The Bulwark class is Space Marine 2’s ideal tank class, soaking up damage and drawing aggro from smaller enemy groups while also supporting the team with a banner that keeps them alive longer in the heat of battle. In this guide, we’ll show you the best loadout you should take and what perks you can spend Requisitions on to become the ultimate close-combat frontline fighter.
Table of Contents
Bulwark Class Mechanics and Passive
The Bulwark class primarily uses a melee weapon and a sidearm but is unable to use a primary weapon due to their Storm Shield taking up space. Because of this, Bulwarks should always engage in melee, using their sidearm to aggressively advance towards enemies. The Storm Shield is unique in that it can block all enemy projectiles and has a special shield bash function that can be used for a follow up Gun Strike on Minoris enemies.
Their Wargear, the Chapter Banner, slowly restores the armor of any ally standing near it. With certain perks, this banner can even knock back smaller enemies and provide full Contested Health to you and your allies.
As for your passive, the Bulwark class starts with 20% more health than other classes, making it truly sturdy for dealing with highly chaotic scenarios.
Bulwark Perks
This class has the following perks available:
Core Perks
- Conviction
- When your armor is depleted, you take 15% less health damage for 10 seconds
- Armour of Contempt
- Blocking a Ranged Attack damages all nearby enemies
- Defensive Advantage
- Perfect Parries create a Shock area for 5s
- Intimidating Aura
- Perfect Parries deal AoE damage in a small radius
- Shock and Awe
- Enemies within a Shock area take 25% more damage from all sources.
- Steel Within
- You take 25% less health damage when you are below 50% health
- Forward Momentum
- You gain 25% more melee damage after executing a Shield Bash
- Scrambled Targeting
- You take 20% less damage when surrounded by 5 or more enemies
- Armour Reinforcement
- Non-Finisher Gun Strikes restore armor (Executing a Gun Strike on a Majoris to Terminus class enemy.)
Team Perks
- Unyielding Ceramite
- Armor regeneration delay is reduced by 5 seconds for allies (base duration is 25 seconds)
- Advanced Conditioning
- All allies gain 50% slower Contested Health drain
- Effective Formation
- All allies take 20% less damage from Terminus-class enemies
Gear Perks
- Concussive Force
- Shield Bash deals more Damage
- Purity of Purpose
- Banner deals damage over time in a small radius
- Rejuvenating Effect
- Your Chapter Banner revives downed teammates
- Rapid Regeneration
- The Chapter Banner restores armor 300% faster but only lasts for 5 seconds
- Merciless Resolve
- Executing a Shield Bash makes you immune to all knock backs and Heavy Hit stuns
- Glory’s Shield
- All allies close to the Banner take 10% less damage
- Focused Strength
- The Shield Bash knocks back enemies and stuns them for a longer duration
- Invigorating Icon
- Teammates regain Contested Health when Banner is active
- Inspiration
- All allies close to the Banner deal 10% more damage.
Signature Perks
- Emergency Countermeasure
- When your armor is fully depleted, you’ll drop a free Shock Grenade on the ground, with a cooldown of 120 seconds.
- Defensive Mastery
- Executing a Perfect Parry on a Majoris class or higher instantly puts them in a Finisher state, with a cooldown of 120 seconds.
- Armored Advance
- As long as you have armor, you’re immune to all knockbacks or loss of control from Heavy Hits
Best Endgame Bulwark Loadout and Build
When selecting your weapons, the best loadout is the Plasma Pistol and the Power Sword. The Plasma Pistol deals more damage thanks to its charged shots, while the latter has the most versatile moveset in the game, dealing both great single-target and horde-clearing damage. If you need to select a Power Sword variant, pick the ones with the Fencing defense style, as these give you the easiest parry windows in the game. Perfect Parrying is vital to the Bulwark’s class synergies, so a Fencing weapon will benefit you a lot.
As for your perk build, take the following:
Core
- Forward Momentum
- Scrambled Targeting
- Armour Reinforcement
Team
- Advanced Conditioning
Gear
- Focused Strength
- Invigorating Icon
- Rejuvenating Effect
Signature
- Armored Advance
The idea for this build is that your Core perks reinforce your frontline survivability in combat, as Forward Momentum helps you clear hordes and get Majoris enemies in Finisher state far easier in melee combat. Scrambled Targeting obviously keeps you alive longer since you should always be in the thick of combat. Armor Reinforcement is there to help you benefit from your Perfect Parries on tougher targets, since those Gun Strikes don’t give you armor by default.
The Team perk, Advanced Conditioning, is far superior to the others since your main source of healing without Stimms is by dealing damage while you have Contested Health up. Slowing the drain rate gives you a better chance to recover back to full health with a wider time window.
As for your Gear perks, Rejuvenating Effect and Invigorating Icon significantly increase the utility of your Chapter Banner, granting it an instant revive option and free Health restore for the entire team. Focused Strength buys you more space with the extra knockback utility that can also get you some free Gun Strikes against Minoris enemies.
Bulwark Tips and Tricks
- It can be easy to accidentally commit a block instead of a Perfect Parry. Make sure that your chosen melee weapon uses a Fencing styled weapon for the easier perfect parry. Also, always tap the parry button and never hold it since the Bulwark has a unique block hold mechanic that other classes don’t have.
- Shock grenades are your best friend. As a Bulwark, you should always engage in melee combat. Throwing a Shock grenade at your position lets you stand in the middle of a group while stun locking enemies, giving you time to clear them out in melee.
- Learn the Power Sword’s stance-switching mechanic. Holding the attack button before a combo lets you switch between the fast, single-target combo and the slower, sweep attacks for horde clearing.
- Use your shield bash attack as often as possible, as this constitutes a heavy attack that can get you Gun Strikes on Minoris level enemies. Gun Strikes are your only source of armor mid-combat, and the shield bash lets you safely proc this without leaving you exposed to other attacks.
