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Marathon: Game Updates & Resets
Learn how updates work in Marathon and what to expect when a new content update launches.
The Important Details
- Marathon launched with a traditional seasonal model, but Bungie is changing how major updates are delivered.
- Beginning with the Nightfall Refresh on October 6, 2026, Marathon is moving away from a strict three-month seasonal schedule.
- Major updates will instead arrive when their features and experiences are ready, allowing Bungie greater flexibility to build, test, tune, and respond to player feedback.
- Season 2: Nightfall remains the current seasonal chapter, but Marathon’s next major milestones are now structured around named updates rather than a fixed seasonal calendar.
September 30, 2026
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HOW MARATHON UPDATES WORK
- Marathon launched with a traditional seasonal model, with major content updates planned approximately every three months.
- Beginning with the Nightfall Refresh, Bungie is moving away from a strict seasonal schedule.
- Rather than tying major releases to fixed seasonal deadlines, future updates will be given more flexibility for development, testing, tuning, and player feedback.
- This means Marathon can continue to evolve without every major change needing to arrive as part of a numbered season.
- The core progression journey remains an important part of Marathon:
- Complete contracts and objectives.
- Build relationships and progress with factions.
- Improve your Runner and expand your available equipment.
- Experiment with weapons, implants, cores, mods, and different builds.
- Take on increasingly dangerous activities as your knowledge and resources grow.
- As progression advances, recovering from unsuccessful runs becomes easier, more build options become available, and higher-risk activities become increasingly achievable.
AN EVOLVING WORLD
- Major updates can introduce new activities, systems, Runner shells, locations, equipment, progression changes, balance updates, quality-of-life improvements, and new developments in the story of Tau Ceti IV.
- Player feedback and data from live events and experimental activities also help influence where Marathon goes next.
- The Nightfall Refresh on October 6 marks the first major step under this evolving approach, followed by the larger Symbiosis update on December 8 and another major evolution planned for March 2027.
- Marathon may no longer follow a fixed three-month seasonal calendar, but its underlying goal remains the same: continuously expand and evolve the ways players explore, progress, survive, and uncover the mysteries of Tau Ceti.
PROGRESSION & ECONOMY RESETS
- Progression resets give Marathon an opportunity to rebalance its economy, progression systems, and overall player journey while providing Runners with a fresh starting point.
- Marathon’s first reset occurred with the launch of Season 2: Nightfall.
- Runner progression, faction progression, currencies, inventory, Vault contents, and other gameplay-related systems were reset, while permanent rewards and select account progression – including cosmetics, Titles, LUX, SILK, and eligible Codex progress – were retained.
- With Marathon moving away from a strict seasonal release schedule, future resets should no longer be assumed to occur automatically every three months or alongside every major update.
- Bungie may instead use resets when necessary to support significant changes to progression, rewards, or the in-game economy.
NIGHTFALL REFRESH: OCTOBER 6, 2026
- The next confirmed progression and economy reset arrives with the Nightfall Refresh on October 6, 2026.
- The Nightfall Refresh is intended to establish a healthier baseline for progression going forward, alongside refreshed rewards, quality-of-life improvements, live tuning, and balance changes.
- Exact item-by-item reset and retention rules for the Nightfall Refresh should be considered separately from the Season 1 → Season 2 reset.
- Until Bungie confirms otherwise, previous seasonal reset rules should not automatically be assumed to apply to October 6 or future updates.
- The historical Season 1 → Season 2 reset information below remains available as a reference for how Marathon’s first progression reset was handled.
WHY THE RESET?
- Bungie advises that these resets are intentional. They:
- Keep the game dangerous
- Maintain the value of loot
- Create clean re-entry points for returning players
- Prevent long-term power stagnation
- Each update is designed as a zero-to-hero arc… new strategies, new metas, new discoveries.
Season 1 → Season 2 Reset Archive
This table documents Marathon's first progression reset at the launch of Season 2: NIGHTFALL on June 2, 2026. These rules are preserved for historical reference and should not be assumed to apply to the October 6 Nightfall Refresh or future resets.
| Category | Reset at Nightfall Launch | Carried Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Levels | Runner Level and Ranked Level were reset. | Earned cosmetics, Titles, and non-reset Codex progress remained available. |
| Factions | Faction Level and Faction Upgrades were reset. | Faction Unlocks carried forward. Previously unlocked factions did not require their Liaison Contracts to be repeated. |
| Inventory | Items stored in player inventory and the Vault were reset. | Cosmetics and redeemed weapon cosmetics remained available. |
| Currencies | Credits and most currencies were reset. | LUX and SILK balances carried forward. |
| Contracts | Priority Contracts were reset. | The first Priority Contract completion for each faction was retained. |
| Codex | Gear-granting Codex entries tied to Runner Level and Ranked progression were reset. | Most Codex challenge progress carried forward, including Combat, Feats, Loot, Map, Runner, and Title progress. |
| Rewards Pass | Rewards Pass progress was not reset. | Existing Rewards Pass progress carried forward into Season 2. |
| Cryo Archive | Cryo Archive Subroutine progress was not reset. | Cryo Archive Subroutine progress carried forward. |
| Mailbox | Messages, rewards, and returned items stored in the Mailbox were reset. | Players were advised to claim important Mailbox items before the transition. |
PRE-UPDATE CHECKLIST
Pre-Update Checklist
The Nightfall Refresh arrives October 6 with a confirmed progression and in-game economy reset. Exact category-by-category reset details may differ from the Season 1 → Season 2 transition, so prepare for the update without assuming the previous reset rules will repeat.
MARATHON: SYMBIOSIS, and BEYOND
- Marathon’s next chapter begins with Symbiosis, launching December 8, 2026.
- Rather than simply beginning another traditional season, Symbiosis represents the first major step in a broader evolution of Marathon.
- Bungie is expanding the game beyond its original extraction-focused structure while preserving PvEvP as an important part of the experience.
- The goal is a more connected ecosystem offering different ways to explore, compete, progress, experiment with builds, and experience Tau Ceti IV.
SYMBIOSIS — DECEMBER 8, 2026
SYMBIOSIS // SYSTEM EXPANSION
A New Way to Experience Marathon
Symbiosis expands Marathon beyond its original Extraction-focused structure with new ways to explore, compete, experiment with builds, and prepare for increasingly dangerous experiences across Tau Ceti IV.
Deployment
DEC 08 // 2026
01
Permanent PvE
Marathon introduces its first dedicated permanent PvE experience, allowing Runners to explore, progress, experiment with builds, and take on challenges without the constant threat of hostile Runner crews.
02
Expanded Perimeter
Perimeter receives a major visual and gameplay overhaul as a new fungal ecosystem transforms familiar spaces, opens new routes, and introduces additional points of interest, summit challenges, and the pinnacle Tick Queen encounter.
03
Bishop
A new high-performance Runner shell joins the roster. Bishop is a fast, surgical hunter-killer built around speed, surprise, and powerful bursts of close-range melee damage.
04
Team Deathmatch
Experimental Team Deathmatch offers a more direct and lower-commitment form of PvP where players can practice combat, sharpen their skills, and compete without risking an entire Extraction run.
05
Social Space & Firing Range
A new CyberAcme-sponsored social space gives Runners somewhere to gather and prepare before deployment, alongside a firing range for testing weapons, abilities, builds, and Runner shells.
06
Improved Onboarding
Symbiosis begins a broader overhaul of Marathon's onboarding, providing new Runners with a smoother introduction to its systems and more opportunities to learn the fundamentals before entering higher-risk activities.
SYMBIOSIS — DECEMBER 8, 2026
- Symbiosis is only the beginning.
- Bungie is planning a significantly larger evolution of Marathon for March 2027, bringing many of these separate experiences together into a more connected whole.
- Current plans include:
- Connected permanent PvE, PvP, and PvEvP experiences.
- A further-developed new-player onboarding experience.
- A refactored Cradle with deeper Runner shell progression.
- More focused quests and narrative.
- New alien combatants.
- An entirely new zone on Tau Ceti IV.
- Marathon’s world is also expected to move further into the strange and alien elements of its universe, with stronger connections to the original Marathon trilogy and the return of familiar threats…including the Pfhor, transformed for this new era.
- PvEvP Extraction will remain part of Marathon, but it will exist alongside a growing collection of interconnected survival experiences built around different levels of risk, competition, cooperation, and commitment.
- Symbiosis establishes the foundation. March begins connecting the pieces.
