Terminators of the Salamander chapter, Terminators are Space Marine Veterans who have earned the right to wear Tactical Dreadnought Armour, better known as Terminator Armour, and serve as their Chapter's greatest infantry assets, each essentially serving as a walking tank. Tactical Dreadnought Armor combines the technological developments of power armour with the sealed environmental suits designed for starship crews that work in highly unstable or corrosive environments such as inside the high pressure casings of plasma reactor shields. It can even withstand the colossal impact of high speed orbital micro debris. Terminators are always members of the elite 1st Company of a Codex Astartes-compliant Space Marine Chapter. All suits of Terminator Armour have built-in teleportation devices which allow them to deploy anywhere via deep strike, although more often they are deployed using Land Raiders.

Terminator suits are the pinnacle of armoured protection available to a Space Marine. Each is all but impervious to small arms fire and can even withstand the merciless onslaught of tank-busting Krak Missiles. Terminator Armour, created at the time of the Horus Heresy, is incredibly rare. Space Marines hold it a great honour to be permitted to wear such a suit in battle, and it is only to members of the Chapter's elite 1st Company that this honour is granted. Once trained in the use of Terminator Armour, a Space Marine is counted first among his brothers and is expected to conduct the most difficult of missions and to perform beyond even the lofty standards of the Adeptus Astartes. Boarding Tyranid-infested Space Hulks, launching teleport attacks, Titan assaults and combat actions in extremely hostile environments, such as deep space or volcanic marshland; these are the missions undertaken by Space Marine Terminators.