Marvel Rivals The Hood Character Guide

The Hood is an aggressive, damage-heavy Vanguard who wants to force fights at close range. His kit revolves around building Demonic Energy through base attacks, then transforming his pistols into rapid-fire machine guns and melting the enemies at point-blank range. With high amounts of lifesteal, multiple defensive abilities, and an Ultimate that effectively gives him a second life, The Hood is surprisingly difficult to KO, and has all the tools needed to overwhelm the enemy team.

The biggest factor in finding success as The Hood is proper use and cycling of his cooldowns, so be sure to read each Ability Tip below to ensure you are prepared for the battle! In this guide, we'll break down The Hood's abilities, playstyle and positioning, advanced tips, and how to effectively counter him when he is on the enemy team.

TLDR The Hood Guide

How to Play As The Hood

• Prioritize farming Demonic Energy at range, then wait to fully reach 100 until you are at close range to enemies.
• Plan your attacks around your defensive cooldowns. Mantle of Oblivion absorbs all incoming damage, and Void Walk is your primary means of survival; save it to escape to safety.
• The Hood's ultimate can be activated in mid-air. Get creative with your positioning to catch the enemy team off guard.

How to Play Against The Hood

• Keep your distance! His damage is insanely high at very close range, but very poor at longer ranges.
• Force out his defensive cooldowns before committing to a counterattack. If you see The Hood use two of his abilities in a row, that is your signal to attack aggressively.
• He cannot use his bubble barrier (Mantle of Oblivion) during Half-Demon State. Exploit this window and use your highest damage abilities to force him out.

Primary Fire: ACCURSED PISTOLS

Tips for ACCURSED PISTOLS

• Poke damage is negligible, but it's still important to farm Demonic Energy early before getting into the full fight and into your optimal short range.
• • Every primary-fire hit gives 2 Demonic Energy.
  • Headshots do not provide additional energy; they still give 2.
• The rapid fire mode is kind of bait. The Hood's dps is not that much higher because his damage per shot goes down even though the rate of fire increases.
• • Wait until you have Leaded Transformation to go fully aggro.
• Outside of 10m, your damage is very low. Ping your targets to keep track of distance and only trade attacks when you are at close range. Otherwise you will always be outdamaged by other ranged attacks.

Enhanced: LEADED TRANSFORMATION

Chaos Colition combined with Leaded Transformation Example

Tips for LEADED TRANSFORMATION

• Hold down BOTH primary and secondary fire.
• • We're not sure why the game doesn't mention it in the tooltips, but the two pistols fire independently during Leaded Transformation.
• When Half-Demon State is active, Demonic Energy drains continuously.
• • Stay active while in Half-Demon State. Being passive wastes your precious high-value window where your damage and lifesteal are at their peaks.
• Half-Demon State can be manually canceled.
• • Keep this option in mind if you are close to death and need to deactivate it so you can use Mantle of Oblivion for protection.

Secondary Fire: MANTLE OF OBLIVION

Tips for MANTLE OF OBLIVION

• Although it has a short duration, Mantle of Oblivion can absorb an unlimited amount of incoming damage.
• • Can absorb extremely large attacks, including powerful Ultimates such as Iron Man's or Scarlett Witch's ults.
  • Protect your team from heavy-hitting ults by getting in front of them with Mantle.
• Mantle of Oblivion generates additional energy based on the amount of damage it absorbs.
• Does not provide complete CC immunity, so certain crowd-control effects can still affect The Hood despite the damage immunity.

[E]: ABYSSAL VEIL

Tips for ABYSSAL VEIL

• Primarily used directly in front of yourself or to increase Demon Energy gain and damage reduction effects.
• • Shooting through Abyssal Veil increases Demonic Energy gain per bullet to 3.
• Temporarily cuts off enemy push.
• • Not only does it decrease damage of enemy attacks that pass through, but walking through it inflicts a debuff. Most enemies will stay put until the duration ends.
• Can be used between enemy Vanguards and Strategists to reduce the healing their frontline receives.

[SHIFT]: VOID WALK

Tips for VOID WALK

• Void Walk makes The Hood temporarily invulnerable/un-targetable and allows him to free fly.
• It can be used as an escape, engage, or repositioning tool. Also comes in handy as a quick method of finishing his Demonic Energy charge.
• • Void Walk instantly grants 20 Demonic Energy. You can use the phase aggressively to gain a boost of Demonic Energy.
  • Be extremely careful and aware of enemy positioning when doing so, as you have no escape tool afterward, meaning you will be completely reliant on team healing and lifesteal to stay alive.
  • Plan your protection or escape path and use cover to hide while you regroup with your team.
• Increase your movement range by jumping during activation.
• • Can bunny hop upon exiting by jumping as you hit the ground.
• When using Void Walk as an engage tool, trigger the explosion right on top of the enemy targets, and make sure the +20 Demonic Energy triggers Demon state or gets you very close.

Ultimate: DEMON OF THE END

Tips for Demon of the End

• Can be used to survive nearly every ult in the game. Between massive 1000HP and Bonus Health on every successfully hit enemy, The Hood is extremely tanky during his ult.
• • Not invincible, and dying during ult sends you back to spawn, unlike Hela's ult.
  • Demon of the End cannot face-tank multiple enemies' damage boosted by Rocket ult, for example.
• Exit before you die
• • If you see you are about to be killed during the ultimate, you can cancel it early because The Hood always exits with his base max HP of 600.
• The final round has 50 more base damage and 5% more max HP-based damage. Aim your last shot extra carefully.
• Allies also gain Bonus Health
• • When your team is in danger of dying, activating your ult is a great option to save them. The enemy team needs to respect the threat of your ult, and you grant your team Bonus Health as you land the high-powered shots.
• The Hood can activate his Ultimate in mid-air and float wherever he activates.
• • Great for flanks and catching the enemy team off guard. Get creative with your pathing and positioning!
• Pierces barriers and enemies, but not environmental structures or Groot Walls.

Passive: RUINOUS PACT

Tips for RUINOUS PACT

• Demonic Energy does not decay during downtime in the normal state. You keep all charge until hitting 100, which automatically transforms The Hood into the Half-Demon State.
• • Once you trigger Half-Demon State, Demonic Energy drains continuously.

Team-Up: Chaos Collision

Tips for Chaos Collision

• The Scarlet Witch Enhanced version pulls nearby enemies toward the center upon teleporting.
• • This gives The Hood an additional mobility tool that can be used for aggressive off-angles and backline dives.
  • Combine with Leaded Transformation for a deadly all-in attack.
• Great alternative escape tool to Void Walk.
• • Set up before your HP is critical so you don't get caught during aiming or activation animations.
• The teleport can also be used as a repositioning tool, which allows you to save Void Walk for the actual fight.

Team-Up: NEW MOON'S SHADOW

Enhanced

Tips for NEW MOON'S SHADOW

• Converts Abyssal Veil into a physical barrier with HP that fully blocks incoming projectile damage.
• The barrier can separate enemies from their teammates by preventing healing from reaching the frontline.
• The enhanced bouncing effect has relatively short range. Treat it as a passive benefit and focus your positioning and uses of Abyssal Veil as a regular barrier.

Team Comp Synergies

Coming Soon