Marvel Rivals’ ninth season kicked off on 10 July UTC — and it is one of the most ambitious shakeups the free-to-play hero shooter has seen yet. Season 9: The Mystery of Thebes adds a brand-new Strategist hero, rewrites the Team-Up system from the ground up, overhauls Black Widow, and sets the stage for an Egyptian murder mystery starring Apocalypse himself. Here is everything you need to know.
Meet Jubilee — Marvel Rivals’ Newest Season 9 Strategist
Jubilation Lee — 千歡 — arrives as the 52nd hero on the roster, slotting in as a Strategist. For those who know their X-Men lore, Jubilee is a Chinese-American mutant famous for her pyrotechnic plasma bursts; here, her kit leans into a darker, vampiric side that fits Season 9’s Apocalypse storyline perfectly.
Her primary attack fires automatically, simultaneously damaging enemies and restoring health to nearby allies. A deployable bubble provides field control, a knockback ability pushes enemies away in a pinch, and her Ultimate unleashes an area-of-effect fireworks show that deals damage, heals allies, and sends foes flying. Her Vampiric Kin Team-Up with Blade enhances her Vampiric Field so it continuously heals teammates within range — making the Jubilee/Blade pair a potentially potent double act.
For Singapore players, there is a nice cultural hook here: Jubilee is one of Marvel’s most prominent Asian heroes, and seeing her Chinese name rendered in-game alongside her English one is a small but meaningful touch. She is available immediately — Marvel Rivals remains fully free-to-play on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, as well as on PS5, PS4 and Xbox Series X/S.
The Team-Up System Got a Ground-Up Rebuild
The biggest mechanical change in Season 9 is not a new hero — it is the complete overhaul of the Team-Up system, which touches over 80% of the roster. Every hero now has two independent Team-Up ability loadouts. Before a match you pick one; in the spawn room you can swap. Each loadout has a base effect that is always active and an enhanced effect that only triggers when the right partner is on your team.
The old Anchor mechanic — which gave flat bonus stats to anchoring heroes — is gone entirely. NetEase says this was creating unintended power skews across the roster, and with the Anchor gone the team has rebalanced the entire cast. A new Regenerative Shields health type also debuts: shields begin auto-regenerating five seconds after you last took damage, then fully restore over the following five seconds. Mobile and diving heroes benefit most. Ultimate energy generation has also been dialled back slightly for Vanguards, Duelists and Strategists alike, so expect slower ult cycles across the board.
Black Widow Gets a New Combat Identity
Natasha Romanoff is one of the most-played heroes in competitive lobbies, and Season 9 hands her a significant rework. The mandatory aim-down-sights (ADS) mechanic has been removed from her primary fire — her gun now fires faster in standard mode. Her Electro-Plasma blast, previously locked behind her Ultimate, becomes a standard ability with a slow effect attached.
Her new Ultimate grants a temporary sniper mode with piercing bullets and an expanded hitbox. Sprint and super-jump are restored without stamina limits. On paper this makes Black Widow more fluid to play at all skill levels while giving high-level players a sharp, timing-based Ultimate to master.
Thebes Map and The Hood Are Still to Come
Season 9 is a two-part rollout. The Convoy map Thebes — a sprawling Egyptian-inspired stage tied directly to the Apocalypse storyline — arrives on 23 July. The mid-season update also brings the second new hero of the season: The Hood, a Marvel villain wielding a magical crimson hood that grants him supernatural powers. His kit has not yet been revealed, but his silhouette closed out the Season 9 story trailer.
30 July brings the Path to Doomsday — Avengers: Age of Ultron event, introducing Avengers Tower as a playable stage. The season also features a detective mini-game called Death of Apocalypse where players gather clues to unravel who killed the ancient mutant villain — a story-driven hook that sets the season’s Egyptian murder-mystery tone.
Watch the official Marvel Rivals site and their news page for exact SGT-converted times for the Thebes map and The Hood’s debut, as well as any new game news in the weeks ahead.
Battle Pass “The Faith-Harvesting Engine” — Egyptian Skins Galore
Season 9’s battle pass is titled The Faith-Harvesting Engine and leans hard into ancient Egyptian aesthetics. Ten new costumes are included across the full pass, with confirmed highlights being Iron Man: Iron Pharaoh and Deadpool: Dead Mummy. The revealed artwork also shows Egyptian riffs on Star-Lord, Loki, Rocket Raccoon and more. The thematic consistency this season is noticeably strong — unlike some past passes that felt like mismatched grab-bags, everything here has a coherent ancient-Egypt-meets-Marvel identity.
Season 9 is live now across all platforms. If you have not logged in for a while, this is as good a re-entry point as any — a rebuilt meta, a new support hero who suits Singapore’s party-queue culture, and months of Egyptian-flavoured content ahead.