“This should for sure solve the problem of newbies getting turned off” – Marathon players react to new riskless PvE mode

Bungie has revealed details of its upcoming Marathon PvE mode, which will allow players to explore the endgame Cryo Archive Map without the threat of other players. They’ll instead face computer-controlled enemies. All in all, the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive.

As detailed in a social media post by the Marathon development team, this new mode is called Vault Breaker. Starting on the 21st July, players will be able to squad-up or play solo to tackle vaults of increasing difficulty. Vault Breaker has its own progression system, which will increase player power for the PvE mode, and provide currency that can be spent on equipment in other game modes.

That’s noteworthy because loot gained in Vault Breaker will not be usable in other game modes, because it acts largely as a closed PvE ecosystem. The larger loot economy should be unaffected by its addition, then, which is good!

Similarly, beating the final boss of Vault Breaker will not reward players with the coveted S’Phticie shell cosmetics, which must still be earned in the PvP variant of Cryo Archive. There’s still plenty of reason to tackle the regular version of the endgame mode.

In response to this Vault Breaker reveal, community hubs for Marathon have erupted in discussion. Much of this surrounds the potential appeal to casual players who might have fallen off Marathon after running headfirst into the daunting difficulty of Cryo Archive.

“Honestly pretty cool stuff,”wrote YouTuber Kelski on X “It’s very clear they are trying to broaden this game as fast as possible from the original vision. Whether that will actually bring in new fans or simply piss off the currently remaining ones is up in the air though.” This is echoed by Shadowfeaux on Reddit, who wrote: “My biggest gripe every time I’ve attempted Cryo was my teammates would take off knowing what they were doing and where to go and I’d end up lost.”

Reddit user Mike_I added: “As someone who dropped the game in week two cause I’m just not a PvP guy, this is piquing my interest for sure and I definitely want to come back to the game and try it out. I know it’s still experimental so I’m not expecting a flawless or fully fleshed out thing, but I’m at least glad they are trying stuff and implemented a mode like this in a reasonable amount of time.”

There’s another element here that’s noteworthy, too, which is the ability to experience Cryo Archive solo. Technically, you’ve been able to do this in the PvP version for a while, but given the difficulty is designed around a full squad – and you were matched against other squads of three while there – it was incredibly difficult to actually do. Vault Breaker offers a reasonable alternative for the lonesome runners.

“I don’t care about the PvE mode but at last as a solo I will be able to play Cryo so it’s a W[in],” writes Olbatar on Reddit. This sentiment was shared by another by the name of Whoopy2000, who wrote: “Solo players finally getting some love!!!”

Naturally, there are still some people unconvinced, with the locked off reward system in particular acting as a downer. “Honestly, this feels super meaningless to me,” WhatTheGeek, a lapsed solo player, offered. “It’ll be cool to run this a few times to experience it without a bunch of PvP stress, but I don’t see myself running this more than a few times. A separate progression system with minimal loot gain doesn’t really feel rewarding to me.”

Marathon has continued its slow decrease in PC player numbers since its launch in March, and Season 2 hasn’t seemed to revive excitement around the game. Will Vault Breaker succeed where other updates haven’t? Time will tell.