A weekend of sweats? Sign me up!

This weekend, from March 21 at 10 AM PT to March 24 at 10 AM PT, Bungie will run a beta for Ranked mode in Marathon. This mode is still in active development at Bungie and will presumably be ready for the limelight when Season 2 of Marathon rolls around. Bungie will want to hear your feedback, so be sure to share it with them so that Ranked mode, when released, doesn't suck.

In Ranked mode, players will earn points by reaching score targets that are determined by a new item called the Holotag. If you reach the score goal in a run, you earn Ranked Points (RP). As you accumulate more RP, you will start to climb up through six ranks: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Pinnacle. There are three tiers per rank, such as: Bronze 3, Bronze 2, and Bronze 1.

Score is accumulated through carrying out a variety of actions during a match. You will get score by looting valuable items and exfiltrating. You can earn bonus RP by looting enemy player's Holotags, or collecting Tag Chips from the UESC AI fighters, or participating in map events. You lose RP if die. You gain no RP if you exfil before hitting your score target.


Once the season ends, you will get rewards based on the highest rank you achieved. Naturally, each ranked season will offer a unique set of rewards that you can only earn from playing the Ranked mode.

Bungie offers a look at the Season 1 rewards:

Ranked will be available only on the weekends. Each weekend will see players battling in different planet-side zones: Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost. The first weekend will be held on Perimeter. Additionally, crew sizes will be matched together in Ranked.

You must be Runner Level 25 in order to even queue for Ranked.

When queuing for Ranked, you can either queue for Low Stakes or High Stakes. They have separate matchmaking pools and have different requirements for entry.