Warhammer 40K: How Strong Are Space Marines? Strength, Speed, and Durability.

The Adeptus Astartes, known as the Angels of the God-Emperor or simply as Space Marines, are superhuman warriors who fight the greatest threats of the galaxy in the name of humanity.

But how strong, fast, and resilient are they?
This work aims to answer that question based on information presented throughout the franchise’s lore, including codexes, novels, comics, films, and other sources, while maintaining internal consistency between depicted feats and estimating a reasonable performance range.

Space Marine Dimensions

The first step is to establish the dimensions of a Space Marine.

• Height: 2.1 meters. Some sources place them at 2.4 meters (8 feet).

• Weight: 500–1000 kg (without armor). Standard Astartes power armor weighs about 180 kg, while Terminator armor weighs around 400 kg.

Strength

This section considers physical strength used for lifting, pushing, carrying, throwing, breaking, and crushing.

As a reference point, we compare Space Marines to the greatest strength feats achieved by humans:

• Deadlift record: 505 kg (1,113 lb) by Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.

• Overhead lift record: 266 kg (586 lb) by Lasha Talakhadze.

 Unarmored

• Initiated Space Marines can already lift 2.9 tons, push 5.4 tons, and carry 1.5 tons.

• The enhancements granted to a Marine provide the strength equivalent to ten men.

• A Space Marine shows no visible strain carrying a 70 kg weapon in one hand.

• An Astartes can casually lift 380 kg overhead.

• One Astartes held his fallen Astartes captain (at least 500 kg), sealed inside a ceramite coffin, for several hours. Despite constant burns and an awkward posture, he showed no signs of exertion.

• A Space Marine can lift more with a single finger than an adult human can with their entire body. The object measured 2 × 1 × 0.1 meters, made of rock (density ~2,500 kg/m³), weighing roughly 500 kg.

• A Space Marine in training attire lifted the entire weight set of a small gym and was confident he could lift another Astartes (at least 500 kg). The total lifted mass would exceed one ton.

• A Space Marine can run while carrying a load comparable to a full suit of power armor (at least 180 kg) strapped to his back.

• An Astartes exerts minimal effort when lifting half a ton (500 kg).

Armored

• Their standard equipment is far too heavy for a normal human to even lift.

• A single slap can send a 200-kilogram man flying backward.

• Two Space Marines, while grappling with each other, accidentally knock over a Chimera tank. A Chimera weighs approximately 32 tons.

• A Space Marine can lift another Space Marine with one arm, at least 680 kg.

• A Space Marine can easily carry two Astartes, for a combined mass of at least 1,360 kg.

• An Astartes lifts a fully loaded cargo truck with two dozen civilians aboard. Assuming an average of 60 kg per civilian, this equals roughly 1,440 kg.

• A Space Marine tears loose and lifts a multi-ton table over his head and uses it to crush several Adepts—at least 2 tons.

• Dark Angels Space Marines lift and push massive stone columns. measuring 2 meters high and 0.5 meters wide, made of limestone (density ~2,600 kg/m³), weighing about 1,021 kg.

• A Space Marine strikes with enough force to shatter steel and bend armored vehicles.

• A Space Marine can drag armored vehicles using sheer strength; although the exact vehicle is unspecified, the mass would be several tons.

• The collision of two Space Marines generates a shockwave that throws nearby people to the ground and shakes the building where the fight takes place.

• A Space Marine forces his way through three 38-ton assault vehicles and causes one of them to rock violently on its tracks when he steps on it.

• A Space Marine pushes and lifts a fully loaded 18-wheeler carrying armored vehicles, forcing it to skid sideways. -   An agricultural eighteen-wheeler can weigh around 25,000 ponds (11.3 tons)

• With one hand, a Space Marine lifts a 16-wheel truck and throws it onto its side. - An agricultural sixteen-wheeler can weigh around 10,000 ponds (4.5 tons)

•  Space Marines can knock down trees on their path without slowing down minimally

• [Terminator Armor] lifts a 6-ton door and throws it down a corridor, nearly cutting a Chaos Space Marine in half on impact.

• [Terminator Armor] punches through one meter of solid metal with a single blow.

• [Terminator Armor] strikes an Iron Warriors Astartes with enough force to hurl him completely out of sight.

• [Terminator Armor] A Terminator Marine explodes a normal Space Marine with a single punch and proceeds obliterating a wall. 

• [Centurion Armor] Centurion Marines can easily break barricades, reduce enemies to crushed meat and they can also rapidly destroy even ferrocrate bunkers. They can easily break reinforced bunkers and tanks.

Speed / Agility / Reaction Time

This section focuses on the time required to move from point A to point B, as well as the time needed to move body parts—such as an arm—to dodge attacks or deliver strikes.

As a reference point, we compare Space Marines to the greatest speed feats achieved by humans:

• Usain Bolt (Jamaica): 9.58 s (World Record, Berlin 2009). He reached a top speed of 44.72 km/h (12.4 m/s) .

• A group of Space Marines covered 15 kilometers in 20 minutes, corresponding to a speed of 12.5 m/s (45 km/h).

• Another group of Space Marines is described moving at speeds between 84 and 87 km/h (23–24 m/s).

• A single Space Marine can cover 10 meters in the time of one heartbeat. Assuming a human heart rate of 100 beats per minute (0.6 seconds per beat), this equals a speed of approximately 16 m/s (57 km/h).

• A group of Space Marines run 300 meters in 18 seconds—a speed of 16.5 m/s or 59 km/h

• An Astartes cuts a bolter round in mid-air with his sword.

• A Space Marine dodges a Tau missile.

• An Astartes operates at speeds faster than human visual perception 

Durability

This section focuses on the amount of force and energy a Space Marine can withstand. 

As a reference point.

• It is estimated that a femur (human) can withstand between 1,800 and 2,500 pounds (approx. 815 to 1,130 kg) of pressure before fracturing.

 Unarmored

• An Iron Hand Scout takes a grazing shot to the neck from a laspistol.- Laser guns are capable of vaporizing most of a person's head.

• The Salamanders are capable of handling red-hot metal with their bare hands.- The temperature for red heat in steel is 500 ºC to 600 ºC.  

• Iron Snakes Scouts can operate in sub-zero temperatures while wearing minimal clothing.

• A Space Marine falls from a height of 15 meters onto a metal surface. This impact corresponds to approximately 73,500 joules, assuming a Space Marine mass of 500 kg.

• A heavy machine-gun round ricochets off a Space Marine’s skull. For reference, an AK-47 round delivers roughly 2,000 joules per projectile.

• A high-caliber handgun round only penetrates the outer layer of a Space Marine’s skin, and the wound heals almost immediately.

Armored

• The armor allows a Space Marine to survive in the vacuum of space indefinitely.

• An impact that would have shattered the skeletal structure of a normal human is barely felt by a Space Marine.

• A Space Marine recovers immediately after being run over by a tank. A Land Raider can weigh anywhere from 72 to 81 tons.

• A Space Marine shows no reaction after falling several kilometers. - Using a mass of 680 kg with armor and a height of 2 kilometers, here are the 1..3 MegaJoules for the impact

• A Space Marine is stomped by a massive daemon with such force that he is compressed into the ground, yet survives.

• While airborne, a Space Marine is hit by a cannon shot from a Killa Kan, then crashes into and destroys a warehouse on impact.

• A Scout Marine is slapped by a Thunderhawk-sized beast, hurled 30 meters through a tree, and remains combat-capable.

• Smaller weapons such as automatic pistols, machine guns, lasguns, and shotguns are ineffective against them.

• Space Marines are capable of deflecting heavy bolter fire, indicating extremely high resistance to kinetic and explosive munitions.

• At point-blank range, the detonation oagmentation grenf a frade is little more than a nuisance to an Astartes.

• A squad of Astartes laughs off a lightning strike powerful enough to crater the ground. For reference, common natural lightning discharges deliver on the order of 1 gigajoule of energy.

• A Space Marine can clear a minefield simply by walking through it.

• A missile that heats fragments of the ground to red-hot temperatures has no effect on Space Marines.

• A squad of Space Marines rapidly recovers after a mining charge detonates the entire floor of a building reinforced with steel and concrete.

• A Space Marine survives being inside a Land Raider when it explodes.

• Some Space Marines emerge from an exploded tank, still firing their bolters.

• Two Astartes survive a battle cannon explosion that reportedly disintegrates everything within a 10-meter radius.

• [Terminator Armor] deflects a krak missile (an anti-tank missile) off its armor.

• [Terminator Armor] A Terminator, already heavily damaged after a full day of combat, survives a direct aerial attack involving a Razorshark’s quad ion turret and two missiles.

• [Terminator Armor] is capable of deflecting lascannon fire.

• [Terminator Armor] A squad of Terminators lands and fights on a gas giant. - While temperatures on gas giants vary widely, average conditions are generally above 300 °C.

• [Terminator Armor] withstands a burst from a plasma pistol capable of melting rock and metal.

• [Terminator Armor] survives being stepped on by a Warlord Titan. Although no official mass is given for the Warlord Titan - estimates place it around 2,000 tons. For a more conservative reference, the Reaver Titan weighs approximately 750 tons, meaning the armor endured well over 1,000 tons of force.

• [Centurion Armor] Space Marines in Centurion Armour ignore rounds from low-caliber weaponry and are merely stunned by shots of heavy artillery.

In conclusion, Space Marines are consistently portrayed as vastly superhuman warriors, exhibiting extreme strength, speed, and durability far beyond human limits, even by conservative estimates.