Marvel Rivals — Your First Two Weeks
What the three roles mean in health terms, why Team-Ups are a pick decision, and where a match is actually lost.
The roles, in numbers
There are three roles, and the clearest difference between them is health.
- Vanguards carry between 500 and 850 health, and that range is wide — they are not interchangeable with each other
- Duelists and Strategists mostly sit between 250 and 300
That gap is the whole reason a team without a Vanguard loses. A Duelist has roughly a third of a Vanguard's health and dies to the same incoming fire in a third of the time. Somebody has to be the thing the enemy team is shooting.
Movement is far more uniform than health. Every hero jumps 3m, and most move at 6m/s — Black Panther and Wolverine are among the exceptions at 7m/s. So you generally cannot outrun a fight you picked badly; you have to not pick it.
Team-Ups are a pick decision, not a bonus
The Team-Up system was overhauled in Season 9.0. Any guide or video published before that is describing a different system, so check the date on anything you read about it.
Team-Up loadouts are chosen outside of matches, from the Team-Ups section of the Heroes tab, where the effects are listed in full. That is the part beginners miss — it is a loadout you configure, not something that happens automatically when the right heroes end up together.
As of Season 9.5 there are 247 team compositions in which every hero benefits from a Team-Up's enhanced effect. You do not need to memorise that. What it tells you is that in most compositions somebody is being left out, so a glance at the Team-Ups screen before locking in is worth more than one-tricking.
What to actually do
The most common beginner mistake in any hero shooter is picking a Duelist because the character is cool, then playing them at Vanguard range. Your health bar tells you where you are allowed to stand.
Strategists win more games than their kill counts suggest. If your team has none, a fight ends the moment the first person drops.
The first fortnight
- Learn one hero per role, not three Duelists. You will get filled, and a complete team decides matches.
- Open the Team-Ups screen before you pick, not after.
- Discount anything published before Season 9.0 on Team-Ups — the system changed underneath it.
- Watch your health number, not your crosshair. 250 and 850 play completely differently.
- Play the objective. Kills without map control do not close a match.
Where this comes from
The numbers here were read from these pages on September 5, 2026. Games patch, and a guide is only as current as the last time somebody checked it — so if something below disagrees with what you see in game, the game is right.