Every Playstyle in Marathon Explained (And What’s Best for You Based on Destiny 2)

Marathon is bouncing back from its 2025 difficulties with serious confidence, and no system communicates that more clearly than its Runner Shells. Class systems are rare enough for extraction shooters, but a recent blog post from Bungie describes Shells as much more involved. That said, Marathon players coming from Destiny 2 might find these Shells deceptively familiar.

Drawing on Bungie’s years of experience with class design in the Destiny franchise, Marathon refocuses on class mechanics around extraction shooter logic. Destiny 2 classes were about choosing a power fantasy as much as a team role, but in Marathon, finding the right Runner Shell is about restraint. Thinking through which parts of a favorite Destiny 2 class you’re willing to give up (or deliberately lean into) will make it far easier to hit the ground running when the game launches in March.

How Runner Shells Define Marathon

Image via Bungie

Marathon‘s gameplay design is built around every Runner Shell fulfilling a clear gameplay archetype—combat, intel, mobility, or healing—but none of them are locked into a single expression. Each has unique Traits and Prime abilities, but Cores and Implants are where that class identity bends. Cores are Shell-specific upgrades that alter how abilities function, while Implants are universal modifiers that tweak stats and add perks, sometimes with fixed bonuses at higher tiers.

When combined, these two systems can yield a variety of builds. The examples in the blog post hint that Shells like Vandal can turn into a pseudo-rocket-jumping AoE threat or a triple-jumping mobile frame, depending on the Cores and Implants chosen. If Destiny 2 is about mastering a class and subclass, Marathon‘s character class system is about deciding what kind of risk profile you’re comfortable creating with these various Shells.

Runner Shell – Destroyer (Combat Specialist)

Destroyer is the most straightforward Shell in Marathon, and that clarity is its strength. Equipped with a personal mobile defense barricade, missile systems, and movement thrusters, Destroyer is built to take space and dare enemies to contest it. This is the Shell for players who believe survivability and pressure are inseparable.

Best For Destiny 2 Players Who Prefer:

• Titan (Striker or Sentinel): Mobile personal barricade and frontline capability translate almost one-to-one.
• Solar Titan: Sustain-focused playstyles that reward staying in combat.
• Berserker Titan: Move in, tee off, move out.

Runner Shell – Assassin (Shadow Agent)

Assassin is Marathon’s answer to players who treat visibility and liability as synonymous. Synthetic smoke deployment and camouflage tech allow Assassin Shells to set the tone of encounters before they become firefights or disengage when the stakes are too high. This Shell will likely thrive on misdirection and timing rather than raw lethality.

Best For Destiny 2 Players Who Prefer:

• Hunter (Nightstalker): Invisibility, disengagement, and positional advantage.
• Void Hunter PvP Mains: Comfort with soft control and opportunistic strikes.
• Solo-Oriented Players: Those solo dungeon or Nightfall players who value survivability tools as much as kill potential.

Runner Shell – Recon (Intel Specialist)

Recon Shells are designed around information supremacy. Echo pulses can warn you or mark enemies through walls, tracker drones burn and stun enemies, and visible footstep trails all focus the Recon Shell on battlefield awareness and control above all. Bungie reportedly called this Shell the “fun police” internally, so it follows that the Recon will likely be a strong (if annoying) contender at release.

Best For Destiny 2 Players Who Prefer:

• Hunters Who Lean Tactical: Gunslinger or Nightstalker players who value setup.
• Knucklehead Radar Users: Those who want that extra heads-up.
• Raid Guides/Leaders: Those who naturally set roles and funnel information to their squad.

Runner Shell – Vandal (Combat Anarchist)

Vandal is where Marathon will likely let movement players run wild. Built for extreme speed and disruption, Vandal Shells use advanced traversal options like a powerslide, doublejump, and a knockback cannon to turn verticality into an advantage. With the right Cores and Implants, Vandal can become less of a Runner and more of a physics problem for an unsuspecting enemy squad.

Best For Destiny 2 Players Who Prefer:

• Arcstrider Hunters: Momentum-first combat and aggressive repositioning.
• Dawnblade Warlocks: Comfort fighting from the air and controlling space mid-movement.
• Striker Titans: For the ever-satisfying slam.

Runner Shell – Thief (Covert Acquisitions)

The Thief Shell is most explicitly tuned for successful extraction. Enhanced loot visors, a piloted butterfly drone that can mark enemies and steal their loot, and a grapple device all point toward one goal: getting loot quickly and leaving just as fast. The Thief Shell will excel for those Marathon players who think survival is good, but profit is better.

Best For Destiny 2 Players Who Prefer:

• Hunters: Revenant or Nightstalker players who prioritize escape and enhanced vision.
• Aggregate Value Warlocks: Those Warlock mains who play the class because value accumulation is the real win condition.

Runner Shell – Triage (Field Medic)

Triage Shells exist to keep a squad alive and afloat. With deployable and shareable healing drones, reboot (revive) abilities, and combat buffs, Triage can sustain teams enough to win engagements or sustain them long enough to get out. It’s a support role that’ll likely be foundational in Marathon’s squad-based gameplay.

Best For Destiny 2 Players Who Prefer:

• Well of Radiance Warlocks: players who heal or use the Hellion Aspect to buff their team’s DPS.
• Coordinated Squads: Groups willing to play longer, riskier matches.

Scavenger Mode Shell – Rook

The Rook Shell is more of a mechanic than a Runner Shell in the traditional sense. Designed exclusively for Marathon’s Scavenger Mode, Rook drops players into matches already in progress with no loadout and no risk. It can’t bring gear in, but it also can’t lose anything but what players find in the match.

This places Rook in the same conceptual space as Scavs in Escape from Tarkov or free loadout runs in ARC Raiders. Something that sets it apart from its peers in the space, however, is Rook’s unique ability to blend in with enemy AI NPCs. For those who find extraction shooters stressful, it’s also a way to approach Marathon without the immediate weight of consequences.

Shells Set Marathon Apart From the Genre

Taken together, Marathon’s playstyles are much more specific than Destiny 2’s big three. By anchoring each Shell to a philosophy of risk vs. reward rather than raw power, Bungie is reshaping the system to adapt to the genre. It’s a refreshing move considering the lack of similar structures in the other extraction shooters like Escape from Tarkov and Arc Raiders.

Still, these Shells clearly have a traceable lineage in Destiny’s class system. Time will tell if the evolution can stick the landing in a player-competitive genre like extraction shooters. For now, though, Shells just paint a familiar (but no less exciting) picture.

Released

March 5, 2026

ESRB

Teen / Blood, Violence, Users Interact

Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op