Bungie will scale back Marathon Season 2 high-rarity loot

Bungie will reduce the frequency of high-rarity drops in Marathon Season 2 after detecting an unexpected surge of top-tier loot. The developer posted the issue on its Steam channel and has applied some fixes while it continues to investigate.

The problem emerged early in Season 2. An increase in higher-rarity loot and an influx of Sponsored Kits accelerated player progression. Bungie reported that average player wealth in week two of Season 2 is similar to levels seen in weeks 11 and 12 of Season 1, effectively compressing roughly three months of progression into a two-week period.

The anomaly did not appear in internal playtests, which has complicated the probe. Bungie traced part of the cause to players favoring the new Sponsored Survival mode and grinding that PvE content instead of PvP activities. An issue involving Complex Control chests also contributed, producing what the developer called “bloated Vaults” as players collected large amounts of high-tier gear.

Bungie fixed a bug that could drop gold where it should not and implemented temporary progression tweaks. The studio plans to roll back those progression adjustments later in the season if it identifies and resolves the root cause. In the meantime, it will reduce high-rarity loot to curb rapid wealth accumulation.

Players have reported Vaults filling quickly. The developer described the gains as “eye-watering wealth gain” and encouraged players to enjoy the current abundance for now, while warning that top-tier gear will become less common as the adjustments take effect.

Season 2 experienced some early launch problems but has been received positively overall, with Sponsored Survival drawing praise for lower-stakes gameplay. Bungie noted it will provide further updates on fixes and any reversions to progression settings as they become available.