Marathon Roadmap: Nightfall, Symbiosis, Bishop and March

Bungie laid out Marathon's next three updates in "The Future of Marathon," published September 24: the Nightfall Refresh on October 6, Symbiosis in December, and a larger overhaul in March 2027. Bungie also confirmed it is moving away from strict seasonal releases and will ship updates on the pace of the work rather than a fixed calendar.

Two exact dates come from Bungie's earlier September development update: October 6 for the Nightfall Refresh, and December 8 for Symbiosis. The September 24 roadmap post itself gives months rather than days. March has no date yet.

Bungie describes this as a focused update to progression, rewards, and the live experience while the larger work continues. It includes a rotation of returning game modes. Bungie has not listed the specific modes in the roadmap post.

This is the big one before March. Bungie confirmed: - Marathon's first permanent PvE mode, where players can explore and take on challenges without being hunted by other Runners. Bungie says it is still finalizing parts of it and will share more before launch. - An experimental Team Deathmatch mode, pitched as a lower-commitment way to compete without risking a full run. - A visual overhaul of Perimeter: a spreading fungal ecosystem, new routes, new points of interest, and a pinnacle encounter against the Tick Queen, which Bungie calls its largest combatant yet. - A new shell, Bishop - described by Bungie as Marathon's "high-performance robot samurai," a fast hunter-killer built around speed, surprise, and melee bursts. - Improved onboarding for new players, plus a CyAc-sponsored social space with a firing range for testing weapons and abilities.

Bungie lists an interconnected system of permanent PvE, PvP, and PvEvP experiences, a new onboarding experience, a refactored Cradle with deeper shell progression, more focused questlines and narrative, new alien combatants, and an entirely new zone. Bungie says March is where these pieces start working as a connected whole.

Bishop's abilities and stats. How the PvE mode is structured. The rules of Team Deathmatch. What "refactored Cradle" changes in practice. An exact March date. We will not fill these gaps with guesses - they get added here when Bungie publishes them.

Some coverage places Bishop in the October update. Bungie's post lists Bishop under Symbiosis, which arrives in December.

Our [Cradle planner](/marathon/cradle) reflects the current Cradle - its 18 perk breakpoints were verified in-game on September 24. We will re-check them after the October 6 Nightfall Refresh and rebuild the planner when the March refactor lands. Bishop will be added to our shell tools once Bungie publishes the kit; until then we list it as announced, not as data.