Three days into Marathon and the most common question in every LFG channel is not about weapons or maps. It is about factions. Bungie’s extraction shooter locks five of its six factions behind a gated progression system that is not immediately obvious, and the unlock order you choose quietly shapes how the rest of your entire season plays out.
Here is everything you need to know about getting all six factions open, what each one actually does for your Runner, and why your early decisions matter more than they first appear.
The unlock path starts with CyberAcme
When you first drop into Tau Ceti IV, only one faction is available: CyberAcme, often shortened to CyAc. This is intentional. CyAc functions as your tutorial faction, teaching you how contracts work, how reputation accumulates, and where to spend credits. Do not skip past it. The upgrades here are foundational, things like expanded vault space, heat capacity increases, faster ability cooldowns, and wallet upgrades that benefit every run regardless of your playstyle.
Before any other faction becomes accessible, you must complete CyAc’s two “Welcome to Tau Ceti” Priority Contracts. The first sends you to the Perimeter map to eliminate three UESC enemies and scan an FTL array at a radio tower. The second requires sabotaging a Relay by interacting with an orange power station on the rooftop of either Relay location, marked with a yellow objective indicator.
Once both are done, a new category of contracts appears: Liaison Contracts, each one labeled “Introducing:” followed by a faction name. Complete the Liaison Contract and that faction unlocks permanently. One contract, one successful extraction, one new faction. No grinding required for the unlock itself.
All six factions and what they actually specialize in
The faction system is not cosmetic. Each one pushes you toward a different playstyle and offers a distinct upgrade tree that applies permanent stat bonuses for the remainder of the current season. Those bonuses stack across factions, meaning players who spread their reputation across multiple factions end up with stronger overall Runners than those who tunnel-vision one.
| Faction | Focus | Key Upgrades | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| CyberAcme | Utility and survivability | Vault space, cooldowns, heat capacity, credit wallet | Everyone (start here) |
| NuCaloric | Exploration and healing | Shield access, recovery stats, free daily supplies | Solo players, survivalists |
| Traxus | Weapons and asset recovery | Weapon mods, attachments, TAD/ping upgrades | Loot-focused players, snipers |
| MIDA | Sabotage and destruction | Explosives, traps, agility boosts, implants | Aggressive area denial |
| Arachne | PvP kills and combat | Damage upgrades, combat uptime, finisher siphon | Squad PvP hunters |
| Sekiguchi | Research and recovery | Ability cooldowns, base stats after respawn, cores | Players who die a lot (honestly) |
Which factions to unlock first
You can unlock all five locked factions in any order, but that does not mean the order is irrelevant. Smart sequencing gives you a meaningful advantage by mid-season.
Unlock NuCaloric early. The Shielded upgrade, which lets you purchase Enhanced Shields from NuCal’s Armory, solves one of Marathon’s most persistent early-game problems: shield scarcity. Combine it with the Safeguard and Restore daily freebies for Shield Charges and Patch Kits, and your survival rate improves immediately.
CyberAcme upgrades should stay active throughout. Even after unlocking other factions, keep investing in CyAc’s tree. The Flex_Matrix.exe heat management upgrade alone is worth the credits, and the inventory expansion compounds across every single run.
Traxus and MIDA can wait until you have a preferred weapon class. Traxus unlocks weapon mods and attachments that are most valuable once you have identified which guns you want to build around. MIDA’s explosives and traps are powerful but situational. Neither is urgent in week one.
Arachne is high reward but high risk. Its contracts require hunting other Runners in high-traffic zones. If you are still learning the maps, Arachne’s contract requirements will get you killed more than they will progress your reputation. Save it for when you know the sightlines.
Sekiguchi is underrated. Its ability cooldown reductions and post-respawn stat improvements make every death slightly less punishing. For solo Runners especially, Sekiguchi provides a safety net that the other factions do not.
How contracts and reputation actually work
You can only carry one active contract per run. That means every drop is a deliberate choice about which faction you are progressing. Contracts come in two types: Standard Contracts are repeatable and offer moderate reputation, while Priority Contracts are one-time missions with larger reputation payouts and narrative significance. Priority Contracts are also how you unlock Codex entries, Marathon’s primary lore delivery system.
Reputation feeds directly into a faction’s Rank meter. Higher ranks unlock superior seasonal upgrades that must then be purchased with Credits and Salvage. If you are playing in a crew, contract progress is shared and crew members earn faction reputation from each other’s completions.
Some factions also grant passive reputation for specific in-game actions. Harvesting plants earns NuCaloric rep. Looting dead Runners earns Arachne rep. These bonuses are small but they add up across a full season.
The seasonal reset changes how you plan
All faction reputation resets at the start of each new season, roughly every three months. Season 1, “Death is the First Step,” runs from March 5 through June 2026. When Season 2 arrives, your upgrade trees wipe clean.
This is by design. It prevents permanent power gaps between veterans and newcomers, keeps the meta from calcifying, and gives Bungie room to rebalance without invalidating entire playstyles. Cosmetics, Codex entries, and faction unlocks themselves carry over. Your reputation and upgrades do not.
The practical takeaway: front-load your faction investment. Upgrades earned in week one pay dividends across every remaining run in the season. Waiting until mid-season to start seriously ranking factions means you are playing at a statistical disadvantage for weeks.
Pick your contract before you queue. Never drop into Tau Ceti IV without one active. And if you are still not sure which faction fits your style, start with CyAc and NuCal, learn the maps, and let the game show you what kind of Runner you actually are before committing to the specialist factions.
Which faction are you grinding first this season, and has the seasonal reset structure changed how you think about long-term progression in extraction shooters?
