Season 3.5 ofMarvel Rivalsis right around the corner, bringing the new Duelist character Blade and several balance changes, including new Team-Up abilities. Like every seasonal update, the dev team has sought to freshen up character synergies by removing certain Team-Ups and adding new ones. This creates new possibilities for unique team comps, encouraging different characters to be used together in matches.
Withshorter Seasons of the gamestarting in Season 3, theseTeam-Up changes are being put out much fasterthan prior patches. Team-Up abilities can shake the meta of the game, as Season 3 has seen so far with the ridiculous strength of Wolverine paired with The Phoenix. It remains to be seen whether Season 3.5’s changes will create more balance or define the game’s strongest combinations.
Which Team-Up Abilities Are Going Away?
Long-Time Combinations Are Being Removed
With the start of Season 3.5,two different Team-Ups are being removed, with each originally debuting at the game’s launch. These Season 0Team-Ups inMarvel Rivalsinclude:
These changes make sense, as Guardian Revival was considered one of the strongest abilities in the game, allowing Mantis and Star-Lord to revive themselves from death once if they were on a team with Adam Warlock. In contrast, Atlas Bond was an incredibly underutilized ability, rarely being used due to other synergies being much more potent.
Thankfully,each of the characters involved with these Team-Ups will be receiving a new Team-Up or being included in pre-existing onesmoving forward. While I am relieved to see Guardian Revival leaving, I anticipate that the new Team-Ups added for these characters will likely be strong in their own ways.
Every New Team-Up Ability In Season 3.5
Unorthodox Healing Through Hero Cooperation
Almost keeping to a pattern,two new Team-Ups arrive in Season 3.5, with nearly all of them including some new healing synergy between various heroes. This change seems to come as a direct result of Blade’s inclusion into the game since the vampire hunter has abilities that negate healing on enemy characters.
Season 3.5 launches with Blade on June 13, 2025. The new Duelist will be the last character of the Season, but additional balance changes will come at a later date.
These Team-Ups all provide some type of recovery ability, taking some stress off ofStrategist characters inMarvel Rivalsfor being the sole source of healing for their team. This does create worry that these regenerative Team-Ups might be game-breaking, but players will have to experiment with them to find out.
The table below goes over every new Team-Up, what they do, and which characters are included in them:
Duality Dance
Luna Snow, Adam Warlock
With Adam as the anchor, Luna Snow gains the ability to bond to one of her enemies. When she does this, her next attacks both do greater damage and heal Luna every time they hit her target.
Vibrant Vitality
Groot, Mantis, Loki
With Mantis as the anchor, Loki’s healing fields also apply a damage boost whenever they are used. Groot’s plant walls also apply healing over time to himself and any allies standing near the wall.
Every Existing Team-Up That’s Changed In Season 3.5
Three New Characters Included In Established Collaborations
The most extensive Team-Up changes in Season 3.5 come fromthree characters being added to existing synergies. Considering how variousbuffs and nerfs in Season 3have worked, these are new ways for characters to shine through connections to other members of their team. The Team-Ups with new members are:
The easiest new Team-Up character to mention ishowLunar Force gains Blade as a new member, who gains the same ability as Moon Knight does through this synergy. When on a team with Cloak & Dagger,Blade can activate a new ability that generates a field of Darkforce around him, obscuring him from sightfrom an enemy team. While this bubble of invisibility is limited, it can disrupt enemies with lock-on skills, preventing them from targeting Blade.
The Rocket Network gains Star-Lord as a new member, giving the Guardians of the Galaxy member a new gadget in his toolkit.Star-Lord gains a teleportation device from Rocket, which he can throw similarly to Rocket tossing his revival beacon. When Star-Lord does this, he can choose to teleport to the beacon he threw, after a short start-up.
Star-Lord’s teleportation beacon acts as a physical object in the environment, in the same way as Rocket and Peni’s other gadgets. This means that enemies can target and destroy the teleport beacon, keeping Star-Lord from using it until the Team-Up ability resets from a long cooldown.
The final Team-Up to gain a new character isChilling Assault, which adds Iron Fist to its lineup. When on a team with Luna Snow, Iron Fist can use his meditation to create a snowy field around him, granting nearby allies Bonus Health. This is, essentially, passing Iron Fist’s own ability to others around him, emphasizing more coordination with a team.
Each of these character inclusions enhances what certain heroes can do, either by helping allies or giving them better tools to fulfill their roles. With Season 3.5 giving players far more team combinations inMarvel Rivals, multiple characters may become more useful to keep team comps feeling fresh.
