Tarkov Just Integrated Marathon into the Normal Game

(Intro)

With the rollout of patch 0.15, one of the new mechanics that was added into the game was marathon mode; an interesting way to play Tarkov where the ability to travel to locations without going back to the stash is the main reason to try it. We don’t know how popular the mode was, or how many players interacted with it, but the few times I messed around with it, I found marathon mode to be an incredibly more interesting and immersive experience over the traditional Tarkov formula. It was a great shake-up to what we know; you had to think about so much more. Did you bring enough ammo to supply yourself for multiple maps? Do you have food and water in case you don’t find any? Is you armor going to withstand potentially multiple encounters with AI and other players? If you went into marathon mode, sure you could back out at any time and take a normal extract out, but many want to challenge themselves by either extracting from each map without dying, or starting with nothing and seeing how far you could take it. Overall, I would say the reception to the mode was positive, and the community generally welcomed the additional mode of play. What they’ve done recently in a smaller update, is remove the marathon mode, but inject it directly into the normal mode of Tarkov play. Now, anyone at any time can use the transit points to get from one map to another. And there’s more of them! But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. They made map to map travel actually possible in normal Tarkov, and I am very excited to start using it going forward.

(What was wrong with Marathon Mode, now fixed)

The biggest complaint I had with marathon mode personally, was the fact that if you wanted to play in that style, you had to start at Ground Zero every single time which really sucked. That map is quite a struggle to get off from because if you are over level twenty, you are in a lobby with people that are also higher leveled. And considering it only had one point of transit to take you onto Streets, it made starting a proper marathon mode attempt very challenging. But luckily, BSG was either paying attention to feedback or this was just how they wanted because now every map has at least one point to move to another map. And to add to this newfound sauce, each transit point only takes one minute to open up, instead of the seven minutes it took before. Which to be fair, was only a problem again, on ground zero. That map just sucks to play. Love the design and how much attention to detail they added for beginner players with all the signs and context clues scattered around the map. But playing it in practice, it’s rough.

(Everyone can use them, even player scavs)

What was really quite a nice surprise with marathon becoming a part of normal Tarkov is that it’s not available to just PMCs. Even player scavs can use them to get from one map to another if they can’t find any desirable loot. Which is something I never thought was going to happen. It’s almost cooler than being able to use them on your PMC, but we’ll get to why that isn’t the case in a moment. But with that level of freedom being opened up to all players including player scavs, it really does allow people to craft narratives and stories regardless of how they enjoy the game. What this also gets me thinking about is how BSG might one day remove the ability to choose what map you scav on. We’ve talked about those implications in a previous video, and while initially that seems like a really bad idea, if you can just transit from one map you don’t want to be on to where you actually wanted to go, that gives more incentive to use them mechanic altogether. It also might allow scav cooldowns to be reduced by a significant amount; if you want to go to Customs, but you start on streets, you’ll need to work your way there. This does two things: it keeps you in the game for longer. You'll spend less time in loading screens if you try to maximize whatever map the game decided to put you on before going to another one. Even if you just make a b-line to the Customs’ transit point, it means that player scavs will need to put in some work to get to their desired map. Instead of just always going to Streets or whatever their preferred map to play on is. This addition has some large implications that we might be feeling in the future, and I am excited to see if they evolve or iterate on this mechanic further.

(What’s the benefit to using transit points?)

The biggest challenge that marathon had to overcome was the reason to engage with it in the first place. There wasn’t a tangible incentive to play marathon other than the uniqueness of it or for some kind of challenge playthrough. Sure, there were a bunch of new quests that were introduce alongside the new mode, with some better than average rewards for completion, but even something as simple as an exp boost would’ve given players a reason to play more than once or twice. Luckily, that has since been changed. Now, depending on how many times you transit to other maps, you will get a modifier at the end when you do finally extract. As far as I know, this multiplayer stacks up to seventeen raids in a row without dying. Why this number? I have no idea, but there is plenty of wiggle room to try and squeeze another raid in before leaving just to get a little bit more experience out of the whole ordeal. But again, this is what marathon mode was lacking; a clear, understandable, and enticing reason to play the mode, or in this case, use the transit points. What this also allows for is even more efficient stacking of quests on top of each other. In the background footage, I completed Lost Contact for Therapist, Energy Crisis for Mechanic, used the transit point to head over to Woods, and then from there completed Lend Lease – Part 1 for Skier. All without having to go back to my stash. It’s actually amazing; and that was just one-use case. I can only imagine the creativity and routing people will be able to figure out later on the more they play with the transit points. Imagine being able to complete a quest or two on three or even four maps without having to go to your stash in between all of them. It sounds like such a minor thing, but there is a level or immersion and satisfaction with not having to pause in between all these quests from different vendors. What would truly make this the best feature in the game, would be if we had the ability to complete a quest, go to a transit point, turn that quest in and then accept a new one that was on the same map. Imagine how much more efficient you could be getting through most of Peacekeeper’s quest on Shoreline? He has a string of quests that boil down to get the thing and get out. How awesome would it be to grab a quest item, turn it in at a transit point, accept the next one but still be in the raid without having to sit through multiple loading screens? That is such a tall order and a big ask, but the thought of being able to stay in one raid and complete tons of quests for that map makes me so excited, even if we might never truly see that come into the game.

(Outro)

The direct injection of the marathon mode into normal Tarkov was a fantastic idea. The transit points are there; you don’t have to engage with them if you don’t want to. They only take a minute to activate and because there are usually more than one, there is little fear about being killed while waiting for the timer to hit zero. It just adds another dynamic to the game that it kind of desperately needed. This will make the late game for Tarkov feel more interesting because people will be more willing to run multiple raids in a row without returning to the stash. But having the option to leave as a last resort is always nice to have. I am going to be trying to take advantage of this mechanic now and especially when we reset again at the end of the year (I’d imagine). And I would encourage everyone to try and map out a route that you can take and give marathon a whirl in the normal Tarkov game. You might find your second wind to keep playing the game if you’re one of those who tends to stop playing after the first month or two. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below if you have used any of the transit locations to go to another map and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the new features in Tarkov that have tons of potential but might never get fully flushed out. I hope to see you in future ones.