Revision 1

The Spartan Order is the military body that Metro 2039 talks about almost entirely in the past tense. 4A Games and the publisher have confirmed a specific and quite small set of facts about it for this game: who came out of it, what has become of it, what its armour and helmet mean, and how the regime that now rules the Metro has repurposed both. This page documents that set and nothing beyond it.

The Order has a long history in earlier Metro stories. None of that history is confirmed for this game, and none of it is repeated here. What follows is only what has been stated for Metro 2039 itself, as of September 2026.

What Has Been Confirmed

Hunter and the Order

Everything confirmed about the Order in this game runs through Hunter. In the publisher's own words: "As part of the Spartan Order, Hunter was a legend, a high-ranking, experienced Ranger, who swore to protect the Metro. What's left of the Spartan Order as he knew it lies in ruins." Separately he is described as "none other than the first Spartan himself", and the storefront copy introduces him to new players as "a fanatical Spartan known as Hunter".

By 2039 he rules the Novoreich as its self-styled Fuhrer, and the Order he came out of is gone. The two facts are presented together rather than separately: the regime did not replace the Spartans from outside, it grew out of one of them. The Stranger's narration turns on exactly that, and reads Hunter as having become the enemy the Spartans existed to fight. The theme is developed on Story and Themes.

The regime carries the Order's visual language with it. Hunter's uniform is described as "a decorated Novoreich uniform, a fascist perversion of the iconic Spartan armour", which makes the appropriation explicit rather than implied. What made a Spartan recognisable now reads as a symbol of the thing the Spartans were supposed to stop.

The Spartan Helmet

The helmet is the one piece of Spartan equipment described in any physical detail. The publisher calls it "an important part of METRO lore, iconography and gameplay" and describes it by "its hinged visor and trademark integrated gas mask elements", framing it as "an essential survival tool for an irradiated world" rather than as ceremonial kit. In a world where the surface cannot be breathed, a sealed helmet is equipment first and insignia second.

The Stranger wears one. The publisher's description of his is that "through its damage detail, scratches and personal customisations, the Stranger's helmet tells its own story of a post-apocalyptic life marked by untold horrors, trauma, and life-or-death decisions." A full-scale wearable replica of it, built from the in-game model, is the only disclosed item in the announced Collector's Edition; the edition itself is covered on Platforms and Age Ratings.

Is the Stranger a Spartan?

This is the question the confirmed material is most often read as answering, and it does not answer it. What is established is that The Stranger wears a Spartan helmet and that the helmet is associated with the Order. Nothing states that he belongs to it or ever did.

The narration of the second gameplay trailer, published in August 2026, cuts the other way. Quoted by 4A Games in two parts, with a break between them, it runs: "The Spartans were wolves in helmets..." and then, "...but I am something worse." The speaker is separating himself from the Spartans, not claiming them.

As of September 2026, no statement from 4A Games or the publisher places the Stranger in the Spartan Order. Some pre-release coverage has gone further than that and described him as a former Spartan, or simply called him one; no publisher or studio statement supports it. The confirmed position is narrower and stranger than either reading: a man in a Spartan helmet who says out loud that he is not one of them.

Outside the Confirmed Record

The Order's founding, its structure, its roster, where it operated and what happened to it are not documented in anything published for this game. That material exists in earlier Metro stories, which are a different set of works with a different canon, and it is not carried over here on the assumption that it still holds. Hunter's own history before 2039 is treated the same way: his rank and his standing in the Order are confirmed for this game, and the specific events that carried him from protector to Fuhrer have not been disclosed.

Whether the Order appears in the game as anything more than a memory is also unstated. As of September 2026 no other Spartan has been named, no surviving Spartan has been shown, and the Order has not been described as a faction the player meets. The factions and enemies that have been confirmed are covered on Gameplay and Mechanics and The Gamescom 2026 Demo.