Marathon Bombing Run Core: Destroyer Volley Damage

Bombing Run is an Enhanced, Destroyer - Combat-only core tied to your Prime ability, and it costs 70 Credits. Its effect is one line: each successive homing missile in your Search & Destroy volley deals increased damage.

That is all we can state about it, and I will not pad it. The size of the increase, and how many missiles a volley holds, are not figures we can give you. Treat this as a core you evaluate by feel and by testing, not by arithmetic you can do in advance.

To judge a volley-damage core, you need the kit it plugs into. Search & Destroy activates shoulder-mounted Missile Pods for a limited window. During that time, sustained damage to hostiles periodically releases a volley of high-explosive homing missiles, and hostiles hit by those missiles are Immobilized.

Two things follow, and the second is our read. First, the volleys come from sustained damage, so you feed the pods by staying on target and keeping your own weapon firing. Second, Immobilized targets are easier to finish, which means the later missiles in a volley land on enemies already pinned by the earlier ones. Bombing Run rewards that ordering: the missiles that arrive last hit hardest.

So the core is about damage per volley, not how long the window lasts. Keep that distinction, because it decides whether this is the right core for you.

Destroyer has several cores that touch Search & Destroy, and each answers a different question:

Bombardier: defeating hostiles while Search & Destroy is active extends its duration. It answers "how do I stay in the window longer?"

Heavy Ordnance: defeating hostiles with explosive damage reduces the cooldown of your next Search & Destroy. It answers "how do I get the next window sooner?"

Explosive Payload: missiles deal increased damage to targets near the impact. It answers "how do I punish clustered enemies?"

Missile Barrage: Search & Destroy launches an additional missile. It is a Deluxe core, so it sits a rarity tier above Bombing Run.

Bombing Run: it answers "how do I make each volley hit harder?"

Bombing Run is the cleanest pick when your problem is that fights end before the window pays off. It is a poor pick if your problem is cooldown or duration, because it does nothing for either. Whether Bombing Run and Missile Barrage reward each other, since the extra missile is one more in the sequence, is a question for the practice range, not something we will assert.

Our tier list rates Destroyer S-tier in squad play and B-tier solo. We consider Bombing Run squad-viable for the same reason: a squad that commits to a fight wants its Prime to finish the job. In our view Destroyer pairs well with Triage - Support and Vandal - Combat, and a Triage behind you makes it easier to stay in a fight long enough to keep feeding the pods.

Your Prime only matters if it is available. In the Cradle, the Recharge track offers Primed at 10 total Energy, which starts runs with partial Prime charge, and Lethal AMP at 14, where eliminating a hostile grants Prime energy. Both feed the Prime you are building around. Because respec is free, spend a session on Recharge and see whether the faster access changes how you take fights. Map the path in the [Cradle planner](/marathon/cradle) first.

Heat is the other constraint. Thruster generates Heat, so the Endurance track's Quick Vent at 3 Energy, which starts heat recovery sooner, is a cheap early investment.

Bombing Run boosts the damage of successive missiles within one Search & Destroy volley. It does not extend the window or shorten the cooldown, so choose Bombardier or Heavy Ordnance if those are your gaps.

Run it on Destroyer for squad play, where our tier list rates the shell S-tier, and put Energy into Recharge for Primed or Lethal AMP so your Prime is up more often.

Test it yourself before committing. The exact damage scaling is not something we can give you, and the Cradle's free respec means experiments cost you nothing.