Marathon CyberAcme Faction Guide: Contract & Leveling

Bungie’s newest adventure has finally arrived, and as players flock to Tau Ceti to discover its secrets, the Factions in Marathon are offering Priority contracts to reward you with great loot to help you battle your way through this mysterious world. 

The first Faction available is CyberAcme, and you interact with them through ONI. This is your starting point to launch you into Marathon and the gameplay loop when it comes to enhancing your Runner, upgrading your inventory, and most importantly of all, your armory. 

Unlocking CyberAcme: Welcome to Tau Ceti

CyberAcme is automatically unlocked and acts as your launch pad into Marathon’s Faction system. It’s very much a beginner’s course for the first steps into Marathon and how you interact with contracts in-game. 

You must ‘activate’ a contract for it to go LIVE. If you hover over the objectives, a side box titled ‘Objective Intel’ gives you a brief overview of its requirements, including what location (or thereabouts) you need to get to. The map screen will also show a Faction-matching coloured Contract box next to the map, which you need to visit for progress. 

Your first Contact requires two objectives:

• Defeat UESC in Perimeter
• Scan FTL Array at any UESC Radio Tower in Perimeter

These objectives can be done in one run or multiple runs, should you die halfway through. BE AWARE, some future Contracts will say ‘IN A SINGLE RUN,’ so all objectives must be ticked off, or else you start at the beginning to do it all over again. You do not need to Exfil for it to count, only if that is part of the requirements. 

 

Upon spawn, it’s time to hunt down the UESC. In short, defeat 3 robots of any rank, including the turrets you may find around the map. If it’s AI and it wants to take you down, it will count if you defeat it. Each mechanoid defeated counts as 1 point towards completing the objective. 

Once done, the next objective will unlock to scan an FTL Array. There are several around the map, and one will be highlighted immediately with a green marker on your HUD and on your map. Travel to the next destination and don’t worry if you die, the step will remain the same and appear on your HUD/Map on your next run. 

Once you reach the radio tower, follow the quest marker until you find a panel to interact with. Once complete, that is part one done. Try to Exfil, or if you die, you will return to the menu screens to claim your rewards. 

Accept your rewards, make any changes you want to your inventory, and then prepare to go in for part two of two to finish this one off. 

Activate the second part of the Contract to get started. There is only one objective here, and that is to: 

• Sabotage a UESC comms antenna at the North or South Relay

For this guide, we used the South Relay as that was the closest spawn. Running it back, both antenna areas are very similar looking, so you will still get the right idea from the image examples below. The map below shows the area where we found it, which was North of the main building. 

The antenna is hard to miss as it is a bulky, tall, orange spire-like object. Climb onto the roof to get in close to interact with it.

Once the interaction is complete, the antenna will begin to glow and produce a small explosion. That is part two complete. Proceed to Exfil to claim your rewards. Congratulations, you have completed your first Priority Contract in Marathon. 

This will now open up the introduction contracts for the other Factions for you to start working on. 

Upgrading CyberAcme

More Priority Contracts may become available in the future for CyberAcme, but there are still effective ways to level the Faction to gain access to its upgrades. You gain Faction reputation here by:

• Complete CyberAnme contracts
• Runs
• Successful exfils
• Activate TADs (Target Acquisition Devices)
• Participate in Interacept events 

CyberAcme is a great starting point for all Runners, as it adds useful enhancements to things such as Vault Space to store more loot, makes essential gear easily obtainable in the armory, and boosts Heat management. The best areas to focus on for your upgrades are:

• Scavenger.exe (Rank 1)
• Heat_Sink.exe (Rank 1)
• Expansion (Rank 3)
• Quick_Vent.exe (Rank 4)
• Enhanced Weaponry (Rank 4)

Later unlocks include items like Deluxe Backpacks to collect more loot on your runs, faster heat recovery, and even Lockbox keys for purchase, which can ensure you get some great loot on a run.

You will also notice the Capstone upgrades at the bottom of the page. These offer extra upgrades and incentives to level up the Factions. CyberAcme’s upgrades Rook, but an early one to rush to is Capstone II, which will increase Faction Rep gains for collecting CyberAcme gear on Runs.