Marathon Goes Free-to-Play with Season 2 Launch

Bungie is rolling out free one-way tickets to Tau Ceti-IV next week. To celebrate the launch of Marathon Season 2 on June 2, the extraction shooter will be available for free on all platforms—PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X—during an “Open Play Week” that lasts until June 9.

This announcement was made in a recent developer insights video and a blog post. Players can carry over all progress made during the Open Play Week once it concludes. Additionally, there will be a sale around the start of Season 2. Bungie is positioning this event as an opportunity for both newcomers and seasoned players to dive into the new season on equal footing, following a full seasonal reset that wipes inventories and progression.

“When players start a new season, I want them to feel like we’ve been able to kind of recapture the magic of week one of Marathon launch,” said senior design lead Brenton Woodrow in the video. “Everything is new. You don’t know what’s valuable yet. That feeling of discovery is going to be exciting and push you to new stories and new journeys along your seasonal progression.”

The narrative theme for Season 2 is described as “escalation,” with UESC forces launching counterattacks against Runners. As this opposition intensifies, so does the Anomaly, a radioactive alien force that distorts physics and mutates local flora and fauna. This leads to a new playable zone in Season 2, featuring a nighttime version of Dire Marsh. Developers noted that this new map “plays more like a survival horror experience,” with fewer players and increased environmental challenges, while the Anomaly introduces new movement restrictions.

The new map will be available for the entire first week of Season 2 alongside the regular Dire Marsh, rotating between day and night versions every 90 minutes.

The original trilogy delves deep into alien-driven cosmic horror, so fans are left wondering when those elements will emerge on Tau Ceti IV.

Season 2 also brings a new defensive Runner Shell called Sentinel, which deploys an automated laser platform to target incoming enemy grenades and missiles. It enhances weapon handling for nearby teammates and can throw a proximity explosive known as a Snare Mine as its tactical ability. The Castle Doctrine passive trait boosts resistances after taking splash damage and improves weapon handling for close-range weapons when surrounded by enemies. Additionally, Prey Tracker allows Sentinel to detect nearby moving targets on radar. Overall, Sentinel seems perfectly tailored for running shotguns in the darkened landscape of the new Dire Marsh map.

Bungie mentioned they aimed to “shave off the rough edges” with various gameplay tweaks, particularly regarding the difficulty of certain contracts. Faction progression has also been streamlined to feel more impactful.

One of the most exciting new features in Marathon is the Cradle system, which enables players to “empower the WEAVE worms that create your biocybernetic bodies to enhance your Runner Shell stats across six categories and unlock powerful perks.” By using the Matter Converter, players can transform various items into Cradle experience, which is then used to boost a Shell’s stats. This will undoubtedly allow for more personalized play styles across the game’s characters.

Keep in mind that all progress resets with each new season, so if you have any valuable gear from Season 1, now is the time to take a risk in Marathon—because it will be lost in just a few days.