Marathon Beginner’s Guide: How to Play and What Changes on December 8

Marathon is a crew-based extraction shooter: you drop onto Tau Ceti IV, take gear off enemies and rival Runners, and you keep it only if you reach an extraction point alive. Bungie’s Symbiosis update arrives on December 8, 2026 with the game’s first permanent PvE mode, a new Runner shell and an expanded Perimeter, and Bungie opens the whole game free from December 8 to December 15.

What you are doing in Marathon

The Marathon store page on Steam puts it plainly: “Scavenge its maps alone or with a crew, then fight your way to extraction in tense, high-stakes PVP and PVE battles.” You take gear off defeated players and enemies, extract successfully to fill your vault, then complete contracts to earn rewards and upgrade your loadout for the next run. A Runner shell is your character class, each with its own abilities, and you can swap weapons, implants and weapon mods in and out of game. You can crew up with two or three people or take on Tau Ceti alone. Past the main loop sit a Ranked ladder and Cryo Archive, a raid-like challenge run against rival crews. The whole design is one trade: more gear going in, more risk on the way out.

How a first run works

Xbox Wire published ten first-run tips from Bungie when Marathon launched on Xbox Series X|S on March 5, 2026, and they still describe the loop better than anything written since. The short version:

• You make noise. Moving, looting, opening doors, healing and shooting all carry. Bungie’s line: “If you think you got killed out of nowhere, someone probably found you through the noise you were making.”
• Plan your exit. All the gear you have collected is lost if you don’t make it out alive, so check your map for active exfils before you push deeper.
• Come prepared. Bring ammo and healing items. You will not find much of either mid-run, and a better weapon is only an upgrade if you have bullets to shoot it with.
• Fight or flee. UESC combatants, wildlife and rival crews are all real threats, and Bungie’s advice is to use what you know before you pull the trigger.
• Run as Rook when you are low. Rook is the solo scavenger character who drops into a match in progress and slips past UESC units with a camouflage ability.
• Do not rush the contracts. Hover over them on the map, learn the routes, and only then take the fights.

Which edition should you buy?

If you already own the standard game, Steam sells a Marathon Deluxe Upgrade for $19.99, which unlocks the same bonuses as the full Deluxe Edition. Both tiers play the same content, and the December update does not change depending on which one you bought.

We compared the two editions’ contents on the Steam store page rather than trusting the edition names. The $20 gap between $39.99 and $59.99 buys one Premium Rewards Pass voucher, 200 SILK tokens and a set of cosmetic weapon and shell styles. Nothing in that list touches the loop, the maps or the new PvE mode. So consider the standard edition the cheaper way in, and treat the free week as the sensible moment to test the game before spending anything. If you already own the standard copy, the $19.99 Deluxe Upgrade buys the same bonus list, so Standard plus upgrade comes to $59.98 in total, one cent less than the $59.99 Deluxe Edition.

What changes on December 8

PlayStation’s breakdown of Symbiosis lists the headline items:

• Expedition, phase one of a permanent PvE mode built around a three-run series. You can play it solo or with a crew, there are no PvP threats, and Flash Boosts let you shape a build while you are inside a run.
• An expanded Perimeter, where fungal growth and alien life have opened the underground Burrows and the submerged Reservoir. The Tick Queen waits deep beneath the surface.
• A Deathmatch beta, short 3v3 team deathmatches where two crews score points without putting their permanent loadouts at risk.
• Limbo, a social space with firing ranges and a dueling pit.
• A new Runner shell, Bishop, built around a fast, surgical blade-wielding robot, plus the V17 Flamethrower and the Maverick revolver.

Bungie’s October 6 roadmap post is where the bigger picture sits. Symbiosis is also meant to deliver improved onboarding and a social space, and the March update is planned to add a quest system, deeper shell customization, new enemies and an entirely new zone. One thing worth knowing before you start: the Nightfall Refresh in October wiped seasonal progression. Credits and equipment were used to settle an outstanding balance, and Cradle enhancements and Faction aftermarket upgrades went back to their default state. Bungie says resets exist to keep the in-game economy active and the map feeling balanced.

How to play Marathon free on December 8

Bungie’s Symbiosis announcement is explicit about the free window. From December 8 to December 15, anyone can download and play the full game without buying it, including Expedition, the Bishop shell, the updated Perimeter and all the new gear. If you buy the game after the free week ends, you keep every item and every piece of progress you unlocked while playing for free.

1. Wait for December 8, 2026, when Symbiosis and the Open Play Week go live on the same day.
2. Download Marathon on the platform you play. On PC it is a $39.99 Steam game; on console, PlayStation’s post notes that gameplay needs internet access and a paid-for subscription sold separately.
3. If you want the Crew Up event, redeem the code DMA-T7Y-XJL at bungie.net/redeem on December 8.
4. Crew Up runs until December 22 at 10 a.m. PT. Its challenges cannot be completed solo: at least one other player in your crew has to have redeemed the code. Bungie recommends adding your crew as Bungie friends, and says progression also counts if you are on the same platform and have each other on your console’s friend list.
5. The rewards are named: the Queen’s Nest emblem, the Queen’s Dominion background, the Queen’s Maw weapon sticker, the Cluster Bunch weapon charm, the Arata Vectus Destroyer skin and the Exterminator title.
6. After December 15 you need to own the game to keep taking part in Crew Up until December 22.

Is Marathon on Steam Deck?

No, and the reason sits on the store page. Valve’s compatibility report for Marathon rates it Unsupported on the Steam Deck, on SteamOS and on the Steam Machine. The cause is listed right there on Steam: Marathon “Uses Kernel Level Anti-Cheat BattlEye”, which also means manual removal after you uninstall and agreeing to a third-party EULA. That does not affect PC players on Windows. It only means the Deck is out.

Do you need a crew to play Marathon?

No. Bungie supports crews of two or three and solo play, and the new Expedition mode runs alone just as well as it runs with a crew. The one feature that needs other people is the Crew Up event, whose challenges cannot be completed solo.

Is Marathon cross-platform?

Yes, across PC and console. The Steam page lists Cross-Platform Multiplayer, and PlayStation says Marathon on PS5 supports full cross-play and cross-save. Cross-save needs your console’s network account linked to your Bungie.net account, plus a copy of the game for each system you play on. Our Marathon game card has the platform list and the current price, and our Symbiosis story covers what lands on December 8. If the extraction loop is new to you, our ARC Raiders beginner’s guide breaks the same loop down in more detail, and our Modern Warfare 4 DMZ guide does it for the military version.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report