What is Silk used for in Marathon?

Marathon Silk is one of the game's many currencies and resources, but it's specifically used to unlock Reward Pass items. We don't yet know much about these Passes at all, but think of them as the Marathon equivalent of Decks in Arc Raiders or Warbonds in Helldivers 2, so they'll likely contain cosmetics and resources for you to unlock with your Silk and deck out your Runner Shells. It's effectively useless in the server slam, but I've laid out everything I've been able to glean about Silk and its uses in Marathon below.

Marathon Silk uses

Silk is Marathon's Reward Pass currency, which means you'll be able to use it to unlock items from Reward Passes in the full game. However, the Marathon server slam does not feature any Reward Passes or premium items to spend Silk on, so it's effectively useless and you don't need to worry about it – nothing from the server slam carries over to the full game anyway. It's also worth noting that the in-game description for Silk implies that the Reward Passes themselves are not unlocked with Silk, perhaps requiring a separate premium currency, but we'll have to wait for the full game to see what Marathon's monetization is truly like.

Silk is earned in small chunks of 10 whenever you increase your Season Level, which is done by earning XP. Defeating hostiles and successfully extracting are the main ways to earn XP in Marathon, so they'll help you get Silk. If you've pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition of Marathon, you will be given 200 Silk at launch and one Premium Rewards Pass Voucher, letting you get a pass to spend your Silk on for free.

Based on the server slam build, Silk has a balance limit of 140 and an overflow of 60. That means your effective maximum Silk is 200 but the limit likely means you can't make a single purchase that is worth more than 140 Silk. Of course, with no reward passes in the game to actually test this out, it's unclear if this is exactly how Silk works in Marathon, but I'll be sure to update this guide with full details when the proper Marathon release time arrives on March 5.

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