Bungie continues to roll out invites for its highly anticipated extraction shooter Marathon, with the Closed Alpha now entering its second week. The development team has announced patch 0.5.0.2, which brings significant balance changes to Runner health pools, shield values, and weapon damage. The update comes after collecting valuable feedback and data from the first week of testing.
Runner Health and Shield Adjustments
The most notable changes in patch 0.5.0.2 address player survivability. Runners will now have their base health increased from 100 hp to 120 hp, while shield values across all tiers have been decreased to reduce the advantage gap between players with different shield qualities.
According to Bungie's developer commentary, these adjustments aim to address feedback that higher-tier shields provided too significant an advantage in combat. The changes shift effective health from shields back to the Runner's base health pool, making "punching upwards" more viable for players equipped with standard or enhanced shields.
The specific shield reductions are:
- Standard (Grey): Reduced from 25 hp to 20 hp
- Enhanced (Green): Reduced from 50 hp to 40 hp
- Deluxe (Blue): Reduced from 75 hp to 60 hp
- Superior (Purple): Reduced from 100 hp to 80 hp
- Prestige (Gold): Reduced from 100 hp to 80 hp
Weapon Balance and PC Controls
The patch also addresses weapon balance to complement the health changes. The Longshot sniper rifle is receiving an 11% damage increase, ensuring it can still down a Runner with standard shields via a precision headshot. Similarly, the Overrun AR will see a 10% damage buff to maintain its effectiveness.
PC players will notice the removal of mouse magnetism and adhesion, with the toggle setting for these features being disabled entirely. This change should create a more consistent aiming experience across input methods.
Stability Improvements
Several crash issues have been fixed in the upcoming patch, including:
- Crashes related to specific GPU hardware configurations
- Crashes triggered by pressing the sprint key while in ADS (aim down sights)
- Dedicated server stability issues
Additionally, a UI bug that prevented Bungie IDs from displaying correctly in player tooltips has been addressed.
Week 1 Alpha Stats
Bungie shared some fascinating statistics from the first week of testing:
- Players logged over 205,000 hours in the Closed Alpha
- 37% of runs on the Dire Marsh map resulted in shell death
- The UESC Elite unit has eliminated more than 25,000 players
- Void is currently the most popular Runner character
The Marathon Closed Alpha continues to send out daily invite waves through Friday, April 30, 2025. Players are encouraged to check their email daily and monitor their Bungie.net account page for potential invites.
With these balance changes and continued testing, Bungie is demonstrating their commitment to player feedback as they refine Marathon's gameplay experience ahead of its eventual full release.