Marathon will test duos mode, Bungie confirms

Duos begins March 18 at 1 p.m. EDT.

Since Bungie launched Marathon on March 5, one request has come up again and again: a duos queue. Marathon game director Joseph Ziegler announced Monday that the team would roll out a duos queue as an “experimental feature.”

“As of Wednesday morning 3/18 at 10am PT, we'll be enabling a limited time duos queue on Perimeter only to test how the game plays with crews of 2 at a wider scale,” he wrote on X, adding that the test will last about two weeks but could wind up shorter or longer. There will be no matchmaking, so players can only enter the queue if they’re already in a group of two. “Perimeter – Duo” will appear in the zone select screen.

“Some things will be a bit jank,” Ziegler admitted.

Ziegler emphasized this likely isn’t the final version of duos, either in structure or UI, but the quickest way to get it into players’ hands for testing. From the looks of it, Rooks — the solo-only runner shell with a preloaded kit — will not be able to load into this lobby.

The biggest challenge for duos is probably balance. In addition to PvE enemies, any given Marathon match has several teams of three and some Rooks running around. Since the maps vary in size, finding just the right number of squads that feels balanced can’t be easy.

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Perimeter, the only map in this test, is the game’s most open and expansive zone. It’s also the starting map that players are most familiar with. It typically hosts around five teams of three for a total of 15 players, so for this test, we’re probably looking at seven or eight pairs. A duos mode has to be tested because, with too many pairs, you’re looking at constant firefights between squads. Too few and you run the risk of the map feeling empty.

It’s refreshing to see how quickly Bungie has responded to the game’s various pain points for players. Marathon has been out for barely two weeks, and players have requested duos so fervently that Bungie delivered.

Why do we want duos so badly? As a Rook, you cannot complete any of the faction contract quests to progress. Running solo as another runner shell is downright dangerous and puts you at a severe disadvantage. Since Marathon incentivizes strong communication and coordination, matchmaking to fill out your squad can yield mixed results. Even if you’re already paired up with a friend and fill in that third slot, plenty of players don’t use a microphone and will wander off on their own. In a game this intense, that can be a death sentence if you come up against another squad that’s actually communicating.

Playing with a single friend is about to get a lot easier and potentially more satisfying. Whether duos sticks around or not, this first test is a clear signal: Bungie is willing to reshape Marathon in real time, and players are now part of that process.