The Marathon reboot has encountered another interesting problem, and even the developers who recently left Destiny 2 do not seem to see its main cause.

Marathon’s second season began earlier this month and has proven to be a rollercoaster ride so far. The start was not very promising, because Bungie’s typical launch issues undermined the free-play week. New features such as the Night-time Dire Marsh map and its accompanying Sponsored Survival mode quickly became popular with the community, however. After a few weeks, new problems emerged. Progress in Marathon has become too easy, which is ironic given the game’s intimidating reputation. While players who managed to extract anything valuable in the first season could consider themselves lucky, those playing the second season have apparently amassed so much loot that their storage is overflowing with treasures, disrupting the game’s economy.

“Out of the gate in Season 2, progression and access to power moved much faster than in the previous season. For reference, the average wealth in week two of Season 2 is similar to what we saw in weeks 11 and 12 of Season 1. While we wanted to increase progression speeds, we did not land on a healthy place for the game” – Bungie wrote on Steam while explaining what went wrong and what may have caused it.

A number of bugs also contributed, and Bungie says these have now been fixed, including gold appearing in places where it should not have been guaranteed. The flood of sponsored gear packs at the beginning of the season also accelerated progress, as did the combined issue involving the Sponsored Survival grind and the valuable chest in the Complex Control area, which allowed players to take full advantage of Marathon’s mostly PvE mode. The main cause remains somewhat mysterious, though. According to Bungie, there is an issue causing rarer loot to proliferate in the game, but the team does not know exactly what is causing it. This was not a phenomenon observed during internal testing, and they are still trying to uncover its source.

During the investigation, Bungie implemented several additional adjustments aimed at progression, including disabling reinforced containers and reducing Cradle XP rates. These are temporary measures, however, which Bungie plans to reverse later in the season once other solutions are available. Hopefully, the team will soon identify the root cause, although there are surely players who do not mind having an easier time for a short while on Tau Ceti IV.

Source: PC Gamer, Steam