Marathon Update Nerfs Bubble Shield, Knife Lunge Distance and Bonus Melee Damage Against Runners

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Bungie has started making balance adjustments for the Marathon season, beginning with changes to the Biotoxic Disinjector. The recent update reduces how far the knife can lunge by 10% and makes it harder to hit targets at certain angles, decreasing the targeting angle by 20%.

You might expect the damage itself to be untouched, but that’s not the case. The Melee Damage stat, which previously could boost your damage against other players by up to 100%, now maxes out at 50%. It still works well against UESC bots and other enemies that aren’t players, though.

This change makes sense because quick melee attacks in Marathon are meant to be a strong way to fight at close range, especially against weapons like shotguns and SMGs. However, currently, you don’t need to invest much into improving your character’s Melee Damage stat to make these quick melee attacks fully effective. This update aims to fix that by requiring more investment for maximum damage output.

Bungie wants melee attacks to be useful, but they don’t want them to be overpowered. They believe maximizing melee damage should come from carefully building your character and upgrading it over time. Think of the knife as a strong secondary weapon that rewards skillful play, rather than a primary, easy-to-use one like it used to be.

We’ve also made changes to the Bubble Shield. It’s now considered a ‘Superior’ item, meaning you’ll find it less often. Its health has been reduced by about a third. However, it’s now more resistant to damage from UESC weapons – by 17 percent – and Volt Weapons won’t be as effective against it.

You can find a full list of changes below. While Bungie already announced updates to the Recon Shell, the Vandal Shell will also be improved on April 14th, so keep an eye out for those details.

Marathon Update 1.0.5.3

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.

We designed close-range melee attacks to be a strong counter to weapons like shotguns and SMGs, but we’ve found it’s too easy to maximize their effectiveness. Currently, you don’t need to invest much into a character build to make melee attacks incredibly powerful. We want melee to feel strong, but earning that strength should require meaningful choices in how you build and upgrade your character. These changes, including adjustments to the knife’s lunge, aim to keep the knife as a useful backup weapon that rewards skillful and strategic play both during and outside of matches.

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.

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2026-04-07 18:12