Beginner's Guide to Marvel Rivals
New to Marvel Rivals? This guide covers everything you need to start competing.
Understanding Roles
- 1Marvel Rivals has three roles: Vanguard (tank), Duelist (damage), and Strategist (support).
- 2Every team should have at least one Vanguard and one Strategist for a balanced composition.
- 3Duelists deal the most damage but are fragile -- they rely on Vanguards to create space.
- 4Strategists heal and buff allies -- protect them and they will keep you alive.
- 5Learn at least one hero in each role so you can fill whatever your team needs.
- 6A well-balanced team with role synergy will outperform individual skill most of the time.
Team-Up System
- 1Certain heroes have Team-Up synergies that grant bonus abilities when played together.
- 2Team-Up bonuses range from stat boosts to entirely new cooperative abilities.
- 3Check each hero page to see which heroes they synergize with.
- 4Building your team around Team-Up combos can give you a significant advantage.
- 5Popular Team-Ups include Groot + Rocket Raccoon, Thor + Captain America, and Magneto + Scarlet Witch.
- 6Learning Team-Up combos is one of the fastest ways to improve your win rate.
Combat Basics
- 1Each hero has a primary attack, secondary ability, two regular abilities, and one ultimate ability.
- 2Ultimate abilities charge over time and through dealing damage or healing allies.
- 3Coordinate ultimates with your team for maximum impact -- combo ultimates win team fights.
- 4Learn to use cover and high ground to your advantage in every fight.
- 5Headshots deal bonus damage for most ranged heroes -- aim for the head.
- 6Health packs spawn around maps -- learn their locations for emergency healing.
Objective Play
- 1Marvel Rivals features Domination (control points) and Convoy (escort) game modes.
- 2In Domination, capture and hold control points to earn score for your team.
- 3In Convoy, attackers escort a payload along a path while defenders try to stop it.
- 4Standing on the objective matters -- do not chase kills away from the point.
- 5Grouping up and fighting together on objectives is more effective than solo plays.
- 6If your team loses a fight, regroup rather than trickling in one by one.
Getting Better
- 1Start with easy-difficulty heroes like Captain America, Star-Lord, Luna Snow, or Jeff the Land Shark.
- 2Watch the kill feed to track which enemies and allies are alive.
- 3Communicate with your team using pings and voice chat for coordinated plays.
- 4Learn map layouts and common flanking routes to anticipate enemy movements.
- 5Review your matches to identify mistakes in positioning, ability usage, and decision-making.
- 6Play consistently and focus on improving one skill at a time rather than everything at once.