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Marathon Thief Guide - Stats, Traits, Abilities and Cores

Thief is a Runner Shell in Marathon. This shell excels in looting and traversing the map. This class is a great choice for players who want to stay out of trouble and gather loot.

Below, you will find an overview of this Shell, as well as its abilities, traits, compatible cores, best Thief builds and loadouts and preferred weapons.

Updated on Mar 9 2026

Overview

The Thief has one of the most unique playstyles of all Runner Shells as they're essentially the loot goblin of Marathon. Their Pickpocket Drone allows them to not only scout out enemies, but can directly steal the highest value loot from targets. Grapple Device provides surprising playmaking potential and gives you ways to either engage or escape from danger.

Strengths And Weaknesses

Best-in-class for looting
2nd best info-gathering after Recon
Grapple Device provides versatile mobility

Better-suited for avoiding combat
Vulnerable while using Pickpocket Drone
Lacks direct combat utility

Abilities and Traits

Pickpocket Drone
Prime Ability
Deploy a remotely piloted flying drone with a limited lifespan. Fire a hooked tether that can eject the highest-value item from target inventories, collect and store loose loot and open doors. Exit the drone and return to your shell. At any point while the drone is still active, activate the ability again to continue piloting the drone.

Pickpocket Drone

Prime Ability

Deploy a remotely piloted flying drone with a limited lifespan.

Fire a hooked tether that can eject the highest-value item from target inventories, collect and store loose loot and open doors.

Exit the drone and return to your shell.

At any point while the drone is still active, activate the ability again to continue piloting the drone.

Grapple Device
Tactical Ability
Launch a grapple device in your aim direction, propelling yourself towards it.

Grapple Device

Tactical Ability

Launch a grapple device in your aim direction, propelling yourself towards it.

X-Ray Visor
Trait 1
Activate your visor, highlighting hostiles and containers in the color of the most valuable item they're storing. Containers are revealed through walls, while hostiles require line of sight. While active, aiming at a hostile for a short time Hacks their optics, disrupting their vision until you look away.

X-Ray Visor

Trait 1

Activate your visor, highlighting hostiles and containers in the color of the most valuable item they're storing. Containers are revealed through walls, while hostiles require line of sight.

While active, aiming at a hostile for a short time Hacks their optics, disrupting their vision until you look away.

The Finer Things
Trait 2
Gain increased weapon handling and accelerated Grapple Device recharge rate based on the number of items in your Backpack.

Stats

Movement
Heat Capacity	15
Agility	20
Loot Speed	25
Fall Resistance	20

Combat
Melee Damage	10
Finisher Siphon	15

Recovery
Prime Recovery	10
Tactical Recovery	5
Self-Repair Speed	5
Revive Speed	5

Systems
Hardware	5
Firewall	15
Ping Duration	5

Compatible Cores

Core	Description
Botique	The The Finer Things also grants weapon reload speed and Agility based on the number of items in your Backpack.
Crime Spree	Each container you open increases your Loot Speed. This increase resets when you're downed.
Greed is Good	When your backpack is completely full, your sprint speed and slide distance are increased.
Hit and Run	Striking a target with a melee or knife attack immediately after grappling Hacks them and knocks random loot items from their backpack.
Keen Eye	Hacking a hostile with your X-Ray Visor extends its duration.
Premium Package	Your Pickpocket Drone has increased lifetime and is more resistant to incoming damage.
Case the Joint	Your X-Ray Visor has increased vision range.
Hideout	While piloting your Pickpocket Drone, you become invisible.
Partner in Crime	While not being piloted, your Pickpocket Drone periodically releases a pulse that pings nearby hostiles.

Factions to Focus

Similar to the other sneaky Runner, the Assassin, the Thief benefits from prioritizing factions like Arachne, Sekiguchi, and CyberAcme.

Arachne's WSTR Combat Shotgun lets you get the jump on enemies that you scouted with Pickpocket Drone, especially with the burst movement from Grapple Device.

Sekiguchi unlocks easy access to cores and is also useful due to its reduced cooldowns for Tactical Recovery and Prime Recovery.

Cyberacme is generally useful across the board, not only unlocking more Vault space, but also Heat Capacity and Slide improvements.

Recommended Weapons

As we mentioned in the Factions section above, you'll want to put the WSTR Combat Shotgun to good use since it's incredibly effective with the Grapple Device. You can pair it with a V75 Scar as your go-to for engagements at other ranges.