Marathon may still be struggling to bring new players into the fold, but for the 380K average DAUs who can’t seem to stop playing Bungie’s new extraction shooter each day, part of what is keeping those players engaged is how quickly Bungie is reacting to player feedback, and it’s rapid response time is on display once again with the game’s latest patch.

Marathon’s update 1.0.5.3 is now live for players on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and it brings with it a few bug fixes, but the most notable parts of it are the balance tweaks, and the fairly significant nerf given to one of Marathon’s most powerful weapons: your knife.

Yes, the game’s main ‘endgame’ gun, the Biotoxin Disinjector, the weapon you get as a reward for killing the Compiler at the end of a Cryo Archive run is arguably the actual most powerful weapon in Marathon, and it too got a nerf recently – but this nerf is one that actually impacts all players, not just those lucky and skilled enough to see the game’s rarest rewards.

When your weapons are unequipped, you carry a knife in one hand for melee attacks, and when Marathon launched (even before that with the Server Slam), players quickly discovered that you can actually take down other players faster with the knife, if you’re in close quarters, than with a weapon.

Players also started to recognize that it was fairly simple to create a build where your knife did an insane amount of damage to other players, and the meta quickly became swapping to your knife to take out enemies in close quarters rather than trying to pummel them with shots from your assault rifle or SMG. In fact, unless you had the WSRT Shotgun equipped, using your knife is almost always the smarter play.

Now, with Bungie’s latest patch, that meta is changing, as the maximum lunge distance for knife attacks has been reduced by 10%, and the bonus damage provided from the melee damage stat has been cut from its previous maximum of 100% to 50% against enemy Runners. Damage against UESC bots has remained unchanged, however.

“Melee in Marathon is intended to be a high-risk but potent method to contest close-quarters weapons like shotguns and submachine guns,” Bungie writes in a developer note on the melee changes. “However, the breakpoints for quick melee kills show up too early in the Melee Damage state progression, which means that players don’t require additional investment into a build to get maximum effective output. We don’t want to compromise on having melee feel powerful, but believe that getting to that maximum output should be the result of meaningful buildcrafting and upgrade progression.”

“Our goal for this change and the knife lunge changes above are that the knife remains a powerful backup tool, but requires more thoughtful play – both in and out of run – to be most effective.”

Other notable balance tweaks include a slight nerf to one of the game’s more popular gadgets, the Bubble Shield, which now has less HP and can be taken down faster by enemy players, but also no longer has a significant vulnerability to Volt-based weapons. It’s also much more resistance to damage coming from UESC bots.

Also worth mentioning is the removal of the ‘in a single run’ condition for the Traxus contract, Return on Investment 4/5, making it all the more easier to complete.

For more on Marathon, check out our hub page with all of our coverage of the game, including news, guides, and our review.

About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech’s gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry’s movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he’s done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.

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