In this Marvel Rivals The Punisher guide, you’ll learn the fundamentals of his abilities, unique play styles, and fundamental tips.
Marvel RivalsMarvel Rivals The Punisher Character Guide
The Punisher Overview
Frank Castle dishes out punishment to his targets with extreme prejudice. Being one of the most well-rounded heroes, The Punisher remains a strong pick no matter the team comp, objective mode, or map.
He creates a wall of damage the enemy team needs to break through. Although his kit gets countered by shields, it's up to the individual player to find and create counterplay opportunities.
Vantage Connection zipline gives him a decent level of mobility, but it is inconsistent to use as an escape ability. Due to this, The Punisher struggles to position on off angles or flanks without being vulnerable to an enemy counterattack.
Typically, he’ll position just to the side of his team where he can utilize his team's protections while still trying to shoot around the enemy's barriers. Between his shotgun, assault rifle, and turret Castel always has the right weapon for the job.
Find out where The Punisher ranks in our Marvel Rivals tier list.
TLDR
As
- Your ultimate has enough damage to kill through Luna Snow's ult and other defensive abilities.
- Make good use of both your rifle and shotgun. You should be dealing a high amount of consistent damage.
- You can use your Right-click smoke bomb to create distance between yourself and the enemy since you both get knocked back.
Against
- Gets outpoked by snipers like Hela and Hawkeye.
- Lacks mobility and is easy to dive, just watch out for his shotgun.
- You can focus him down when he ults but expect his team to shield/protect him at higher ranks.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
High Burst Damage
The only way to send an enemy on a same-day delivery to the respawn room is with a headshot from Deliverance, The Punisher’s shotgun. Team fights are often decided by which team gets the first pick. Deliverance can one-shot every 250hp hero, making The Punisher a constant lethal threat even if he has yet to confirm a kill.
Vanguards trying to advance into his team can quickly have their health bars depleted by quickly emptying an entire clip into their large bodies.
Fight Winning Ultimate
Anytime a team hears, “Judge, Jury, Executioner!” everyone who doesn’t run and hide meets their sudden death. Even the highest health Vanguards get melted when caught in the line of fire of Final Judgement.
You’ll find it is prevalent for team fights to be decided by a single use of The Punisher’s Ult as he can quickly get multiple kills per use.
Adaptability
The combination of an assault rifle paired with a shotgun and turret form enables The Punisher to adapt to every situation. When his team needs long-range poke damage or someone to contest enemy fliers, Adjudication unloads bullets at them.
Need to hold down a choke point? Pop in his turret and hold your ground. Getting flanked by melee characters? Bust out the shotty and land a lucky headshot to shut them down.
Weaknesses
Poor Defensive Options
Most of the rivals’ cast possess true defense abilities, such as self-sustaining, stunning, or using invincible escape tools. Punisher doesn’t come equipped with any of these. The way Punisher plays defense is through his overpowered offensive capabilities.
If he cannot kill or force a retreat from the enemy, he ends up being an easy elimination for the enemy team.
Long Cooldowns
Both Culling Turret and Vantage Connection are 20-second cooldowns. These are some of the longest cooldowns in the entire game. Whenever the enemy sees The Punisher use one of these, they know they have a massive window of time to attack, without having to consider the threat of either ability.
Weak Against Shields and Damage Mitigation Abilities
When the enemy sees a Punisher is destroying their team, they can respond with heroes who possess multiple types of damage mitigation, such as Magneto and Doctor Strange.
When his line sight is cut off, he can’t reliably reposition due to his weak mobility, so his only option ends up being waiting or using his ammo to shoot shields instead of actual enemies.
Ability Tips
Primary Fire: Adjudication & Deliverance
Adjudication
DESCRIPTION | Fire at enemies with Adjudication, his Automatic Rifle |
KEY | Left Click |
CASTING | Rapid-fire projectile |
DAMAGE | 18 damage per round |
DAMAGE FALLOFF | Falloff begins at 20m, decreasing to 70% at 40m |
CROSSHAIR SPREAD RADIUS (AT 10M) | Up to a 0.09m radius. |
FIRE RATE | 10 rounds per second |
AMMO | 30 |
CRITICAL HIT | Yes |
Deliverance
DESCRIPTION | Fire at enemies with Deliverance, his Shotgun |
KEY | Left Click |
CASTING | Shotgun projectiles that hit instantly |
DAMAGE | 10 damage per round |
DAMAGE FALLOFF | Falloff begins at 8m, decreasing to 40% at 15m |
BULLETS FIRED EACH CAST | 14 |
CROSSHAIR SPREAD RADIUS (AT 10M) | 0.6m |
FIRE RATE | 1.43 rounds per second |
AMMO | 8 |
CRITICAL HIT | Yes |
Tips for Primary Fire: Adjudication & Deliverance
- Adjudication
- The vast majority of the time, you’ll want to be using Adjudication
- Even though they are harder to hit, focus on targeting the enemies Duelists and Strategists
- Unless a Vanguard is pushing way up, then you want to focus him to pressure him to fall back.
- Only medium range full automatic hitscan weapon currently in Marvel Rivals
- Anytime there are fliers on the enemy team, it's the Punisher’s job to deal with them.
- Severe damage fall-off down to only 30% of max damage makes the rifle weak at really long range.
- Deliverance
- Very high damage at close range
- If the enemy is within 10m of you, Deliverance can deal higher damage than Adjudication.
- Go for headshots because at close range even more than usual, it's important to KO the enemy as quickly as possible.
- A headshot at close range will one-shot 250HP heroes.
- Separate Ammo
- The rifle and shotgun have their own separate ammo, so you can swap to one even if the other is out of ammo.
- Automatically reloads the weapon not being used after a few seconds.
Secondary Fire: Scourge Grenade
DESCRIPTION | Throw a smoke grenade forward to obscure enemy vision and leap backward |
KEY | Right Click |
CASTING | Projectile with an arced trajectory |
PROJECTILE SPEED | 40 m/s |
RANGE | 5m spherical radius |
DAMAGE | 45 |
BACKWARD JUMP DISTANCE | 9m |
COOLDOWN | 8s |
SPECIAL EFFECT | Create a temporary smokescreen that obstructs vision |
Tips for Scourge Grenade
- Create distance
- The main use of the smoke grenade is to shoot it at your feet to knock yourself away from an enemy and momentarily block their vision.
- Counter melee enemies
- Scourge Grenade buys you time to pull out Deliverance which is stronger against melee enemies than adjudication
- Cut off the enemy’s vision in a ranged fight
- Shoot the smoke at the enemy you are in a ranged duel with to buy yourself a couple of seconds where they can’t track you.
[SHIFT] Vantage Connection
DESCRIPTION | Launch a hook to generate a cable that enables the Punisher to move rapidly by pressing F |
KEY | SHIFT |
CASTING | Dash |
CABLE ATTACHMENT ANGLE | 20° - 160° |
CABLE LENGTH | 5m - 35m |
DASH SPEED | 25 m/s |
COOLDOWN | 20s |
Tips For Vantage Connection
- Very long cooldown
- Be careful using Vantage Connection because 20 seconds is a very long time in Rivals to not be able to create a new zipline.
- Multiple ziplines
- Up to 3 zip lines can exist at the same time
- Reuse ziplines
- Frank can use any zip line on the map over and over again with no cooldown
- Shoot while zipping and jumping.
- Surprise the enemy by shooting while zipping or jumping to a new area for a flank attack.
[E] Culling Turret
DESCRIPTION | Deploy a Culling Turret that grounds Punisher and blocks damage from the front while dealing massive damage |
KEY | E |
CASTING | Rapid-fire projectiles that create a spell field upon impact |
DAMAGE | 12 damage per round |
EXPLOSION DAMAGE | 12 damage per round |
EXPLOSION RANGE | 3m spherical radius |
CROSSHAIR SPREAD RADIUS (AT 10M) | Start with a spread radius of 0.2m, which reduces to 0.1m after 10 shots, and further decreases to 0.05m after 20 shots |
FIRE RATE | 12.5 rounds per second |
AMMO | 200 |
TURRET HEALTH | 600 |
COOLDOWN | 20s |
Tips for Culling Turret
- No projectile damage
- The actual projectiles do not inflict any damage. Instead, they explode upon impact and the explosion deals damage. Therefore, you can get in more consistent damage by shooting the feet of your targets because even if you miss slightly, the explosion off the ground will still damage the enemy.
- Separate turret health
- Attacks that hit the Culling Turret damage only turret HP. Attacks that hit The Punisher, damage both Punisher’s and the turret’s HP.
- Long startup and recovery animations
- If you're already being attacked, don’t pull out the turret because you will most likely die before it activates
[Q Final Judgment
DESCRIPTION | Unleash two Gatling guns and missiles to attack enemies |
KEY | Q |
CASTING | Rapid-fire projectiles that hit instantly and have a tracking trajectory |
DURATION | 10s |
SLOW RATE WHILE IDLING | -20% |
SLOW RATE WHILE SHOOTING | -40% |
ENERGY COST | 3400 |
Gatling Gun
DAMAGE | 8 damage per round |
DAMAGE FALLOFF | Falloff begins at 20m, decreasing to 70% at 40m |
CROSSHAIR SPREAD RADIUS (AT 10M) | Start with a spread radius of 0.6m, which reduces to 0.3m after 50 shots, and further decreases to 0.15m after 100 shots |
FIRE RATE | 33.33 rounds per second |
AMMO | Infinite |
CRITICAL HIT | Yes |
Shoulder-mounted Missiles
PROJECTILE SPEED | 60 m/s |
DAMAGE | 50 |
INTERVAL BETWEEN VOLLEYS | 3s |
INTERVAL BETWEEN MISSILES | 0.3s |
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MISSILES PER VOLLEY | 8 |
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF LOCKED-ON MISSILES PER TARGET | 3 |
MAXIMUM LOCKING DISTANCE | 40m |
Tips for Final Judgment
- Immune to CC
- If you see the enemy is about to CC you with an ult like, Jeff The Shark or Groot, activating Final Judgement instantly makes you immune to the crowd control.
- Can kill through Luna, Mantis, and Invisible Woman’s defensive ults but not Cloak & Daggers
- Walk out with a shield
- If you're paired with a shield Vanguard like Doctor Strange, have them walk in front of you as you walk towards the enemy team with your ult.
- Zip jump to Final Judgement
- If you know you’ll have some form of team sustain like Magneto’s ally bubble or a Strategist’s healing, you can go for deadly flanks with your ult by using Vantage Connection.
[PASSIVE]: Warrior’s Gaze
DESCRIPTION | Retain vision of enemies that disappear from view for a short duration |
KEY | Passive |
SPECIAL EFFECT | Retain vision of enemies that disappear from view for a short duration |
RANGE | 30m spherical radius |
DURATION | 3s |
Tips for Warrior’s Gaze
- Once activated, Warrior’s Gaze has infinite range until the ability duration ends.
- Jiggle Peek (Within Warrior Gaze’s 30m range).
- Punisher has a unique advantage when jiggle peeking because he can still see where his target is even when he steps behind cover. You can always track your target, but they have to guess when you’re gonna peek and how far out.
- Combining Scourge Grenade and Warrior’s Gaze
- Shoot the smoke right at the enemy to damage them, and get the advantage of seeing their position with Warrior’s Gaze while they can’t see through the smoke.
[Team-Up]: Infinite Punishment
DESCRIPTION | Rocket Raccoon throws an Ammo Overload device in the target direction. Upon entering the device's range, the Punisher and Winter Soldier receive the buffs of Infinite Ammo and Faster Firing |
KEY | None |
ADJUDICATION FIRE RATE BOOST | 67% |
DELIVERANCE FIRE RATE BOOST | 67% |
TEAM-UP TARGET | Rocket Raccoon |
Tips for Infinite Punishment
- Punisher is unable to activate the team-up ability on his own. After Rocket activates the device, he must stand in its AoE to gain the buffs.
- Save for times when the enemy will have difficulty running away.
- If the enemy is barely at a choke point, they can easily hide behind a wall and wait out the Team-Up
- Infinite ammo + rapid fire shotgun
- One of the best ways to melt Vangaurds is to pair Infinite Punishment with the shotgun instead of the rifle. Assuming the enemy's Vanguard is close to you.
Synergies
Team Comp Synergies
The ideal team comp built around The Punisher enables him to play super aggressively and not have to worry about being too safe or scared of dying. Allies that provide him with high amounts of healing and damage mitigation allow him to focus on constant damage output.
Pairing any kind of damage boost with his huge burst damage weapons can push break points over the edge and allow The Punisher to start deleting enemies. Additionally, anyone with a stun to counter enemies trying to flank Frank Castle gives him the opportunity for guaranteed Deliverance headshots which mark the would-be diver dead on arrival.
Example of Team Comp Built Around The Punisher:
- Vanguards: Doctor Strange, Magneto
- Duelists: Punisher, Hela
- Strategists: Rocket Raccoon, Mantis
Hero Synergies
Vanguard: Magneto
First and foremost, Frank Castle wants a shield to stand behind, and a Vanguard to stop the enemy from walking past them. Magneto does both of these better than anyone with his resources-based shield and the knockback from his right-click. Additionally, Magneto can use Metal Bulwark on the Punisher when Castle pushes up aggressively during the Rocket Racoon Team-Up or when using his double machine gun ult.
Duelist: Hela
Hela and The Punisher are a great match for each other because they exert an extremely high amount of poke pressure on the enemy team. Each hero has constant damage output and leaves no clear opening for the enemy to time their attacks around. Hela’s long-range damage covers for the Punisher’s primary weakness which is his severe damage falloff. Both of their ultimates can force out enemy defensive ults. Cycling their ultimates creates greater opportunities for the 2nd user to not get counter ulted.
Strategist: Rocket Raccoon
The best duo to run with Punisher is clearly Rocket Raccoon to gain access to Ammo Overload. Typically, you’ll want to ask your rocket to use the ability reactively to enemy aggression as the rate of fire buff and infinite ammo on his shotgun destroys any enemy in close range. Most importantly, be sure to coordinate Infinite Punishment timing to not overlap with Culling Turret or your ultimate. Rocket also provides great healing to The Punisher and combing their Ults is can get you a rapid team wipe even if the enemy has defensive ults available.
Table of Contents
Base Stats
Role | Duelist |
Difficulty | 1/5 Stars |
Health | 275 |
Movement Speed | 6 m/s |