Marathon Changes Announced

Marathon has doubled the amount of Depleted Patch Kits (meds) and Depleted Shield Charges (armor) consumables players can carry in a single inventory slot as Bungie fights to make its extraction shooter less punishing for newbies.

Update 1.0.6.1, which is now live, addresses several QoL issues that may seem insignificant on paper, but actually make a big difference on the battlefield. For starters, the daily stock limits for Enhanced (green) and Deluxe (blue) Sponsored Kits have been increased, and you can now stack six Depleted Patch Kits and Depleted Shield Charges in a single slot in your inventory, up from 3. We should also see Recruits now drop more patch kits and shield charges “at a much higher rate.”

Perhaps best of all, you’ll now also get twice as many life and shield charge kits in standard rarity sponsored kits, hopefully making it easier to survive encounters, and Bungie has increased the size of the overflow inventory “to address scenarios where items could be lost due to limited overflow space.”

Bungie has repeatedly said that while Marathon has a steep learning curve, over time, recovering from a bad loss is supposed to get easier. Part of the challenge comes from the very nature of Marathon as an extraction shooter, so if you die, you lose all your gear. And not just what you looted while out on the battlefield, but also whatever you brought in. Given how easy it is to die in Marathon, this can be brutal, and make it very difficult for players still getting to grips with the game.

Game director Joe Ziegler also outlined plans to bring the WSTR shotgun “more in line” by making the bold decision to prevent it from downing an enemy player who has blue shields or above with two shots. “The ideal is that in a majority of cases this will force a reload in scenarios where the target has a blue shield, allowing for some more counterplay in these scenarios,” he said.

It’s this WSTR change that has generated the most chatter in the community. Some are calling the nerf “too harsh” and suggesting it has made the shotgun “useless.”

One player wrote: “Has anyone used the new WSTR yet? I think it literally may be bugged. From 2 meters away, both shots landed, did not down a white shield player. it is so much worse than it was. i genuinely could not believe it. multiple times i have been ON TOP of white shield players and they walk away from it. I thought they said blue shield and above.. I really wish i had it recorded. Anyone else have a similar experience?”

“I can’t believe I’m saying it. It actually is just not fun right now. Whatever they did with this patch ruined close-counters combat, completely dead,” lamented another player. “Every team I lose to is just camping and waiting for you to fight so they can get picks from far. They removing the ability to fight in close encounters, there is no incentive to rush. Just wait and pick people off. Today is the first day I’ve had a bad time playing and genuinely didn’t care to. Everything feels cooked. Not being able to one shot is fine but this just feels like too much. This some arc raiders changes. I do not know who they are catering to with this game. Rip WSTR. Cheaters are still dominating. Lowest player count ever. This is bleak. Bungie , come on man.”

This patch is just part of a wider effort to make Marathon a little more accessible for newbies. Last week, Bungie’s boldest attempt yet went live, introducing the CyberAcme Runner Reinforcement Initiative (C.A.R.R.I.), a “new protocol from ONI that rewards solo Runners and coordinated crews for completing contract objectives and exfiling together, with rewards tuned to help newer and mid-progression players while still offering benefits to the Cryo Archive-veterans that walk among us.”

Evidence of this popped up all over the Marathon subreddit, with players sharing videos of friendly Runner encounters wherein combatants are helping revive downed players, share equipment and gear, exfil together, and complete objectives. Game director Joe Ziegler also unveiled a new experimental mode, Dire Marsh Sponsored, that hopes to make the experience a little easier by forcing players to load up with only the basic free sponsored kits, levelling the playing field when an experienced team encounters newbies.

Here’s the full Marathon 1.0.6.1 patch notes:

Marathon Update 1.0.6.1

4/21 @ 10:24AM PT Update: Amending a missing patch note from 1.0.6.1:

• WSTR Combat Shotgun, MIPS Slug Converter Mod: Adjusted long range slug performance to rein in extreme outlier kills and to align with the overall damage reduction, while we work on a more comprehensive balance pass.

Item Economy

• Increased the daily stock limits for Enhanced (green) and Deluxe (blue) Sponsored Kits in the Armory.
• Depleted Patch Kits & Depleted Shield Charges now stack to 6, up from 3.
  • Standard rarity Sponsored Kits come with stacks of 6 instead of 3
  • Recruits now drop Depleted Patch Kits and Depleted Shield Charges at a much higher rate.

Combat

Weapons

• Toggle Zoom (for keyboard and mouse players) no longer persists ADS (aim down sights) state through actions that suppress ADS like weapon swap or weapon reload, to fix an issue where players could get into a bad state unable to use medical consumables.
• V85 Circuit Breaker:
  • Fixed an issue where firing immediately after a fully charged shot would show projectiles and impact VFX but wouldn’t register as a hit.

User Interface and Experience

• Improved accuracy of radial selections after opening the radial menu, making a selection, and closing the radial in quick succession, with the goal of reducing the number of instances a frag grenade is accidentally tossed at the player’s feet instead of a bubble shield.
• Fixed an issue preventing crewmates’ weapon styles from appearing on their loadout display in the prepare screen.

Armory

• Fixed an issue that was preventing barter weapons from displaying their barter cost on the weapon tile.

Zones

• Perimeter
  • Fixed the exfil countdown timer in the Perimeter tutorial so it correctly displays a full 10‑second countdown instead of briefly flashing “0:00” and disappearing when entering the exfil circle.
• Cryo Archive
  • Fixed an out-of-bounds exploit that would allow Runners to refund their gear if they stayed past the run countdown.

General

• Increased the size of the overflow inventory to address scenarios where items could be lost due to limited overflow space.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.