- Primary Subject: Marathon
- Key Update: Bungie confirms permanent bans with no warnings under “No Second Chances” policy
- Status: Policy announced pre-launch; infrastructure details shared publicly
- Last Verified: February 24, 2026
- Quick Answer: Bungie is launching Marathon with a zero-tolerance anti-cheat policy, including permanent bans for cheaters and server-authoritative systems designed to block exploits before they impact matches.
Long before players set foot on Tau Ceti IV, Marathon is earning a reputation not for its gameplay or visuals, but for its zero-tolerance policy on cheating.
In a genre where trust is everything and a single compromised lobby can sour hours of progress, Bungie is positioning competitive integrity as a launch pillar rather than a post-release patch note.
The studio isn’t easing into enforcement or waiting to see how the community behaves. Instead, it’s drawing a line in the sand ahead of release and making it clear that protecting the extraction loop is part of the game’s identity.
What Is Bungie’s “No Second Chances” Policy?
Bungie is adopting a strict zero-tolerance stance with Marathon, making it clear that anyone caught cheating (or creating cheats) will face a permanent ban with no warnings or temporary suspensions.
Bungie explains that because Marathon involves meaningful rewards and consequences, players need to know that every death is skill-based rather than caused by technical problems or hackers.
At the same time, Bungie admits the uncomfortable truth that no anti-cheat system is perfect, so it says there will be an appeals process for cases where detection goes wrong, which has quickly become one of the biggest talking points among players who worry about false positives in competitive shooters.
Is Marathon’s Infrastructure Built to Block Cheaters?
This announcement stands out because Bungie is not only warning about strict punishments but also detailing how it plans to make cheating harder from the ground up.
Marathon uses dedicated servers that are fully authoritative over the most important parts of gameplay, including movement, shooting, actions, and inventory.
In practical terms, that means the server is the final judge of what actually happened, so common exploit categories like teleporting, impossible ammo behavior, or damage manipulation can be rejected at the system level instead of being argued about after the fact.
It also highlights long-term protection of the in-game economy by preventing item duplication and other progression-breaking exploits, which is especially important in an extraction game where players stockpile valuable gear and expect their time to matter.
The goal is that gunfights still feel snappy moment-to-moment, but the server can correct invalid states without letting one player’s compromised client ruin the entire lobby.
How Does Fog of War Limit Wallhacks?
Bungie is attempting to curb certain cheat tools at the data level by using a server-driven “Fog of War” system that restricts what each player’s client can see based on realistic line of sight.
That’s critical because shooters are often ruined by cheats that grant hidden information, such as seeing enemies through terrain or accessing loot details in advance.
Bungie’s pitch is that if the client never receives certain data, those cheats have less to work with, because there’s simply less “extra truth” to display.
On top of this, the studio also claims it redesigned Marathon’s anti-cheat measures from scratch, adding proprietary protections alongside BattlEye and withholding specifics because security is a constant arms race.
Does Marathon Ban Cheaters Retroactively?
An additional piece to consider is that Bungie gathers ongoing gameplay telemetry for deeper backend analysis, so even if something questionable isn’t addressed immediately, it may still lead to enforcement later.
It reflects a patience-based enforcement model, with Bungie reminding players to report suspected cheaters using the appropriate reporting methods.
The company also positions stability as a fairness issue, introducing systems designed to stop technical problems from ruining runs, including reconnect options for mid-raid disconnects and potential starting gear restoration if server-side failures occur.
It specifically points to defending the game’s economy by stopping duplication glitches and other exploits that can undermine progression, something that matters greatly in a loot-focused extraction experience.
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