With the launch of Marathon only days away, developer Bungie has now shared an outline of how seasons work in the extraction shooter.
A new season is a clean slate. No weapons, gear, player level as well as contract and faction progression is retained.
Codex progression, cosmetics, titles and the liaison contract progression is retained. The latter means you don’t have to re-unlock all the factions again if you already unlocked them before by doing the introductory contracts (missions/quests).
Season wipes like this is par for the course of extraction shooters. The reset keeps it from being a game where the gear-havers gain insurmountable advantages over the have-nots, and if you fall off the treadmill and looking for a good way to jump back in, there’s always the start of the season to look forward to. Also, having a season wipe means you also have a reason to just risk it all, go baller with the most expensive gear you have by season’s end.
Season 1 of Marathon is called Death Is The First Step, First Step for short. Starting this March and until June, expect these to happen:
- Six factions (including Sekiguchi Genetics)
- Six Runner shells (including Thief)
- Three zones, including Outpost (unlocks a day after launch, and at Runner Level 12)
- Endgame: Cryo Archive. The fourth zone will appear when “the community unlocks the way into orbit” where the first floor of the UESC Marathon resides. Expect puzzles, frozen vaults and “an entity even the UESC fears” (judging by some key art and the latest cinematic trailer, it’s likely the S’pht Compiler)
- Ranked mode unlocks in the second half of March
- 28 weapons
Season 2, Nightfall, will change things a bit as the UESC ramps up their security to take out pesky runners. Some of the teased features include:
- Dire Marsh zone is now a nighttime map
- Increased UESC presence
- 1 new Runner shell
- New weapons, mods, cores, contracts and more
- New system: Cradle “designed to give you more autonomy over your Runner shell’s statistical strengths and weaknesses”
The 2026 incarnation of Marathon, which plays nothing like the classic Marathon trilogy but absolutely follows some form of canon from them, recently concluded its Server Slam, the last chance players get to try out the extraction shooter for free before launch. You can check out what we think of it here.
Marathon (2026) launches on March 5 for the PS5, PC (Steam) and Xbox Series X|S.