Marvel: Future Fight starter guide – going solo

Marvel: Future Fight is an action RPG available on iOS and Android devices that launched earlier this year. It takes place in one of the many alternate universes of the Marvel Multi-Verse, and has a storyline separate from those of the comics or the MCU — while still being somewhat connected due to time travel and dimension hopping.

As superhero based ARPGs go, this game is pretty solid and a lot of fun to play. There are, however, a lot of little things going on within the game that you’ll want to know about to get the most out of it. This guide will cover the most important basics to help you get started in the single-player portion of the game.

The Story

For the sake of not spoiling this for you — because the game does have a rather fun storyline — we’re just going to give a general plot synopsis before getting into details like game mechanics.

When the game starts out, you’ll go through a hands-on tutorial that will give you a general idea of the functions while setting up the story. You’ll have a set team of Thor, Black Panther and Black Bolt, who find themselves dealing with a mass invasion on their own. The Avengers have not been called and S.H.I.E.L.D. is conspicuously absent.

Eventually you’ll meet up with Captain America and find out that Nick Fury has sent a message…from the future. Something’s gone horribly wrong, and the Earth’s greatest heroes have failed to stop an apocalypse-by-invasion. Fury will task robot-lady Jocasta with sending the team back to before everything kicked off in an effort to fix the future. At this point, you’ll be given your primary starting team of Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow. (Sorry, the other three were just a tease. You’ll have to reacquire them later.)

The Roster

In some ways, Marvel: Future Fight has a bit of a Pokemon thing going on. Just about everyone in the Marvel Universe — including the cast of S.H.I.E.L.D and the Netflix version of Jessica Jones — is available to add to your team, and you’re going to want to get them all.

You can manage your roster — and see what Heroes are available — by tapping on the Team Icon on the bottom left corner of your screen. From here you can see who your current team is, what Heroes you have available, what their levels and Rank are, and what gear they have.

You can update your team member’s stats from here by tapping on their dossier pictures. Once in a Hero’s specific profile, you can do a variety of things:

Rank Up – Adds another Rank (Star) and increases various traits (Attack, Defense and HP) as well as your Hero’s potential max level. Certain Rank levels will also offer a new ability. Ranking Up a Hero requires two things, a resource called Biometrics and Gold. Gold is easy to come by. It’s awarded for completing missions, logging in, participating in events, and more. Obtaining Biometrics is a bit more involved. We’ll explain this in detail below.

Mastery – Like Rank, Mastery will increase your Hero’s stats. It will also offer them new abilities called Leadership Skills. These skills offer team-specific perks when activated. Mastery also requires two resources, Gold and Norn Stones — which we will explain below.

Gear – As with your Heroes, your gear can be upgraded as well. Upgrading your gear will increase a wide variety of your Hero’s stats depending on who the Hero is and what gear they have. Each Hero will have gear specific to them, but in general they will all have at least one weapon type that affects their attack stats and one armor type that impacts their defense. The other two slots will have an impact on things like speed, dodge rate, and damage, etc. The fifth slot allows you to equip special Stark Industry equipment that you will acquire from various events.

Skill – Each Hero has their own unique set of skills based on their roles and abilities in the general Marvel Universe. When you acquire a Hero, they will have two or three skills unlocked — It varies depending on who they are and what their rank is upon acquiring them. More skills will become available as you level the Hero’s Rank and Mastery.  In combat, skills are indicated by the circles in the lower right corner of your display. With the exception of the primary skill, most of these will have cooldowns you have to watch for.

ISO-8 – As you play, you’ll come across different colored stones referred to as ISO-8. These stones can be used to give your Heroes different attributes and buffs. Each stone has its own unique properties and can be made even more powerful (enhanced) by being combined with matching stones. ISO-8 enhancement and equipping take place in this window.

Uniform – Because everyone loves costumes, many of the Heroes available in Marvel: Future Fight will have alternate outfits that you can purchase. For instance. Hawkeye comes standard with his uniform from the first Avengers film, but if you want to spend some money, you can pick up his supped-up Age of Ultron uniform.

Marvel Universe

If you want an idea of what Marvel Heroes are available for you to add to your team, just click on the Marvel Universe button on the left side of the screen. You’ll be able to see a full roster of available Heroes, and also browse them by type.

Team Bonus

As you acquire more team members, you’ll find that using groups comprised of specific individuals will grant stat bonuses. On the right side of the Team screen you’ll see an icon labeled “Team Bonus”. Tap on that and it will show you lists of team groupings and what bonuses they get.

Resources

Biometrics – When you complete a mission — or some other tasks — you’ll get what are called Biometrics. These are Hero specific and can be used to upgrade the Hero’s Rank. When selecting a mission, you’ll see a Hero avatar on the bottom of the mission image. This means you will acquire Biometrics for that Hero upon mission completion. Do not worry, you don’t have to take that Hero into the mission if you don’t want to.

Be aware that if you don’t already have a specific Hero, you can use the Biometrics acquired in missions with their avatar on them to unlock them.

Norn Stones – There are four different types of Norn Stones; each one associated with one of the four Hero types. You will use these to level a Hero’s rank. Like everything else, these stones can be obtained via missions, login rewards and other events.

General Materials – As you go along you will collect a wide variety of materials that can be used to level up Hero gear. Different items will work for different types of Heroes, although there are some general items that will work for everyone.

Consumables – Early on, there are two types of consumables you’ll need to know about. The first are Clear Tickets which clear a mission if you’ve already achieved 3 stars on Story. The second are items that help you level your Hero, called EXP Chips. These are fantastic if you’ve acquired a new Hero you’d really like to use, but who isn’t high enough to play with the others. Simply tap on the item in your inventory and apply it to the Hero… Instant XP.

Building Your Team

With such a large roster of Heroes, you will eventually be able to build any team you want. That said, there are certain things you might want to take into account. The first is the Team Bonus feature mentioned above. The second is the Type Effect system.

Type Effect in Marvel: Future Fight functions a bit like Rock-Paper-Scissors. There are four Hero types: Speed, Blast, Combat and Universal. As with the RPS system — Rock > Scissors > Paper > Rock — Speed is superior to Blast, which is superior to Combat, which in turn is superior to Speed. Universal types are balanced against all other types and aren’t included in the rotation.

When you’re in combat, you’ll see a little icon over the opponent’s and your Hero’s heads indicating what types they are. Keep an eye out for those when dealing with opponents of comparative levels, because you may need to swap your Heroes out.

That said, if you’re like me, you may find one team you really like a lot — either because of their abilities or because you’re a fan of those Heroes. As long as you keep leveling them up and increasing their stats, you can keep playing them.

Right now, I have a Team consisting of Coulson as my Blast type, plus Hawkeye for Speed, and Blade for Combat. There are no bonuses for this grouping, I just dig Coulson and Hawkeye.

Going on Missions

There are several mission types available to you; however, sometimes you will have to wait until you’re a certain level to access them. Going on missions costs Energy — indicated by the lightning bolt at the top of your screen. On average, a mission will cost you 4 to 6 Energy. Starting out, you won’t have to worry much about this cost, as it’s nominal compared to what you’re bringing in.

Story Missions – These are your primary mission set and are available at the start. Going on these will unlock materials for Hero Gear, Biometrics, Stark Industry Blueprints, and more. Progressing through these will also unlock some of the other mission options.

Daily Missions – (Requires completion of Story Mission 4-1 to unlock.) Going on Daily Missions will help you earn ISO-8. The mission rewards change daily, so you should play daily.

Special Missions – Do these missions to earn Biometrics that will unlock the Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man Heroes. These ramp up in difficulty pretty quickly, so you won’t just be able to sweep in here and roll through them.

Bonus Missions – These missions will allow you to earn extra resources such as EXP Chips, Gold, Norn Stones and more.

Villain Siege (Requires completion of Story Mission 4-10 to unlock) – Stop Villains from obtaining ISO-8 in order to earn Chaos Tokens and Biometrics.

Combat

As mentioned above, combat uses a Paper-Rock-Scissors format. Other important things to note are that the combat does occur in real time, however, you are only allowed to control one team member in combat at any given time.

This doesn’t mean you’re alone. Your teammates will pop in on their own and fire off a few shots or get in a few punches here and there. You are also able to swap out your active team member whenever you want, which comes in handy if they’re getting low on health.

Best Condition

When going into combat, the game awards Heroes that are well-rested bonuses for being in their “Best Condition.” 

And there you have it, everything you need to know to get started in the game. Do keep in mind there are several other aspects of the game not covered in this particular guide, such as the social aspects or what is going on in the S.H.I.E.L.D lab, but you have everything you need to get started saving the world(s).