Peni Parker Guide: How to Play, Tips and Tricks & Matchups

My Credentials

I am a Celestial player who primarily plays Invisible Woman as a main. I also main Peni Parker for a Vanguard, and Squirrel Girl for a Duelist. I also study top level streamers, tournaments, and data published by first and third party sources to help deliver the most accurate information I can.

Basic Ability Guide (For Beginners)

You can find a bulleted list of the character's abilities in game under their character tab. This portion of the guide will cover the same info, as well as some extra information and tips that the game doesn't clearly outline. If you already have a basic grasp of the character, skip to the next section for more advanced tips.

Her primary weapon has unlimited ammo with no cooldown. This means you can put immense pressure on opponents by constantly putting projectiles out. It does have a fast damage drop off, so it's best used in close to mid range. Since Season 2, she also has a chance for critical hit with each shot.

The Arachno-Mine is the trapping portion of the character. You get them through individually placing them, or by your Bionic Spider-Nest dropping them around its base. The individual mines start with 4 charges, but you can actually place more than the 4 you start with. Once at least 1 cooldown refills, you can deploy a 5th mine and beyond for each completed cooldown. Each mine lasts 60 seconds from the time you place them, ans you can have a maximum of 15 mines you can place at a time. The Spider-Nest will continuously put mines down until the nest is destroyed, or when it reaches 10 active mines placed. You can hide these mines with your webs, giving your opponent's a harder time removing or noticing them. The webs also make the mines indestructible, so you can force opponents into triggering them by proximity.

Speaking of webs, Peni Parker's webs have a lot more utility than her description implies. She has 3 ways of spawning webs: Cyber-Bond, Cyber Web-Snare, and the Spider-Nest. These webs do more than just hide and protect your mines. By standing in the webs, Peni will heal for about 40hp per second! If you are at full health, she can gain armor that stacks to a maximum of 150hp above her base hp. If you stack different webs together, you won't heal faster, but you will generate armor faster. The healing and armor generation does not apply to any other player but Peni. If you step off the webs, hp gaining will stop, and any armor you have will start to decrease until it's gone or you return to a web.

The Spider-Nest will auto deploy webs around the base, alongside the mines to automatically hide their location. The nest is destructable by your opponent, so maintaining a balance of hiding it and placing it in a beneficial location is key. It spawns webs and mines within a radius of the nest, so it won't sporadically drop them everywhere.

Cyber-Bond is a great way to "web swing" for a fast traversal method. This is perfect for getting to the objective quickly to set up mines before your opponent's arrive. It also works well to get you back to the action faster after a death. While bonded to a web, your tether will keep you about 10 meters away before it starts to pull you back. This can help you maintain your footing on an objective, or snap back to point if needed quickly. The tether does not count as touching the web, so you won't gain hp until you return to the web itself.

Cyber-Web Snare is an incredible disruption tool with a very fast cooldown. This web fires like a projectile, but has unlimited range. Once it lands, it either spawns a web, or ensnares the opponent it touches. The snare allows you to disrupt abilities, stop movement, and prevent damage output briefly for the trapped character. If you need a quick hp generator, you can also fire it on the ground and stand on it for some hp.

Peni also has a wall climbing passive ability. You can climb any wall by jumping onto the surface and holding the jump button. While may seem unhelpful, it can actually help you to quickly access different locations, or simply hide from your opponents below!

Her ultimate ability "Spider-Sweeper" can be a bit confusing at first. When activated, you get a boost of armor and begin sprinting around. You then have 2 actions you can perform: dropping mines and attacking with "Spider Sweep". The mines allow you to drop up to 7 mines behind you as you sprint around. The attack deals damage in front of Peni and launches her target airborne. Additionally, Peni will spawn webs and drop mines passively while the ultimate is active.

How to Play

Peni is an anchor tank primarily. Her job is to protect an objective through disruption and traps. You will primarily play her on defensive strategies, but she isn't useless on offense. She will often be played on the back line or just in front of it. She's not the kind of tank to stand upfront constantly.

At the start of a round, you want to get to the objective as quickly as possible and set up. Place down your Spider-Nest in a high traffic area, giving it as much ground coverage as possible without exposing the nest too much. If you can place it near where you will be posting up at, it can give you a large field of passive healing and bonus health.

Next, you want to shoot a web on the ground of a Key choke point or high traffic location. Shoot all 4 of your mines in one spot, and add as many extra as you can before the round starts. By stacking the mines on a web, they will be indestructible and should instantly kill any opponents who is unfortunate enough to step on it. There's no exact science on where to place your traps, but you can use your personal experience on what high traffic routes are, or check out our map guides!

Once the round starts, you can stick to your anchor spot and keep suppressing fire on your opponents. Your mines will be your primary damage source, but the constant barrage of shots will help your team lock in kills. Keep tossing out mines as you generate a few. Try to cluster them in the same spot, preferably on a web, so you can quickly take out someone. Try not to spread out the mines since it will more than likely just feed healer ultimates.

Your web net is your best disruption tool. With a 3 second recharge time, you should be constantly shooting this out. It can trap divers like Magik, Venom, or Black Panther so your team can focus fire on those hard to hit targets. It can also stop some ultimates, as well as be constantly annoying to your opponents.

Use your Cyber-Bond web to get out of heavy fire quickly. Heal up and move back with your team as soon as possible. Avoid using the Cyber-Bond to move closer to opponents. You'll easily get stuck and won't have another web to escape with.

Gameplay Tips and Tricks

If you place the Spider-Nest on a ledge, it will drop mines down below it. This can be handy for putting mines over places like hallways or doors without exposing the nest as easily.

When using Peni Parker's ultimate, try running strait to the back line with the lower hp characters. Bombarding them with mines and your attack can net you quick kills, or simply disrupt their ability to properly support their team.

When a match starts for a defending escort mission, use your cyber-bond to web swing to the objective as quickly as possible. You should be able to activate the ability several times, getting you there often 10 seconds faster than your team. This can give you time to lay out mines, the Spider-Nest, and webs for you to heal with. You can often litter the opponent's spawn door with mines, which can get a surprise kill or two if low hp characters run out first.

If your Spider-Nest is under fire, or you simply don't like the location it is in, you can activate the ability again. This self destruction the nest, but it gives you a near-instant cooldown so you can place it again! If you self-destruct it while an opponent is actively hitting it, you can reduce the cooldown time since you manually removed it.

Try not to be super aggressive while playing Peni. She is the ideal lockout character. On defense, stay near your objective and focus on laying out webs and mines. Your dps isn't high enough for you to be on the front lines. You being on objective makes you a constant threat for any breakthrough or flanking opponents.

You can use Peni for offense as well. To best use her, break her typical rules and push a little ahead. By setting traps, your opponents will have a harder time stating on point like they need to be. This will let your team push forward while you make your opponents question where it's safe to walk! If you can practice aiming her mines, try launching them into the opponent's backline. Their health is so low, and couple of mines can be enough to kill them, or at least make them flee.

You don't have to rely so much on healers when using Peni. Use this to your advantage and place webs around you constantly. By lowering the need to heal you, your strategists can focus on teammates who can't heal themselves and need it more. Furthermore, make sure you are getting your armor up as high as you can, as often as you can.

Pay attention when you are tethered to a web. You may find times when you need to retreat, but your tether can accidentally lock you into a point. You can always cancel a tether, but it will take a few seconds before your next one will be ready. The cooldown doesn't start until you disconnect.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Great anti-dive option
• Well placed mines can isnta-kill any character at full hp
• Web snare can cancel ults and freeze dodgy opponents
• Cyber Bond makes long distance travel faster than other tanks

Cons:

• Slow moving
• Large hitbox
• Easy to get critical hits on
• Primary weapon does low damage

Matchups

Good	Bad
Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Can't leap away or charge when caught in a net	Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... His shields can negate all mine damage
Divers Web net freezes them in place, making them easier to kill. Mines make diving dangerous	Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Can quickly kill you with critical hits
Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Your web passive healing let's you tank through his auro turrets	Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Hard to net, can rapidly kill you at close quarters
Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Mines make his diving difficult, net can stop his rapid slashes after a leap	Loading... If you see this for too long, please disable AdBlock and try to reload the page... Turrets quickly spot you when visible