The Avengers: Age of Ultron PvE mode in Marvel Rivals drops you into a structured 11-phase gauntlet with one goal: take down Ultron. Unlike the Blood Hunt mode where multiple bosses rotate through, this entire experience builds toward two direct confrontations with the robotic tyrant himself, once at Phase 7 and again at Phase 11. The good news is that Ultron is beatable on both common and hard difficulties once you understand what he's actually doing.
What makes Ultron different from other Marvel Rivals bosses?
Ultron spends most of both fights airborne. He rarely plants himself on the ground, which immediately makes grounded heroes feel sluggish and inefficient. His attack patterns are predictable once you've seen them, but the drone waves he summons are designed to split your attention at the worst possible moments. Knowing when to chase Ultron and when to clean up his Sentry bots is the difference between a clean win and a slow, painful defeat.
Ultron's unibeam attack
How to beat Ultron in Phase 7
Phase 7 is your introduction to Ultron's kit. He arrives with 494,000 HP, which sounds like a lot, but this phase is genuinely the easier of the two encounters. Think of it as a controlled tutorial for the real fight ahead.
Early attack patterns to watch for
Ultron opens with his laser beam attack. If you see a caution symbol appear on your hero's body, you're his primary target. Move immediately using your hero's mobility option, because standing still is not a strategy here.
After the opening laser, he summons a wave of Sentry drones. This is where most teams make their first mistake: they ignore the drones and keep hammering Ultron. Don't. The Sentry bots will attack from behind and chip your health down while you're focused forward. Let a teammate hold pressure on Ultron and clear the drones first.
How does Phase 7 end?
As Ultron's health drops, he escalates to firing multiple laser beams simultaneously rather than a single targeted beam. The pattern is still readable, but the window to dodge gets tighter. His full Phase 7 attack set is: unibeam, Sentry drone summons, and multi-laser barrage. There are no hidden mechanics here. Stay mobile, clear drones when they appear, and dump your abilities into Ultron during the windows between his attacks.
Sentry drone wave inbound
How to beat Ultron in the final phase (Phase 11)
Phase 11 is a different beast. Ultron returns with 2,090,000 HP, more than four times his Phase 7 health pool. The fight is a battle of sustained output, and the stakes are higher because you also need to protect Friday from taking damage during the encounter.
Managing the arena and drone waves
The final phase follows the same structural logic as Phase 7, but Ultron leans harder on his drones to do damage while he repositions. He'll move to the far side of the arena and let his elite drones handle the pressure. Clear those drones efficiently, then get back on Ultron.
Health packs are available throughout the arena. Since there are no Strategist healers in this PvE mode, those packs are your only recovery option. Don't ignore them when your health gets low.
What happens in the endgame phase?
Once Ultron drops to roughly 25% HP, he deploys every drone in his arsenal at once. This is his most dangerous moment, and it's designed to bait you into spreading your attention. The drones fire projectiles and provide cover for Ultron while he continues attacking.
The correct call here is to dodge the projectiles and keep your damage on Ultron rather than chasing down every drone. At this HP threshold, Ultron is close to falling. When he goes down, every drone in the arena collapses with him, so chasing drones instead of finishing Ultron just extends the fight unnecessarily.
What's the best hero to beat Ultron fast?
After testing multiple heroes across both phases, Iron Man is the strongest pick for this mode. The reason comes down to Ultron's positioning: he's almost always airborne, and Iron Man can match that vertical space while maintaining consistent damage output.
Iron Man's Micro Missile Barrage ability comes with auto-lock functionality, which tears through Sentry drone waves without requiring precise targeting. This frees you to stay focused on Ultron's positioning rather than micromanaging individual drone kills.
His Invincible Pulse Cannon ultimate is one of the highest-damage abilities in the game and hits both Ultron and surrounding drones simultaneously. Saving it for the Phase 11 endgame, when Ultron is low and surrounded by his drone swarm, is the most efficient use.
The other advantage Iron Man brings is a perk that boosts damage when fighting at range. Since Ultron is airborne and you're often maintaining distance to dodge his lasers, that perk activates naturally throughout the fight.
For everything happening around this event, check out the Age of Ultron PvE event start times and what to expect before you queue in. There are also free rewards tied to the mode, including the Ultron PvE skin available for beating Hard difficulty. The full event also connects to the broader Path to Doomsday content, so if you haven't looked at how the Avengers PvP mode works, that's worth reading before the event ends.
For more tips across the full game, the Marvel Rivals strategy guides collection covers everything from hero-specific breakdowns to event walkthroughs.