Venom is a Vanguard character in Marvel Rivals, and to be as impactful as possible you’ll need to understand how his abilities, ultimate, and playstyle work.
As a Vanguard in Marvel Rivals, your purpose is to be the team’s front line, allowing your Duelists to launch powerful strikes against the opponent team.
Venom is one of the strongest Vanguards in the game, having tremendous health and the ability to deliver incredible damage to enemies with his symbiote tendrils. He can also escape disputed areas with his swinging powers.
Venom stats in Marvel Rivals
- Class: Vanguard
- Health: 650
- Movement: 6 m/s
Venom is a powerful Vanguard hero in Marvel Rivals. He’s got excellent Health and good movement speed. While he can deal solid damage, he really excels at disrupting the enemy team so other Duelists can hone in for the kill.
Season 1 meta changes
After the Season 1 patch, Venom’s ultimate ability is even more powerful, and he’s also got increased survivability thanks to the Symbiotic Resilience ability. His full adjustments have been listed below:
- Symbiotic Resilience bonus health ratio gained per lost health point has increased from 1 to 1.2.
- The base damage of Feast of the Abyss (ultimate ability) has increased from 40 to 50.
Weapons
Venom’s symbiote tentacles function as a weapon, emerging as four pinpoint daggers from his body and damaging the enemy in the center. They’re most effective when used in close proximity to opponents since they deliver significant damage and quickly deplete their health.
His Dark Predation stats can be found below:
| Casting | Quad-cast delayed spell field |
| Range | 15m |
| Attack Interval | 0.9s, with a 0.1s interval between each tendril |
| Damage | 20 |
| Critical Hit | Yes |
Abilities
Thanks to his abilities, Venom can also generate Bonus Health for himself, Dash to a specific location, crawl over walls, and surprise enemies with his Ultimate.
| Ability | Details | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| Feast of the Abyss | Casting: Single-cast spell field that surrounds the casterMovement Boost: 80%Range: 7m spherical radiusMaximum Duration: 4sDamage: Inflict damage equal to 50% of the target’s health, followed by an additional 50 damageEnergy cost: 2800Special Effect: 100% of damage dealt is converted into Bonus Health | Burrow underground for free movement. After a duration or by left-clicking, devour enemies above to deal damage based on the enemy’s current health and generate equivalent Bonus Health |
| Venom Swing | Casting: DashMaximum Webbing Length: 30mCooldown: 8s | Launch webbing forward, allowing for a singular swing in the desired direction |
| Symbiotic Resilience | Casting: Instant CastCooldown: 15sSpecial Effect: Grant 100 Bonus Health and convert 100% of lost Health into Bonus Health | Generate Bonus Health against damage. The lower Venom’s Health, the greater the Bonus Health generated |
| Frenzied Arrival | Casting: TargetedMaximum Distance: 40mMinimum Distance: 3mRange: 6m spherical radiusDamage: 65 damage, with damage falloff starting at 2m from the center of the spell field and decreasing to 40% at 6mCooldown: 8s | Dash to the target location from a certain height. Upon landing, damage nearby enemies, launching them up toward the landing point |
| Cellular Corrosion | Casting: Spell field that surrounds the casterRange: 8m spherical radiusDamage: The spell field deals 5 damage, increasing to 80 damage if the target remains in the area for a durationCooldown: 8sSpecial Effect: Tendrils apply a 15% Slow on the target and take 3s to inflict damage. If the distance from Venom exceeds 11m, the tendrils will detach | Unleash tentacles to Slow enemies within reach. Enemies unable to break free in time will suffer damage |
| Alien Biology | Web-Crawling Speed: 3 m/sSprinting Speed: 9 m/s | Press Space to wall crawl, and while crawling, left-click to sprint |
| Touch of Klyntar (Passive) | Team-Up Bonus: +150 Max Health | Venom shares a part of his symbiote with Spider-Man and Peni Parker, activating their symbiote abilities. Spider-Man and Peni Parker can convert the symbiotes into explosive spikes that inflict harm on nearby enemies and relentlessly drive them back |
How play Venom in Marvel Rivals
Venom is a tank character with massive amounts of health and regeneration abilities, but that doesn’t mean you can run full DPS at your enemies and not be killed. Your objective with Venom should not be to eliminate enemies, but to disrupt the other team’s top DPS and healers so Duelists can close in and drain their health.
Because you can swing and climb walls on every map, you may flee combat with low health bars and take a moment to plan your next attack on the opposition team. Your F ability allows you to crash into a fiercely contested location, grabbing enemies with Cellular Corrosion and spamming left-click attacks on them.
While on the run, it is best to have a healer regularly heal you as you continue to disrupt your enemies with powerful tentacle attacks. Once your ultimate is recharged, take a step back to heal before burrowing underground to deliver a surprise strike on the opponent’s DPS and healers.
Venom has a learning curve, but once you’ve figured out how to wield the symbiote, he can cause some real carnage on the opposition squad.
Best team comp
In terms of the best team comps for Venom, we would recommend pairing him with the following characters:
- Spider-Man
- Peni Parker
- Luna Snow
- Mantis
Spider-Man / Peni Parker
Venom, Spider-Man and Peni Parker all work exceptionally well together in Marvel Rivals. Venom can share his symbiotic with both characters which gives them their own symbiotic abilities. They can harness these new skills to send out explosive spikes that will damage and push back enemies.
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Venom will also be benefitted with an additional 150 HP in this team comp.
Don’t forget to check out our dedicated guides for Spider-Man and Peni Parker before using this team comp.
Luna Snow / Mantis
Venom is a great damage dealer but it’s important to make sure he’s kept safe on the battlefield. This is why we would recommend teaming him up with Luna Snow and Mantis.
Both of these heroes can ensure Venom’s health stays in tact. Mantis can also provide a damage buff thanks to her Allied Inspiration ability.
You can check out the best ways to use Luna Snow and Mantis in our dedicated guides.
Best Counters
If you’re fighting a Venom and struggling to survive, we’d advise trying out these counters in Marvel Rivals:
- The Punisher (& Rocket Raccoon)
- Iron Man
The Punisher (& Rocket Raccoon)
The Punisher’s Deliverance weapon can deal excellent damage against Venom and chip away at his health. If your Punisher is accompained by a Rocket Raccoon as well you’ll be even more powerful thanks to Rocket’s ability to give Punisher infinte ammo and a faster fire rate.
We’d strongly advise making sure you’re running both heroes against a Venom for this reason.
You can check out how to play The Punisher, and Rocket Raccoon in our full guides.
Iron Man
Iron Man is particularly good at disrupting Venom’s attacks, esepically that pesky Frenzied Arrival dash. If you’re less worried about dealing massive damage, and simply want to slow Venom down, then Iron Man is a solid counter.
We’ve also got a full guide for playing Iron Man you can check out.
That’s all you need to know about Venom in Marvel Rivals. For more on the game, check out our full tier list, Twitch Drops, the best controller settings, Battle Pass details, all currencies, and the Iron Man code.