Marathon Recon Bad Cop Core: Turn Finishers into Fuel

Bad Cop is an Enhanced passive core exclusive to the Recon - Intel shell. Its stored effect is one sentence: performing a finisher grants tactical and prime ability energy. No cooldown or other condition is listed beyond performing the finisher.

It costs 70 Credits. Next to the 600-Credit Superior cores covered below and the 2,500-Credit Prestige Early Warning System, that is a small outlay.

Recon's kit runs on information tempo. Echo Pulse is the prime: it releases a visual pulse every 2.5 seconds, up to 7 times. Since Update 1.1.9.2 each pulse fires as a cone toward where you aim instead of in every direction. Pulses detect targets through physical objects, tell hostile Runners from UESC forces, and ping hostiles for you and your crew. The first time a pulse hits a non-Runner combatant, it staggers them and briefly blocks their combat abilities. Tracker Drone is the tactical: a microbot that lasts 15 seconds or until it tracks down a hostile, then explodes, dealing high-explosive damage and damage over time and leaving the target Overheated.

The standard Recon loop has a gap: you spend your abilities, then wait for energy to recover. Bad Cop gives energy back when you perform a finisher, so finishing a downed enemy can bring the next Echo Pulse or Tracker Drone sooner. The core text does not say how much energy a finisher grants, so we cannot quantify the speed-up.

In our view the core rewards decisive play. If you already finish downed enemies as a habit, Bad Cop adds energy on top of what you were doing anyway. If you do not, it gives you a specific target: push to the body, complete the finisher, bank the energy.

Echo Chamber (Superior, 600 Credits) makes your Echo Pulse release additional pulses and returns prime ability energy for defeating hostiles recently pinged by it, so it and Bad Cop both feed prime energy. Cluster Payload (Superior, 600 Credits) makes your Tracker Drone detonate into shrapnel submunitions that deal additional damage, which adds to what a refunded Drone does on detonation. Early Warning System (Prestige, 2,500 Credits), which we rate S-tier editorially, alerts you on your HUD when a hostile Runner is nearby, which can help you position for a finisher.

Recon's Interrogation trait already makes a finisher on a downed Runner ping their alive crewmates. With Bad Cop, the same finisher also grants ability energy. Our data lists Bad Cop as ranked-viable.

The Recharge track in the Cradle improves Recovery Speed. Its first named perk, Head Start (4 total Energy), lets you start each run with partial Tactical charge, so your Tracker Drone can be ready sooner in early encounters. Further down the track, Lethal AMP (14 total Energy) grants Tactical energy when you down a Runner and Prime energy when you eliminate one. Combined with Bad Cop's finisher refund, Runner engagements can return energy at several points, from the first down through the finisher.

The Cradle can be respecced at any time with no penalty, so you can test this investment for free. Map your path in the [Cradle planner](/marathon/cradle) before you commit.

- Bad Cop costs 70 Credits and grants tactical and prime ability energy when you perform a finisher. It is an Enhanced passive, exclusive to Recon. - Recon's Interrogation trait already pings a downed Runner's crewmates when you finish them. Bad Cop adds ability energy to that same action. - The Recharge track's Head Start (4 Energy) and Lethal AMP (14 Energy) add Tactical and Prime energy at other points in a Runner fight.