Best Marvel Rivals Characters (Season 1)

As we get closer to the launch of Season 2, the competition in Marvel Rivals is really starting to heat up. Tactics are being discovered, synergies are being implemented, and the steady flow of new characters is keeping things interesting.

Whether you’ve been in the thick of it since the beginning or if you’re just jumping into the action now — you’re probably curious about which heroes you should stick to for the best chance of success. Curious about compatibility? Here’s everything you need to know about Marvel Rivals crossplay support. Good news – you’ve landed in the right place!

This is Eldorado.gg’s guide to the best Marvel Rivals characters — a tier list that covers all currently available characters and what makes them awesome. For more details on the game itself, check out the official Marvel Rivals website or browse the Marvel Rivals Wiki for character stats. – a tier list that covers all currently available characters and what makes them awesome.

Want to better understand how ranked play works? Here’s a full breakdown of the Marvel Rivals ranking system. Let’s get started. You can also follow the Marvel Rivals YouTube channel for hero spotlights and gameplay previews, or join the community via Reddit discussions for real-time tier list debates.

S-Tier: Best Marvel Rivals Characters Right Now

• Luna Snow (Strategist) – Luna is a force to be reckoned with. She’s among the best characters in Marvel Rivals because she can heal multiple allies and herself at the same time, she can freeze enemies in place, and her damage output is pretty great as well. She’s also smaller than most characters in the game which makes her harder to target. Not bad for a character most people don’t know!
• Hawkeye (Duelist) – Hawkeye has been the butt of many jokes over the years, but he’s getting the last laugh in Marvel Rivals. He can one-shot enemies at long range, he has great mobility, and he does insane damage as long as your shots are accurate.
• Iron Fist (Duelist) – For the fastest, toughest character at close range, look no further than Iron Fist. When you factor in aim assist, he’s basically a killing machine.

A-Tier: Strong and Reliable

• Mr. Fantastic (Duelist) – A Duelist/Vanguard hybrid with great survivability. His ultimate isn’t the best, but the range of his attacks and his ability to mesh well with other Vanguard characters makes up for that.
• Venom (Vanguard) – High mobility and can tank a ton of damage before checking out. Could do with a damage buff.
• Cloak & Dagger (Strategist) – Two heroes for the price of one! Versatile gameplay and great damage output.
• Star-Lord (Duelist) – Great mobility thanks to his rocket boots; his ult is basically a guaranteed kill.
• Jeff the Land Shark (Strategist) – Unmatched self-heal ability and his ult can spit an entire team off of open-ended maps. Too cute to kill.
• Rocket Racoon (Strategist) – Great healing ability and can resurrect fallen teammates. His damage output isn’t as good as it probably should be, but it gets better when teamed up with Groot.
• Moon Knight (Duelist) – Super cool; odds of surviving his ultimate are slim to none.
• Winter Soldier (Duelist) – Has a ton of base HP and gets bonus health for using certain abilities; can pull enemies towards him with Bionic Hook and does decent damage at mid-range.
• Spider-Man (Duelist) – Web-swinging is always sick; hits hard at melee range and can get away in a flash.
• Groot (Vanguard) – Can wall-off support characters from the rest of their team with Ironwood Wall; his ult can trap an entire team and set them up for big damage or a total wipe
• Psylocke (Duelist) – Super versatile; great for picking off support characters.
• Mantis (Strategist) – High damage output; great defensive abilities that also heal and provide movement boosts for close-by teammates. Critical hits generate Life Orbs thanks to Allied Inspiration skill.

B-Tier: Situational but Viable

• Invisible Woman (Strategist) – Newest strategist on the Marvel Rivals roster. Incredible healing ability, super versatile, powerful ultimate.
• Loki (Strategist) – The ultimate trickster. His ability to copy characters and duplicate himself are pretty good, but require a lot of skill to use effectively. Low survivability without Regeneration Domain active.
• Namor (Duelist) – Can summon sea creatures to attack alongside him; slightly higher base health than other duelists. Has low attack speed; mobility and damage output rely too heavily on skills with cooldowns.
• Doctor Strange (Vanguard) – Highly flexible and adaptable, excels in defensive situations. His Pentagram of Farallah ability can open portals to instant death off the end of certain maps. Unfortunately also has low mobility and survivability.
• Punisher (Duelist) – Easy to use, high health, great damage, insane ult. However, despite his health pool, Punisher is vulnerable to dives and attacks from behind. This makes actually surviving long enough to pop his ultimate a challenge for the most part.
• Scarlet Witch (Duelist) – An absolute killer at mid-range with Chaos Control and Chthonian Burst. Has no self-defense or healing abilities, so survivability is dependent on allied support characters.
• Squirrel Girl (Duelist) – Thick as hell; great at long range and has extra health compared to other duelists. Also has no self-defense, and her ultimate – Unbeatable Squirrel Tsunami – is actually super easy to avoid.
• Adam Warlock (Strategist) – Weak damage output, but has great healing abilities and synergies. Also has low mobility and some of his best healing skills have long cooldowns.
• Black Widow (Duelist) – A decent fighter at close and long-range, but has terrible survivability with no healing or bonus health abilities. Has to actively switch between melee and ranged weapons.
• Magneto (Vanguard) – Defense-focused but also has strong offensive abilities. Unfortunately he also has low mobility, can’t fly, and extremely vulnerable without his shields. To make matters worse, those shields share a cooldown.
• Hela (Duelist) – Specializes in high-damage, long-range attacks, but has decent mobility as well. No self-heals, and can’t be healed by allies when Astrol Flock is active. Skills are good in theory, but are highly technical and require a lot of practice.
• Hulk (Vanguard) – Like Cloak & Dagger, Hulk is effectively two characters. Bruce Banner is the default character, and has low health and limited offensive options. Hulk is brought out through Bruce’s ultimate, and he reverts back to Bruce when his health is depleted. Due to a high number of weaknesses and limitations, neither character ends up being very good for the most part.
• Peni Parker (Vanguard) – Super resilient and agile; piloting a mech is sick. Without her Cyber-Webs buffing her health, her defensive and healing options are non-existent.

C-Tier: Underperformers

• Black Panther (Duelist) – Great agility and health, but can only fight at close range and has low survivability. Requires fast reflexes and decision-making to get the most out of him.
• Iron Man (Duelist) – Can fly freely which makes it easy to get an advantage over the opposing team, but also extremely vulnerable and slow while flying.
• Magick (Duelist) – Only melee fighter that suffers from damage distance falloff, and has highly conditional survivability. If she’s not dealing damage, then she’s not gaining bonus health. Only ranged attack has a cooldown.
• Captain America (Vanguard) – Shield is small, which makes blocking barrages difficult. His shield also can’t block splash damage.
• Thor (Vanguard) – Has lower max health than other vanguards; moves slow and has limited melee range. Must constantly attack to gain bonus health.

D-Tier: Needs Buffs or Reworks

• Wolverine (Duelist) – Limited mobility, easy to miss targets with Feral Leap, has to be close to do any damage.
• Storm (Duelist) – Low damage output, slow flying speed, no self-defense or self-heal abilities outside of her ultimate.