NetEase Games officially announced Parker Robbins, The Hood, as the next Vanguard in Marvel Rivals coming with Season 9.5. The new hero comes alongside reduced file sizes across all platforms and a fresh batch of summer skins.
The Hood has been known to be the next Marvel Rivals character since Season 9, as Jubilee already has a team-up with him. In the Dev Vision Vol. 20 and the gameplay reveal trailer on Aug. 4, NetEase gave us a closer look at the upcoming demon.
The Hood ignites the battle
Parker Robbins shifts between the human and demon states. He fights on the frontline with his pistols while supporting teammates with shields. The Hood can then enter the half-demon state, transforming his arms into rapid-fire demonic rifles.
“When The Hood’s Demonic Energy reaches critical point, his inner demon bleeds through, entering half-demon state.”
Guangguang
The gameplay trailer showed two types of shields. One is a deployable rectangular barrier that blinds enemies passing through it. The second is a bubble that The Hood casts on himself – capable of tanking the damage of Namor’s Ultimate.
By using his Ultimate, The Hood enters a full demon state, mutating into a turret-like abomination. He fires high-impact piercing rounds that go through shields, all while granting bonus health to allies. You can even use the Ultimate mid-air when paired with his movement ability to create a floating turret.
Reduced file size and more summer skins
In Season 8, Marvel Rivals added the ability to uninstall high-resolution textures, saving around 43 GB of space on PC. With Season 9.5, NetEase brings more storage optimizations without sacrificing visual fidelity, reducing the overall file size by around 40 GB on PC and around 15 GB on PS5/XBOX.
The developer highlighted that because the update repackages assets, the Season 9.5 update is larger than usual, but the final game size will be lower. Season 9.5 launches on Friday, Aug. 7, and also brings another batch of summer skins, featuring Star-Lord, Winter Soldier, Scarlet Witch, Storm, Black Cat, and Magik.
