Grenade spamming remains a massive problem in Marathon, despite previous nerfs from developer Bungie. Now, with players losing patience with the deluge of explosives heading their way, Bungie has promised further adjustments to stack sizes to help remedy the problem.
Grenade spamming, for those unaware, is the practice of throwing grenades repeatedly at other players to overwhelm them. This is especially problematic in Marathon as there are no hard limits to the number of grenades you can carry, except from your backpack capacity.
This problem has existed in some form since the game’s release, but as players have built up their equipment stash and learned which strategies are best in high-stakes game modes like Cryo Archive, the popularity of throwing heaps of grenades at others has only increased.
An example of this issue in action is a recent social media post by BogOnMyDog on X. This video, which you can see below, shows an enemy team attacking BogOnMyDog and their crewmates. In response, BogOnMyDog throws down an energy shield (itself the source of much frustration), then throws five grenades in quick succession at the enemies from above.
Another user, SayLes on X, responded to this clip by saying: “Not a single weapon was shot what a joke of a game.” Ryan Horath, another Marathon player weighing in on the issue, brought up their own suggestion for a fix: “The grenade spam is an issue. But every single FPS game has had this issue. Some have had it for years. I think there just needs to be a grenade belt in inventory that limits it. Or utility belt generally.”
This debate has spread beyond X. On the official Marathon reddit, discussion around the grenade spam meta has been raging. User the_eccentricity, who created a post there titled ‘Cryo grenade meta is leaking into other maps’, wrote: “People have learned how absolutely broken it is to just throw 8 flechette nades and wait for a push then throw 10 more. Throwables themselves don’t need a nerf, but the amount you can load in with needs to change.”
Still, there’s hope coming from Bungie. In a post overnight from the official Marathon development team X account, a breakdown of some of the game’s rougher parts have been addressed. This includes grenade spam, which has its own section.
The post reads: “A big topic in the community right now is that it’s not a good experience to open up a fight only to be barraged with dozens of grenades. We’re looking to push some changes to stock counts and stack sizes before the end of the season. We’re keeping an eye on the overall usage of equipment and will make additional changes as necessary.”
It’s an interesting issue. Other extraction shooters have suffered from similar problems. Escape from Tarkov, for example, has no hard limit to the number of grenades you can carry in your inventory. However, given the extremely fast time-to-kill in that game, peaking around a corner to actually throw one does arguably carry more risk than in Marathon, where shields can protect a player from instantaneously getting their head blown off.
What makes extraction shooters more susceptible than other types of shooter is the scavenging nature of the genre. A hard limit to the amount of grenades one can carry seems like a slam dunk fix, but the frustration caused by not being able to grab valuable loot because of said limit is possible. At the same time, lowering damage of grenades may actually prove counter-productive, as if the per-grenade damage is reduced, the pressure to just carry a hoard of grenades to make up the difference would only increase.
The stack size approach appears to be the most sensible, as a roundabout way to make less grenades take up more room in a player’s inventory, thus limiting the problem. We’ll have to wait and see just how effective this proves in future patches.
Aside from the grenade issues, enjoyment around Marathon since its mid-season update appears to be high, while the free-sponsored kit limited time mode remains a popular presence for eager Runners. If you’ve not played Marathon, you can read Eurogamer’s review for a glimpse at what the game is like.
