Marvel Rivals: How To Play As The Hood (Abilities, Ultimate, Tips & Tricks)
Season 9.5 of Marvel Rivals introduces The Hood, a new Vanguard character who uses demonic powers and lethal firearms together to be the cornerstone of any team. Debilitating skills from The Hood can leave enemies vulnerable or disoriented, while others create valuable protection for the character against his opponents. With a number of strong mobility and damage options, The Hood is a straightforward character that packs quite a punch.
Unlike Devil Dinosaur in Marvel Rivals, the last Vanguard added to the game, The Hood is more of a standard character in that role. Instead of a low-health hero with high damage like Duelists, The Hood's Vanguard status gives him more health and space control, letting him block damage to allies. Some restorative properties tied to The Hood make him similar to a Strategist, but without that role's healing potential.
Every The Hood Ability Explained
Manipulate Abyssal And Cursed Powers To Charge Demonic Attacks
When it comes to The Hood, everything in the character's tool kit revolves around his Passive Ruinous Pact ability, represented by a meter of demonic power. This meter begins to grow after you land attacks against certain targets, or use other abilities in The Hood's arsenal. Filling up the Ruinous Pact meter completely will transform The Hood into a Half-Demon state, a stance where almost every part of the character's strengths are amplified.
The Hood also has ways of manipulating his own attack speed and mobility, giving him more range than other Vanguards in the game. Similarly to how new Strategist Jubilee in Marvel Rivals changes how her attacks work on the fly, The Hood can combine his skills in ways that benefit himself and the rest of his team. Although he doesn't have too many abilities, the way The Hood can enhance his basic attacks makes him a lethal force in the right hands.
The table below goes over all The Hood's abilities, including their possible cooldown times and what inputs are used to activate them:
|
Ability |
Ability Type (Input) |
Cooldown |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Accursed Pistols |
Primary Attack (LMB, R2, RT) |
40 Shots (Reload) |
Shoot forward dual-wielded pistols. Gain increased Attack Speed when Demonic Energy exceeds 50%. |
|
Void Walk |
Basic Ability (E, R1, RB) |
15 seconds |
Enter the Void for free-flight, taking no damage and being unable to attack for a short time. Upon reappearing, gain a decaying Movement Boost and damage surrounding enemies with an AoE burst. |
|
Abyssal Veil |
Basic Ability (LSHIFT, L1, LB) |
10 seconds |
Throw a dark magic sphere on the ground that generates a walled Veil upon landing. Accursed Pistol shots passing through it generate more Demonic Energy and bullets from Leaded Transformation gain increased Lifesteal. Enemy projectiles passing through the Veil suffer reduced damage and healing output. Enemies that pass through the Veil take damage and are Blinded. |
|
Mantle of Oblivion |
Alternate Attack (RMB, L2, LT) |
10 seconds |
Spread your cloak to form a spherical barrier, blocking incoming enemy attacks. When Demonic Energy exceeds 50%, the radius of the sphere expands further. |
|
Ruinous Pact |
Passive Ability |
N/A |
Accumulate Demonic Energy by dealing damage via Accursed Pistols, blocking attacks with Mantle of Oblivion, or by using Void Walk. Reaching full energy automatically triggers the Half-Demon State. |
|
Leaded Transformation |
Both Attacks (LMB/RMB, R2/L2, RT/LT) |
N/A |
Enter Half-Demon State, transforming your arms into demonic rifles to unleash a rain of lead for 7 seconds. These rifles have vastly increased Attack Speed and Infinite Ammo. Every bullet that strikes an enemy triggers Lifesteal. |
Most of The Hood's abilities have long cooldowns, preventing you from easily building your Demonic Energy meter quickly. Since this resource decays, you want to use these skills at the right moments together, and rarely use them apart. For example, you want to almost always have Abyssal Veil active when attacking opponents with your Accursed Pistols, to increase Demonic Energy gain and give your attacks every benefit possible.
How To Use The Hood's Ultimate
Pierce Through Enemy Defenses With Massive Demonic Firepower
The best tool The Hood has is undoubtedly his Ultimate ability, which is also called Demon of the End. This Ultimate allows The Hood to enter his Full Demon State, an improved form of his Half-Demon stance from his other skills. The Full Demon State is a stationary battle station, reducing The Hood's movement to zero, but boosting his offensive capabilities to new heights.
While in Full Demon State, The Hood gains access to six high-powered demonic shots, which are capable of piercing through enemies and barriers. Each shot generates Bonus Health for The Hood and his nearby allies, with the final bullet providing the biggest bonuses. This last shot also deals the most damage, but every single shot that hits a target directly gives additional Bonus Health to The Hood and his teammates too.
One of the best times to use The Hood's Ultimate is when an enemy team is trying to advance with a barrier, such as Magneto's bubbles or Doctor Strange's shield. Every shot can hit multiple targets, so try to shoot when enemies are in a line.
The Hood's Ultimate doesn't have to be used solely on the ground either, as the character can enter Full Demon State in the air too. After using the free flight from Void Walk, enter Demon of the End to gain a turret vantage point against enemy teams, similar to an ability used by The Punisher. The Hood has a boosted health bar during his Ultimate, meaning that enemies can still target and eliminate him during his Ultimate if you aren't careful.
Best Team Comps For The Hood
Multiple Team-Ups Create Unique Synergies For The Villainous Character
The Team-Up overhaul of Season 9 vastly changed how heroes pair up with one another, with every character capable of selecting a way to enhance their skills before a match. Everyone has a chance to pick another character to Team-Up with when picked, including The Hood. While having a character from one hero's Team-Up in your group enhances that Team-Up ability, the base effect of Team-Up skills are often good even without specific synergies.
Regardless of which of the new seasonal Team-Up "loadouts" you pick for The Hood, there are other characters that naturally support what he does in battle. Other characters can improve The Hood's traits, helping him build Demonic Energy faster or support his best play style. A good example team featuring The Hood could include:
- Mantis
- Moon Knight
- Scarlet Witch
- Deadpool (Vanguard)
- Cloak & Dagger
Cloak & Dagger's Veil attacks could work alongside The Hood's Abyssal Veil, doubling his blinding effect from it with Cloak specifically. Meanwhile, the AoE boost from Vanguard Deadpool provides buffs to nearby allies, giving The Hood a way to be stronger and build his Demonic Energy faster. At the same time, damage and speed boosts from Mantis can give The Hood the upper hand in new ways too, including when he tries to set up his Ultimate.
Keep in mind that The Hood can select Moon Knight or Scarlet Witch's Team-Up without having either character on your team. If Moon Knight or Scarlet Witch are picked by teammates, those loadouts gain their Enhanced Effect.
Moon Knight and Scarlet Witch are the two characters The Hood has a Team-Up with. To see what kind of benefits those characters bring to The Hood's arsenal, check out the table below:
|
Team-Up |
Characters |
Base Effect Description |
Enhanced Effect Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Chaos Collision |
Scarlet Witch + The Hood |
Create an arcane zone that continuously damages enemies and applies stacking Damage and Healing Reduction. Reactivate to teleport to the zone's center. |
After teleporting to the zone, unleash a magical shockwave, dealing one-time damage to nearby enemies while launching them towards The Hood. |
|
New Moon's Shadow |
Moon Knight + The Hood |
Enhances Abyssal Veil into a Lunar Barrier that blocks projectiles entirely. Upon breaking, the barrier detonates, damaging enemies and applying Damage and Healing Reduction. Enemies passing through take damage and are briefly Blinded. |
The Lunar Barrier has greater shield value, and The Hood's attacks that pass through it gain a bounce effect. |
Best Tips, Tricks, & Strategies For Winning With The Hood
Use Every Advantage To Enter Demon States Fast
Overall, The Hood is a very straightforward character who relies on precise attacks and ramping attack speed to enter Half-Demon State as fast as possible. The Half-Demon stance of this "hero" is incredibly powerful, with highly-damaging rapid-fire attacks not only dealing big damage, but also generating a lot of charge toward The Hood's Ultimate. Everything you do should be carefully planned to charge Demonic Energy, in order to obtain your best form early in a team confrontation.
Using the short duration you are in Half-Demon State, you should target valuable enemies, such as their Vanguards or Strategists.
Finding ways to use Abyssal Veil and Mantle of Oblivion is important too, especially since Mantle of Oblivion can block some enemy Ultimates used against you and your allies. If others are close to The Hood, this ability can block attacks like Namor, Iron Man, and Phoenix's Ultimate, preventing your rivals from scoring some scale-tipping eliminations.
Reserving your long cooldown abilities will also help you save them for the right time, whether it's to escape a dangerous spot or reposition to catch your enemies off-guard. Building up attack speed and Demonic Energy is always easier when you aren't the center of attention, so staying mobile is quite helpful. By using all The Hood's many abilities in tandem with each other in Marvel Rivals, you can easily be a sinister force that influences the direction of a match.