Find the preferably Marvel Rivals Characters for beginners is essential even if you’re used to other hero shooters, as NetEase’s multiplayer game has a higher learning curve. Some characters require extensive setup to function effectively. Others work contrary to what you might expect – a tank that can only tank during a burst window, for example – and some require carefully balanced skill rotation to get the most out of their kits.

There’s a lot to take in, especially if you’re new to the genre. So below, we’ve broken down the best Marvel Rivals characters for beginners in each role and explained how they work to get you started.

Marvel Rivals has an overwhelming number of duelists to choose from at launch, but not all of them are suitable for newcomers. We first selected the five best.

Squirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl is one of the best Marvel Rivals characters, whether you’re just starting out or getting acquainted with more complex heroes. Squirrel Girl throws nuts at people and that’s all. These acorns bounce and explode and do so much damage that I wouldn’t be surprised if NetEase toned them down a bit as the first season of Rivals progresses. You don’t even need Black Widow-level accuracy to make Squirrel Girl useful.

She also has a larger acorn that can stun enemies, although controlling her trajectory is a bit difficult, and another ability that instantly reloads her ammo and ends the cooldown of her stunning acorn. As if that wasn’t enough, Squirrel Girl’s mobility ability propels her into the air with her tail, a perfect escape move or an aid to quickly reach high ground to drop some nuts.

The punisher

The Punisher is essentially Soldier 76 with heavier weaponry, and as you’d expect from the character Marvel Rivals uses to teach you the ropes, he’s an excellent choice to start with. Punisher has a rifle and a shotgun for medium and short-range combat, as well as a smoke blast that sends him flying backwards in a cloud of smoke. The smoke doesn’t last long, but it’s enough to momentarily confuse an enemy and let you escape.

His strongest ability is a turret-like machine gun that he can deploy anywhere and use until someone destroys it or he runs out of ammo. With 200 shots that won’t happen so quickly. It’s one of those abilities that’s the best thing ever when you use it, and the most disgusting when someone else uses it.

Iron Man

Iron Man has a satisfying skill loop that’s easy to learn. He gets two laser attacks – a single shot and an extended beam – and can fly indefinitely, making it easy to avoid bottlenecks and wreak havoc from behind. His Armor Overdrive ability boosts his beam attack, and if that or his Hyperspeed ability – which basically just lets you fly really fast – he can fire missiles while flying. It’s simple but extremely effective.

Star Lord

Star-Lord may not have one-shot abilities like Squirrel-Girl, but if you like high mobility and flanking, he is one of the easiest Duelists to get along with. Star-Lord’s main attack consists of a series of rapid energy blasts that, when landed, quickly deplete an opponent’s health, making him best suited for pursuing strategists or other duelists.

His main ability is to fire shots in all directions, but this ability is more used to cause confusion among the enemy ranks and cause them to either switch targets or retreat as it deals little damage. Star-Lord can fly, and he has two quick dodge attacks that launch him forward in any direction he faces. These are very useful skills that make it easy to get in, do some damage, and get out of there before things get tough.

Scarlet Witch

Scarlet Witch lands in the middle of most people’s rankings because the damage caps aren’t quite as high as other duelist characters. However, she’s easy to figure out – especially if you’ve played Moira in Overwatch 2 – and fits well on any team. Her equipment focuses on absorbing energy from enemies and using it to create a more powerful attack that can defeat strategists and other duelists in three hits.

She can also fly, making it easier to deal with snipers or a strategist behind the front lines, and you get a useful support ability that stuns enemies for a few seconds. It’s a little bit of everything, without a steep learning curve.

Most of Marvel Rivals’ Vanguard characters generally have more complex skills, but two of them are easy to learn and have excellent defensive utility.

Magneto

Magneto is more like what you would expect from a tank character, with a high HP pool and several defense-oriented abilities. He can summon a shield around himself or a single ally, drastically reducing incoming damage for a short time – and boosting his ranged attack. He can also create and maintain a larger barrier to protect multiple allies. That’s all there is to Magneto, but it’s also what makes him such a capable vanguard.

Poison

Venom is more about chaos than defense, which is fitting. He has great mobility and can swing into and out of danger on a web thread. One of his abilities allows him to slow down enemies with a symbiote strand and deal damage to them if they don’t escape in time. Venom also gains an overhealth ability that allows him to stay in the middle of battle for longer.

His basic attack is slightly stronger than most Vanguards, allowing you to effectively threaten enemies even while his skill is on cooldown.

The strategists in Marvel Rivals have a lot more to do than the supporters of Overwatch. It takes some getting used to completing the various tasks, but three of them are fairly easy and worth starting if you’re just getting used to how Rivals works.

Jeff the Land Shark

Jeff is more than just a cute dog shark. He has one of the most reliable healing packages of any strategist and a gentle learning curve that makes him ideal for those who may be a little unsure about how to effectively play a supporting role. Jeff fires healing water with his primary attack and spits out harmful water with his secondary attack. He can disappear underwater (no water necessary as he brings his own) and swim across the battlefield to reach a more advantageous position, and he blows healing bubbles that linger and heal any ally who touches them.

Getting the timing and positioning of the bubbles right takes some practice, but his primary heal is effective enough that you won’t let the team down while learning.

Cloak and dagger

Cloak and Dagger are some of Marvel Rivals’ best and are perfect for healers who also want to cause a bit of chaos. Dagger is the healer of the duo. She fires healing bolts, emitting a wall of healing – useful for reaching multiple allies at once – and creates a healing dome that quickly restores HP to all allies within it.

You can switch between Dagger and Cloak at any time without a cooldown, and Cloak’s abilities are completely different. They send out a wall of darkness that reduces the enemy’s visibility and deals more damage, and they can create a vortex of shadows that completely obscures allies for a period of time. Even if an enemy fires directly at him, the ally takes no damage as long as the shadows are present. Finally, Cloak can continuously drain HP from an enemy.

Adam Warlock

If you’re looking for a more dedicated strategist, go with Adam Warlock. His varied loadout consists of a normal ranged attack and a charged attack, the latter dealing quite a bit of damage despite his support role, and he has two healing abilities. The first forms a bond between itself and nearby allies, healing them over time and splitting damage taken between each bonded ally, including Adam. The downside is that it has a long cooldown timer, so you’ll want to coordinate when using it.

His second healing ability has two charges and a shorter cooldown, and it bounces waves of healing between Adam and nearby allies. His ultimate ability also revives defeated allies before the respawn timer reaches zero. So if everything goes wrong, you’re not entirely out of luck.