When it comes to Marathonthere are some topics that are discussed time and time again. MarathonThe lackluster number of players clashing with its critical acclaim is a common point of discussion, the game's difficulty in both ranked and regular play is regularly highlighted, and – like most competitive multiplayer games – balancing comes up regularly. Recently, knives have been the talk of the town, as runners have sliced through the opposition regardless of whether their enemies have purple shields or no shields at all. MarathonThe latest update targeted knives, making it so players have to build around melee properly to wipe out groups. With this issue resolved, players have since returned to a mechanic they still believe needs tweaking: thermal scopes.
To be clear, Marathons thermal scope has been geeked out once before. These changes came in update 1.0.0.4, and they saw the following distance reductions for the thermal highlights:
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Sniper's effective range went from 180 meters to 100 meters.
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Precision rifle effective range dropped to 80 from 100.
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LMGs, rifles and SMGs are now only effective at 60 meters as opposed to 65.
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Pistols have fall off at 40 meters instead of 55.
In addition to these distance adjustments, the visual clarity of thermal scopes was lowered to make headshots a little less easy to pull off. And while Bungie addressing thermal scopes was well received, especially given how quickly the changes were made, players feel that thermal scope sights are still too strong. It's not hard to see why, but instead of just complaining, players have been constructive and have offered Bungie a great potential solution to the game's OP thermals.
The first step to a marathon comeback is to repeat the exact same trick
With positive Marathon reviews continuing to pour in, it may be time for Bungie to go back to the well to rekindle interest in its extraction shooter.
The Reign of Terror for Marathon's Thermal Scopes, Explained
While it is true that the biggest problem with thermal optics at launch was their effective range – several early on Marathon clips showed players dropping runners from nearly 200 meters away with Sniper Rifles, seeing them clearly even though opponents had no idea they were being targeted – they're still strong. This is because even with the blurrier targets that follow the nerf in Marathons 1.0.0.4 update helps those players who would normally be hard to see stand out. Take Dire Marsh for example, which has a lot of leaves to hide within. This becomes basically useless if a thermal is in play. Similarly, thermals can help massively on maps like Cryo where visibility is intentionally difficult (although jammers used more regularly here help prevent them from being as dominant).
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In addition to preventing players from sneaking around, thermals counter many mechanics and playstyles. Marathon's Assassins feel weaker because of them, smoke grenades are effectively negated, and so on. Add in the weather effects, like Perimeter's rain or Dire Marsh's fog, and players without Thermals can feel like they don't even have a chance because they can't see the enemy that shot them down. And if even a tiny bit of one's shell is visible through a window or behind a barricade, a thermal will pick it up, completely destroying a group's attempts at strategy.
While some victims of thermal scopes despise them and do not want them inside Marathon however, the reality is that they are fun to use in a game where smoke and weather effects are common. So instead of taking them out completely, it would be better to see them nerfed in a way that keeps them powerful and satisfying to acquire without being over the top. One solution is to make them a rarer mount, but a smarter idea comes from Marathon community member kite.01, as it adds to the already impressive sense of immersion in Bungie's games. According to kite.01, since Shells run on heat, said heat build-up should determine how light the targeted player looks in range.
For this to work there obviously needs to be some sort of base heat on each runner so Thermals aren't useless against players who haven't generated heat. Perhaps the shell's eyes, or some individual pieces per shell (ie Vandal's arm cannon) could have a faint glow before the heat build-up. Then, as the targeted runner adds to their heat bar by sprinting, jumping, using abilities, and so on, they can become brighter and appear further away. This can make players think more carefully about how much heat they use and add things that players need to be careful about on Tau Ceti IV. Kind of like making too much noise Marathon can lead to a runner's downfall, players who are too careless with their heat management can suffer the consequences.
With the above mock-up posted by AbledShawl even presenting an idea of what this thermal proposal might look like in-game, it feels like Marathon's passionate player base has given Bungie a perfect fix on a silver platter. About the mid-season update for Marathon borrows from this particular concept or nerfs thermals in other ways remains to be seen, but it's fun that more tweaks are in the works. Bungie has done a phenomenal job of listening to players so far, and realizing that the first hit to thermals wasn't enough to get the job done is yet another example of that.
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen/animated blood, language, violence, in-game purchases, user interaction
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
