NetEase Games has announced Parker Robbins, better known as The Hood, as the next Vanguard for Marvel Rivals. The character arrives with Season 9.5, which launches on Friday, August 7.
The reveal came through Dev Vision Vol. 20 and a gameplay reveal trailer, both published on August 4. Dot Esports reports the character has been expected since Season 9, when Jubilee shipped with a team-up ability tied to him, and that the two videos gave players their first close look at the hero.
How The Hood plays
The Hood shifts between human and demon states. In his base form he fights on the frontline with pistols while supporting teammates with shields. Entering a half-demon state transforms his arms into rapid-fire demonic rifles.
The gameplay trailer showed two shield types. The first is a deployable rectangular barrier that blinds enemies passing through it. The second is a bubble The Hood casts on himself, which the trailer showed absorbing the damage of Namor's Ultimate.
His Ultimate pushes him into a full demon state, mutating him into a turret-like form that fires high-impact piercing rounds through shields while granting bonus health to allies. Used in mid-air alongside his movement ability, the Ultimate can create a floating turret.
A smaller install
Season 9.5 also carries storage work. NetEase said the update reduces the game's overall file size by around 40GB on PC and around 15GB on PlayStation 5 and Xbox, without sacrificing visual fidelity.
The developer noted that because the update repackages game assets, the Season 9.5 download itself is larger than usual even though the final installed size is lower. Marvel Rivals previously addressed install size in Season 8, when it added the option to uninstall high-resolution textures, a change that saved around 43GB on PC.
Season 9.5 also brings another batch of summer skins, covering Star-Lord, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Storm, Black Cat and Magik.
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