One of the big draws of Marathon is the opportunity to embrace the Runner lifestyle. Expensive biosynthetic shells that house the consciousness of a person inside of them, each Runner shell is also highly customizable, and developer Bungie has outlined how players can fine-tune each one to help them survive Tau Ceti.
Each Runner shell is built to focus on a different gameplay archetype–like intel gathering, combat disruption, or combat healing–and their visual design makes them easy to distinguish from a distance, so you’ll know how to deal with one in the heat of battle. Players can customize their Runner shell using the cores, implants, weapons, and mods they bring with them on each run, and they can also be visually customized with cosmetics earned from a variety of sources.
For example, players can go all in on agility, modifying the “Combat Anarchist” Vandal shell to be a scout that can triple-jump and quickly move across the map. Prefer to cause some chaos instead? Then you’ll want to invest in mods that give you a tactical advantage in the air and allow you to cause some splash damage when you land. Cores–powerful standalone perks–also have the potential to be combined to create interesting effects.
