Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt Guide

Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt is the second PvE mode in the game's history, arriving April 23 as part of the Season 7.5 update. It is vampire-themed, story-driven, and: judging by the dev trailer: considerably more ambitious than the Halloween Zombie Mode that preceded it. NetEase is calling it the "next chapter" of Marvel Rivals PvE. Whether it earns that title or quietly disappears like all seasonal content eventually does is, frankly, not their problem right now.

The mode drops exactly one week after Season 7.5 itself launches on April 17. Creative Director Guangyun "Guangguang" Chen confirmed the mode is arriving earlier than originally planned. How delightful. NetEase clearly believes in rewarding their players with suffering on an accelerated schedule.

Blood Hunt launches April 23, 2026. Four boss battles. Hero trait progression. A new loot system. Dracula with a stolen magic stone. You asked for PvE content: here it is, neck and all.

The Story: Blame Spider-Man

The narrative of Blood Hunt PvE mode flows directly from Season 7 events. Spider-Man and Black Cat pulled off a vault heist to free captured heroes from Kingpin's prison. Heroic. Admirable. Also catastrophically stupid, because Kingpin, being the obsessive control freak he is, had been secretly keeping Dracula locked up since his defeat in Season 1.

Spidey's jailbreak inadvertently set the Lord of Eternal Night loose. Dracula, never one to waste a good opportunity, immediately swiped a Norn Stone from Kingpin's collection on his way out. Armed with reality-warping magic and an eternal grudge, he is now unleashing vampire hordes on New York. The city will survive, of course. It always does. But at what cost to your sanity over four boss fights: that remains to be seen.

In a delicious twist, Kingpin: the man whose vault security failed spectacularly: may now be teaming up with the heroes to fix the mess. Perhaps he will need convincing first. Perhaps "convincing" involves punching him until he cooperates. No formal confirmation yet, but the creative director strongly implied it. Expect moral complexity served with a side of blunt trauma.

Playable Characters

NetEase has not released an official roster for Blood Hunt characters. They have, however, shown splash art during Dev Vision Vol. 16, which makes speculation trivially easy. The following characters are strongly implied:

• Blade
• Spider-Man
• Black Cat
• Thor
• The Punisher
• Squirrel Girl
• Jeff The Land Shark
• Black Panther
• Captain America
• White Fox

Blade's inclusion requires no explanation: a vampire-themed mode without the Daywalker would be an insult to the entire genre. Spider-Man is present because this catastrophe is his fault. The Punisher and Jeff the Land Shark are present because, apparently, the apocalypse has a diverse hiring policy.

Like the Zombie Mode before it, each character will feature unique abilities redesigned for PvE. The exact nature of these reworked powers remains undisclosed. Expect the usual pattern: familiar moves that behave differently enough to force you to relearn everything you know, at the worst possible moment.

This is where Blood Hunt separates itself from the Zombie Mode template. Marvel Rivals hero traits are a new progression mechanic: bonuses that unlock and scale as difficulty increases across the four boss stages. They add build depth to what might otherwise be a straightforward wave-clearing exercise. How meaningful these choices actually are will become apparent on April 23. Do not hold your breath.

The Blood Hunt loot system rewards repeated runs: a deliberate design choice to keep players engaged well beyond a single clear. Artifacts, cosmetics, and Battle Pass progression all flow through successful runs. If you were planning to clear it once and move on, NetEase has other ideas.

Is Blood Hunt Permanent?

NetEase has not confirmed whether Blood Hunt permanent mode is the plan. History, however, offers a useful data point. The Zombie Mode launched as a limited seasonal event during Halloween 2025, proved wildly popular, got extended multiple times, and was eventually removed anyway because that is the natural lifecycle of live-service content.

Creative Director Guangguang explicitly framed Blood Hunt as the "next chapter" of Marvel Rivals PvE: implying a roadmap that extends beyond a single event. Combined with the Path to Doomsday event tying Marvel Rivals content to the MCU through the end of 2026, the studio appears genuinely committed to PvE as an ongoing pillar. They might rotate modes. They might expand them. They might also quietly retire the whole thing in two months. All options remain open.

The safest assumption: play it while it is available. Seasonal content in live-service games does not wait for you to feel ready.

For those who survived the Halloween 2025 Zombie Mode: or those who missed it and require context: here is a direct comparison of what Blood Hunt is bringing to the table relative to its predecessor.