It’s time to turn out the lights.

Today marks the start of a brand new season for Marathon. Once you login, you’ll get fresh chance to prove your ability to survive Dire Marsh (Night), new threats to take down, new weapons to battle the aforementioned threats, and much more.

Want to try out the new changes with some friends? Curious about what Season 2 has to offer? Play the full game now until June 9 during our Open Play Week! You can try out Marathon without any purchase required* all week, and any progress you make will carry over to Season 2 if you purchase a copy of Marathon after.

Before you embark on your first runs, let’s make sure you’ve got all the details you might need to properly navigate Tau Ceti IV.

Here’s a handy list to get you started:

• Hear from the dev team in our Season 2 Dev Insights

Get the full scoop in the reveal article

• Brush up on seasonal resets
• Enjoy the Season 2 Cinematic Trailer
• Prepare for Season 2’s sandbox with our Combat Tuning Preview
• Check out the fine details in the patch notes

Season 2, fresh for you

Season 2’s arrival brings with it some new ways for you to experience Tau Ceti IV:

• Night Marsh: A pitch black version of Dire Marsh, with new threats lurking
• Sentinel: Find new ways to control the battlefield with this defensive Runner shell
• The Cradle: Invest in your Runner shell over the course of the season to customize your stats and perks for your playstyle
• New weapons: Plow through your enemies with the new KKV-9SD and D54 Battle Pistol
• New enemies: [REDACTED]

And in addition to the above, there’s a bevy of new combat sandbox updates, a bunch of quality-of-life changes, faster progression, and a new experimental mode to kick off the season. Check out the links above to learn more.

New experimental queue: Sponsored Survival

Season 2 brings a new experimental mode, which is planned to run from June 2 to June 9. We mentioned we’re exploring new survival experiences for different moods, like if you want to go full sweat or would rather lean back and chill. Sponsored Survival falls somewhere in between and is a more PVP-lite and low risk way to play Marathon.

In Sponsored Survival...

• Only one team will infil onto Night Marsh—if that’s you, you know you’re the only crew on the map. But that doesn’t mean you’re alone...
• After some period of time, solo Rook players will backfill onto the map.
• Your only ticket out alive is from the final exfil, which spawns after 18 minutes.
• Once you get to the final exfil, the decision is yours: Will you accept a truce and leave together, or turn your weapons on each other?

In Sponsored Survival, crews must bring Sponsored Kits to queue up—and Rooks come in naked—which makes this a low-stakes way to check out the new map, snag some loot, and try to survive the night.

You can check out the full details here.

Cryo, Ranked, and More Experimental Queues – oh my!

There’s still plenty more coming your way in Season 2. Ranked is getting ready to join the rotation once more, Cryo Archive is on deck, and at least one more experimental queue is coming this season.

Here are a few other things to keep on your radar in Season 2:

• Cryo Archive returns on Thursday, June 11 with updated contracts. And remember, any Subroutines you collected in Season 1 carry forward into Season 2.
• Ranked arrives on Sunday, June 14 with new rewards and progression changes to keep the climb moving. Read more here.
• Another experimental queue is planned for the latter half of the season and will be an experimental PVE mode. You can expect more experiments later too, including perhaps a PVP focused mode. Learn more about our future plans here.

Announcing New Bungie Rewards

Season 2 also brings Bungie Rewards back into the mix, with the first rewards available now and more arriving a little later in Season 2.

Available Now:

• Bungie Rewards [1.20] Felini Plush
  • Successfully exfil as all available Runner shells (Assassin, Destroyer, Recon, Sentinel, Thief, Triage, and Vandal) and claim the Renaissance Runner Codex Challenge in Marathon by March 31, 2027 at 9:59AM PT.
• Bungie Rewards [1.20] Notorious T-Shirt
  • Reach Season Level 100 and claim the Notorious Company Codex Challenge in Marathon by March 31, 2027 at 9:59AM PT.

Note that these challenges are retroactive—your accomplishments in Season 1 apply here—and to unlock access to Bungie Rewards offers, you must first claim the related Codex Challenge. For more, check out marathon.bungiestore.com. 

Carve a new path through Tau Ceti IV

The lights are down, the loot is fresh, the WEAVEworms are ready for action. See what’s waiting for you in the dark, chase down new rewards, and keep one eye on the horizon. We’re just getting started.

We’ll see you out there. (Just don’t expect a warning shot first.)

_{*Gameplay requires internet access (sold separately)}