One of Marathon’s deepest mysteries has nothing to do with how 50,000 human colonists seemingly vanished overnight, or even the ultra powerful S’pht Compiler alien that players fight in Cryo Archive.
Why do the random lobsters players can find on the Dire Marsh map appear as different colors to players depending on which Runner Shell they’re using? It’s strange, almost surreal — but obviously a deliberate design choice. What does it mean?
When interviewing developers about Marathon’s design and approach to marketing with altered reality games (ARGs), I asked about the lobsters on a whim. Their non-answer was telling. “That one’s all you, Emmanuel,” principal marketing manager Nick Clifford said on the video call, referring to his colleague, “That one surprised me as well.”
“We do not comment on the lobsters,” principal producer Emanuel Rosu said plainly.
So it does mean something, doesn’t it?
Players first noticed something off about the lobsters during the Marathon server slam held in February. On X, @AkiAndFam posted photos of a lobster, which appeared blue for Assassin, red for Triage, and green for Destroyer. In other words, when a player spawns in Marathon, the game tracks what shell they’re using and uses that data to determine what they’re able to see. Runners do not have a shared perception of the world. And the poster agreed with commentary that it may be related to altered memories or perception for Runners.
Players have also pointed out that the lobster colors — blue, red, and green — are a direct match for a bizarre mural in-game that depicts three humanoid figures participating in what appears to be some kind of sacrificial ritual. The blue figure weeps over what looks like 11 dead bodies. The red figure (also weeping) is piercing the green figure through the abdomen, and the green figure’s essence appears to be leaking out into seven other figures.
Much like the pink cat that is sometimes found in-game, players have latched onto the lobsters as a memed bit of levity. When players run out of vault space, they often comment in the official Marathon Discord server, “My steak is too juicy and my lobster is too buttery.” It’s a fitting new use for one of 2025’s weirdest meme catchphrases.
“Something that’s really resonated with me over the years is the juxtaposition of the cutthroat unforgiving world of Tau Ceti IV, but then also finding the opportunities to introduce levity in the right ways,” Marathon’s Clifford said during our conversation. “Finding those moments with the pink cat or the lobsters, that humor helps balance things out.”
When it comes to the lobsters, it may be little more than a silly, lighthearted bit. It’s also possible that other subjective visuals could be incorporated into the gameplay. In Bungie’s Destiny 2, many raid and raid-like experiences require one or more players to call out visual elements only they can see — usually while they’re carrying some sort of buff — so that other players in their squad can shoot specific corresponding targets. The lobsters may be Bungie experimenting with something similar.
The wider implication, however, definitely deepens the game’s mysteries. Runners are former humans who gave up their bodies to digitize their consciousness. The bio-synthetic shells they control are quite literally just shells they inhabit. The April 2025 cinematic trailer also confirms that over time, repeated transfers lead to the degradation of a Runner’s memories. The “In Death We’ve Just Begun” cinematic launch trailer also seems to show glimpses of memories blended together. All this to say that narratively the game is grappling with altered memory and perception in equal measure. Is anything we see even real?
Bungie’s Rosu also offered an anecdote about one fan who was particularly taken with the lobsters during a summer playtest.
“I was in Dire Marsh session playing solo and this guy just runs out of the fog and whispers on proximity chat, ‘Come check something out,’” he recalled. “‘You’re obviously going to take me somewhere and kill me.’ But he proceeded to give me a tour of all the lobsters on Dire Marsh. And in the Discord, he’s basically the lobster tour guide. I don’t think he even knew I was a dev at that time, but it means a lot to enjoy those kinds of moments in ways you don’t intentionally plan for.”
Whether the lobsters are a joke, a mechanic, or something deeper, one thing is clear: not everyone in Marathon is seeing the same world. In a game about fractured memory and unstable identity, they feel like a precursor to some greater mystery that’s yet to be unraveled.