Marathon: Best Faction Upgrades to Prioritize

Runners are off to the races in Marathon, going head-to-head in fast-paced combat, scavenging for crucial resources, and gaining reputation with six competing factions.

As you complete contracts and level up, these factions will reward you for your services with guns and other goodies, but they also offer game-changing faction upgrades that will take some time to unlock.

You'll need stockpiles of resources and credit to purchase these upgrades, so it's a good idea to lay a solid foundation for yourself by focusing on key upgrades that will increase your efficiency exponentially.

In this guide, I'll show you what upgrades to prioritize, focusing on survivability through stronger loadouts and buffed stats.

Best Faction Upgrades to Get First

Let's get started with the CyberAcme faction. Highlighted in the picture above are the following recommended faction upgrades:

• Expansion: Gain additional rows of vault capacity.
• Informant: Increases data card credit rewards by 50%.
• Carrier: Unlocks enhanced backpacks for purchase in the Armory.
• Scavenger: Increased loot speed.
• Firm Stance: Increased fall resistance.
• Loot Siphon: Opening unlooted containers reduces tactical ability cooldown.

Think of these upgrades as the oil in the engine. Increasing your credit rewards by 50% with the informant upgrade should be one of the first things every runner in Marathon unlocks, as it will speed up your progress a tremendous amount.

Heat Reduction

We're not done with CyAc just yet. Seen in the picture above, there are three upgrades dedicated to heat reduction that are extremely important. These upgrades are as follows:

• Heat Sink: Increases the number of movement actions you can perform before overheating.
• Quick Vent: Increased heat recovery speed.
• Active Cool: Inreased heat recovery rate.

As you shred through swarms of UESC, slide behind cover, or sprint to the aid of your teammates, your shell will begin to overheat, meaning an upgraded cooling system becomes absolutely vital for every scenario.

Crafting Keys

Keys are hard to come by in Tau Ceti, but luckily, you can make them yourself. Seen above is the keymaker upgrade, which requires you to have level 16 faction reputation with CyAc, but you'll gain access to some of the best loot in the game, so it's a good upgrade to know about early on.

Nu Caloric Essentials

You'll be using an astronomical amount of meds in the form of patch kits and shield charges, so it's a great idea to unlock the following upgrades (seen above) from the Nu Caloric faction:

• Safeguard: Unlocks daily free shield charges in the armory.
• Restore: Unlocks daily free patch kits in the armory.

Having an upgraded shield implant is critical for your success, especially when it comes to PvP combat. Seen above is the shielded upgrade from Nu Caloric that will unlock enhanced shield implants for purchase in the armory.

Having this combination of Nu Caloric essentials will have your day-to-day operations feeling much smoother as you stock your kit with free meds and an enhanced shield at a reasonable price, as seen below.

Sekiguchi Cores

When you've found the shells that best suit your playstyle, it's important to have a steady stream of shell-specific cores that enhance your abilities and traits.

Highlighted in the picture above is a row of upgrades that become available once you reach level three with Sekiguchi, and will give you access to enhanced cores for each respective shell.

The Arachne Arsenal

The Arachne faction's hard strike upgrade, seen above, increases your melee and knife attack damage by 20. This basic buff will make a big difference when clearing out UESC troops and fighting other runners in close quarters.

If you love the assassin shell, this upgrade should be one of your first purchases.

Arachne also offers high-quality weaponry to help give you an edge over your opponents. Here you can unlock the retaliator LMG, the railgun, and my personal favorite, the combat shotgun, seen above.

With all of these upgrades unlocked, creating custom loadouts will become a much simpler task, as you will have easy access to meds, shields, guns, shell-specific cores, and keys for high-value loot rooms.