Marvel Rivals is out now and free to play on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. The hero shooter pretty shamelessly draws inspiration from Overwatch. As a result, NetEase’s swing at the genre feels like putting on a familiar glove to long-time players of Blizzard’s game. However, there are a few bits of minutiae that are different and worth keeping in mind, even if you’ve spent hundreds of hours in similar games. I put about 15 hours into Marvel Rivals during its test periods and about a few additional hours since its launch on December 5. So here are a few tips for newcomers if you’re jumping into the game for the first time.
Spend some time in the practice range
Marvel Rivals launched with a sizable roster. With 33 characters right off the bat, it can be overwhelming to find which heroes you jive with. Rivals matches are so fast-paced that deciphering what each character does can be confusing, as well. Your best bet in finding a hero you gravitate toward is to spend some time in the practice range first. Here you’ll have full access to the whole roster and can train on some robot dummies. Just a few minutes in here will give you a starting point before heading into online matches. This way you’re not completely fumbling in the dark without any frame of reference for how characters play. The best way to learn all the intricacies is by playing a real battle, of course, but going in blind will make that on-ramp more difficult.
Actually read your Hero Profile
Part of getting to know all the heroes is learning their moveset, but several of them have passive abilities you’ll never actually press a button to activate but are still worth knowing. In the hero select screen you can access each character’s Hero Profile, which contains a straightforward rundown of all their abilities, active and passive. Read these before you actually run out into a fight if you’re trying someone new, it’ll be the difference between winging it and having some tactics in mind for how to handle a fight.
Here’s a rundown of the currencies
Marvel Rivals is free-to-play, and that means it makes most of its money by way of microtransactions. None of the heroes are locked behind a paywall, but cosmetics like costumes, emotes, and highlight intros cost currency. There are two primary currencies that hold essentially the same value, The gold one is called Lattice, which can be bought with real money, and the blue one is called a Unit, which can be earned by playing and completing challenges. Lattice can be exchanged 1:1 for Units, with $1 USD equating to 100 Lattice. You can only purchase Lattice in bundles, meaning you might have to overshoot to pay for something cheaper. I bought the Star-Lord Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 costume, which cost 1800 Units, but the only bundle that would cover the cost was the $20 Lattice bundle. So just keep that in mind as you navigate buying in-game currency. Beyond those, there are also Chrono Tokens used specifically to unlock battle pass rewards that you’ll gain through events and tasks.
The battle pass is not time-gated
Speaking of battle passes, Marvel Rivals is taking the FOMO out of its Luxury Battle Passes by allowing you to unlock their contents at any point as long as you purchase them during the season. The pass itself costs 490 Lattices and contains costumes and other cosmetic items. So if you plan on playing Marvel Rivals long-term and want to unlock everything in the battle pass but might have to take a break every now and then, you can just buy the battle pass and come back to it whenever you feel like it.
Here’s a free Iron Man skin
If you’re reading this before March 5, 2025, NetEase is giving out a free Iron Man skin. Redeem the code nwarh4k3xqy in-game and deck out Tony Stark in the black-and-gold Armor Model 42.
Team-ups can give you an edge, but don’t feel pressured to pick heroes solely for them
One of the big distinguishing features of Marvel Rivals is Team-Up abilities. These give certain heroe combinations an extra ability that can give you an advantage in a fight. Some are an extra ability in your back pocket like Adam Warlock giving Mantis and Star-Lord a second life, while others like Rocket and Jeff riding on Groot’s back and losing their independent movement in exchange for increased defense will fundamentally change how you play in some ways. These are great when they come up naturally and building your team composition around them is a good tactic. However, they are not the end-all-be-all of strategy in Marvel Rivals. Plenty of matches can be won without characters who are artificially meant to work better together. It’s all about reading the situation you’re in and sticking with characters you can play well enough to defeat the enemy team.
Be flexible
This rich coming from a Star-Lord one-trick. But do as I say, not as I do. Switching heroes is key to games like Marvel Rivals and Overwatch, but it’s very easy to get stuck on one character you really mesh with. However, if you’re losing a match and just can’t seem to get the upper hand, it might be time to switch. Part of the toxicity that permeates these games is the insistence that someone else on the team should switch off who they’re playing and a toxic player couldn’t possibly be the problem. The truth is, sometimes it’s not about player skill, some heroes are just not built for every situation. If the enemy team is playing Black Widow, having a bunch of airborne heroes she can easily clip the wings of is not going to win you the fight no matter how good you are. You can have your main, but take time to learn at least a few characters you can possibly swap to in a pinch.
You don’t need to cover every role, but you should always have a healer
Role spread is another contentious topic in hero shooters, as some fans like having the flexibility to create team compositions that don’t have to adhere to an equal 2-2-2 formation. At the moment, Marvel Rivals doesn’t have a role queue that forces the team to pick two of each (Vanguard, Duelist, Strategist), but having at least one of each is a decent rule of thumb when deciding who to play. I had a team who was three duelists and three strategists and we did fine, though. However, the key role in all of this that you should make sure you have at least one (preferably more) of is the Strategist. Straight up, you’re not gonna win fights against a decent enemy team if you don’t have someone who can heal your teammates, and if the randos you group up with are unwilling to do so and you want any chance of winning, maybe consider swapping to one yourself. Yeah, that sometimes means you’ll end up babysitting, but if there’s no one to play the medic, nothing’s going to get done.
Don’t trickle in
When you’re lost in the sauce and running on adrenaline after a chaotic fight, it’s easy to run out of spawn to try to get back in the scrap. Trouble is, if you and all your five teammates are doing that but aren’t dying at the same time, you’ll end up trickling in one by one for the enemy team to pick off as you enter their line of sight. If you and your team aren’t all grouped up and pushing an objective as a unit, you’ll get nowhere. Always try to move as a group, and if you are trying to lone-wolf it, make sure you have a plan like flanking the enemy team or surprising them with an ultimate.
Ultimate charge carries between rounds
One of the nice differences between Marvel Rivals and Overwatch is that Ultimate charge transfers between rounds. This means if you had your Ultimate ready to go or at least close to it in one round, you’ll still have the same percentage when the next round start. As an Overwatch player, it became a habit to use an ult at the end of a round because I might as well hear a cool voice line. It was almost celebratory on a winning round. I did that once in Marvel Rivals on launch night and realized I’d completely forgotten that I’d still have it when the loading screen between rounds was done. So use that to your advantage, as it can give you head start as you and the enemy team descend onto the next point.
For your sanity’s sake, group up with friends
This is a general good idea for most team-based multiplayer games. Grab at least a friend or two before you head online. Marvel Rivals is a pretty chaotic game, even with a team of people on voice chat, and thus far I’ve had even less luck solo queuing than I typically have in Overwatch. I’ve always believed the notion of one person carrying in a team-based game to be a power fantasy that is rarely achievable, but it feels especially difficult to pull off in Marvel Rivals right now. Maybe matches will become more lopsided as players learn the game, but for now, try to find people you can coordinate with. You’ll have a much better experience that way.
We’ll have a full review of Marvel Rivals up in the coming days, but for now, here’s our thoughts on how NetEase’s comic book hero shooter stands against its obvious inspiration.