In case you didn’t know, Marathon‘s community is in the process of solving an ARG (alternate reality game) puzzle that should unlock the Cryo Archive engame zone. With Runners working together, the puzzle has now entered its second stage.
On March 9, the Marathon community stabilized the first three cameras using terminals on Perimeter, giving us an early look at the Cryo Archive map through the Cryoarchive Systems website. On the same day, Bungie posted that a signal had been detected on Dire Marsh, informing that the terminals in that zone are now active.
The next step seems the same, except it takes place on Dire Marsh, with three more cameras to stabilize, and three pairs of terminals to link. After Dire Marsh, the next logical step is Outpost, as there are six unstable camera feeds as of now.
These are still early days for the ARG, but it should eventually unlock the endgame zone, Cryo Archive, which features “raid-like” mechanics and is supposed to be the hardest map in Marathon. It also coincides with Bungie previously mentioning that “once the community unlocks the way into orbit, the fourth zone, Cryo Archive, will become available,” hinting at a puzzle.
ARGs are nothing new to Marathon and Bungie. The concept of an ARG is about finding clues and solving puzzles across multiple platforms, and we’ve seen a few of them ahead of Marathon‘s release already. Destiny 2 also featured such puzzles, including the chess puzzle at the end of Heresy, Corridors of Time back in Season of Dawn, and more.
Marathon Cryo Archive ARG so far, explained
The ARG started with Bungie sending out an in-game mail on March 6, announcing that terminals had been activated on Perimeter. The terminals led players to the Cryoarchive Systems website, displaying cameras inside the UESC Marathon.
At first, all the cameras were unstable. To stabilize the signal for the first three, the community needed to link the terminals on Perimeter enough times within the specified 15-minute window to fill the progress bar for each camera. There were three pairs of terminals, and each pair is linked to a camera aboard UESC Marathon.
As shown by Marathon Codec on X, the terminal pairs on Dire Marsh are the following: AI Uplink to West Gate, Algae Ponds to Bio-Research, and Complex to Canal. If you want to try it yourself, locate a green terminal on the wall in a specified location, and walk up to it until it beeps and changes the image. Then run to the second terminal in the pair (for example, if you were at AI Uplink, go to West Gate) and do the same.
Doing so will play a couple of voice lines, telling you a bit more lore about the UESC Marathon, and also contribute to the ARG progress if you do it within the specified window. There could be more to the ARG than just terminals, though. According to the Cryoarchive API Monitor, the ARG tracks UESC kills and has multiple pages, from which the community unlocked only one.
