One of the main design flaws of the standard B1 battle droid was its reliance on a Droid Control Ship to provide a signal; if the ships were disabled, the battle droids would become useless. To remedy this, the super battle droid did not rely on such a signal and had a greater capacity for independence. However, the droid still operated best with a command signal, otherwise they tended to forget about enemies as soon as they moved out of visual range. Also, the sturdy frame of the super battle droid was larger and more heavily armored than those of a B1.

Unlike its predecessor, the B2's delicate processing unit and signal receptor were buried deep inside the torso, offering much more protection from enemy fire. Small dual laser cannons were mounted on their right and/or left forearms, along with a tri-shot weapon system. Though they could use external weaponry, their large hands had difficulty with smaller blasters. Instead, they were equipped with special blaster rifles that only responded to signal emitters built into the hands. For the sake of efficiency, they used many B1 parts. Their feet were also outfitted with specialized equipment for difficult terrain, such as climbing claws. Their arms also were modular, capable of exchanging their laser cannon for grenade launchers and other specialized weaponry.


When they were not using their built-in laser cannons, they had their right forearm locked upright.

As heavy infantry droids, B2s could take much more punishment than their flimsy predecessors. Even after being defeated, they could detach their torsos and keep up an attack although this was detrimental to their combat skill. Despite such traits some models seemingly suffered low heat tolerance and were subject to bursting into flame upon contact.

Most post-Battle of Geonosis B2 droids were capable of communicating with each other using an oversimplified version of Galactic Basic Standard.