Marvel Rivals, the new heroic shooter based on Marvel comic book characters, begins its first full season later this week. The free-to-play game launched Season 0 on December 6 and quickly reached 20 million players.
After the shortened season 0, we are starting the first full season (13 weeks). We’ve gotten a ton of confirmed details, and here’s what we know about season 1, including the season trailer.
Marvel Rivals Season 1 Start Time
The trailer for Eternal Night Falls says the season starts on Friday, January 10th. The YouTube trailer page specifies that it’s 4am ET/1pm PT.
Read more: Marvel Rivals: How to choose which heroes and roles to play
Sue Storm can draw unsuspecting enemies onto your team, allowing for a quick takedown.
Marvel Rivals new heroes and maps
The new trailer on Monday gave us glimpses Fantastic Four — The Invisible Woman, The Fantastic God, The Human Torch, and The Thing. They’re a fitting addition to the game, given its premise that two Doctor Dooms from different timelines are fighting for control. (It also helps build hype for the new Fantastic Four movie, First Steps , coming this summer.) The Invisible Woman will take on the role of a strategist, and Mr. Fantastic will be a duelist. Though he won’t appear until later in the season, The Thing will be a harbinger, with Johnny Storm adding another duelist to the roster.
I had a chance to try out the new heroes before the season and I had two highlights. First, Mr. Fantastic is officially a duelist, but his role is very mixed with the vanguard. His Reflexive Rubber ability allows him to store and return incoming damage to enemies, and his ability to generate good health makes him much stronger than most duelists. In most matches I played with or against him, he absorbed almost as much damage as the team’s tanks.
Second, The Invisible Woman has a lot to keep track of. I liked the high action-per-minute playstyle, but some players may be tired of following the limited range of her primary fire, the health of her deployable shields, the multiple inputs for her push/pull ability, and cooldowns from all her abilities. It has many uses, but effective management of those various resources is key to its success.
When enemies overshoot, you can use Invisible Woman’s ultimate to prevent enemy strategists from healing them while also healing your team within range.
The season will be divided into two parts, with Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman to be added at the beginning of the season, while the Thing and the Human Torch join in the second half. We’re getting a new convoy map, Midtown, where players will accompany the Fanastic Four’s robotic ally, HERBIE, to the Avengers tower. We’re also getting a new arcade game mode, Doom Match, which will take place in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. A third map, Central Park, will be added mid-season.
Prepare for some portal pandemonium in the Sanctum Sanctorum arcade mode.
The developers said that this is double what they have planned for the next few seasons, so it’s probably safe to expect a new hero at the start of the next few seasons and another one about six weeks later, with a map or two of new in season. That means eight new heroes per year and four to eight new maps. That’s an impressive amount of content for a live-service game.
There have been many other Marvel Rivals reveals recently, including hero models or abilities for characters like Ultron, Emma Frost and Jean Grey. All of these have yet to be confirmed and won’t appear in Season 1, but they suggest a healthy content roadmap for the game, essential to keeping players engaged throughout the year.
Passing the battle
Season 0 featured a brief battle draw, and the developers have said that the Season 1 pass will feature “dual content and excitement,” in the latest diversion vision video. This includes 10 new costumes, styled around the season’s Eternal Night theme.
Season 1 Battle Pass will cost 990 grid (about $10 in game currency). You can earn 600 grids and 600 units (together, about $12 in game currency) if you complete the battle.
Balance changes
The developers have seen your posts on Reddit — Hawkeye and Hela are getting nerfs to start Season 1, though the changes seem a little toned down compared to community expectations. Jeff’s bottom is also being adjusted. And enthusiasts are coming the way of Captain America, Cloak and Dagger, Storm, Venom and Wolverine, among others.
The developers have released full patch notes detailing the changes, and the stats on the Rivals website will be updated with new balance numbers. The Rivals page has also been updated with pick rate and win stats and will receive new updates every half season.
Sorted reset and mouse acceleration
The dev vision video also revealed that player rankings will drop into seven divisions — a platinum 1 ranking will start the new season with silver 2, in their example. By this math, anyone with a gold 2 or lower will go back to bronze 3 to start the season.
In addition, the game is introducing the celestial rank, which will feature the three standard levels and appear after the grandmaster rank.
The developers also said that Season 1 will include the much-requested mouse acceleration settings option, meaning no one will have to resort to editing game files if they don’t want that feature.
For more on Marvel Rivals, check out my tips for getting started and my guide to choosing which heroes and roles to play.
