Marathon: All DCON Locations and How to Use Them Efficiently

DCONs matter the moment a contract asks you to finish an objective during a run instead of just extracting with the right loot. Here is the part most players get wrong: a Marathon DCON is not a stash box and not a safe place to park items. It is an in-raid delivery terminal. You open it, transfer the required contract item into it, and that item is consumed on the spot. If the map icon never showed up for you, memorizing the terminal spots becomes your only reliable plan.

The short version

• A DCON is a delivery terminal. Transferring your contract item into it consumes the item permanently — it does not return to your vault.
• The turn-in only counts after the transfer finishes. Get eliminated mid-transfer and you can lose both the item and the progress.
• There are about ten DCON areas total: four on Perimeter, three on Dire Marsh, and three on Outpost.
• Almost every DCON sits on an outer lane, rooftop, cliff, or edge structure — not deep in the busy center of a POI.
• Deliver early. Carrying a contract item through two extra fights is how clean runs turn into wasted ones.

What a DCON actually does in Marathon

A DCON exists to complete specific contract deliveries on the spot. The reward is the contract progress and whatever payout that contract lists in its panel. What you do not get is the item back. Once you transfer it, it is gone from your inventory and it does not return to your vault after the raid.

That changes how you should value loot. If you are holding a contract item bound for a DCON, treat it as an objective, not as cargo you can safely extract with later. The best play is usually to hit the nearest low-risk DCON the moment you have the item instead of carrying it through two more fights and hoping the run stays clean.

• DCONs only matter for contracts that specifically require in-raid delivery.
• You must open the terminal and transfer the item into it.
• The delivery counts after the transfer completes, not when you arrive.
• The item is consumed and will not come back to your vault.
• If the DCON map marker bugs out, location memory is your backup plan.

How to use a DCON without wasting a run

Treat a DCON like a small extraction event. Clear the immediate area first, because opening a terminal inventory is one of the easiest ways to get jumped. Then run a fixed sequence: reach DCON → open inventory → transfer required item → wait for confirmation → move immediately. Do not stand there reorganizing your whole bag afterward.

With teammates, one player works the terminal while another holds the most obvious push lane. Solo, approach from the side that gives you the fastest disengage after the transfer — that matters more than shaving a few seconds off the route in. If you are still learning to survive these exposed stops, our 6 survival tips for staying alive longer in raids cover the positioning that keeps a turn-in from becoming a death.

Common mistakes that ruin DCON turn-ins

• Assuming the DCON marker will always appear on the map.
• Waiting until the end of the raid to deliver, when your route is crowded and your inventory is full.
• Opening the terminal before checking rooftops, corners, and approach lanes.
• Bringing the wrong item because two contract objects have similar names.
• Starting the transfer and then getting eliminated before it finishes.

All Marathon DCON locations on Perimeter

Perimeter is the cleanest map to learn. There are four DCONs, and every one of them sits on an outer lane, rooftop, cliff, or edge structure rather than deep inside the busy central spaces.

• North Relay: In the northwest corner, on the roof of a small isolated shelter. Head for the outer northwest edge, not the middle of the POI.
• Station: On a rooftop near the rock-wall, cliff-facing side of Station. Scan the high ground along the cliff edge.
• Overflow: On the western side near the cliffs, reached along an outer approach that crosses a bridge away from the main structure. If you are deep in the central buildings, you have gone too far.
• South Relay: Far south in a dead-end approach, past the South Relay area on the outer southern route. It is exposed — check the long sightlines before walking in.

On Perimeter, rotate along the map edge instead of cutting through the middle. The edge route is more readable, and these DCONs reward players who already think in terms of perimeter movement rather than pure shortest-path movement.

All Marathon DCON locations on Dire Marsh

Dire Marsh hides its three DCONs around outdoor landmarks rather than inside structures. Anchor each one to terrain — roads, bunker outskirts, and marsh edges — and they are easy to relocate. If you are running a Dire Marsh contract, our Cutthroat Competition walkthrough on Dire Marsh pairs well with these terminal spots.

• Greenhouse: Near the Greenhouse sector on the northwest side of the map. Stay in that northwestern Greenhouse cluster and you are in the right neighborhood.
• Quarantine: On the western side of the map near Quarantine, out in the marsh terrain rather than an interior room.
• Complex / AI Uplink: South of Complex and east of AI Uplink, on the road approach out of Complex. It is the Complex-side road terminal.

Practical rule for Dire Marsh: read terrain first. Look for roads, bunker outskirts, marsh edges, and external approach points. If you are combing every room inside a major structure, you are searching too deep.

All Marathon DCON locations on Outpost

Outpost is the most readable of the three. Its three DCONs all sit in obvious industrial spaces: a hangar, a gap between POIs, and a dock lane.

• Airfield: In the western hangar on the ground floor. The clearest cue is the structure with a hole in the ceiling — if you know that hangar, you will find this DCON fast.
• Orientation: On ground level in the gap between Orientation and Dormitories. Easy to overshoot if you sprint straight through without checking between the two named zones.
• Processing: In the dock and container area south of the main building, near the loading bay. Think low ground, industrial cover, and container lines rather than rooftop access.

Outpost rewards clean pathing. If your route runs through Airfield or Processing, fold the DCON stop into the same loop instead of doubling back — backtracking here usually creates more risk than it saves.

Are DCON deliveries worth it?

Usually yes, but only when you judge them as contract objectives rather than automatic turn-ins. A delivery is worth doing when the payout is meaningful, the required item is not more valuable for some other use, and the terminal is close to your current route. It is less attractive when the item eats scarce bag space and the nearest DCON forces you into a predictable fight.

• Good time to deliver: you already have the item, the terminal is on your rotation, and finishing the contract unlocks the next step or payout.
• Bad time to deliver: the area is hot, your squad is split, or the item is costly enough that forcing the turn-in feels worse than resetting for a cleaner run.

The best way to remember Marathon DCON locations

Do not memorize them as isolated dots — memorize them as route anchors. On Perimeter, think outer-edge rooftops and cliff lanes. On Dire Marsh, think bunker outskirts, marsh edges, and the road near Complex and AI Uplink. On Outpost, think hangar, building gap, and dock containers. For contracts that send you to fixed terminal points, the same map-reading habit applies to objectives like tagging marked locations in Protect/Destroy 3.

The plan is simple: learn one safe DCON circuit per map and treat every required item as something you deliver early, not carry greedily. The marker can bug and fights can interrupt a transfer, but once you know the ten terminal areas across Perimeter, Dire Marsh, and Outpost, DCON contracts stop feeling random and start feeling like route discipline.