5 Upgrades to Avoid in Buying First
Marathon has a ton of upgrades to purchase from the Six Factions in the game, and among them, there are various critical ones that will greatly enhance the performance of your Shells. Then there are subpar upgrades that are a total waste of resources, or, best-case scenario, should be at the bottom of your priority list when every season begins.
Learn all about which upgrades you should never pick first among the many options to enhance your Shells abilities in Marathon. From disappointing Weapon Unlocks to Weapon Mods that can be found almost everywhere, here are the five least useful upgrades in the game.
How to Increase Vault Space in Marathon
Tired of running out of space for your weapons, treasure, and junk in Marathon? Here’s how to increase Vault space.
MIDA – Bullseye (Flechette Grenades)
There Are Better Grenades, And Better Upgrades To Take First
This MIDA upgrade from Grenades & Explosives will unlock the Flechette Grenades for purchase in the Marathon store. It costs 1500 Credits, 15x Dynamic Compounds, and 8x Surveillance Lens, and honestly, the cost is not even worth the trouble. These grenades are super overrated, and are supposed to launch seeker projectiles that will hurt opponents and heal the user per damage caused. Still, the reality is that their tracking is subpar and can be easily blocked by going around obstacles.
Plus, they are expensive, and can be found nearly everywhere: From containers to weapon lockers, to Supply Drops. Every Looting Spot in the game has at least one or two containers that have a high chance to drop one of these grenades (or better ones, like the Chem or EMP Grenades).
CyberACME – LooseChange.Exe
Shouldn’t Be The Top Of Your Priority List
The most unreliable upgrade from CyberACME, which is certainly subpar for the purposes of improving your chances of survival in every deploy. This upgrade causes a small amount of credits to accumulate in your inventory every time you open a container (any container), something that could be really nice, if not for the fact that those credits need to be Exfiled as any other thing you find during a run.
This upgrade, though not entirely useless, will turn players into walking piggy banks for other Runners to enjoy, as most of the time they end up in the pockets of enemy players instead of the accounts of those who earned them the hard way. So, put this upgrade at the bottom of your priority list; it’s not really worth the mats and creds. Plus, if you are into PvP, there are better upgrades to take first.
Traxus – SMG Mods
Purchasing Random Mods That Can Be Obtained Easily? No Thank You
The Traxus SMG Mods upgrade might look like one of the nicest and most enticing upgrades on this Faction, but as things are right now, SMG Mods are the most common and easy to find all around, and wasting 750 Creds and 10 Unstable Gunmetal is not worth your time. Traxus is basically a Faction that trades most of the Weapons and Weapon Mods in the Armory, and some are worth your time, some are not.
Plus, these small upgrades are usually improved later (at a higher cost), though by the time players acquire the mats for the upgrades, they would have their Vaults filled with SMG mods of greater value already. They are, after all, the most common of Mods they can find among Weapon Lockers, Supply Drops, and Encoded Caches. Plus, the Mods unlocked at the Armory are rotating, meaning they spawn at random at the store (what’s more useless than that?). You can skip this upgrade altogether without a hitch.
Traxus – Volt Mods
Mods Popping Up At Random At The Armory, When There’s A Better Way To Obtain Them
Another of the useless Upgrades from Traxus, that are not worth unlocking: The Volt Mods. Costing 750 credits and 13 Unstable Gunmetal, this upgrade unlocks a rotating mod for Volt Weapons at the Armory, but then, players need to pick another upgrade (Volt Mods+) for 1,500 Credits, 12 Deimosite Rods, and 6 Altered Wire to make it more worthwhile. And in any case, these will also be rotating (aka, spawning at random at the store).
It takes less time to deploy in a run and pick up some cool (and free) mods from the surface than to wait every store rotation to see if they drop that particular Mod you are looking for. In the time it took for it to appear, players should have completed various runs and accumulated a fair amount of Purple or Blue Mods for their Volt Weapons. Not worth wasting a single second upgrading this.
CyberACME- Loot Siphon.exe
Might Look Cool, But It’s Absolutely Useless In The Long Run
The Loot Siphon.exe 1 and Loot Siphon.exe 2 are two upgrades that add 5% Tactical Energy gain upon looting a container in the game (each, for a total of 10% with both updates active). Now, there’s a chance players might be thinking: This is great, but honestly, in the long run, this upgrade is absolutely useless and a total waste of credits.
The first one costs 1500 Credits, the second, 4000 Credits, a total of 5500 Credits invested in something that players can gain with Cores and Implants (some offer tons of Tactical Energy Regen). Plus, if players are looking for a quick Tactical Energy fix in the middle of battle, there are consumables like the Energy Amp that can basically do that without making you waste Credits on an upgrade.
Marathon
- Released
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March 5, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Animated Blood, Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
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Full