Fans are days away from Marvel Rivals Season 1, Part 2, and major changes are coming thanks to the latest patch.
NetEase Games' super-powered shooter is over two months into its ever-unfolding content plan. Thus far, fans have seen several big changes in the free-to-play game including two new characters, a bevy of exciting skins, and several technical tweaks to improve the overall online experience.
And this is only the start, with more seasons planned to be released every three months or so for the foreseeable future.
Marvel Rivals Season 1, Part 2 Will Add Human Torch & The Thing
After Marvel Rivals Season 1 debuted with one-half of the Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic and Sue Storm), Marvel's iconic team of heroes will finally be complete with the debut of Season 1, Part 2.
According to a February Marvel Rivals dev diary, the Season 1, Part 2 release date is Friday, February 21, 2025, and it will come with The Thing and Human Torch as new characters.
These new heroes will mark the 36th and 37th characters on the game's ever-expanding roster and have their own powers and unique in-game skins.
Recent leaks revealed how each of these new characters will play in the game, with The Thing being a Vanguard (aka Tank) and Human Torch a duelist.
The Thing's moveset is almost solely based on using his rock-based body to clobber the enemy team. This includes a powerful ground pound that throws nearby foes into the air and a few support moves that can offer a damage-reducing shield to his fellow teammates.
Human Torch's move set will set the battlefield ablaze, with most of his attacks being some variation of his fire-based powers seen in the comics. Fans will be able to use Human Torch to create massive firewalls to attack the enemy team, fly into the air like Iron Man, and launch fireballs at oncoming foes among other things.
A large swath of specific skins has not yet been revealed for the new characters, but there have been teases online about where Rivals will go with some of their a-la-carte cosmetic looks.
NetEase previously revealed the Blood Blaze costume for Human Torch that will be made available for free for players who reach Gold Rank in Season 1, Part 2 (read more about the Blood Blaze skin here). What that specific skin looks like remains to be seen, but if it is in line with the blood-sucking theme of Season 1's Eternal Night theme, it could add some vampiric flare to the fire-based hero.
The leaks also mention an "evil" and "edgy" skin that will be available for both characters at their launch.
Central Park Will Be Added as a Map
A new map will also arrive as a part of Season 1, Part 2's content offering.
The Central Park map will join Midtown and the Sanctum Santorum as the third new map of Season 1. It offers a nightmarish, vampiric take on the iconic New York City locale.
Specific details about Central Park have not yet been disclosed, but according to in-game lore, the story could involve heroes on a mission to free Blade from the clutches of Dracula's castle.
This could mean that the game's take on Central Park would include Dracula's tower home planted in the center of it, with various paths, creeks, and treed areas for players to explore as well.
Chrono Tokens Will Get a Rework
On the monetization side, Marvel Rivals Season 1, Part 2 is also getting an exciting change.
Starting later this season, Chrono Tokens (the currency used to purchase Battle Pass rewards) will undergo a slight rework.
While previously, Chrono Tokens for a specific Battle Pass would become worthless after every reward on the seasonal pass had been redeemed, this change will allow players to make use of these excess Tokens until the end of the season.
As revealed in the Dev Vision Vol. 04 Season 1, Part 2 deep dive, the Rivals development team announced extra Chrono Tokens can be exchanged for in-game Gold once every reward on the Battle Pass has been acquired by a particular player.
The specific exchange rate has not yet been revealed, but it will surely be exciting for fans who can now use their extra Battle Pass currency.
Some Strategists Are Getting Nerfed
A part of the Season 1, Part 2 update will involve character changes to the game's established roster. These tweaks include some Strategists getting nerfed (made less powerful), including the popular Cloak & Dagger character.
According to the Marvel Rivals dev team, they have seen some concerning trends in the use of Strategists in the game as triple-strategist teams become increasingly popular in high-level gameplay.
To counteract this, the team is making these support characters slightly less powerful to incentivize players to explore the roster and consider more varied team compositions.
As mentioned by LCombat Designer Aden Zhiyong in the Season 1.5 dev diary, part of the reason for these changes has to do with the "quick ultimate recharge for Strategists like Cloak & Dagger and our mischievous friend Loki," which fans had been exploiting for better performance in battle:
"Here is the catch, the quick ultimate recharge for Strategists like Cloak & Dagger and our mischievous friend Loki often leads to some opressivbe moments. A triple-Strategist setup often means at least one ultimate counters a Vanguard or Duelist's ultimate which may slow down the game's pace."
To remedy these issues, the development team has increased the energy cost for these frequently used Strategist ultimates, resulting in a more exhilarating pace of play.
The update will also power down some ultimates entirely including—as specifically called out by the dev team itself—Cloak & Dagger's (read more about Cloak & Dagger's move set here).
Other Characters Are Getting Balance Tweaks
Strategists are not the only characters getting changes in Marvel Rivals.
To counteract the game's Strategist ultimate problem, some Vanguard and Duelists' ultimates will have their energy costs reduced to allow players in those roles to use these ultra-powerful attacks more frequently.
Other changes include slightly reducing the survivability of ultra-popular Vanguard characters like Doctor Strange and Magneto to offer greater balance against the two most-picked tanks in the game (thanks to their damage-swallowing shields).
Other Vanguards will be given greater maneuverability, allowing these typically hulking characters better movement around the battlefield.
Characters like Moon Knight and Storm will also get slight adjustments to their move sets, depowering them a touch to make them feel more balanced.
Balance changes will continue to come as a part of each season and half-season update, but the team at NetEase Games is making a shift in how it changes the game starting in Season 1, Part 2.
Balancing will now be more closely watched in-season, and if any urgent issues arise, then changes will be made outside of this half-season schedule.
Marvel Rivals is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
