Marathon Factions

Besides providing a vehicle for revealing Marathon's lore and worldbuilding, the Factions represent your overall macro progression.

This is because, while you can lose your loot during a run, Faction progression maintains during a season.

As you do missions for each Faction, you build up your reputation and unlock Upgrades that make your life easier and make you stronger over time.

For example, these include stat improvements, more inventory space, access to better purchases in your Armory and so on. You can even upgrade your Rook!

Cheat Sheet for Each Faction

Every Faction provides many perks, but here are the general trends.

Cyberacme

• Improves your economy potential (credits, Vault space, Backpacks)
• Heat Capacity stat upgrade

NuCaloric

• Improves your survivability (Shield Charge, Patch Kits, Self Revive, status effect mitigation)
• Self-Repair Speed stat upgrade

Traxus

• Unlocks more weapons and weapon mods in your Armory
• Improves TAD and pings

MIDA

• Unlocks more explosives, traps, and implants in your Armory
• Agility stat upgrade

Arachne

• Unlocks more weapons, weapon mods, and implants in your Armory
• Improves melee ability
• Finisher Siphon stat upgrade

Sekiguchi

• Unlocks more cores and implants in your Armory
• Improves cooldowns for Prime and Tactical abilities

If you're a new player or coming back for a reset and not sure which Factions to prioritize first, consider the following sequencing:

1. Start with Cyberacme to unlock the Priority Contracts for Factions and then focus on getting Increased Vault Space and Heat Capacity.
2. Next, you can go for NuCaloric or Sekiguchi depending on your preferences.
3. 1. Go with NuCaloric if you'd prefer progress for defensive options like free daily Reinforced Shields V2 or 8XS Med Packs.
   2. Go with Sekiguchi if you'd rather go toward improving your ability cooldowns and targeting specific cores.
3. Then, go to Arachne to get more out of your melee attacks.
4. After that, it's really up to your personal preferences. If you're interested in leveling up the Rook, we have a full list of Rook upgrades here.