August 6, 2025: We have added the Marvel Rivals characters for Season 3, Phoenix, and Season 3.5, Blade. Several characters' team-up abilities have also been tweaked or retired, and entirely new ones have been added for the 3.5 update.
While the costumes might be a little pricey and the third-person perspective frustrating at times, one thing you can't criticise is the list of Marvel Rivals characters. Why did no one tell me about the adorable shark previously relegated to the comics? Taking Marvel characters most of us had never heard of before and thrusting them into the limelight has been one of its greatest strengths.
This roster is only getting bigger, too, with each new season bringing a handful of heroes (or villains). With almost 70 years of Marvel comic books to draw from, NetEase isn't running out of material anytime soon. Keep up with our Marvel Rivals tier list to see where these characters rank with each update, and our Marvel Rivals crosshair guide to quickly customise your interface.
Below, you'll find a list of all the characters currently available, the latest news on upcoming characters, and even a list of leaked heroes supposedly coming to Marvel Rivals in the future.
All Marvel Rivals characters
With Phoenix blasting her way onto the roster at the start of Season 3 and Blade cleaving his in with Season 3.5, there are currently 41 characters in Marvel Rivals across its three roles: Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist. These range from the well-known Avengers, X-Men (mutants), and Fantastic Four heroes, all the way to an icy K-pop star and an adorable little landshark.
With the pace of updates picking up from Season 3 onwards, we'll now get a new hero every single month too—unless NetEase decides it's a balancing nightmare, which it totally will be.
Character | Role | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
Adam Warlock | Strategist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Black Panther | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Black Widow | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Blade (NEW) | Duelist | Season 3.5 (August 8, 2025) |
Captain America | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Cloak & Dagger | Strategist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Doctor Strange | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Emma Frost | Vanguard | Season 2 (April 11, 2025) |
Groot | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Hawkeye | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Hela | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Hulk | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Human Torch | Duelist | Season 1.5 (February 21, 2025) |
Invisible Woman | Strategist | Season 1 (January 10, 2025) |
Iron Fist | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Iron Man | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Jeff the Land Shark | Strategist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Loki | Strategist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Luna Snow | Strategist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Magik | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Magneto | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Mantis | Strategist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Mister Fantastic | Duelist | Season 1 (January 10, 2025) |
Moon Knight | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Namor | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Peni Parker | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Phoenix (NEW) | Duelist | Season 3 (July 11, 2025) |
Psylocke | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Rocket Raccoon | Strategist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Scarlet Witch | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Spider-Man | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Squirrel Girl | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Star-Lord | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Storm | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
The Punisher | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
The Thing | Vanguard | Season 1.5 (February 21, 2025) |
Thor | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Ultron | Strategist | Season 2.5 (May, 2025) |
Venom | Vanguard | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Winter Soldier | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
Wolverine | Duelist | Launch (December 6, 2024) |
New Marvel Rivals characters
The newest character is Blade, finally debuting in the Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 update on Friday, August 8. However, at the start of Marvel Rivals Season 3, we were also introduced to Phoenix. Here's how both of these new heroes work:
Blade
- Role: Duelist
- Difficulty: Three stars
Blade is yet another DPS hero, making Season 3 a Duelist's paradise. I'll let him off, though, as he has been teased since the game's launch. Blade is a brawling melee and ranged hybrid, able to swap between a sword and a gun on the fly, similar to The Punisher's weapon swapping. That's already cool enough, but Blade's also the first hero to have anti-heal capabilities, reducing the healing that affected enemies can receive. If you're facing off against a team that just won't die, Blade is your answer.
Here are Blade's abilities:
Name | Input | Description |
|---|---|---|
Ancestral Sword | Left click | Simple sword slashes using his ancestral sword. |
Hunter's Shotgun | Left click | Fires his shotgun pistol for ranged damage. |
Daywalker Dash | Shift | Dash forward and attack the enemy with your currently selected weapon. If wielding your gun, shoot at enemies and apply a healing reduction effect. If using your sword, deliver a cleaving strike that inflicts a slow. This ability has two charges. |
Bloodline Awakening | E | Channel Blade's vampiric bloodline to gain lifesteal on attacks, enhancing slash speed, but reducing the healing you can gain from allies. |
Scarlet Shroud | Right click | Hold to spend a resource to block attacks and reduce damage taken, which in turn reduces the cooldown of Daywalker Dash. You're unstoppable for a brief period after activating the ability. |
Thousand-Fold Slash | Q | Charge power and draw the Sword of Dracula, executing a powerful strike as you dash forward, leaving behind a slashing zone that damages enemies. Enemies hit suffer from a reduced healing debuff. |
New Moon/Lunar Force team-up ability | C | Like Moon Knight, Blade gets a new ability that creates a shadowy dome, making them invisible while healing themselves. |
Phoenix
- Role: Duelist
- Difficulty: Three stars
Phoenix is a mobile DPS hero that feels like a fusion between Hela and Moon Knight. Thanks to her ability to cause chain reaction explosions, Phoenix is great a punishing heavily-grouped teams, but she greatly incentivises hitting critical hits, both for more direct damage and for faster explosions. If you're not consistently hitting headshots, you're likely not making all that much of an impact and would be better off playing one of her two inspirations instead.
Here are Phoenix's abilities:
Name | Input | Description |
|---|---|---|
Cosmic Flames | Left click | A ranged attack that deals moderate damage. Each hit adds a stack of Spark to the target, which causes them to explode once at three stacks, dealing AoE damage that applies a Spark stack to other enemies in the blast radius and gives Phoenix healing over time. Critical hits apply two Sparks. |
Telepathic Illusion | Shift | Instantly teleport in any direction and leave behind an illusion that explodes to apply one Spark stack to any enemy in the blast. |
Dark Ascent | E | Jean Grey merges with Phoenix, gaining free flight for a short duration with bonus movement speed and ammo regeneration. This ability has a resource, meaning it can be used so long as the meter has enough charge. |
Telekenesis Burst | Right click | Unleashes a volley of fiery blasts. The first attack stuns enemies, while the second two inflict slows on the target. Enemies hit by this attack gain one Spark stack. |
Endsong Inferno | Q | Phoenix leaps into the air before crashing down onto a target area, dealing moderate damage to enemies in the blast and applying one Spark stack to each target. This attack also creates a shockwave that destroys enemy summons, shields, and removes bonus health. |
Mind's Grace team-up ability | N/A (Wolverine gains the benefits) | Wolverine gains the Phoenix Force. When he activates Feral Leap (renamed to Phoenix Warrior), it will burn nearby enemies over time for a percentage of their health, and add lifesteal to all of his attacks. |
Upcoming Marvel Rivals characters
With Blade finally out in the wild after months and months of teasing, there are currently no confirmed upcoming characters, though there have been mentions of other heroes that aren't currently playable, like Professor X.
In terms of upcoming heroes, the most important thing to keep in mind is that, from Season 3 onwards, a new character will be released every single month as future seasons are shrunk down to just two months each. One hero will release at the start of a season, and the second at the mid-season update, if you can really call it that, given how short they'll be. In other words, there will be 12 new heroes each year. It's hard to imagine it not becoming a balance nightmare, especially with the inevitable slew of new and tweaked team-up abilities, but that's NetEase's problem to solve.
Leaked Marvel Rivals characters
Here are all the leaked Marvel Rivals characters so far, excluding those that have since arrived in-game:
- Angela
- Beast
- Captain Marvel
- Colossus
- Cyclops
- Daredevil
- Deadpool
- Gambit
- Hit-Monkey
- The Hood
- Jia Jing
- Jubilee
- Locus
- MODOK
- Nightcrawler
- Paste-Pot Pete
- Professor X
- Rogue
- Valkyrie
While some are suspected to be fakeouts, there are plenty that are obvious choices in the future with much more details to back them up, such as Gambit and Rogue, following leaks that Season 5 will be themed around love and romance.
All Marvel Rivals team-up abilities in Season 3.5
Not only are each character incredibly unique and fun to play, but they also have team-up abilities that change how they play when used with specific allies. These are superheroes, after all, there are tons of different teams and alliances, and the team-up system is a great way to represent these links in gameplay.
Team-up abilities change each season, with new ones being added and existing ones being tweaked or retired thanks to an ever-expanding roster. Here's the state of team-ups in Season 3.5:
Team-Up Ability | Characters | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Duality Dance (New in Season 3.5) | Adam Warlock + Luna Snow | Luna Snow gains a new ability that tethers her to a nearby enemy, which she can damage, healing herself. |
Vibrant Vitality (New in Season 3.5) | Mantis + Groot/Loki | Mantis shares her healing and damage-boosting powers with allies. Groot's Thorn Walls will periodically shoot healing at nearby allies. Loki's Regeneration Domain will grant a damage boost to allies within it. |
Lunar Force/New Moon (Tweaked in Season 3.5) | Cloak & Dagger + Moon Knight/Blade | Blade is joining this team-up ability. Both Moon Knight and Blade get a new ability that creates a shadowy dome, making them invisible while healing themselves. |
Chilling Assault (Tweaked in Season 3.5) | Luna Snow + Hawkeye/Iron Fist | Iron Fist is joining this team-up. Iron Fist shares his healing effect and bonus with nearby allies. Hawkeye uses Luna Snow's ice to fire a special arrow that can penetrate terrain. If enemies are far enough away, this arrow also deals bonus damage and applies a stun effect. |
Rocket Network (Tweaked in Season 3.5) | Rocket Raccoon + Peni Parker/Star-Lord | Star-Lord is being added to this team-up. Star-Lord can place a teleport beacon. Peni uses Rocket's tech to deploy a smaller nest that also generates armour packs. Meanwhile, Rocket's revive beacon turns into a mini nest, gaining mines. |
Ragnarok Rebirth (Tweaked in Season 3.5) | Hela + Thor | Loki is being removed from this team-up. When Hela kills an enemy with a headshot, she can automatically revive an allied Thor. If they are already alive, they'll instead gain bonus health. |
Guardian Revival (Retired in Season 3.5) | Adam Warlock + Mantis/Star-Lord | Adam Warlock grants Mantis and Star-Lord his Regenerative Cocoon ability, letting them freely move as a soul and revive themselves. This has a long cooldown. |
Atlas Bond (Retired in Season 3.5) | Iron Fist + Luna Snow | Iron Fist imbues Luna Snow with Chi, granting her a new ability. When activated, she unleashes a blast around her that pushes back enemies and heals nearby allies. |
Primal Flame (New in Season 3) | Phoenix + Wolverine | Wolverine gains the Phoenix Force. When he activates Feral Leap, it will burn nearby enemies over time, and adds lifesteal to all of his attacks. |
Ever-Burning Bond (New in Season 3) | Human Torch + Spider-Man | Spider-Man unlocks a new ability to shoot a flaming web, which deals area damage and applies a burning tracer. Activating this tracer deals bonus fire damage. |
Stark Protocol (Tweaked in Season 3) | Iron Man + Ultron/Squirrel Girl | Squirrel Girl joins this team-up in Season 3. Squirrel Girl can throw a homing bomb that explodes on impact. Ultron uses a piercing unibeam to damage enemies and heal allies. |
Symbiote Shenanigans (Tweaked in Season 3) | Venom + Jeff the Landshark/Hela | Hela joins this team-up in Season 3. Symbiotes increase the range of Hela's sphere ability, pulling enemies in, dealing damage, and slowing them down. Jeff gains Venom's symbiote to extend tendrils that link nearby allies for additional healing. |
ESU Alumnus (Retired in Season 3) | Spider-Man + Squirrel Girl | Let's Squirrel Girl throw a web bomb to ensnare enemies. |
Storming Ignition (Retired in Season 3) | Storm + Human Torch | Both heroes' ultimates can be combined to create a flaming tornado. |
Operation Microchip (Added in Season 2.5) | Black Widow + Punisher | Black Widow gains a new firing mode, allowing her primary fire to pierce through enemies when aiming down sights. |
Jeff Nado (Added in Season 2.5) | Jeff the Land Shark + Storm | Jeff and Storm combine their ultimates into a raging twister that deals massive damage. |
Mental Projection (Added in Season 2) | Emma Frost + Magneto/Psylocke | Magneto and Psylocke can summon a clone of themselves to deal bonus damage for a short time. It's similar to Loki's clones in that the double will fire basic attacks at your target. |
Stars Aligned (Added in Season 2) | Captain America + Winter Soldier | Bucky can leap towards allies to reposition and unleash a shockwave that damages nearby enemies, letting him dive into the action even better. Meanwhile, Captain America can clash with an ally Winter Soldier to unleash a similar shockwave that debuffs nearby enemies. |
Arcane Order (Added in Season 2) | Doctor Strange + Scarlet Witch | Scarlet Witch can tap into Doctor Strange's magic to turn Chthonian Burst into a rapid-fire, long-range projectile independent from her chaos energy meter. |
Dimensional Shortcut (Tweaked in Season 2) | Magik + Black Panther (As of Season 2, Psylocke is no longer part of this team-up) | Magik grants the specified characters a bonus ability which rewinds them through time by a few seconds, also granting bonus health. |
Gamma Charge (Tweaked in Season 2.5) | Hulk + Namor (As of Season 2.5, Iron Man is no longer part of this team-up) | The Hulk charges the specified characters with gamma radiation. Iron Man gains a damage boost during Armour Overdrive. |
Planet X Pals | Groot + Rocket Raccoon/Jeff the Land Shark | When Rocket Raccoon or Jeff the Land Shark are near Groot, they can hop on Groot's shoulders for extra damage resistance. Only one character can do this at a time. |
Fastball Special | Wolverine + Hulk/The Thing | When Wolverine and Hulk or The Thing are on the same team, they can throw Logan, activating his empowered state. |
Fantastic Force | Invisible Woman + Human Torch/Mister Fantastic/The Thing | Invisible Woman powers up the Fantastic Four members, letting them activate a temporary shield for damage resistance and bonus health. |
Allied Agents (Retired in Season 2.5) | Hawkeye + Black Widow | Hawkeye gives Black Widow Hunter's Sight when activating his ultimate, letting her also shoot the afterimages of enemies. |
Symbiote Bond (Retired in Season 2.5) | Venom + Spider-Man/Peni Parker | Venom enhances the spider-heroes symbiotic powers, giving them a new ability. When activated, they turn into a ball of spikes that damage nearby enemies. |
Chilling Charisma (Retired in Season 2.5) | Luna Snow + Jeff the Land Shark | Luna grants the specified characters ice powers, enhancing their abilities. |
Ammo Overload (Retired in Season 2.5) | Rocket Raccoon + Punisher (As of Season 2, Winter Soldier is no longer part of this team-up) | Rocket Raccoon can place a device that temporarily grants unlimited ammo and increased fire rate to the specified heroes. |
Metallic Chaos (Retired in Season 2) | Magneto + Scarlet Witch | Magneto gains an extra ability that temporarily powers up his sword with chaos magic, allowing him to slash enemies from a distance. |
Voltaic Union (Retired in Season 2) | Thor + Captain America/Storm | Storm and Captain America gain access to Thor’s Thorforce, granting them electrical enhancements. When triggered, Storm can create a storm barrage, and Captain America's shield becomes imbued with thunderpower. |
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