Marvel Rivals Team-Ups Explained (2026): How Team-Ups Work Now

Team-ups are the abilities Marvel Rivals heroes share with a partner — Hulk with Wolverine, Iron Man with Thor, Adam Warlock with Ultron. Season 9 tore the old system down on 10 July 2026, and most of what older guides say about anchors, "needing both heroes" and seasonal rotation is now wrong. This guide explains how team-ups work since then, quoting NetEase's patch notes and balance posts where they say it and a dated press walkthrough where they don't, and lists every team-up NetEase changed in Season 10.5. Team-ups are retuned every season, so the numbers here have a shelf life — the date is on every one.

What changed in Season 9

Season 9 went live on 10 July 2026 at 09:00 UTC. Its patch notes were brief about the headline feature: "The Team-Up System is receiving a massive, ground-up revamp!" and "We are introducing a plethora of brand-new Team-Up Abilities to shake up the meta." For the mechanics the notes sent players to the official website, and the balance post to NetEase's Team-Up Ability showcase videos.

The balance post of 6 July 2026 says more about what the revamp did to the heroes. NetEase "conducted a comprehensive balance pass on every single hero based on the new Team-Up system", and some heroes "synergized so incredibly well with the new Team-Up system that they became utterly overpowered", so their base numbers came down to keep them fair "especially when paired with their Team-Up partner". The same post removed the old anchor perks one by one, in lines such as:

• "Remove the Team-Up Anchor 100 Bonus Health."
• "Remove Team-Up Anchor bonus 5% Damage Boost."

Before Season 9, the hero who "anchored" a team-up got a passive bonus just for having the partner in the team. That bonus no longer exists; the value now sits in the abilities themselves.

Base effect and enhanced effect

NetEase's text never sets out the new rules in one place, so here is how the system is described — and how NetEase's own posts confirm it. Beebom's Season 9 walkthrough (11 July 2026) explains that heroes "can now freely use their respective team-up on the battlefield even if their required partner isn't on the team", and that "every team-up ability also gets a base effect and an enhanced effect": the base effect is yours alone, and if the partner hero is on your team, "the team-up's enhanced effect is automatically applied".

NetEase's balance posts use exactly that structure. In the Season 10.5 post (6 October 2026), The Thing's team-up with Invisible Woman has a separate line, "Enhanced Effect: Reduce the damage threshold required to trigger healing from 150 to 125"; Jubilee's new team-up with Blade starts "Base Effect: Continuously provide 15/s of healing to surrounding allies"; and Adam Warlock's enhanced healing with Ultron applies "while the Team-Up is active".

"Partner needed", rotation and "two per hero" are from Beebom's walkthrough of 11 July 2026; the anchor removal and the Base Effect / Enhanced Effect labels are from NetEase's balance posts.

Choosing and swapping your team-up

According to the same walkthrough, "every hero in the roster is getting two new team-up abilities", and "players can pre-select the preferred team-up ability for their character in the hero menu before queuing a match". During a match you "head to the nearest spawn room and swap the team-up mid-game". Some team-ups are passive and "do not require any activation"; the rest go on a key you press to activate. NetEase's notes reflect the choice in their wording: every change reads "When selecting the Team-Up with" a named partner.

Season 10.5 shows the two-per-hero design in action. Hawkeye appears twice in its balance post — once for his team-up with Psylocke and once with Cloak & Dagger — and Gambit turns up both as Cyclops's partner and with his own team-up with Jubilee. Which one you pick decides whose presence upgrades your ability.

1. Pick in the hero menu before you queue.

   Choose the team-up whose base effect helps you most, because the partner isn't guaranteed.

2. Check your team after hero select.

   If the partner for your other team-up is in the team, its enhanced effect may be worth more.

3. Swap at a spawn room when the comp changes.

   After a hero swap on either side, walk back and change it rather than playing a fight down.

How many team-ups there are

Beebom counted 104 team-up abilities when Season 9 launched — 26 for Vanguards, 54 for Duelists and 24 for Strategists — two for each of the 52 heroes in the game in July 2026. NetEase hasn't published its own total. Two heroes have joined since: The Hood (a Vanguard, 7 August 2026) and Gorr the God Butcher (a Duelist, 11 September 2026), which brings the roster to 54 heroes. Their team-ups came after that count, so treat 104 as a July 2026 figure, not today's total.

Every team-up NetEase changed in Season 10.5

The Season 10.5 balance post (6 October 2026, for the update of 9 October) changed eleven team-ups. Each change applies when the first hero selects the team-up with the partner named.

Team-up	What changed
Hulk + Wolverine	Furious state: attack speed boost 20% → 25%, movement speed boost raised to 25%; Unstoppable health threshold 300 → 400 and cooldown 60 s → 45 s
Magneto + Emma Frost	Magnetic projection damage 45% → 50%, duration 5 s → 6 s
The Thing + Invisible Woman	Unbreakable Forces cooldown 20 s → 15 s; Enhanced Effect: healing threshold 150 → 125 damage
Cyclops + Gambit	Kinetic Kin duration 6 s → 8 s
Hawkeye + Psylocke	Psionic Arrow single-shot damage 32 → 33
Hawkeye + Cloak & Dagger	Moonlit Slash now also heals Hawkeye for the healing it deals
Iron Man + Thor	Unibeam outer ring damage 70 → 80 per second (Thunder Overdrive version 85 → 90)
Phoenix + Hela	Ability cooldown 12 s → 10 s
Adam Warlock + Ultron	Cosmic Cluster healing 16 → 18; Enhanced Effect: explosion field healing 5 → 7
Gambit + Jubilee	Sparkling Staff duration 1.5 s → 2 s
Jubilee + Blade	New Base Effect: 15 healing per second to nearby allies for 6 s during Vampiric Kin

All eleven were buffs or new effects; the same post also nerfed heroes, but that is hero balance, not the team-up system. Read it as a snapshot: the next balance post will move these numbers again.

Team-ups in ranked: bans, partners and hero pools

From Gold III up, each team bans three heroes, so up to six heroes are out of a Competitive match before anyone picks (NetEase raised it from two per team in Season 7). That makes the base effect the part you can count on: a ban can take your partner away, but not your team-up. Three habits follow:

• Value the base effect first. In solo queue the partner may be banned, unpicked or on the other team.
• Plan pairs with your party. In a duo or a party, agreeing on a pair makes the enhanced effect something you can plan around — Celestial and above allows only solo or duo queue.
• Keep two or three heroes per role. With six bans a match, a pool that deep keeps both a hero and a useful team-up available. Our hero bans guide covers the ban phase.

What to watch for in Season 11

NetEase has posted each balance post a few days before the season it covers: 6 July for Season 9 (10 July), 8 September for Season 10 (11 September) and 6 October for Season 10.5 (9 October). Season 11 starts on 13 November 2026, the date on NetEase's Season 10.5 roadmap, so expect the next round of team-up changes in the days before. When it lands, check three things: whether your hero's two team-ups changed, whether a new hero brings team-ups with heroes you play, and whether a buff makes a pair worth planning around in your party. Our Season 11 guide covers what the reset does to your rank.

Getting more out of team-ups

Team-ups reward planning: knowing which pair your comp can support and when to walk back and swap. That is coaching territory — a Celestial+ coach works through team-ups, ultimate timing and hero pools with you, on your own account. Marvel Rivals orders open soon — get the launch alert on the Marvel Rivals hub.

• Learn the pairs: 1-on-1 coaching, live on voice or on your replays.
• Plan an enhanced effect: a pro teammate in your party, from an account inside the game's party range for your rank.
• A rank to reach: the rank boost with the heroes you name — read the safety guide first, because boosting conflicts with NetEase's rules.

Related guides: hero bans explained · Season 11 and the rank reset · Marvel Rivals ranks explained