Powerful as they are volatile, plasma weapons are a class of weaponry that spans multiple categories, including sidearms, rifles, cannon and even massive ship and armour-mounted variants. In Space Marine 2, the wide gamut of plasma weaponry is shrunk down to three variants - the Plasma Pistol, Plasma Incinerator and Heavy Plasma Incinerator, filling the primary weapon, secondary weapon and heavy weapon niches. In every category, plasma weapons deal middling damage and are medium-range weapons, mostly notable for their gimmick of having to moderate overheat rather than deal with reloading. This page will cover the Plasma Pistol weapon in Space Marine 2, detailing its stats, variants, the classes who can use it and how to effectively use it.

Page Breakdown¶

Plasma Pistol Classes¶

Titus gains access to all sidearms, something none of the classes in Operations mode or Eternal War mode can boast. You’ll find it early in the campaign, where it’ll compete with the Heavy Bolt Pistol for a spot on your hip, and in campaign mode the choice isn’t hugely important. In Operations mode, however, this choice becomes much more interesting due to weapon limitations and upgrades. Only the Bulwark and Heavy can use a Plasma Pistol, and in both cases the Bolt Pistol is this weapon’s only competition.

While the Plasma Pistol initially seems like the clear choice over the humble Bolt Pistol, boasting better damage, accuracy and range at the expense of rate of fire and lacking any ability to pierce, the Bolt Pistol closes the damage gap at higher quality tiers. The two classes who have access to the Plasma Pistol notably don’t have access to a weapon with superior range, which may be the only tie-breaker that matters, plus the Plasma Pistol’s ability to fire potent charged shots shouldn’t be underestimated. On the other hand, since every class has access to a Bolt Pistol, upgrading that weapon at some point will empower… well, every class.

Using the Plasma Pistol Effectively¶

The big draw of the Plasma Pistol is its range and damage capacity, which in the latter case includes the ability to fire charged shots. In the case of the Heavy and Bulwark classes, their primary weapons have limited range, so if you need to pick off a Zoanthrope or some other distant menace, the Plasma Pistol can be worth its weight in gold. In this case, all other upsides or downsides might just be irrelevant - as a dedicated sidearm you won’t use the Plasma Pistol unless strictly necessary, and it’ll serve well enough to pick off the odd majoris or extremis enemy, but it has no AoE and shouldn’t be relied upon to deal with mobs.

While reasonably accurate and possessing decent range on paper, the Plasma Pistol is actually fairly inaccurate unless you actually, you know, aim. The inability to strike anything beyond a stone’s throw range unless you’re aiming further undermines this weapon as a mob-killer, solidifying its role as a weapon best reserved for elites. The Plasma Pistol never needs to be reloaded. Instead, plasma weapons generate heat when fired, and if fired too consistently they’ll overheat, becoming momentarily inoperable. You can manually shed heat by holding / , but the overheat penalty isn’t all that onerous, or just moderate your fire rate to ensure the weapon doesn’t overheat. Failing either of those options, you can switch between primary and secondary weapons when one overheats - by the time you need to switch back, the unruly plasma weapon should have cooled down.

Reinforcing the Plasma Pistol’s strengths (at the expense of exacerbating its weaknesses) is the ability to perform charged shots by holding down the fire button. This will cause two bars framing the aiming reticle to fill, and once fully blue you’ll be able to fire a charged shot, dealing greatly increased damage. The downsides are manifold - this consumes a great deal of ammo and generates a lot of weapon heat, but for the weapon’s primary role it’s a great boon. Two fully charged shots can down most majoris and even some extremis enemies (assuming the quality of the weapon and the difficulty level of the map aren’t too divergent), making the Plasma Pistol great at what the Bulwark and Heavy presumably want in a sidearm - a credible long-range threat.

All in all the Plasma Pistol is a more deliberate sidearm with diminished ammo capacity but greater stopping power, surprisingly potent if you’re dealing with a singular powerful enemy, but poor against mobs. A Heavy armed with a Multi-Melta or a Bulwark might want to grab a Plasma Pistol and keep it handy throughout their career, but a Heavy using a Heavy Bolter or Heavy Plasma Incinerator might not need the extra two ticks of range. Then again, if you pick the Heavy Plasma Incinerator you can select class perks that boost the efficacy of plasma weapons, benefits your sidearm will also enjoy.

Plasma Pistol Stats and Variants¶

Statistically the Plasma Pistol fall right between the Bolt Pistol and Heavy Bolt Pistol - it has a healthy but not exceptional Firepower score of 3+ and boasts an Accuracy score of 5+, Rate of Fire of 3+. Its Venting Speed of 4 ensures it sheds heat faster than its heavier plasma counterparts, and it has a Range of 7. The Plasma Pistol’s Magazine Capacity is 90, which vanishes startlingly quickly if you’re using charged shots. Given its stats, the Plasma Pistol packs a punch more similar to a Bolt Rifle, being kept in check mostly due to its slowish fire rate.

Higher tier variants of the Plasma Pistol increases the weapon’s damage, of course, but also rate of fire, magazine capacity and venting speed, although only the latter two are really noteworthy - the 4+ Rate of Fire statline on the Ophelian Liberation isn’t going to change how this weapon performs much, and can actually be a hindrance due to greater overheating!

Plasma Pistol Weapon Perks¶

Mastering all eight Plasma Pistol variants will allow you unlock a variety of weapon perks, most of which are aimed at generating less heat, charging shots faster, increasing the negligible AoE of charged shots, cooling the weapon faster, and increasing ammo capacity. The AoE boost of charged shots has so little effect on this weapon’s overall functionality that we’re inclined to ignore the entire top row, instead selecting most of the perks on the bottom row… at least in the Standard, Master-Crafted and Artificer tiers. None of the Relic tier perks are all that impressive, so after maxing out the bottom row through Artificer tier, we jump up to the top row to get the two “Perpetual Velocity” perks. All in all, boosting our charged shot damage, magazine capacity, and charge rate are worthwhile perks that make the Plasma Pistol better at doing what it does best - powerful charged shots against ranged enemies.