The Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 update came sooner than expected, huh? With the seasonal cycle now down to just two months, the mid-season update is already on the horizon. Of course, we’ll be seeing another new hero, Blade, alongside other content, including a brand-new (non-event) game mode for the first time.
The first half of Marvel Rivals Season 3 added Duelist Phoenix to the character list, the Klyntar: Celestial Husk domination map, tons of costumes, and the usual overhauls to balancing and hero team-ups. The mid-season update isn’t quite as hefty, but there’s still a lot to look forward to. So, here’s when you can expect Season 3.5, and everything new on the way.
Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 release date and time
Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 will launch on Friday, August 8, 2025. Starting at 2 am PDT / 5 am EST / 10 am BST, the servers should go offline for around two to three hours before the update is in our hands.
Again, with the faster pace of updates that was heralded with the launch of Season 3, we’ll only be enjoying Season 3.5 for around a month before Season 4 arrives with more sweeping changes.
Importantly, the new game mode, Resource Rumble (and its map, Throne of Knull), will arrive on Friday, August 22, two weeks after the debut of 3.5. You could say it’s the mid-season’s mid-season. Resource Rumble will launch in quickplay first to gather player feedback, before rolling it out to competitive play at some point in the future.
Marvel Rivals Blade release date and abilities
After months of teasing—across literally every update so far—Blade is finally arriving in the Season 3.5 midseason update. As a Daywalker—and vampiric vampire hunter—his unique bloodline gives Blade some cool abilities, including reducing enemy healing and slicing foes with his ravenous ancestral sword.
He’s even got a shotgun pistol, just in case you thought vampire powers and a sword weren’t enough. And yes, Blade is yet another Duelist, as much as we all hoped he’d somehow turn into a Vanguard.
Here are Blade’s abilities:
- Sword (primary attack): Simple sword slashes using his ancestral sword.
- Gun (primary attack): Fires his shotgun pistol for ranged damage.
- Sword of Dracula (ultimate): Dash through the enemy while releasing a powerful barrage of sword strikes in the area behind you.
- Step and Chop (ability): Dash forward and attack the enemy with your currently selected weapon. This ability has two charges.
- Blood Liberation (ability): Channel Blade’s vampiric bloodline to gain lifesteal on attacks, but preventing him from being healed by allies.
- Block (ability): Hold to spend a resource to block attacks and reduce damage taken.
- Health: 350
Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 team-ups
To no one’s surprise, team-up abilities are changing once again in the midseason update, including the removal of some old favourites:
|
Team-up |
Heroes |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
|
Duality Dance (New) |
Adam Warlock + Luna Snow |
Luna Snow gains a new ability that tethers her to a nearby enemy, which she can damage, healing herself. |
|
Vibrant Vitality (New) |
Mantis + Groot/Loki |
Mantis shares her healing and damage-boosting powers with allies. Groot’s Thorn Walls will periodically shoot healing at nearby allies. Loki’s Regeneration Domain will grant a damage boost to allies within it. |
|
Lunar Force (Tweaked) |
Cloak & Dagger + Moon Knight/Blade |
Blade is joining this team-up ability. Both Moon Knight and Blade get a new ability that creates a shadowy dome, making them invisible while healing themselves. |
|
Chilling Assault (Tweaked) |
Luna Snow + Hawkeye/Iron Fist |
Iron Fist is joining this team-up. Iron Fist shares his healing effect and bonus with nearby allies. Hawkeye uses Luna Snow’s ice to fire a special arrow that can penetrate terrain. If enemies are far enough away, this arrow also deals bonus damage and applies a stun effect. |
|
Rocket Network (Tweaked) |
Rocket Raccoon + Peni Parker/Star-Lord |
Star-Lord is being added to this team-up. Star-Lord can place a teleport beacon. Peni uses Rocket’s tech to deploy a smaller nest that also generates armour packs. Meanwhile, Rocket’s revive beacon turns into a mini nest, gaining mines. |
|
Ragnarok Rebirth (Tweaked) |
Hela + Thor |
Loki is being removed from this team-up. When Hela kills an enemy with a headshot, she can automatically revive an allied Thor. If they are already alive, they’ll instead gain bonus health. |
|
Guardian Revival (Retired) |
Adam Warlock + Mantis/Star-Lord |
Adam Warlock grants Mantis and Star-Lord his Regenerative Cocoon ability, letting them freely move as a soul and revive themselves. This has a long cooldown. |
|
Atlas Bond (Retired) |
Iron Fist + Luna Snow |
Iron Fist imbues Luna Snow with Chi, granting her a new ability. When activated, she unleashes a blast around her that pushes back enemies and heals nearby allies. |
Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 updates
There are two major changes and updates coming in Marvel Rivals Season 3.5:
Competitive penalties
One of my favourite tweaks coming in this update is an overhaul to leavers’ penalties and compensation in ranked matches:
- Penalties are increasing for players who quit, including longer bans and larger point deductions.
- For the remaining players, there will now be point compensation at the end of the match to make the inevitable loss softer.
- You’ll need fewer votes to surrender.
Operation: Shield the Community
In an effort to clean up the social experience, as of July 24, NetEase has pledged to improve voice-chat moderation. All in-game voice chat will now be automatically screened by the system, with human review, to hopefully catch more toxicity. There will also be a custom filter for text chat that allows you to mute certain words.