Introducing Seasons in Marathon

With Marathon’s launch around the corner, we want to take a minute to share how we’re approaching seasons and our plans for Season 1 and beyond.

Seasons in Marathon last about three months, and each season will bring new content and features that change the way you master survival, grow your power floor, and progress throughout a season.  

Marathon's living universe and gameplay will continue to evolve across seasons, fueled by your feedback and your impact on the world of Tau Ceti as you uncover what happened to the lost colony and on the Marathon ship.  

Seasonal updates will introduce new gameplay, including gear, Runner shells, zones, events, and more, which will be free for all players to access or earn–no expansions or DLC required. 

From your first steps on Perimeter to the end-game on Cryo Archive and Ranked mode, each season will challenge you to discover, adapt, and master new survival skills on your climb.  

Everyone will start fresh each season with nothing to their name and the constant threat of death in a world more lethal and powerful than you are. 

Over the course of the season, you’ll complete contracts and progress your faction upgrades, granting you access to stronger base stats and better wares in the Armory. It’s not just about what you loot, it’s about raising your power floor and the options available to you. Over time, recovering from a bad loss will get easier, and crafting your ideal build will be more accessible. 

As you master survival and grow your available resource pool, you’ll be able to take on increasingly challenging contracts, zones, and enemy Runners. Climb the Ranked ladder, prep for high-stakes Cryo Archive runs, and secure the most lucrative loot and prestigious rewards of the season. 

Then as the season comes to a close and the feeling of “$@%& it let’s ball” settles in, roll with your best loot knowing a fresh start for everyone, with more to discover and a new climb to master, is just around the corner. 

Each season of Marathon brings a clean slate for the whole community with progression resets. These resets include everyone’s gear, contract progression, faction progression, and player level. 

You’ll keep your achievements and ways to express yourself. This includes cosmetics (earned and paid), titles, and other rewards you earn by playing and reaching milestones each season. Your Codex progression also carries over, as unburying the secrets of Tau Ceti takes time.  

A few other things carry over too, such as your liaison contract progression; no need to unlock the factions every season. 

Seasonal resets mean that the game stays dangerous, loot feels meaningful, and there’s always a good opportunity to get back into the game or bring a friend in without feeling behind the curve. It’s a way to say goodbye to the old, welcome the new, and kickoff a journey from zero-to-hero with new ways to play, content to master, and things to discover. 

Season 1: DEATH IS THE FIRST STEP (aka FIRST STEP) is the start of a new gold rush on Tau Ceti. It's the beginning of a proxy war between rival factions competing for power and answers to what happened to the 30,000 lost souls of the New Cascadia Colony. And as a Runner, you’re at the forefront of the expeditions. 

When you step foot on Tau Ceti IV, you’ll find a hostile world that wishes you dead. As you and other Runners begin to explore the surface, you’ll soon discover a way aboard the derelict UESC Marathon ship hanging above. 

Once the community unlocks the way into orbit, the fourth zone, Cryo Archive, will become available. Prepare your mind and shell to take on this end-game zone on the Marathon ship, where you’ll solve security puzzles, unseal frozen vaults, and come face-to-face with an entity even the UESC fears. 

During the second half of March, Ranked mode will also unlock. Put your survival skills to the test and exfil with valuable loot to climb the Ranked ladder and earn exclusive rewards each season. We’ll share more details about Ranked mode when we get closer to it’s launch. 

FIRST STEP also brings events, quality-of-life improvements, balance tuning, new implants, a new weapon, and other surprises. 

This is in addition to the full suite of launch content, which includes:

• Complete faction and contract progression

  • All six factions, including Sekiguchi Genetics

• All six launch Runner shells, including Thief

• Three zones, including Outpost

  • Outpost will unlock the day after launch, giving the community time to gear up and unlock the zone at Runner Level 12

• 28 weapons, plus mods, implants, cores, and more to craft your perfect builds

• Earnable cosmetics, achievements, and storytelling through the Codex

You’ll start to see the impact of your presence on Tau Ceti IV in Season 2: NIGHTFALL. Your activities on the lost colony have not gone unnoticed, and the UESC are stepping up their security measures and responding in force to your criminal activities. 

Each season of Marathon will have a different theme and a unique combination of new features, content, and stories that continue to evolve the world and gameplay. We’ll also be tuning all of our loot and progression systems, creating space for new metas and ways to play to emerge. 

Seasonal updates will include a unique set of new content, which are the things you do, explore, and collect on Tau Ceti. This can include any combination of: weapons, mods, cores, implants, backpacks, Runner shells, zones, PvE combatants, faction upgrades, contracts, and new ways to play existing zones. 

For example, NIGHTFALL will bring a nighttime version of Dire Marsh, where you’ll fight to survive when the lights go out, UESC reinforcements flood in, and the a~~~~~%^&*()_+{}:"<>?~~~. Season 2 will also bring our next Runner shell, along with new weapons, mods, cores, contracts, and more. 

We’re also working on brand new systems that will change the way you play, plan, and progress throughout a season. For example, NIGHTFALL will introduce the Cradle, a new system designed to give you more autonomy over your Runner shell’s statistical strengths and weaknesses. 

As we build upon each season, Marathon will continue to grow and evolve. The game and world today and a year from now should feel meaningfully different as we add new features and go on the journey of discovering what happened to the colonists of Tau Ceti... and what happens when you dig up secrets that are better left buried. 

Finally, we want to say thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to play and share your thoughts and excitement for Marathon. Community feedback throughout the last year has helped us shape Marathon into something better, and we’re excited to continue building alongside you all. Head here for a recap of what we heard during Server Slam.

We'll see you on Tau Ceti on March 5 as we continue to expand this delightfully weird, pulse-racing, and cosmically horrific game together.