Marathon Season 2 is bringing a surprisingly hefty amount of new content to the game, and we’ve got all the highlights here. Marathon launched with a healthy amount of content to chew through, but there were still more than a few pain points. Season 2 of Marathon looks to correct and improve upon what worked and especially what didn’t, while adding tons of additional content to enjoy. It’s a long list of changes, so we’ve summarized the most important information in this guide. The biggest update coming to Marathon Season 2 is the Night Marsh zone, a dark and horror-inspired twist on Dire Marsh. The map layout seems to be mostly the same, with a few notable additions. First is the new Complex Control area, a high-value, heavily defended loot zone at the Complex point of interest. Expect not just heavy UESC resistance, but also plenty of enemy runners looking to clean the place out — and take everything you have as well. You need to find encryption certificates, or Certs, from the USEC to access the zone. Night Marsh also adds new ways to earn loot outside the main POIs. Think new interactable containers like those you’d find on Outpost. The Dev Insights video showed one such container that summons a large, windmill-type array. New equipment is coming to Night Marsh as well. All runners start with a flashlight they can turn on or off, and there are several additional pieces of gear. Vector rounds and grenades create light or highlight the environment around where they land/explode, giving you additional intel when you need it most. The same is true of Darksight scopes and Signal Flares that light up the environment around you in different ways. The other big piece of news is the new Sentinel Runner Shell. Described as a defensive-minded Shell, the Sentinel has three abilities designed to keep enemies at bay or hinder their movements. Snare Mines attach to surfaces and, when triggered, immobilize those nearby who triggered them. The Castle Doctrine passive improves Sentinel’s resistance after taking splash damage, and increases weapon handling for close-range weapons while surrounded. At the heart of the Sentinel’s kit is the Prey Tracker, a short-range radar that marks nearby enemies through walls as red blips on a new radar HUD element. It seems to function similarly to the Heartbeat Sensor from the Call of Duty games, though how much we’ll need to find out. Season 2 also brings a massive shakeup to the gameplay sandbox. Mods and chips are receiving a balance pass and a rarity update, making some easier to get and others harder. There are also eight new chips to find and equip to your weapons to find. Implants are now easier to read, with their effects listed at the top of their description card, and they all have fixed stats, too. Implant rarities are changing much in the same way as chips, and their rarity level affects how low or high their stat bonus is. Two new weapons are also coming. The D54 Battle Pistol is a pistol-frame SMG, great for shredding players up close or dealing with shotgun rushers before they’re within lethal range. Then there’s the D54 Battle Pistol. Billed as a 1v1 player’s weapon, it’s apparently a hybrid of the BR33 Volley Rifle and the BRRT SMG. Progression is getting an overhaul, too, with a new system called the Cradle, which allows you to earn and distribute points across six categories. These points directly improve a set of stats related to the category title. Improving Dexterity in the Cradle, for instance, immediately improves your Agility and Loot Speed stats. You’ll spend extra loot you aren’t using at a Convert Matter screen for Energy that lets you earn more points for the Cradle. The last big news is the series of updates coming to the Faction grind. Among the many changes are a buff to faction progression speed, a top-down update to Contracts to make them more enjoyable and rewarding to complete, and a quality-of-life pass to the more tedious contracts that ask you to run all over the place and risk getting into a surprise fight. Ranked Play and Cryo Archive launch in the second week of Season 2. Cryo is mostly the same, but Ranked Play has received buffs to its progression speed and win/loss scoring. There’s a laundry list of quality-of-life updates coming too, including a larger maximum Vault size, a loot filter, batch Vault item select, better Lobby UI, and more. There’s also an open play period from June 2 to June 9 where anyone can try out Season 2 content for free, and progress carries over if you buy the game. Season 2 of Marathon brings much more to the table than I was expecting, and will have me back in the thick of things for at least a little while. Hopefully, these changes will bring many more players to the game. The upcoming PvE experiments could also be a massive windfall of interest, though that remains to be seen. For much more on Bungie’s sci-fi extraction shooter, check out our Marathon strategy guide.
All new content and changes in Marathon Season 2
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