The One Rule That Decides Every Mod Choice
Marathon's mod system looks like every other looter's: six rarities, eight mod families, hundreds of entries. It isn't, and the difference decides how you spend every credit you extract.
Every Prestige mod in the game is locked to exactly one weapon. There are 30 base weapons and 30 Prestige mods, and the mapping is one-to-one — no gun has two, none has zero. The Prestige description always opens the same way: "A custom-made mod for the …", and then it names your gun. Nothing else in the mod pool works like that; a Superior chip goes on whatever you like.
So the question people actually type — which Prestige mod is the best one — has no answer, because you never choose between them. The real question is whether the gun you already run has a Prestige mod worth 24,000 credits. That is what the table further down answers, gun by gun.
Two consequences worth internalising before you save up:
- Buying the mod means committing to the gun. Drop the weapon and the mod is dead weight — it fits nothing else.
- Chips are the exception that proves the rule. The chip family has no Prestige tier at all. If you want a universal upgrade you can move between weapons, Superior chips are the whole game — see below, and they are the bulk of what our Marathon weapon mod farming actually pulls.
The Rarity Ladder — and Where the Price Breaks
Rarity in Marathon runs Standard → Enhanced → Deluxe → Superior → Prestige → Contraband. Most guides stop at Prestige; Contraband sits above it and is described as "very exclusive, high valued" gear rather than a mod tier you shop for.
The interesting part is the money, and it needs one honest caveat before the table. Only the Prestige row below is a fixed, universal figure. All 30 Prestige mods list the identical 24,000 credit cost and the identical 1,620 credit exfil value — 30 out of 30, no spread by family or weapon. Beneath Prestige, most database entries list no vendor cost at all, and exfil value varies mod by mod, so those cells are the typical entry rather than a rule.
| Rarity | Colour | Typical vendor cost | Typical exfil value | Cost ÷ value | How solid is that? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Grey | 115 | 23 | 5.0× | 1 priced entry — indicative only |
| Enhanced | Green | 345 | 60 | 5.8× | 18 of 21 priced entries say 345; value 60 or 69 on 86 of 99 |
| Deluxe | Blue | 1,000–1,035 | 207 | ~5.0× | split — 7 entries say 1,000, 6 say 1,035 |
| Superior | Purple | 3,105 | 621 | 5.0× | all 6 priced entries agree; value 621 on 78 of 141 |
| Prestige | Gold | 24,000 | 1,620 | 14.8× | exact — all 30 of 30 |
Two things fall out of that, and both hold even on the cautious reading.
The step to Prestige is far bigger than the steps below it. 115 → 345 → ~1,035 → 3,105 is roughly a tripling each time. Carry that forward and Prestige should land near 9,300 credits. It costs 24,000 — about 7.7× Superior, not 3×. Whatever the exact figures at the bottom of the ladder, the top of it is priced on a different curve.
And Prestige is by far the worst thing to hold. Every tier from Standard to Superior resells for roughly a fifth of what it cost — a consistent 5× loss. Prestige resells for 1,620 against 24,000, a 14.8× loss, three times worse than anything beneath it. That one is not an estimate; both numbers are exact and universal across all 30 mods.
The practical rule: never buy a Prestige mod as an investment, and never carry a spare one into a run hoping to bank it. 1,620 credits does not justify the risk, and it is a rounding error next to what you paid. Buy Prestige only to bolt onto a gun you will still be using next week. For everything else, Superior is where the credits actually work — which is also why the mod runs we sell are priced per mod and per rarity rather than as one package.
All 30 Prestige Mods and the Gun Each One Fits
Here is every Prestige mod against the weapon it belongs to. Use the filter above the table to jump to your weapon class.
The tier column is not a damage ranking — nobody can measure 30 weapon-locked perks honestly in one pass, and any site claiming a DPS order for these is guessing. It ranks something you can check yourself in the mod description: how much the perk changes what the weapon does.
- S — the perk gives the gun a capability it did not have: a new firing mode, a new projectile, silence, an extra charge level. These change your loadout, not just your numbers.
- A — a strong conditional swing in a fight: ramping fire rate, self-healing, ammo economy. Excellent, but the gun still plays the same.
- B — utility and information: radar, sonar pings, hipfire accuracy, zoom. Real value, rarely the thing that wins the fight.
- C — stat lines only, no unique perk. Nothing is in this tier. Every one of the thirty Prestige mods carries a real perk; the one that appears not to on community tables turned out to be a documentation gap, not a weak mod.
| Tier | Weapon | Class | Prestige mod | Slot | What the perk does |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | M77 Assault Rifle | Assault Rifle | Interval Mag | Magazine | Precision hits with iron sights build stacks; unlocks an alternative firing mode. |
| S | Overrun AR | Assault Rifle | Adaptive Mag | Magazine | Toggles a burst-fire mode. Body shots raise precision and aim assist briefly. |
| S | CE Tactical Sidearm | Pistol | Ghost Barrel | Barrel | Silences the weapon. |
| S | D54 Battle Pistol | Pistol | Daredevil Stock | Stock | Folded stock stacks hipfire power; unfolding converts stacks to a burst. |
| S | ARES RG | Railgun | Impact Shockwave | Magazine | Rounds explode on impact for splash damage and knockback. |
| S | BRRT SMG | SMG | Flechette Split Action | Barrel | Fires all five burst rounds at once in a tight spread. |
| S | Copperhead RF | SMG | Triple Barrel | Barrel | Fires three shots at once in a fan pattern. |
| S | V85 Circuit Breaker | Shotgun | Overclocked Delimiter | Magazine | Adds a third charge level with greatly increased output. |
| S | WSTR Combat Shotgun | Shotgun | MIPS Slug Converter | Barrel | Press to convert shells into a high-powered slug. |
| S | Outland | Sniper | Outland Suppressor | Barrel | Silences a sniper rifle. |
| A | Impact HAR | Assault Rifle | Stopping Mag | Magazine | Fires charged rounds that generate heat on targets. |
| A | V75 SCAR | Assault Rifle | Ram-Page Mag | Magazine | Fire rate no longer drops as heat builds, and projectiles ricochet. |
| A | Conquest LMG | Machine Gun | Infinity Belt | Magazine | Eliminations feed ammo straight into the magazine and raise fire rate. |
| A | Hardline PR | Precision Rifle | Adrenal Feedback Rounds | Magazine | Precision hits cut your shell’s heat and stack Micro-Adrenaline. |
| A | Repeater HPR | Precision Rifle | Lever Overhaul Interface | Optic | Hits raise fire rate; the bonus decays when you miss. |
| A | Twin Tap HBR | Precision Rifle | Q-Tap Regen Optic | Optic | At very low health, landing a full burst starts health regeneration. |
| A | V11 Punch | Pistol | Thermal Surge Battery | Magazine | Charged shots track toward hostiles and overheat them. |
| A | Bully SMG | SMG | Rodeo Mag | Magazine | Fire rate climbs sharply the longer you hold the trigger. |
| A | KKV-9SD | SMG | Flechette Drum | Magazine | Breaking a shield triggers strong healing, stronger when you are alone. |
| A | V22 Volt Thrower | SMG | Overcharge Lens | Barrel | Consecutive hits detonate an explosive burst on the target. |
| A | Longshot | Sniper | Kingmaker Mag | Magazine | Headshots raise fire rate, stacking three times. |
| B | Demolition HMG | Machine Gun | Overclocked Shield | Shield | While the shield is up, aiming down sights raises fire rate. |
| B | Retaliator LMG | Machine Gun | Circuit Shield | Shield | While the shield is up, aiming down sights raises fire rate. |
| B | BR33 Volley Rifle | Precision Rifle | Lockout Muzzle Brake | Barrel | Greatly increased hipfire accuracy and stability. |
| B | Stryder M1T | Precision Rifle | Vital Intel | Optic | Turns on the radar proximity sensor when hostiles are close. |
| B | V66 Lookout | Precision Rifle | Sonar Shot | Barrel | Precision downs fire a sonar pulse that reveals nearby hostiles. |
| B | Magnum MC | Pistol | Pistol Scope | Optic | Adds a high-zoom optic; precision hits restore shields. |
| B | Misriah 2442 | Shotgun | Full-Auto Selector | Grip | Fires full auto from the hip, with wider pellet spread. |
| B | V99 Channel Rifle | Sniper | Charge-Coupled Optic | Optic | Charge rate rises while you hold the target in the scope. |
| A | V00 Zeus RG | Railgun | Overclocked Generator | Generator | Doubles magazine size, so the double-shot costs no extra trigger pulls. |
One entry is worth singling out, because the community mod lists get it wrong. The V00 Zeus RG's Overclocked Generator reads as a stats-only mod on every wiki table — and it is not. Bungie's own Update 1.0.6 notes say it doubles the magazine, specifically so the railgun's double-shot stops costing a trigger pull and split shots on odd magazine sizes go away. On a gun whose base magazine is five and whose ceiling is fifteen, that is one of the largest single-mod swings on this board rather than the weakest. If a mod list tells you this one is filler, it is reading a table that never got updated.
Do not own the gun yet? The base weapon has to come first — a Prestige mod with nothing to sit on is 24,000 credits of decoration. Our PROs farm the base weapons themselves by class and rarity if the drop will not come.
See Marathon weapon mods →Our PROs farm Marathon weapon mods to order — pick the rarity and the mods you need and they land on your account while you keep playing the gun you actually like.
Chips: The Family With No Prestige Tier
Chips are the odd family, and the odd thing about them is what they are missing. Counting the current pool by rarity:
| Chip rarity | Chips available |
|---|---|
| Standard | 3 |
| Enhanced | 13 |
| Deluxe | 20 |
| Superior | 46 |
| Prestige | 0 |
Chips are the only mod family with no Prestige tier, and simultaneously the deepest Superior pool in the game — 46 entries, more than double any other family's best tier. Both facts point the same way: for chips, Superior is the ceiling, so there is nothing to save for. The instinct that serves you everywhere else — hold your credits, wait for gold — is simply wrong here.
Chips are also the only mods that move freely between weapons, which makes them the best credit-per-hour purchase in the game for anyone still settling on a main.
Superior chips worth naming, with what they actually do:
- Bounty Hunter — 100 credits per UESC kill at Superior. Update 1.1.0 raised this tier from 25 to 100, a 4× buff that quietly turned a throwaway chip into the best credit farm in the pool. If you are grinding toward a 24,000-credit Prestige mod, this is how you pay for it.
- Rorschach Test — reloading while surrounded overflows the magazine. 1.1.0 raised the ballistic overflow by roughly 20%.
- Circuit Tracers — eliminations reload a massive portion of the magazine. The closest thing to never reloading in a horde fight.
- See Ya — reloading on an empty magazine turns you briefly invisible. 1.1.0 took the duration from 3 seconds to 4, which is the difference between a panic button and an escape.
- Alternating Current — restores a massive amount of health or shields when you damage an EMP'd target. Needs a build around it; pays enormously when you have one.
- Exterminator and Punishment — flat large damage bonuses against Anomalous and Sph't combatants respectively. Swap by zone rather than carrying one all season.
- Slip Protocol — stability and accuracy while moving, by a massive amount. The honest pick for anyone who cannot hold still in a firefight.
Treat Mini Jammer with more caution than its reputation suggests: 1.1.0 added passive aim-assist and ADS-speed penalties across all tiers and slowed its activation, with the Superior tier going from 0.5 seconds to 1 second. It still works; it is no longer free.
Chips drop across every zone rather than from one farm, which makes them a time problem more than a skill problem — the usual reason people ask us to run the chip farm instead of grinding it.
The Cryo Archive Shortcut — and Its Catch
There is a way to get Prestige mods without paying 24,000 credits for them, and it happens to be the mode most Marathon players are already trying to run.
The Cryo Archive, aboard the abandoned UESC Marathon, contains six Vaults. Each Vault holds a Prestige-tier Unique weapon, and several of those weapons ship with a Prestige mod already installed:
| Vault | Unique weapon | Base weapon | Prestige mod pre-installed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vault 1 | DRRVISH | BRRT SMG | Flechette Split Action |
| Vault 2 | V99 WATCHTOWER | V99 Channel Rifle | Charge-Coupled Optic |
| Vault 3 | SALT WAGES | Conquest LMG | Infinity Belt |
| Vault 4 | V85 FREE-TAIL | V85 Circuit Breaker | — |
| Vault 5 | M77 OMNIPOSITOR | M77 Assault Rifle | — |
| Vault 6 | FIST OF PHOBOS | Stryder M1T | — |
The catch is real and most people find it the hard way: Unique weapons have locked mod slots. The wiki's own definition of the rarity is blunt about it — "This weapon uses unique upgrades; its mod slots are locked." So DRRVISH is a BRRT SMG that permanently has Flechette Split Action and a Superior Shortwave Scout Optic, and that is the gun forever. You cannot harvest the gold mod off it and you cannot tune the rest of the build.
That makes it a genuine trade rather than a free win:
- Take the Vault weapon if the pre-installed package is close to what you would have built anyway. You skip 24,000 credits and a Superior optic on top.
- Buy the Prestige mod separately if you care about the other slots — a base BRRT SMG with Flechette Split Action plus chips of your choosing beats a locked DRRVISH for anyone with a specific build in mind.
Timing matters more than most loot in this game. The Cryo Archive is not always open, and this is where published guides are least reliable. Most of them still print a fixed window — Thursday 10:00 AM PT to Sunday 10:00 AM PT, every week — and IGN's wiki and several boosting sites all repeat exactly that. Bungie has since changed the rotation specifically so that Cryo Archive and Ranked no longer run at the same time, after players complained about having to choose between them on one weekend's worth of good gear. The community read of the new pattern is that Cryo drifts a day earlier each week while Ranked drifts later, overlapping only occasionally near a wipe. The fixed Thursday-to-Sunday answer you will find on most sites is therefore stale. Check the in-game timer before you plan a session — it is the only source that is current by definition.
If the window keeps closing before you have a crew, PRO teams run Cryo Archive Vault clears while it is live, and the UESC Marathon raid around it, on your account.
Cryo Archive runs →The Vaults only open on a rotating schedule, and the Prestige-tier Unique weapons are behind them. PRO crews run the Archive on your account when the window is live.
What Season 2 Actually Changed
Season 2 is Nightfall, and the mod sandbox it shipped with is not the one Season 1 players learned. The changes worth knowing:
There is no thermal sniper optic in Season 2. Bungie rotated the Superior (Purple) SP Scope out of the loot pool, and since it was the last thermal sniper optic left, the category is simply gone for the season. If you are building a sniper around thermals, stop — you cannot finish the build.
Optics were rebalanced from spikes into spreads. The pattern across the whole optic family in Update 1.1.0 was to take one huge stat and split it into three moderate ones. The Superior (Purple) Accu-Sight Optic went from +30 ADS Speed and +70 ADS Accuracy to +40 ADS Accuracy, +40 Range and +40 Moving Accuracy. The Superior Neuro-Optic Lens went from a flat +100 ADS Speed to +60 ADS Speed and +60 ADS Accuracy. Old optic recommendations built on the single-stat spikes no longer describe the items.
Seven new chip perks arrived at once — Ghillie Suit, Buffer Overflow, Alarmist, Refocuser, Scrapyard and Exterminator across all rarities, plus Brain Freeze at Superior only. That is a meaningful share of the 46-chip Superior pool being less than a season old, which is the main reason chip advice written for Season 1 reads oddly now.
Eleven new Unique weapons landed in Update 1.1.0, including MACRO LS (a nimbler precision-rifle cut of the Longshot) and SIEGE ENGINE LMG (a Conquest LMG rebuilt as a mobile turret). Remember the locked-slot rule before you get attached to one.
Where the game is right now: the live build is Update 1.1.5.2 from 28 July 2026, following 1.1.5 on 16 July and 1.1.5.1 on 21 July. The Vault Breaker experimental PvE mode that ran inside the Cryo Archive from 21 July has finished its window and ended on 4 August. Season 3 begins on 22 September 2026, which is also the sensible deadline on any Prestige purchase: a seasonal loot-pool rotation is exactly what removed the thermal sniper optics, and a mod you buy in September has a shorter runway than one you buy today. The same deadline applies to this season's Ranked rewards, which do not carry over.
The Buying Order
If you are staring at a credit balance and want the short version, spend in this order.
- Superior chips first, always. They cost 3,105, they move between weapons, they are the deepest pool in the game, and for chips there is no higher tier to save for. Start with Bounty Hunter — at 100 credits per UESC kill it partly funds everything after it.
- Superior optics and mags for the gun you actually main. Same 3,105, and after the 1.1.0 rebalance the Superior tier of an optic is a genuine three-stat upgrade rather than one spike.
- One Prestige mod — only for a weapon you have kept for a full season, and only if it sits in the S band above. Paying 24,000 credits for a perk that adds stats you already have is the most common way people waste a week of extraction.
- Cryo Archive Vault weapons whenever the window is open, treating a locked build you like as better than a perfect build you have not funded.
And the thing not to do: do not carry Prestige mods around as portable wealth. At 1,620 credits of exfil value against a 24,000 credit price, a gold mod in your bag is the worst risk-to-reward item you can be holding when a squad pushes your extract.
Short on the credits to start any of this? Credits, faction rep and levels all come off the same extraction loop — the Marathon hub covers the grind under every item on this page.
Methodology & Sources
Everything on this page is sourced, and the two places our sources disagree are called out in the text rather than smoothed over.
- Mod database, rarities, costs and exfil values — the Marathon Wiki's Weapon Mods tables (388 mod entries across eight families), read 12 August 2026. The 30-to-30 weapon mapping was produced by parsing every Prestige perk string and extracting the weapon each one names, then checking that no weapon appeared twice and none was missed.
- Balance changes and stat values — Bungie's own Marathon Update 1.1.0 notes. Every per-mod number on this page names its rarity tier, because the same mod has different values at Enhanced, Deluxe and Superior and a figure without a tier is meaningless.
- Cryo Archive schedule — the fixed Thursday-to-Sunday window comes from IGN's Marathon wiki and is repeated widely; the change that supersedes it comes from Bungie's dev communication as reported by Gamereactor and discussed on r/Marathon. We show both and tell you to trust the in-game timer.
- Patch dates — Bungie's Marathon Updates index. Note that Bungie's own Mid-Season 2 preview announced Update 1.1.5 for 21 July while the shipped release list puts 1.1.5 on 16 July and 1.1.5.1 on 21 July; we follow the release list.
Where a claim could not be verified against a primary source, it is not on this page.
One correction made before publishing, and it is the reason this page cites patch notes and not only wiki tables. Every community mod list we checked shows the V00 Zeus RG’s Overclocked Generator with no unique perk, which would put it at the bottom of this board. Bungie’s Update 1.0.6 notes (14 April 2026, read 12 August 2026) say the opposite: “Magazine size is now doubled by this Prestige mod so the double-shot will not reduce the total number of trigger pulls per magazine.” A wiki row that lists no perk is evidence about the wiki, not about the game.
FAQ
Open the Marathon hub →Weapons, mods, raids, ranked, factions and levelling — once you know what you are building, the hub covers the grind behind it.