New heroes, balance changes, competitive updates, and thrilling tournaments await in the second half of Marvel Rivals Season 1 arriving on February 21, 2025, at 8:00 AM (UTC+0)!
As New York City plunged into eternal night, The Thing and Human Torch has made it their mission to selflessly protect their home and lead missions to collect Chronovium by putting their piloting skills to the test. Ignite the battle against Dracula with the Fantastic Four in Marvel Rivals!
Human Torch
Johnny Storm is the Fantastic Four's resident hothead heartthrob, always managing to look cool while turning up the heat! Johnny joined his sister on a wild experimental space mission in the hopes of visiting the stars, instead, he became the brightest star of them all with the power to ignite his body as the Human Torch!
The Human Torch adds an intense flare to every battle with scorching flames. When he's not busy burning Dracula's legions with flames brighter than the sun itself, he's soaring across the city to gather Chronovium and scavenge for parts of the Timestream Reintegration Device.
The Thing
Benjamin J. Grimm is undeniably the unwavering heart of any team. Always at the forefront of any fight, he's ready to take the lead with his unbreakable form.
Ben Grimm originally signed up to be a pilot for his pal Reed, but he never imagined that he'd return from the mission as an indescribable monster: The Thing. Even though beaming cosmic rays transformed his flesh, a heart of gold still beats his rocky exterior.
As New York City plunged into eternal night, the Thing has made it his mission to selflessly protect his home and lead missions to collect Chronovium by putting his piloting skills to the test.
Developer Update
In Dev Vision Vol. 04, Creative Director Guangguang and Lead Combat Designer Zhiyong unveil exciting updates for the second half of Season 1: Eternal Night Falls!
- Human Torch, The Thing, and Empire of Eternal Night: Central Park (new map) all coming alongside Season 1 Part 2 on February 21st
- New crests of honor for Season 1 Part 2
- Crests of honor are now unique for each rank (GM and above)
- Top 500 crest of honor is animated
- Season 1 Part 2's gold rank reward is a Human Torch recolor called "Blood Blaze"
- NEW: Excess Chrono Tokens will now be converted to Units "at a certain rate" at the end of the season for people who purchased the battle pass
- A big focus of the balance adjustments in this week's patch is addressing the triple support meta, which has revolved around using specific defensive support ultimates to nullify many duelist and vanguard ultimates
- Those defensive support ultimates are having their energy costs increased, and some of those nullified duelist and vanguard ultimates are having their energy costs decreased (example: Magik and Venom)
- Their intent isn't to stamp out the triple support playstyle completely, but rather to provide more opportunities for counterplay
- Doctor Strange and Magneto survivability nerfed and some movement-type vanguards buffed to shake up the meta and bring less played vanguards back into focus
- Storm is getting a "moderate" nerf to balance her out after the previous buff
- Moon Knight's ultimate is also being nerfed
- Generally speaking, the plan is to push balance patches every half-season (roughly 6-7 weeks each) but the team is committing to addressing any hypothetical major balancing issues that may arise with a single emergency patch as necessary
- Hero Hot List (pick rates, etc.) section of the website updating very soon with all of the data from Season 1 Part 1
- Official balance patch notes will also be going live soon
- NEW: Hidden Name feature being added for players who reach Diamond 3 to address target bans
- When activated, players in competitive will have their username obscured until a short time into the match
