Marathon All Trophies Guide: How to Unlock Every Achievement

2.2 Early Game Trophies

The first handful of trophies unlock within your first few sessions and require no deliberate grinding. They serve as an introduction to Marathon‘s core loop, and a couple of them gate access to systems you will need for every other trophy on the list.

Welcome to Tau Ceti

Complete or skip your initial run to unlock this trophy. Playing the full tutorial is strongly recommended if you are new to extraction shooters.

• Complete: Finish the tutorial run for the trophy and keep all starter inventory items.
• Skip: Choose “Leave Game” in the pause menu to skip, but you will forfeit the starter rewards.
• The tutorial covers core mechanics: contracts, looting, and Exfil points.

Welcome to Tau Ceti contract.

This is Marathon

Earned the first time your shell dies during a match. No special setup needed; it will come naturally.

Everything Runs on CyberAcme

Awarded for finishing the first Priority Contract for the CyberAcme Faction. This is a two-part contract requiring you to visit a specific location and scan an item.

• Completing this contract is one of the most important early steps in the game.
• It unlocks access to all remaining Factions, which are required for several later trophies.

2.3 Cumulative Combat Trophies

Combat trophies in Marathon track your total eliminations across all matches and build up passively through regular play. Knowing which enemies to prioritize and where to find them will push these along faster than treating them as afterthoughts.

Antiestablishment

Eliminate a total of 147 UESC units to unlock this trophy. The UESC is the main AI-controlled enemy faction, present on every map in large numbers.

• Found concentrated around major landmarks and inside buildings.
• They are the most common enemies in the game; this count fills naturally.
• Any UESC unit type counts toward the total.

Looting a Supply Crate.

RIP UESC

Eliminate a total of 28 UESC Commanders. These are the heavily armored elite variants of the standard UESC units and require a more deliberate approach.

How to identify Commanders:

• Purple overshields when shot.
• Green/yellow square armor plates are mounted behind their shoulders.

Commander variants you will encounter:

• Assault, Grenadier, Ghost, and Scout.

Each variant behaves differently, so do not expect the same fight twice. Before engaging, clear any surrounding standard UESC units to avoid being flanked while the Commander uses grenades or status effect attacks.

End Run

Eliminate a total of 14 rival Runners, meaning actual players killed during matches. This is the hardest trophy on the list and demands active PvP engagement.

• A kill counts when the opponent fully dies, either from their revive timer expiring or from you finishing them off.
• Marathon‘s time-to-kill is fast, so the player who shoots first often wins.
• Surprising enemies is the most reliable approach; avoid open-ground fights whenever possible.
• The Assassin Shell’s invisibility makes repositioning and ambushing significantly easier.

Exfiltration rewards.

2.4 Looting and Run Trophies

These trophies reward consistent play habits and a willingness to keep showing up match after match. Developing strong looting instincts early pays dividends across several of these at once.

Jackpot

Loot a total of 777 containers spread across all maps. Containers hold various items and are found throughout the game world.

• Containers already opened by other players can still be searched if any items remain inside.
• Empty containers cannot be interacted with.
• Search every container as a default habit, even when not in combat; it adds up faster than it seems.

Run Executable

Complete a total of 21 runs. Both deaths and successful exfils count toward the total.

This will almost certainly unlock on its own well before most other trophies, simply from regular play.

Activating an Exfil.

Run, Repeat

Successfully exfil 7 times by leaving a match through an Exfil point. Here is how Exfil points work:

• Points become available roughly every 5 minutes after a match starts.
• At any given time, there are two standard points and one guarded point on the map.
• Activate a point, wait around 45 seconds, then stand in the circle for 10 seconds to complete the exfil.
• Guarded Exfil points always spawn a group of AI enemies, including a Commander, when triggered. Clear the area or be ready to fight before activating one.

Sign Here

Complete a total of 35 Contracts from any Faction vendor. Both contract types count:

• Priority Contracts: Story-related missions with set objectives, larger XP rewards, and Faction unlocks. Complete these first whenever they are available.
• Repeatable Contracts: Randomly generated objectives that can be completed indefinitely. These can be re-rolled with Credits if the current objective does not suit your session.

Always have an active contract during a match. If no Priority Contract is available for the current map, activate a Repeatable one so every run counts toward Sign Here.

NuCaloric and Traxus introduction contracts.

2.5 Faction and Season Trophies

These three trophies represent the most time-intensive goals in Marathon. Building toward them gradually throughout every session, rather than treating them as an end-game push, is the most efficient approach.

Reliable Asset

Reach VIP status with any single Faction. At launch, the maximum Faction level is 30, which appears to be the VIP threshold.

Ways to increase Faction rank:

• Completing Contracts for that specific Faction.
• Performing specific in-match actions, such as looting certain container types or defeating certain enemies.

To see exactly which actions contribute to each Faction, open the Faction menu, go to the AGENT tab, and review the REPUTATION GAIN breakdown on the right side. Focus your in-match behavior around whichever Faction you want to push to VIP first.

Factions in Marathon.

Cutting Edge

Unlock a total of 7 Capstone Upgrades across any Faction skill trees. Capstone nodes sit at the bottom of each tree and unlock once you have purchased enough other nodes within the same tree.

What you need to unlock regular upgrade nodes:

• Credits (primary currency).
• Common materials such as Unstable Diodes and Gunmetal.
• A minimum Faction rank for each node.

Use the material tracking feature inside the skill tree to highlight where required materials drop during matches. This removes the need to manually remember farming locations.

Seasoned Veteran

Earn a cumulative total of 100 Season Levels. This is the longest single grind in the entire trophy list.

Actions that contribute to Season Level progress:

• Finishing runs (both deaths and exfils count).
• Killing enemies during matches.
• Collecting loot throughout a run.

Your first 10 runs each week grant an extra 50 XP plus a 50% bonus on all XP earned during those runs. Never waste these bonus runs; they are the single most efficient way to push Season Level forward each week.

Each in-game Season is expected to last around 3 months. It is currently unconfirmed until Season 2 whether the 100 levels must be earned within a single season or count cumulatively across multiple seasons.

CyberAcme upgrades.

3. Tips for Earning All Trophies Faster

Reaching Platinum in Marathon is a long journey, but smart session planning and consistent habits can considerably reduce the time it takes. These tips target the most time-consuming trophies specifically and help you stack progress across multiple goals at once.

• Weekly bonus runs: The first 10 runs each week grant a 50% XP bonus and 50 additional XP. Always complete these before the weekly reset to maximize Seasoned Veteran progress.
• Guarded Exfils for Commander farming: Guarded Exfil points spawn a Commander every time they are activated. Triggering these regularly is one of the most reliable and repeatable methods for building kills toward RIP UESC.
• Track upgrade materials: Enable material tracking inside Faction skill trees to highlight drop locations during matches. This keeps Cutting Edge progress moving without stopping to grind specific areas manually.
• Priority Contracts first: Always activate a Priority Contract when one is available. They deliver larger XP rewards, unlock Faction features, and push Reliable Asset progress faster than Repeatable Contracts.
• Never skip containers: Jackpot requires 777 loot and is a pure numbers game. Searching every container as a default habit during each run means you will hit the target without ever needing a dedicated farming session.
• Use invisibility for PvP: The Assassin Shell’s invisibility ability is especially useful when hunting rival Runners for End Run. It allows you to reposition, disengage, and re-engage on your own terms during PvP encounters.

Exfiltration complete.