495 Words About: Valtus and Chaos in Space Marine 2
I’ve been quickly entering poverty as I have begun collecting Warhammer miniatures to assemble and then find excuses to not paint them. Space Marine 2 is one of the reasons.
As of this writing I’ve finally finished the main campaign, and during the final epic battle sequence between the ultramarines and the forces of chaos aided by the deity Tzeetch (Lord of Change) the players will encounter a non-playable character(npc) named Valtus.
First off all Valtus is a Redemptor Dreadnought, not to be confused with a Brutalis Dreadnought or Venerable Dreadnought. Second, Valtus is a rad dude, and arguably the best supporting npc in a videogame released within the last decade. This is made more impressive by the fact that he has maybe all of two minutes of screen time in the game.
Valtus literally crashes into the player’s path as he punches a Hellbrute through a stone wall, knocks its attack out of the way, slams a minigun into its face, unleashes fire until there’s nothing left but a bloody corpse, and immediately asks Titus and his squad where the rest of the enemy army can be found. They ask Valtus to join him to which he responds in a garbled metallic grunt, “Lead me to the Slaughter!”
Somehow it only gets better from here.
In the space of two bolter clips Valtus somehow manages to supersede this sheer badassitude by pointing to a massive Helldrake, declaring it an abomination, lifting a column of stone literally ten times his size, and throwing it into the beast destroying it instantly.
My jaw dropped, and then I started laughing.
Valtus is, was, and always will be a ridiculous and absurd addition to Space Marine 2.
I love him.
NPCs in videogames exist to aid players during the events of the game, to pose a challenge(through combat or simply being an obstacle), or to build an atmosphere and aesthetic. Valtus satisfies the first and third functions by being a hyperbolic and ridiculous unstoppable force, which is exactly what any Warhammer player would desire. Valtus is a dreadnought, meaning he’s a space marine whose body has been destroyed from battle, the lingering shreds of tissue and nervous system hooked into a robot body that is literally thousands of years old. Valtus is an organism who exists now only to fight and destroy, driven by his psychological agony and desire to purge the world of heresy.
In short he’s the perfect NPC for the final confrontation against the Army of the Thousand Sons.
Valtus exists to help Titus and his squad advance, establish the calamitous atmosphere, and chew bubblegum.
And he’s all out of bubblegum.
The final mission of Space Marine 2’s campaign is an epic space battle that is the culmination of a steadily rising political thriller and melodrama. Valtus crashes through a stone wall like the gol-durn Kool-Aid Man ready to fight, ready to destroy, and making an already gargantuan fight all the more memorable.
Joshua “Jammer” Smith
6.16.2026
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