Bungie released a detailed breakdown of Marathon‘s networking and security infrastructure on February 22, 2026, just days before the Server Slam begins. The announcement made it clear that the studio considers a fair competitive environment non-negotiable for the extraction shooter genre.
The blog confirms the availability of fully dedicated, authoritative servers. It also confirms a multi-layered anti-cheat stack and a zero-tolerance permaban policy for anyone caught cheating.
1. Dedicated Server Authority
Marathon‘s first and most foundational layer of protection is its fully authoritative dedicated server model. This is a significant departure from how many online games handle validation.
In Marathon, the server has final say over movement, shooting, actions, and every item in a player’s inventory.
What this means in practice is that invalid client actions are rejected outright before they can affect other players in the match.
Exploits that rely on feeding false data to the server, such as teleporting, unlimited ammo, or damage manipulation, cannot function under this model. This is because the server never trusts the client’s claims about what it has done.
Dedicated Server Networking details.
2. Fog of War: Stopping Wall Hacks and ESP Cheats
One of the most technically significant anti-cheat tools in Marathon is its server-side Fog of War system. This system directly addresses the two most damaging exploit categories in extraction shooters: wall hacks and ESP cheats (loot revealers).
How Fog of War Works
Marathon‘s Fog of War runs on the game server itself rather than the client. As a result, it limits the regions of a map that each player’s client actually receives data about to only what that player can realistically sense from their current position.
The critical implication is that a hacked client has nothing to exploit. Traditional wall hacks and ESP cheats work by reading map and player position data that the client already holds but is supposed to hide from the user.
However, under Marathon‘s Fog of War, that data is never sent to the client in the first place, so there is nothing for cheat software to reveal.
This approach protects against:
- Wall hacks: Seeing enemy player positions through geometry.
- ESP cheats: Tracking all players on the map in real time.
- Loot revealers: Seeing every piece of gear on the map through walls and containers.
Fog of War details.
3. Zero Tolerance Permaban Policy
Bungie is taking a harder stance on cheating than almost any other major multiplayer game at launch: anyone found cheating will be permanently banned from Marathon, with no second chances. This policy also extends to cheat developers, not just users.
This stands in direct contrast to competitors like ARC Raiders, which operates on a controversial three-strike system that allows offenders to return after a 30-day ban on the first offense, a 60-day ban on the second, and only a permanent ban on the third.
Bungie’s single-strike permanent policy removes the possibility of players testing the system with a throwaway run, knowing they can simply wait out a suspension.
Bungie acknowledged that no security system is perfect and confirmed it will have an appeals system in place to monitor for false positives or detection errors, ensuring that legitimate players who are incorrectly flagged have a pathway to resolution.
Rook Shell taking down an enemy.
4. Connection Recovery and Economic Security
Beyond anti-cheat, Bungie’s security blog also addressed two concerns specific to the extraction genre: what happens if you disconnect mid-run, and how your vault is protected from duplication exploits.
Reconnection During a Live Run
If you crash or lose your connection while on a run, your Runner shell remains in the game world rather than being removed or killed instantly. Your crew can protect your idle shell while you reconnect.
Once your network is restored, you can relaunch the game and reconnect to your active run to finish it.
If the disconnection stems from a Bungie server or network infrastructure failure rather than your own connection, and recovery is not possible, Bungie will attempt to return your starting gear to all affected players.
Importantly, Bungie specified that gear refunds only apply to server-side error conditions and will not cover losses caused by your own internet connectivity or client crashes.
Connection Recovery and Economic Security.
Vault and Economic Protection
Over time, players will accumulate significant gear in their vaults, and Bungie stated it takes that investment seriously. The studio plans to actively monitor for and prevent item duplication exploits and other economic cheats that could devalue loot progression or give certain players an unfair inventory advantage.
5. Reporting and Ongoing Investment
For anything that does slip through during the Server Slam or after launch, Bungie has in-game reporting tools and a dedicated online report form at safety.bungie.net for flagging suspected cheating and poor behavior.
Bungie framed this security effort as an ongoing, live-service commitment rather than a one-time implementation, promising frequent updates to networking technologies and security measures as the competitive landscape evolves.
Battle in the swamp.
