Marathon: All Shells and Their Abilities, Explained

Marathon provides more than a handful of classes (called Shells) to fit every single playstyle out there. Tanks, medics, and movement junkies will find their itches scratched as the game provides unique abilities that will hopefully help you extract with the most valuable loot in Tau Ceti.

If you’re new to the game, chances are you might be wondering what these Shells will mean gameplay-wise and whether you’re making the right choice. Look no further. Here are all the Marathon Shells and their abilities, explained.

Destroyer

The tank Shell. The Destroyer is a very simple class to learn: shoot everything on sight with your sheer power, and use your shield to protect you and your squad from enemy fire. You might want to run along with friends, though, as soloing Tau Ceit with the Destroyer might put a target on your head if you’re a beginner, given its lack of tactical advantages other classes display.

• Prime: Search and Destroy – Dealing sustained damage to targets launches homing missiles, immobilizing and dealing damage upon impact.

• Tactical: Riot Barricade – Toggle and energy barricade that blocks incoming damage, draining tactical ability energy over time. Taking damage drains additional energy.

• Trait: Thruster – Activate while airborne to fire boosters that thrust you in the direction you are moving.

• Trait: Tactical Sprint – Double-press sprint to move faster at the cost of generating additional heat.

Vandal

The Vandal Shell is labeled the “combat anarchist.” And rightfully so. Equipped with stellar movement abilities, this Shell will be a huge headache to UESC foes and Runners alike, all thanks to them being pushed back into oblivion by its abilities. It might not provide meaningful tactical advantages, but defenestrating enemies makes it all worth it.

• Prime: Amplify – Overcharge your movement systems, reducing the heat generated from your movement abilities while increasing your movement speed and weapon dexterity.

• Tactical: Disrupt Cannon – Transform your arm into a cannon and fire a high-powered energy projectile that deals damage and pushes targets away. Overcharge your arm cannon, greatly increasing the size and damage of the blast.

• Trait: Microjets – Activate while airborne to perform another jump at the cost of generating additional heat.

• Trait: Power Slide – Grants a supercharged slide that generates additional heat.

Recon

One of the most popular Shells in Marathon, Recon shines thanks to its ability to track down and incapacitate nearby hostiles. Essentially, this Shell is an excellent defensive class with great offensive chops. Combine that with a decent loadout, and your squad will probably have no match when trying to extract from Tau Ceti.

• Prime: Echo Pulse – Activate your Shell’s advanced detection systems, releasing a series of sonar pulses that reveal the location of nearby hostiles.

• Tactical: Tracker Drone – Deploy a mechanized microbot that tracks down nearby hostiles and explodes, overheating any targets caught in the blast.

• Trait: Interrogation – When pinged by a hostile Runner, you automatically receive a warning in your Shell’s HUD. Performing a finisher on a Runner pings their crew.

• Trait: Stalker Protocol – After breaking a target’s shields, they leave behind a lingering holographic trail for a short time.

Assassin

Stealth is the name of the game with the Assassin Shell. Did you run into unexpected trouble? A smoke screen will save your life. Feeling like infiltrating an area with valuable loot? Your camo is the key. If you’re up to the challenge, the Assassin might do wonders if you’re a skillful solo player.

• Prime: Smoke Screen – Throw a smoke disc that emits a line of smoke fields in front of you, disrupting the optics of those who step inside.

• Tactical: Active Camo – Activate your Shell’s camouflage systems, pulling a shroud of invisibility over yourself. Performing offensive actions, taking damage, and using abilities or consumables briefly disrupts your invisibility.

• Trait: Shadow Dive – Active while airborne to slam a smoke disk into the ground, deploying a smoke field.

• Trait: Shroud – Your Shell automatically activates its camouflage systems when entering any smoke field, making you invisible. Invisibility persists for a short time after leaving the smoke field.

Triage

The Triage Shell is your support class. Your tech is mostly focused on assisting your party by providing health and shield regeneration, with the unique ability to heal allies from a distance. Offensively, Triage might not do the trick, but rest assured that everyone needs a field medic, especially in Marathon.

• Prime: Reboot+ - Lock on to downed crew members or hostile targets and fire your Reboot+ device at them, which revives crew members and EMPs hostiles.

• Tactical: Med-Drone – Deploy a floating medical drone that attaches to crew members and restores health and recharges shields, and prevents them from bleeding out while drowned.

• Trait: Shareware.Exe – Benefits from medical consumables are shared between crew members with Med-Drone attached to them.

• Trait: Battery Overcharge – Divert energy from your cooling systems to boost the performance of your weapons at the cost of generating additional heat. While active, breaking a target’s shield with a volt weapon EMPs them.

Thief

With a more-than-decent mobility at your disposal, the Thief Shell allows runners to pinpoint valuable items in Tau Ceti and, once you get your hands on the treasure, enables you to run away in acrobatic fashion. Combat abilities are limited, though, so be aware that if you choose Thief, you are essentially a highly skilled scavenger.

• Prime: Pickpocket Drone – 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.

• Tactical: Grapple Device – Launch a grapple device in your aim direction, propelling yourself toward it.

• Trait: X-Ray Visor – 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.

• Trait: The Finer Things – Gain increased weapon handling and accelerated Grapple Device recharge rate based on the number of items in your backpack.

Rook

The Rook is your very-limited, albeit unique and occasionally useful Shell of the bunch. A scavenger in nature, choosing the Rook means joining a run mid-match with a random free loadout and no active contracts, with the only purpose of getting the Tau Ceti goodies. Blend in with your abilities and be a low-profile Runner if you want to exfil successfully.

• Prime: Recuperation – Activate your prototype frame’s emergency repair system to slowly restore health.

• Tactical: Signal Mask – Activate a temporary holodisplay mask to deceive UESC forces, making them unaware of your presence. Disrupted when you sprint or take damage.

Marathon is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.