Introducing: Traxus Contract is one of the more challenging priority missions you encounter early on in Marathon. It’s a 3-part contract that needs to be completed in a single run, and you need to defeat one of the more powerful UESC enemies as part of the contract.
Unlocking the Traxus Contract requires progressing the main story of Marathon through the Cyber Acme line to unlock additional factions. Once you have access to additional factions, you can navigate to the Traxus Faction window from the game’s main contract hub.
Once you’ve got access to the Traxus Faction, it’s time to start taking on contract missions for Traxus. Introducing: Traxus Contract is the first of those missions, and it takes place on the Dire Marsh map which is one of the medium difficulty maps. So expect slightly beefier enemies with more powerful weapons, so try to plan your crew’s Runner Shells accordingly.
Introducing: Traxus Contract mission objectives
To complete the Introducing: Traxus Contract mission, you have to complete all three primary objectives:
- Hack a terminal at the Complex, Intersection, or Bio-Research sections of the map
- Retrieve the Shipping Manifest from the UESC Commander
- Scan the shipping container
While the UESC Commander fight is difficulty, making sure to scan the shipping container near the boss encounter before it’s picked up by UESC forces is actually the tricker part of the mission.
Hack a terminal at Complex, Intersection, or Bio-Research
You’ve got three different map locations to pick from for your terminal hack. The terminals are not marked on the map but are inside buildings in those three map zones. You’ll want to find a terminal inside one of the buildings, one that has a screen with the UESC logo on it, and when you get close enough, you can interact with the terminal to “download workstation data.”
The terminal location you pick sets the location for the other two objectives for the contract, so pick your location wisely.
The terminal at Intersection is on the second floor of a research building, which makes it much easier to take down the UESC Commander with headshots when he spawns after the hack is complete. The terminals at Complex and Bio-Research are on the ground floor of one of the tower buildings, which can make it tricker to handle the UESC Commander’s shield.
Retrieve the Shipping Manifest
The only way to get the shipping manifest is to take down the UESC Commander.
The Commander will spawn at your location after you finish the hack, so be sure you’ve picked a good defensible position. The Commander is marked with a pink icon on your Runner HUD and he’s got a massive shield in front of him, which can make him difficult to attack. He also does not spawn alone, so you’ll have other UESC units to take down alongside the Commander.
The good thing is, the Commander is susceptible to headshots so if you’ve got a terrain advantage over him, just get some clean shots at his big robotic noggin and you’ll take him down easily. If you’ve unlocked additional Runner shells like the Recon shell, it’s an even easier encounter.
Scan the shipping container
You won’t be able to scan the shipping container before taking on the Commander since he did bring friends to the fight.
Depending on where you’ve decided to confront the Commander, you’ll have a few options for the shipping crate location but it will be nearby. If you’ve got two shipping crates marked at the correct location in your HUD, you’ll need to jump on top of the bottom shipping container to get the prompt to scan the crate.
Scanning the crate does take some time, so this puts you in prime position to be shot at by enemy forces. Try to clear the area as much as possible before you start the scan so you can complete the mission safely.
You can also delegate one of your crew mates to scan the crate and watch their back. As long as one member of the crew scans the crate, you’ll have completed the objective.
Introducing: Traxus Contract rewards
Once you’ve completed the introductory contract by hitting all three objectives on a single run, you’ve officially joined the Traxus Faction.
Not only does this unlock additional contracts for you to take on from Traxus, it also unlocks additional upgrades for your Runner shells which will come in handy while taking on more difficult encounters in later contracts as you progress through Marathon.
Just make sure you don’t get banned for cheating.
