Loot is the name of the game in Marathon. As an extraction shooter, each run should see you coming back with loads of items in your inventory. That is, of course, if you aren’t gunned down by crazed robots or other runners in the process.
Some areas in the game contain extra valuable loot, either as a reward for risky purchases and exploration or as a boon bestowed by defeated bosses, such as the Warden. The former usually comes in the form of Lockboxes, containers that you can discover across the game’s maps and loot for particularly valuable items.
They are, as the name implies, locked, and you can only open them if you have the necessary Lockbox Key in your inventory.
So, here’s how you can get it.
How to open Lockboxes in Marathon
To be able to open a Lockbox in Marathon, you need a Lockbox Key. This is a generic item that can either be found around the game’s maps or purchased from the Armory after prerequisites are met. I have had the most luck finding this item in the Southern Array location, particularly in the red building that has smashed windows at the top and some sort of office area within.
As for the purchases, Lockbox Keys become available in the Armory for purchase or as a free reward after you’ve leveled up the CyberAcme faction to Rank 5. It costs you a couple thousand credits to unlock this perk and it stays permanently, periodically offering you free Lockbox Keys and allowing you to buy them for quite cheap.
Lockbox Keys are permanently lost if you die with them in your inventory, as the game currently has no safe pocket system, unlike ARC Raiders or some other extraction shooters. The DCON boxes, which are currently seemingly tied only to quests, cannot be used to extract Lockbox Keys before a match ends (if you would ever need to do so).
At the end of the day, if you can’t afford them, then you’re likely to find a few every now and again among the game’s largest compounds. But even the worst run can give you enough money to buy several keys.
Additionally, higher-level boxes require better keys, such as the Deluxe Key.
