If You're Playing Marathon, Do This FIRST

Okay, so I said this, so I wanted to do this before I hopped off. Just a quick little thing. I wanted to go over

little thing. I wanted to go over basically the what you need to be doing when you start the game. So if you're wondering, you go into a run or you're planning on it and you're starting

playing, what what should you be doing in the game? This is going to be like a basic breakdown of that cuz I see a lot of people in chat asking me about that.

So I'll give you my route to what I think is like the optimal route. So,

first and foremost, you're going to like you want to unlock all these. And the

way that you do that is you're going to have Scia or Cyber Acme priority contracts. You can see I still have one

contracts. You can see I still have one left over here. That's Serguchi. That

one we can't do cuz outpost the time of this is now. Yeah, but you want to do all the priority contracts to unlock all the factions. Once you unlock all the

the factions. Once you unlock all the factions, there are like key early game upgrades that you generally want for new cow. The big one is going to be shielded

cow. The big one is going to be shielded safeguard and restore. So getting to level five lets you purchase shields, which is pretty important and useful.

And then you have these along the way to give you daily meds, which is nice to have. I'd say a really big one for a lot

have. I'd say a really big one for a lot of people is going to be the scak stuff, which you can do kind of passively. So

the whole point is you want to do the priority contracts. That should get you

priority contracts. That should get you to like a vault expansion and some early game like heat upgrades. As you can see, this is level one already. But you can do this passively because cyber acme it

levels just based on Xfills. So you

don't really have to pay too much attention to that after the priorities.

That's why you want to go to new cal, get your shields, you want to go to Maida because some, you know, for some folks the movement can feel a little slow. And the reason being is because

slow. And the reason being is because you're meant to upgrade it. So I think getting the first agility upgrade is pretty important. On top of that, you

pretty important. On top of that, you can also get bionic leg upgrades. And

this is an agility upgrade for an implant. All you have to do is to get to

implant. All you have to do is to get to level three, I believe, for that. Yeah,

again, you just do a few contracts.

You'll get your agility upgrades and you even got an implant here for Arachnne.

This is another one that you can do passively. It's not something you don't

passively. It's not something you don't have to focus on doing PvE, but the most important thing to get from Arachi in the early game is hard strike. This is a melee damage increase. And when you have this melee damage increase, you're able

to one tap heavy attack these small ads, which is really important to staying stealthy. Otherwise, other things that I

stealthy. Otherwise, other things that I have down I would say is a lot to do with Sakaguchi, which we'll have, but again, early Sakaguchi ones are generally like up to rank five. There's

upgrades like these implants here are important. And you can also get cores

important. And you can also get cores for your designated runner that you're interested in. Again, you get them at

interested in. Again, you get them at around rank three. So, the TLDDR of this is if you go through these and get them get them each to about level three to level five, you can get some really good baseline upgrades that immediately ups

your floor. like you immediately have a

your floor. like you immediately have a build to work with, right? Even with the shields, right? You can even get the

shields, right? You can even get the regen implants here. You can get some implants. Rank two, rank five for each

implants. Rank two, rank five for each of these. That's probably completing

of these. That's probably completing maybe one or two contracts, which it doesn't matter if you die for a lot of them. The the starting contract for

them. The the starting contract for these, you can go into a run, complete it, die, doesn't matter. You're going to get the progress in most of them. I

think this is just immediately raising your floor. That's where I would start.

your floor. That's where I would start.

Then after that longerterm route things you want to aim for is again passively you want to be working on scak. Part of

how you passively work on this is you want to do profit opportunities on perimeter. Those when you do them and

perimeter. Those when you do them and you xfill with it they give you a large boost to cyber acne reputation. So you

don't have to do contracts for that. You

just kind of do that whenever it comes up. and X-filling. Like I'm level 12 and

up. and X-filling. Like I'm level 12 and I haven't done a single non-priority sci contract. But eventually you want to get

contract. But eventually you want to get to the point where you get this second keymaker upgrade. This is level 16 and

keymaker upgrade. This is level 16 and then the other one's much later on.

Level 28. These let you buy keys. That's

going to be a good source of like loot, but it's not permanent, remember? So

like this is still not a kind of like end goal. Our real end goal is going to

end goal. Our real end goal is going to be identifying which one of these factions has the gold item for completion that you care about most. So,

for example, I can show them off here.

If I go to the armory under Traxxas, after completing a few of the priority contracts, you'll actually have it revealed here that you can purchase gold weapon mods. And it says here, requires

weapon mods. And it says here, requires contract completion Traxxas unsanctioned hostilities. And from the interview that

hostilities. And from the interview that I did, we know that that has something to do with completing the priority chain line. So, it's probably, I'd imagine,

line. So, it's probably, I'd imagine, one of the last ones or something like that. So, obviously, if you want gold

that. So, obviously, if you want gold weapons, you want to raise your baseline. Like I said, get to level

baseline. Like I said, get to level five, get the small upgrades that you care about, and then go all in on Traxxas. That's what I did cuz I want

Traxxas. That's what I did cuz I want gold weapon mods. But there's other ones like New Cal gives you helping hands, which is a gold implant. Mida gives you graceful landings. Arachnne, I believe,

graceful landings. Arachnne, I believe, gives you Knife Fight. It's actually

really good. This one's a little different. For Arachnne, I believe you

different. For Arachnne, I believe you have to get the VIP rank if I'm not mistaken. And then Sukuchi, we don't

mistaken. And then Sukuchi, we don't know what that is yet. My guess is going to be corores. So, you want to choose one of these that you want to really hone in on and go full send with it. And

that's like your long-term goal essentially. So, in terms of direction

essentially. So, in terms of direction though, we have our early game and we have our like long-term goal. So, what's

what's the mid game? The actual like majority of the game that you're going to probably encounter for a good bit is these bottom upgrades here. When you go like full send with one of these

factions, you're going to unlock upgrades by leveling them up. Like you

can see, I went full send with Traxxas.

I got to level 24. And I unlocked this first what's called capstone upgrade.

And this first capstone upgrade is one of the most important on each of the factions. And the reason being is

factions. And the reason being is because it allows you to barter for deluxe salvage. And the barter system is

deluxe salvage. And the barter system is really, really important to start engaging with. The barter system, if you

engaging with. The barter system, if you don't know, is going to be this armory tab over here that you can actually trade materials, aka salvage, that you find in the world in Xfill with for

things like weapons or implants and equipment or, you know, depends or or mods. It depends on what the faction has

mods. It depends on what the faction has that they offer, meds, consumables from new. So you want to try and get enough

new. So you want to try and get enough of those upgrades so you're at that point with each of the factions that first capstone so you can start using some of your higher tier rarity upgrades for something. It doesn't feel like it's

for something. It doesn't feel like it's just taking vault space and sitting there. And a lot of the time for these

there. And a lot of the time for these upgrades you're going to need certain materials. Like you can see here for me

materials. Like you can see here for me I need certain materials for that because the name of the game really is about collecting salvage. To put it this way, a lot of the cool weapons you get,

they're impermanent realistically, right? Like my whole vault here and

right? Like my whole vault here and stuff like that might look cool, but it's impermanent. I can't readily access

it's impermanent. I can't readily access a lot of these things. And the whole point here of the progression is you want to get to a point where you can maybe not access all of it, but a good

chunk of it that you have like a real build. And the way you do that is by

build. And the way you do that is by collecting salvage and engaging with the barter system. This is all very short

barter system. This is all very short term. Don't be blinded by just PvP, PvP.

term. Don't be blinded by just PvP, PvP.

Kill people, take their stuff. Yeah, I

got good stuff. I looted this one thing and then you cry when it's gone. Focus

on grabbing materials, hoarding them, saving them up. Like a majority of your vault should look like this. Lots and

lots and lots of materials, multiple stacks of them, because that's the real loot. That's how you have constant

loot. That's how you have constant access to the things that you want and upgrades like you collecting those things and doing contracts is the

progression of you continuously raising your floor to be able to just buy a good build. That's the point of the

build. That's the point of the progression in the game. And as a new player, again, even for me today, I played for 16 hours on launch day. I

didn't really PvP.

Of course, if I have to and and it's there, I do. But what matters more is like if other people want to go shoot each other and and take each other's stuff and do like short-term progress stuff, that's great. They might even

kill me when I get a contract done, that's great. But the long-term

that's great. But the long-term progress, my resources will outrun someone who isn't doing that. And that's

the important part, especially when you get to that absolute end goal, which is buying gold mods. When you're able to start stocking up on gold mods and buying gold mods, that's powerful stuff.

That's what I would say you want to do.

To recap, to put this as simply as I can, do your Scia priority contracts, unlock the factions, get to level fiveish, three to five with each of them, and get the baseline upgrades that

are going to help like agility upgrades, purchasing shields, purchasing implants, etc. Uh, heat upgrades. Do profit

opportunities on perimeter for scage that you can so that you can barter and keep upgrading. Pick a contract line as

keep upgrading. Pick a contract line as well that's interesting to you and full send it. The last little tip and I'm

send it. The last little tip and I'm going to talk about this in its own video or own time is that materialists here is your best friend. These things

are broken. I value materialist more than I do purple gear at this point. And

the reason being is cuz it says here each materialist item says upon Xfill grants additional standard and enhanced salvage.

gray and green or some of them might say even blue and purple if you're lucky.

And what that means for every piece of gear that says that that you have on, it adds plus one of the current salvage that you extracted with. So like one pickup can turn into eight, which is

pretty insane. It literally farms for

pretty insane. It literally farms for you. So that's the last thing to be

you. So that's the last thing to be efficient. Don't get too caught up with

efficient. Don't get too caught up with the fancy looking stuff. You'll get

there. I promise. Focus and enjoy the progression. Treat it like a rogike and

progression. Treat it like a rogike and keep raising your floor. That is the most optimal route I can possibly give.

That's my ultimate guide and route and tips to beginners.