Marathon Factions Guide

Marathon Factions Guide Quick Summary:

• There are six factions: CyAc, NuCal, Traxus, MIDA, Arachne, and SekGen.
• CyberAcme upgrades your Vault space and Heat regeneration.
• NuCal upgrades stats that let you survive better and unlocks Patch Kits and Shield Charges for purchase.
• Traxus main appeal is a ton of guns and mods you unlock when upgrading their faction.
• MIDA unlocks a variety of grenades and equipment.
• Arachne increases your melee damage and helps with survival. They also sell guns that pack a punch.
• SekGen grants you a variety of Runner Cores when upgrading their faction.

Looking to upgrade Factions and get a ton of rewards along the way? It’s gonna take a long time. Not with our Marathon Faction Rank Boost! Choose any Faction you need and skip the grind.

 

 

 

How to Upgrade Marathon Factions

With six factions present in the game, it can be really difficult to understand what to focus on when upgrading them. Considering that each season lasts for 3 months, you might not have enough time to upgrade them all, so it’d be wise to focus on specific factions that fit your playstyle. The six factions present in the game are:

• CyberAcme (CyAc)
• NuCaloric (NuCal)
• Traxus
• MIDA
• Arachne
• Sekiguchi Genetics (SekGen)

Upgrading Rep with each faction is always beneficial, but the problem lies in the fact that you should know what factions you want to be friends with, as it can take quite a while to figure out how you want to approach the game. Factions not only give you randomised loot from their Rank Up rewards, but also let you trade and barter with them for specific weapons, Cores, and Implants that are always in stock. Let’s go over each of them. By the end of the article, you’ll have a pretty good idea which factions are better for you.

CyberAcme All Faction Upgrades

CyAc’s contracts are, for the most part, fetch quests that serve as a sort of tutorial for new players. This faction focuses on quality-of-life stuff that indirectly helps your survival in runs. It’s the easiest function to level up. Here’s what actions give you reputation with CyberAcme:

• Runs (even just starting a run)
• Exfils
• Activating TADs (Area Scans revealing hostiles)
• Participating in the Intercept event

I recommend upgrading this faction first, or at least focus on their upgrades first, since they expand your Vault and also decrease your Heat generation, as well as extend your Heat gauge. Below is a list of some of the important CyberAcme upgrades:

• Vault size increase
• Heat improvement
• Looting upgrades
• Ability to buy Enhanced and Deluxe gear from the CyAc shop.
• VIP upgrades let you make less noise when looting and reduce the Heat generated by your dash slide.

As you progress through the upgrade tree, you’ll start unlocking Capstones, which are powerful upgrades that the faction provides. Here are all CyberAcme Capstones:

Capstone Tier	What It Gives
1	Increased credits for finishing contracts.
2	+20% Rep gain for exfiltration with CyAc treasures.
3	The Advanced CyAc Sponsored Kit is available for purchase.
4	ROOK starts with some credits in his pocket.
5	Superior backpacks are available for purchase in CyAc’s Armory.
6	Rook starts with a Deluxe backpack.

The Rank Rewards in CyberAcme typically provide you with ammo, Torso Implants, and backpacks of various rarity. The higher you rank with the faction, the better rewards you get.

Each Shell benefits a lot from this faction, but Thief and Vandal will work the best.

NuCaloric All Faction Upgrades

NuCal’s contracts are pretty similar to those of CyAc’s and are the second faction in the list. Their quests usually ask you to retrieve something. Their upgrades focus on increasing your survivability and consumables. Gaining their Rep is mostly done through looting:

• Looting Med Cabinets and Tick Nests.
• Harvesting Plants.
• Participating in Supply Drops.
• Exfiling NuCal treasures.

If you worry about your survival and taking damage from various sources of damage except for physical, you should upgrade this faction asap. Some of the NuCaloric faction upgrades are:

• Daily free Patch Kits and Shield Charges.
• Unlocking Shields for purchasing.
• Unlocking Implants for purchasing.
• Damage Reduction stats improvement (Firewall, Hardware, etc.)
• VIP unlock lowers the time you need to apply Patches and Shield Charges.

The next thing is their Capstones. As all factions, they have six of them:

Capstone Level	What It Gives
1	ROOK starts runs with Patch Kit and Shield Charge, and you can barter with NuCal for Deluxe salvage.
2	+20% rep gain for exfiling with NuCal treasures.
3	Unlocks NuCal's Advanced Sponsored Kit and allows bartering for Superior salvage.
4	A small chance to keep self-revive upon usage.
5	Make less noise when healing.
6	You can now buy Superior Shield Implants in their Armory and barter for Prestige Salvage.

Rank rewards grant consumables, NuCal salvage, and Implants. Shells that want to max out the NuCaloric faction are Destroyer and Triage.

Traxus All Faction Upgrades

Traxus is an industrial military complex that masquerades as a mining company. According to the lore, they’re the biggest human corporation. Their contracts send you on risky operations, typically requiring you to activate alarms and fight off the enemies. Gaining Reputation with Traxus, in my opinion, is the hardest:

• Looting Arms Lockers, Tool Carts, and Transport Drones.
• Destroying UESC Drones.
• Completing Convoy and Lockdown Events.
• Exfilling with TRAXUS treasures.

That third point seems pretty daunting, but maybe I just don’t have enough experience with these events. If you want to get some of the best weapons in the game, this faction is for you. Their upgrades unlock guns and gun mods for purchase and extend ping duration and TAD longevity. VIP unlock lets you buy Deluxe weapon chip mods. The six Traxus Capstones are:

Capstone Level	What It Gives
1	ROOK starts with an enhanced weapon, and you can trade for Deluxe salvage.
2	+20% rep gain for Traxus treasures.
3	Unlocks Traxus Advanced Sponsored Kit, and you can barter for Superior salvage.
4	Traxus standard contracts award a weapon mod along with other rewards.
5	Deluxe weapons are available for purchase in the Armory.
6	Unlocks Superior weapon mods, and you can barter for Prestige salvage.

The Rank Rewards grant weapon chip mods, Traxus weapons, and Traxus salvage. Traxus is an obvious choice for Recon, as it makes her pings last longer and synchronizes with her Core that extends the TAD duration. Tbh, it’s generally a good faction to max out, mostly due to their guns.

MIDA All Faction Upgrades

Watches Mr. Robot once. JK, but the writing for this faction is so cheesy in all honesty. As MIDA is more of a movement than a corpo, their contracts are all about sabotaging, destruction, and vandalism. You gain MIDA Rep from:

• Looting Lockboxes and Munitions Crates.
• Finding coordinates and looting caches.
• Completing Secured Resource events.
• Exfilling with MIDA treasures.

Their upgrades center around explosives. Other upgrades include:

• Implants
• Agility boost
• VIP upgrades grant Cardio Kick effect at the start of the run and launching a Smoke Cloud when exfiling.

Like all other factions, MIDA has six Capstones. I’d say their Capstones aren’t worth maxing out, unless you really like grenades:

Capstone Level	What It Gives
1	ROOK starts a run with a stack of claymores, and you can barter for Deluxe Salvage.
2	+20% rep gain for MIDA treasures.
3	Unlocks MIDA Advanced Sponsored Kit, and you can barter for Superior Salvage.
4	MIDA standard contracts now award a grenade or a gadget.
5	Bubble Shields can now be purchased from the Armory.
6	You can disarm claymore mines and barter for Prestige Salvage with MIDA.

While most Capstones are all kind of the same, MIDA lets you disarm claymores, which is… I wouldn’t say it’s frequently useful. Claymores are usually easy to spot and are set at an angle that makes it hard to disarm them. Rank rewards include equipment, MIDA Salvage, and Leg Implants. I have a hard time recommending MIDA to any specific Shell, unless you want to, for I don’t know, ideological reasons?

 

 

Arachne All Faction Upgrades

A literal Death Cult with some crazy influence, it seems. In my humble opinion, the easiest faction to max. Gaining Rep with them is a question of how ready you are to attack another Runner:

• Looting Runners.
• Downing Runners with precision damage.
• Killing Runners with finishers.
• Exfilling Arachne's valuables.

You’re gonna be fighting other Runners every raid. This is not ARC Raiders, even though it has a voice chat. Dying is fast and inevitable. Killing is too. I haven’t even tried to complete any of the Arachne contracts yet, but I’m level 6 in their faction already. Their upgrades unlock heavy-damaging weapons and mods for them. Other unlockables are:

• Melee damage, Finisher Siphon, and Revive Speed increase.
• Implants
• VIP upgrades let you restore your health from knife attacks and reduce your heat after eliminating an enemy.

And their six Capstones are also really decent for survival and aggressive play:

Capstone Level	What It Gives
1	ROOK starts a run with implants, and you can barter with Arachne for Deluxe salvage.
2	+20% rep gain from Arachne treasures.
3	Arachne Advanced Sponsored Kit is available for purchase in the Armory, and you can barter for Superior salvage.
4	ROOK starts runs with a damaged WSTR Shotgun and MIPS rounds (damaged weapon disappears after the run).
5	Reviving a teammate grants healing over time that stops upon taking damage.
6	Unlocks Superior Retaliator Lmg, WSTR Shotgun, and Ares RG in the Armory. You can also barter wares for Prestige salvage.

Their Rank rewards are non-chip weapon mods, Arachne Salvage, and Arachne weapons. Their upgrades are best for Assassin, Recon, Triage, and Destroyer.

Sekiguchi Genetics All Faction Upgrades

SekGen contracts revolve around damaging yourself and surviving under harsh, negative conditions. This corporation is the one that creates Shells with their weavers, so you unlock lots and lots of Cores in their upgrade tree. Here’s how to gain Rep with Sekiguchi:

• Looting Bioprinters, Core Storage, and Crash Carts.
• Defeating UESC Wardens.
• Participating in Anomalous Extraction events.
• Exfilling SekGen treasures.

Apart from Shell Cores, their upgrades include Energy Amp unlocks, prime ability cooldown reduction, and increasing the time it takes to bleed out when downed. Their Capstones are one of the best if you want a consistent source of Cores, especially higher rarity ones:

Capstone Level	What It Gives
1	ROOK starts with runner cores equipped, and you can barter for Deluxe Salvage.
2	+20% rep gained from SekGen treasures.
3	Unlocks Sekiguchi Advanced Sponsored Kit, and lets you barter for Superior salvage.
4	Standard SekGen contracts award you with Cores.
5	ROOK gains the effects of Signal Mask after activating an exfil.
6	Unlocks Superior runner cores in the Armory and lets you barter for Prestige salvage.

Rank rewards get you Cores, Sekiguchi salvage, and Head Implants. I highly recommend every Runner upgrading this faction, as Cores are really strong. They’re a cornerstone of all builds, along with Implants.

 

 

Marathon Faction Upgrade Cheat Sheet

Keeping everything in mind can be hard, especially when you’re trying to upgrade multiple factions at once. For this, I’ve found this cheat sheet, taken from this Reddit post. It’s not the best quality in this article, so refer to the full version available by clicking the link. What’s cool about this cheat sheet is that it gives you an exact amount of salvage and credits you need for a full upgrade of the faction. Let me add a couple of Marathon faction upgrade tips:

1. Focus on one upgrade at a time. Though it might seem better to try collecting everything, you’ll find yourself with overflown Vault very fast.
2. Don’t be afraid to sell rarer salvage. You won’t find use to it until much later in the game, and credits are much more important initially.
3. Add salvage to your wishlist. It’s easier to track it this way than to memorize each salvage you need. Moreover, if you open the map, the locations with needed loot will be marked with an eye icon.
4. Use your map. When hovering over a location, press Y or Triangle, depending on the console. It’ll show you on the right what loot might be found here.
5. Always prioritize events or special drops. If you’re lucky enough to find a Coordinate Datapad or a location key, try to use it. IDK if it’s a bug or intentional, but I wasn’t able to carry out a location key from the run.

Welp, that’s basically it. Final recommendation I can give you: if you are intent on finding rarer salvage, make it your run’s goal. In extraction shooters, it’s essential to learn how to prioritize your goals. It’s hard to learn to do that without getting distracted by tons of opportunities during the run, but stay focused, and you’ll have much better results.

Read our other Marathon guides:

• Best Settings
• Beginner's Guide

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