Marathon: How to Complete Return on Investment 2 – Fast Traxus Guide

Why Return on Investment 2 Is Sneakily Annoying

After a couple of evenings bouncing off Return on Investment 2 in Marathon, I realized this contract isn’t hard, it’s just picky. The objective sounds simple – grab explosive supplies from Maintenance, then deal 750 explosive damage to UESC or Runners – but bad routing and wasted explosives can stretch this out over way too many raids.

This guide walks through the exact route I now use: a clean beeline into the southern Maintenance building to grab the explosives, then a safe, repeatable way to farm that 750 explosive damage without griefing your own run. If you follow this, you can comfortably finish the contract in one or two raids instead of “whenever it randomly happens.”

Contract Basics: What Return on Investment 2 Actually Wants

Return on Investment 2 is a Traxus priority contract. That means:

• You can only have one priority contract active at a time.
• Progress is shared with your crew – everyone contributes to the same objective.
• Progress persists across raids. If you do 400 damage in one run and 350 in the next, it still counts.

The contract has two parts:

• Objective 1: Acquire explosive supplies from the Maintenance POI.
• Objective 2: Deal at least 750 explosive damage to UESC troops or Runners.

You don’t need to do them in a single raid, but doing both in one clean run is very doable if you plan for it. The trick is knowing exactly where the explosives are in Maintenance and then not wasting them on random trash mobs.

Preparation: Loadout and Mindset

What finally made this contract feel free was treating it like a combat raid with a side objective, not a loot run. Here’s what I recommend bringing based on what worked for me:

• Primary weapon: A reliable mid-range rifle or SMG. You’re mostly fighting UESC infantry; you want something that can finish weakened enemies after you tag them with explosives.
• Secondary: Something you’re confident with up close in case things get messy in Maintenance – a shotgun or sidearm.
• Grenades: If you have your own explosives, bring them, but don’t rely on them. The contract will hand you explosives in Maintenance; that’s the real payload.
• Healing and heat management: Basic med kits and something to manage heat if you plan to stay in combat zones for a while.

You don’t need a min-maxed build. The big thing is ammo discipline – you want enemies alive long enough to take explosive damage instead of instantly deleting them with your primary.

Step 1: Getting to Maintenance Efficiently

I lost a lot of time early on just meandering toward Maintenance and getting distracted. Now I treat it as my first stop almost every time I run this contract.

• Queue into a raid that includes Dire Marsh with the Maintenance POI available.
• As soon as you load in, pull up your map and mark Maintenance.
• Head there directly, avoiding unnecessary firefights on the way in – you want your resources fresh for after you grab the explosives.

Maintenance tends to sit on the western side of Dire Marsh, but the actual explosives room is in the southern section of the Maintenance POI. Once you’re close enough, the contract will throw a marker on the correct building, so don’t stress precise GPS navigation – just get into Maintenance fast.

Step 2: Breaching the Southern Maintenance Building

This is the part that confused me at first, because the building looks active but is actually locked until you interact with the environment the right way.

Here’s the building you’re looking for and how to crack it:

• Head to the southern edge of the Maintenance complex.
• Look for a structure with white and pink elements – panels and trim stand out against the usual grungy industrial look.
• As you approach, your Return on Investment 2 marker should snap onto this building, confirming you’re in the right place.

You’ll notice the main entrance is sealed by an energy barrier or lock. The breakthrough for me was realizing this isn’t a “find the keycard” situation – it’s a shoot the power boxes puzzle.

What to do:

• Scan around the doorway and nearby walls for boxes and small panels tied into the barrier.
• They stand out because they’re more colorful / highlighted compared to generic clutter.
• Shoot these boxes one by one – you’ll see the barrier flicker and then shut down fully.

Don’t make my early mistake of dumping a whole mag into random props. Aim for anything that looks like a power node or junction box feeding the door. Once you’ve popped the right ones, the barrier disappears and the entrance opens up.

• Scan around the doorway and nearby walls for boxes and small panels tied into the barrier.
• They stand out because they’re more colorful / highlighted compared to generic clutter.
• Shoot these boxes one by one – you’ll see the barrier flicker and then shut down fully.

Don’t make my early mistake of dumping a whole mag into random props. Aim for anything that looks like a power node or junction box feeding the door. Once you’ve popped the right ones, the barrier disappears and the entrance opens up.

Step 3: Climb the Ladder and Loot the Explosive Supplies

Inside, the layout is straightforward but still easy to bungle if you panic or get third-partied:

• Move in slowly – clear the ground floor corners in case someone beat you there.
• Look for a ladder leading up to the first floor / mezzanine level.
• Climb the ladder (default PC binding is usually E or your interact key; check your settings if needed).
• At the top, the contract marker will sit on a container or crate holding the explosives.
• Interact with the crate to loot the explosive supplies.

As soon as you loot it, you should see the first objective tick as complete. The supplies usually appear in your inventory as a stack of explosive charges or grenades – however they’re labeled in your build, they count for the contract.

From here, don’t linger. You’ve just made noise shooting the boxes and climbing around; other Runners love ambushing people in Maintenance. I usually:

• Drop back down carefully.
• Exit the building via the same door.
• Rotate to a nearby UESC patrol area rather than staying in the center of Maintenance.

Step 4: Choosing the Right Targets for Explosive Damage

The second half of the contract is where I initially wasted the most time. The game just says “deal 750 explosive damage to UESC troops or Runners,” but not all targets are equal.

Based on experience, here’s what works best:

• Prioritize UESC troops. They’re predictable AI, they clump up, and you’re not gambling with PvP.
• Treat Runners as bonus progress. If a fight breaks out and you land a good grenade, great – but don’t chase other players just for this contract.
• Look for small squads of 2–4 UESC rather than lone stragglers. Splash damage is your friend.

Remember: the contract is counting damage dealt, not kills. A single grenade that chunks three UESC for 200 each basically finishes the requirement in one throw.

Step 5: How to Actually Land 750 Explosive Damage

Here’s the combat pattern that consistently finishes the objective for me within one raid after grabbing the supplies:

• Find a patrol. Move toward known UESC hotspots – road intersections, checkpoints, and obvious chokepoints near Maintenance usually have them.
• Soft-aggro them first. Tag one enemy with a couple of body shots to get the group to clump or move into cover.
• Wait half a beat. Let them stack behind a barrier, doorway, or around a corner – you want them grouped.
• Toss your explosives right where they’re taking cover, not at their feet while they’re spread out.
• Immediately clean up survivors with your primary before they pressure you.

Two or three good explosive hits like this will usually finish the 750 damage requirement. If you’re unsure how close you are, you can safely assume that:

• One direct hit on a full-health UESC is usually ~100–200 damage depending on armor and blast radius.
• Multi-hits (two enemies in one blast) add up incredibly fast.

Don’t throw explosives at full-health groups from too far away. I wasted a lot early on lobbing charges that barely clipped enemies. Think of them like short-range room clearers: get closer than feels comfortable, use cover, then go for the guaranteed hit.

Common Mistakes That Drag This Contract Out

Learn from the dumb things I did so you don’t repeat them:

• Ignoring the contract marker at Maintenance. I spent a couple of raids searching the wrong buildings because I wasn’t watching for the marker snap. Always let the marker confirm you’ve found the right structure.
• Trying to fight everyone inside Maintenance. Grab explosives, leave. It’s not a holdout mission.
• Using explosives on random creatures or armored targets. Only UESC troops and Runners count. Blowing up anything else is just burning progress.
• Going full PvP hunter. Chasing Runners just to get “contract damage” is a great way to lose your loot and explosives. Take PvP damage as a free bonus, not the plan.
• Forgetting progress is persistent. Don’t tilt if you die after one good nade. Those hits still moved the bar; you’re not back to zero.

Rewards and Why This Contract Is Worth Doing

Once both objectives tick off – explosives looted and 750 explosive damage dealt – you can safely extract whenever it makes sense. Back at base, you’ll see a nice bump in Traxus faction standing.

That standing isn’t just a number. It feeds into:

• Better Traxus shops: Access to useful items like med kits, recovery tools, and more specialized gear.
• Improved salvage exchanges: Turning junk you find in places like Maintenance into credits or materials.
• Unlocking further Traxus contracts: Later priority contracts build on this one, so getting it done early keeps your progression smooth.

Route Recap: One-Run Checklist

If you want a quick mental checklist to run this in one go, here’s what I follow now:

• Spawn in, mark Maintenance, and beeline there.
• Head to the southern building with white/pink details; confirm with the contract marker.
• Shoot the surrounding boxes to drop the barrier.
• Enter, climb the ladder, and loot the marked explosive supplies.
• Exit Maintenance; rotate to a UESC patrol area.
• Soft-aggro squads, let them clump, then land 2–3 solid explosive hits.
• Clean up with your primary, then extract once the contract completes.

Once I started following that route, Return on Investment 2 went from “eventually I’ll finish this” to “easy Traxus rep whenever I feel like it.” If I can turn this from a chore into a routine run, you absolutely can too.