Marvel Rivals Patch Update Adds a New Event and Hero Balancing

NetEase’s upcoming patch update balances heroes, adds new content, and fixes various bugs. Releasing on April 30 at 9 am UTC, the patch update will be applied seamlessly, meaning there will be no server downtime.

A new event, Hellfire Gala, allows players to earn Wolverine’s “Patch” series costume for free; the event is available from May 2 at 9 am UTC to May 23 at 9 am UTC.

As for the hero balancing, Captain America’s health has been decreased, making the pick more vulnerable and thereby allowing other Vanguards to see more play. Groot received a nerf to his Ironwood Wall as well, a move that has been overbearing to deal with since the game’s initial release. 

Here are the rest of the hero balancing notes, according to NetEase’s official patch notes:

Hero Balance Notes

Vanguard

Captain America

• Reduce base health from 650 to 600.

Doctor Strange

• Decrease the energy cost to unleash Eye of Agamotto (Ultimate Ability) from 3,400 to 3,100.

Groot

• Reduce the health of Ironwood Wall from 700 to 600.

Duelist

Spider-Man

• Decrease the damage range of Amazing Combo from a 5m radius to a 4m radius.

Winter Soldier

• Adjust the Tainted Voltage ability to have 2 charge levels while keeping the cooldown time unchanged.

Strategist

Adam Warlock

• Add a new effect to Quantum Magic: When a critical hit lands on an enemy, reduce the cooldown time of Avatar Life Stream by 1s.

Cloak & Dagger

• As Cloak, increase the damage of Darkforce Cloak from 75/s to 80/s.
• As Dagger, increase the damage of Lightforce Dagger on hit from 15 to 18.

Luna Snow

• Adjust Damage Falloff of Light & Dark Ice from 60% at 40m to 75%.

Mantis

• Increase the hit damage of Life Energy Blast from 50 to 55.

Team-Up Abilities

Stars Aligned (Captain America x Winter Soldier)

• Upon leaping to a teammate, Stellar Impact will provide 50 Bonus Health to allies within range.

Here are NetEase’s notes for the new events and content, which were mentioned separately from the hero balancing:

All-New Event – Hellfire Gala: Moments

• Join the party and earn Wolverine’s “Patch” series costume rewards—completely free!
• Event Duration: 2025/05/02 09:00:00 ~ 2025/05/23 09:00:00 (UTC)

New In Store

• Winter Soldier – Thunderbolts* Bundle
• Black Panther – Damisa-Sarki Bundle

Costume Optimizations

• Thor’s “Lord of Asgard” costume has been refined to improve visibility and ensure the crosshair isn’t obstructed.
• Doctor Strange’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” costume now boasts enhanced visual details and voice effects to more accurately capture the essence of the costume theme.

New Content

• You can now switch all costume-specific sound effects back to the default ones via Settings.
• Using the latest S2.0 data, we’ve recalibrated the baseline data for calculating each hero’s performance scores.
• Locked accounts can now initiate the account deletion process even from a logged-out state.

Fixes

All Platforms

Maps and Modes

• Squashed a bug in Competitive where an occasional map glitch incorrectly displayed check point gate statuses.
• Reined in some mischief in the final part of the Empire of Eternal Night: Midtown map where Loki’s illusions could be placed in unexpected locations.
• Fixed an issue in Giant-Size Brain Blast where destroying enemy summons would also count toward enlarging heroes’ heads.

Heroes

• Stealth Special Breaker: We’ve sliced through a glitch where if Wolverine responds to a Fastball Special request while within Invisible Woman’s ultimate, it would sometimes result in abnormal invisibility effects.
• An Unexpected Thing: We’ve rocked out a fix for an issue that allowed The Thing’s Embattled Leap to target teammates within an enemy Invisible Woman’s ultimate. Now, he’ll be as clueless as he should be.
• Cloak & Dagger’s Shield Shenanigans: We’ve zapped a bug where their ultimate would sneakily still do damage to foes protected by Magneto’s Iron Bulwark or Hulk’s Indestructible Guard—talk about an unexpected plot twist!
• Wolverine’s Aerial Annihilator: Fixed a flaw in the second stage of his ultimate where midair knockbacks lost their bite and dealt no damage. Now, when Wolverine soars into the fray, every strike is felt with the raw power of a true berserker!
• Star-Lord’s Rocket Revamp: Eliminated an occasional speed decay glitch in his Rocket Propulsion ability, impacting his smooth movement. Now, every blast-off is as snappy and daring as a mixtape drop from the Milano!
• Mister Fantastic’s Fantastic Flex Fix: We’ve untangled an issue in his Flexible Elongation ability where hitting targets inside portals caused unexpected displacement. Now, when Mister Fantastic bends the limits of physics, his moves are as smart and precise as his genius!
• Ascender’s Altitude Assurance: Fixed a network instability-related bug that could sometimes abruptly yank wall-climbing heroes back to the ground after reaching the highest point. Now, every climb is as steady and heroic as your soaring ambitions!

Marvel Rivals swimsuit costumes are being teased in Marvel Swimsuit Special: Friends, Foes & Rivals #1, a comic that releases on July 9, 2025.