Marvel Rivals Season 1 brings a whole bunch of buffs and nerfs to heroes and team-ups

NetEase is about to bring Marvel Rivals its first major content update as part of Season 1. This includes the addition of the Fantastic Four to the mix, with Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman joining the hero pool of the third-person shooter experience at the start of the season.

With the free-to-play game"s Season 1 launch, NetEase is also looking to do the game"s first major balance update, bringing much-needed tweaks, buffs, and nerfs to most of the available characters from Marvel.

In a blog post detailing upcoming changes, the studio said that it has seen an impressive amount of lineup diversity from players so far. Creative combinations, powerful counters, multi-hero formations, and more have surfaced during Season 0. However, this had also shown the developer some characters that worked a little too well in fights and a few that were generally left behind due to some weaknesses.

Here are all the hero and team-up changes incoming with Season 1:

Vanguard

Captain America

  • Reduce the delay time for shield restoration after releasing Living Legend from 3s to 2s.
  • Reduce Liberty Rush cooldown from 12s to 10s.
  • Increase base health from 650 to 675.
  • Reduce the energy cost for releasing Freedom Charge (ultimate ability) from 3400 to 3100.
  • Reduce the additional health provided per second to self after releasing Freedom Charge from 110 to 100.

Doctor Strange

  • Add damage falloff to Maelstrom of Madness and Gamma Maelstrom, starting at 5 meters and reducing to 70% at 8 meters.
  • Slightly decrease the shield value recovery rate after releasing Shield of the Seraphim from 80/s to 70/s.

Thor

  • Increase base health from 500 to 525.
  • Added immunity to control effects during God of Thunder (ultimate ability).

Hulk

  • Reduce the Indestructible Guard gamma shield value for Hero Hulk from 250 to 200.

Venom

  • Increase the Symbiotic Resilience bonus health ratio gained per lost health point from 1 to 1.2.
  • Increase the base damage of Feast of the Abyss (ultimate ability) from 40 to 50.

Duelist

Black Panther

  • Reduce the additional health provided to self after refreshing Vibranium Marks with Spirit Rend from 40 to 30.
  • Reduce the upper limit of additional health provided from 120 to 75.

Black Widow

  • Increase the range of the first effect of Edge Dancer from a 3-meter radius to a 5-meter radius.
  • Reduce the time required for Fleet Foot to recover from 0 stamina to full from 12s to 4s.
  • Reduce the time required for Electro-Plasma Explosion (ultimate ability) to reach maximum power from 1s to 0.6s.

Hawkeye

  • Slightly reduce the spread angle between every two Blast Arrows.
  • Reduce the triggering distance of passive ability Archer"s Focus from 60 meters to 40 meters.
  • Reduce the maximum additional damage of Archer"s Focus from 80 to 70.

Hela

  • Reduce base health from 275 to 250.

Magik

  • Increase Umbral Incursion damage in Darkchild form from 115 to 135.

Moon Knight

  • Increase the number of talons generated by Hand of Khonshu (ultimate ability) from 10 to 14.
  • Increase the explosion radius of each talon from 4 meters to 5 meters.

Namor

  • Adjust the throwing feel of Monstro Spawn and Frozen Spawn for more accurate throws.

Psylocke

  • Dance of the Butterfly (ultimate ability) will now check for barriers (e.g., Magneto"s Metal Bulwark, Hulk"s Indestructible Guard).

The Punisher

  • Slightly reduce the spread of Deliverance and Adjudication.

Scarlet Witch

  • Increase Chaos Control"s fixed damage from 50/s to 60/s.
  • Reduce the percentage damage per second from 5% to 3%.
  • Increase Chthonian Burst"s projectile damage from 30 to 35.

Storm

  • Increase Wind Blade projectile speed from 100m/s to 150m/s and left-click damage from 50 to 55.
  • Increase Bolt Rush damage from 70 to 80.
  • After releasing Omega Hurricane (ultimate ability), increase bonus health from 350 to 450.
  • Extra health from Omega Hurricane will now diminish at 100 per second instead of vanishing instantly.

Squirrel Girl

  • Add new effect to Unbeatable Squirrel Tsunami (ultimate ability): squirrels will rush toward the nearest enemy after bouncing.
  • Reduce the squirrel tsunami health from 600 to 300.

Winter Soldier

  • Increase bonus health provided by Bionic Hook and Tainted Voltage from 30 to 40.
  • Increase Roterstern"s projectile damage from 70 to 75.
  • Reduce area damage from 70 to 65 and damage decay from 65% at 40 meters to 60%.
  • Increase base health from 250 to 275.

Wolverine

  • Increase base health from 300 to 350.
  • Reduce the damage reduction ratio provided by Undying Animal from 50% to 40%.

Strategist

Cloak & Dagger

  • Reduce Dagger Storm cooldown from 15s to 12s.
  • Increase the number of dashes in Eternal Bond (ultimate ability) from 3 to 4.

Jeff the Land Shark

  • Adjust It"s Jeff! (ultimate ability) range to a 10m radius, 5m high cylindrical spell field.
  • Increase the healing of Joyful Splash from 140/s to 150/s.

Luna Snow

  • Increase the interval for switching between healing and damage in Fate of Both Worlds from 0.1s to 0.5s.

Mantis

  • Reduce Nature"s Favor (passive) movement boost from 2.5m/s to 1.5m/s.

Rocket Raccoon

  • Increase the healing of Repair Mode from 60/s to 70/s.

Team-Up Abilities

Hawkeye – Black Widow

  • Reduce Hawkeye"s season bonus from 20% to 15%.

Hela – Thor – Loki

  • Reduce Hela"s season bonus from 20% to 15%.

Luna Snow – Namor

  • Increase Frozen Spawn damage from 25 to 27.
  • Increase Frozen Spawn slowing effect on hit enemies from 25% to 30%.
  • Increase berserk state Frozen Spawn damage from 16 to 18.

Rocket Raccoon – The Punisher – Winter Soldier

  • Reduce the cooldown of Ammo Invention from 45s to 40s.

Scarlet Witch – Magneto

  • Increase Metallic Fusion projectile damage from 55 to 60.
  • Increase Metallic Fusion spell field damage from 30 to 35.

Thor – Storm – Captain America

  • Reduce the cooldown of Charged Gale from 20s to 15s.
  • Increase the damage of Charged Gale from 50 to 55.

"At the same time, regarding Season Bonuses and Team-Ups, we"d like to clarify that given the brief duration of Season 0 and everyone"s recent acclimatization to Marvel Rivals, we will not make extensive changes to or adjust Team-Up abilities in Season 1," says the company regarding the lack of massive shake-ups. "Instead, we will make minor adjustments to the existing Team-Up values. Fear not, for we are planning exciting redesigns and adjustments to Team-Up abilities in Season 2!"

It also added that a mid-season update will bring another host of balance updates to the game, depending on how these buffs and nerfs are received. Find the platform-specific changelog of patch "20250110" with information on bug fixes and more over here.

Marvel Rivals Season 1: Eternal Night Falls is launching across PC and consoles on January 10.

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