Marvel Rivals is celebrating Halloween in style, with tons of events, and the opportunity to grab yourself a free Blade skin. The Blade skin is an epic skin called Blade Knight, which sees the Daywalker dress up as Moon Knight for his Halloween costume.
To get the Blade skin, you will need to earn it from the Voyage to Astonish event, which is an event rewards board directly tied to the other event, Marvel Zombies. The way the Voyage to Astonish works is you earn Lanterns by completing missions, primarily in Marvel Zombies. With a Lantern, you can roll your piece on the board, moving based on the number you roll. You will always land on a new reward, so it takes 21 total Lanterns to claim all rewards. While you can get Blade Knight for free, premium rewards are included in the premium event pass, which costs 690 Lattice ($7).
Both events run through November 14.
Marvel Rivals Marvel Zombies Event
Marvel Zombies is a limited-time PvE mode, where up to four players must complete a mission where they fight through hordes of zombies. The mission contains multiple waves, with two boss fights–one against Namor in the middle, and one against Scarlet Witch to finish the mission.
There is a series of 10 missions for you to complete in Marvel Zombies, or in regular matches, under the Voyage to Astonish tab in missions. A new one unlocks every day until all of them are available, but you have to finish one before the next unlocks. Separately, there is a Marvel Zombies mission tab, which contains additional missions based on clearing each difficulty, which award Lanterns, along with minor cosmetics like sprays and titles.
There are five characters to choose from in Marvel Zombies:
- The Punisher
- Magik
- Thor
- Blade
- Jeff the Land Shark
Due to the small hero pool, you are allowed to have duplicate heroes. Notably, while Jeff can have healing abilities in Marvel Zombies, his kit has been modified to primarily focus on dealing damage. Each character can have variants of their usual abilities, and there are skill trees to level up, letting you focus on your preferred play style. You can reset the skill trees at any time. In addition to skill points, you also unlock variants of your abilities at level 10*, level 15, and level 25.
*The first ability is listed as unlocking at level 10, but it was unlocked at level 5 for us.
You level up by running missions and earning XP from defeating zombies and completing objectives. All characters level simultaneously, so if you play a match as Jeff and earn four levels, all other characters will also earn four levels.
Playing Marvel Zombies
Marvel Zombies can be played on seven difficulties:
- Normal
- Hard
- Extreme
- Nightmare I
- Nightmare II
- Nightmare III
- Nightmare IV
You will need to complete a run on the previous difficulty to unlock the next one. The flow of a mission is basically the same every run. You will work through small zones, dealing with the zombie hordes until you reach the next area. You earn points during combat, which can be used between rounds to purchase upgrades.
These upgrades only last for the current mission, and are doled out like roguelike upgrades. You are presented with three cards to purchase, the option to reroll for a single point, and a mystery spin for 15 points. The mystery spins, which can also be earned by completing special objectives throughout a mission, can award you multiple cards simultaneously, duplicate some of your cards, and other powerful bonuses.
While there are a couple of other objectives you’ll see during each mission, the two biggest hurdles are the boss fights. For the Namor fight, he will temporarily be invincible at specific points, but you can always damage him by taking out one of the dozens of squid turrets he throws down.
For Scarlet Witch, the only major hurdle during her boss fight is the final section. After you get her health low enough (each boss will have a ton of health bars, indicated by the “X” with a number next to it to the right of the bar). During Scarlet Witch’s final phase, she will begin to perform her ultimate Reality Erasure.
During this, there will be a small progress bar getting smaller beneath her health bar. You need to take her out before that finishes. While she is charging, small red crystals will occasionally appear that slightly extend your time if you take them out. Critical hits work on boss enemies and are essential to dealing enough damage to succeed.
