Marathon is a first-person PvPvE extraction shooter from Bungie, the studio behind Halo and Destiny. You play as a Runner, a human who's uploaded their consciousness into a cybernetic shell, and you drop into hostile zones on the derelict colony of Tau Ceti IV to scavenge loot, complete faction contracts, and get out alive. The game launches March 5, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S at $40 for the standard edition, with full crossplay and cross-save across all platforms.

No Single-Player Campaign

Marathon is multiplayer-only. That said, Bungie has been clear that narrative still matters. Game director Christopher Barrett put it this way: "The heart of Marathon's gameplay experience is PvP but it isn't the entire story. We're building a rich, immersive world that will have ample opportunities for exploration and conflict, both against other players and AI-controlled enemies." You'll piece together the story through faction contracts, environmental details, and discoveries you make during runs.

If you've played Arc Raiders or Escape from Tarkov, you already know the basic tension here: everything you bring into a match is on the line, and dying means losing your gear. Bungie's twist is layering class-based abilities, deep buildcrafting, and a faction progression system on top of that extraction formula. The world is built around what Bungie calls "persistent, evolving zones," meaning maps and narrative develop over time with each season.

Bungie has also talked about making the extraction genre easier to get into for newcomers. Barrett explained: "One of the ways we're addressing this is by making the core fantasies of survival and extraction fun, clear, and easy to understand. We want people to quickly understand fundamentals like healing, or oxygen, or how to organize their gear."

This guide covers every confirmed system, class breakdown, and strategy tip you need to hit the ground running at launch.

Marathon Tau Ceti IV overview — Marathon drops players onto the hostile surface of Tau Ceti IV to scavenge, fight, and extract

Core Gameplay Loop

Marathon follows the standard extraction shooter format, but if this is your first time with the genre, here's exactly how each run flows.

The Basic Loop

Barrett has said the team wants "to make sure players have tons of strategic choices, both in terms of the gear available and their loadouts, but also on the ground in terms of tactical options, entrance and exfil points, and so on." There are also multiple ways to succeed beyond just surviving. Completing contracts, securing high-value loot, and building faction reputation all count as productive run outcomes.

Here's the cycle:

Prepare your loadout. You pick your Runner Shell (your class), equip weapons, mods, implants, cores, a shield module, equipment, and fill your backpack with consumables like healing items, ammo, and grenades.
Drop into the map. You spawn into a shared zone with other players, either with a crew of up to three or completely solo. AI enemies and environmental hazards fill the map alongside rival player teams.
Scavenge, fight, and complete objectives. Once you're on the ground, it's open-ended. Loot containers, take out enemies for their drops, work through faction contracts, trigger map events, fight mini-bosses, or just stay quiet and collect resources.
Extract. Head to your designated extraction point (Exfil) and activate it to escape. A successful extraction means you keep everything you found.
Lose everything if you die. Get eliminated before extracting and you lose all the gear you brought in plus everything you picked up. This is the core tension of the entire game.
Sell, upgrade, repeat. Back in the menus, sell valuables, invest in faction upgrades, buy new gear from the black market, and kit up for the next run.

Match Structure

Each match runs on a timer (roughly 25 minutes based on available information). When it expires, all standard extraction zones close and a single final Exfil opens for every remaining player. This creates a brutal endgame where survivors converge on one spot, forcing a fight.

Maps support up to 18 players on some zones and 15 on others (numbers vary by map). You can enter solo, as a duo, or in a three-person crew. Even solo players will run into full three-player squads, so awareness and positioning matter more than raw firepower.

Loot Categories

Items you pick up during a run fall into several categories:

Weapons and weapon mods that change how your guns handle and perform
Implants that give stat bonuses and perks (usable on all Runner Shells)
Cores that are specific to individual Runner Shells and modify abilities
Equipment like grenades and shield modules
Consumables like patch kits, shield recharges, and status-clearing items
Materials used for faction upgrades and progression
Keys that open locked boxes and locked rooms with high-tier loot inside
Backpacks of varying sizes with bonus effects (some grant invisibility, auto-reload, faster item usage, and other strong perks)
Valuables you can sell for in-game currency

High Stakes

Every item in your inventory is at risk during a match. The only way to keep something you found is to extract alive.

Runner Shell Basics

Runner Shells are Marathon's version of character classes, but they don't follow the usual tank/healer/DPS triangle. Each Shell is a biosynthetic body with its own abilities, traits, and base stats built around a specific gameplay archetype.

How Runner Abilities Work

Every Shell comes with four ability components:

Prime Ability - Your strongest tool, with a long cooldown. Think of it as an ultimate.
Tactical Ability - Your main combat ability with a shorter cooldown, meant for frequent use during fights.
Trait 1 - A passive or situational bonus that's always available or triggers under specific conditions.
Trait 2 - A second passive or situational bonus.

Buildcrafting: Cores and Implants

Your Shell is just the starting point. The real depth comes from two buildcrafting systems:

Cores are Shell-specific modifiers. Each Runner has a unique pool of cores that change how your abilities work, sometimes drastically. Cores come in rarity tiers: gray (standard), green (enhanced), blue (deluxe), purple (superior), and gold (prestige). Higher rarity means bigger effects.
Implants are shared across all Shells. They provide stat bonuses plus random perks. The best implants also include a fixed bonus perk on top.

Build Diversity

Two players running the same Shell can feel completely different depending on their core and implant loadouts. Your build choices matter just as much as which Shell you pick.

Base Stats

Every Runner Shell has a set of base stats that shape how it performs. Understanding these will help you evaluate gear and plan upgrades:

Runner Shell Base Stats

Heat Capacity

How many movement actions (sprinting, sliding, jumping) you can perform before overheating. Heat is your stamina. Overheat and your movement abilities lock out temporarily.

Agility

Movement speed and jump height.

Self-Repair Speed

How fast you passively recover health and shields. Passive healing takes several minutes out of combat without getting shot.

Hardware

Reduces the duration of physical status effects: immobilize, overheat, and toxin.

Firewall

Reduces the duration of electronic status effects: EMP and hack (which disable your abilities temporarily).

Finisher Siphon

How much shield you regain after finishing a downed Runner.

Loot Speed

How quickly items appear when you loot containers.

Revive Speed

How fast you can revive downed allies or use self-revive consumables.

Additional stats include Melee Damage, Prime Recovery / Tactical Recovery (ability recharge rates), Fall Resistance, and Ping Duration.

Equal Health Pool

All players share the same health structure: four shield bars and one health bar. No Shell has more raw survivability than another. The differences come from stat allocations, abilities, and gear.

Marathon Runner Shells lineup — Marathon launches with six main Runner Shells plus the special Rook scavenger frame

All Runner Shells

Marathon launches with six main Runner Shells plus the special Rook scavenger frame. Below is a full breakdown of each, including abilities, stats, ideal playstyle, common mistakes, and team synergies.

Destroyer - Combat Specialist

Archetype: Frontline aggressor. The Destroyer is built to push into fights, hold space, and create openings. If you like being the first one through the door and thrive on aggressive plays, this is your Shell.

Lore: Ex-UESC special operations combat specialist.

Destroyer Abilities

Prime - Search and Destroy: Activates shoulder-mounted missile pods. Dealing sustained damage to targets launches homing missiles that immobilize and deal damage on impact. One thing many players get wrong: this isn't fire-and-forget. You need to actively shoot a target first to lock on, and then the missiles fire while you keep engaging. Just pressing the button won't do anything on its own.
Tactical - Riot Barricade: Deploys a forward-facing energy shield that blocks incoming damage. It drains energy over time, and absorbing hits drains it faster. This works both defensively and offensively. Push through sightlines with it, protect teammates during revives, or create temporary cover mid-fight.
Trait 1 - Thruster: Activate while airborne to fire boosters in whatever direction you're moving. Gives you lateral dodges and directional bursts in the air.
Trait 2 - Tactical Sprint: Double-press sprint to move faster at the cost of generating heat (stamina).

How to Play Destroyer

The Destroyer excels when you play aggressively but with discipline. Your job is to be the player who crosses dangerous sightlines so your teammates don't have to. Use the Riot Barricade to push through open areas, shield allies during revives, and take space. Thruster gives you unexpected angles on enemies. Search and Destroy works best as pressure on targets already engaged in a fight. The homing missiles immobilize enemies, letting your team collapse on them.

Common Destroyer Mistake

Playing it as a solo hero. This Shell punishes ego hard. If you push alone without team support, you'll get focused down fast. The Destroyer is a team-oriented aggressor who needs coordination. You create the openings; your team follows up.

Best Team Synergies

Triage (keeps your pushes alive with heals) and Recon (gives you intel so you know when it's safe to push).

Assassin - Shadow Agent

Archetype: Stealth infiltrator. The Assassin controls fights by denying information to enemies. Built for patient players who win through positioning and timing rather than raw aggression.

Lore: Unknown origin. Shadow assassin with invisibility systems.

Assassin Abilities

Prime - Smoke Screen: Throws a smoke disc that sends out a line of smoke fields in front of you, disrupting the optics of anyone who steps inside. Blocks enemy vision and creates confusion zones.
Tactical - Active Camo: Activates your shell's camouflage, making you invisible. Shooting, taking damage, and using abilities or consumables will briefly disrupt the cloak. It lasts roughly 12 seconds and is one of the most feared abilities in the game.
Trait 1 - Shadow Dive: Activate while airborne to slam a smoke disc into the ground, deploying a smoke field on impact. This also negates fall damage, letting you drop from any height safely.
Trait 2 - Shroud: Your shell automatically cloaks when you enter any smoke field. The invisibility sticks around for a short time (roughly 2 seconds) after you leave the smoke.

How to Play Assassin

Everything in the Assassin's kit revolves around information denial. Smoke first, reposition with invisibility, take a guaranteed shot, then disappear before the enemy can trade back. Strong Assassin players focus on generating panic in the opposing team and patiently picking off anyone who gets separated. The synergy between Smoke Screen, Shroud, and Shadow Dive lets you chain smoke fields and invisibility together, making you extremely hard to pin down.

Common Assassin Mistake

Panic shooting while invisible. The moment you fire, your cloak breaks. If you shoot before you've got a clean, guaranteed kill angle, the ability is wasted and you're exposed. This Shell punishes impatience more than any other class in the game.

Best Team Synergies

Recon (feeds you intel on enemy positions so you can set up ambushes) and Thief (takes advantage of the chaos you create to steal loot).

Recon - Intel Specialist

Archetype: Information warfare. Recon is for the thinking player, built for in-game leaders (IGLs) who call shots based on gathered intel. This Shell won't win fights on its own, but it decides them by giving your team knowledge nobody else has.

Lore: Classified. Tactical strategist specializing in threat detection.

Recon Abilities

Prime - Echo Pulse: Activates your shell's detection systems, releasing sonar pulses that reveal nearby hostiles, including players, AI enemies, and even invisible targets. You're essentially a walking UAV.
Tactical - Tracker Drone: Deploys a mechanized microbot that hunts nearby hostiles and explodes, overheating anyone caught in the blast. Because overheat drains enemy stamina and locks out their movement abilities, this drone applies real pressure even without dealing lethal damage.
Trait 1 - Interrogation: You get an automatic HUD warning when an enemy Runner pings you. On top of that, performing a finisher on a downed Runner pings the location of their entire crew. Incredibly strong for tracking down remaining squad members after dropping one enemy.
Trait 2 - Stalker Protocol: After breaking a combatant's shields, they leave behind a lingering holographic trail for a short time. Glowing footprints that let you track anyone who tries to run.

How to Play Recon

Recon's strength is giving your team permission to make smart pushes. Use Echo Pulse before rotations so you know exactly what you're walking into. Deploy Tracker Drones to force enemy movement and apply overheat pressure. Push immediately after shield breaks to capitalize on Stalker Protocol's holographic trails. What matters most is acting on the information you gather. Intel without action is useless.

Common Recon Mistake

Gathering information and not calling it out. If you're not actively communicating enemy positions and coordinating team movements, Recon's entire kit goes to waste. This Shell demands constant comms.

Best Team Synergies

Destroyer (makes clean entries based on your intel and provides crowd control) and Assassin (uses your intel for precision ambushes while their smoke creates chaos you can see through with your detection abilities).

Vandal - Combat Anarchist

Archetype: High-mobility disruptor. The Vandal thrives on speed, chaos, and constant repositioning. If you love using movement to outplay opponents and enjoy a fast-paced action-heavy style, this is your Shell.

Lore: Martian freedom fighter. Combat anarchist with enhanced movement.

Vandal Abilities

Prime - Amplify: Overcharges your movement systems, reducing heat buildup on all movement abilities. Also boosts movement speed and weapon handling. This is your "go fast" button that lets you chain movement actions without overheating.
Tactical - Disrupt Cannon: Press to fire a high-powered energy projectile that deals damage and pushes targets away. Hold to overcharge the cannon for a bigger blast with more damage. You can also use the blast to launch yourself into the air for vertical plays. The devs have mentioned that blasting enemies off buildings with this has already become a meme internally.
Trait 1 - Microjets: Activate in the air for a double jump, at the cost of heat.
Trait 2 - Power Slide: Grants a supercharged extended slide that generates heat.

How to Play Vandal

Vandal's role is disrupting enemy positioning through movement. Use Amplify to force enemies into chasing and splitting up, then hit them with Disrupt Cannon to knock players into bad spots or panic them. Your double jump and extended slide give you angles that other Shells simply can't reach. Bungie has confirmed that mobility-focused cores exist for Vandal (jump upgrades, movement chaining), and finding these is critical to getting the most out of this class.

Common Vandal Mistake

Burning through your heat without thinking. Every movement ability in Vandal's kit costs heat. If you spam them recklessly without using Amplify at the right moments, your movement goes from being a weapon to a liability. You become a sitting duck with all your mobility options on cooldown.

Best Team Synergies

Destroyer (anchors fights on the frontline while you flank) and Thief (combines with Vandal's movement for overwhelming chaos that's extremely hard to deal with).

Marathon Runner combat encounter — Runner Shells offer diverse playstyles from aggressive frontliners to stealthy infiltrators

Thief - Covert Acquisitions

Archetype: Loot-focused infiltrator. The Thief is built around maximizing your looting efficiency and economy. Quietly one of the strongest Shells in Marathon, the Thief excels at planned routes, high-value extractions, and information gathering through its unique drone.

Thief Abilities

Prime - Pickpocket Drone: Deploy a remote-controlled origami butterfly drone with a mechanical whip. The drone knocks loot out of players and AI enemies, then collects what drops. But it has a powerful secondary use: you can fly it around as a scouting tool, pinging enemy locations for your squad. This gives Thief a mini-UAV on top of its looting power.
Tactical - Grapple Device: Fires a dart from your forearm that unfolds into a hovering propeller, pulling you toward it. Unlike traditional grappling hooks that need a surface to attach to, this one creates its own anchor point in mid-air. Fire it into open sky and use it to launch yourself from virtually anywhere, giving you exceptional mobility and escape options.
Trait 1 - X-Ray Visor: Flip down your visor to see loot containers through walls, including the rarity of items inside. It also highlights enemies within your direct line of sight (not through walls, only targets you can actually see).
Trait 2 - Backpack Scaling Bonus: Your base stats passively increase as you fill your backpack with more loot. This includes faster grapple recharge and improved weapon handling. The more loot you carry, the stronger you get.

Confirmed Thief Cores

Core Name	Rarity	Effect
Greed Is Good	Enhanced	When your backpack is completely full, sprint speed and slide distance increase.
Hidden Run	Deluxe	Hitting a target with a melee or knife attack immediately after grappling hacks them and knocks random loot from their backpack.
Case the Joint	Superior	X-Ray Visor gains increased vision range.
Partner in Crime	Prestige	While not being piloted, your Pickpocket Drone periodically pulses to ping nearby hostiles.
Second Grapple Charge	-	Grants a second charge of your Grapple Device.
Drone Ping	-	Pickpocket Drone periodically pings nearby enemies while not being piloted.

How to Play Thief

Thief rewards players who plan routes and think about extraction economy. Use X-Ray Visor to find high-value containers, Grapple Device for rapid repositioning and early exits, and Pickpocket Drone for both stealing loot and scouting enemy positions. The Backpack Scaling Bonus means you get progressively stronger as a run goes on. A Thief with a full backpack is a noticeably better fighter than one running empty.

Common Thief Mistake

Spending too long piloting the drone. The Pickpocket Drone is incredibly versatile, but piloting it leaves your body stationary and vulnerable. Either make sure your squad is covering you, or keep drone usage brief so you don't get caught.

Best Team Synergies

Vandal (creates movement-based distractions to cover your looting) and Assassin (keeps enemy awareness low and provides clean exits).

Triage - Field Medic

Archetype: Combat medic. Triage keeps your team standing through firefights with healing, revives, and combat buffs. In an extraction game where staying alive is everything, a good support player can swing every fight in your team's favor.

Triage Abilities

Prime - Capacitive Gauntlets: Activates an overcharge that sends out shocking tendrils. These revive downed allies from range while also dealing damage to enemies. You can zap opponents and bring teammates back into the fight at the same time.
Tactical - Med-Drone: Deploys a drone that hovers over an ally's shoulder (or your own), providing health and shield regeneration. You can send it to whichever teammate needs it most.
Trait 1 - Battery Overcharge: Temporarily boosts your weapon performance. While active, energy weapons gain the ability to EMP targets when you break their shields.
Trait 2 - Shareware: Allies with Med-Drones attached automatically receive copies of any consumables or heals you use. This is one of the most powerful passive abilities in the game. Using a single health item effectively heals your entire team from any distance, as long as they've got drones on them.

Confirmed Triage Cores

Core Name	Rarity	Effect
High Voltage	Enhanced	Killing hostiles affected by EMP reduces the cooldown of your next Battery Overcharge.
Electron Recapture Syncs	Deluxe	While Battery Overcharge is active, defeating a hostile or downing a runner with a vault weapon instantly restores a portion of the weapon's charge.
No Good Deed	Superior	You receive a burst of healing when your Med-Drone attaches to a crew member.
Samaritan	Prestige	Sharing a consumable through Shareware reduces the cooldown of your next Med-Drone.

How to Play Triage

Triage shines when you're turning your teammates' mistakes into quick recoveries. Keep Med-Drones active on your squad to enable Shareware healing. Use Capacitive Gauntlets to revive downed allies from range while simultaneously damaging enemies. This can completely flip a fight when the other team thinks they've got the advantage. Battery Overcharge also makes you a real combat threat despite being the support class, and the EMP effect on shield breaks adds utility to every engagement.

Common Triage Mistake

Playing Triage as a lone wolf. Everything in this kit is designed for team proximity. Going solo wastes Shareware, Med-Drone, and your revive capability. Stay close to your crew.

Best Team Synergies

Destroyer (pushes forward while you keep the heals flowing) and Recon (gives you intel so you can position your support where it's needed most).

Rook - Scavenger Frame

Archetype: Risk-free scavenger. Rook isn't a traditional Runner Shell. It's a stripped-down scavenger frame for low-risk solo runs. If you've lost a lot of gear and need to rebuild, or you just want to learn the maps with zero stakes, Rook is the way to do it.

Rook Restrictions

You can only enter as Rook solo, no crew.
You join matches that are already in progress, not at the start.
You spawn with a predetermined basic loadout that you can't customize.
You have no offensive abilities like the other Shells.
You bring nothing in, so you risk nothing.

Rook Abilities

Prime - Recuperation: A basic self-sustain ability (exact details are limited).
Tactical - Signal Mask (Blend): Activates a mask that makes UESC AI forces treat you as non-hostile. Enemy NPCs won't attack you while it's active, letting you move through PvE-heavy areas safely. Other players can still see and attack you.

How to Play Rook

Rook is Marathon's version of a Scav run. Drop in, loot everything you can, avoid other players, and extract. Signal Mask is particularly strong for moving through NPC-heavy areas to reach valuable loot without drawing fire. Since you join mid-match and nobody gets notified of your arrival, you've got a stealth advantage that starting players don't have.

Player Reactions

Some players have already said they'll leave Rooks alone, respecting the no-risk scavenger role. Others are calling it kill-on-sight. Be ready for either.

Team Compositions

Marathon lets you run any combination of Shells, including multiples of the same class. But running a diverse team generally gets you better results. Here are three strong compositions for launch:

Composition	Shells	Strategy
Balanced and Consistent	Recon + Destroyer + Triage	Recon provides intel, Destroyer pushes into fights with that information, and Triage keeps everyone alive. The most well-rounded composition for reliable extractions.
Aggressive Profit	Destroyer + Vandal + Thief	Destroyer and Vandal create pressure and chaos on the frontline while Thief exploits the distraction to grab the best loot. For groups that want combat dominance and maximum extraction value.
Stealth Control	Assassin + Recon + Thief	Built around controlling information and striking from the shadows. Recon identifies targets, Assassin creates confusion and picks off stragglers, and Thief cleans up the loot. For squads that prefer to dictate fights on their own terms.

Weapons and Mods

Marathon features a standard range of FPS weapon archetypes: assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, precision rifles, pistols, machine guns (LMGs), and railguns.

Confirmed Weapons

Category	Weapons
Assault Rifles	Overrun AR, M77 Assault Rifle
Submachine Guns	Bully SMG, V22 Volt Thrower, BRRT SMG
Shotguns	WSTR Combat Shotgun
Sniper Rifles	Longshot
Precision Rifles	Hardline PR, Repeater HPR, Twin Tap HBR
Machine Guns	Conquest LMG
Pistols	V11 Punch, CE Tactical Sidearm, Magnum MC
Railguns	V00 Zeus RG

Overrun AR Warning

The Overrun AR is underwhelming and far too commonly available. It's likely what you'll start with, but replace it as soon as possible and don't waste vault space storing extras.

Weapon Mod System

Weapons support four mod slots:

Magazine - Increases ammo capacity.
Barrel - Improves handling and projectile characteristics.
Sight - Changes your optic.
Dedicated Mod Slot - Has the biggest impact on how the weapon feels and performs.

Mods follow the same rarity tiers as other items (gray/green/blue/purple/gold). Higher-rarity mods deliver more dramatic effects. Bungie has said that some legendary (gold) mods completely change a weapon's identity. One example turns an SMG into something that functions like the Needler from Halo, complete with tracking projectiles.

Skill Over Mods

Attachments don't add base weapon damage. They provide effects like increased range, stability, status effects, and other utility. A player with a stock weapon who lands headshots will still beat a fully modded player hitting body shots. Gun skill remains the deciding factor.

Preview footage has shown mods like Torch Bug and Afterburner, which grant specific bonuses such as increased stability after sliding.

Factions and Progression

Factions are one of the most important systems in Marathon. They're your main source of progression, rewards, and power growth across a season.

How Factions Work

At launch, six competing factions fight for influence over Tau Ceti IV. By completing their contracts (missions you work on during runs), you earn reputation and unlock rewards. As your reputation grows, you gain access to:

Runner Shell upgrades and stronger starting options
Account-wide passive buffs (stat increases, more vault space, faster revive speed, and more)
Higher-tier items in each faction's black market shop
Core unlocks for purchase
Story content and narrative elements tied to each faction

Each faction has its own upgrade tree with multiple tiers. Progressing through these trees requires specific materials found during runs, which makes material gathering an important secondary goal in every match.

Contracts

Factions offer several types:

Priority Contracts - Main story-driven missions that push your faction reputation forward and gate the most important upgrades. These should be your top focus.
Boosted Contracts - Special agreements with better loot rewards on completion.
Daily Contracts - Smaller tasks for daily XP and contract rewards. You can re-roll these if they don't fit your plans.

One Contract at a Time

You can only have one active contract at a time, so plan your runs around whichever contract you've selected. Objectives only count while that specific contract is active.

Progress Even on Death

One of Marathon's more forgiving progression features: certain faction rewards (like XP and contract completion credit) are kept even if you die and fail to extract. As long as you completed the objective the faction sent you on during the run, you get credit for it. This prevents runs from feeling completely wasted after a death.

Sponsor Kits

If you've burned through your currency and gear after a rough streak, factions offer sponsored loadouts (Sponsor Kits). These give you a free kit in exchange for completing a faction mission during that run. It's a safety net that keeps you from being locked out of gameplay entirely after a string of losses.

Vault Space

Your vault is persistent storage for items you don't bring into matches. Space is limited at the start, and expanding it should be one of your first priorities. The Cyber Acme faction tree has vault space upgrades near the top left of its tree, and going after these early will save you constant headaches with inventory management.

Seasonal Resets

Marathon runs on a seasonal model. At the start of each new season (approximately every three months based on available information), your loot and progression reset. New seasons bring new maps, weapons, events, story content, and other additions. Full details on exactly what persists between seasons haven't been laid out yet.

Marathon Maps — Tau Ceti IV features multiple zones with escalating difficulty leading to the endgame Cryo Archive

Maps and Environments

Marathon launches with three maps, each with distinct environments and escalating difficulty.

Known Maps

Perimeter - One of the primary surface maps on Tau Ceti IV, featuring research facilities, relay stations, and various compounds. Most early faction contracts direct you here, so expect to spend a lot of time on this map during your first days.
Dire Marsh - A second surface map with different loot pools, its own compounds, terrain, and enemy layouts.
A third map is confirmed for launch but details are limited.

The Cryo Archive: Endgame

Endgame Zone

Beyond the surface maps, Marathon features the Cryo Archive, the first floor of the orbiting UESC Marathon ship. Once the way into orbit unlocks, bring your endgame build to Cryo Archive. Solve raid-like security measures to unseal frozen vaults and pillage the artifacts within. Every cramped corridor forces you into conflict with fully geared enemy crews racing for the same prize. Breach the seventh vault to challenge an entity even the UESC fears.

This area is built for players with strong builds and high-tier gear. Tight corridors force close-quarters PvP against other fully equipped teams, and reaching the seventh vault unlocks some kind of challenge encounter. This is where the best loot and most intense gameplay lives.

Map Features and Points of Interest

Maps in Marathon are packed with interactive elements:

Compounds - Named locations with loot containers, weapon lockers, and materials. Each compound has its own loot pool.
Floating Drones - Fly around the map carrying yellow loot boxes. Shoot the box down and loot it.
Ship Drop Events ("Ringing the Dinner Bell") - Some compounds have interactive devices that call in a ship dropping four pods of loot with weapon attachments and valuable gear. Activating this sends a loud audio cue across the entire map and shows all players where the ship is heading. High risk, high reward.
Mini-Bosses (Incursions) - Random mini-boss encounters that appear during matches. Tougher than standard AI but guard valuable drops.
Locked Boxes and Locked Rooms - Require keys found during runs. Locked box keys work on any locked box across any compound on either map. Locked room keys are much rarer and may need to be used on a different map than where you found them. If you find a key but can't find its matching box or room, extract with it and use it next run.
Flare Rooms - Some compounds occasionally display red flares on the corner of their buildings, indicating a nearby loot room with above-average drops. Not as good as locked rooms but more common and don't need keys.
Interceptors and Incursion Objectives - Terminal-based objectives at designated compounds that update your map with new waypoints and give XP and rewards.
Tunnels and Vent Systems - Alternate routes and flanking paths throughout the maps.
Environmental Hazards - Bungie mentions deadly environments and dynamic weather. Certain areas feature infested caverns with exploding bugs and other hostile wildlife. Some environments affect your oxygen supply. Getting shot in certain ways can cause oxygen to deplete faster, and running out of oxygen drains your health.

Survival Tips

Your First Runs

Mark your extraction immediately. As soon as you spawn in, open the map and mark your Exfil. It's surprisingly easy to lose track of time in this game. Knowing your escape route at all times is critical.
Don't fire first if you can help it. Being the first shots heard on the map paints a target on you. Playing as the third party, not the one getting third-partied, is a strong early survival strategy.
Consider going in light on your very first match. You can enter with just a knife, loot weapons and gear off the map, and extract with solid gains while risking nothing. It's a legitimate strategy for learning map layouts with zero stakes.
Start on Perimeter. Most early faction contracts send you here, and the compounds have reliable materials for your first upgrades.

Loot Priorities for Early Progression

Go after vault space upgrades first. The Cyber Acme faction tree has vault expansion near the top left. The first upgrade costs microprocessors, which drop in specific compounds (North and South Perimeter Relay on the Perimeter map). Hover over the material in the upgrade tree to confirm drop locations.
Grab every material you see, except purple materials early on. Purple mats take up too much vault and backpack space, and you won't need them for upgrades for a long time.
Loot UESC enemy drops. Don't skip the boxes that drop from standard AI enemies. They occasionally contain surprisingly valuable items.
Keep backup shield implants and runner implants in your vault. Dying with no replacement shields or implants makes the next few runs rough.
Hold onto weapons you like. If you find a gun that feels good (the Longshot sniper and Bully SMG are strong options), extract with it as a backup.
Pick up MIPS rounds when you see them. These sniper rifle rounds are expensive on the black market, so finding them in the field saves real currency.

Combat and Survival

Understand the health system. Four shield bars, one health bar. Passive healing only kicks in after several minutes of not taking damage. It's not a quick regen. Pack patch kits (health) and shield recharges (shields) as your primary healing.
Carry status-clearing consumables. Mechanics Kits remove physical status effects (immobilize, overheat, toxin) by temporarily maxing your Hardware stat. OS Reboots clear electronic status effects (EMP, hack) by maxing your Firewall stat. If your abilities get disabled by an EMP and you don't have an OS Reboot, you're stuck waiting out the timer.
Self-revive items exist but they're rare. You can find or buy them, but don't expect them to be abundant. Treat them as high-value survival tools.
Your teammates can always revive you as long as at least one crew member is still alive, even after a full down.
Extraction sends a signal. Activating your Exfil shoots a beam into the sky and plays an audio cue. Every player on the map can see and hear this. Expect company during your extraction.

Economy and Inventory Management

Build a starter loadout from the black market before each run. A reliable starting kit: five patch kits (ten if you take a lot of hits), ten shield recharges, one Mechanics Kit, one OS Reboot, and an extra stack of ammo for your primary weapon.
If you go broke, use Sponsor Kits. Factions give you a free loadout in exchange for completing their mission. It's your safety net.
Currency farming runs are a real strategy. If you need funds, enter a match focused entirely on grabbing valuables and extracting quickly to build up your bank.
Don't hoard weapon mods for guns you don't use. Mods eat vault and backpack space. Only keep mods for weapons you're actually going to equip.

Advanced Tips

Proximity chat is active. You can hear nearby players, and they can hear you. Use it for coordination or deception, but be aware it can also give away your position.
Team loot sharing works for high-tier items. If you extract but your teammates die, certain high-rarity team-shared items (purple and gold tier) can still be rewarded to your fallen squadmates along with XP. Getting even one person out alive with valuable loot benefits everyone.
Stat trade-offs exist in buildcrafting. Some buffs reduce another stat in exchange. You can't just stack every advantage. Build choices involve real trade-offs.
Reconnect is supported. If you disconnect mid-match, you can rejoin the raid in progress.
The final extraction timer changes everything. If the match timer expires, all extraction zones close and a single last-chance Exfil spawns for every remaining player. This can be a high-risk play, but it also means every surviving team converges on one point.

Endgame Content

Ranked Mode: Rated

Marathon will feature a competitive ranked mode called Rated launching during Season 1. It assigns ranks based on your performance in each run, including how well you played and how successfully you extracted. Specific ranking tiers and rewards haven't been fully revealed.

Season 1 Content Plan

Bungie has outlined the following for Season 1 and ongoing post-launch:

New maps and zones
Additional weapons and weapon mods
New Runner Shells beyond the launch seven
Ranked mode (Rated)
Endgame challenges (including the Cryo Archive)
Seasonal narrative storytelling
Community events
Hidden secrets and discoverable content

Quick Reference

If You Like...	Play This Shell
Aggressive frontline combat	Destroyer
Stealth and ambush tactics	Assassin
Gathering intel and calling shots	Recon
Fast movement and creating chaos	Vandal
Maximizing loot and extraction value	Thief
Supporting and healing your team	Triage
Risk-free solo scavenging runs	Rook

Final Thoughts

Marathon isn't about picking the strongest class. It's about picking the class that covers your group's weaknesses, plays to your personal strengths, and fits the map you're on. The buildcrafting system through cores and implants means that even within a single Shell, there's enormous room for customization and experimentation. Pick wrong and the game will feel punishing. Pick right and everything clicks.

Focus your early runs on vault space upgrades, learn the map layouts, stick with your crew, and always have an exit plan. Good luck on Tau Ceti IV, Runner.