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Marvel RivalsMarvel Rivals Hawkeye Character Guide

In this Marvel Rivals Hawkeye guide, you’ll learn the fundamentals of his abilities, unique play styles, and fundamental tips.

Hawkeye Overview

The archer who can win team fights with a single arrow. Where Clint Barton lacks in super powers, he makes up for in the lethality of his bow. Having a Hawkeye on a team forces the enemy team to constantly be forever cautious of exposing themselves to his LoS, lest they be caught off guard and deleted. Best played at off angles to shoot behind enemy cover and barriers, he can single-handedly turn a losing fight into a winning one with a couple of headshots.

There are really only two ways to feel about a Hawkeye player: he’s either carrying or throwing.

When you boil it down, either you are landing headshots, or you are being useless. Our positioning and aim tips below Piercing Arrow will help you have the highest odds of landing those crucial critical hits!

Find out where Hawkeye ranks in our Marvel Rivals tier list.

TLDR

As

  • Abuse high ground and off angles to shoot past shields.
  • Peek out from behind cover to keep yourself protected and your enemies guessing.
  • Abuse choke points and hallways where enemies are funneling through and let your unlimited ammo arrows fly.

Against

  • Keep Hawkeye pressured, the more time he has to relax and aim, the more deadly he'll be.
  •  Hawkeye always has the advantage in long range fights. Use cover or shields while advancing forward until you can get close to him.
  • When he ults, stay behind terrain, your Vanguard, or out of his LoS, unless your team is using a Strategist's defensive ult to counter.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Unmatched Burst Damage

He’s the only hero in all of Marvel Rivals who can eliminate every Strategist and Duelist with a single shot (other than Wolverine and Mister Fantastic). The high burst damage is by far his greatest strength whether he’s taking huge chunks out of a Vanguards health or deleting everyone else.

LoS Control

A benefit of his one shot capabilities, Hawkeye’s control of long line of sight forces the enemy team to use up defensive resources when advancing on your team. The only other option is for enemies to find paths that avoid the long lines of sight, which takes up extra time and splits up the enemy team.

Weaknesses

Slow Rate of Fire

When missing shots, Hawkeye and his team really feel the absence of his damage output since it leaves chunks of time where zero damage is being dealt.

Weak Against High Mobility

When being attacked by high-mobility flankers, the slow rate of fire can make it difficult to effectively defend himself. Hawkeye’s only defensive abilities are his double jump and Crescent Slash. These can help buy him extra time, but aren’t particularly effective at actually thwarting the enemy attack.

Slow Projectile Speed

Having to shoot a far-off moving target with a travel projectile can be quite challenging. Hawkeye has to lead his shots and predict enemy movement to consistently be landing shots at long distances, where he has the biggest damage advantage.

Ability Tips

Primary Fire: Piercing Arrow

DESCRIPTION

Shoot a powerful arrow

KEY

Left Click

CASTING

Charged projectile with an arced trajectory

SLOW RATE WHILE CHARGING

-30%

MINIMUM CHARGE TIME

0.7s

PROJECTILE SPEED

120 - 180 m/s (Maximum speed is achieved after 0.9s of charging)

DAMAGE

8 - 80 (Maximum damage is achieved after 0.9s of charging)

AMMO

Infinite

CRITICAL HIT

Yes

Tips for Piercing Arrow

Always look to position on off angles.

  • Splitting the enemies focus creates more opportunities for both yourself and your allies to make big plays.
  • Off angles allow you to find targets who don’t see you and therefore are not actively trying to dodge your arrows which makes for easier shots.

Watch for movement-locking abilities.

  • Many heroes have movement abilities that lock them into a particular trajectory.
  • Example against Spider-Man:
    • Both Get Over Here and Amazing Combo place him in predictable and easily trackable movement arcs. These are the moments to focus him, as otherwise his movement is so fast he can be nearly impossible to hit.

Position with cover to your left.

  • In Rivals, your camera in 3rd person affects how your projectiles visualize with your crosshairs. Positioning with cover on your left gives Hawkeye greater vision of the enemy.
  • Faster jiggle peeking
    • Draw his arrow behind cover, then peek out only for the moment he’s firing.
    • Again, peeking out to the right minimizing the amount of movement required to clear the wall or cover.

Play around allies CC

  • Track your teammates cc abilities. You’ll want to have an arrow ready with Archer’s Focus fully charged in order his the easy critical hit on a stunned target.
  • Communicate with allies
    • The combo of any stun with Hawkeye’s primary fire guarantees elimination.
    • Whenever possible, ask allies to call out when they’re looking to stun an enemy.

Passive: Archer’s Focus

DESCRIPTION

Aim at an enemy to improve focus, enhancing the damage inflicted by Piercing Arrow

KEY

Passive

BONUS DAMAGE

0 - 70 (Maximum damage is achieved after 0.9s of aiming)

TRIGGERING DISTANCE

40m

CRITICAL HIT

Yes

SPECIAL MECHANIC

Apply bonus damage to the base damage of Piercing Arrow

Tips for Archer’s Focus

Archer’s focus can be charged aiming at one target, and shot at a different target.

  • When looking to eliminate an enemy backline that is jiggle peeking, charge up Archer’s Focus on their front line while waiting for your true target to appear.
  • The limited 40m range means you’ll want to say within its range as much as possible.

Ping the floor or environment near your targeted area to measure how far you can position.

  • Archer’s focus almost doubles your damage output.

60% Archer’s focus required one shot 275hp heroes.

  • If your arrow is fully charged, you don’t need to wait for full Archer’s Focus to eliminate most Strategists and Duelists.

Alternate Fire: Blast Arrow


DESCRIPTION

Shoot three explosive arrows

KEY

Left Click

CASTING

Arced projectile that generates a spell field upon impact

SLOW RATE WHILE CHARGING

-30%

PROJECTILE SPEED

60 m/s

PROJECTILE DAMAGE

20

RANGE

3m spherical radius

SPELL FIELD DAMAGE

25

BLAST ARROWS PER CAST

3

SPREAD ANGLE

11.3°

COOLDOWN

0.5s

Tips for Blast Arrow

Extremely Niche.

  • 99% of the time it is better to keep using Piercing Arrow, even after the buff to spread size.
  • It can be used to finish off targets with a sliver of health around a corner with its splash damage.

[SHIFT]: Crescent Slash

DESCRIPTION

Unsheathe a katana and slash forward, launching up enemies hit

KEY

SHIFT

CASTING

Melee

MAXIMUM DISTANCE

8m

DAMAGE

40

COOLDOWN

15s

Tips for Crescent Slash

Always save Crescent Slash as a, “get off me,” against enemy melee heroes.

  • When close range dueling, first use Crescent Slash to boop the enemy, then follow up the cc with a Piercing Arrow.

[E] Hypersonic Arrow

DESCRIPTION

Shoot a Hypersonic Arrow, dealing two instances of damage to enemies in its path and inflicting them with Slow. This ability can Knock Down flying heroes

KEY

E

CASTING

Straight-line projectile that is accompanied by a spell field

PROJECTILE SPEED

150 m/s

FIRST SPELL FIELD RANGE

50

SECOND SPELL FIELD RANGE

Length: 3m, Width: 5m, Height: 1.6m

SECOND DAMAGE

50

SLOW RATE

-40%

Tips for Hypersonic Arrow

The slow effect of this ability is extremely short, so you’ll need to quickly fire a follow up shot if you are looking to benefit from the debuff.

Best used to finish off targets who are hiding behind shields since it ignores shields.

Large AoE

  • Try to line up as many targets as possible with your arrow in order to maximize total damage output.

Slower travel speed than primary fire

  • You’ll need to lead shots of Hypersonic Arrow more than you do with primary fire.

Double Jump: Skyward Leap

DESCRIPTION

Perform a double jump in the direction of movement

KEY

Space

COOLDOWN

6s

Tips for Skyward Leap

Equally effective as a movement ability to reposition, chase, or escape.

Against teams where you know a flanker is targeting you, save Skyward Leap to escape their attack.

Use offensively

  • Skyward Leap can be used to jump up high and shoot enemies over walls and barriers.
  • Use its burst of speed to chase down retreating enemies.

Melee: Ronin Slash

DESCRIPTION

Swing a wakizashi to strike frontal enemies, deflecting all incoming projectiles

KEY

V

CASTING

Melee

MAXIMUM DISTANCE

3m

SPECIAL EFFECT

This ability cannot block explosions or effects created by projectiles on hit

Tips for Ronin Slash

Very inconsistent

  • Only when you have no other option should you be purposely trying to deflect an incoming projectile. The timing window and AoE are both very strict and difficult to use dependently.

Ultimate: Hunter’s Sight

DESCRIPTION

Capture Afterimages of enemies in his view. Damage dealt to an Afterimage is transferred to the corresponding enemy

KEY

Q

DURATION

10s

AFTERIMAGE GENERATION INTERVAL

0.5s

AFTERIMAGE DURATION

3s

ENERGY COST

3700

Tips for Hunter’s Sight

Don’t stand in the open while casting.

  • Hawkeye stands completely still and announces his ultimate which makes for an easy kill on him.
  • Cast behind cover then walk out into the open where the Afterimages can be attacked.

Still go for direct headshots when possible.

  • Shoot the Afterimages whenever an enemy is difficult to hit, behind cover, or low enough HP that a few shots to the after images will eliminate them.

Team-up: Supersensory Vision


DESCRIPTION

Hawkeye can share his Hunter's Sight with Black Widow, enabling her to catch sight of and damage afterimages of enemies

KEY

Passive

TEAM-UP BONUS

15% Damage Boost

Tips for Supersensory Vision

Check the position and health of your ally Black Widow before activating your ultimate. If she isn’t already in position to attack the Afterimages, she will have difficulty helping you secure eliminations.

Synergies

Team Comp Synergies

Ideal comp built around Hawkeye enables him to position safely at a distance while spamming his arrow into the enemy team. The threat of being one shot by a critical hit should be Hawkeye’s team’s greatest asset at any given point in a match. Shields are helpful to protect from the front, and defensive traps such as mines or turrets are helpful to protect his flank.

Team Comp Example

  • Vanguards: Peni Parker, Magneto
  • Duelists: Hawkeye, Namor
  • Strategists: Adam Warlock, Mantis

Hero Synergies

Vanguards: Peni Parker

Peni Parker’s high frequency of stun gives endless opportunities for easy followup headshots.

Additionally, the area control Peni brings to her team with her mines serve as a great protection against flankers for Hawkeye. Peni’s mine field serves as a barrier which prevents the enemy team from advancing upon and closing the distance to Hawkeye.

Duelists: Namor

Namor is an excellent choice to pair up with Hawkeye since their kits complement one another. Both Duelists want to control chokes, and line of sights with their infinite, long range primary fire. When Namor is shredding a Vanguard, a single critical hit from Hawkeye can be the extra damage needed to finish them off. Most importantly, Namors turrets help to protect Hawkeye from flankers and maximize Hawkeyes survivability and uptime.

Strategists: Mantis

The only thing that can make Hawkeye’s powerful arrows even better is a damage boost.

Mantis can keep permanent damage boost inspiration on Hawkeye which can help push him over elimination breakpoints in certain situations and match ups. Since Hawkeye will typically be positioned near cover, Mantis’ passive healing abilities are perfect for activating without having to spend a lot of time looking away from the fight.