You're stomping through the mud of Kadaku, chainsword revving, Tyranid guts painting your power armor a lovely shade of xenos-ichor, and then you see it. A green glow. It’s a dataslate. Most players just sprint past them because, honestly, who has time to read while a Hive Tyrant is breathing down their neck? But if you’re trying to actually understand what happened to the Recidivists or why the Adeptus Mechanicus is acting so weirdly shifty on Avarax, you need those logs.
Space Marine 2 dataslates aren't just collectibles for the sake of an achievement trophy. They're the connective tissue. They bridge the gap between the first game and this sequel, filling in the blanks of what Titus was doing during his "extended vacation" with the Inquisition.
Collecting them is a pain. Some are tucked behind breakable crates that look exactly like the unbreakable crates. Others are hidden in side rooms during the "Operations" mode, meaning you have to hope your teammates don't initiate a countdown while you're busy hunting for lore. If you miss one in a Campaign mission, you’re basically replaying the whole level just to grab a thirty-second audio clip. It’s a commitment.
Why You Actually Want These Things
Look, the main story is great, but it’s a bit of a "greatest hits" reel of 40K tropes. The real grit is in the audio logs. You get to hear the terminal panic of Cadian guardsmen who realize the sky is literally falling. You hear the cold, calculated logic of Tech-Priests who care more about a cogitator than a human life. It adds flavor. It makes the world feel bigger than just "blue guy hits bug."
There are 35 of these things scattered across the Campaign and the Operations. Finding all the Space Marine 2 dataslates gives you the "Data Miner" achievement, sure, but it also paints a much darker picture of the Tyranid invasion. It’s not just a war; it’s an extinction event. Hearing a servo-skull record the final moments of a bunker's defense while you're standing in that same ruined bunker ten minutes later? That hits different.
Saber Interactive didn't make these easy to find. They’re devious. They love putting a dataslate just past a "point of no return" drop-off. You jump down a ledge, hear the chime, look up, and realize you can't go back.
The Kadaku Hunt: Mud, Blood, and Lore
The first few missions on Kadaku are a tutorial in environmental storytelling. In "Skyfire," you’ve got several slates that are tucked away in the jungle. One of the first ones is right after you encounter those pesky Spore Mines for the first time. There's a hidden path to the left. If you're just following the objective marker like a good little Ultramarine, you’ll walk right past it.
Most people miss the one near the communication array. You're supposed to be focusing on the bridge, but if you circle around the back of the platform, there it is. Just sitting there. It’s called "Combat Reports," and it basically confirms that the Cadians were getting absolutely slaughtered before you showed up.
Avarax and the Verticality Nightmare
Avarax is a different beast entirely. It’s a Hive City. Everything is vertical. Everything is cramped. In the mission "Servant of the Machine," there’s a dataslate hidden in the lower maintenance tunnels. It’s dark, it’s gross, and there are about a thousand Hormagaunts trying to eat your face.
The level design here is a bit "loop-de-loop." You’ll find yourself crossing the same areas at different heights. This makes tracking Space Marine 2 dataslates a nightmare because the audio cue for a nearby slate has a decent vertical range. You might hear the hum, but the actual object is three floors above you.
I spent twenty minutes looking for one near the elevator section. Turns out, it wasn't near the elevator at all. It was tucked behind a pile of rubble near a dead end that looked like a glitch in the map. Honestly, the developers were trolling us with that one.
Operations: The Real Challenge
The Operations mode is where the real hunt begins. Since these are meant to be replayed, the slates are often placed in areas you wouldn't normally visit during a speedrun. In "Inferno," there’s a slate inside a side building during the refinery segment. Most squads just push the objective. If you want that lore, you have to be that guy who wanders off-mission.
Don't be that guy without telling your team.
In "Decapitation," there's a slate right before the final boss encounter with the Hive Tyrant. It’s in a side room filled with crates. If you’re playing on a higher difficulty like Ruthless, stopping to grab a slate is a death sentence. You have to clear the wave first. But once the wave is clear, the game often pushes you into the next cutscene. It’s a tight window.
The Mystery of the Missing Logs
Some players have reported that Space Marine 2 dataslates don't always spawn correctly, or the prompt to pick them up disappears. Usually, this happens in co-op. If one player picks it up, it should count for everyone, but sometimes the server syncs weirdly.
If you're hunting these for the trophy, do it on the "Easy" difficulty in a private lobby or solo with bots. Bots won't judge you for staring at a wall for five minutes. Bots won't start the boss fight while you're reading a diary entry about a guy's favorite toaster.
Breaking Down the "Data Miner" Achievement
You need all 35. No shortcuts.
The breakdown usually goes like this:
- Campaign: 23 Slates
- Operations: 12 Slates
The Campaign ones are static. They never move. The Operations ones are also static, but because the maps are so large and winding, they feel harder to pinpoint. A good rule of thumb is to look for green lights. In the grim darkness of the far future, everything is brown, grey, or red. Green is rare. Green means "interact with me."
One of the most elusive ones is in the mission "Voidsong." It’s near the end, during the sequence where you’re resetting the generators. There’s a walkway that looks like it leads to certain death. It doesn't. It leads to a dataslate. It’s a classic "leap of faith" moment that 40K fans will appreciate, even if their jump pack is out of fuel.
Specific Locations You’ll Likely Miss
Let’s talk about "Dawn's Descent." This mission is chaotic. You’ve got Thousand Sons sorcerers dropping warp fire on you, Helbrutes smashing through walls, and Tzaangors screaming in your ears. There’s a dataslate in the cathedral section, hidden under a collapsed balcony. You have to actually crouch or roll to see it.
Then there’s the one in "The Aurora." This is the final campaign mission. Everything is exploding. The world is literally tearing apart. And yet, some brave soul left a dataslate sitting on a console in the middle of a firestorm. It’s near the power nodes. If you're rushing to stop the ritual (which, you know, is important), you'll miss it.
Take a second. The galaxy can wait for thirty seconds while you grab that lore.
Troubleshooting the Hunt
If you think you've found all the Space Marine 2 dataslates but the achievement hasn't popped, check your inventory menu. There’s a specific tab that lists every log you’ve collected, categorized by mission. If there’s a gap in the sequence, you know exactly which mission to replay.
Most people find they're missing one from "Vox Liberatis." That mission has some weird geometry, and there's a slate tucked away in the elevator shaft area that is incredibly easy to walk past. It’s not on the main path; you have to step off onto a side platform while the elevator is moving.
Also, keep in mind that the "Battle Barge" has its own set of slates. Yes, your home base. Don't forget to explore the hangar and the tech-priest area between missions. Those count toward your total. They usually provide backstory on the ship itself and the state of the fleet.
The Narrative Payoff
So, is it worth it?
If you’re a 40K nerd, absolutely. The slates provide context for the "Second Tyrannic War" and the "Indomitus Crusade." They mention names that will be familiar to readers of the Black Library novels. You get hints about the wider state of the Imperium—the fact that things are going very, very badly elsewhere.
It’s also one of the few ways the game humanizes the NPCs. The Cadians are often just background noise or fodder, but their dataslates give them voices. You hear about their families, their fear, and their unwavering (and often tragic) loyalty to an Emperor who will never know their names. It adds a layer of pathos to a game that is otherwise about turning aliens into chunky salsa.
Your Next Steps in the Field
If you're ready to finish your collection, don't just wander aimlessly. You'll get frustrated. The maps are too big for that.
Start by loading up "Skyfire" on the lowest difficulty. Sprint through the combat encounters. Use your scan ability constantly. While the scan is mainly for marking enemies, it can sometimes help you orient yourself in the environment so you don't miss a side room.
📖 Related: Mass Effect Andromeda Gameplay: Why It’s Actually the Best Combat in the Series
Once you’ve cleared the Campaign slates, move to Operations. These are best done with a friend who also needs the slates. You can split up slightly to check corners. Just remember that some areas become inaccessible once you trigger a door or an elevator.
Check your progress in the "Archives" menu frequently. It’s the only way to be sure.
Once you’ve got all 35, you can finally stop looking at the floor and start looking at the giant Hive Tyrant trying to take your head off. Or, you know, start your next playthrough on the hardest difficulty. At least now you’ll know why everyone on Kadaku was so stressed out.
Go get 'em, Battle-Brother. For the Emperor. Or for the shiny green collectibles. Whichever motivates you more.