The Zoanthrope is the most hated enemy in Space Marine 2 (and rightfully so)

With Space Marine 2 in full swing for all players, the Zoanthrope has become public enemy number one in PvE modes. It’s that dreadful flying enemy with the red tail hanging below, often lobbing things at you, lasering you, or making your screen go haywire with its psychic blasts.

Flying enemies in horde shooters are often the bane of players’ existence because they distract you from what can come up to you on foot. You’re equipped to deal with grounded units, but with these thrown in the mix, it’s do-or-die stuff.

The community for this game has voiced its frustrations with how difficult handling these enemies can be. There’s a popular Zoanthrope “hate thread” on Reddit where many players expressed their grievances and also offered ways to help get rid of this big nasty before it becomes a problem.

As mentioned earlier, it has a lot of ranged tools to mess up your run. Fair enough, there’s counterplay against us. However, with this is how often their defensive abilities are up, especially when there are two present at the same time, they are a serious issue.

Since they can shield their allies, a pair of Zoanthropes become so hard to kill that they can end an Operations run or keep you stuck at a checkpoint in the campaign. They’ll constantly shield each other, meaning you’ll have to wait for an opening between the two while dodging all the orange attacks.

Unfortunately, players who like to play exclusively at close-quarters range, like the Bulwarks, Assaults, and Vanguards, will have a hard time. It sucks, especially for Vanguards who think they can use the Grapnel Launcher to dive-kick these wretched flyers. This strategy does not work.

“Krak Grenades are definitely a must-use against these bastards,” a user commented in the thread. This is quite spot on. While we’re so focused on the gunplay and melee, many people will often overlook the other tools the game gives us to even the odds.

Many players highly overlook the Krak Grenades. We may often flock to shocks or normal frag grenades for simple mobbing but never really focus on the other gadgets that are much more lethal and designed to take out single, lethal targets.

This also highlights the importance of a versatile team setup in cooperative modes. Snipers, Tacticals, and Heavies can fare against these just fine. It’s just a matter of practicing good resource management if a big nasty like this comes up. Don’t use all your heavy firepower against trash mobs and easy majoris enemies. 

Lastly, if all else fails, you can always just run away. It may not be the way of the Marine, but there’s always a chance you can find an ammo cache or a random batch of nades to turn the tide in an instance like this.