Marvel Rivals beginner tips for Season 10: roles, team-ups and staying alive

Learn the three roles first

Before you fall in love with a character, understand the three roles. Vanguards are the frontline, built to create space and soak damage with the largest health pools, roughly 500 to 1,000, plus shields, barriers and crowd control; Groot and Doctor Strange are examples. Duelists are the damage dealers and make up over half the roster, with archetypes from ranged poke to melee brawlers like Wolverine.

Strategists are the support role. They heal, enable teammates and swing fights with utility, trading less damage than Duelists and less health than Vanguards for some of the strongest ultimates in the game, and Rocket Raccoon is a classic pick. A balanced team usually runs a mix of all three, and a clean 2-2-2 of two Vanguards, two Duelists and two Strategists is a reliable default for beginners.

Team-ups are the point

Team-Up abilities are one of Marvel Rivals' signature systems: certain hero pairings unlock buffs that upgrade each other's kits, so the game rewards squads that plan synergy instead of treating heroes as isolated picks. The practical advice is to make your team-ups reliable rather than cool but rare, which means picking the partner hero your comp can consistently field.

When you are learning, check the team-up loadout screen and lean into a pairing you understand. It is often better to lock a hero whose team-up partner is already on your team than to instalock a flashy solo pick that shares no synergy with anyone.

What Season 10 adds

Season 10, Butcher's Blasphemy, launched on 11 September 2026 and its headline addition is Gorr the God Butcher, added as a Duelist and, per reporting, the only new hero this season. As the wielder of All-Black the Necrosword, Gorr can morph his weapon into different forms and converts enemies he kills into Black Berserkers that fight alongside him.

The season also brought a Scarlet Witch rework, and a follow-up patch on 17 September adjusted her Reality Erasure ultimate so she is far less likely to be immune to incoming damage during its wind-up. On 24 September, NetEase added a new Domination map, God Quarry, built around Gorr twisting the parliament of pantheons into a roving citadel.

Habits that win games as a beginner

The single biggest improvement is positioning, not aim. A 6v6 shooter is a series of six-on-six fights, and every player who strays converts the team into a losing five-on-six, so stay with your group and push and fall back together. Pick a role you actually enjoy and get comfortable on one or two heroes in it before you flex.

Watch the team composition in the lobby and fill the gap: if nobody has picked a Strategist, your team probably needs healing more than another Duelist. Save your ultimate for a moment that swings a fight rather than firing it the instant it charges, and call out when it is ready so a teammate can combo into it.

Do not grind ranked from day one. Spend your early hours in Quick Play and against AI to try roles and heroes without the pressure of climbing, then move to competitive once you have one or two heroes you trust. Content and balance shift every couple of weeks, so treat hero specifics as a snapshot. Checked 28 September 2026 against NetEase's official patch notes and current reporting.