There are a ton of costumes inMarvel Rivals, with more likely to come in the Season 3 Battle Pass releasing on June 02, 2025. While each skin for characters comes with multiple cosmetics, some features of these unique looks are incredibly exclusive. However, in Season 3, players will have more opportunities to mix and match aspects of a costume and use their visuals in creative ways.
When youbuy a Costume Bundle inMarvel Rivals, they sometimes come with an MVP Animation, custom emote, Nameplate, and Spray you may use. Nameplates can be equipped at any time, with Sprays being something any character can use too.Emotes are exclusive to characters, but MVP animations are also restricted to what skin you’re using, at least until the launch of Season 3.
Any MVP Animation Can Be Used Regardless Of An Equipped Skin
Highlights From Matches Now Allow For Any Skin
MVP animations feature some of the most stunning looks for costumes, showing them in motion when players perform extremely well for their team to win a match. For the longest time, MVPs were restricted to what costume you were wearing. In Season 3,players can equip any MVP animation they want, regardless of what costume they are usingfor their favorite characters.
For example, say that you were playing Venom inMarvel Rivalsand using the Space Knight costume. You can now equip the MVP animation from the Lingering Imprint skin and see that animation play while Venom still wears the Space Knight Skin during the match. You wouldn’t be locked to seeing the Space Knight animation only if you got MVP, as you would view Lingering Imprint instead.
Since MVP animations are individual rewards on aMarvel RivalsBattle Passfor any season, you don’t have to also unlock the skin they are associated with to start using it as of Season 3.
This allows players to get far more value from the bundles they purchase, as it encourages you tomix and match different skins with different animations. Since not every costume in the game comes with an MVP animation, this also lets those skins be used more frequently. I know I’ll be using the PS4 Spider-Man and Hyper Orange Venom skins way more, knowing that they won’t play default animations if I get MVP.
Ultimate VFX Changes How Character Abilities Look
Some Costumes Get Custom Animations Players Can Start Using In Matches
Season 3 also includes a new feature calledUltimate VFX, which is exclusive to certain Legendary costumes in the game. Thiscustomization option allows players to change the animation of a character’s Ultimate abilityduring a match. Although this change is only visible to the player who enabled the custom VFX, it creates a vibrant and dynamic look to a hero or villain’s strongest skill.
Other players who do not have Ultimate VFX for a costume equipped will see the default animationfor the ability, making it a custom choice for your account only. For someone like Scarlet Witch, this changes the Ultimate of her Immortal Sovereign costume to have a dragon appear instead of just floating red chaos orbs.
Ultimate VFX for a character costume is purchased through an in-game currency called Unstable Molecules. You’ll be able toearn Unstable Molecules through different events that take place in Season 3, as well as the Battle Pass that drops during the same season. With a greater abundance of Chrono Tokens you can earn in Season 3, Unstable Molecules might be something you can collect quickly as you play.
Unstable Molecules are used to buydifferent costume palettes inMarvel Rivals, giving you alternate colors for specific existing skins. This applies to the Ultimate VFX change as well,giving you far more customization tools than ever beforeto showcase how your favorite characters appear during matches. After so many hours in the game, I’m astounded by how many cosmetic options are coming alongside other content in Season 3.
Unique Backgrounds Now Reflect The Costumes You’ve Chosen
Different Skins Come With Custom Environments
Another cosmetic change coming in Season 3 is theinclusion of unique Lobby Backgrounds for certain costumesin the game. When you pick a hero to be in the"Play"menu lobby, different backgrounds will appear based on their equipped skin when they appear. This gives you far more interesting backgrounds to view as you wait for matches to queue, your friends to join your team, or just to admire from time to time.
you’re able to preview team lobby backgrounds for costumes when you view them in the Store for the first time. You can also see these backgrounds in greater detail when viewing a character’s costume from the Hero menu, where you can equip Sprays, Emotes, and other cosmetics.
This small cosmetic change is the final cherry on top of all the costume customization options in Season 3 for me, as they all allow me far greater expression with a character’s best looks. Even before starting matches, I canequip a skin to a lobby character to view a unique background. During matches, I can make some of these skins feel even more important, with custom Ultimate animations that highlight how cool some costumes are.
The custom backgrounds for character skins pair with the new options for MVP animations, allowing more freedom of choice involving different costumes. The best costumes inMarvel Rivalshave usually only been expressed in a few ways, with little depth outside MVP screens. Now,players can feel more impact from the costumes they get, either from purchasing them or earning them through the Battle Pass.
All of these costume changes come with an optimized Gallery system, new display changes before and after matches, and refined UI in several menus for greater quality-of-life. With costumes feeling better than ever in Season 3 ofMarvel Rivals, I’m excited to see what other customization systems get added halfway through the season and beyond.
