Blue shields keep you alive longer in Marathon. Simple as that. More hits absorbed, and fewer deaths when you’re carrying good gear. But getting one takes some work, and the way depends on how far you’ve progressed. You can either grind the NuCaloric faction tree and buy one from the Armory, or hunt one down in a raid through events, locked rooms, or off a dead runner. Both cost you something, whether that’s credits and materials or just raw risk. Here’s how to get your hands on a blue shield in Marathon.
How to Unlock Blue Shield in Marathon
Unlock It Through NuCaloric Upgrades
The best way to obtain a blue shield is via the NuCaloric faction upgrade tree. Go to Factions → NuCaloric → Upgrades and see the ARMORED upgrade node, which requires:
- 3,500 Credits
- 7 Biolens Seeds
- 3 Neural Insulation
Once you unlock ARMORED at NuCal Rank 20, it will open up the Deluxe Shield Implant for purchase in the Armory. From its screen, go to NuCaloric, and you’ll find it listed under Implants, the Protector V2, for 2,000 Credits. It grants +2 Shield Slots at the cost of -5 Heat Capacity and -5 Agility. Grinding this NuCaloric upgrade tree further to the level six capstone gives access to a craftable purple shield.
Find One in Raid
If you’d rather skip the grind and get lucky in the field, there are a few spots where blue shields spawn. High value event containers are the best places to farm. Guarded USEC crates like the ones spawning at Hauler on Perimeter put you against relentless AI waves. The fights are brutal but offer prime loot. Further, players have confirmed blue shield drops from hackable containers in Maintenance on Dire Marsh, so it’s worth searching there.
Locked rooms are the highest probability spots per container opened. Look for flares on the rooftop to track down lockboxes. Keys are valuable but risky. There’s no way to stash them safely, so you either have to burn them that run or lose them on death.
Keys are map specific that only work in the right zone. If you get an Outpost key on Dire Marsh, save it for when you’re in Outpost and always use the locked room keys; the loot is way better than regular stuff. The items inside keyed rooms destroy what you’ll get from normal containers, so use every key you find.
Taking a blue shield from another player means fighting uphill against better gear. The blue shield absorbs extra shots, so your opponent gets the upper hand in a gunfight. You need to ambush them to even things out or play as Rook and wait for the chaos to die down, then scavenge what’s left after big firefights.
