Months after launch, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II is still pulling over 21,000 daily peak concurrent players on Steam, a number that puts it ahead of several high-profile multiplayer releases from the past year, including Marathon. That kind of retention does not happen by accident.
Here's the thing: Saber Interactive has been treating Space Marine 2 with the kind of update cadence you normally reserve for a live-service title. New missions, new classes, new enemies, all dropped at a pace that keeps the player count from collapsing. Patch 13.0, released alongside the Warhammer Skulls event, is the latest example of that commitment paying off.
Siege 2.0 perk selection
Siege 2.0 makes horde runs faster and nastier
The centerpiece of Patch 13.0 is what Saber calls Siege 2.0, a full structural rework of the horde mode added back in June. The goal, according to the developer, is to make sessions "quicker and more intense" while giving players more build-crafting options so each run feels distinct.
The rework introduces a blessings and atonements system. Every five waves, players pick up extra perks, but the game also throws in modifiers that shake up the challenge. New bosses spawn on that same five-wave cadence, so the pressure keeps escalating rather than plateauing mid-run.
Overall difficulty has been tuned upward across the board. Saber also confirmed that the update resets completed wave counts in player save files, so anyone who grinded their way to a high wave total will be starting fresh. You'll want to clear your schedule.
Patch 13.0 resets Siege Mode wave progress in all player save files. Your previous completion count will not carry over.
What else Patch 13.0 adds to Operations
Siege Mode is not the only thing getting attention. The patch drops a brand new Operations mission called Purgation, which sends your squad into the Kadaku swamps to reclaim a Mechanicus facility. That brings the total mission count up again in a game that launched with a relatively lean Operations roster.
Two other additions round out the patch:
- A battle simulator that lets you practice combat against enemies before heading into live missions
- The ability to swap perk loadouts mid-session, removing the need to back out and rebuild before trying a different approach
- Expanded cosmetic customisation options
New Purgation Operations mission
The perk swapping addition is the kind of quality-of-life fix that sounds minor until you realize how much friction it removes from experimenting with different builds. What most players miss about long-running games like this is that small systems changes often do more for replayability than new content does.
A 70% discount and free trial until June 3
Paired with the patch is a free trial that opens up two campaign missions, three Operations, and all PvP modes. If the trial lands, the full game is currently sitting at $18 after a 70% discount. That window closes on June 3, so the timing is deliberate: pull in new players with the trial, convert them while Siege 2.0 is fresh and the community is active.
For a shooter game that already proved itself as a single-player experience, the multiplayer side has quietly become the reason people stick around. The combination of a reworked horde mode, a new mission, and a low entry price is a reasonable pitch to anyone who bounced off the game at launch or never picked it up.
The key here is that Space Marine 2 keeps earning its player count rather than coasting on launch momentum. For everything you need to get the most out of the new content, the Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II guide collection has you covered as Siege 2.0 rolls out.
