High Ping in Marathon - Is There an Easy Solution

Marathon, as another major work from the legendary developer Bungie, has been welcomed by players around the world since the start of testing. It combines Bungie’s specialty in space sci‑fi themes with the currently hottest extraction‑shooter gameplay, emphasizing players’ precise coordination. However, high ping can ruin all of this: many players don’t even know what happened before being hit by massive latency, with ping values becoming extremely abnormal or repeatedly fluctuating.

The good news is that Marathon’s high ping is not unsolvable. Let’s take a look together at the effective methods.

What Causes High Ping in Marathon?

ou might think high ping is a random, uncontrollable anomaly, but in fact it isn't — it's closely related to your connection routing, network stability, and usage habits:

• Far from the server — signals take longer to travel, so ping is higher.
• Poor ISP routing — your provider sends data along slow or crowded paths, adding delay.
• Weak or noisy Wi‑Fi — bad wireless signal causes drops and makes ping jumpy.
• Home network crowding — other devices or uploads use bandwidth and raise ping.
• Bad hardware or packet loss — faulty router/cables or lost data cause retries and sudden spikes.

So, what will Marathon become when the ping is high?

Your shots and abilities will register late or not at all, movement can stutter or “rubberband” (teleporting back), and you may get killed even though it looked like you were behind cover. Fast fights become unfair because actions happen at different times for different players, and you'll see big spikes or temporary disconnects that interrupt matches. In short: high ping turns smooth, responsive gameplay into laggy, frustrating chaos.

How to Quickly Reduce Marathon's Ping?

What really makes high ping difficult is that we may not be able to directly and accurately find the problem and fix it, but people do not want to endlessly waste time on network adjustments. So GearUP might be the best solution. It is a tool that truly optimizes the network for every game; it can:

1. One‑click optimization, with no network setup process
2. Connection optimization precise to each Marathon server
3. Real‑time Marathon ping testing and network status monitoring
4. Server locking and intelligent cross‑region connections (based on intelligent multi‑line technology)

GearUP is an intelligent game network assistant that lets you focus on searching, evacuating, and fighting in Marathon without worrying about sudden network jitter, keeping ping stable at all times. You can see how simple its usage is:

1. Open GearUP and find Marathon.
   
2. Pick a server (or choose Auto to let GearUP pick the best one).
   
3. Click Boost, watch the network status, then start Marathon — you should get a smoother, lower‑ping game.

What Else Do You Need to Pay Attention To?

Stable Network Connection

A wired connection is the best choice, because Wi‑Fi is usually easily affected by interference and may cause ping fluctuations during gameplay. Of course, some players may have to use Wi‑Fi, so you can connect to the more stable band according to the actual situation:

• 2.4 GHz: strong wall penetration, suitable when you and the router are not in the same room
• 5 GHz or 6 GHz: faster and more stable; if the router is right next to you, please connect to this

Do not change your router settings at will; these settings usually have no effect.

Avoid Local Network Congestion

Many players like to enable online music, streaming, live broadcasts, or even download other software while playing. These programs often have high data transmission priority and will occupy a lot of the network, causing Marathon’s ping to be high or fluctuate repeatedly. Therefore, be sure to turn them off, and only keep tools like GearUP that are helpful for the game.

Also, devices connected to the same network can have these effects; you can try turning them off.

What Counts as Good Ping When Playing Marathon?

The impact of different ping ranges on players' gaming experience:

• < 30 ms — Excellent: perfectly smooth and responsive; ideal for competitive play.
• 30–60 ms — Very good: little to no noticeable lag for most players.
• 60–100 ms — Acceptable: playable, but fast fights and tight timing can feel slightly off.
• 100–150 ms — Noticeable lag: gameplay becomes less snappy; you may lose some fights.
• 150–250 ms — Poor: big input lag and higher risk of rubberbanding or being out of sync.
• 250 ms — Very poor/unplayable: severe delays and likely frequent disconnects or mismatch.

Recommended targets:

• Casual players: aim for <100 ms.
• Competitive players: aim for <50 ms, ideally <30 ms.
• Always prioritize low jitter and near-zero packet loss.

However, ping cannot be reduced indefinitely, because one of the key factors that affects ping—physical distance—cannot be eliminated. As distance increases, ping will inevitably rise, which is also why we recommend connecting to a closer server.

GearUP

What You Also Need to Know about High Ping in Marathon?

Q1: Can increasing internet speed reduce Marathon’s ping?
The effect is negligible. Increasing bandwidth raises the amount of data that can be sent and received simultaneously, but Marathon’s real‑time data volume is not large, so bandwidth cannot cause a noticeable effect.

Q2: Why does Marathon’s ping always exceed 100 ms?
If you have already confirmed that you are connected to the nearest server and have optimized according to this guide, then it may be that you are physically far from the server — this is latency caused by physical distance.

Q3: Can a VPN reduce ping?
No. A general VPN forwards all traffic together and does not specially handle Marathon’s data, and its encryption nodes do not take game server distribution into account; in other words, it may instead cause routing detours and thus increase ping.

Q4: Which Marathon server should I connect to?
Use GearUP to test the ping to all Marathon servers you connect to; we recommend choosing the one with the best ping.

Summary

High ping in Marathon is not a hard problem to solve. Do not be troubled by methods on the internet that do not work, because what you really need is a professional optimization tool like GearUP that is designed specifically for gamers. At the same time, find the server that suits you best and keep ping at an acceptable and stable level so that your evacuation shooting experience can remain consistent. If you are still experiencing high ping, why not give it a try now.