Marathon is Taking Aim at Bubble Shields, Knives, Snipers and More in Upcoming Balance Patches

Tired of those pesky bubble shields in the Cryo Archive? Do you love getting close with knives or picking off enemies from a distance with snipers? If so, you’ll be happy to hear Bungie is making changes to these elements in the next updates for Marathon.

Game director Joe Ziegler mentioned that upcoming changes are planned for the next two patches. He didn’t specify exactly what would be adjusted, but indicated the first set of changes should arrive in the next patch, and another set about a week later.

He explained that bubble shields are currently too strong for how easily players can obtain them, and knives are also becoming overpowered. This is understandable – many players are successfully using knives to defeat several enemies while hiding behind bubble shields. Additionally, sniper rifles and thermal scopes feel too powerful and are appearing too often, so those items are also being rebalanced.

It’s not all about weakening things. The Vandal and Recon Shells are getting boosted to perform as well as other options, which should make them more useful in challenging activities. Plus, two new items are being added: one to give players in Solo mode a better chance when they’re down, and another to offer crews a more forgiving way to deal with downed teammates.

What does that imply? We’ll need to wait and see, but Bungie says they have plenty more improvements planned for future updates. If this doesn’t address what you’re hoping for, Bungie is aware of many other potential improvements and is actively exploring them. They just need more time to work things out, so keep an eye out for further announcements.

Marathon is now available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC. While the number of players on Steam has dropped and sales haven’t been amazing, we actually thought it was a good game. It’s uncertain if it will succeed given how many live-service games there are, but the developers have plans for a lot more content in future seasons.

Read More

2026-04-02 20:11