Chapter Guide – Variant 5 – Chapter 3.2

Summoners!

Here’s my guide for Chapter 3.2 “Dark Worlds” of Variant 5 “Blood & Venom”.

General Thoughts:

This is certainly the most difficult quest in Variant 5. I used more items here than I did in the other chapters, there are some tricky puzzles to solve, and a mistake is essentially a KO.

Symbiote Supreme is next level in this quest, and unlike the previous Chapter, you’ll want to utilize the Mitosis Global Buff.

For those wondering about my rewards, my 4-to-5 5-Star Gem was a Mutant, and went to Colossus. My Awakening Gem was a Skill Gem (I have 2 now) so I’m all set when I finally pull Aegon, and I can now awaken Elsa Bloodstone if I want. My 25% Tier 5 Class Catalyst rolled over my preferred class (Cosmic) to a Mystic.


Best Champs: Symbiote Supreme, Magik, Venom, Stark Spider-Man, Venom The Duck

Restrictions: Only Mystic, #Spider-Verse Heroes, and #Symbiote champions are eligible for Variant 5.

Global Nodes:
+400% Attack & Health Champion Boost
Special 3 Active
Mitosis – Hits on this Defender grant #Symbiote Attackers an indefinite Mitosis Buff. Max Stacks: 10
Genetic Recalibration – #Symbiote Attackers that Dash Black and Hold block for 1 second consume all available Mitosis Buffs into a Genetic Calibration effect for 1 second per Buff consumed. Genetic Calibration reduces Defender ability accuracy by 1000% and increases Attacker buff duration by 100% and Heavy Attack damage by 500%.


Boss: Venom

Boss Notes:
+300% Health
Enhanced Special 2
Anamnesis
Energize 1
Buff Duration
Mystic Ward
Outlast

I tried several different options for Venom. The Energize Buff, along with his tricky SP2 means you want to bait his SP1. He’s not always in the mood to throw it, which means you can get backed into a corner quickly. Doom and Magik are solid power control options.

My best option for a quick kill turned out to be Symbiote Supreme. Bait Venom’s SP1 to get the fight going. Once you get to 3 bars of power, trigger the Mitosis Buffs (preferably while Venom is launching his SP1), then launch your SP3. Then just lay into Venom, don’t back off. With the Mitosis Buffs active, I was able to tank a SP3 from Venom and only take about 10-15% damage, so just go for it while your big damage is active. If you can get thru 2 SP3 cycles with a 5/65 Symbiote Supreme, that should be enough to take him down.

Lane 1 – Left

Gate: None

Defenders: Symbiote Supreme, Void, Hulk, Mystic Adaptoid, Iron Man, Stark Spider-Man, Medusa

Nodes: Prey on the Weak, Powerful From Afar

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Magik (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40).

Tips:

The first two fights are the trickiest. Symbiote Supreme will nullify you to death quite quickly (I found this out the hard way with Doom) so I think Magik Power-Lock is the best way to go. Void is difficult for the usual Void reasons, so go with a heavy-hitter like Sparky or Stealth Spider-Man. The rest of the fights you can pretty much use whoever you want. Personally I went with Stark Spider-Man for Iron Man, Venom for Stark Spider-Man, and Magik for Medusa. Medusa has her auto-block issue, but without the threat of being parry-stunned by it (like in Alliance War) it’s not that bad.

I used the Global Buff with Venom & Symbiote Supreme to suppress the power gain. Sometimes it was very helpful, but other times I tried a bit too hard and ended up taking a bunch of block damage. It can help you here, it just depends if you can manage to trigger it with everything else going on in the fight.

If you have Carnage or Venom The Duck ranked up, I would recommend them for this path, as well as Red Goblin. For non-Symbiotes, Sorcerer Supreme’s heal-on-block ability could be absolutely clutch here.

Lane 2 – Left Center – Hard Path

Gate: None

Defenders: War Machine, Howard The Duck, Diablo, Black Panther Civil War, Agent Venom, Wolverine,

Nodes: Mystic War, Aggression: Fury, Aggression: Regeneration

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40).

Tips: Load up on your Symbiotes for this path! You really want to rely on that Global Node to shut off the enemy Regeneration and Fury passives. Otherwise you’ll take a ton of chip damage, and the fights will just drag out forever. My non-Symbiotes weren’t very useful, besides Mephisto for Agent Venom. I used Mephisto because he can absorb a ton of damage and then heal it back, all while doing damage with his Aura. Agent Venom also shrugs debuffs so this is a way to get around that ability.

Venom and Symbiote Supreme were the keys to this lane for me. I used Venom for War Machine (it’s a tricky fight) and Howard The Duck as he had class advantage. War Machine is tough because you want to bait his Special 2, and if he starts gaining fury and launches a SP1 you’ll take a ton of chip damage.

Once I switched over to Symbiote Supreme, things went a lot smoother. He’s a stud on this lane. Activate the Mitosis Buffs right before launching your SP3 and for huge damage.

Lane 3 – Center – Easy Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Carnage, Star-Lord, Colossus, Ghost, Hyperion, Invisible Woman

Nodes: Outlast, Buff Duration

Team: Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Magik (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40).

Tips: This is a great easy path, as the nodes don’t really add any additional difficulty. Ideally you want a non-mystic bleed-champion like Venom or Venom the Duck for the Invisible Woman fight to keep her Invisibility under control, and for Hyperion you’ll want either buff nullification or power control. Carnage, Star-Lord, and Colossus are nothing to worry about.

Lane 4 – Right Center – Hard Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Dr. Strange, Thor Ragnarok, Mordo, Nova, Terrax, Mephisto

Nodes: +100% Improved Power Gain

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Magik (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40).

Tips: Your experience on this lane is going to vary based on the defender’s willingness to throw specials. I found Mordo to be particularly stingy, as is often the case with him.

Going through the fights on this lane, your best option with Doctor Strange is Power Control with either Magik (who I used) or Doctor Doom. Next is Thor Ragnarok. He’s hyper-aggressive with the specials, so as long as you don’t mess up his hit counter it’s an easy fight.

Then you have Mordo, who I tried to Power Control with Doom but eventually he got me with some SP3s so I finished the fight with Symbiote Supreme. Usually I use Stark Spider-Man vs Mordo as the Taunt Debuff is clutch. In retrospect, I wish I had Sparky on the team over Doom.

Symbiote Supreme will eat up Nova, but you can use whatever mystic you’re used to counter Nova with. I do think the Mitosis Buff helps though. With Terrax, that’s another Power Control fight, so if you have Magik, go that route, or use the Mitosis Buffs to keep his Rock Shield from activating.

Finally is Mephisto, who can eat up your items if you aren’t careful. Going forward, I think Red Goblin is the go-to for this fight, as he is an Incinerate-Immune Symbiote, which is exactly what you want. If you don’t have Red Goblin, go with a Symbiote for this fight. The reason for this is Mephisto’s regen. If you have the Mitosis buff triggered when his healing activates at 30% health remaining, he will not consume the Soul Charges and regain health. This works just like if you took Blade versus Mephisto.

Once again, I used Symbiote Supreme. I played keep-away and baited Mephisto’s SP1 (if he gets to an SP3, the fight is over) until I had 3 bars of power, activated Mitosis, SP3, then bye-bye Mephisto.

Lane 5 – Right

Gate: None

Defenders: Omega Red, Skill Adaptoid, Domino, Tech Adaptoid, Korg, OG Vision, Tech Adaptoid

Nodes: Rapid Metabolism 3

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40).

Tips:

Dragon Man is a Robot, likely making him the best option for Omega Red, but Stark Spider-Man is fine as it’s not a hard fight. Just don’t bring a champion that causes bleed. The Skill Adaptoid is easy, but then you have Domino. Stark Spider-Man put up a valiant effort but only got her to 50% health before succumbing to Critical Failures. I brought Mephisto in for the second half of the fight.

Then there is a Tech Adaptoid, and next is the other big issue for this lane, Korg. Mephisto is good for this fight as he doesn’t rely on debuffs (which expire quickly due to the node) and does much of his damage via his Passive Aura, which counts as energy damage. Unfortunately, my Mephisto was pretty beat up from the Domino fight, so I had to send Doom in to finish things. Doom is very good for this fight as he’s a tank and does some energy damage, although Korg is immune to his Shocks. Symbiote Supreme could do this fight as well, as his basic attacks don’t trigger the thorns damage from Korg’s Rock Shield, but it would likely take a very long time.

The two fights left are OG Vision, which is your usual “bait a ton of specials fight,” and a final Tech Adaptoid, which has Kang’s special attacks, so nothing to worry about there.

Recommended Videos:

Karatemike – Symbiote Supreme vs Venom Boss

Jason Voorhees – Doctor Voodoo vs Venom Boss

Karatemike – Venom vs Venom Boss

MetalSonicDude – Chapter 3 Bosses Soloed by Venom & Doom

Jump To:
Variant 5 Chapter 1.1 Guide
Variant 5 Chapter 1.2 Guide
Variant 5 Chapter 2.1 Guide
Variant 5 Chapter 2.2 Guide
Variant 5 Chapter 3.1 Guide
Variant 5 Chapter 3.2 Guide

-Dano357