How to Play as Recon in Marathon

Whether you're looking to avoid conflict and focus on looting, or you're trying to impress a faction with your PvP prowess, Marathon's recon shell has the tools you need to stay one step ahead of your enemies.

Recon is an intel specialist, fully equipped with threat detection tech such as a sonar system and a tracking drone, but knowing how to use this shell to its full potential may take some trial-and-error.

In a cut-throat extraction shooter such as this, your survival not only depends on being quick-on-the-draw, accurate, and calm under pressure, it also requires a lot of strategic thinking.

In this guide, I'll show you how to use Recon's abilities at the perfect moments to maximize their effectiveness, and become a true master of strategy.

Recon Abilities, Explained

Echo Pulse (Prime): Activate your shell's advanced detection systems, releasing a series of sonar pulses that reveal the location of nearby hostiles.

Tracker Drone (Tactical): Deploy a mechanized microbot that tracks down nearby hostiles and explodes, overheating any targets caught in the blast.

Interrogation (Trait): When pinged by a hostile runner, you automatically recieve a warning in your shell's HUD. Performing a finisher on a runner pings their crew.

Stalker Protocol (Trait): After breaking a target's shield, they leave behind a lingering holographic trail for a short time.

The recon shell is great for any playstyle, giving players the ability to get the jump on their opponents in PvP, or avoid detection and loot peacefully while knowing exactly where threats lurk.

Recon Strategies

Recon's tactical ability, the tracker drone (seen above), might be one of the strongest tactical abilities currently in the game as it can be used in many different scenarios.

Use your drone to help you clear out UESC forces (seen above), but only when it's absolutely necessary. Knowing when to use your abilities, and when to keep them for a more crucial moment, is an extremely valuable skill.

While Recon's drone is great for dealing with AI, it shines the brightest when chasing down unlucky runners. When you're fighting a team that is inside a building, send the drone in first and let it do the dirty work for you.

This is the best time to use Recon's tactical ability, as it will devastate your opponents with damage and crowd-control, setting up easy kills for your squad.

Recon's prime ability, Echo Pulse, sends out seven waves of sonar that will mark hostiles around you with a red dot, as seen in the picture above.

In this scenario, we were ambushed by a team and I quickly engaged the Echo Pulse, which immediately revealed the locations of our attackers and gave my squad the opportunity to pounce.

Defending against ambushes may be the best time to activate your sonar system, but it can also be used in aggressive plays where you're tracking a squad, and it's time to pinpoint their location.

Best Team Composition

The combat specialist shell, the destroyer, is stacked with tools that make it an absolute beast in battles, but there's one thing it's missing that would make it unstoppable—Intel.

Pairing the destroyer and recon shells together brings the phrase 'search and destroy' to life, as recon's sonar and tracking tech allows the destroyer to focus on one thing, and one thing only, destroying.

When a team is close, activate Recon's sonar, deploy your drone (and your destroyer) and get into position to back them up.

While the destroyer acts instinctively on Recon's intel, like a dog chasing the scent of a pungent piece of meat, triage is ready to mend their wounds and keep them in the fight when things get hairy.

The trick for this trio is to supply the destroyer with everything they need to get the job done. Triage brings an immense amount of sustain in the form of quick-revives and med-drone healing and is easily one of the most impactful shells in the game.