Marvel Rivals season 5 patch releases Nov. 14 with hero adjustments and team-up reworks

Marvel Rivals season 5 launches on Nov. 14 at 9 am UTC. To accompany the launch of a new season, NetEase published two sets of patch notes. The first goes over the new content arriving in the game on the specified date, which includes Gambit as a new playable strategist in Marvel Rivals, alongside a new battle pass, a free Spider-Man skin, new map Time Square, new stores: Love is a Battlefield and Deal of a Lifetime, and competitive play changes. The second set of patch notes goes over the hero balancing adjustments alongside team-up ability adjustments. 

⚖️ Hero Balance update is heading your way, Rivals!
With the arrival of our latest season, we're bringing key balance changes to our heroes to shake up the battlefield.

Read the full announcement here >> https://t.co/uin92Yfi5y

The Hero Hot List on our official website has also… pic.twitter.com/REvOOmhfIA

— Marvel Rivals (@MarvelRivals) November 12, 2025

Here are the first set of Marvel Rivals season 5 patch notes, according to the official blog post: 

All-New Content

• New Hero
  • Gambit goes all in on Marvel Rivals!
• New Map
  • Times Square: A non-combat map where players can interact, hang out, and enjoy various activities.
• New Stories
  • New Serial – Love is a Battlefield
  • New Gambit Lore – Deal of a Lifetime
• New Systems
  • Home background can now be set to randomly rotate
  • Added All-New Interactive Emotes: Now you can join other heroes in performing interactive emotes and engage together on the battlefield! Some existing dance emotes have been upgraded to interactive versions. 
  • Cross-progression account linking is now fully available
  • Xbox: Added new Discord linking and cross-platform chat.
  • XBOX&PC: Added an option to hide unlinked Discord friends in-game.

New In Store

• Gambit – Thieves Guildmaster Bundle
• Magneto – Temporal Tyrant Bundle
• Gambit – Thieves Guildmaster Emoji Bundle
• Gambit – Crimson Heart
• Available from: November 14th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)

S5 Battle Pass

• Enjoy a Grand Garden Adventure with the new Battle Pass featuring 10 all-new sets of heroic costumes! We hope you enjoy it!

Season Event

• Leave your mark in the season event, Elders’ Chessboard. Complete missions to earn a FREE costume: Spider-Man – Iron Spider!

Competitive

• To ease competitive pressure, we’ve adjusted ranked rewards:
  2. Gold-tier rewards remain the same; one costume per half-season. Season 5.0 Gold-tier costume reward is Gambit – Sacrificial Pawn.
  3. Crests of Honor (inc. Top 500) and Nameplate Frame rewards are now granted once per season at the season’s end.
• Competitive Team Limit Adjustments:
  2. Bronze to Grandmaster: Team up with any party size except five-stack.
  3. Celestial/Eternity/One Above All: Only solo or duo queue allowed.

Placement Matches

• From Season 5 onward, your first 10 ranked matches are Placement Matches. Your performance determines your starting tier.
• Placement Rules
• 1.1 Predicted vs. Actual Rank
  • During placement matches, you will receive a predicted rank reflecting your estimated skill level. This predicted rank is used for matchmaking and team formation during placement matches.
  • Predicted rank is not your final rank. After completing all 10 placement matches, you will be assigned your actual rank, which may differ from your predicted rank.
  • If you don’t finish all placement matches this season, you will not receive any season rewards.
  • If you complete placement matches in the first half of the season, you’ll keep that rank in the second half. If you don’t finish placements in the first half, you must complete them in the second half to be eligible for ranked rewards.
• Reward Rules:
  • To earn the Gold tier costume reward for a half-season, you must complete 10 ranked matches in that season’s half and finish at Gold rank or higher at the end of the half-season.
  • To receive season-end rewards, you must complete placement matches and meet the required rank at season’s end.
• Example:
  • If you finish 9 placement matches in the first half of the season with an estimated rank of Platinum III, but don’t complete the 10th match, you won’t get the Gold costume reward. If you complete your 10th placement match in the second half of the season, you’ll be eligible for season-end rewards but not both halves’ Gold costumes.
  • If you play 10 ranked matches in both halves of the season, you’ll be eligible for both Gold costumes and the season-end rewards.
  • Additionally, if you don’t finish 10 placement matches in Season 5, your Season 6 initial estimated rank for placement matches will be Platinum III.
• 1.2 First-Time Placement
  • When doing placements for the first time (regardless of season), your initial estimated rank is determined by two criteria:
  • Initial Estimated Rank A: If you played 10 or more ranked matches in Season 4, your Season 5 placement matches estimated starting rank is your Season 4 final rank minus 3 divisions. Please note that players ranked in the Celestial II, Celestial I, Eternity, and One Above All in Season 4 will be uniformly reset to Grandmaster II as their initial estimated rank for the new season. Players in Bronze III, Bronze II, Bronze I, and Silver III will start at Bronze III as their initial estimated rank.
  • Initial Estimated Rank B: We’ll also check your highest historical rank from any previous season with 10+ matches, subtract some sub-tiers, and set this as your historical initial rank for placement matches (capped at Platinum II).
  • Your higher result from A or B becomes your initial predicted rank.
  • Example: If A gives Gold I and B gives Platinum III, you start placement matches at Platinum III.
  • If you do not complete 10 placement matches in Season 5, the same rules will apply the next time you do placements.
• 1.3 Subsequent Placements
  • If you’ve completed 10 placements and received a true rank in a previous season, future initial estimated ranks are based on your last season’s final rank minus 3 sub-tiers.
  • Again, players ranked in the Celestial II, Celestial I, Eternity, and One Above All will be uniformly reset to Grandmaster II as their initial estimated rank for the new season. Players in Bronze III, Bronze II, Bronze I, and Silver III will start at Bronze III as their initial estimated rank.
  • In such circumstances, the highest rank achieved previously will no longer be taken into account.
• 1.4 New Players
  • If you have never played 10 ranked matches in a season, you are considered a new player and will start at Silver III estimated rank.
• 2 Match Results
  • Your final placement after completing placement matches is closely tied to wins and losses across the ten matches. Each victory or defeat moves your current estimated rank and shows roughly where you stand. After all placement matches:
  • You can be placed up to 1–2 divisions above your previous season’s final rank, but you will not be placed higher than Celestial I.
  • Your lowest possible placement varies by tier but will not be lower than Bronze III.
  • If you go 5 wins and 5 losses, your final placement will be close to your initial estimated rank.
• 3 Placement Matchmaking
• 3.1 Team Restrictions
  • While any player is in placement matches, they may only queue in teams of up to three players. For teams that include at least one player in placement matches, the difference between the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked player in the party must be less than 3 divisions. If stricter party limits apply (for example, if the party contains players at Celestial/Eternity/One Above All tiers), those stricter limits will take precedence.
• 3.2 Matchmaking Rules
  • If a team contains any player in placement matches, the matchmaking will use the highest-ranked player in the team as the search anchor when finding teammates and opponents.
• 4 Penalty Rules
  • If a player in placement matches experiences a disconnect, reconnect timeout, inactivity, or similar violation, penalties depend on timing:
  • If the match ends within 90 seconds of their disconnect:
    • Normal settlement based on match result and stats; no penalty.
  • If the match ends more than 90 seconds after their disconnect, that player will be marked as a loss for the placement match, will receive a ranked suspension, and an offense count will be recorded, regardless of match outcome.
  • If the player is judged to have deliberately AFK: if the team wins, no penalty is applied; if the team loses, the placement match result is calculated, they receive a ranked suspension, and an offense count will be recorded.
  • If squad members (members of your stack) of a player in placement matches experience a disconnect, reconnect timeout, or similar violation, penalties depend on timing:
  • If the match ends within 90 seconds of their disconnect:
    • Normal settlement based on match result and stats; no penalty to the squad member.
  • If the match ends more than 90 seconds after the squad member disconnects: Victory: normal settlement; no penalty. Defeat: A loss will be recorded for the placement match player, but no ranked suspension.
  • If teammates (other players you get matched with) of a player in placement matches experience a disconnect, reconnect timeout, or similar violation, penalties depend on timing:
  • If the match ends within 90 seconds of the teammate’s disconnect:
    • Normal settlement based on match result and stats.
  • If the match ends more than 90 seconds after the teammate disconnects: Victory: normal settlement; no penalty. Defeat: The match shall be deemed invalid, meaning the data from this match shall not be counted towards the rank calculation for the placement match player.

Fixes and Optimizations

All Platforms

1. Significant CPU logic and rendering performance improvements. 

PC

1. Intel® XeSS Frame Generation now supports non-Intel GPUs (requires Shader Model 6.4). 
2. Performance testing tool reworked for more accurate in-game CPU performance.
3. CPU RHI thread consumption is now displayed for pinpointing CPU bottlenecks. 

Console

1. Major reduction in game client file size.

Heroes

1. Peni Parker’s Venom Vision: We’ve fixed a bug where Peni Parker, while using the VEN#m costume, could spot Arachno-Mine outlines through walls. With great power comes great responsibility, and now, no more wall hacks! Her spider-sense is back to being street legal. 

2. Queen of the Dead’s Shield Shenanigans: In Marvel Zombies Nightmare IV difficulty, The Queen of The Dead’s overlapping shields were so tough that Magik’s Eldritch Whirl couldn’t scratch the surface. We’ve dispelled this dark sorcery; now Magik’s blade can cut through the chaos! 

3. Ultron’s Ulti-Undercut: When Ultron summoned his drone minions with his Ultimate Ability, allies and enemies alike couldn’t see their dazzling projectile effects or hear their menacing sounds. We’ve upgraded his programming. Now, Ultron’s army brings both the noise and the spectacle. Resistance is futile!  

Here are the second set of patch notes, going over the Marvel Rivals hero balancing alongside team-up ability adjustments: 

HERO ADJUSTMENTS

VANGUARD

• Angela
  • The Hand of Heven sharpens her edge, bringing even (slightly) greater threat to the battlefield.
  • Increase Movement Speed of Assassin’s Charge accelerated dash state from 16m/s to 18m/s.
  • Increase Heven’s Retribution (Ultimate Ability) spear Health from 600 to 800.
• Captain America
  • Steve Rogers steps up as the ultimate team player!
  • Freedom Charge (Ultimate Ability) New Effect: Allies within its path gain a 30% boost to Ultimate Energy charge efficiency.
• Groot
  • The gentle giant gets tougher!
  • Ironwood Wall New Effect: Gain Unstoppable status when within 15m of Awakened Ironwood Walls.
• Hulk
  • The Green Goliath’s protection game goes gamma!
  • Gamma Burst New Effect: Each direct hit reduces Indestructible Guard cooldown by 1s.
• Magneto
  • Max amplifies his shielding frequency for both self and allies.
  • Separate the cooldowns of Metal Bulwark and Iron Bulwark. Now, activating one won’t send the other on cooldown.
  • Reduce Metal Bulwark and Iron Bulwark shield value from 250 to 200.
• Peni Parker
  • SP//dr’s pilot takes teamwork to the next level!
  • Allies in Peni’s Cyber-Webs now receive the same Healing Over Time and a Movement Boost effects as her. Movement Boost for allies is 25%, Healing is 15/s. Ally excess healing converts into Bonus Health, up to 25.
• The Thing
  • Ben Grimm doubles down on defense and offense.
  • Embattled Leap: Remove Damage Reduction from single leap target, now grants 20% Damage Reduction to all allies within 5m of his landing point. Reduce Damage Reduction to self from 25% to 20%.
  • Battle Blitz: Remove Damage Reduction from self. Now applies 20% Vulnerability to all enemies within 5m of his landing point.
  • Reduce Stone Haymaker base Damage from 90 to 55 and remove 50 Bonus Health gained during ability activation. New Effects: Deal bonus Damage equal to 8% of enemies’ max Health per hit. Gain Bonus Health equal to damage dealt (up to 100).

DUELIST

• Hawkeye
  • Clint’s precision packs a slightly bigger punch!
  • Increase Archer’s Focus maximum Bonus Damage from 75 to 90.
• Mister Fantastic
  • Reed Richards gets even stretchier and tougher.
  • Reflexive Rubber can now be used during Inflated state after reaching 100 Elasticity.
  • Remove the 350 Bonus Health on entering Inflated state; now gain 350 Maximum Health and a one-time heal of 350, which is removed upon exiting the Inflated state.
• Phoenix
  • Jean Grey’s cosmic fire burns brighter:
  • Adjust Cosmic Flames maximum falloff at 30m from 60% to 75%.
• Spider-Man
  • Peter Parker’s web-slinging offense gets a slight lift.
  • Reduce Web-Cluster energize time from 2.5s to 2s.
  • Increase Amazing Combo Damage from 60 to 70.
• Squirrel Girl
  • Doreen’s nutty offense gets a boost.
  • Increase Burst Acorn Damage from 100 to 110.
• Storm
  • Ororo empowers her allies with even greater force.
  • Increase Weather Control – Thunder’s Damage Boost to allies from 10% to 12%.
  • Increase Goddess Boost – Thunder’s Damage Boost to allies from 12% to 15%.
• The Punisher
  • Frank Castle loses his Team-Up Anchor bonus, but gains raw power.
  • Increase base health from 275 to 300.
  • Adjust Adjudication maximum falloff at 40m from 70% to 85%.
  • Increase pellets fired per Deliverance round from 14 to 16.
• Wolverine
  • Logan’s claws get deadlier, especially against Vanguards.
  • Increase Savage Claw’s Percentage Damage for each point of Rage from 0.045% to 0.057%.
  • Increase Vicious Rampage’s Percentage Damage for each point of Rage from 0.045% to 0.057%.
  • Reduce Feral Leap cooldown from 15s to 12s.

STRATEGIST

• Adam Warlock
  • Adam’s cosmic control and ultimate impact are enhanced.
  • Increase soul flight speed from 6m/s to 12m/s.
  • Reduce Karmic Revival (Ultimate Ability) Energy cost from 4700 to 4500 and increase ally detection radius from 30m to 35m.
• Cloak & Dagger
  • The dynamic duo’s durability increases.
  • Increase base health from 250 to 275.
• Invisible Woman
  • Susan Storm’s power and survivability are up.
  • Increase Orb Projection hit damage from 25 to 30; projectile maximum range from 30m to 35m, and projectile speed from 120m/s to 150m/s.
  • Increase Force Physics length from 30m to 35m.
  • Guardian Shield New Effect: If no Guardian Shield is present, pressing the recall key now deploys a shield in front of Invisible Woman.
• Loki
  • The Trickster God gets trickier and tougher.
  • Increase base health from 250 to 275.
  • Adjust Mystical Missile’s damage falloff at 3m from 50% to 80%. New Effect: Now heals directly hit allies for an extra 10 Health.
• Rocket Raccoon
  • Rocket’s support and firepower are slightly tuned up.
  • Reduce B.R.B. cooldown from 45s to 40s.
  • Increase Repair Mode maximum count from 5 to 7 and projectile speed from 60m/s to 80m/s.
  • Increase Bombard Mode Projectile Speed from 150m/s to 180m/s.

TEAM-UP ABILITIES

NEW

• Blade of Khonshu (Moon Knight – Blade)
  • Moonlit vengeance meets vampiric fury! This team-up is slashing through the night with even sharper synergy.
  • As the Team-Up Anchor, Moon Knight gains a 5% boost in damage output.
  • Blade gains the Eclipse Edge ability through his Team-Up with Moon Knight.
• Explosive Entanglement (Gambit – Magneto)
  • Deal the cards, bend the metal. This partnership is stacking the deck in Gambit’s favor!
  • As the Team-Up Anchor, Gambit gains a 5% increase in healing effects.
  • Magneto receives the Royal Blade ability through his team-up with Gambit.
• Sword of Duality (Cloak & Dagger – Hawkeye)
  • Light, shadow, and a little sharpshooting. They are ready to strike from every angle!
  • Hawkeye unlocks the new Moonlit Slash ability through his Team-Up with Cloak & Dagger.

ADJUSTED OR REMOVED

• Chilling Assault (Luna Snow- Hawkeye/Iron Fist)
  • Hawkeye’s getting iced out!
  • Hawkeye loses the Ice Arrow ability previously gained from his Team-Up with Luna Snow.
• Lunar Force (Cloak & Dagger – Moon Knight/Blade)
  • The light’s gone out on this Team-Up.
  • Lunar Force Team-Up has been removed.
• Mental Projection (Emma Frost – Psylocke/Magneto)
  • Magneto’s telepathic edge gets dulled.
  • Magneto loses the Magnetic Resonance ability previously gained from his Team-Up with Emma Frost.
• Operation: Microchip (The Punisher – Black Widow)
  • This covert op has been called off.
  • Operation: Microchip is being removed from play.
  • The Punisher loses the Team-Up Anchor bonus.
• Primal Flame (Phoenix – Wolverine/Black Widow)
  • Natasha’s packing a bit more firepower!
  • Black Widow gains the new Phoenix Sniper ability through her Team-Up with Phoenix.

In addition to the patch notes, NetEase published its latest hero play stats in Marvel Rivals. The stats indicate that Rocket Raccoon has one of the highest win rate in the game for PC competitive play, boasting a 55.60% win rate and a 18.97% pick rate. Pennie Parker holds the overall highest win rate across the same category, with a 55.70% win rate but a significantly lower pick rate of 7.68%.