Marathon players are reporting that Rooks are effectively unionizing in-game and working together. This is despite the game’s meta, at least until now, not displaying the same sort of friendly, cooperative behavior that can be found in its biggest competitor, Arc Raiders. Combined with how hostile and dangerous the PvE enemies are, Marathon makes for an incredibly hostile environment — most of the time.
Most extraction games have a mechanic where you can enter a game with equipment that isn’t yours. The gear is basic: low-level armor, a weapon without any attachments, a couple of healing items. In Escape From Tarkov, this is known as a “scav run.” In Arc Raiders, it’s a “free loadout.” Marathon has two versions of this mechanic.
One is by using a sponsored kit, which is pretty much identical to how other games do it. However, you can also play as a Rook, which has a few differences. Rook players are granted the ability to temporarily disguise themselves from UESC (PvE, essentially) enemies, they can only be played by solo players, and they can only join matches that are already in progress. Finally, Rooks can also only play in matches populated by trios and other Rooks. In other words, no solo lobbies.
In a Reddit post titled “What is going on with Rooks on Outpost?” user soaero explained that on multiple runs, their team was “suddenly swamped by four or five Rooks who all entered at the same time and just laid siege. It seems like there have been a few running about, collecting other Rooks, and forming gangs.”
Speaking to Polygon in a Reddit direct message, soaero said the Rooks essentially orchestrated an ambush, complete with bait.
“My friends and I could hear two Rooks talking,” soaero said. “We killed one, then the other started trash talking, goading us into coming for them. Sure enough, there were other Rooks hiding nearby who killed us. A few days later, we were in the center room of Pinwheel, and a team of Rooks using proximity chat descended upon us again.”
