Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 Patch Notes: Blade Hero, New Team-Ups and Fixes

Marvel Rivals Season 3 premiered last month and brought a fiery update to NetEase’s hero shooter. The season featured Jean Grey as the Phoenix, a Duelist with explosive damage, and the symbiote-themed Klyntar: Celestial Husk map for Domination mode.

The Power of the Phoenix Battle Pass included new skins and emotes, as well as a summer event with cosmetics for Punisher, Psylocke, and Loki. New team-ups, such as Human Torch and The Thing, as well as balancing modifications, changed the meta, buffing heroes like Dr. Strange and nerfing Black Panther.

As Season 3 concludes on August 8, anticipation grows for Season 3.5, which will be released on the same day. The mid-season update will include Blade, a vampiric Duelist with swordplay and anti-heal skills, as well as the Resource Rumble mode and the Throne of Knull map. If you’re looking for all the new content coming in the next update, here are the full patch notes.

Marvel Rivals Update 20250808 Season 3.5 Full Patch Notes

All-Black the Necrosword has returned to Knull’s grasp after millennia, ushering in an era where light may be snuffed out for good. The Phoenix Egg has shattered, its fragments igniting a wildfire upon the planet Klyntar. Blade, now empowered by both Phoenix fire & the living abyss, leads the heroes to destroy Knull’s throne. But will it be enough to halt the march of the King in Black? Join the battle and witness the eternal clash of light and darkness!

The update begins on August 8th, 2025, at 9 AM UTC. There will be a brief server downtime of 3-4 hours starting at 5 AM UTC, so please ensure you install the full update before logging into the game.

New Content on All Platforms

New Hero

Blade is on his feet and itching to join the fight in Marvel Rivals! He’s a Duelist with an impressive kit and an overpowered ultimate ability that can slice through enemies.

New Stories

• New Blade lore – Cut to The Chase
• New Iron Man lore – The Celestial Iron Man
• New Rocket Raccoon lore – The Deepest Bond

Limited-Time Event: Queen’s Codex

The Queen is coming! Battle to earn XP and level up to earn rewards, including the The Thing – Symbiote Thing costume absolutely FREE!

Unlock the Premium Codex to claim even more rewards, such as the Hela – Queen in Black costume, an all-new dynamic spray, and more! Plus, once you unlock Premium, you gain permanent access to the event until all rewards are claimed. No time limit!

Event Available from: August 8 at 9 AM UTC

New Systems

• Custom Muted Words: Players can now set up their own defenses against words they’d rather not see in chat. If a message contains a muted word, it will be filtered out.
• Faction Tab in Chat: Added a new Faction tab to the chat system.

New In Store

• Blade – Polarity Edge Bundle
• Blade – Emoji Bundle
• Blade Dynamic Mood Bundle

Bundle Available from: August 8 at 9 AM UTC

Twitch Drops

As Season 3.5 kicks off, get ready for a new round of Twitch Drops. Simply accumulate the required viewing time to claim your rewards.

This round’s drops include the Mantis – Will of Galacta costume along with related bundle content.

Drops Period: August 8 at 12 am UTC to September 5 at 9 AM UTC

Tournaments

• We’re introducing latency equalization technology to the S3 Marvel Rivals Championship. When a server or geographic location causes significant ping differences between factions, the system will auto-balance latency for fairer matches.
• Newly added the Balance Latency option to Custom Game – Tournament Rooms. Hosts can now enable this option and set thresholds.

Rank Adjustments

Rank Rewards

New Rank Settlement Rewards: Reach Gold for the cool Blade- Emerald Blade costume. Earn all-new Nameplate Frames at Diamond and Platinum, plus rock fresh Crests of Honor for Grandmaster, Celestial, Eternity, and the illustrious Top 500.

Team Matchmaking Adjustments

• Players in Bronze, Silver, and Gold can queue for Competitive in any team size except 5-player teams.
• Players in Platinum, Diamond, and Grandmaster can queue for Competitive in teams of up to 3 players.
• Players in Celestial, Eternity, and One Above All can queue for Competitive in teams of up to 2 players.

Surrender & Disconnect Rule Adjustments

Surrender Trigger: In the first round, if a player disconnects and does not reconnect within 90 seconds, their team may vote to surrender. The required votes passes with 1 less than the current team members. (E.g., if 4 remain, 3 votes are needed.)

Disconnect Penalty and Compensation Adjustments

Invalid Matches

If any player disconnects during loading, ban/pick phase, hero select, or within the first 70 seconds of a match, the match is deemed invalid. The disconnected player receives a T1 Penalty (see below for details) that scales with repeated offenses and penalty count increases. For other players, the match ends with no result or penalty.

Valid Matches

If a player disconnects after 70 seconds, the following applies:

1. Disconnected player does NOT reconnect before the match ends:
   • If the match ends within 90 seconds of their disconnect:
     • Normal settlement based on match result and stats; no penalty.
   • If the match ends 90 – 150 seconds after their disconnect:
     • Disconnected player receives a T1 Point Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (both scale with repeat offenses), and penalty count increases (win or lose). If the disconnected team loses, remaining teammates receive ranked point compensation.
   • If the match ends 150+ seconds after their disconnect:
     • Disconnected player receives a T2 Point Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (both scale with repeat offenses), and penalty count increases (win or lose). If the disconnected team loses, remaining teammates receive ranked point compensation.
2. Disconnected player RECONNECTS before the match ends:
   • If their team wins:
     • Normal settlement; no penalty.
   • If their team loses:
     • Penalty is based on disconnect-to-reconnect time (as above), but no Competitive Matchmaking Ban.
   • Teammates receive compensation on loss only if the disconnect lasted more than 90 seconds.

Compensation Table

Disconnect Timing	Match Status	Reconnection	Time Since Disconnect	Disconnected Player	Other Players
Loading/Ban-Pick/Hero Select/≤70s	Invalid	N/A	N/A	T1 Penalty (repeat scaling) Penalty count increases	Match ends, no result
>70s	Valid	No	≤90s	Normal settlement, no penalty	Normal settlement
			90–150s	T1 penalty, competitive ban, penalty count increases//Penalized regardless of win or loss.	Compensation if lost
			>150s	T2 penalty, competitive ban, penalty count increases//Penalized regardless of win or loss.	Compensation if lost
		Yes	≤90s	Normal settlement, no penalty	Normal settlement
			90–150s	T1 penalty, penalty count increases (if lost)	Compensation if lost
			>150s	T2 penalty, penalty count increases (if lost)	Compensation if lost

Points Compensation

Rank	Points
Bronze	12
Silver	12
Gold	12
Platinum	8
Diamond	8
Grandmaster	8
Celestial	4
Eternity	4
One Above All	4

• Compensation points vary by rank.
• If the final score after compensation is above -1, it will be capped at -1. For example:
• If a Gold player was supposed to lose 10 points, but receives a disconnect compensation of +12, the result would be +2. Since this is above -1, the final deduction will be set to -1.

AFK Penalty Adjustments

Invalid Matches

If a player is detected AFK within the first 70 seconds, the match is invalid:

Inactive Player: T2 Penalty (scaling with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases.

Other Players: Match ends immediately with no result or deductions.

Valid Matches

If a player is detected AFK after the first 70 seconds:

• If their team wins: Normal settlement, no penalty.
• If their team loses: Inactive player receives a T2 Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (scaling with repeat offenses), and penalty count increases. Teammates do not receive compensation.

Combined AFK & Disconnect Penalty

• If a player is both inactive and disconnects, the highest penalty applies.
• If a team is faced with both inactive and disconnected players and that team loses, compensation is granted to fully engaged teammates.

Penalty & Ban Scaling for Competitive

Repeat Offenses	Competitive Ban	T1 Penalty	T2 Penalty
1	15 minutes	25	30
2	1 hour	30	35
3	3 hours	35	40
4	8 hours	40	45
5 or more	20 hours	40	45

//Specific penalty rules described above will be enforced accordingly.

Quick Match Penalties

In Quick Match mode, we’ve also strengthened the penalty duration for players who disconnect and leave the game:

Repeat Offenses	Quick Match Ban
1	Warning
2	15 minutes
3	30 minutes
4	1 hour
5 or more	8 hours

We will continue to monitor disconnections and early exits in both Ranked and Quick Match modes and adjust these rules as necessary. If you believe you were wrongly penalized, please contact customer support for a prompt review.

Fixes and Optimizations

All Platforms

• Rank reward Nameplate Frames can now be displayed in more areas (lobby, career, friends, faction, leaderboards, gifts, invites, custom games, etc).
• Hero display in the team lobby now supports camera scrolling. When zoomed out, you can use emotes, and your teammates will see them in real time.
• Costume voice and sound effect settings have been moved from Audio Settings to the Hero Profile > Costumes screen. You can now toggle special voice lines and sound effects individually for each supported costume.
• Improved Venom’s Tickle Me Pink emote animation for his default costume.
• The “Special” tab in the Store now lets you browse all available Moods, Emoji, and unique Emotes.

PC Graphics & Performance

• PC Shader Compilation Rework: The mandatory shader compilation wait on first launch has been removed. Instead, essential global shaders will now preload in the background after installation/update. (Shader preload speed depends on your GPU, entering a match before preloading competes may cause performance issues, including stuttering, network lag, rendering errors, or crashes.)
• The performance test tool now provides graphics settings optimization recommendations based on your test results.
• In-game UI animation details will now automatically adjust based on your effects detail settings to improve overall performance.

Maps and Modes

Fixed several terrain issues that could cause characters to sometimes become stuck or clip into strange areas.

Heroes

• Jumping the Gun: Polished up a minor bug where Emma Frost, Iron Fist, Phoenix, and Wolverine were out-leaping the competition with slightly higher jump heights. Now everyone’s jump is perfectly balanced, as all things should be!
• Iron Fist’s Silent Sanctuary: Resolved an issue where Lin Lie’s Harmony Recovery would sometimes end without playing its ending sound effect. The Iron Fist can now find his inner peace with the proper zen, no more silent retreats in K’un-Lun!
• Venom & Spider-Man Slinging in Style: Spidey and The Symbiote can now set separate keybinds for simple and manual swinging. Choose your web-slinging style on the fly!
• Panther & Wolverine’s Sneaky Sounds: Enhanced the audio cues for enemy Black Panther and Wolverine when they’re sneaking up for a surprise attack. Now, when these clawed kings are on the prowl, you might hear them coming. Predator awareness up!

Console Fixes

Fixed an issue where changing global keybinds could incorrectly affect some hero ability keys.

The Marvel Rivals universe is ever-evolving, and with Season 3.5 dropping, we have plenty more surprises and changes in store. What are you most excited about? Tell us in the comments below!