Marathon players accidentally smuggle rare loot out of Server Slam and into full game

If you're jumping into the full version of Marathon today, check your mailbox. It's the envelope symbol in the bottom right of the menus, and it might have some free loot that you left behind during this past weekend's server slam.

That's according to reports from several players falling into rare loot left over from the playtest in their inbox, as shared by Kotaku. Streamer Niftyn00b managed to yoink a purple 24-slot backpack out of the ether before their first match.

Seems like this is a fun quirk of how Bungie handles borrowing items. When players exchange items they entered a match with (like bringing an extra green shield for your buddy), that gear is automatically returned to the original owner after the match ends. This is, apparently, Bungie's way of nixing loot trading in the bud while still allowing players to help each other during a run. The borrowed gear is returned attached to a message in your inbox, which you don't have to open immediately.

Fast forward to today: Progress has totally reset for everyone who played the server slam, with the exception of account-level mail. I also had some borrowed gear waiting in my inbox when I logged in this morning, but unfortunately it was just a worthless grey implant.

Marathon is off to a decent start on launch day. No reports of login queues or server instability so far, but it sounds like pre-order bonuses and Deluxe Edition stuff isn't arriving in players' inboxes. Bungie says it's working on it.

2026 games: All the upcoming games
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together