Marathon’s New Ranked Mode Is Super Weird… And Genius

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As a big fan of extraction shooters, I was a little worried about how Ranked playlists would fit into Marathon. It just didn’t seem like a natural fit! But Bungie has come up with a really complicated system, and honestly, it might be brilliant. Usually, Ranked modes are simple – you win, you get points, you lose, you lose points, and tougher opponents give you more of a boost. But Marathon isn’t that simple, and it needed something different.

Even in the game Marathon, where players rarely interact positively, it’s hard to define what winning even means. Everyone has different goals and ideas of success. Marathon‘s open-ended gameplay is meant to be unpredictable, so ranking players simply by kills or completed tasks doesn’t fit the game’s design. Instead, a ranking system needs to work with Marathon‘s ongoing loot system, which is what Bungie has attempted to create.

How Ranked Mode Works In Marathon

For a long time, the Ranked mode in Marathon has been unknown to players. Now, Bungie has explained how it will work. When Ranked launches on Saturday, March 21st at 1:00 PM ET, there are a few things you’ll need to do first. You must be at least level 25 to join the Ranked queue. You’ll also need to meet a minimum gear requirement: 3,000 Credits for the ‘Low Stakes Queue’ or 10,000 Credits for the ‘High Stakes Queue.’ Finally, and most importantly, you need to have a Holotag in your inventory.

Holotags are new items for Ranked mode that represent your rank – from Bronze to Pinnacle. You can buy Holotags matching your current rank or lower, or find them by defeating other players. These tags set a Score Target you need to reach by finding and escaping with valuable loot. If you leave the match without hitting your target, you won’t earn any Ranked points, and if you’re eliminated, you’ll lose points – the amount lost depends on the Holotag values of your team.

The amount of Ranked points you gain or lose depends on how valuable your team’s Holotags are, but each one also has a limit to how much it can contribute. You can earn even more Ranked points by finding Holotags or Tag Chips from defeated players, stronger enemies, or by completing activities on the map. Bungie has provided a table below to show the potential impact – both good and bad – of each Holotag.

The new Ranked mode is a bit unusual, mainly because it will only be available to play on weekends. The first chance to try it will be from Saturday, March 21st, to Tuesday, March 24th, between 1:00 PM and 1:00 PM Eastern Time each day. Bungie says each weekend will focus on a different area of the map – Perimeter, Dire Marsh, or Outpost – and the first weekend will take place on Perimeter.

Bungie’s Convoluted System Has A Lot Of Potential

Bungie wants to make it clear that Marathon is designed to be a truly competitive game, beyond just the normal gameplay. Extraction shooters are naturally competitive because everyone is trying to get the same valuable items, but a ranked ladder adds another layer of competition. Bungie cleverly built Marathon‘s ranked system around collecting loot—the game’s central element—and also rewards players for participating in both PvE and PvP activities.

Ranked mode captures the core risk-versus-reward element of extraction games. While free kits help you stay safe in regular matches, you’ll always need to risk better gear to improve your chances of winning—even outside of Ranked. By building this tension into the Holotag system in Marathon, Ranked feels like a natural continuation of the extraction experience.

Limiting Ranked matches to weekends could make it work better with regular extraction gameplay. While the ‘Marathon’ event will occasionally reset everything, the weekly push for Ranked points could lead many players to lose valuable items. This would allow them to recover those losses on non-Ranked days. This system could create a good balance for dedicated players after finishing weekly tasks and while waiting for new content updates.

It’s important to remember we haven’t seen Marathon’s Ranked mode in play yet. Some adjustments will likely be needed, but overall, Bungie seems to have created a clever system for Ranked play that doesn’t change the fundamental way Marathon is played.

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2026-03-19 01:43