- Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 adds a new Vanguard hero, The Hood, to the roster.
- The new Marvel Rivals update was released on August 7, 2026.
- Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 also brought a new event pass and several balance changes to the hero roster.
Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 has finally arrived, and it brings a brand new Vanguard, The Hood, to the hero roster. Ever since the Marvel Rivals Season 9 update teased The Hood as one of the upcoming heroes, fans have been speculating about its role. However, with Dev Vision Vol. 20, NetEase finally confirmed The Hood’s role to be a Vanguard.
That said, check out the complete patch notes for Marvel Rivals Season 9.5, including details about the new hero, a new event pass, and several balance changes and fixes made to the game.
Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 Downtime Details
Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 downtime began at 9 AM UTC on August 7, 2026.
During this time, players won’t be able to play the game as servers will be offline for scheduled maintenance. However, you won’t need to wait for too long, as Marvel Rivals servers will be back online at 11 AM ET since the downtime is expected to last for just 2 hours.
Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 Full Patch Notes
New Vanguard Hero: The Hood
The Hood enters Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 as a Vanguard hero. The Hood comes packed with dual pistols and the ability to enter demon state and launch lethal attacks at his enemies. His kit is full of both defensive and offensive abilities, which can instantly shoot him up in the S-tier in the Marvel Rivals meta tier list.
Not just that – popular WWE superstar Damian Priest voices The Hood in Marvel Rivals, so expect to hear some of that “It’s Wepa Time” quite often when you’re taking out enemies.
Hero Nerfs and Buffs
Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 has brought some major changes to the hero meta by buffing some much-requested heroes and nerfing some overpowered heroes to the ground.
Among the buffed heroes, Devil Dinosaur, Jubilee, and Gambit are bound to dominate the meta once again in Season 9.5, whereas overpowered heroes like Peni Parker have been nerfed to the ground. Check out the full Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 nerfs and buffs right here.
New Lore: Moon Knight and The Hood
Two new stories have been added to hero lore comics in Marvel Rivals Season 9.5. These are: The Hood – Carved in Stone and Moon Knight – Faces of the Moon.
To read this lore, you’ll need to head to your character menu and choose the Lore option on the character screen.
New PYO Bundle
With over 2 new costumes released weekly, the Marvel Rivals Store introduces the new Pick Your Own format. Players can check which specific costumes and Emote Emojis they want to include, and the price will automatically adjust based on the selection.
The adaptive price of the PYO Bundle remains exactly the same as the previous standard bundles for equivalent content. This week’s 3 new Store costumes will roll out using the PYO Bundle format.
New In-Store Items
Here are all the new Marvel Rivals items which will be available in the in-game Store when the Season 9.5 update goes live:
- The Hood – Sinful Blackout Bundle
- Iron Fist – Furious Flow Bundle
- Moon Knight – Fist of Khonshu Bundle
- The Hood – Oblivion’s Whisper
- Furious Flow – Emoji Bundle
- The Hood – Emoji Bundle
- Iron Fist – Furious Flow Chroma Blackened Rage/Cobalt Cruiser and Ultimate Ability VFX
- The Hood Accessory – Madrecita Plush
New Season Event: Creed of Akabba
The brand new Season 9.5 event in Marvel Rivals also arrives with the update and is called Creed of Akabba. This follows a quite familiar mini-pass format with two reward tracks: Free and Premium.
Complete missions to earn The Punisher’s Sandstorm Soldier costume as a free Marvel Rivals skin. Some Premium rewards for this event can also be purchased with Units. If you choose to go Premium, you’ll unlock the much-anticipated Jeff-Pool skin in Marvel Rivals.
Times Square: Captain America – The Winter Soldier Highlights Screening
Head over to the viewing area in Times Square to watch iconic clips from Captain America: The Winter Soldier! Watch the screening continuously for two minutes to unlock an exclusive Spray.
Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: The Winter Soldier movie clips will alternate at the top of the hour throughout the event from August 7 at 9 AM UTC till August 27 at 9 AM UTC.
New Twitch Drops
As Season 9.5 kicks off, NetEase has added a new round of Marvel Rivals Twitch Drops. This round’s drops include the Elsa Bloodstone – Will of Galacta costume along with related bundle content.
The drops period lasts from August 7, 12 PM UTC till September 4, 9 AM UTC.
Fixes and Optimizations
All Platforms
- Optimized texture resource compression strategy across all platforms, reducing hard drive footprint after installation: PC expected to decrease by ~30%, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 by ~20%, and PlayStation 4 by ~7%.
Heroes
- Peni Parker’s Panther Problem: Fixed a bug where Peni would occasionally show an incorrect KO icon when defeating enemies with her Cyber-Web Cluster after activating her Team-Up with Black Panther. Error wiped, we’re back to firing clean clusters!
- Rocket Raccoon’s Repair Mode Reload: Fixed an issue where Rocket’s Repair Mode charges could abnormally refill after using the Planet X Pals Team-Up ability. Rocket’s tech is now officially up to spec.
- Cloak & Dagger’s Frosty Fix: Addressed a bug where Cloak & Dagger would still be affected by Emma Frost’s Ultimate Ability control effect after using the Frozen Haven Team-Up to freeze themselves. The Divine Pair can now chill out in peace.
- Namor’s Monstro Mix-up: Fixed an issue where Namor’s Monstro Spawns were incorrectly detecting Vitality Acorns released by Rocket Raccoon. The Sub-Mariner’s pets now have their eyes trained on the real prizes.
- Cloak & Dagger’s Hooded Hiccup: Fixed a bug where, when selecting The Hood Team Up, Cloak would occasionally be unable to use Terror Cape. The Darkforce Dimension channels are fully restored!
Maps
- Angela’s Ancient Anomaly: Fixed an issue on the Thebes map where Angela would occasionally get stuck and become unable to move after passing through the corridor. The Hunter is back on the hunt!
- Times Square Team-Up Tangle: Corrected a bug in Times Square where Team-Up statuses were improperly removed after exiting a team in a party state. The synergy remains strong once more.
Are you dropping in to experience The Hood in Marvel Rivals Season 9.5 when the update goes live? Let us know in the comments below!
