Duelists in Marvel Rivals are tasked with dealing the bulk of the damage for the team. While they’re adept at doing that, they don’t generally have very good survivability, and need the support of both Vanguards and Strategists in order to stay productive.
Moon Knight is one of the Duelists with the highest damage potential in the game; in the right situation, he’s capable of putting out thousands of damage in seconds. But, using him requires quite a bit of thought and intelligent positioning, otherwise he’ll be an easy target for the enemy team, and end up seeing the respawn screen often.
Moon Knight Overview
Moon Knight can drop an entire team in an impressive amount of time, if that team clusters too close together and Moon Knight throws out his abilities in the right spots. Even better, Moon Knight’s most important ability stays active until the enemy destroys it, allowing him to set up incredible damage over a wide portion of the map.
Moon Knight also has better-than-average mobility. He might not be Spider-Man or Iron Fist, but he’s capable of getting himself out of a jam, and just as importantly, capable of getting him into spots where he can deal damage to the enemy, but they can’t deal damage to him.
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Crescent Dart
Crescent Dart is Moon Knight’s primary attack ability, enabling him to throw his signature Crescent Darts directly forward. These darts deal good single-target damage, but their strength is in their multi-target possibilities.
Moon Knight’s Crescent Darts bounce between any enemies in range, dealing the full damage to all of them. It can even hit the same target more than once, if the trajectories line up correctly.
But possibly the most important aspect of these Crescent Darts comes when used in combination with his Ancient Ankhs.
Ancient Ankh
Moon Knight’s Ancient Ankhs will, when thrown, pull enemies towards the center of its radius. That is not, however, the main effect of the Ankh.
What makes the Ankh one of the best Duelist abilities in the game is that it will deflect Moon Knight’s Crescent Darts exactly the same as if it were an enemy. This means, if any enemy is inside the radius of the Ankh, a Crescent Dart will bounce from the Ankh to the enemy (or enemies).
You can only have two Ankhs active at the same time; but, placed well, that can cover a meaningful portion of the battle.
Where To Place The Ancient Ankh
Placement for the Ancient Ankh is going to be utterly paramount to your damage potential as Moon Knight. The Ankh needs to be placed somewhere that enemies are going to be inside its radius with regularity. At the same time, enemies can destroy the Ankh relatively easily. So, it cannot be an easy priority target for them.
Luckily, the Ankh has a wide radius. While it does need line of sight to function, at least in order to hit the first enemy of the chain, it can be placed around corners, ready for the moment an enemy walks around it.
The Ankh can also be placed horizontally on a surface. Creative placement of the Ankh is going to come with time, but putting the effort into learning where to place this ability is important. It creates the easiest possible damage you could have; simply fire your Crescent Darts at the Ankh, and every enemy nearby will take outrageous amounts of damage.
Moon Blade
Moon Blade is, essentially, a bigger and heavier-damage version of Moon Knight’s Crescent Darts. It bounces between enemies and Ankh’s exactly the same way, and can be a good way to get that finishing blow on an enemy before they move into cover. It has a seven-second cooldown, so can be used semi-regularly.
Triple Eclipse
Triple Eclipse is Moon Knight’s melee attack, but it’s a worse option than using his Crescent Blades in every scenario. It does not deal as much damage, and that’s exponentially more true the more enemies are nearby.
If you’re having trouble dealing with closer-range characters like Spider-Man and Iron Fist rushing you, it’s worth keeping an Ankh placed near where you’re standing. The moment they get too close for comfort, rather than try and track them as they jump across your screen, throw you Crescent Darts at the Ankh.
Movement Abilities
Moon Knight has three different movement abilities: Rising Leap, Moonlight Hook, and Night Glider. These abilities are going to be discussed together, because the way they function in relation to each other is how they’re most often going to be used.
Rising Leap
Rising Leap allows Moon Knight to double-jump, with his second jump going a lot more vertical than his first. This has a seven-second cooldown that starts upon landing, and is oftentimes going to be how you start whatever maneuver you’re doing.
Moonlight Hook
Moonlight Hook is a grappling hook that pulls Moon Knight towards whatever surface it attaches to. It doesn’t have incredible range, but it can be used to very quickly get somewhere in a medium distance.
You can use Moonlight Hook to swing, rather than end up exactly where it attaches, by aiming your cursor to the side of the hook, in the direction you want to end up.
Night Glider
Finally, Night Glider allows Moon Knight to glide, rather than fall towards the ground. This is going to give you a lot more vertical options, and enable you to stay above the fight, rather than have to fall down towards it.
How To Use Moon Knight’s Movement Abilities
Moon Knight’s movement abilities are meant for a slightly different purpose than characters like Spider-Man or Iron Fist; he’s closer in purpose with a character like Iron Man, though they get there in different ways.
Primarily with Moon Knight, you want to create situations where you’re throwing your Crescent Darts at your Ankhs and dealing damage from there, rather than have to aim at an enemy that’s moving, when you have a chance to miss.
All of Moon Knight’s movement abilities make it easier for you to establish yourself a vertical line of sight on the enemy team. This is going to help you keep a sightline on your Ankhs, and more accurately see where you should be placing them as the battle progresses.
Moon Knight’s movement abilities still afford him options for escapability; that’s just their secondary purpose. Primarily, they’re there so you can get a better position in which to deal damage.
Hand Of Khonshu
Moon Knight’s ultimate ability is Hand of Khonshu, which is a damaging ability that deals a significant amount of damage in chunks at enemies inside of a certain radius. This isn’t going to one-shot anybody at full health, but it will kill most enemies that find themselves inside the radius for more than a second.
Where And When To Use Hand Of Khonshu
Hand of Khonshu shares the strengths that most of Moon Knight’s abilities share: it’s easier to use when you’ve got a vertical sightline on the enemy. This is going to help you place it somewhere with enemy density, and keep you from wasting it.
One thing to note about Hand of Khonshu is that it doesn’t only have value as a damaging tool; it can be used as a positioning tool, as well. Most enemies move out of the way of the ability when they see and hear it coming, but the ability to push enemies out of an advantageous position has a lot of value.
You can use this positioning advantage to move enemies off of an objective, or to split them up.
Full Moon
Full Moon is Moon Knight’s Team-Up ability, gained when Cloak and Dagger are allies, allowing Moon Knight to create an area in which he’s invisible for a short time. He can activate this ability once every 30 seconds, but that cooldown starts while the ability is active, meaning he can actually have the ability active every 25 seconds, because the effect lasts five seconds.
Once you’re in a position and your Ankh is in a good spot, you can activate this ability and attack with very little fear of retribution from the enemy.
