Know thyself – Delphic maxim
Mastery yields childhood anew – Matthew Locke

Welcome to a detailed and metaphysical examination of Space Marine. The intention of this article is to educate players in my observed progression of competency and skill within the multiplayer aspects of Space Marine. By following the advice and guidelines of this article, it is my hope that you can gain a greater understanding of the inner workings of the game, and become a better player as a result.
The format of this article will be the breakdown of a player into phases. Each phase has specific goals which, stage by stage, carefully hone a player into a powerful force on the battlefield of Space Marine. These steps come from my personal experience and I’ve attempted to include every relevant detail which has assisted in my own progression within the game. Let us begin…

Stage 0) Infant Stage – between 0 and 50 hours in-game, between levels 1 and 41

Primary Goals: Choose your best loadout

Stage 0 is the most critical stage in your Space Marine career, yet it is also the most formless of stages within your progression as a player. Here, there are no rules about method or progressions; there is only one simple goal: find whatever class and loadout yields you with the best battlefield performance consistently. For Stage 0, the ends completely justify the means. You will want to identify your best-performing loadout as quickly as possible, so that your time spent in-game will yield more practice to your primary weapon and class. Once you have reached level 41, you will want to have found this loadout and you will want to have unlocked the perks alongside it.

Stage 1) Child Stage – between about 50 and 100 hours in-game, level 41

Primary Goals: Learn basics

Stage 1 is where you form the bond between yourself and your loadout. You must learn the basic ins and outs of your weapon, your perks, and your class. You should work to identify the rudimentary limitations of your build in its most basic and primary function: killing an enemy. How much damage does your weapon deal? How many shots does it take to kill an enemy of what class? How many shots from an enemy weapon can you sustain? Be mindful of these questions, and questions like them, as you foray into the basic parameters of your build. A key item of importance is to understand your favorable and unfavorable matchups in this stage, on a one-to-one level. Ask yourself, assuming that there is no intervention from other players, what weapons and classes are you best and worst at fighting when using your build.

Stage 2) Adolescent Stage – between about 100 and 200 hours in-game

Primary Goals: Identify your battlefield role

Stage 2 is about your function as a cog within a larger machine. What role does your build play in the larger scheme of battlefield tactics? In a game of Seize Ground, are you rushing points, running around at random killing enemies to disrupt their game-plan, holding the middle of the field or a key position? You’ll want to find the standard operating procedure of your build within a given game. I highly recommend watching what highly skilled players who use your build do as much as possible. You will begin to see the general roles and functions of your build in a given mission objective, not merely killing an enemy. You will naturally be able to figure these things out by knowing your weapon as well. A plasma cannon is obviously great at clearing out a heavily-contested point, just as a meltagun is a fantastic assault weapon. Make sure to learn the habits of your build in this stage, as they are your foundation of play, the fundamentals of your build.

(Author’s note – Stage 2 is the residence of the majority of level 41 Space Marine players. Most fall between the earlier and later developmental stages of Stage 2. Most casual gamers wind up knowing their build(s) decently well, but don’t have the desire to go any deeper into the game. Conversely, many who are more competitive, yet don’t progress for whatever reason, will have a general sense of battlefield dynamics and their own build(s), but will remain firmly within Stage 2)

Stage 3) Pilgrimage Stage – between about 200 and 250 hours in-game

Primary Goals: Broaden your perspective

Stage 3 breaks from all other steps in the process in mastering your build. While it certainly works to achieve the overall goal, its method is, on the surface, unorthodox. In Stage 3, you will never pick up your build, weapon, or class chosen in Stage 1. In Stage 3, you must chose a different class entirely from the one you are currently using. Each class in Space Marine handles extremely differently, and remaining even within the same class, but with different gear, than your Stage 1 choice will not be enough to fulfill this stage. The purpose of this stage is to broaden your knowledge of the multiplayer field itself. The best way to understand what another class can do is to play as it yourself. Firsthand knowledge is incalculably valuable. In Stage 3, you must play as this new class for however long it takes you to feel comfortable playing it as your primary build. You’ll want to be able to support your team objectives, be an efficient killer of the enemy team, and figure out the playstyle and matchups of this new class. Do not, under any circumstances, switch to another class until you have become competent with your Stage 3 class.

Stage 4) Adult Stage – between about 250 and 400 hours in-game

Primary Goals: Develop your own playstyle

Stage 4 returns you to your original build, chosen in Stage 1. In the Adult Stage, you now have a wider breadth of knowledge of what limitations and capabilities other classes have from your own perspective. Build this knowledge into your own playstyle, as you can now view the battlefield with new eyes. Knowing your role, your favorable and unfavorable matchups, the limitations of both your build and other builds, you can now understand where your build fits into the greater scheme of the Space Marine multiplayer equation. You should now have the skill to break from the regimented rules from Stage 2 as you have the presence of mind and the understanding of your environment and enemies enough to make more complex decisions on the battlefield. You can start to approach your battlefield objectives from different angles available to your class and begin to cement an approach which is best suited to your own, honed abilities.

Stage 5) Mastery Stage – about 400+ hours in-game

Primary Goals: Push the boundaries and limitations of your build to discover what lies beyond

Stage 5 should be a natural progression from Stage 4 which comes from an innate desire to perform better and gain an edge in your games. There are points within the multiplayer environment when you are up against a wall and need to go beyond even your own playstyle and the proscribed “limitations” of your class to get the job done. There are no longer rules at Stage 5, as you are now operating outside of any guidelines but your own. You should know, by this point, absolutely everything your build can accomplish, and all that is left is to utilize the tools available to you in new ways, depending on the enemy, situation, chosen map, etc. Stage 5 is open-ended and it us up to you how much you can achieve.