Marathon Season 2 is upon us, and today we finally got a full breakdown of exactly what we will be up against come the Nightfall update! Bungie released a great Developer Insights video which I highly suggest watching, but I will be breaking down all of the biggest changes in this article as well!
New Zone: Night Marsh
The first major piece of the Season 2 update is the new, night-time twist on the Dire Marsh map. Runners will be equipped with flashlights and will need to deal with not only the oppressive darkness, but also the increased activity from UESC and The Anomaly. Night Marsh will be slower paced, include more difficult PvE encounters, and will have less Runners on the map at any given time. We’re seemingly getting our first, organic, alien enemy which could shake up the vibe of the game quite a lot.
With darkness falling on the swamp, new items will be added to help Runners see:
- Flashlights - a new base tool that all Runners will have access to during Night Marsh runs
- Vector Rounds - a new type of ammo which create pools of light where your bullets land, illuminating enemy Runners and combatants
- Vector Grenades - a grenade that’s explosion lights up the environment and pings enemy Runners
- Darksight Scopes - a new Optic Mod which will highlight the environment around you after you ADS for a brief period; these are focused on traversal versus highlighting enemies.
- Signal Flares - throwable flairs to help light up the environment and that come in multiple colors
Night Marsh has some seriously creepy, horror game vibes - the tension is going to ratcheted up a lot!
Upper Complex and UESC Cert System
On top of all of the night time related content, new enemies, and new gear, Night Marsh will add a new mechanic that plays similar to Cryo Archive’s Security Clearance Levels. Runners will now need to collect a new item called Certs from UESC around the map, using them to unlock Exfils as well as to hack Network Towers around the zone that contain stockpiles of loot.
The Complex Control room, which has always been locked during Dire Marsh runs, is now accessible by collecting enough Certs, and once inside will contain difficult boss encounters as well as top tier loot!
New Runner Shell: Sentinel
The second major update for Season 2 is that we’re getting our first new Runner Shell - the Sentinel. Sentinel is a new defensive Shell that is made help lock down small areas of the map using traps, turrets, and trackers. Here’s a full breakdown of its abilities:
- Defender System (Prime Ability) - deploys an automated laser turret that destroys incoming enemy grenades and missiles, while also boosting your squad’s weapon handling. Think of this as essentially being CoD’s Trophy System (which I called out weeks ago as something Marathon needed!)
- Snare Mine (Tactical Ability) - thrown, proximity-triggered mine that will greatly slow enemies that get hit by it. Use this to trap an incoming squad to give you an upper hand in the fight, or to give you a head start if trying to escape.
- Prey Tracker (Trait Ability) - activate a short range, motion tracking system that allows Sentinel to see nearby moving objects on radar. This is essentially a temporary Halo Rader that will show red moving dots around you.
- Castle Doctrine (Passive) - grants increased resistance after taking splash damage as well as faster weapon handling for close-range weapons when surrounded by enemies
Sentinel is Bungie’s answer to the grenade spam meta, and is going to be able to completely turn the tides of a fight. Tracking an incoming squad, shooting down their grenades, and trapping them in goop to finish them off using a buffed shotgun is going to be so damn fun!
The Cradle
In Season 1, player power and progression were tied directly to Faction Upgrades. That all changes in Season 2 with The Cradle, which will allow us to pick and choose what stats we want to increase without needing to first level up the Faction that grants that stat increase unlock. This means that all Faction Upgrades that previously unlocked Runner stats are now completely replaced in The Cradle instead.
The Cradle will require Energy which can be allocated to any of the stat tracks to unlock the next tier. Energy comes from leveling up your Cradle, and to gain Cradle XP Runners will be able to deconstruct unneeded or unwanted gear - the higher the gear quality, the more XP you will be given.
I love this change (even though I’ll have to redesign the Progression Tool) and I think it will make way more sense to new players, and will just be drastically more clear about how you can increase your Runner stats than the Faction Progression pages were.
New Weapons
Two new weapons are being added for Season 2, spicing up the weapon sandbox. Both weapons are close-range weapons, meaning the synergize well with Sentinel.
- KKV-9SD
- Pistol Frame SMG
- Built in suppressor
- Extremely high rate of fire, 1200RPM
- Folding stock mod: keep it closed for increased hipfire accuracy or unfold it for increased ADS accuracy
- Counters shotgun rushing
- D54 Battle Pistol
Miscellaneous Changes
- Free play week from June 2nd - June 9th that allows friends to try the entire game for free!
- Duo queue is back!
- Faction Upgrade XP gains will be increased across the board in Season 2
- Faction Upgrade material requirements will be tweaked
- Implants are now defined by their perk first and have fixed stats, with the name of each implant reflecting its perk. When you check your Vault or are quickly looting, it should be easier to tell them apart and choose which ones fit your builds.
- Contracts will be tweaked to be less annoying, more streamlined, and to have less time gating
- Vault size has been increased
For the rest of the updates and for information regarding the wipe and Season 2, take a look at Bungie’s full article.
See you on Tau Ceti!