Bungie introduced Mercy Kits in a recent mid-season update for its extraction shooter Marathon, aiming to encourage player cooperation. Instead, some players are using the revive items for brutal trolling. Examples include fake revivals followed by immediate kills.
Marathon, Bungie's unforgiving sci-fi multiplayer game set on Tau Ceti IV, received a mid-season update this week with Mercy Kits. These items allow players to revive downed opponents, fostering potential truces via proximity chat and joint exfils for bonus rewards. The update also added CyberAcme commendations, earned by exfiling with non-squad players, to promote teamwork and faster faction rank progression at extraction points. (87 words so far? Wait, full body. No, structure properly. Paragraphs. (Paragraph 1) Bungie introduced Mercy Kits... (Paragraph 2) X user marathonaire demonstrated the trolling potential by downing a Rook with a shotgun, apologizing, offering a Mercy Kit and a purple gun as peace gestures. The opponent picked up the gun, only to be shot again. marathonaire tweeted, “I’m a sick bastard,” alongside a video clip from April 16. Another player told creative director Julia Nardin that Mercy Kits are mostly used to re-kill opponents, to which she replied, “Karma will find them.” Players have dubbed the item the “most troll-friendly” addition yet. (Paragraph 3) Despite the trolling, the changes have led to tense cooperative moments. At exfils, players exchange friendly emotes or tea-bag to signal peace, though betrayals like hidden Destroyer ambushes persist. This balance keeps solo encounters risky, rewarding successful cooperation while allowing deceptive play. (Paragraph 4) The update encourages hesitation before shooting at extraction sites, but some players ignore it, maintaining Marathon's harsh atmosphere.
