If you're a casual player, expect to go up against players with fully-maxed Cradles.
Bungie has nerfed Cradle progression within Marathon, meaning casual players will have a tricky time buffing their stats as compared to dedicated players who’ve likely already maxed progression less than a week after Season 2 has launched.
“We have identified some issues affecting the progression systems and loot economy and will be rolling out a few fixes,” Bungie said as part of an update on Twitter.
“Given the increased quality and quantity of loot, we’ve increased [Cradle] progression costs by 25%,” Bungie continued. “We are also still tracking down more issues and will be adjusting loot drops globally while we investigate. We want loot to feel rewarding, but also not flood the economy with too many powerful items early in the season. We’ll continue to monitor these systems and feedback closely throughout the season.”
The changes are likely in response to players realising they could use the Vault’s matter converter to break down any items in order to boost Cradle progression, in turn allowing players to increase the stats of their shells; higher-value items provided bigger boosts. Many videos like the one we’ve embedded below instructed player on how to maximise progression. This new change to Cradle progression means players post-nerf will find it takes longer, and more resources to level up.
The trouble is, longtime players of Marathon have taken to Reddit saying they’ve already maxed out progression.
“The devs relaxed the requirements for stats with the cradle and then with factions by requiring less materials,” writes Kris_Indicud. “For casual players playing a few hours a weeks this would still translate to weeks for total progression. For a player like me though, there’s nothing stopping me from using the game knowledge I already have to blast through my upgrades or literally just play Outpost and Night Marsh and convert all my loot to max out my Cradle (which I already did).
“The devs are in a tough spot, there really is no way to cater to the casual players without allowing for sweats to just blast through everything,” the user continued.
“Nerf was needed but NOT after people already progressed, and a bit shitty it was basically before the weekend so people couldn’t try to catch up to the already maxed players,” DrRaspberryJam wrote in the thread.
“So… players who boosted Cradle are now maxed and those who didn’t have to pay more and loot is decreased? This is exactly what… I thought was gonna happen,” said resampL.
What do you make of Bungie’s nerf? Sound off in the comments section, below.
Marathon Season 2 is currently available on Windows PC, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and PS5; a free-to-play week runs through until 12 June here in Australia. We reviewed the game here.
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Marathon6 March 2026PC PS5 Xbox Series S & X
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