Marathon 1.0.5.3 Update Nerfs Knife Damage and Bubble Shield Effectiveness

Bungie has rolled out another round of maintenance for their extraction shooter Marathon, this time with update 1.0.5.3, which mostly addresses knife dominance in close quarters and the effectiveness of Bubble Shields.

Beyond wider concerns like cheating in Ranked, melee damage has been a major talking point in the community, as no one feels safe when a player closes in with a knife, even without gear that boosts its damage. Blue shields can still be taken out with a couple of hits, and purple shields aren't all that safe if caught off guard.

This led players to run triple Assassin teams, as I've experienced firsthand these groups roaming buildings with narrow corridors, going stealth or smoking the area, then slicing through anyone who gets too close. A shotgun or keeping your distance easily counters these tactics, but the knife hits hard enough that it feels like a genuine close-quarters option rather than a last resort. Thankfully, this change only affects damage to other players. Melee remains to be a solid choice to shred most UESC bots quietly.

The other major change targets the Bubble Shield, one of the best tools for defensive and offensive engagements alike. This protective dome is so effective it makes any shotgun more lethal than it should be, even melee benefits from it, and when a team downs a player, they can secure the kill by dropping a Bubble Shield around the downed body to force a 2v3 situation.

The nerf gives it 33% less health, and its rarity has been bumped from blue to purple, making it a more valuable and harder-to-find item going forward.

Decent changes overall. Melee and Bubble Shields aren't gone from the meta from what i’m seeing, they're just less oppressive moving forward.

Here’s the full patch notes.

Marathon Update 1.0.5.3

Combat

Knife

• Reduced the maximum lunge distance by ~10% and trimmed down the targeting angle by ~20%.

Bubble Shield

• Increased rarity from Deluxe (blue) to Superior (purple)

• Reduced bubble HP by 33%

• Removed vulnerability to Volt Weapon damage

• Increased resistance to UESC damage by 17%

Runners

Stats

• Melee Damage

  • Reduced bonus damage provided by the Melee Damage stat from a maximum of 100% to a maximum of 50% against enemy Runners. Damage against non-Runner targets is unchanged.

  • DEVELOPER NOTE: Melee in Marathon is intended to be a high-risk but potent method to contest close-quarters weapons like shotguns and submachine guns. However, the breakpoints for quick melee kills show up too early in the Melee Damage stat progression, which means additional investment into a build isn't required to get the maximum effective output. We don't want to compromise on having melee feel powerful, but believe that getting to that maximum output should be the result of meaningful buildcrafting and upgrade progression. Our goal for this change and the knife lunge changes above are that the knife remains a powerful backup tool, but requires more thoughtful play - both in and out of run - to be most effective.

Thief

• Fixed additional Grapple-related slide cancel movement exploits.

Vault and Armory

• Fixed an issue causing the Vault and Armory to sometimes appear to be empty.

• Fixed an issue causing the Armory item refreshes and free daily items to not appear consistently.

Contracts

Traxus

• Removed “in a single run” condition from Traxus Return On Investment 4/5.

Zones

Cryo Archive

• Fixed an issue that would cause an exfil countdown to reset if the 1st crew member to enter left the circle, even if the other crew members were in the circle.

New to Marathon? We have a beginner’s guide that will hopefully ease your time with the game’s initial hours. We also have a full review as I gave it a 3.5/5 after spending over 100 hours with the game since launch.

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About the Author - Carlos Hernandez

Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.