Marvel Rivals Reveals Season 3.5 Update Patch Notes

On August 2, Marvel Rivals developer NetEase Games pulled back the curtain on its Season 3.5 patch notes, which listed some adjustments, bug fixes, and a brief introduction to Blade. The mid-season Marvel Rivals content update will go live on August 8, following a short period of server maintenance that will last approximately two to three hours.

The arrival of Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 will be heralded by the arrival of Blade, the vampire-hunting anti-hero and the game’s latest Duelist. Also known as Eric Cross Brooks, Blade is a half-vampire (Dhampir) who seeks to eradicate vampires from the world using a mix of martial arts, swords, and firearms to get the job done. Similar to Iron Fist, Blade’s abilities make him deadly at close range, as he can alternate between his Ancestral Sword and Shotgun to mow through opponents. Blade’s Ultimate ability, Thousand-Fold Slash, allows him to carve a path forward and briefly reduce his foes’ healing capabilities.

Next week, Marvel Rivals fans will get to play as Blade and enjoy more new content with the launch of Season 3.5. According to the patch notes posted by NetEase, Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 will launch on Friday, August 8, following two to three hours of server maintenance. The maintenance period begins that same morning, starting at 5:00 AM Eastern. Once maintenance has concluded, the new patch should be available for Marvel Rivals players to download, though it is not known how much data is required. Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 will also introduce a new limited-time event called the Queen’s Codex, which will allow players to unlock The Thing’s Symbiote costume and Hela’s Queen In Black costume. A Twitch Drops campaign for Season 3.5’s launch will also give players the Ignite Star-Lord costume and various sprays.

Ahead of Marvel Rivals’ upcoming patch, NetEase revealed its plans to keep the game safe from toxic chat, as it introduced an automated chat moderation system that can detect and punish players who use harsh or demeaning language in the game’s text and voice chats. Marvel Rivals’ Season 3.5 patch will also allow players to customize their lists of muted words, which will filter out any words that users don’t want to see in text chat windows.

Along with Blade’s introduction and lore, Marvel Rivals will release some new story content for Iron Man and Rocket Raccoon. With a Season 3.5 roadmap that will span most of August, the new mid-season Marvel Rivals patch will have plenty of content for players to consume.

Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 Patch Notes (August 2, 2025)

Greetings, Rivals!

All-Black the Necrosword has returned to Knull’s grasp after millennia, ushering in an era where light may be snuffed out for good. The Phoenix Egg has shattered, its fragments igniting a wildfire upon the planet Klyntar. Blade now empowered by both Phoenix fire & the living abyss, leads the heroes to destroy Knull’s throne. But will it be enough to halt the march of the King in Black? Join the battle and witness the eternal clash of light and darkness!

The update begins on August 8th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)

All-New Content

All Platforms

New Hero

Blade is on his feet and itching to join the fight in Marvel Rivals!

New Stories

New Blade lore – Cut to The Chase

New Iron Man lore – The Celestial Iron Man

New Rocket Raccoon lore – The Deepest Bond

Limited-Time Event: Queen’s Codex

The Queen is coming! Battle to earn XP and level up to earn rewards, including the The Thing – Symbiote Thing costume absolutely FREE!

Unlock the Premium Codex to claim even more rewards, such as the Hela – Queen in Black costume, an all-new dynamic spray, and more! Plus, once you unlock Premium, you gain permanent access to the event until all rewards are claimed. No time limit!

Available from: August 8th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)

New Systems

1. Custom Muted Words: Players can now set up their own defenses against words they’d rather not see in chat. If a message contains a muted word, it will be filtered out.

2. Faction Tab in Chat: Added a new Faction tab to the chat system.

3. Emoji can now be displayed in more scenarios, including while KO’d and during battle settlement.

New In Store

1. Blade – Polarity Edge Bundle

2. Blade – Emoji Bundle

3. Blade Dynamic Mood Bundle

Available from: August 8th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)

Twitch Drops

As Season 3.5 kicks off, get ready for a new round of Twitch Drops. Simply accumulate the required viewing time to claim your rewards.

This round’s drops include the Mantis – Will of Galacta costume along with related bundle content.

Drops Period: August 8th, 2025, at 00:00:00 (UTC) to September 5th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)

Tournaments

1. We’re introducing latency equalization technology to the S3 Marvel Rivals Championship. When a server or geographic location causes significant ping differences between factions, the system will auto-balance latency for fairer matches.

2. Newly added the Balance Latency option to Custom Game – Tournament Rooms. Hosts can now enable this option and set thresholds.

Rank Adjustments

Rank Rewards

New Rank Settlement Rewards: Reach Gold for the cool Blade- Emerald Blade costume. Earn all-new Nameplate Frames at Diamond and Platinum, plus rock fresh Crests of Honor for Grandmaster, Celestial, Eternity, and the illustrious Top 500.

Team Matchmaking Adjustments

1. Players in Bronze, Silver, and Gold can queue for Competitive in any team size except 5-player teams.

2. Players in Platinum, Diamond, and Grandmaster can queue for Competitive in teams of up to 3 players.

3. Players in Celestial, Eternity, and One Above All can queue for Competitive in teams of up to 2 players.

Surrender & Disconnect Rule Adjustments

Surrender Trigger: In the first round, if a player disconnects and does not reconnect within 90 seconds, their team may vote to surrender. The required votes passes with 1 less than the current team members. (E.g., if 4 remain, 3 votes are needed.)

Disconnect Penalty and Compensation Adjustments

Invalid Matches

If any player disconnects during loading, ban/pick phase, hero select, or within the first 70 seconds of a match, the match is deemed invalid. The disconnected player receives a T1 Penalty (see below for details) that scales with repeated offenses and penalty count increases. For other players, the match ends with no result or penalty.

Valid Matches

If a player disconnects after 70 seconds, the following applies:

1. Disconnected player does NOT reconnect before the match ends:

– If the match ends within 90 seconds of their disconnect:

Normal settlement based on match result and stats; no penalty.

– If the match ends 90-150 seconds after their disconnect:

Disconnected player receives a T1 Point Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (both scale with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases (win or lose). If the disconnected team loses, remaining teammates receive ranked point compensation.

– If the match ends 150+ seconds after their disconnect:

Disconnected player receives a T2 Point Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (both scale with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases (win or lose). If the disconnected team loses, remaining teammates receive ranked point compensation.

2. Disconnected player RECONNECTS before the match ends:

– If their team wins:

Normal settlement; no penalty.

– If their team loses:

Penalty is based on disconnect-to-reconnect time (as above), but no Competitive Matchmaking Ban.

-Teammates receive compensation on loss only if the disconnect lasted more than 90 seconds.

Compensation Table:

Points Compensation

1. Compensation points vary by rank.

2. If the final score after compensation is above -1, it will be capped at -1. For example:

3. If a Gold player was supposed to lose 10 points, but receives a disconnect compensation of +12, the result would be +2. Since this is above -1, the final deduction will be set to -1.

AFK Penalty Adjustments

Invalid Matches

If a player is detected AFK within the first 70 seconds, the match is invalid:

Inactive Player: T2 Penalty (scaling with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases.

Other Players: Match ends immediately with no result or deductions.

Valid Matches

If a player is detected AFK after the first 70 seconds:

– If their team wins: Normal settlement, no penalty.

– If their team loses: Inactive player receives a T2 Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (scaling with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases. Teammates do not receive compensation.

Combined AFK & Disconnect Penalty

1. If a player is both inactive and disconnects, the highest penalty applies.

2. If a team is faced with both inactive and disconnected players and that team loses, compensation is granted to fully engaged teammates.

Penalty & Ban Scaling for Competitive

Specific penalty rules described above will be enforced accordingly.

Quick Match Penalties

In Quick Match mode, we’ve also strengthened the penalty duration for players who disconnect and leave the game:

We will continue to monitor disconnections and early exits in both Ranked and Quick Match modes and adjust these rules as necessary. If you believe you were wrongly penalized, please contact customer support for a prompt review.

Fixes and Optimizations

All Platforms

1. Rank reward Nameplate Frames can now be displayed in more areas (lobby, career, friends, faction, leaderboards, gifts, invites, custom games, etc).

2. Hero display in team lobby now supports camera scroll.

3. Clicking on your nameplate while in a team lobby can now quickly switch styles.

4. Improved Venom’s Tickle Me Pink emote animation for his default costume.

5. The “Special” tab in the Store now lets you browse all available Moods, Emoji, and unique Emotes.

Graphics & Performance

PC

1. PC Shader Compilation Rework: The mandatory shader compilation wait on first launch has been removed. Instead, essential global shaders will now preload in the background after installation/update. (Shader preload speed depends on your GPU, entering a match before preloading competes may cause performance issues, including stuttering, network lag, rendering errors, or crashes.)

2. The performance test tool now provides graphics settings optimization recommendations based on your test results.

3. In-game UI animation details will now automatically adjust based on your effects detail settings to improve overall performance.

Maps and Modes

1. Fixed several terrain issues that could cause characters to sometimes become stuck or clip into strange areas.

Heroes

1. Jumping the Gun: Polished up a minor bug where Emma Frost, Iron Fist, Phoenix, and Wolverine were out-leaping the competition with slightly higher jump heights. Now everyone’s jump is perfectly balanced, as all things should be!

2. Iron Fist’s Silent Sanctuary: Resolved an issue where Lin Lie’s Harmony Recovery would sometimes end without playing its ending sound effect. The Iron Fist can now find his inner peace with the proper zen, no more silent retreats in K’un-Lun!

3. Venom & Spider-Man Slinging in Style: Spidey and The Symbiote can now set separate keybinds for simple and manual swinging. Choose your web-slinging style on the fly!

4. Panther & Wolverine’s Sneaky Sounds: Enhanced the audio cues for enemy Black Panther and Wolverine when they’re sneaking up for a surprise attack. Now, when these clawed kings are on the prowl, you might hear them coming. Predator awareness up!

Console

1. Fixed an issue where changing global keybinds could incorrectly affect some hero ability keys.

The Marvel Rivals universe is ever-evolving, and with Season 3.5 dropping, we have plenty more surprises and changes in store. Stay tuned to our official announcements for more!