Top Marathon 5 Tips for Beginners

The Marathon Server Slam has now concluded, and players everywhere have flocked to Tau Ceti to get their first taste of Bungie’s newest adventure in the world of Marathon. Straight off the bat, players have experienced deep build crafting, a raft of weaponry, Faction upgrades, and plenty of loot when searching through the world.

The early taster has already raised plenty of questions among players about what to do and what to focus on to get the most out of their time. Here, we go over the top 5 tips for Runners getting to grips with Marathon.

Runners

Runners are effectively your ‘class’ when entering the world of Tau Ceti. They will determine your abilities and lean into different playstyles, each doing something better than the rest. 

The best tip when starting is to understand the Runner Shells and what they offer. For example, if you are a player who loves to play stealthily and likes to stalk teams to get a flank, Assassin will be the best choice here for its Active Camo Tactical abilities. 

Each class falls into the same sort of niche; you can look to be a healer, a tank, a recon, or even a thief. You can access each class and its detailed descriptions from the starting menu. You do not have to stick to a certain class either; it is recommended that you try different Runner Shells and experience their playstyles as they all interact differently with the world, as well as in battle with other squads.

Full details on the Runner Shells and what they can do can be found here.

Factions and Contracts

These are the key to getting the most out of your Marathon experience. Factions offer an Armory of gear to choose from, which only gets better and better the more you upgrade them, and you do this by completing Priority and regular contracts that each Faction offers. There are six Factions and each specializes in a certain aspect of the game, from inventory management to powerful gear to give you the edge during a run. 

Levelling the Factions up eventually takes the sting out of any lost gear after a failed run as you can easily gear up to a strong standard again before the next game. 

Your first focus should be to complete the Priority contracts as each Faction unlocks. These give you a foot in the door to their armory and you can start purchasing useful gear and even access free kits and full loadouts they offer for credits. Once done, we recommend the best Factions to start with are CyberAcme and NuCaloric. These Factions offer great utility in their upgrades with boosts to vault space, purchasing higher quality shields and a decent selection of weapons and upgrades for your Runner to start with to enhance your chances of successful runs. Then if you fail, their armory is cheap and easily accessible to kit up again. Passive upgrades are also available, a major one being reducing the effects of being hacked or reduced suffering from the poisounous gas.

Each Faction specialises in different aspects of the game and that reflects their upgrades and armory. MIDA for example is much more PvE focused whereas Arachne is more PvP focused. It’s essential to get to grips with these Factions as they can enhance your experience and help provide you the gear and upgrades for the type of player you want to be in Marathon. 

When choosing your Faction, ensure you check what materials the focus focuses on for their upgrades and collect as much of it as possible during your run. This will make the upgrades much easier to get your more enhanced and takes out any need to do scavenger runs.

 

Weapons and Time to Kill (TTK)

Marathon will launch with a wide variety of weapons, 28 in total to be exact, and each one is deadly due to the game’s low TTK. Any weapon is capable of shredding through enemy Runners if you have an accurate hand, so to get the most advantages, we need weapon mods. 

While 28 weapons can seem overwhelming, as players will always want to gravitate towards the ‘meta’ in a game like this, it’s the weapon mods that increase the potency rather than the base weapon itself. 

Look out for mods which can enhance a weapons Accuracy, Magazine Size, or ones that can boost your Runners traits. Mods also have rarities, ranging from green to gold (Prestige), and these will be very rare but very powerful. 

If you go onto your chosen weapon and use the ‘inspect’ option, it will show a list of the mods in your inventory that you can equip to each weapon. Make sure you check your mods before each run because they really can be the difference maker between winning and losing a battle on Tau Ceti. 

Marathon Loot

The best loot in Tau Ceti comes from defeating High-Value Targets (HVTs), world events, Data Pads, and other Runners in the world. Not just loot itself but one of the biggest things with Marathon is it feels more like a game for hunting rather than looting endless buildings, and that’s a good thing. Do cool stuff and defeat tough enemies? You feel rewarded with your triumphs. 

That’s not to say there’s no good loot in buildings, but don’t get caught out by hanging around in the same area for long periods, and be distracted from PvE and PvP enemies bearing down on you. Treat buildings as cover and a chance to stock up. Get in, get what you need, get back out there. 

If you find a Datapad, pick it up. A blue marker will lead you around the map to points of interest, and these usually end with some quality loot at the end. 

If you see a building with red flares on it, this is a point of interest when it comes to loot and could contain lock boxes. These contain quality loot but require a key card to access. These can be found in the world or bought from Factions once unlocked. 

You’ll see floating spherical robots moving around the world at times carrying a box, which can contain some decent pieces of loot.

Gameplay

The world of Marathon is a dangerous place. Everything you encounter in some shape or form wants to take you out, and in most cases, take all your precious loot. The world is to be explored and experienced; to find your feet within the game, follow the above tips, and get out there to find these exciting experiences.

• Take plenty of ammo and plenty of heals; you’re going to need them. Stock up using the armory and by stripping buildings and other Runners of their resources. 
• Also, don’t be afraid to share. If you give a member of your team some gear, it will be returned to them at the end of the game.
• If a teammate is finished, you can still revive them using their bag. It’s not over for your team until you are all out of the game. 

Enjoy your time in Tau Ceti, but be ready for a fight to survive in every run