NetEase Games have shared their latest Dev Vision, Volume 08, revealing the details for Marvel Rivals Season 3.5. This mid-season update launching on 8 August 2025 comes with many changes that could affect casual and competitive play.
Introducing Blade: The Versatile Duelist
Season 3.5 is bringing Blade, the vampire hunter, first shown in Season 3: The Abyss Awakens trailer. This aggressive duelists is unique due to a mechanic that allows him switch between a shotgun for primary fire and a sword for even more power.
When in sword mode, Blade can dash forward, slash at opponents and slow them down. When he wields his shotgun, he fires bullets that drain healing. His E ability triggers a vampiric state that grows stronger while he deals damage. He will not heal from any ally during this time. However, he does gain life steal.
Blade uses the Lunar Force Team-Up on Cloak & Dagger, giving Blade temporary invisibility in a healing dome. The character’s ultimate ability allows him to unleash powerful area-effect slashes and move around quickly to attack.
Team-Up Rotation Shakes Meta
Some Team-Ups will be going away or changed, and are being added. Retiring or changing:
- The Guardian Revival with Adam and Mantis.
- Atlas Bond (Luna Snow’s Iron Fist anchor).
- Loki will not be part of Ragnarok Rebirth (Hela anchor with Thor/Loki).
New Team-Ups
- Luna Snow’s Duality Dance allows her to tether to an enemy, converting damage to healing.
- Loki, in a Regeneration domain, gets a boost to his damage and Groot summons healing walls.
- The cool assault iron fist grants bonus health to nearby allies.
- Star Lord puts teleportation beacons in Rocket Network.
Gameplay Innovations and Competitive Adjustments
There will be a new mode named Resource Rumble which will debut on the Throne of Knull map on 22 August 2025. The mode will be playable in Quickplay to test things out and ultimately join competitive.
Toxicity is being dealt with via human-verified audio chat screening by the makers. Players who leave competitive matches will now face heavier sanctions such as longer bans and greater rank point penalties as well as compensation for those who remain. A new rule for surrendering votes says that they now need one less than the total number of remaining teammates.
Impact on Esports Landscape
The Marvel Rivals Ignite Mid-Season Finals in Guangzhou, China (6-10 August 2025) will be the first major events to be affected. I think the addition of Blade in the middle of the tournament can make the teams switch their compositions drastically. With healing reduction and life steal mechanics, it might even work at par with Wolverine in MCOC.
Getting rid of Guardian Revival, the standout strategy of previous Ignite Stage 1, could pave the way for new strategies. Also, newly introduced Team-ups like Vibrant Vitality and Rocket Network may boost already popular competitive picks.
Although Resource Rumble won’t be appearing in the Mid-Season Finals, we may see it in some of our future esports events. These include Seasonal Championships, Ignite Stage 2 and Rivals Fight Nights.