Marvel Rivals Season 1: Everything You Need To Know

by

NetEase and Marvel are preparing for the upcoming Season 1 content in their highly popular hero-shooter game, Marvel Rivals, which has caused quite a stir in the gaming world. Currently boasting over 20 million active players (and growing), Marvel Rivals is set to be one of the top new games this year.

Season 0 concluded with quite a boom, introducing an impressive array of 33 legendary characters from the Marvel Comics universe – both heroes and villains. Additionally, it fostered a burgeoning esports scene, attracting skilled professionals to participate in its tournaments.

In Season 1, it appears that New York City is facing some difficulties, as Dracula seems to have taken over with his vampire abilities. Fortunately, the Fantastic Four are prepared to lend a hand. Here’s what you should know about Marvel Rivals Season 1:

The Fantastic Four Are Here!

For Season 1, there’s an exciting expansion: Four new characters are joining the original 33, bringing the roster count to 37. Among them are Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing, set to create quite a stir in the game dynamics.

On the initial release of Season 1, Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman will be available for all players, while the Human Torch and the Thing will become accessible mid-season. This tactic by NetEase offers an enjoyable introduction to the latest heroes without bombarding players with too many options at once.

Dracula Has Taken Over New York

In the first season, Dracula, a renowned antagonist from the Marvel universe and long-time adversary of Blade, serves as the main antagonist. Interestingly, he has an outstanding debt with Moon Knight.

Following Doctor Doom’s manipulation of time during Season 0, New York City has been transformed by Dracula into a nursery for vampires. This transformation leads to widespread disorder throughout the city, with once-familiar landmarks being flipped on their heads.

As a gamer immersed in the Marvel Universe, I’ve found myself in a chilling twist: once-familiar landmarks like Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building, and even Avengers Tower now bear the ominous mark of Dracula’s sway.

3 New Maps!

In the debut of Season 1, you’ll find two maps tainted by Dracula’s influence. Around the same time as the mid-season arrival of both the Human Torch and the Thing, a third map will also be introduced.

  • The Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown will be a convoy map, with the Fantastic Four’s resident robotic pet, H.E.R.B.I.E., as the payload.
  • Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum will be home to a new game mode for arcade players called ‘Doom Match.’ This mode pits players against each other in a deathmatch-style game, where the first to reach a set percentage wins.
  • The third map, Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park, will be released mid-season. It could potentially be a Convergence map, mixing Convoy and Domination gameplay. All three maps will feature destructible environments, allowing players to reshape the battlefield and develop new strategies.

New Battle Pass

In comparison to the Season 0 Battle Pass, the one for Season 1 is twice as large. It boasts an array of 10 fresh skins, including a Van Helsing-inspired Wolverine, a darker take on Loki, and a more enchanting version of Scarlet Witch.

The Battle Pass costs 990 Lattice (our yellow currency), and it comes with the ability to unlock 600 Lattices and 600 Units (the blue currency). Once you buy it, there’s no expiration date, so you can make progress whenever you want without worrying about missing out.

Balance Changes

Marvel and NetEase have teased new balance updates for their best- and worst-performing heroes.

  • Hela and Hawkeye will finally receive nerfs for being the most frustrating heroes to fight in high-level play, reducing one-shot kills and unbalanced damage.
  • Buffs will be provided for underperforming heroes, including Storm, Captain America, Venom, Wolverine, and Cloak & Dagger. Details are still scarce, but players hope Storm will become viable in higher ranks.
  • Jeff the Shark’s ultimate will be reworked to make his ‘circle of death’ more manageable, giving players better counterplay options.

Rank Reset

When Season 1 starts, ranks will undergo an adjustment, causing players to fall down seven divisions from their existing rank. To illustrate, a player currently at Platinum 1 would move down to Silver 2.

A fresh category called “Exalted” is going to be placed between “Grandmaster” and “Eternity”, offering a clearer separation for advanced gamers.

And More!

As a gamer, I’m excited to share that starting from the next season, we’ll have a new feature called my “Gamer’s Guide to Heroes” on our game’s website. This guide will be updated every season, providing insights into which heroes are popular among players (the most- and least-picked ones), their winning rates, how well they fit the current meta, and more juicy data. This tool is going to be a game-changer for any competitive player looking to up their game!

For those using less powerful computers, they can now enjoy a more fluid gaming experience due to the addition of new graphics options that minimize special visual elements like effects, illumination, and shadows.

Lastly, we’ll introduce a setting for mouse sensitivity, enhancing the speed at which aim adjustments are made and resolving past control problems.

For Marvel Rivals, this is merely the start. We’ve got plenty more heroes and content lined up for upcoming releases, including rumored characters such as Ultron and a map modeled after Krakoa.

Read More

2025-01-08 15:42