Update 1.0.5.3 dropped today for Marathon, and the headline change is a meaningful knife nerf that the dev team has backed with a rare, genuinely transparent explanation.
The knife's maximum lunge distance is down roughly 10%, its targeting angle trimmed by 20%, and the Melee Damage stat now caps at 50% bonus damage against enemy Runners instead of 100%. Bungie's developer note spells out the reasoning clearly: melee kills were happening too early in the stat progression, meaning players weren't actually required to invest in a build to hit peak output. Credit where it's due, that's the kind of honest design communication most studios avoid. The Bubble Shield also gets a significant rework; it moves up a rarity tier to Superior (purple), loses a third of its HP, and sheds its Volt damage weakness in exchange for 17% more resistance to UESC damage.
On the bug fix side, the Vault and Armory displaying as empty, and Armory daily refreshes not appearing consistently, are both addressed here. Those were genuinely disruptive issues for progression, so that's a fix that needed to happen. The Cryo Archive exfil countdown reset exploit is also gone.
Full patch notes below.
Combat
Knife
- Reduced the maximum lunge distance by ~10% and trimmed down the targeting angle by ~20%.
Bubble Shield
- Increased rarity from Deluxe (blue) to Superior (purple)
- Reduced bubble HP by 33%
- Removed vulnerability to Volt Weapon damage
- Increased resistance to UESC damage by 17%
Runners
Stats
- Melee Damage
- Reduced bonus damage provided by the Melee Damage stat from a maximum of 100% to a maximum of 50% against enemy Runners. Damage against non-Runner targets is unchanged.
- DEVELOPER NOTE: Melee in Marathon is intended to be a high-risk but potent method to contest close-quarters weapons like shotguns and submachine guns. However, the breakpoints for quick melee kills show up too early in the Melee Damage stat progression, which means additional investment into a build isn't required to get the maximum effective output. We don't want to compromise on having melee feel powerful, but believe that getting to that maximum output should be the result of meaningful buildcrafting and upgrade progression. Our goal for this change and the knife lunge changes above are that the knife remains a powerful backup tool, but requires more thoughtful play - both in and out of run - to be most effective.
Thief
- Fixed additional Grapple-related slide cancel movement exploits.
Vault and Armory
- Fixed an issue causing the Vault and Armory to sometimes appear to be empty.
- Fixed an issue causing the Armory item refreshes and free daily items to not appear consistently.
Contracts
Traxus
- Removed “in a single run” condition from Traxus Return On Investment 4/5.
Zones
Cryo Archive
- Fixed an issue that would cause an exfil countdown to reset if the 1st crew member to enter left the circle, even if the other crew members were in the circle.
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