Something unusual is happening in Marathon. If you’ve explored the maps closely, you might have already found the beginning of what appears to be a full ARG.

Over the past 24 hours, players have started discovering strange terminals hidden across the game world. These terminals look very different from the usual in-game interfaces. In fact, they appear to be pulled straight out of the original Marathon games, using that classic retro terminal style that Bungie fans will instantly recognise. We even have the classic Marathon logo on them.

At first, these terminals didn’t seem to do much. The community soon discovered that when used in a specific order, events would unfold: voice lines would play, numbers would scroll across the screen, and eventually players would uncover a website link to the Cryo Archive. Many believe this mysterious endgame location will bring us back to the Marathon ship.

So let’s break it down. Let’s go over what’s been found so far, how the puzzle works, and why this could be the first step to unlocking one of the game’s biggest secrets. Let’s go to Perimeter.

Terminals

The first big discovery is that there are six different terminals hidden around the Perimeter map.

Each terminal is hidden at a major spot on the map, with one more in the Data Wall. They look very different from the usual consoles, so players quickly noticed something was off. When you approach these terminals, one of two things happens.

Sometimes you’ll see a strange screen with graphics scrolling downward and a progress number slowly ticking up — often stopping at around 4%. If you see this, it means you’ve found the wrong terminal in the sequence.

However, when the correct terminal is activated in sequence, something very different appears.

Instead of scrolling graphics, the terminal shows a map location. This new clue points you to the next terminal you must seek in the puzzle’s sequence.

This creates a chain reaction: you must follow the terminals in the right order across the map to advance.

On reaching the correct next terminal and interacting with it, you’ll hear a distinct activation sound. Only then does the next stage begin.

Durandal is speaking again.

When players activate the correct terminals, they begin hearing voice lines from Durandal. The name should ring a bell immediately. Durandal is one of the iconic AIs from the original Marathon trilogy — a character known for his intelligence, manipulation, and philosophical monologues.

The voice lines are cryptic, thoughtful, and unsettling. Durandal talks about curiosity, violence, and humanity’s urge to reach beyond understanding.

He asks questions that almost feel directed at the player themselves.

• Why do we push forward into the unknown?
• Why do we seek answers to things that frighten us?
• And finally, what happens when we uncover the truth?

This is classic Marathon: mysterious, philosophical, and rich in hidden meaning. But the audio logs aren’t the only clues hidden in these terminals. There are also hidden messages. While Durandal’s voice lines are playing, numbers begin scrolling along the side of the screen.

At first, they look like random data — just another piece of visual noise on the terminal interface.

But players quickly realised that those numbers actually form a code, a A1Z26 substitution cypher — where numbers correspond to letters of the alphabet — the message becomes clear.

The decoded message reads:

“To what was once home but now lies haunted. Go, dear violent one.”

If you know Marathon lore, that message says a lot.

Only one place fits this description.

The Marathon ship.

It’s a place that once carried humanity across the stars but later became something much darker—a place that holds the key to the next step.

But the puzzle doesn’t stop there.

Each terminal also contains a fragment of an IP address hidden within its interface.

When the community gathered all six pieces and put them together, they formed a complete address:

35.212.46.162

Typing the address into a browser leads to a new website: cryoarchive.systems

This is where things get even more interesting: a glitching image of the Marathon ship sits silently in the background.

When you use the site, it opens different screens that look like security cameras placed around the ship.

Locations include areas like:

• Cargo
• Preservation
• Steerage
• Control
• Revival
• Biotank

Each one feels like a small glimpse into unexplored parts of the ship, with some pages currently redacted or inactive. This suggests the puzzle is only partially unlocked.

Strange timers and hidden systems

The Cryo Archive website also has several strange details that the community is still trying to figure out.

Some camera feeds show status bars, but their meanings are unclear.

There are also timers that refresh every 15 seconds, hinting that something might update in real time.

Even stranger, one of the timers seems to count down to a date more than 760 years in the future. Meanwhile, players looking through the site’s code have also found hints that the system might be tracking UESC kills across the community.

If that’s true, it could mean this puzzle is linked to a community event, where players work together to unlock the next stage.

Right now, nobody knows for sure.

But things are moving.

Why this likely leads to Cryo Archive

All of this points to one place: the Cryo Archive map.

Cryo Archive has been teased as one of Marathon’s most mysterious endgame areas, and many think it will eventually return us to the Marathon ship.

The ARG messages clearly talk about returning to something that was once home.

The website shows locations inside the ship, and Durandal’s presence suggests Bungie is reconnecting the new game directly to the deeper lore of the original trilogy.

If that’s the case, this puzzle might be the first step toward unlocking one of Marathon’s biggest secrets.

If Bungie handles this as they have with past mysteries, this could turn into a full community investigation, with players everywhere working together to uncover the next layer. The mystery has only just begun.

Right now, we only see part of the picture.

The terminals on Outpost and Dire Marsh aren’t active yet, so more steps are likely coming. This could mean the puzzle is time-gated, or maybe the community just hasn’t triggered the next stage yet.

Either way, this feels like the start of something much bigger. It’s an ARG, a hidden story, and maybe even the path that will eventually take us onto the Marathon ship itself.

If you ask me, this is one of the coolest ways Bungie could introduce the Cryo Archive. If you’re running Perimeter, watch for those terminals. If you find anything new, let the community know.

This mystery is only just getting started.