Update 1.0.5.3 has been released for Marathon players, making adjustments to the popular Bubble Shield equipment, melee damage, and much more. Since it launched back in March, Marathon continues to evolve through Bungie’s updates that have also been fueled by fan feedback. Players have seen tons of quality of life adjustments and new features added, thanks in large part to how vocal the community has been.
However, despite how quickly Bungie responds to feedback and the hot start that Marathon ultimately got off to, it seems the arrow is starting to point the wrong way. Reports have started to appear, indicating that Marathon‘s player count has started to dip, reaching new lows for a game in a genre that absolutely requires a player base. However, there may be hope on the horizon as Marathon approaches its midway point of Season 1, with Bungie preparing a big mid-season update as well as further content additions in June when Season 2 kicks off in full.
Bungie is Cracking Down on Marathon Cheaters
Bungie updates fans on the actions it’s taking against cheaters in Marathon, making it easier to flag and report those who abuse the game.
For now, though, Bungie continues to tweak Marathon through various updates, smoothing out pain points and adding quality of life improvements. For Update 1.0.5.3, Bungie is making adjustments to Marathon‘s combat, specifically to the Bubble Shield and Melee attacks. For the former, the Bubble Shield has been adjusted to a Superior (purple) tier rarity, which will likely make it a bit rarer to come by while playing, especially on the earlier maps. Not only that, the Bubble’s HP has been lowered by 33%, but made it more durable against UESC damage as well as removing its former vulnerability to Volt damage.
Melee combat has also been made more risky to utilize, especially against other players. In terms of the bonus damage against enemy runners, the maximum has been lowered to 50% instead of the previous 100%. Bungie felt like players could reach the maximum melee damage stat progression too quickly, and wanted Buildcrafting and upgrade progression to be more meaningful overall. However, damage against non-Runners, like the UESC, remains the same. With that said, lunge distance has been reduced by 10% and the targeting angle has been lowered by 20% as well.
Outside of that, the update is fairly small, as the major mid-season update for Marathon is right around the corner on April 14. Bungie continued to make adjustments to the Thief’s ability to utilize slide cancel movement using the grapple ability. The Return On Investment contract from Traxus no longer requires players to finish it in a single run, and the Cryo Archive map has an extraction issue fixed.
This past weekend, Bungie also made a significant nerf to Marathon‘s popular Biotoxic Disinjector endgame weapon. Game director Joe Ziegler took to social media to confirm a 35% damage reduction to the weapon. Ziegler warned that more tweaks and changes could be coming down the road, but the big reason for the adjustment now is that the weapon is far too dominant and is a big part of a widing gap between those with the weapon and those without.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)
Marathon Update 1.0.5.3 Patch Notes
Combat
Knife
- Reduced the maximum lunge distance by ~10% and trimmed down the targeting angle by ~20%.
Bubble Shield
- Increased rarity from Deluxe (blue) to Superior (purple)
- Reduced bubble HP by 33%
- Removed vulnerability to Volt Weapon damage
- Increased resistance to UESC damage by 17%
Runners
Stats
-
Melee Damage
- Reduced bonus damage provided by the Melee Damage stat from a maximum of 100% to a maximum of 50% against enemy Runners. Damage against non-Runner targets is unchanged.
- DEVELOPER NOTE: Melee in Marathon is intended to be a high-risk but potent method to contest close-quarters weapons like shotguns and submachine guns. However, the breakpoints for quick melee kills show up too early in the Melee Damage stat progression, which means additional investment into a build isn’t required to get the maximum effective output. We don’t want to compromise on having melee feel powerful, but believe that getting to that maximum output should be the result of meaningful buildcrafting and upgrade progression. Our goal for this change and the knife lunge changes above are that the knife remains a powerful backup tool, but requires more thoughtful play – both in and out of run – to be most effective.
Thief
- Fixed additional Grapple-related slide cancel movement exploits.
Vault and Armory
- Fixed an issue causing the Vault and Armory to sometimes appear to be empty.
- Fixed an issue causing the Armory item refreshes and free daily items to not appear consistently.
Contracts
Traxus
- Removed “in a single run” condition from Traxus Return On Investment 4/5.
Zones
Cryo Archive
- Fixed an issue that would cause an exfil countdown to reset if the 1st crew member to enter left the circle, even if the other crew members were in the circle.
- Released
-
March 5, 2026
- ESRB
-
Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Multiplayer
-
Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
