Marathon Arachne Faction: Priority Contracts & Leveling

If you’re addicted to the runner-on-runner bloodshed of the world of Tau Ceti IV, Arachne is the faction for you. With a focus on Machine Guns, Shotguns, Railguns, and general PvP, levelling up Arachne is going to be important if your goal on Tau Ceti IV is to take on other runners and bring death to their front door.

While maybe not as essential as some of the other factions, Arachne provides some great upgrades and is your main way of obtaining the WSTR Shotgun from the Armory, which is proving to be one of the strongest weapons in the game, among others. With this, you will want to keep an eye on boosting your Arachne reputation as you play.

Luckily, Arachne merely cares about the runners on Tau Ceti IV, and so their contracts are fairly simple and usually involve some combination of killing runners and extracting with weapons and mods. So, in this guide, we’re going to go over the Arachne Contract line so you can get your Charter reputation up quickly and rise to the top.

How to Unlock the Arachne Faction

Rewards:

• 1x WSTR Combat Shotgun
• 4x Random Enhanced Weapon Mod
• 3x Unstable Gel
• 18x MIPS Rounds
• 1000x Credits 

CyberACME “Introducing… Arachne” Contract

First of all, before even beginning to level Arachne, you’ll need to unlock its faction section in the Factions page.  To do so, you’ll need to complete their corresponding faction contract, “Introducing… Arachne”. This will only be accessible once you’ve completed two of the other “Introducing” contracts to make space for it, so you’ll need to keep going through them until you get to Arachne.

Once you get to Arachne’s contract, it’s pretty simple. All you’ll need to do is take down a singular runner (and deal 60 damage to runners, but generally speaking, you’ll be killing two runners with one magazine of bullet-sized stones). 

This is generally something you’ll end up doing in a singular run, but if you really tend to struggle with PvP and avoid players/let your team down, it can be a bit of a learning curve at first. The most important thing about this is to learn good fundamentals while doing this — especially if you’re new to this kind of PvP. Getting used to the game system will be crucial for developing good PvP skills, and this is the time to do it.

Put on a sponsored kit, drop into Perimeter, and start focusing on the world around you. Make sure that you’re listening for bullets, footsteps, and anything else that can alert to the presence of a player. Don’t let your guard down, try not to worry about UESC, and don’t focus on looting; the loot will come from the other players you kill. Get used to the kit you’re using, too — learning the recoil patterns on guns like the Bully SMG will really help you improve your time-to-kill (TTK).

Priority Contract: The Fleeting Grave

Rewards:

• 1x WSTR Combat Shotgun
• 18x MIPS Rounds

The first priority contract for Arachne will be The Fleeting Grave, in which you have to defeat 10 downed Runners with your finisher. This is an extension of the introductory contract, but the catch here is that you need to make sure you get the final blow with your finisher. This means killing specifically before they leave.

As with the last contract, make sure that you’re keeping your wits about you and making use of the practice you’ve learned so far. Importantly, anyone on your team can finish a Runner, and it’ll add to your progress, so don’t worry too much if you’re in a team of three. But, once again, make sure to finish quickly, especially if you’ve wiped the team or you’re in a solo game.

It can be easy to fixate on getting these kills over anything else, but honestly, focusing on the world is still just as important. Usually, playing a better game all around will lead to more opportunities for kills, with better gear. Until you’re confident, go in with Sponsored Kits to try to get used to the feel of weapons, and try to pick a weapon or two that you really like.

Upgrading the Arachne Faction

Once you’ve completed this Priority Contract, there are no other priority contracts for Arachne. Instead, you gain faction reputation in a few ways:

• Complete Standard Arachne Contracts: Completing Standard Arachne Contracts will give you a random Arachne weapon as well as reputation. More contracts will unlock at Faction Level 10.
• Loot Runners: Taking loot from eliminated runners will grant Arachne faction progress.
• Down Runners with Precision Damage: Downing runners with precision damage will also grant faction progress.
• Defeat Runners with Finishers: Defeating runners with Finishers will provide faction progress.
• Exfil Arachne Valuables: Certain Valuable items will be associated with the Arachne faction. Making it out of a run with one of these items will also grant progress. 

The first reason you want to look at upgrading Arachne is to unlock the ability to boost the following stats:

• REBOOT.EXE: Requires Arachne Rank 7/19/27; Increased Revive Speed.
• CUTTHROAT.EXE: Requires Arachne Rank 6/18/25; Increased Finisher Siphon.
• HARD_STRIKE: Requires Arachne Rank 5/16/22; Increased Melee Damage.

There are also a few key endgame upgrades that you should consider progressing Arachne for, especially if you enjoy PvP:

• HEAT_DEATH.EXE: Requires VIP Rank 1; Eliminating a hostile reduces your heat buildup.
• LEECH.EXE: Requires Arachne Rank 28; Knife attacks restore a small amount of health.

Otherwise, Arachne is mainly focused on LMGs, Shotguns, and Railguns. Levelling up Arachne will allow you to purchase standard, Enhanced (Green), and Deluxe (Blue) versions of the following weapons from the armory:

• Retaliator LMG (only Enhanced+): Requires Rank 10/20
• ARES RG: Requires Rank 2/15/25
• WSTR Combat Shotgun: Requires Rank 7/13/23