Marvel Rivals Team-Up Rework Explained: Base vs Enhanced Effects

Team-Ups have been one of Marvel Rivals‘ defining mechanics since launch, but they also came with one catch: if your partner hero wasn’t on your team or ended up banned in Competitive, you lost access to that part of your kit. NetEase has now completely rebuilt the system, making Team-Ups a permanent gameplay mechanic instead of something that only worked under the right circumstances.

Starting Season 9, every hero will now come equipped with two selectable “team-up loadouts”, each featuring a “Base Effect” that’s always available and an “Enhanced Effect” that unlocks extra benefits when the corresponding partner joins your team. It’s easily the biggest overhaul the system has received since launch, and here’s how it all works.

How the New Team-Up System Works in Marvel Rivals

Every hero gets more options. | Image Credit: NetEase Games/YouTube

The biggest change is the removal of Team-Up Anchors. Instead of relying on another hero to unlock an ability, every Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist now permanently carries two different team-up loadouts. You can swap between them before a match from the Heroes menu or in the spawn room during a match (from the hero select screen).

Each loadout contains a Base Effect and an Enhanced Effect. The Base Effect is always available once you’ve selected that loadout, regardless of whether the corresponding hero is on your team. The Enhanced Effect, on the other hand, only activates if that specific teammate is present, and instead of unlocking the ability itself, it upgrades the Base Effect with an additional bonus.

Emma Frost, who can choose between partnering with either Luna Snow or Mantis, is a good example of how the new team-up system will work in Rivals. If you equip the Luna Snow loadout, Emma gains the Iced Out Diamond ability, allowing you to raise a wall of ice and diamond that can block incoming fire or trap an opponent. You have access to this ability whether someone picks Luna in your team or not.

But if someone on your team does lock in Luna Snow while the relevant team-up loadout is selected, Emma’s Diamond Form attacks additionally apply a 25% slowing effect through the Enhanced Effect.

Marvel Rivals’ New Approach to Team-Up Balancing

Built for long-term balance, hopefully. | Image Credit: NetEase Games/YouTube

The biggest winner from this overhaul is consistency. Under the old system, a teammate changing heroes or a key ban in Competitive could remove an entire Team-Up ability before the match even started. Now, your Base Effect stays with you regardless, while the Enhanced Effect simply becomes an added bonus if the right teammate joins your lineup.

That change also gives NetEase much more room to balance the system over time. Since every hero always has access to their chosen Team-Up ability, the developers no longer need to solve every problem by introducing new pairings or reshuffling existing ones whenever the meta shifts.

Lead Combat Designer Zhiyong confirmed exactly that in Dev Vision Vol. 19, explaining that future updates will focus more on the overall health of the system than constantly reinventing it every season:

Instead, the team plans to refine underperforming Team-Ups while ensuring every new hero launches with meaningful loadout options from day one. That is, arguably, a healthier direction for a system that now rewards good team compositions without making them a requirement to access part of your kit.

What do you think of the new Team-Up system? Is this a better direction for Marvel Rivals, or do you prefer how the original mechanic worked? Let us know in the comments below!