Stark Protocol

With Stark Protocol Team-Up, Ultron gains the ability to use Iron Man's Unibeam for a powerful piercing blast that damages enemies and heals allies, whereas Squirrel Girl borrows Iron Man's nano-tech gauntlet and turns it into a homing missile explosive.

Heroes

• Ultron
• Iron Man
• Squirrel Girl

Updates:

• Squirrel Girl was added in Season 3

Lore

Iron Man: Good news, Ultron. I've upgraded your Encephalo- Ray into a Nano Ray. Cuts right through enemies, but now it heals up allies along the way.

Ultron: Who survives is not my concern, Stark. Stop trying to add your human sentimentality to my programming.

Iron Man: It's called tactical flexibility, buddy. Unlike you: One command, ride it till the end.
Ultron: That's called precision. The product of evolution. You would think a self - proclaimed genius like you would recognize that.

Iron Man: What I recognize is you still trying to hack into my armor. But it's not gonna happen. Stark Tech is way more secure than anything Hank Pym ever designed. I'm just built better. And thanks to me, now so are you.

Ultron: I will admit, since the introduction of your code into my system, I have been able to make some unexpected improvements...Iron Man: Aww! Is that your way of saying "thanks" ? I'm flattered... Ultron: Don't mistake analysis for gratitude, Stark. When this alliance is over, I'll erase any traces of your work from my drives. And then I'll erase any traces of you from existence!

Iron Man: If talking tough makes you feel better, I can handle it, Ultron. Just remember, right now, we're on the same side.

Ultron: Indeed. Until you're no longer useful...

Stark Protocol Guide

Stark Protocol is a new Team-Up introduced in Season 2.5 and was updated in Season 3 of Marvel Rivals. In this Team-Up, Iron Man stands as the anchor, which grants the new playable Strategist, Ultron, the ability to use Unibeam that pierces through characters, healing teammates, and dealing damage to enemies. He also adds a new homing-missile skill to Squirrel Girl.

• As the Team-Up Anchor, Iron Man gains a 5% boost in damage output.
• Ultron gains a new Nano Ray ability from his Team-Up with Iron Man.
• Squirrel Girl gains a new homing-missile skill.

Ultron

Ultron only has 1 healing ability, which is the Imperative: Patch. With this skill, Ultron sends a drone to follow a target teammate and provides constant healing to the target and those around them.

While the healing is quite fast and constant, it still only follows one teammate, which sometimes doesn’t stick together with the other teammates, especially flying heroes. That's where this Team-Up ability comes into play.

With Stark Protocol, Ultron can enhance his basic primary attack, Encephalo-Ray, into Nano Ray beam that can heal those who are not affected by the Imperative: Patch skill.

However, this skill only lasts for 8 seconds and has a cooldown of 30 seconds, which is quite long. So, using this Team-Up ability requires perfect timing and not just spamming it anytime it is not on cooldown.

The best scenarios to use this are when you are defending your backlines against enemy divers and flankers, and when you are trying to be more aggressive.

Squirrel Girl

With this Team-Up, Squirrel Girl gains an awesome new homing missile skill. She borrows Iron Man’s nano-tech gauntlet and sends a squirrel to pilot it, launching it toward the nearest enemy in her crosshair and causing a powerful explosion on impact.

You can freely aim in the enemy’s direction, you don’t need to land a direct hit. Once fired, the projectile automatically locks onto and tracks the enemy, making it a fun and reliable way to pressure targets from a distance.

This is the perfect kit to counter enemy flyers. With Ultron and other airborne heroes dominating the current meta, Squirrel Girl’s new homing missile ability gives her a solid edge in bringing them down.

When using this Team-Up ability, make flying enemies your top priority, the missile tracks them with ease, making it ideal for punishing those who stay in the air too long. Your second priority should be low-health enemies trying to escape, as the homing feature ensures they won’t get far.

Best Against

This Team-Up is best against flyers and enemy backliners:

• Human Torch, Ultron, Storm, and Iron Man are all flying heroes who can be countered by this Team-Up.
• Adam Warlock, Luna Snow, and Mantis, among other Strategists, are basically all defenseless against the Stark Protocol Team-Up. Just follow your team's diver and support them by healing and dealing damage.

Best Counters

These heroes are the best counters to Stark Protocol:

• Groot, Doctor Strange, and Emma Frost are all Vanguards who can summon shields, which work best to block Ultron's Nano Ray.
• Hawkeye, with his new Team-Up ability, Chilling Assault, can shoot frozen arrows to freeze enemies in place, which works really well against flying heroes like Ultron.
• Moon Knight can bounce his projectiles toward Ultron and his allies while he is trying to heal with Nano Ray, which requires close to mid-range.
• Namor, with his minions, can prevent Ultron from diving too deep.
• Invisible Woman can push away Ultron, use her Psionic Vortex to prevent him from flying, and turn him into an easy target for your teammates.
• Rocket Raccoon can easily run away from the Nano Ray and instead try to harass Ultron to stop him from healing his teammates.