Hela is one of the strongest characters in Marvel Rivals, but she’s also one of the most difficult. She can’t just run into battle and expect to succeed, so you’ll need a guide to make the most of her strengths.
As a duelist, your job is all about dealing damage – be it by poking enemies or flanking strategists to distract them from a team fight. But Hela requires a more refined approach than most other duelists.
One of the Marvel Rivals best duelists, and she can dish out massive amounts of damage with the mobility to get her out of sticky situations. She’s an invaluable character to have on your roster in the Closed Beta.
Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about Hela, her abilities, and some tips on how best to play her.
Hela weapons in Marvel Rivals
Nightsword Thorn
- Hela’s only weapon is a slow-firing hitscanner that relies heavily upon accuracy and has a small magazine size.
Hela’s main weapon is the Nightsword Thorn. It’s a slow-firing hitscan weapon that deals a ton of single target damage, with the main drawback being a low rate of fire and a small mag size at 8.
If you aren’t hitting your shots with Hela, you’re going to get punished. Accuracy is key with this hero, making her a much less beginner-friendly choice than other duelists like The Punisher, for instance.
However, her Soul Drainer ability is great for locking down targets and help you land those crucial headshots.
Hela abilities in Marvel Rivals
Hela’s abilities are focused on poking from a distance or flanking, both of which she can do very well. Although she has quite the skill curve, once you get the hang of her abilities, she’s one of the best duelists around.
Passive
Nastrond Crowstorm
- Defeating an enemy will generate a Nastrond Crow, exploding after a certain duration.
The first part of Hela’s passive is just that: a passive. Her Crows will zone out enemies, but there isn’t much active involvement here or many methods of getting more out of this.
That said, stunning a group of enemies and headshotting the weakest one is the most damage-efficient way to clear a group. You’ll want to systematically take down the lowest health enemies in groups to get rid of teams quickly.
Hel’s Descent
- Hold Jump to fall slowly
This passive is one of Hela’s strongest abilities, genuinely. In Marvel Rivals, you want to be taking fights from a height advantage as often as possible.
When hovering, try to float near walls and corners, similar to how you’d play Pharah or Echo in Overwatch. Being in the air doesn’t mean you don’t need cover.
Abilities
Astral Flock
- Transform into a flock of Hel crows to glide forth, press again to undo the transformation
This ability is Hela’s main way of getting airborne. You’ll want to use it to stay near the sky rather than just teleporting in straight lines.
Additionally, this ability provides immunity frames, so you can use it to dodge burst. Just make sure you know exactly where you want to go before you throw it, as you can’t change the bird’s trajectory once you toss it out.
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That said, you can still move freely while the crow is flying and teleport to it within the duration, allowing you to finish the fight and get out in a flash. Once you’ve got solid map knowledge, you can toss a crow into a corner and leave it to teleport to a few seconds later.
Just make sure you don’t accidentally throw yourself off a ledge.
Soul Drainer
- Project an explosive Hel sphere to stun nearby enemies
Soul Drainer is the real make-or-break ability for Hela. Outside of landing your basic shots, landing this on bunched-up groups of heroes is the best way to win teamfights.
Keep an eye out for teammates using their burst combos as well, helping lock enemy heroes in place can decide who wins a fight and who loses it.
Piercing Night
- Fire Multiple Nightsword Thorns that detonate after a delay
Other than comboing this with Soul Drainer, the best habit to get into with Piercing Night is to animation cancel your weapon shots with it.
By tossing this out between shots rather than just hitting the ability as soon as you see an enemy, you’ll be able to drastically increase your DPS and burst down squishy targets.
Ultimate
Goddess of Death
- Soar into the sky and unleash Nastrond Crows from each hand at will
Hela’s ultimate is a strong tool… sometimes. If you just panic ult for the 800 extra HP while you’re surrounded, you’re not going to live for very long and the cooldown will be wasted.
However, if Hela gets enough free time in the air to toss out a few crows, she can decimate the backline. You’ll want to find an off-angle or flank to fire this ability so that you aren’t immediately gunned down.
Tips for how to play Hela in Marvel Rivals
As Hela, your game plan should be to make the absolute most of her range and crowd control.
You’ll want to sit back and take advantage of her strong hitscan weapon and look for opportunities to all-in by comboing her abilities to quickly take down backliners.
Holding a flank is also an incredibly strong strategy as Hela, but only if you’ve got Astral Flock ready to go. If you teleport in and immediately start blasting, you’re going to get caught out and killed. Try to save this ability for getting out rather than just blindly going in.
If you’re playing Hela and feel like you’re dying a lot more than you should, it’s probably a positioning issue. Try and take stock of where your enemy is, where you should be standing on that point in the map to gain a height advantage, and look for opportunities as they arise.
Caution and awareness are key, and you’ll win a lot more when you start to consider positioning and game tempo over running headlong into the fight and focusing on raw DPS.
