Marathon's first patch improves ammo and meds, makes combat noisier, nerfs thermal scopes and UESC bots

Marathon's player numbers, at least on PC, might not be as high as Sony and Bungie probably wanted, but almost a week into the game's live-service run, the reception has turned out to be generally positive so far, and we're big fans. Now, it's first patch is here.

Beyond the usual hiccups of an otherwise polished online shooter, Marathon diehards have been focusing on cracking the code of the 'terminal puzzle' which seems to be pointing to the imminent release of Marathon's first endgame area: the Cryo Archive. This should kick its first season into high gear, but before that, the first bug fixes and balance passes need to happen in order to keep things steady.

Update 1.0.0.4 is fairly straightforward but full of interesting changes that will no doubt have the community talking in the coming hours and days. For the most part, Bungie seems to be removing a bit of the most annoying initial friction while upping the danger associated with getting into prolonged gunfights (which will now be noisier, by the way) with other Runners and/or UESC forces.

Med Cabinets and Munitions Crates will now spawn more frequently on Perimeter (the low danger area, where you start off your Tau Ceti IV journey), and the starting ammo included with the sponsored MIDA, CyberAcme, and Arachne free kits is going up as well. This will give everyone, especially newbies, a better fighting chance when low on resources. On the other hand, the more competitive players putting thermal scopes to good use will see their overall effectiveness reduced after they quickly became the go-to meta.

UESC bots are also getting slightly nerfed as Bungie tries to find the "sweet spot" when it comes to friction between Runner crews and the (often overwhelming) roaming patrols and assault forces that even caused renowned streamer Ninja to ragequit on launch day. Their health and HP are going down "by a small amount." The developers are, however, aware of the largely positive feedback on the AI enemies being scary instead of puny pushovers.

Image credit: Bungie / Eurogamer

Smaller but also welcome changes affect the nav points (which now appear from 20m away instead of 10m), server and client crashes, and extended black screens during map loads (a problem I've personally had several times since launch). The Lux bundle is getting a small bump too, as promised.

The 11th March patch arrived right after Bungie addressed player complaints about the poor value of the first rewards pass. The paid S1 pass will get a mid-April update with new Shell and weapon skins. You can take an early look at the new cosmetics here.