Marathon season 2 begins in 3 weeks, but I fear it won’t be nearly enough to move the needle

Bungie has begun ramping up towards the second season of its extraction shooter Marathon, but I don’t think I care all that much, unfortunately.

Season two, “Nightfall,” really needs to bring some heat to get players back in the game and keep its dedicated players invested, especially after a progress wipe that will empty inventories and reset Faction progress. But so far, it doesn’t sound like that will be the case, judging by a dev update today ahead of the launch on June 2.

The main additions to season two thus far will be a new Runner Shell and a nighttime variant of the Dire Marsh map called Night Marsh. The roadmap also teases a new system called The Cradle, along with new guns, mods, and enemies, but a full reveal of season two contents is coming the week of May 25, according to Bungie, so I hope there’s more exciting stuff to share. Sadly, I’m not feeling the hype at all yet.

The news of season two comes about a week after Sony said it was committed to continuing to support the game, despite its underperformance in sales and lackluster player numbers.

“Player reception to Marathon is strong, with the game receiving a Metacritic score of 82 and more than 90 percent of the player reviews on Steam being positive,” Sony CFO Lin Tao said last week. “Engagement metrics such as retention also remain at a high level.”

Tao remarked that Sony and PlayStation would “aim to improve the performance of the game by working to retain highly engaged core users through the introduction of additional content, further improvements in the gameplay experience and expansion of the user base.” 

That additional content begins with season two, and I’m not feeling inspired yet. I hope I’m wrong. I haven’t played Marathon in a few weeks now, and I don’t really feel any need to go back. I was already one of the more dedicated players before tapering off, so if it can’t bring me back, then I genuinely worry about what this may mean going forward.

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The Royal Highlands update in Palia has made the map bigger, but we can save our time and energy by finding a horse for ourselves. To make matters even better, all of us can have the mount for free.

However, there are a few tasks to complete before we can get our hands on our stallion.

How to unlock your horse in Palia Royal Highlands update

The first task is to reach the Royal Highlands region. If you’re someone new to the game, you should still be able to access the location. However, you’ll come across certain spoilers for content related to the main campaign.

Next, we will need to find Hassian, an NPC, and you’ll find a horse next to him. The horse next to Hassian will be trapped in amber. You’ll have to free it by using your pickaxe, which can be done after starting the Before the Dawn quest.

Next, look for Dawnspur Lilies to feed the horse. You’ll find the flowers in the nearby locations, and they’re easy to find. Once you find three flowers, return to the horse. Hassian will then ask you to ride the new mount. He will claim that the horse appears to be fond of you, and you’ll find out if that’s not the case. Hassian will then return to the camp, leaving you with your mount.

Open the tool menu and choose the saddle icon. You’ll now find the horse added to your list of options. Select the horse, and it will appear as your ride. You move on the horse by using the same controls that you use for your character.

Do note that your horse will have a stamina gauge that will empty when it sprints. Once the bar is depleted, it will move more slowly until the stamina is refilled. To prevent that from happening, move through golden orbs since that will partially restore the lost stamina.

Combined with your ranch, you can also breed your horses and ride them. It’s a really cool mechanic that will save a lot of time during exploration. Since new players can also access Royal Highlands early, you can make your mount a part of your journey.

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