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Benjamin Grimm, known to many as the thing, brings his rocky fists and unmovable presence to Marvel Rivals as a disruptive Vanguard. With his simple yet effective kit, The Thing excels at knocking enemies around, preventing escapes, and tanking damage. Whether you're new to the game or looking to expand your hero pool, this guide will walk you through everything you need to dominate with The Thing in Marvel Rivals.
The Thing Overview
The Thing (Benjamin Grimm) is a melee Vanguard who specializes in getting up close, disrupting enemy formations, and controlling space. His playstyle revolves around initiating fights, protecting teammates, and causing chaos in enemy backlines.
 | Stat |
| Health | 700 HP |
| Role | Vanguard |
| Difficulty | Easy (1/5) |
| Attack Type | Melee |
The Thing's main strength comes from his passive ability, which makes him immune to knockbacks and displacement effects, letting him maintain his position in fights. This makes him particularly effective at holding ground and protecting objectives.
How to Play The Thing in Marvel Rivals
Positioning and Playstyle
Successfully playing The Thing requires understanding that you're not a traditional shield tank. While other Vanguards like doctor strange and magneto focus on protecting teammates with barriers, your job is to disrupt, control space, and make life difficult for the enemy team.
- Offensive Positioning: When attacking, position yourself slightly offset from the main choke point rather than directly in front of it. This gives you a better angle for your charge ability to bypass the enemy frontline. Wait for the enemy to commit resources to the main fight, then use Yancy Street Charge to push past their frontline and attack their supports from an unexpected angle. On payload maps, constantly alternate between pushing with your team and taking flanking routes. The unpredictability of your approaches forces the enemy team to constantly check their backs, reducing pressure on your teammates pushing the objective.
- Defensive Positioning: When defending, position yourself between your backline and common flank routes. Your job isn't to stand at the choke like other shield-like Vanguards, but to intercept divers before they reach your supports. Stay about 10-15 meters ahead of your healers. Keep track of enemy divers like black panther or psylocke and adjust your position to counter their likely approach angles. When you see them commit to a dive, immediately use Yancy Street Charge to create your mobility prevention zone around your supports, shutting down the diver's escape options. Furthermore, use Embattled Leap to apply damage reduction to the ally.
If you have another Vanguard on your team, coordinate your positions to create a "good cop, bad cop" dynamic. Let the shield tank hold the main choke while you position to punish enemies who try to push through. With mobility-focused DPS heroes like Spiderman on your team, position to create distraction opportunities. When you charge in from the front, they can attack from another angle, forcing the enemy to split their attention.
If you have an invisible woman on your team, stay closer to her than you normally would with other strategists. Her team-up ability significantly increases your survivability, making more aggressive positioning viable. Always maintain line of sight with at least one teammate who you can leap to with Embattled Leap. This is your emergency escape button, and without it, your deep engagements become much riskier.
Target Priority
As with any other character in the game, it is really important to understand your role and target priority in a match.
Support heroes should be your highest priority in most situations. Unlike some Vanguards who struggle to reach backlines, your charge ability lets you directly threaten these high-value targets. Adam Warlock should be your top priority in any match. His resurrection ability can completely negate your team's eliminations, so isolating and pressuring him is crucial. Other characters like Mantis require immediate attention, as their healing can sustain enemies through your team's damage.
Heroes that rely on movement abilities become significantly weaker when caught in your mobility prevention zone and should be your secondary targets. For example: Black pantherbecomes much less threatening when he can't dash. Time your mobility zone to catch him after he commits to an engagement but before he can escape.
Ranged Duelists can shred your health from a distance but struggle when forced into close combat. These make for excellent opportunistic targets when they're exposed. While typically not your primary focus, certain Vanguards can be worth targeting in specific scenarios. Doctor strangebecomes a priority target when his shield is protecting multiple enemies. Charging through to disrupt his positioning can force the shield into a less optimal position, but remember this is also a double-edged sword, and you might find yourself being an important sacrifice.
Don't fixate on a single target if the situation changes. Be ready to switch targets if a support hero suddenly becomes exposed, peel for your own Strategists if they're being dived, or fall back to contest objectives when needed. Remember that as The Thing, sometimes your most valuable contribution isn't eliminating enemies but creating space and opportunities for your team. Forcing enemies to react to your presence and disrupting their positioning can be just as impactful as securing eliminations.
The Thing Combos
The Thing's kit might seem straightforward, but there are several powerful combinations that can maximize your impact:
- Haymaker > Rocky Jab > Rocky Jab/Haymaker (Basic punch combo)
- Yancy Street Charge through frontline > Rocky Jab > Embattled Leap back to safety (if needed)
- Position at a choke point > Yancy Street Charge > Clobberin' Time to stun grouped enemies > Stone Haymaker to finish low-health targets
- Embattled Leap to threatened ally > Yancy Street Charge to create mobility zone > Stone Haymaker any divers
- Embattled Leap to frontline > Yancy Street Charge > Stone Haymaker
How to Counter The Thing
Despite his rocky exterior and immovable passive, The Thing has several weaknesses that you can exploit:
The Thing's biggest vulnerability is his lack of traditional damage mitigation. Without shields like Doctor Strange or Magneto, he relies on temporary bonus health and damage reduction with cooldowns. His limited vertical mobility makes him vulnerable to attacks from above and heroes that can maintain high ground.
While immune to displacement, The Thing is still affected by stuns, slows, and other crowd-control effects (except during his charge). His melee-focused kit means he struggles against heroes that can maintain distance while dealing damage.
Effective Counters:
- peni parker can completely shut down The Thing's movement with her web snare, and her mines punish predictable charge paths.
- luna snow can freeze The Thing in place despite his displacement immunity, making him an easy target for her team.
- punisher and winter soldier can maintain distance while dealing sustained damage that quickly drains The Thing's health pool.
- grootcan block The Thing's movement with walls and separate him from his team, negating much of his disruption potential.
- Flying heroes like storm and human torchcan attack from positions The Thing struggles to reach.
Best Team Composition
The Thing performs best when paired with heroes that complement his disruptive playstyle:
- invisible womanprovides the perfect support through her team-up ability, which grants The Thing bonus health regeneration and damage reduction. This partnership significantly extends his staying power and makes him much harder to eliminate.
- Shield-focused Vanguards like doctor strange create a complementary tanking duo. While The Thing disrupts and creates chaos, the shield tank provides protection that The Thing lacks.
- Mobile damage dealers like psylocke can capitalize on the openings The Thing creates. After he charges in and creates his mobility zone, these heroes can follow up for quick eliminations.
- Sustained healers like mantis help compensate for The Thing's lack of built-in sustain, allowing him to maintain aggressive positioning for longer periods.
- wolverine gains a unique advantage through the Cosmic Fastball team-up, letting The Thing throw him directly into the enemy backline for coordinated dive attacks.
The Thing brings a fun approach to the Vanguard role in Marvel Rivals. Rather than standing back with shields, he charges forward to create chaos and opportunities. His straightforward kit makes him a beginner friendly character, and once you get used to his combo, you can really help your team in a lot of ways.
