Bungie has detailed Marathon Season 2, the Night Marsh map, and the new Sentinel class, with a free-to-play week and special sale planned too

Right after dropping the untimely news Destiny 2 won’t be getting more support after June, Bungie is ramping up work on Marathon, with Season 2 introducing a spooky new map and mysterious new threats next week.

Alongside the terrifying cinematic trailer, the developers have now detailed everything we should expect from Marathon Season 2, at least during its early stages. The 2nd June update will mark the beginning of the game’s second season, and an ‘Open Play Week’ – ending on 9th June – is inviting all curious players who want to experience what Tau Ceti IV has to offer.

“During the Open Play Week, the full game will be available to play on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, and any progress you make will carry over into Season 2. This will be a great time to invite your friends to crew up as everyone will be starting out on a clean slate,” the blog post explained.

The ‘Night’ variant of the Dire Marsh map intends to keep veterans and newcomers alike on their toes, with blocked sight lines and substantially darker environments making every fight more potentially lethal. New mechanics, enemies, and locations will be introduced, with a focus on a slower pace and survival horror-like vibes. New equipment – flashlights, vector rounds and grenades, darksight scopes, and flares – will help Runners navigate (and fight in) the dark.

The other key addition is the Sentinel shell, Marathon’s first post-launch class, which is built for “controlling space and defending areas” with a Defender System which destroys all incoming grenades and missiles while boosting nearby crewmates. Their tactical ability is a snare mine which can immobilise enemy Runners. And last but not least, their passives improve damage resistance versus splash damage, faster weapon handling of close-range weapons, and even motion-tracking of “nearby moving targets”.

Two new weapons – the KKV-9SD SMG and D54 Battle Pistol – are also arriving with Season 2, though it’s unclear if they’ll be available day one. The former has an extremely fast rate of fire, while the latter is good for “1v1 duels” with three-round bursts. New mods and chips are being added as well.

Perhaps the more substantial addition to the game will be The Cradle, which introduces a totally new way to “climb” the season as Bungie seeks to reinvent progression with each reset. “With the Cradle, you’ll empower the WEAVEworms that create your biocybernetic bodies to increase your Runner shell stats across six categories and unlock powerful perks,” the post explained. It all works thanks to the Matter Converter, which turns loot you don’t want into Cradle experience. Cradle “energy” can be reallocated with no penalties and is shared across all shells.

The Duos queue – previously tested but not fully implemented – will have a bigger presence in this season too, with Ranked kicking off on 14th June and the high-level Cryo Archive zone set to return on 11th June. As you can tell, Bungie is betting hard and fast on making Marathon a far more varied and appealing extraction shooter experience, but PvE-first players will have to wait for a bit longer still.