After years of development, a large delay, and a successful Server Slam, Bungie’s new extraction shooter, Marathon, is finally here. The $40 first-person shooter has arrived on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and it features a slew of content for players to explore. Even if you played the recent Server Slam, none of your progress carries over, so you have to start all over from scratch and build your vault back up from nothing.
Whether you’re a new player hopping into the game for the first time or you’ve put in dozens of hours through playtests, Marathon is a complex shooter with loads of different mechanics and strategies that can make the difference between living and dying. While you do go through a small tutorial at the start of the game, many of the advanced mechanics aren’t explained in-game, which can leave you vulnerable to AI or real enemies.
To help boost your survival chances in Marathon, we have seven beginner tips that are sure to improve your gameplay and help overcome the game’s steep learning curve.
Use your free loadouts
One of the most common elements of any extraction shooter is the free loadouts you can utilize to your advantage. These loadouts equip you with basic weapons and supplies and cost nothing, meaning there’s no risk to you if you drop into a map with one and end up dying. In Marathon, these free loadouts can be acquired through any Faction shop in the Armory and added to your vault. From there, you can equip it and head into a drop with the bare essentials.
During these types of runs, you want to scavenge for all kinds of loot, avoid enemy teams, and try to extract as safely as possible. Using the free loadouts lets you build up your stash in Marathon with no extra risk. They’re also great for quickly completing a contract for a faction and then extracting from the map.
Crouch to decrease heat meter faster
If you’ve played any Marathon, you know about the heat meter. This essentially acts as the game’s stamina bar, and the more you sprint, slide, or jump, the higher your heat meter will build. If you reach the maximum amount of heat, you can’t perform any kind of advanced movement mechanic until the entire meter dissipates.
While this is a frustrating mechanic to get accustomed to, there’s an easy way to make your heat meter decrease: crouching. If you simply crouch for around 5-10 seconds, your entire heat meter will dissipate. However, if you stand and keep trying to walk, it will take nearly twice as long for the meter to fully decrease. So if you ever get in a situation where you max out your heat meter, just crouch for a few seconds, and you’ll be as right as rain.
Always bring extra ammo and healing items
If there are two items you will always need more of in Marathon, it’s ammunition and healing items. Even if you manage to wipe a few squads, take out dozens of AI enemies, and loot several buildings, you’ll still likely need both ammo and heals by the time you go to exfil from a map.
It’s always wise to at least bring a few stacks of ammo for each weapon type you have equipped, plus a couple of stacks of HP and shield recharges. This amount of both resources should be enough to last you until you can find some more, either through looting or killing enemies.
You can also use the ammo pack equipment to spawn additional ammo throughout a drop, but this will consume your valuable equipment slot. As for heals, you just have to hope you’re able to loot some if you happen to run out.
Barter at Faction shops
Speaking of needing ammo and heals, you might have had to run to the Armory and spend valuable credits at a Faction shop if you’ve needed either resource for a drop in Marathon. Ammo and heals cost a hefty amount of credits, though, so it’s often not even worth it to spend your valuable currency on the items.
Fortunately, you don’t have to spend credits to acquire extra ammo and heals. Instead, you can barter with certain Faction shops in the Armory using Enhanced Salvage or “Unstable” items. For example, at the top of the CyberAcme screen in the Armory, you can see the “Barter Wares” tab. Here, you can exchange Enhanced Salvage or Unstable items, such as Diodes, Lead, etc., for ammo, heals, and even weapons. This way, you save on credits and exchange loot you’re not using for far more valuable loot.
Hold L2/LT to drag loot to your inventory
This tip is only for controller players, but they need some extra help compared to PC players when it comes to navigating Marathon’s UI. When using a controller, trying to grab loot from a container or dead body and transfer it to your inventory can be a total nightmare. Everything feels clunky and slow, resulting in slow looting times that put you in a vulnerable state for longer than you’d like.
To speed up the process on a controller, all you have to do is hold L2/LT while looting. This allows you to drag items from a container or dead body to your inventory and vice versa. Now, you can place items exactly where you want them to go instead of hoping the game’s UI does it for you.
Aim for the head
Combat in Marathon is extremely exhilarating, especially when you’re using some high-level weapons against another squad. However, if you feel the time-to-kill (TTK) is a little fast, it might be because your enemies are aiming for your head.
In Marathon, headshots deal an extra 50%-140% extra damage, depending on the weapon you’re using. That kind of damage increase can down an enemy in the blink of an eye if you can hit your headshots. Of course, you also have to be on the lookout for that when being shot, as enemies that hit their headshots on you will drain your shield and HP bars faster than you can react.
Stealth is your friend
Our final tip in Marathon is to use stealth to your advantage as much as possible. This mostly relies on using the “Assassin” Runner Shell, as it comes equipped with the Active Camo ability and a smoke grenade that creates mass confusion. The Active Camo ability is highly overpowered in Marathon, as it turns a character nearly completely invisible for several seconds. By using Active Camo and the smoke grenade in conjunction with each other, you can wipe an enemy squad by yourself before they know what hit them.
If you’re not using the Assassin Shell, then crouching reduces your footstep noise by a wide margin, making you extremely silent while moving around. Anything you can use to stay quiet is going to be beneficial when you encounter another squad.
