Marathon season 2 will be free to play for one week

Bungie is offering free one-way tickets to Tau Ceti-IV next week. As part of the launch of Marathon season 2 on June 2, the extraction shooter will be free to play on all available platforms — PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X — during an “Open Play Week” that runs until June 9.

The announcement came as part of a new developer insights video and accompanying blog post published Wednesday. All progress earned during the Open Play Week will carry over after the week ends. (Marathon will also be on sale around the start of season 2, the studio says.) Bungie framed the event as a chance for newcomers and veteran players alike to jump into the new season on equal footing after a full seasonal reset wipes players’ 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,” senior design lead Brenton Woodrow said 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.”

Developers described the season 2 narrative theme as “escalation” and how the UESC forces that players have been combatting since the game launched are launching counterattacks against Runners. As that opposition escalates, so does the Anomaly, a radioactive alien force that warps physics and mutates local flora and fauna across the planet. This culminates in a new playable zone in season 2 that’s a version of Dire Marsh at night. Developers said that the new map “plays more like a survival horror experience” with fewer players and more environmental challenges while the Anomaly blocks player movement in new ways.

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

Season 2 also introduces a new defensive Runner Shell, called Sentinel, that deploys an automated laser platform that targets incoming enemy grenades and missiles. It also boosts weapon handling for all nearby crewmates. Sentinel can also throw a proximity explosive called a Snare Mine as their tactical ability. The Castle Doctrine passive trait increases resistances after taking splash damage and increases weapon handling for close-range weapons when surrounded by enemies. Prey Tracker also allows Sentinel to see nearby moving targets on radar. All things considered, Sentinel sounds perfectly suited to running shotguns in the darkness of the new Dire Marsh map.

Bungie used the phrase “shave off the rough edges” to describe some of the other gameplay tweaks, particularly in regard to the difficulty of some contracts. In conjunction with that, faction progression has been made smoother to feel more impactful.

Image: Bungie

Perhaps the most noteworthy new addition to Marathon is a system called the Cradle that allows players to “empower the WEAVEworms that create your biocybernetic bodies to increase your Runner Shell stats across six categories and unlock powerful perks.” Using the Matter Converter, players will be able to transform various items into Cradle experience that’s then used to increase a Shell’s stats. This will no doubt allow players to better emphasize unique play styles across the game’s playable characters.

Remember that all progress restarts with each new season, so if you’re sitting on any great season 1 gear, now’s the time to risk it in Marathon — because you’re going to lose it in a few days no matter what.