The Marathon alpha gives you a chance to play Bungie’s forthcoming extraction shooter significantly ahead of its Sept. 23 release date.
Announced during Bungie’s Marathon stream on April 12, the Marathon alpha allows you to check out four characters on two maps. Like most alpha tests, though, it also doubles as a technical stress test for the game, meaning you could run into connectivity issues and other hiccups.
Below, we’ll tell you how to sign up for the Marathon alpha, including some other information about what to expect from the alpha.
How to sign up for the Marathon alpha
Image: Bungie
Currently, the only way to get into the Marathon alpha test is to join Bungie’s Marathon Discord, which you can access via the following link: https://discord.gg/marathonthegame.
Here’s a step-by-step breakdown on how to sign up for the Marathon alpha:
- Sign up for the Marathon Discord and agree to the rules.
- Go to the #alpha_access chat and type /alpha.
- Watch for the Discord bot to ping you in the #new-noise chat and follow the custom link it offers.
- Create a Bungie account if you don’t have one, or sign into an existing account.
- Select your platform of choice: PlayStation, Steam, or Xbox.
- Fill out the Marathon survey, which asks you about your preferred platforms (including PC specs, if that’s your choice), your experience with past Bungie games, and your familiarity with PvP games like Marathon.
- Close out of the survey and return to the original tab to confirm that you’ve been signed up for the alpha.
Update (April 18): Initially, Bungie required players to sign an NDA to get access to the Marathon alpha. However, in a blog post detailing aspects of the upcoming playtest, Bungie revealed that it is removing the NDA requirement from the alpha entirely, meaning any players who get access are free to stream or discuss the game. While you may still see the requirement when signing up, we’ve updated our guide to remove that step of the process. Original story follows.
In a post-script on the survey, Bungie notes completing the form enters you into “a pool” of prospective players but does not guarantee access to the alpha. Codes will be sent to players the week of April 14, and throughout the runtime of the alpha.
It’s possible Bungie could add more methods to get Marathon alpha access in the future, but the studio hasn’t announced anything like that just yet.
When does the Marathon alpha start and end?
The alpha will start on Wednesday, April 23, at 10 a.m. PDT and run through Sunday, May 4, at 10 a.m. PDT.
Bungie said in a FAQ on its website that this particular alpha is focused on North America and only available to players ages 18 or older. Codes are locked to your particular Bungie account and thus can’t be given away or sold. Access will also not come with friend codes, although players will be able to group up with others who’ve been selected.
If you are selected for the Marathon alpha, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to download the game, which is about 6 GB. Curious about the PC specs? See them here!
Bungie also confirmed that there will be additional opportunities to play Marathon ahead of its Sept. 23 release date. All account progress will be wiped between the alpha test and any the game’s launch.
What to expect from the Marathon alpha
Image: Bungie
We were able to play the Marathon alpha early as part of a media and creator preview event at Bungie HQ, though some aspects might be different than the public alpha.
During our playtime, we were able to check out two different maps: Perimeter and Dire Marsh. Perimeter is a smaller, early game map, where Dire Marsh pits six squads of three against each other in a large campus.
There were a wide variety of different weapons and items in our tests, including golden legendary items with powerful unique effects — although they were quite rare. It’s unclear if Bungie is holding back some weapon types for the full game, but the studio did confirm in a Q&A that there are unique weapon mods we weren’t able to play with.
We had access to four Runners — what Marathon calls its heroes — in the alpha:
- Locus: A tank-like character with a powerful shield, a rocket salvo, and boosters on his legs.
- Glitch: A speed character who can quickly traverse the area with her arm cannon and double jump.
- Blackbird: An information character who can scan the environment to help locate potential threats.
- Void: A stealth character capable of going invisible at will to escape or surprise his enemies.
We were also able to test a few contracts, which are essentially quests that help improve your relationships with various factions. Advancing your faction progress will allow you to upgrade your account with more vault space, access to more advanced items in the shop, and more.
Disclosure: Parts of this article are based on a Marathon preview event held at Bungie’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, from April 2-4. Bungie provided Polygon’s travel and accommodations for the event. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.
