleared, do move forward, as lingering will spawn more, new waves that else would not spawn. Note: Waves have a timer. On difficulties minimal through ruthless this timer is visualized at the top of the hud, the square in the center that goes from grey (right after a wave) to light orange to increasingly more dark red, at which point a new wave spawns. Usually extremis spawn ahead of waves, which also indicates that a wave is about to spawn. Lethal and absolute do not show the timer. 13. If a brother is down and needs revival, my survival comes first. I cannot revive a brother if I am dead myself. I do not revive a brother if it can cost my life. 14. I do not play above my level. But my level is not only the level of my class, even more so it is the level of my weapon: Basic and mastercrafted: minimal and average. Artificer: average and substantial. Relic: ruthless and lethal. The only exception I make is to play with master crafted on substantial and artificer weapons on ruthless once my class rank is high enough to earn armory data (there is no way around it at first). Note: on ruthless and above it is not my ability to kill or survive that matters, but the lack of my perks that help the team, which I only get late game, like bulwark contested health banner. So if I play on ruthless (min 15) or lethal (min 20) as a lower level player (below 15 and 20), I deprive my team of much needed abilities and perks that stack against each other, too, and really help survive. Thus my recommendation is to play ruthless on 20 and above and lethal on 25 preferably. Those perks do make a difference, and if you want to be helpful to your team, you bring a maxed out class with end-level perks, like faster ability recharge, etc. Another recommendation: level up the weapons first that are shared among classes. Even a lvl 1 class with a relic weapon can survive substantial and ruthless, but again, mind your lack of perks that the team will be missing, too. 15. I play on lower difficulties first to get to know the maps and objectives, these are the difficulties where I can explore. Yet, I still try not to linger. By the time I play a map on substantial, I know it in and out. I learn all armory data and gene seed locations and potential terminus spawn points. Specific maps have specific mechanics that I know and learn how to use, like turning on the gas at the end of inferno to burn the xenos up the walls, or triggering the train to clear the tracks on ballilstic engine. 16. I can and do parry attacks without the blue parry indicator, from all enemies. When surrounded by minoris, parrying is even more important than against majoris. A perfect parry against a minoris kills the minoris and restores armor, it counts as an execution. Therefor, unless I know a better rhythm for sword, fist, chain or knife, "swing swing parry" is a good rhythm to start, later I can do "combo parry combo parry" and finally as a reflex/reaction to attacks launched from minoris and/or the white attack indicator at the bottom, thus allowing me to duel a majoris, while "blindly" parrying minoris from behind. Note that minoris right next to one cannot be parried, only the ones that strike/launch at you from a (small) distance (with or without the blue indicator). You need to clear the ones hugging you fast. Also note that you need to hit minoris parries much like majoris parries shortly before they strike you. Learn to read their attacks, and sometimes eliminating a swarm that surrounds you with parry alone is better than with strikes, depending on the situation. For some classes a successful parry on minoris, as it is an execution, will restore also armor, etc. Hence, by parrying you can keep your armor up even in a big swarm. 17. I learn and know the combos for my weapons. I can enter the fight arena on the battle barge to practice them. Note that the arena does not take into account perk based moves. I can also practice on minimal private runs. Unfortuantely trials also do not support perk activated combos to train. [If Saber would happen to read this: please give us a proper training arena, where we can spawn enemy types and try out different classes and class builds.] 18. On higher difficulties I look for safe spaces to temporarily retreat. This is especially important for ranged classes like snipers, heavy, etc. Therefore, if I am not a ranged class, I do not drag the bulk of chaff to them, but away from them. Additionally, on higher difficulties as ruthless and above, I conserve my ammo. I melee what I can melee, I use my handgun/melee for smol filth, and my ranged for large filth, as appliccable. 19. I do not run ahead and I do not fall behind. I stick with my brothers. I wait for brothers who are behind, but I also urge them not to linger. I read the room and pace myself accordingly. Especially as a higher level player on lower difficulties. 20. I do not hesitate to pick up items, if offered or needed. If a brother points out stims and my health is low, and the third brother does not pick them up, I pick them up quickly. False modesty does not help. 21. I do not waste ressources. Even as a lvl 25 player on minimal. I do not let stims, relics and the like lie around. One never knows, even on minimal the game stagger animation can hit me hard, send me into stunlock, and suddenly my health drops without me even knowing what happened. It happens to all of us. So we use what we get. The Emperor provides and who are we to say no to the Emperor. Especially as a low level player being fed pickups from higher level players, I quickly accept and allow the team to move on. I prove nothing by letting a relic lie around. False pride will only get me killed. 22. I try not to use the relic actively, as it gives me an additional life. The relic will activate itself, if I die with a mortal wound. If a brother can revive me, I wait patiently until my timer runs out. Only as a last ditch effort I use the relic to revive myself. There are situations where a quick revive can save the day, but unless I am certain, I wait. 23. I know the phases of Terminus enemies and use my abilities and gear accordingly. For example: as a tactical, if my auspex recharges slowly still, I should use my auspex on the Hive Tyrant's second phase preferably, to have it ready when it matters. Therefore: I do not use my slow charging abilities hastily. An extremis or Terminus can always be around the corner, and we all know the feeling of wasting an auspex on a single majoris, only for a carnifex or hellbrute to spawn right afterwards. On the other hand: I do not hesitate using my fast charging abilities, like the heavy's halo, or the sniper's cloak or the vanguard's grappling hook. Note: it again, depends. If you have a team with high recharge perks, fast recharge, by all means, auspex the Tyrant twice, etc. 24. I read the battle and apply myself where it helps best. 3 brothers fighting one majoris, while getting spore bombed from behind is not worthy of an Astartes. What does this mean? Situational Awareness and thus the battlefield is divided by 3 brothers. If all 3 brothers or even 2 brothers focus on the same small area, then who covers the rest? Have your brother's back rather, than pommeling the same majoris. OTOH it can help if all 3 quickly focus on a zoanthrope, etc. In short, be aware of your surroundings and what your brothers are doing at all times. See also Tip 3. 25. I help weaker players to survive, but I also let them have fun. I dont plow through minimal as a level 25 with a nade launcher, so no one gets to have fun. I play towards my team, not against them. I take pride in showing Neophytes the way of an Astartes. Again, we share in the victory of achieving objectives as brothers, not in raking up kills. Those extra 10 XP for most kills, damage or whatever I shove right up a heretic's ass. 26. I enjoy the purge and I revel in the bloodbath. No matter the direness of a situation, I thrive in it and bring joy to myself and my team. 27. Bonus Tip: Terminus on Absolute On absolute, a terminus level enemy (carnifex, neurothrope, hellbrute) spawns with double the health and additionally always spawns a wave with up to 3 extremis with it. Once it reaches below 50% of its health, it always spawns ANOTHER wave - with it with again up to 3 extremis. Therefore I first clear the first wave and extremis, then I engage the Terminus and bring it below 50 % health. Then I focus again on the second wave and extremis, and only once all that is cleared, do I finish the Terminus. If the Terminus is brought down immediately below 50% health you end up with 2 waves of enemies and up to 6 extremis. 28. Bonus Tip 2: How Crates work In general you need to know three things about crates in space marine 2: 1. They will give you what you need most. 2. They have a cool down timer on the type of item last given. 3. The game prioritizes what you need for you, in this order: a) Armor b) Ammo c) Grenades d) Health Therefore, if you have low health and make sure you have all of the above, full armor, full ammo and grenades, you drastically increase your chance of the crate dropping a stim. For example, you are at the warhead deployment section on ballistic engine, you cleared all waves, you have grenades left, but you have no armor and low health and are low on ammo: go rearm at the ammo crate, wait for ALL your armor to return, then pop the crates, and unless someone just picked up a stim, you have a high chance of getting one. If you would not wait for your armor to return, you will almost always get an armor boost instead, etc. Note that there is still some RNG to it, and so sometimes you will still get an armor boost or ammo, etc instead. However, you will find way more stims than usual if you follow the above. The cooldown timer means that popping two crates right after each other won't give you the same type of item twice. Hence, wait, for example in an arena where you spend longer, and save them for later if you can. Finally, if you have a mortal wound and find a stim, but not enough health for the stim to clear your wound, and have a bulwark with you: do not use your stim right away. Ask or wait for the bulwark to drop his banner (provided he has a contested health banner), then use it, as it will clear your mortal wound.