Everything You Need To Know About Marathon

2 hours ago 3

After a long wait, some delays, and plenty of cool trailers and teasers, Bungie’s newest game, Marathon, is finally here. If you are planning to hop in or already have, you probably have some questions. You might have a lot of questions. I can’t promise you that I have all the answers. But I can at least offer up a lot of information in an easy-to-read format that will hopefully help make your journey to Marathon’s dangerous Tau Ceti IV a bit less confusing. It’s the best I can offer.

**What is Marathon?**

Marathon is Bungie’s new first-person sci-fi online-only extraction shooter. It is also a sequel to Bungie’s older Marathon trilogy from the 90s, but don’t worry about that. Like other extraction shooters, you drop into a map, fight enemy players and dangerous NPCs, collect some loot, and try to extract with said loot. If you do, you keep your haul. If you die, you lose it all. It’s brutal out there on the desolate alien world of Tau Ceti IV.

**Is Marathon out now? Like for real?**

Yes! Marathon is out today, March 5, for real. This isn’t an alpha or a server slam or early access or anything like that. Marathon is officially available today.

What platforms is it available on?

Marathon is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. (There are rumors of a PS4/Xbox One port according to some leaked ESRB rating, but that’s likely just a mistake.)

**Is Marathon free-to-play?**

Nope! Marathon costs $40 for the base version of the game.

Does it support crossplay or cross-progression?

Yes! Marathon fully supports both crossplay and cross-progression. You’ll need to link your accounts up, just like in Destiny 2, but once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to hop from PC to Xbox to PlayStation 5 and keep your progress. You’ll also be able to easily play with friends on other platforms, too.

Wait, where’s all my stuff from the Server Slam beta?

Sorry to say, all the loot you earned during the Marathon open beta isn’t waiting for you in the full game. Bungie did explain this in a few places. All that progress is gone, will never come back, and you start fresh just like everyone else.

**How do seasons work in Marathon?**

Like so many other live-service video games, Marathon will feature seasons. Bungie has promised these seasons will bring big changes to the game, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s true.

In Marathon, seasons are going to last around three months. Each season will have a theme and will introduce new content, including runners, guns, levels, and more, to Marathon. The big thing to keep in mind is that when a season wraps up, a big wipe happens before the next season kicks off. Bungie explained in a blog that during these seasonal wipes, players will lose all of their gear in their vault and backpack, and all quest and faction progress will be cleared, too. Brutal stuff. You will get to keep cosmetics you unlocked or earned, as well as progress made in Marathon’s codex, which is filled with lore entries that are unlocked via challenges.

The idea is that every season in Marathon will feel new and fresh, letting players hop in without having to worry about a small number of skilled experts one-shotting them with the best sniper rifles Tau Ceti IV has to offer.

Will I need to buy expansions like in Destiny 2?

Nope! Bungie says all new content added in future Marathon seasons will be free to play or earn. So it sounds like there won’t be paid expansions.

Can I play solo?

Yes. There are two ways to play solo. You can just drop into matches without a squad, but Bungie warns that this will be challenging as once you get downed, you are out with no help from teammates. The other way to play solo is via Rook, a robot character that lets you drop into a match already in progress with some random gear. Rook can’t complete quests, but he can get you some loot if you extract. And if you die, who cares, as Rook uses his own gear that isn’t connected to your vault or loot.

Do I need to play the older Marathon games first?

No. While all three of the OG Marathon shooters are now available for free to download and play on Steam, you don’t have to play them. If you do care about the story of Marathon and want to know more about the world, playing the old games is an option. There are also plenty of great videos on YouTube with lore breakdowns about what happened in the Marathon trilogy. These are my personal favorites.

Wait, this is confusing and hard. Am I just bad, or is this just Marathon?

This is just Marathon. You are going to die a lot. You are going to fail. That’s just the name of the game. As for the intricate menus, contracts, and various types of loot, yes, it is confusing because the game is poor at onboarding players. This is a real problem, and my only advice is to push through and not worry about understanding everything or extracting from every match. Prepare to die, be happy when you don’t, and assume you won’t understand what’s going on for a while, and you’ll be fine.