Blood Hunt is a limited-time PvE event that dropped with Season 7.5 on April 23, 2026, and it runs until July 30, 2026. Think of it as the direct successor to Marvel Zombies, except NetEase has layered in a proper looter-RPG progression system on top of the wave-based combat. You pick one of six dedicated heroes, squad up with three other players, and fight through escalating waves of vampires before facing a gauntlet of bosses. The deeper you push into Nightmare difficulty, the more rewards unlock. There is a lot to unpack here.
How to access Blood Hunt in Marvel Rivals
To get into a match, open the Playlist button from the main screen, then navigate to the Rivalry tab. The Blood Hunt icon sits there waiting. Select it, choose your difficulty, and queue. That's the full access path, according to the Season 7.5 patch notes confirmed by NetEase.
Nightmare difficulty is locked at the start. You must clear Normal, Hard, and Extreme before it becomes available.
Which heroes can you play in Blood Hunt?
Six heroes are available exclusively for this mode. Each one has a mix of their standard kit and abilities tuned specifically for Blood Hunt:
- Blade
- Moon Knight
- Jeff the Land Shark
- Squirrel Girl
- The Punisher
- Thor
Duplicates are allowed, so you never have to fight over hero picks with your squad. If your whole team wants to run Blade, nothing stops you.
How to upgrade your hero before a match
This is where Blood Hunt separates itself from a simple wave shooter. Before you queue, spend time in the Hero page under the Blood Moon event tab. Three upgrade systems sit here, and understanding all of them is the difference between surviving Nightmare and getting erased.
Gear slots
Every hero has four gear slots: Weapon, Armor, Accessory, and Exclusive. Gear drops from regular enemies and bosses during matches and comes in five rarity tiers. Here is what each slot does:
Gear quality scales with your hero's level. A Jeff the Land Shark sitting at level 32, for example, has better odds of pulling Epic or Legendary items from the Forge. The Forge system lets you scrap unwanted gear into Uru Shards, then craft new items for any hero and slot combination you want. RNG is involved, and you can check the exact odds by clicking the information icon in the Forge menu.
Hero gear slot overview
Trait trees
Traits are unlocked by playing matches and earning Trait points through leveling up. Each hero has three Trait categories: one for base attribute improvements, and two dedicated to their signature abilities. Blade, for instance, has separate trees for Purging Bladedance and Silver Soulbreaker. The Punisher's trees improve his primary abilities. Every hero follows the same structure.
Arcana scrolls
Arcana points accumulate slower than Trait points, but the stat boosts are significantly larger. Four scrolls exist, tied to different progression gates:
The Scroll of Blessing and Scroll of Midas details are still being confirmed through active play. The exact bonuses will be updated once Nightmare 70 is cleared.
What bosses appear in Blood Hunt?
Four bosses appear across the mode's difficulty tiers. You won't see all of them on your first run. The roster expands as you push into higher difficulties:
- Capwolf (Normal and above)
- Ratatoskr (Hard and above)
- Dracula (Extreme and above)
- Kingpin (Extreme with challenges completed, or Nightmare)
On Extreme and Nightmare, Blood Hunt turns into a genuine gauntlet. You are fighting through all four bosses in sequence.
How to unlock Kingpin in Blood Hunt
Kingpin is a hidden boss on Extreme difficulty. He does not appear automatically. You need to complete three specific challenges during the same run, in order. Miss any one of them and he skips the encounter entirely.
Complete all three and Kingpin shows up as the final boss of the Extreme run.
How to defeat Kingpin
Kingpin made his Marvel Rivals debut in the Lower Manhattan map, and his Blood Hunt version plays like you would expect from a crime boss built like a wall. He is tanky and requires sustained damage to bring down. Two attacks deserve your attention:
- Cane strike: Briefly immobilizes you on hit. Dodge it.
- AoE explosion leap: High damage, wide area. Keep your distance when he jumps.
There are no gimmicks tied to this fight. Stay at range, focus his hitbox, and keep the pressure consistent. According to Beebom's testing, there are no special mechanics beyond managing those two attacks.
Do not stand still during Kingpin's leap. The AoE radius is wide enough to catch players who think they're safe at mid-range.
What are the Blood Hunt difficulty levels?
Four main difficulty settings exist, with Nightmare functioning as an extended ladder rather than a single tier:
- Normal: Capwolf only
- Hard: Capwolf, Ratatoskr
- Extreme: Capwolf, Ratatoskr, Dracula, and Kingpin (if challenges are completed)
- Nightmare: Full boss gauntlet, scaling from level 5 to 120+
Nightmare has at least 17 distinct stages documented so far, each one ramping up the challenge. The reward track runs all the way to Nightmare 120.
What enemies will you face?
Beyond the four bosses, the regular enemy pool includes:
- Vampires
- Exploding Vampires
- Grunt (tanky vampires)
- Crawling Vampires
- Human Bats
More enemy types are likely present at higher difficulty levels. Based on available information, the full enemy roster is still being documented through active play.
All Blood Hunt rewards
There is no free skin attached to Blood Hunt, but the reward list is extensive. Most items are collected through the Achievements section, with the Kingpin Dethroned Trophy Accessory found separately in the Overview menu. Collecting 100 Kingpin Trophy Shards unlocks that accessory.
The hero-specific titles at Nightmare 70 are worth targeting if you plan to main a particular character through the mode. Grinding to Nightmare 40 with each hero covers all the emoji rewards in one extended session.
Is Blood Hunt mode permanent?
No. Blood Hunt runs from April 23 to July 30, 2026. That gives you roughly three months to work through the full reward track. The Marvel Zombies predecessor did get extended beyond its original end date, so there is precedent for NetEase pushing the window out, but counting on that is a bad plan. Treat July 30 as the real deadline.
For more Marvel Rivals content and guides across every game mode, browse more guides on GAMES.GG.