Marathon (2026) is out now. The new incarnation of Bungie’s Marathon series is reborn as a multiplayer extraction shooter, and it can be brutal for those getting to grips of it. Here’s some tips to get you running in the early game that can help you survive the runs in Tau Ceti IV, or least make the inevitable death and loss experience managable.
Tip 1: Extraction Shooters Are Roguelites, Ignore The Gear Fear
One of the first things a new player should internalise when playing Marathon that you’ll die. A lot. And with it being an extraction shooter, any gear you bring will be lost unless you successfully extract (the game prefers to say that as exfil).
And that’s fine! In the early game, you should be fine losing all of them on death, as you can get them back easily should you persist in doing more runs, complete more contracts and unlock more faction upgrades.
Vault space is limited, so you can’t really hoard that much gear anyway. And remember that at the end of each season (three months) all gear and vault items are wiped clean. So don’t be afraid to use gear you got early on.
Tip 2: Mark Faction Upgrade Valuables
The way you get stronger over time in a season of Marathon is through faction upgrades. Some of them bring universal improvements like a longer heat (stamina) bar and less fall damage. But the more important upgrades are unlocking items for purchase in the armory. The idea is that over time, you will accrue enough credits that you can buy a full loadout of higher rarity gear right from the start if you need to, rather than have to keep scouring for rare loot once your vault runs dry should you regularly die.
So it’s best to have a focus on what valuable you should be looting, considering backpack space is limited.
You can go to any faction upgrade screen, look at the requirements to unlock them, and mark the specific items required. Once marked, you’ll see a green-yellow marker on the icon of the valueble you need to prioritise looting.
In general, any valuable with the “unstable” prefix is worth picking up either for faction upgrades or bartering at the armoury. Yes, that bag of likely excrement labelled Unstable Biomass is actually worth a lot.
Tip 3: Know How The Exfil Tower Works
The art of a successful exfil is knowing how the exfil tower behaves mechanically. So here’s a simple rundown of how it works:
- Activating the exfil tower draws a light beacon, and the music changes. Any runner close to the exfil tower should hear the music
- It takes about a minute before the exfil tower completes spooling up for the matter transfer. You know it’s ready when the music almost reaches its crescendo, the blue glow is brighter and there’s a circular projection surrounding the tower
- The 10-second countdown only starts when one runner steps foot into the exfil tower radius (marked by that circular projection). Countdown resets when no one is in the circle
- You can still exfil if you’re DBNO (down but not out). If you’re expecting hostiles, plan ahead to position yourself so that if you need to crawl, you are within 10 seconds from the exfil tower
- You can’t exfil if you’re terminated. In a crew, they must revive you back before you can exfil. Avoid getting shot when in DBNO state by strategically crawling around the tower. Hide behind the tower. Lure UESC robots in if you’re facing other runners. Have someone throw a smoke grenade.
- Guarded Exfil only summons one wave of UESC robots. So prepare for a fight beforehand, but be wary of potential hostile runners that might pounce on the chance to third party
Tip 4: Only Shoot When It Counts
The flow of a Marathon run starts with you and your crew scouring the map for items as you head to contract objective points. But don’t let your guard down and just be randomly shooting things. Ticks can go down with one melee hit. UESC Recruits can be stealthily killed with just the knife.
Ammo isn’t as tight as some early tests of Marathon was, but it’s still good practice not to be wastefully splurge on bullets just to take out a turret. Play smart, move around with intent, and hopefully it’s your crew who gets the jump against those who wildly be shooting and giving themselves away.
Marathon is out now on PS5, PC (Steam) and Xbox Series X|S.