The economic metagame in Marathon is as important to gameplay as it is in every other looter shooter, and you will be needing all the Credits you can scrape together, if you hope to arm yourself to the teeth. While simply looting and selling everything in sight is the obvious, common sense play, there are a number of things you can do to make it less of a grind.
This Marathon guide is all about farming Credits as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Runner Selection
The ROOK Runner Shell is the counterpart of the throwaway looter build from other extraction shooters, but with a twist. The various faction rank upgrades will eventually tune Rook into a near perfect loot machine, including an Enhanced weapon from Traxus, an Enhanced backpack from CyberAcme, a Patch Kit and Shield charge from NuCaloric, a stack of Claymores from MIDA, and Implants, WSTR Combat Shotgun, and MIPS Rounds from Arachne, all for free with no additional investment on your part.
As a Runner Shell widely recognizable for being looting oriented, you may often be able to avoid being instantly fired upon on sight by other players, assuming that you don’t initiate hostilities yourself of course.
Implants
Certain implants have traits that enhance loot quality, such as the Deluxe Leg piece ‘Distance Runner V3’ which comes with Materialist+. This trait grants additional Deluxe and Superior Salvage, upon exfiltration. A nice little bonus that could then be either bartered or exchanged for Credits.
The Prestige Torso implant ‘Nimble Fingers V5’ has the unique trait where opening loot containers pings unopened loot containers nearby, a handy aid when trying to pick the map clean of loot.
Faction Upgrades
These are a quick and easy source for some Credits, but more importantly, certain specific upgrades themselves can expand opportunities to earn more Credits on runs.
To begin, CyberAcme’s ‘Credit Limit’ raises your Credit wallet’s capacity for the rest of the season.
‘Informant’ increases data card credit rewards by 50%. This bonus additively stacks with other Informant upgrades.
‘Stipend’ gives ROOK a small amount of Credits in addition to their basic gear when starting runs.
‘LOOSE_CHANGE.EXE’ rewards you with 25 Credits every time you crack open a container, however that initial 5,000 Credit cost to unlock means that it could be a long time before you break even on the expense.
Data Cards
These instantly rebated sources of large quantities of Credits are scattered everywhere, and once you make the investment into the specific faction upgrade mentioned previously, their exchange value significantly increases.
Loot Priority
With your generally limited inventory space, you may end up having to choose what specifically to bring home with you. Runner Cores, Biomass, Diodes, Gel, and Valuables tend to be the right call, though you should always check their value in the field just to be sure.
Bartering
Aside from CyberAcme, all of the other factions offer opportunities to barter for wares in exchange for Deluxe, Superior, or Prestige Salvage. This indirectly serves you by sparing real Credits from being spent on consumables and the like.
Those are all the tips you need to grind for Credits fast in Marathon.
