Marvel Rivals Hela Character Guide

Marvel Rivals Hela Hero Guide

Lore accurate to her name, the Goddess of Death brings death and destruction to every match. The one hero to absolutely dominate both the beta and the launch season of Marvel Rivals, Hela’s abilities dictate where team fights can occur. She’s the best hitscan and ranged hero, and doesn’t have any easily exploitable weaknesses. The long range of her Primary Fire lets her position safely at a distance that is safe for her but lethal to her enemies. The mechanically gifted players excel on Hela while those who struggle with their aim may find her to be completely useless.

Strengths

Long Range Damage

Hela’s Primary Fire is what makes her so incredibly overpowered. Hela dominates long-range engagements. She shuts down flying heroes with ease, and chunks so much health away from advancing enemies, that they really struggle to close the distance to her.

Nearly Instant Eliminations

Two headshots eliminate 275HP and below Heroes. Even mixing headshots and body shots, Hela maintains some of the fastest and most consistent elimination potential.

Strong Defensive Options

For a sniper heroe, Hela has very strong defensive capabilities. She can be very difficult to eliminate between Astral Flock, Soul Drainer, Piercing Night, and Goddess of Death. Only when she is caught without these abilities available or messes up their use can she be defeated.

Weaknesses

Weak Against Shield Comps

The great strength of clicking heads gets completely negated when there is a shield or wall in her way. Playing into Strange, Magneto, Groot, type comps forces Hela to position on off angles in an attempt to bypass the shields. If a Hela is destroying your team, just run all shields, and she be shut down.

Long Cooldowns

Both Astral Flock and Soul Drainer are 12-second cooldowns. Her shortest cooldown is her Secondary Fire at 8 seconds. These are much longer than the average cool down cycle meaning Hela does not have the luxury of spamming these abilities and needs to save them for she really needs them.

Extremely Aim Dependent

The reality of Hela’s strength is that it is completely dependent on a player’s skill and aim. You can know what to do, when to do it, and have the perfect plans and opportunity but if you can’t consistently land shots, Hela becomes a throw pick.

Abilities

Primary Fire: Nightsword Thorn

Tips for Nightsword Thorn

• Maintain Distance
  • 18 meters may not sound like a lot of distance, but in Marvel Rivals that is already well outside of many heroes’ effective range.
• Keeping a good distance between Hela and her enemies helps her to always be at the advantage.
• Play near walls and Cover
  • The half second delay between shots give Hela enough time to jiggle peek corners between shots.
• Landing two headshots in a row eliminates 275HP heroes and below in a single second.
• Prioritize non-Vanguards
  • While it’s much easier to land hits on Vanguards and hear that hitmarker audio cue, Hela is extremely good at targeting the enemy backline no matter how far back they position.

Secondary Fire: Piercing Night

Tips for Piecing Night

• Good for dealing with advancing Vanguards.
  • Their large bodies make it easy to stick all four projectiles into them for a good burst of damage.
• It can mostly be used off cooldown.
  • Only need to save when you know there is either a flanking or diving enemy attempting to target you.
• When being flanked by a melee duelist, stick them with Piercing Night, then Astral Flock away, then when you have transformed back, the explosions will be happening as you begin shooting Primary Fire.

[SHIFT]: Astral Flock

Tips for Astral Flock

• Primary use for Astral Flock is saving it for use when you have no other means of survival.
  • The enemy is diving or flanking you?
    • Astral Flock to a retreating high ground.
    • Astral Flock to your allies for protection.
  • If you can survive by being healed, or shielded or going behind cover, don’t use Astral Flock
  • Long cooldown means if the enemy sees you use it, they know they have a big window of time to attack and eliminate you.
    • When you do not have Astral Flock available, you need to position much safer.
    • Try positioning near a health pack, or an ally who can protect you.

[E]: Soul Drainer

Tips for Soul Drainer

• Use defensively to counter enemy aggression.
  • Example 1: An enemy Vanguard like Thor is pushing up on you. Use Soul Drainer to stun while walking away and firing to stop their advance.
  • Example 2: An enemy melee Duelist like Spider-Man is flanking you. Interrupt his attack by first landing Soul Drainer on him, which often converts into you getting the elimination.
• The short stun gives just enough time to line up a critical headshot.
• Take advantage of the AoE when using the stun offensively.
  • Hitting a target closely grouped together will stun multiple enemies.
  • You can briefly cut off a choke point by activating the stun spell field where enemies are trying to walk through.
    • Great for stopping an enemy retreat, giving your team the opportunity to finish them off.

Passive: Nastrond Crowstorm

Tips for Nastrond Crowstorm

• Better to just let Hela passively benefit from the explosions, and devote any brain power to its use.
  • You can technically purposely benefit from this passive if you are toying with the enemy and can intentionally delay and time your eliminations to when targets are close together. (Not worth it).
  • Stunning a living target with Soul Drainer within 5 meters of a Nastrond Crow, will keep them in range to eat the explosion damage.

[SPACE]: Hel’s Descent

Tips for Hel’s Descent

• Great for navigation the maps, and moving between high ground areas.
  • Use Hel’s Descent from a vertical Astral Flock to maximize the distance travelled.
  • Jumping off high ground around a corner while holding jump can allow Hela to shoot over walls and shields from the air against unsuspecting victims.

Ultimate [Q]: Goddess of Death

Tips for Goddess of Death:

• Instantly activates and makes Hela invincible.
• Use reactively to survive an enemy ult, or unavoidable death damage.
• The ultimate has its own separate health pool, so you can freely use it at any time without worrying about dying.

Pay attention to the map area.

• Because Hela teleports directly above her position of activation, if there are walls or objects hanging from the ceiling, you won’t be able to shoot enemies behind it.

Strong AoE damage.

• Every projectile does the full damage at its max range of 6 meters from the point of impact.
• Use to eliminate enemies just behind walls or cover who think they are safe and out of LoS.

Be mindful of long start-up.

• Because Hela shouts, “Hel Unleashed,” then transforms, then can begin shooting, the enemy team has ample time to react to your ult.
• Try to wait for abilities like Luna Snow or Mantis ult to have already been used, as you won’t be able to eliminate any if the enemy is using a defensive ability like these.

Team-up ability: Queen of Hel

Tips for Queen of Hel

• You can purposely go for an extra aggressive play when you see an allied Thor or Loki die in your kill feed in order to resurrect them.
• Remember Hela can land a final hit with any ability during the entire respawn duration.
• More importantly, in most cases it’s not worth dying to try and get a kill in the short window of time.

Synergy

Team Comp Synergy

Ideal team comps built around Hela protect from as much damage as possible. This can mean having a shield up front for her to safely shoot through or having allies near her to help thwart – would-be – enemy assassins. In any given team, Hela should be the primary damage dealer and elimination confirmer.

Her long-range hitscan favors constant firing and finishing off retreating and damaged enemies. Because of this, she also pairs well with disruptors and flankers who damage and distract the enemy team from behind.

Example Team Comp Built Around Hela:

• Vanguards: Magneto, Peni Parker.
• Duelists: Hela, Spider-Man.
• Strategists: Mantis, Adam Warlock.

Synergy with Other Heros

Vanguards: Magneto

Magneto’s Metallic Curtain, Bulwark and Ultimate all soak up incoming damage for Hela. The high amount of damage absorption allows her to stay out longer, and gives her more opportunities to find elims for her team. When she really gets into trouble, Magneto can turn around and place the allied Metal Bulwark on Hela to save her from enemy attacks.

Duelists: Spider-Man

Pairing a melee flanker with Hela is surprisingly effective. The two completely different playstyles tear apart the enemy team’s attention. The enemies cannot afford to ignore the flanking Spidey, nor the sniping Hela. Additionally, when Spider-Man goes in and uppercuts enemies, the high crowd control arc gives Hela easy follow up shots. On his own, Spidey can struggle to confirm kills, but if Hela is watching out for who he’s attacking, no one can survive their combined damage.

Strategists: Adam Warlock

Adam Warlock wants to position and attack very similarly to Hela. The two heroes can set up together and complement each other’s offensive pressure. Moreover, Soul Bond basically guarantees Hela won’t be killed by a surprise attack, or even when being dove by multiple enemies simultaneously. Warlock keeps Hela alive, and simply existing is Hela’s greatest asset to her team.