https://x.com/MarathonDevTeam/status/2069511054552686661

Marathon's experimental PVE mode: Vault Breaker. Explore Cryo Archive as a crew, duo, or solo player, taking on a progressively challenging series of vaults. Grow stronger across multiple matches with progression that’s unique to Vault Breaker, and push towards the final vault and the mysterious entity within.

Vault Breaker requires a special Sponsored Kit to queue up, and any gear or items you find stay behind when you exfil. The exception to this is Vault Data. This new currency is found within vaults, and when extracted, can be exchanged for upgrades to your Vault Breaker Sponsored Kits as well as gear that can be used in other modes. This let’s you experience Cryo Archive without flooding the economy with low-risk, high-power Cryo loot.

Sounds neat.

https://x.com/MarathonDevTeam/status/2069511054552686661

Marathon's experimental PVE mode: Vault Breaker. Explore Cryo Archive as a crew, duo, or solo player, taking on a progressively challenging series of vaults. Grow stronger across multiple matches with progression that’s unique to Vault Breaker, and push towards the final vault and the mysterious entity within.

Vault Breaker requires a special Sponsored Kit to queue up, and any gear or items you find stay behind when you exfil. The exception to this is Vault Data. This new currency is found within vaults, and when extracted, can be exchanged for upgrades to your Vault Breaker Sponsored Kits as well as gear that can be used in other modes. This let’s you experience Cryo Archive without flooding the economy with low-risk, high-power Cryo loot.

Sounds neat.

I'll try it with you on the next free weekend!

People keep calling this a rogue-like and once again I find that when I thought I knew what that term meant, I do not.

I'm glad to have some way to access/explore Cryo archive, but I do wonder how much people will want to do it. Once you beat it, and sherpa folks I guess it's just for the love of the game, or for Codex cosmetics. Put another way, this seems like a nice PvE mode for people who already like and play Marathon, not enough to make someone with zero interest in the game to buy it. I'd like to be wrong about that, though. At 30-40 bucks it might be worthwhile.

Meanwhile, on the Internet, loud people are handling this in a very stupid way. (complaining they are diluting the hardcore-ness of the game or at least that's the best summary I can give while sounding cogent.)

People keep calling this a rogue-like and once again I find that when I thought I knew what that term meant, I do not.

I think it's been twisted at this point so it doesn't really mean anything. Roguelike today just means you lose all your shit when you die.

I'm glad to have some way to access/explore Cryo archive, but I do wonder how much people will want to do it. Once you beat it, and sherpa folks I guess it's just for the love of the game, or for Codex cosmetics. Put another way, this seems like a nice PvE mode for people who already like and play Marathon, not enough to make someone with zero interest in the game to buy it. I'd like to be wrong about that, though. At 30-40 bucks it might be worthwhile.

Meanwhile, on the Internet, loud people are handling this in a very stupid way. (complaining they are diluting the hardcore-ness of the game or at least that's the best summary I can give while sounding cogent.)

And Bungie already clarified that you won’t get the same accolades or skins for completing it that people who actually complete vaults and the Compiler within the main extraction game get. I think Bungie struck a perfect balance with this new mode.

We’ll see I guess. I’m just not a fan of even having a separate mode. Now they have to split their focus between two different things, instead of just improving the main experience. Maybe they can actually do both, but my experience with Destiny doesn’t leave me super optimistic about that.

People keep calling this a rogue-like and once again I find that when I thought I knew what that term meant, I do not.

It's definitely not a rogue-like, but a rogue-lite (due to the meta progression). The reason it's been likened to a rogue-lite is that:
A. You start a run and attempt to reach some end goal. You may die before you reach the end (and are more likely to do so the fewer attempts you've made)
B. Your progress resets after a run is over save for-
C. A meta progression where every run contributes to your ability to improve the baseline you start a run at, improving your odds of reaching the end goal.

https://x.com/MarathonDevTeam/status/2069511054552686661

Marathon's experimental PVE mode: Vault Breaker. Explore Cryo Archive as a crew, duo, or solo player, taking on a progressively challenging series of vaults. Grow stronger across multiple matches with progression that’s unique to Vault Breaker, and push towards the final vault and the mysterious entity within.

Vault Breaker requires a special Sponsored Kit to queue up, and any gear or items you find stay behind when you exfil. The exception to this is Vault Data. This new currency is found within vaults, and when extracted, can be exchanged for upgrades to your Vault Breaker Sponsored Kits as well as gear that can be used in other modes. This let’s you experience Cryo Archive without flooding the economy with low-risk, high-power Cryo loot.

Sounds neat.

I'm down. I'd love a lower-risk mode to learn experience and learn Cryo Archive. Will make me feel more prepared to do the real thing, and looks to also be a fun mode all its own.

We’ll see I guess. I’m just not a fan of even having a separate mode. Now they have to split their focus between two different things, instead of just improving the main experience. Maybe they can actually do both, but my experience with Destiny doesn’t leave me super optimistic about that.

I can't say I disagree, but they're stuck between a rock and a hard place. I see a lot of similarities between Bungie's handling of Destiny and what's happening with Marathon in its early life, and there's a lot of clamoring for some sort of PVE mode. I wish I had some stats on it, but it seems like even managing just to exfil out of Cryo is unreachable to the extreme majority of Marathon's population, and they're trying to come up with a way to let people experience Cryo without just getting utterly destroyed.

I'm all about that main Cryo life. My entire goal is Compiler or bust. At the same time, I have only had a few times where I could just stop what I was doing in Cryo and just admire the map. I'm not even talking about learning the map. The map itself is awesome and has some unreal aspects to it, and just LOOKING at and admiring the place is pretty great. If the new mode gives me more of a chance to even just take it all in, I'm down.

Circling back, I do have a concern about them splitting the population more between maps and playlists as the concurrent player count continues to drop. I'm wondering if the new Cryo mode should be available on days that the main Cryo mode isn't. Their focus still ends up split between two different things, and that could still pose a problem like you've mentioned, but the two modes ideally won't be competing with each other at the same time.

Yeah, I get it. I understand the need to do something to try and get players in the game. And I'm here for it--whatever helps Marathon continue, because Marathon freaking rules. I certainly don't have any good answers as to what they should be doing, so I suppose this is as good as anything. And I'll absolutely be in there. I haven't spent nearly enough time in Cryo, so it'll be neat to see more of it.