Marathon's New PvE Mode Has a Catch: You Leave Your Loot Beh

An extraction shooter where you don't extract your loot. That's the pitch for Vault Breaker, Marathon's first proper PvE mode, which Bungie announced will arrive on July 21st as part of the Season 2 mid-season update.

Vault Breaker opens up Cryo Archive, Marathon's endgame raid-style map, to solo players, duos, and full crews without the threat of other Runners hunting you down. You'll work through progressively harder vaults with a unique progression system, building power across multiple runs until you reach the final vault and whatever boss is waiting inside. The catch is that every piece of gear you pick up along the way gets left behind when you exfil. The only thing you walk out with is Vault Data, a new currency you can spend on upgrading your Vault Breaker Sponsored Kit or buying gear for other modes. According to the Steam blog post, this prevents the mode from "flooding the economy with low-risk, high-power Cryo loot."

I get the economic reasoning, and it's probably the right call for the health of Marathon's PvP economy. But it also means the mode is essentially a training ground with its own siloed progression rather than a genuine alternative path to endgame power. For players who bounced off Marathon because they don't enjoy PvP extraction, Vault Breaker gives them access to a map they'd never see otherwise, but it doesn't give them a reason to stick around long-term. Whether that's enough to move the needle for a game that's been struggling to hold onto players is a separate question entirely from whether the mode itself is fun.

Bungie also confirmed that Season 3 kicks off September 22nd with a revamped Perimeter map, new Runner shells, weapons, and equipment. The mid-season update on July 21st will additionally introduce the Cradle Evolution system, a prestige mechanic that resets your maxed Cradle to zero in exchange for one extra maximum Energy point and some cosmetics.