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.
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:
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.