Marvel Rivals continues to be a blast in the hero shooter space, and its new Season 3.5 update is here to bring an influx of new content, improvements, and changes that focus on player experience. Here’s everything you need to know about this update including the new story updates, competitive updates and general quality of life fixes.
Phoenix Returns and Darkness Rises: Expanding the Story
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Season 3.0 and 3.5 had much of the attention on the story. The mighty Phoenix was ambushed and forced to take refuge in a cosmic egg, but it hatched prematurely and the Phoenix Force was distributed among the heroes. However, this release awakened an ancient evil. The King in Black is now at full power while the Queen in Black still wreaks havoc. As a result, the Phoenix Force is now broken up into so many heroes, which brings changes in everything both story and gameplay wise.
Blade Joins the Fight: New Hero Spotlight
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Season 3.5 introduces Blade, the iconic daywalker from Marvel. He is a tactical fighter combining strength and skill:
- Combat Skills: Uses his shotgun close up to reduce enemy healing and quickly close the gap.
- Sword Mastery: Awakens his vampire bloodline and slices through enemies with his ancestral sword.
- Ultimate Power: Wields the legendary Sword of Dracula, dashing through foes and leaving a damaging trail behind.
Blade’s playstyle is aggressive but requires strategy, making him a strong and exciting new addition.
Team-Up Abilities Revamped
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Responding to player feedback, team-up abilities have changed quite a bit:
- Removals: Guardian Revival and Atlas B are removed; Loki leaves the Rock Rebirth team.
- New Team-Ups: Two new abilities, Duality Dance and Vibrant Fatality Regeneration, bring fresh tactics.
- New Members: Iron Fist joins Trading Assort, Star-Lord connects to the Locking Network, and Blade fits into Luna Force.
These adjustments aim to refresh team combos and provide more strategic options.
Focus on Player Experience and Reducing Toxicity
Marvel Rivals is serious about improving player environment:
- Voice Chat Monitoring: Starting July 24, voice chats will be automatically monitored and reviewed by humans to catch toxic behavior, with penalties for offenders.
- Custom Chat Filters: Players can now create personal filters for chat messages, with popular bad words possibly added to official filtering lists later.
These features should help maintain a respectful and positive community.
Fair Play and Tougher Penalties for Quitters
To fix problems with players leaving matches early, Season 3.5 introduces stronger penalties:
- Longer Bans and Bigger Point Losses for quitting ranked matches.
- Compensation: Players who stay get points compensated to balance out the disadvantage.
- Improved Appeals: Mistaken penalties will now be reviewed faster, and surrender votes require fewer players if a teammate leaves unexpectedly.
Technical Improvements and Upcoming Tournament
PC players will experience a rebuilt shader system that loads shaders in the background, meaning no more waiting to play, and less memory used.
Also, the Marvel Rivals Ignite Midseason Finals will be held in Guangzhou, China, from August 6 to 10. Ten factions from around the globe will be battling out for the championship.
Introducing Resource Rumble: A New Game Mode
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On August 22, a new game mode called Resource Rumble will be released on the new map, called Throne of Now. Resource Rumble will launch in quick matches first for player feedback, and then will be introduced into the competitive map rotations. Resource Rumble should provide fast-paced and objective based gameplay along with new team tactics.
