The culture war between ARC Raiders and Marathon began not long before Marathon released, thanks to the removal of PvP-related stuff from a recent patch. Then came Marathon’s Server Slam, and by god the TTK is brutal.

The game’s dichotomy still shines bright nearly a month after it originally took place. Bungie has announced that ranked mode is coming to Marathon, though it will be in a limited light testing phase during a long weekend.

“Ranked mode is in beta for Season 1, and as a feature that’s still in development, we’re looking for substantial feedback from you all to continue shaping Ranked mode into the best version it can be,” devs announced.

The mode goes into testing from March 21 at 10:00 AM PT – March 24 at 10:00 AM PT. But it will likely be a permanent mode when it’s properly released in Season 2 and beyond.

How Ranked Mode works in Marathon

Access granted. You have found your way to the Marathon. The ice around Cryo Archive cracks and groans.
It seems nothing can stop you from getting in.
It will be interesting to see if you can get out.
10 AM PT, March 20, 2026 pic.twitter.com/zeji0p7JNA

— NULL//TRANSMIT.ERR (@MarathonTheGame) March 19, 2026

When you play it, expect it to be quite serious. The mode requires you to risk high-value loot deliberately and extract with even more cash to get rewarded for it. It’s a place where loot is going to go to die, so prepare your best starter loadout and be on your A game to beat it. There’s two queues, which really reflect the stakes going in, which are:

Low Stakes Queue (Ranked)

• Minimum gear ante: 3,000
• Minimum Holotag tier: Bronze

High Stakes Queue (Ranked+)

• Minimum gear ante: 10,000
• Minimum Holotag tier: Platinum

As you can see, that’s some serious mileage you need to run. Bungie describes 3k ante as around a green shield and a few blue pieces on your loadout. It’s about the common level loadout you’ll find on Black Marsh, for example, or Perimeter if you’ve been lucky to get good loot.

Holotags are a new item that allows you to queue for ranked, requiring you to spend Credits to get different tiers. They range between 500 for Bronze, increasing by 250 to Gold, then 500 increments for Platinum and Diamond, then an extra 1500 for Pinnacle tags.

 It’s a sign you’re going to really need to manage your inventory and progression with the progression update, alongside getting tags for ranked. Especially if you end up dying a lot.

It’s a sign of how Marathon is really differentiating itself from competitors, with ARC Raiders looking more like the casual side by the day. To some extent, high-risk ranked mode queues like this even make Tarkov Lab runs look scary. Bungie really has found a corner in the market for the more competitive player, never mind the hardcore extraction player, with the way it is designed so far.

How Ranked points work

In order to climb the ranked mode, you need to meet certain requirements based on whether you’re in low-stakes or high-stakes queues.

• You have a score target set by your team’s Holotag values
• Loot valuable items to get score
• Once you reach your score target, exfil to get Rated Points
• If you exfil before you hit your target, you don’t get Rated Points
• If you die, you lose Rated Points based on your team’s Holotag values
• You can get bonus Rated Points, aka overperformance capacity, by looting enemy players’ Holotags or collecting Tag Chips from UESC and map events

Players who participate can earn end-of-season ranked rewards, often including gun skins, styles per ranked tier, titles, and even a runner shell style.

If you’re curious, there’s a pretty in-depth blog of how the full thing works. It’s certainly interesting how they plan the test date for the next week.