Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 — Achievement Walkthrough

Environmental hazards are the red explosive canisters/barrels, fuel tanks, and the ledges you can knock enemies off. Shoot barrels in the middle of Tyranid swarms (they cluster, so one blast kills several) and kick/melee enemies off high edges. It's cumulative across the whole game — make a habit of shooting the red canisters and it adds up over the campaign + Operations.

Finishers (executions) trigger on staggered enemies — the game tracks UNIQUE finisher animations, which vary by enemy type and by the weapon you're holding. To get 50 unique ones, execute many different enemy types (Gaunts, Warriors, Chaos Marines, etc.) with different weapons equipped. Rotate your loadout across missions and finish every enemy type you meet; the counter fills naturally.

Raveners (the burrowing snake-Tyranids) sometimes grab a squadmate. When you see one holding a battle-brother, shoot it enough / damage it and it drops them. Just keep firing on the Ravener while it has a squadmate and it releases them — do this once and it pops.

Certain enemies (Tyranid Warriors that screech, or Chaos casters) signal for reinforcements — there's a clear animation/prompt. Kill them mid-call. 5 total, cumulative. Watch for the reinforcement-call indicator during swarms and prioritise that enemy; snipe it before the call finishes.

Operations is the 3-player co-op PvE mode. Tyranid-faction Operations throw huge swarms, so kills rack up fast — a few full Operations runs clear 1000. Play the Tyranid missions with an AoE-friendly class (Heavy, Bulwark) and you'll blow past it. Counts alongside The Thousand Dead Sons (Chaos) and the big cumulative kill achievements.

Lictors stalk you and lunge from ambush. If you spot the Lictor (it cloaks/skitters at the edges) and shoot it down BEFORE it springs its ambush attack, this unlocks. Stay alert during quiet stretches, watch for the Lictor's silhouette, and open fire early — don't let it get the jump on you.

Same as Xenos Exterminator but on Chaos-faction Operations (Thousand Sons enemies). Run the Chaos Operations missions repeatedly; the swarms make 1000 quick. Pairs with the cumulative-kill achievements, so grinding Operations progresses several at once.

Pickups are the gene-seed/servo-skull/armoury data collectibles scattered through Operations maps. Explore each Operation fully rather than rushing the objective — check side rooms and off-path corners. 200 is cumulative across all your Operations runs, so it fills naturally if you loot as you go.

In Chaos content, Lesser Sorcerers revive downed Rubric Marines (an obvious channel animation). Catch a Sorcerer mid-revive and kill him during it. Focus-fire or burst the Sorcerer the moment he starts reviving a Rubric — a ranged burst or a Gun Strike lands it.

In the Armoury/Barracks, open a class and customise every armour piece (helmet, shoulders, chest, arms, legs — plus colours). You unlock cosmetic parts by playing/leveling, but you can apply the default customisation options to fill every slot. Set each piece for one class and it pops.

Ruthless is a high Operations difficulty — go in with a leveled class, upgraded weapons, and ideally a coordinated team (or capable bots). Pick an Operation you know well, stick together, revive fast, and manage armour with executions. One full Ruthless completion unlocks it. Level a class and its weapons first (see the max-level achievements) to make it manageable.

Eternal War is the 6v6 PvP mode. Win one match of any type. Play the objective with your team and you'll bank a win before long. This is the gateway to the other Eternal War achievements (play-count and mode-win ones), so start your PvP grind here.

Each of the six Operations classes levels up with XP earned in Operations. Pick your favourite (Tactical and Heavy level comfortably) and grind Operations on the highest difficulty you can clear (more XP per run). Max class level takes many runs but also unlocks perks that help everything else.

Weapons level via the kills you get with them equipped. Stick with ONE ranged weapon (e.g. the Bolt Rifle / Heavy Bolter) across many Operations to max it. Don't spread kills across weapons — commit to one and its level climbs steadily. Pairs with the big kill grinds.

Same as Strongest Shot but for a melee weapon (Chainsword, Power Fist, Thunder Hammer, etc.). Equip one melee weapon and get melee kills/finishers with it across Operations. Bulwark and Assault get lots of melee work, so they max a melee weapon fastest.

Heavy Stance is the Heavy class's planted-firing mode (stationary, high fire rate, with a shield). Play Heavy, enter Heavy Stance during swarms, and mow down Tyranids — they come in huge numbers so 500 accrues over a few Heavy runs. Only kills made WHILE in stance count, so hold the stance during the big waves.

Scarab Occult Terminators (elite Chaos) do melee combos. A Perfect Parry is a precisely-timed parry on a blue-flashing attack. You need TWO perfect parries back-to-back to break their combo. Learn the parry timing (parry the instant the blue indicator flashes), then face a Terminator's melee combo and land two clean perfect parries in sequence. Practice parry timing on lesser enemies first.

Cumulative across Campaign, Operations, and Eternal War. 20,000 is a lot but Operations swarm-clearing gets you there over many sessions. Play AoE classes (Heavy with heavy bolter, Bulwark, Assault ground-pounds) on Tyranid Operations for max kill throughput. This ticks toward Still a True Son (41,000) too.

Assault uses a jump pack; Ground Pound is the slam attack from the air. Leap into packed Tyranid swarms and slam — each pound can hit many enemies (all count). 500 HITS (not kills) accrue fast when you pound into dense groups. Play Assault on swarm-heavy Operations.

Play the Sniper class and land headshots with the bolt sniper/las fusil. Tyranid Warriors and Chaos Marines have clear heads to hit; the Sniper's scope makes precise shots easy. 250 cumulative — aim for heads every shot on Sniper runs and it fills quickly.

A Gun Strike is the quick pistol-hit prompt that appears after a perfect dodge or a parry. Play Vanguard, dodge/parry to trigger the Gun Strike prompt, and land it — 100 total. Vanguard's grapple also sets up Gun Strikes. Just play aggressively and take every Gun Strike prompt.

The big cumulative-kill milestone — double the 20,000 one. Pure playtime; grind Tyranid Operations with high-AoE builds. Nothing to do but keep playing; every kill in every mode counts. Treat it as the long-tail goal you complete while chasing the class/weapon level achievements.

Bulwark (shield class) must get 100 melee kills with EACH melee weapon it can equip. Cycle through every Bulwark melee weapon, playing runs until each hits 100 kills. Bulwark melee-kills constantly, so it's just a matter of rotating weapons and putting in the runs for each one.

Tactical has access to the widest primary-weapon pool. Get 25 kills with EACH primary it can use — swap to a different primary each run and clear 25 kills (trivial in a swarm) before switching. Work through the whole list; Tactical's flexibility makes this the easiest of the per-weapon class achievements.

You need a PvP WIN with each of the six classes. Rotate the class you queue as, and keep playing until you've won at least once on all six. Play objectives and stick with the team to maximise win rate. The play-count achievements (War Machine, Unwavering Faith, Dominator = 10 matches of each mode) come naturally while you grind these wins.

Marking = tagging an enemy (the ping/scan). Over the campaign and Operations you'll encounter every enemy type; mark each new type you see. Use a checklist of enemy types if you're missing a few — the rarer elites (specific Chaos/Tyranid variants) are the ones people miss, so mark elites whenever they appear.

Dataslates are the campaign's lore collectibles hidden through the missions. Use a collectible-location guide and mission select to grab any you missed. Explore off the main path — they're tucked in side areas. Missable-free since you can replay missions to mop up.

Awarded for completing the full single-player Campaign on any difficulty. All the empty-description story achievements (The Die Is Cast, Chaos All Along, Break of Dawn, Into the Abyss, etc.) unlock automatically as you clear each mission, so a straight playthrough earns this plus that whole set. Play on a lower difficulty if you just want the story achievements quickly — none of them require Ruthless.