Marathon Ranked explained: Rules, scoring, and rewards

I’ll admit, I was sceptical of Marathon‘s Ranked mode at first. How do you even make a proper competitive system in an extraction shooter, where a win and a loss aren’t quite so easily defined? Well, Bungie’s done it. Though to get it all to work, it’s quite complicated.

You earn and lose points to go up and down ranks as you’d expect, but there are a lot more layers on top, with new systems like Holotags, gear ante, and matchmaking pools. But with unique seasonal Ranked rewards up for grabs, you’ll want to know how it all works. One thing’s for sure, you’ll want the best guns in your hands and characters in your crew to improve your odds.

Marathon Ranked mode explained

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Firstly, Marathon’s Ranked mode is only available on the weekends, and you must be level 25+. Each weekend, a different planet-side map will be spotlighted, so Perimeter, Dire Marsh, or Outpost—no Cryo Archives, thankfully.

Importantly, all team sizes are matched together in Ranked. What this means is that if you’re a solo player, you can be put in matches against three-player groups, unlike the standard solo queue. As you can imagine, that makes it much harder as a solo.

There are six ranks, each with three tiers to progress through:

BronzeSilverGoldPlatinumDiamondPinnacle

It’s quite complicated, so here are the basics:

Low and High Stakes queues

When you queue for Ranked, you’ll have two matchmaking options: Low Stakes and High Stakes. These are two entirely separate queues based on your minimum ‘gear ante’, which is the value of your equipped gear when entering a match. You can see your current loadout value in the loadout or ready-up screen.

Low Stakes:

Minimum gear ante: 3,000 Credits worthHolotag tiers: Bronze, Silver, and Gold

High Stakes:

Minimum gear ante: 10,000 Credits worthHolotag tiers: Platinum, Diamond, and Pinnacle

A 3,000 gear ante equates to roughly a set of green gear with a few blues in the mix, while a 10,000 gear ante is equivalent to multiple blue and purple items. This includes consumables, just saying. In other words, it can get quite pricey to compete in Ranked, though it ensures that every player you come across will have loot worth taking. Everyone’s a piñata. Plus, you can’t be matched with people spamming sponsored kits or doing knife runs.

Holotags

Alongside your usual gear (which again, needs to meet the gear ante), you have to bring a Holotag in your inventory. This is a new item exclusive to Ranked which determines your team’s score target—the minimum loot value you need to find and extract with to score Ranked Points.

You can purchase Holotags using Credits in the Armory, or steal them from enemy players. However, you can only purchase Holotag tiers up to your current rank. For example, if you’re in Gold, you can only buy Gold Holotags, giving you a lower score target. If you’re in Diamond, then you’ll have access to Diamond tags, which come with a higher score target.

How does scoring work in Marathon Ranked?

(Image credit: Bungie)

Once you’ve got your loadout set and a Holotag, you’re ready to jump into a match. But how do you actually win? Basically, you do a lot of looting:

Once you’ve reached your score target from looting, it’s wise to extract—you won’t earn any additional points from looting standard items. However, you can earn bonus Rated Points above your target by stealing other players’ Holotags or collecting Tag Chips from AI and map events.

If you don’t think you’re going to reach your score target alive, then it’s best to extract. Remember, you don’t win or lose points for extracting without meeting your target, but you’ll lose rank if you die. Sometimes it’s just not worth risking not only your loot but your competitive progress.

Here are the important values for each tier of Holotag:

What you’ll notice is that Bronze and the lower ranks in general are rather forgiving, but the higher ranks are more challenging. Pinnacle, for example, has a 20,000 score target and loss penalty, so you stand to gain just as much as you lose. However, you can earn much more bonus points, so completing map events will be even more important. You could get away with just looting and escaping in Bronze, but you’ll be forced to take part in dangerous events as you move higher up the ranks.

Marathon Ranked rewards

At the end of each season, you’ll earn unique Ranked rewards based on the highest rank you achieved during that period. In other words, don’t worry if you start losing rank, and your final position is lower than you achieved.

You’ll get a Ranked emblem matching the highest rank you achieved, as well as the following items during Season 1:

You’ll also earn loot bundles containing gear and locked room keys at each new rank you reach, similar to the faction rank-up packages.

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