Marathon ‘Warden Hunt’ Update Adds New Enemy, Changes Spawns, and Boosts XP

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As Marathon approaches the end of its current season, Bungie is remixing the traditional experience with a new Warden Hunt update, providing a fresh experience and making it much more rewarding. After launching back in March, Season 1 has been a big learning moment for Bungie as game director Joe Ziegler indicated in a detailed blog post. With big plans for Marathon ahead, Bungie is injecting a bit more fun into the traditional extraction experience as Season 1 approaches the finish line.

Feedback has proven to be an invaluable tool for Bungie as it navigates the live-service space for its extraction shooter. While the game appears to have a number of things going against it, from lower player numbers to financial concerns, Bungie revealed big plans for where Marathon is going in Season 2 and beyond. This includes a surprising announcement surrounding a PvE focused game mode, as well as one that only has a “light-touch” of PvP gameplay. Bungie is also planning matchmaking and UX improvements, expanding the player’s vault size, and fixing the onboarding experience in the future. In the near term, Bungie is making the core gameplay loot more exciting and rewarding before Season 2 begins.

marathon trio runners

Marathon Director Says Bungie Has ‘Years-Long’ Story Plans

In discussing Marathon’s future, creative director Julia Nardin reveals that the studio has plans for the game’s narrative for years to come.

Bungie’s latest update for Marathon introduces some big changes to the overall experience. As Joe Ziegler teased, Bungie is letting players have a bit more fun before Marathon‘s Season 2 Account Reset hits on June 2. Specifically, Warden points of interest on Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost now have new spawn points, making them less predictable than before. Not only that, players will likely want to seek them out as locked room keys are now a guaranteed drop from taking down Wardens, while Key Templates are now considered Compromised instead of Fragile. Bungie is even teasing a brand-new enemy type making an appearance as well.

In addition to making each run feel more unique, Bungie has made it so that each one now guarantees a zone event to occur. Better yet, it’s the perfect time for players to jump in and finish off any outstanding contracts or quests, because from now until the end of Season 1, there’s a 50% boost to Runner Level and Faction XP. Enemy encounters are also more rewarding as the XP gains have been increased as well. For example, UESC Commanders are now worth 15 XP, regular troops award 10 XP, and Wardens will grant 50 XP. Transport and Scan Drones will even award 10 Traxus XP now.

Guess the games from the emojis.





Guess the games from the emojis.

Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)

Marathon‘s endgame Cryo Archive map is no longer time restricted. Bungie is allowing the map to remain available every day until June 1 with Ranked Cryo coming back between May 24–27. Not only that, Cryo Archive Sponsored Kits are now refreshed daily, allowing players to try their luck without risking losing their hard-earned loot.

While it may be a good time to jump into Marathon with all these bonuses active, it’s worth remembering that Bungie is keeping the extraction tradition of wiping player accounts each season. Despite a full reveal yet, Marathon‘s plans for Season 2 seem to be substantial, as Bungie previously announced new content like night maps, as well as an interesting feature called The Cradle, which will allow players to further tweak and customize their runner stats. With a full reveal expected soon, fans won’t have to wait too much longer for more details.

Fit the 9 games into the grid.

Fit the 9 games into the grid.

Marathon Update 1.0.9 Patch Notes

NEW: Warden Hunt

Warden Hunt will be available until the end of Season 1

  • New Warden Encounters: Wardens can spawn at new POIs in Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost.
  • Locked room keys are guaranteed to drop from Wardens for the remainder of the season.
  • Key Templates are now Compromised instead of Fragile.
  • Every run now has a guaranteed chance for a zone event to occur (Ex: Lockdowns, Intercept, etc)
  • +50% Runner Level XP
  • +50% Faction XP
  • Cryo Archive Sponsored Kits will refresh on a daily basis in the Armory
  • Starting May 21, Cryo Archive will be available every day through the end of Season 1

    • May 21 to 23: Cryo Archive
    • May 24 to 27: Ranked Cryo Archive
    • May 28 to June 1: Cryo Archive

Item Economy

  • Self-Revive

    • When the Revive Speed stat is at 0: 12s → 16s
    • When the Revive Speed stat is at 100: 7s → 12s

Combat

  • Kill Transport or Scan Drones: 5 → 10 Traxus XP
  • UESC (Grenadiers, Assault, Sniper, Ghost): 7 → 10 XP
  • UESC Commanders: 10 → 15 XP
  • UESC Wardens: 15 → 50 XP

Weapons

Biotoxin Disinjector

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the grenades from emitting explosion sound effects when not in range of the damage radius.

Mods

Chips

  • Pocket Change

    • Fixed an issue where ammo was being granted after defeating ticks.
  • Common Enemy

    • Fixed an issue where the tooltip incorrectly described the duration as moderate instead of short on the enhanced (green) rarity version.

Prestige (Gold) Mods

  • Impact Shockwave (Ares Railgun)

    • No longer downs players equipped with blue shields or greater in one shot
    • Reduced explosive damage against players by 75%
  • Overclock Delimiter (Circuit Breaker)

    • Fixed an issue where Overclock Delimiter allowed players to shoot through UESC barriers.

      • Removed the ability to allow charged projectiles to shoot through Bubble shields.
  • Ram-Page Mag (V75 Scar)

    • Fixed an issue that was preventing damage dealt to Claymores when equipped.

Combatants

  • A new threat looms above…
  • Fixed an issue that caused the UESC Ghost to unexpectedly deal heavy burst damage.

Runners

  • Fixed an issue that would allow reviving crewmates while performing a finisher.

Rook

  • Until Season 2

    • Rook starts with Deluxe Patch Kits and Shield Charges.
    • Rook starts with Deluxe Shield Implants.
  • Signal Mask remains active for longer when sprinting.
  • The range at which AI will detect your footsteps when Signal Mask is active has been reduced.
  • Fixed an issue where the Rook tooltip incorrectly stated that Season Level 3 was required to unlock.

Thief

  • Fixed an issue where items dropped from the Pickpocket Drone could clip through red UESC barriers.

User Interface and Experience

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the exfil countdown timer from appearing when entering an active enemy Runner’s exfil circle.
  • Fixed an issue that caused quick pings to be intercepted by the clear door curtains.
  • CORRECTION, updated at 7:59AM PT on 5/19/2026 – Added ten additional controller aim sensitivity levels to Settings.

Codex

  • Fixed an issue where the Arachne Sponsored Kit challenge completions were not contributing to the total on the Factions progress bar in the Codex.
  • Updated the Assassin’s Hidden Strike Codex entry to better clarify the completion window when exiting invisibility.

Contracts

Traxus

  • Fixed an issue for Unsanctioned Hostiles [5/5] where the exfil condition was listed in the wrong objective step causing the contract flow to appear out of order.

Sekiguchi Genetics

  • Fixed an issue for Co-Evolution [3/5] contract description that directs to Northern Flight Control when the objective is in Southern Flight Control.

Zones

Perimeter

  • Fixed an issue that prevented gaining reputation experience for CyberAcme when successfully extracting UESC Crisis Supplies.
  • Fixed an issue where only one crew member received CyberAcme reputation for completing Intercept event stepts instead of the entire crew.
  • Fixed an issue that would prevent the Hauler’s honk audio from being heard when entering the sound radius while active.

Dire Marsh

  • Fixed an issue that could prevent gaining Traxus reputation after completing a Lockdown event.
  • Anomalous Matter:

    • Fixed an issue that prevented Sekiguchi Genetics reputation gain when stabilizing the Anomalous Matter.
    • Fixed an issue that would only give one crew member +25 Sekiguchi Genetics reputation when extracting the Anomalous Matter.

Outpost

  • Fixed an issue in Pinwheel that prevented the Security Break audio from being audible while inside the other wings (Command, Drone, Destroyed).

Cryo Archive

  • Fixed an issue that allowed Thief to bypass red UESC barriers from Cargo to Index.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented location names from showing on the HUD when visited.

Localization

  • Fixed a word wrapping issue in the Customize menu prompt for Shells and Profile.
  • Fixed an issue where the vertical inversion setting in the Controller Settings section could display inconsistent text in some languages.
  • Fixed an issue causing the “Free” Credit cost label to show as an em dash in the Russian language.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the text in the C.A.R.R.I Armory tutorial prompts to overlap the button prompt in some languages.

General

  • Fixed an issue that caused a duplicate and delayed audio voice over after completing the NuCaloric Liaison Contract.
  • Fixed an issue that would prevent players from joining via a platform invite while Crew Privacy was set to Invite Only.


Marathon Tag Page Cover Art


Released

March 5, 2026

ESRB

Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op


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