Bungie’s Marathon features seven different classes, or “Runner Shells”, with each one possessing different abilities, traits, and stats. However, not everybody knows the differences between these characters, or what they excel at. Therefore, we decided to create a list of all Marathon Runner Shells as well as their abilities, Traits, and more. Without further ado, let’s dive right in.
All Marathon Runner Shells, Abilities, & Traits Explained
Overall, Marathon technically features seven different Runner Shells for the player to choose from:
Destroyer
- Prime Ability: Search & Destroy
- Fires off Homing Missiles that damage enemies
- Tactical Ability: Riot Barricade
- Spawns an energy shield that blocks incoming damage. Cooldown period is based on previous shield duration plus any damage it took
- Trait 1: Thruster
- Trait 2: Tactical Sprint
- Move faster at the cost of generating more heat
Assassin
- Prime Ability: Smoke Screen
- Throw a disc which creates a smoke field, making it harder for enemies to see
- Tactical Ability: Active Camo
- Makes the player invisible temporarily (certain actions make you visible again)
- Trait 1: Shadow Dive
- Creates a smokescreen when the player drops to the ground (also negates fall damage)
- Trait 2: Shroud
- Become invisible every time you enter a smoke cloud
Recon
- Prime Ability: Echo Pulse
- Tactical Ability: Tracker Drone
- Deploy a small spider that blows up near enemies, maximizing their heat and damaging them
- Trait 1: Awareness
- Get alerted when enemy pings you. Furthermore, finishing an enemy pings their teammates’ locations
- Trait 2: Stalker Protocol
- Enemies leave a trail after breaking their shields
Vandal
- Prime Ability: Amplify
- Temporarily provides increased movement speed, reduced heat gain, and improved weapon handling
- Tactical Ability: Disruptor
- Hold and charge an energy projectile that can blast enemies far away
- Trait 1: Microjets
- Double-Jump (uses more heat)
- Trait 2: Powerslide
- Slide faster and farther at the cost of more heat
Thief
- Prime Ability: Pickpocket Drone
- Deploy a drone that can knock enemies back and take some of their loot
- Tactical Ability: Grapple
- Allows you to traverse the map with ease as you can grapple around to other areas
- Trait 1: X-Ray Visor
- Allows you to see loot through walls, as well as enemies
- Trait 2: TBA
Triage
- Prime Ability: Capacitive Gauntlets
- Allows you to zap enemies from afar or revive teammates
- Tactical Ability: Med-Drone
- Deploy a medical drone that heals and provides shield for you or an ally
- Trait 1: Battery Overcharge
- Overcharges your weapon, improving them to EMP enemies when you take down their shields
- Trait 2: Shareware
- Any Teammate being held by a Med-Drone also gain boosts from any consumables you use
Rook
Overall, the Rook Shell in Marathon is essentially a “free loadout” Shell. While it doesn’t have as many abilities as other Shells, he does come with an ability that shields its identity from NPC enemies on the map. Furthermore, Rook comes with other restrictions:
- Firstly, Rook can only join a match that has already begun
- Secondly, Rook can only play solo
However, the upside is that nobody will be notified when you join the match. So if you just want to re-stock on certain supplies, Rook makes for a great shell. But just remember you’ll be all alone facing teams of up to three Runners.
Overall, that includes all Runner Shells in Marathon, as well as their abilities and traits. The Marathon Release Date is still some time away, but it never hurts to arm yourself with information before heading out to a firefight. Nevertheless, we look forward to trying out all of these classes to see which one works best for us.
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