Best Blade Build in Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt: Traits, Gear, Arcana, and More

Blade was the character to run during the Zombies mode in Marvel Rivals. Fast, aggressive, and built for exactly the kind of close-quarters chaos that mode encouraged. Blood Hunt, however, has proved to be a completely different story. The mode’s higher difficulties punish melee-heavy builds especially hard, and Blade has felt that shift more than most.

That said, “near the bottom of the hero tier list” and “incapable of solo-clearing the highest Nightmare difficulties” are two very different things. The right build can turn a rough matchup into a smooth run, and plenty of Blade fans are already proving it. Here is exactly how to set him up.

Best Gear for Blade in Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt

Staying close to enemies in higher Nightmare difficulties is almost a guaranteed death sentence. The same logic that pushed us toward a ranged build for Moon Knight applies here too, and it leads to what the community has affectionately started calling the “Gun Blade” build. Or, as some have shortened it: just “Gun.”

Here’s a quick overview of the recommended gear for this build:

SlotItemBase Effects

Weapon	Breathing Gun	Hunter’s Shotgun primary bullet base damage +539; sub-bullet base damage +120
Armor	Runic Armor	Health +X; Armor Value +X
Accessory	Alchemy Amulet	Critical Hit Rate +X%; Block Rate +X%
Exclusive	Phoenix Force Fire	Hunter’s Shotgun firing frequency +330%; magazine capacity +90

For the Extended Effects on your Weapon, Accessory, and Exclusive, follow this priority order:

• Precision Damage
• Critical Hit Rate
• Critical Damage
• Exorcism Round Enhancement
• Heart of the Hunter Enhancement
• Silver Barrage Enhancement
• Total Damage Bonus
• Total Output Boost
• Precision Rate

For the Runic Armor specifically, prioritize Health % > Healing Rune Charge Slots > flat Health > Armor Value.

As always, the end goal here is having a Level 60 Legendary-rarity item on each of the four slots, with as much Precision Damage stacked across your Extended Effect rolls as the RNG allows. And if Precision Rate being this low on the list looks wrong to you, hold that thought until the Tips & Tricks section, where it’ll make a lot more sense.

Best Traits for Blade in Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt

Blade’s Ability Traits are split into two trees: Purging Bladedance on the left and Silver Soulbreaker on the right. This build is almost entirely on the right, with one single pickup from the left tree for his dash.

General Traits

Work toward maxing out these in order from top to bottom of the tree:

• Damage Bonus
• Output Amplification #1
• Primary ATK Speed
• Output Amplification #2
• Primary DMG Bonus
• Precision Rate
• Precision Damage
• Precision Damage Multiplier

As with every build in Blood Hunt, treat this list as a strong default rather than a rigid ruleset.

For example, if your gear rolls are already giving you solid Precision Rate numbers, pulling a point or two from that trait and putting it into Percentage Max Health or Damage Reduction is a reasonable call before attempting, say, a Nightmare 160 run.

Ability Traits

For the Silver Soulbreaker tree, here is the exact point allocation for this build (anything not listed stays at zero):

• Reap [3/3]
• Silver Barrage [1/3]
• Warm-Up [3/3]
• Merciless [1/1]
• Deliverance [1/3]
• Exorcism Round [3/3]
• Heart of the Hunter [3/3]
• Hunter’s Resolve [3/3]
• Unbound Awakening [1/1]

Outside of the above, grab “Swift Severance” [1/1] from the Purging Bladedance tree. It reduces the cooldown on your dash, which is the only real escape tool this build has when enemies get too close.

Best Arcana for Blade in Marvel Rivals Blood Hunt

In the Arcane Realm menu, max out Scroll of Conquest (Total Output Boost +125% at 5/5) and Scroll of Immortality (Health +750 at 5/5) before spending anything on the remaining two.

Scroll of Blessing and Scroll of Midas do make finding quality gear slightly easier, so put effort into those once the first two are fully capped.

For Common Arcana cards that you will pick up after each phase during a run, target these on the offensive side (in this order of priority):

• Lethal Strike: Total Damage Bonus +X%
• Boss Hunter: X% bonus damage against bosses
• Deep Freeze: Dealing damage has a 3% chance to freeze enemies for 0.5s. Frozen enemies explode on defeat.

On the defensive side:

• Iron Body: Gain X% Health Bonus.
• Indomitable: Gain X% Damage Reduction.

Blood Hunt Gun Blade Build: Tips & Tricks

The loop here is straightforward once you understand the two traits driving it:

• The core of this build is the Exorcism Round ability trait, which replaces Blade’s secondary fire (Scarlet Shroud) with heavy, slow-travelling silver bullets that pierce through enemies and deal massive damage. These are your main damage tools against bosses and grouped hordes alike.
• Heart of the Hunter is the trait that makes Precision Rate a lower gear priority. It grants a boost to your Precision Rate and Block Rate for every 200 primary rounds fired, and with the Phoenix Force Fire Exclusive massively increasing your firing frequency, you hit that 200-round threshold faster than you’d expect.
• The gameplay loop is therefore: keep your primary fire going constantly to stack Heart of the Hunter charges, and spam Exorcism Rounds on your secondary at every opportunity to cover as much space as possible with piercing silver bullets. Both work together, and once Heart of the Hunter is stacking consistently, nearly every hit becomes a Precision Hit regardless of how little Precision Rate you rolled on your gear.
• The above is also why maxing Precision Damage on your gear matters so much. With Heart of the Hunter keeping your Precision Rate high, the actual damage value of each Precision Hit is where all your investment should be going. More Precision Damage, more output, simple as that.

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Here is our full Blade build at a glance:

CategoryPriority Picks

Weapon	Breathing Gun (Precision DMG > Crit Rate > Crit DMG > Exorcism Round Enhancement)
Armor	Runic Armor (Health% > Healing Rune Slots > Health > Armor Value)
Accessory	Alchemy Amulet (Precision DMG > Crit Rate > Crit DMG > Heart of the Hunter Enhancement)
Exclusive	Phoenix Force Fire (Exorcism Round > Heart of the Hunter > Silver Barrage Enhancement)
Key Ability Traits	Exorcism Round, Heart of the Hunter, Hunter’s Resolve, Warm-Up, Unbound Awakening
Arcana	Lethal Strike > Boss Hunter > Deep Freeze / Iron Body > Indomitable

And finally, a few things worth clarifying about the build:

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Are you maining Blade in Blood Hunt despite the meta, and has the Gun build changed how the mode feels for you? Or is there a completely different approach you’ve been running that’s working just as well? Let us know in the comments below!