Here’s an early patch notes preview for Marvel Rivals Season 5 update, which launches later this week, including Gambit’s abilities, a 36-player mode, team-up reworks, cross-progression, anniversary rewards, and big balance/ranked updates.
After a packed few months of updates, Marvel Rivals Season 4 is finally wrapping up later this week. From the introduction of Angela to the Halloween event, K’un-Lun map, and Marvel Zombies mode, there’s been plenty to check out. But now, with Season 4 nearly done, everyone’s looking ahead to what’s next.
Earlier today, NetEase officially dropped the Season 5 trailer, and as many fans guessed, it confirmed that Rogue and Gambit are the next heroes joining the roster. Right after the trailer went live, the studio followed up with Dev Vision Vol. 11, a tighter, developer-narrated rundown of what’s actually arriving this season and why it matters.
In this article, we’ll walk through everything the Dev Vision video confirms so far: Gambit’s launch kit, a new 18v18 mode and map, a Times Square social hub, cross-platform progression, a first-anniversary event, team-up reworks, and a wide slate of balance and ranked changes.
Marvel Rivals Season 5 Update Release Date
Season 5 of Marvel Rivals is set to launch on Friday, November 14, 2025, following the usual early-morning server maintenance window. Titled “Love is a Battlefield,” players can expect the update to go live around 1 AM PDT (9 AM UTC) if it follows the same schedule as previous seasons. Alongside new content, the update will also roll out broader improvements to performance, matchmaking, and sandbox balance.
Marvel Rivals Season 5 Early Patch Notes
Now, let’s talk about what’s coming in Marvel Rivals season 5.
Gambit in Marvel Rivals: Role, Class, and Abilities
Gambit is a Strategist in Marvel Rivals who blends “kinetic energy control” with his signature Chorovium-enhanced cards, athletic movement, and staff attacks. He’s built to support a push or swing a skirmish, and parts of his kit offer ally utility alongside what appears to be a good dealer.
Gambit overview:
- Class: Strategist
- Release Date: November 14, 2025 (Season 5 launch)
- Voice Actor: AJ LoCascio (Gambit in X-Men ’97)
Gambit Abiliites overview:
- Kinetic Shifting: Combine kinetically enhanced cards to trigger a team-focused effect: heal allies, cleanse negative effects, or deal damage that knocks back enemies and applies anti-heal.
- Energy Staff Combat: Gambit channels energy into his staff to burst through pressure and help a team crash space, though no explicit skill name is shown in the narration.
- Kinetic-Charged Aces (Ultimate): Launches energized aces to nearby allies, supercharging their jump and adding explosive power to attacks for a short window.
New 18v18 Mode & Map
Season 5 will introduce a massive 18v18 Conquest-style mode designed for large-scale battles. It’s being rolled out on November 27 after the main update lands. The mode takes place on a brand-new map called Grand Garden, built to handle the fast-paced flow of 36 players fighting across sprawling zones with multiple objectives.
The developers described it as a full-on battlefield experience, meant to push teamwork, hero variety, and those cinematic power moments Marvel Rivals is known for.
New Social Space: Times Square
For players who want to relax between matches, NetEase is adding a new Times Square social space that supports up to 100 players. Think of it as a hangout hub: you can meet other heroes, dance, watch in-game videos, read messages, and just spend time in a lively environment without combat.
It’s the first major step toward making the game’s social systems feel more like a connected world.
Marvel Rivals First Anniversary Event
Starting November 27, Marvel Rivals will celebrate its first anniversary with a big in-game event. Players can earn 2,500 Units and a free Legendary “J” costume, plus several special anniversary-themed outfits inspired by community designs and party-themed visuals.
It’s essentially a birthday bash for the game, rewarding players for sticking with it over the past year. NetEase teased some of these exclusive costumes during the video, which you can check out below.
Cross-Platform Progression Finally Arrives
After months of testing in Season 4.5, cross-platform progression officially launches in Season 5. This means your unlocks, skins, and emotes will carry across platforms. (though ranked progress remains platform-specific)
This is a big win for players who’ve been jumping between platforms since beta, and something fans have been asking for since day one.
Marvel Rivals Season 5: Team-Up Ability Reworks & Additions
Team-up abilities are getting a major refresh this season. Marvel Rivals Season 5 will add three new team-up abilities, while also reworking old ones. Check out the breakdown below.
- Explosive Entanglement (Gambit + Magneto): Gambit is the anchor who charges Magneto’s magnetic barrier with kinetic energy. Magneto’s basic attacks now explode on impact and create delayed kinetic bursts for a secondary explosion.
- Sword of Duality (Cloak & Dagger + Hawkeye): Cloak & Dagger is the anchor. They empower Hawkeye’s katana. His Crescent Slash now knocks back and fires a light/dark wave that passes through allies and enemies, healing/buffing teammates and damaging/applying anti-heal to enemies.
- Blade of Konshu (Moon Knight + Blade): Moon Knight is the anchor of this team-up ability. Khonshu’s power blesses Blade: dash, Sword of Dracula strike, then quick swirl slashes that launch bouncing moon-blades.
Meanwhile, “Luna Force” and “Operation Microchip” team-ups have been retired. Magneto has also been removed from “Mental Projection,” and Hawkeye is no longer part of “Cheering Assault.”
To balance things out, Black Widow joins Phoenix and Wolverine in the “Primal Flame” team-up, allowing her to switch between standard and Phoenix bullets. The Phoenix variant heals allies and deals splash damage to enemies, though it can’t land critical hits.
PvE Plans & What’s Next
The team also revisited the success of the Halloween event, “Marvel Zombies.” Built in just six months, it introduced over 200 zombies on screen, giving players a chaotic but fun PvE test run.
While it reused existing maps and only supported five heroes, the developers confirmed this was just the start; more PvE maps, hero options, and themes are already in production for next year.
So if you enjoyed blasting zombies with supercharged powers, expect even bigger PvE experiments down the line.
Marvel Rivals Season 5: Balance Updates & Hero Adjustments
Check out the hero balance changes preview for season 5 below:
- Vanguards will receive buffs: Focused on stronger team utility.
- Captain America’s Ultimate will now help teammates charge their ultimates faster.
- Peni Parker’s webs will heal allies standing on them.
- The Thing and Hulk are also being tuned to stay relevant in coordinated fights.
- Duelists will receive buffs: Spider-Man gets smoother combos and consistency updates, while Wolverine is receiving buffs to make him more threatening in close-range duels.
- Strategists will receive buffs: Loki gets a targeted boost; Cloak & Dagger gain survivability. More changes will appear in the full patch notes.
NetEase also mentioned they’ll release Season 4.5’s pick and win-rate data soon, giving players a deeper look into how the meta evolved leading into Season 5.
Ranked Overhaul: Placements, Team Sizes, and Rewards
With Season 5, placements replace hard seasonal resets. Each season, you’ll play 10 placement matches to set your starting rank. For Season 5’s transition, your initial seeding is based on a conversion of your highest rank from Seasons 0-3 and your final rank from Season 4 (not a straight carryover).
Win out and you can place higher than before. If you finish all 10 in the first half, that rank carries to the second half; if not, you must complete placements in the second half to qualify for rank rewards.
- Placement Rewards: Winning all 10 early can place you higher; failing to complete them in the first half of the season means you’ll have to do them again in 5.5 to qualify for rewards.
- Queue Rules:
- Players under Grandmaster can queue in groups of 2, 3, 4, or 6.
- Celestial, Eternity, or Top 500 ranks are duo-only.
- Rewards:
- Reaching Gold and playing 10 matches earns the season’s costume reward, delivered in the next half (5.5).
- “Crest of Honor” and Nameplate Frames rewards are now given once per full season, simplifying the grind.
Marvel Rivals Season 5: Love is a Battlefield looks packed! A full-blown content drop that adds a new hero, mode, hub, cosmetics, and systems overhaul all at once. Gambit takes center stage on November 14, followed by the new mode, cross-progression, and the first anniversary event on November 27.
And yes, fans of Rogue can look forward to her release in December 2025 as part of Season 5.5, voiced by Lenore Zann.
What do you think of all the Season 5 additions and Gambit’s arrival? Are you planning to jump in when the season goes live next week? Let us know your thoughts.
