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

Summoners!

Here’s my guide for Chapter 3.1 “Shadow Army” of Variant 5 “Blood & Venom”.

General Thoughts:

Quest 5 of Variant 5 shifts the focus to Symbiote Champions. There are 4 lanes, with an obvious Easy Path featuring Life Transfer for those going for just an initial completion. It felt like the difficulty level did increase slightly, but these are still fair fights with plenty of solutions.

The Global Nodes are designed to buff Symbiote champions. Symbiote champions gain Mitosis Buffs by hitting the defender. These Mitosis buffs can then be activated by dashing back and holding block for 1 second to consume the buffs. This activates a Genetic Calibration effect, lasting 1 second per buff consumed. This reduces Defender ability accuracy by 1000% and increases Attacker buff duration by 100% and Heavy Attack damage by 500%.

While I can see some uses for this Global, I have to be honest that I ignored it completely as I found it wasn’t needed at all.

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

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: Symbiote Spider-Man

Boss Notes:
+300% Health
Spry
The Best Defense… 3
Energize
Kinetic Transference – 1
Limber

Your experience with this boss fight is largely going to be determined by whether or not you have Venom. If you do, it’s an easy solo. Since you don’t have to worry about evades, just power cycle Symbiote Spider-Man to his SP2, bait, punish, and repeat. The Energize node is actually very helpful to the player, as it keeps feeding Symbiote Spidey additional power.

If you don’t have Venom, this can be a rough fight as you’ll take a lot more chip damage and may open yourself up to evades and the issue of Spider-Man’s tricky SP1. I think the next best options are power control champs like Magik and Doom. This Spider-Man can only activate his evade after a special, at least that ability can be kept in check. This will open you up to much more Chip Damage, and you’ve only got a limited amount of Stuns to play with because of Limber. Solos with both Doom and Magik are linked at the bottom of this guide.


Lane 1 – Left – Hard Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Quake, Ghost, Yondu, Captain America World War 2, Elektra, Nebula

Nodes: Limber, Flux Dispersal (Entire Path)

Team: Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Ghost-Rider (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20)

Tips: This might be the most difficult node combination so far, as it requires you to throw Heavy attacks to keep your regular damage up, but restricts the amount of Parry/Stuns you can inflict during the fight. This can be pretty punishing if you try to play into the node, and baiting Heavy Attacks will result in a lot of chip damage.

I found it was much easier to simply ignore the Flux Dispersal node. The damage reduction only applies to hits, not other sources of damage like Debuffs and Passive Effects. So look for champions in your roster that can stack a lot of Debuffs for this lane, and don’t even worry about the damage reduction on your normal hits.

Quake is the most difficult fight on this path, largely because on top of the nodes, she’ll throw damage back at you if you hit into her block, making power-cycling for openings even more punishing. This was the one fight I used Stark Spider-Man for. I relied on his SP2, getting to 10 Poise charges and setting it up with a Parry & Heavy to clear the Flux Dispersal charges for max damage.

After Quake, I relied on two champs, Mephisto and Symbiote Supreme for the rest of the fights. Mephisto has a Passive Incinerate that you can keep active the entire fight by launching a SP3 and draining 2 bars of power from the opponent, and then you can stack additional Auras via the SP2. Adding Ghost-Rider to the team increases Incinerate damage by 70%, so he’s pretty much a must-bring for synergy purposes.

I found Symbiote Supreme to be even faster than Mephisto, especially because I was running Max Deep wounds. Play the normal Symbiote Supreme method of getting to an SP3, then stack as many Bleed Debuffs as you can while Set’s Fangs is active. I was ending fights after the second SP3. If you are counting on Symbiote Supreme as your main champ for this lane, make sure you have a different option available for Nebula, since she is Bleed-Immune.

Other champions that could be good options for this lane are Longshot, Sasquatch, Claire Voyant, and Doctor Doom. Mojo might work, provided you can get him ramped-up, which may be tricky with Limber and Quake as the first fight.

Lane 2 – Left Center

Gate: None

Defenders: Spider-Man, M.O.D.O.K., Nova, Tigra, Black Widow Deadly Origin, Wasp

Nodes: Spry, The Best Defense…1 (Entire Path)

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Stealth Suit Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 0)

Tips: The nodes don’t have a huge impact on the fights here. Arguably, the biggest issue is chip damage, particularly for the M.O.D.O.K. fight, and a lack of True Strike options due to the roster restrictions. Still, this is pretty manageable.

For Spider-Man, hopefully you can start things off with Venom (or Red Goblin now) for an easy warm up fight. M.O.D.O.K. is a bit of a pain, as without True Strike you’re going to be in a constant Parry/Heavy rotate and taking a lot of chip damage. I tried Stealth Spider-Man for the class advantage, but he’s too brittle. I ended up going with Doctor Doom to finish the fight.

I brought Symbiote Supreme for the Nova fight, but he’s really susceptible to any Mystic that can nullify and it keeps his Auto-Block in check. Tigra can be an issue because her specials go Unblockable and take up so much of the screen, particularly her SP2. I recommend going with a power control option (I used Doom) and baiting her SP1 to be safe.

Black Widow Deadly Origin only has evade following her SP1, so if you can force her to the SP2 you won’t even have to worry about it. As long as you can keep her in the SP2 rotation or power-locked, it’s a simple fight. Last up is Wasp, and this is just a regular Wasp fight. Parry and only attack her while stunned until you can get her to throw an SP1 and put her Auto-Evade on cooldown. Once you get into the rotation this fight goes quickly, especially if you have a big damage dealer like one of the Spider-Man champions.

For champions I didn’t bring, I think Venom the Duck could be a good option as he can regen some of the chip damage, and Magik would be good for the Tigra fight as a power control option.

Lane 3 – Right Center – Easy Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Mutant Adaptoid, Black Widow, Dormammu, Emma Frost, Blade, Guillotine 2099

Nodes: Life Transfer, Psychic Thorns 1 (Entire Path)

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

Tips: Life Transfer is always the Easy Path, right? This proves to be no exception to that rule. You don’t really have to worry about Psychic Thorns as Life Transfer more than makes up for any damage you’ll take. I only used two champions for the path – Stark Spider-Man and Doctor Doom, and then Venom for the boss.

The Mutant Adaptoid is an easy fight to start things off. It has Juggernaut’s SP1 and Red Magneto’s SP2, so you’re much safer baiting the SP1. I used Stark Spider-Man for the class advantage matchup. I then switched over to Doctor Doom for Black Widow (watch her evade as always) and Dormammu. Without the safe Dormammu counters like Blade and Hulk Ragnarok, I think the best option to deal with Dormammu is power control. You don’t want to be baiting specials and dealing with Dormammu’s degen on top of the Life Transfer. Doom worked great, but Magik might actually be a safer option.

Then I switched back to Stark Spider-Man for the final three fights, which are all pretty standard fights for the given opponents. As long as you can deal with the reverse controls on Emma’s SP1 your fine, Blade is straightforward, and with Guillotine 2099 you just have to keep disabling the Digi-cloak with your heavy. If you can manage to get to an SP2, Sparky will do double damage because she is a robot. That being said, I think you can pretty much use anyone for all these fights, with the exception of the Dormammu match-up.

Lane 4 – Right

Gate: None

Defenders: Sentinel, Namor, Warlock, Night Thrasher, Luke Cage, Mysterio

Nodes: Backup Recovery, Redoubled Determination

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

Tips: This is a great lane for Stark Spider-Man, because of the Robots, and for power control champions like Doctor Doom and Magik.

These are pretty standard fights for the given defenders, you just have to worry about the extra power burst from the Backup Recovery when they hit 50% health. This is where Power Control can really help you. I prefer to make sure they are at low power when I push them under 50% health just to be safe. Damage Over Time Debuffs can be a little dangerous because you have less control over when you cross that health threshold. This got me in trouble when I took Symbiote Supreme versus Night Thrasher and I ended up eating a SP3.

Make sure you have an option for Mysterio so you can shut down his helmet. Spider-Verse champions can do this, or someone with an Armor Break in their kit, like Venom.

Recommended Videos:

M. Umar – Doctor Doom vs Symbiote Spider-Man Solo

Pedrof6 – Magik vs Symbiote Spider-Man Solo

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

Summoners!

Here’s my guide for Chapter 2.2 “Underground Blade” of Variant 5 “Blood & Venom.”

General Thoughts:

I thought this was the easiest quest in Variant 5 so far. I was able to clear every path without using any items, which is a big plus. There are some fun ways to play around with the nodes that I will get into in the individual path breakdowns.


Best Champs: Doctor Doom, Mephisto, Symbiote Supreme, Venom, Stark Spider-Man

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

Global Nodes:
+400% Attack & Health Champion Boost
Special 3 Active
Arcane Torrent – For each buff on the defender, Mystic Attackers gain:
+25% Ability Accuracy
+10% Attack
+25% Bleed Debuff Duration
+25% Armor Break Debuff Duration
+10% Power Rate


Boss: Storm

Boss Notes:
+300% Health
Adaptive
Arc Overload 2.2
Aspect of Evolution
Burden of Might
Bleed Vulnerability

Storm is pretty tanky, and with Burden of Might you’re not going to be able to throw as many specials as usual. While it may take a while, it’s still just an OG Storm that you have to out-damage here. As long as you don’t get bored dodging her specials a million times you’re golden.

While I tried testing out some Bleed champs to take advantage of the node, I actually found Doctor Doom was getting me the fastest KOs. Mephisto also performed quite well in this fight. Claire Voyant does really well in this matchup, but I didn’t have her ranked-up.


Lane 1 – Left – Easy Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Mr. Fantastic, Tech Adaptoid, Ultron, Mystic Adaptoid, Rocket Raccoon, Magneto House of X, Tech Adaptoid

Nodes: Adaptive, Enhanced Abilities, Recharge (All Fights)

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

Tips: This is a really fun path, especially if you play into the Recharge Node. My favorite tactic was holding block to shoot up to a SP2 for Stark Spider-Man or SP3 for Symbiote Supreme for instant big damage.

The defenders on this path are fairly simple. Mr. Fantastic and Ultron have their usual evade to worry about, and you’ll likely want a non-metal champ for Magneto House of X (although Doom did do fine for me here). Other than that, these are very simple and rewarding fights!

Lane 2 – Left Center – Easy Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Rhino, Vulture, Skill Adaptoid, Magneto House of X, Tech Adaptoid,

Nodes: Aspect of Evolution, Bleed Vulnerability (Rhino), Adaptive, Enhanced Abilities, Recharge (Vulture-Tech Adaptoid)

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Mojo (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60)

Tips: This is another Easy Path, and you can use your experience from the Left Path here, as other than Rhino, Recharge is active and there are several duplicate fights. For Rhino your best best is playing into the Bleed Vulnerability node with someone like Venom or Venom the Duck. Once again, not really much to plan for here and you can just enjoy smashing the opponents with lots of specials.

Lane 3 – Center

Gate: None

Defenders: Rhino, Civil Warrior, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Angela

Nodes: Aspect of Evolution, Bleed Vulnerability (Entire Path)

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Mojo (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60)

Tips: Honestly, if you’re comfortable with switching Nightcrawler, this is yet again another quick and easy path. I used Venom for the first two fights, and he just mows down Rhino and Civil Warrior. I then had Sparky to take down Nightcrawler, and brought in the Symbiote Supreme for a mystic bleeder vs Phoenix and Angela. These were all fast fights, it was great. If you don’t have Venom, try Venom the Duck, and Claire Voyant, Guillotine, and Longshot are also great options in place of Symbiote Supreme.

Lane 4 – Right Center – Hard

Gate: None

Defenders: Vision Age of Ultron, Squirrel Girl, Mr. Sinister, Ronin, Venom The Duck

Nodes: Arc Overload 2.2, Pessimist, Optimist (All Fights)

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Magik (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Guillotine (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 120)

Tips: Calling this the “Hard Path” is all relative, but the rest of this quest is pretty easy and Mr. Sinister is clearly the toughest matchup you’ll face in 2.2.

This is a regen path with the Arc Overload, so you can either prevent the buff, reverse the healing, or simply out-damage it. For Vision I went the out-damage route, because Sparky’s SP2 does double damage vs Robots. Venom took out Squirrel Girl, Ronin, and Venom The Duck. I relied on his SP1 to eat the regen buff, which also had the nice benefit of healing Venom as well.

Mr. Sinister is tricky because he heals so much and there aren’t a ton of great heal-block or heal-reversal options available. This is further complicated by the fact that a lot of the champions deal debuffs they aren’t immune to, which further limits the pool, and takes Guillotine out of the running for heal-reversal.

What I ended up doing is going in with Magik, and alternating between SP2 (power control) and SP1 to nullify the Regen Buff, which was slow going but was working until I just messed up. I then finished the fight with Doom, being careful to place only Shock, not Incinerate, Debuffs.

I would like to see how a ranked-up Claire Voyant does on this fight, as she could be the best counter. I also think Sasquatch could be an interesting option for this path.

Lane 5 – Right

Gate: None

Defenders: Vision Age of Ultron, Red Guardian, Doctor Voodoo, Doctor Octopus, Ronan, Nick Fury, Hulk Ragnarok

Nodes: Arc Overload 2.2, Pessimist, Optimist (Vision Age of Ultron), Power Shield, Burden of Might, Power Efficiency (Red Guardian-Hulk Ragnarok)

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Ghost Rider (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 20 ), Mojo (5-Star Rank 4 Sig 20)

Tips: The combination of Power Shield and Burden of Might creates an interesting interaction. You need to throw specials, but your power is constantly being drained. Doctor Doom is able to counter this decently well with his power steal and debuffs.

The best option I found, however, was Mephisto. Mephisto has a natural, passive power gain, which is triggered by his Aura of Incinerate. So I brought in my Rank 5 Mephisto along with Symbiote Supreme and Ghost-Rider for synergies (an argument could be made for bringing Morningstar as well), and I was off. Mephisto is fantastic for this chapter, especially if you can get to a SP3 at the start of the fight to trigger his permanent Aura. Then you are just gaining power the whole fight while throwing big specials and dealing Passive Incinerate damage. You may find yourself having to throw more SP1s than usual with Mephisto, but I think that is ok in this case.

The two fights to look out for on this path are Doctor Octopus, because of his natural power control, and Nick Fury, because you can’t bring a mutant in to suppress his tactical charges. This is where Mephisto really shined as I used his natural power gain to get up to 2 bars of power and then intercepted with a special attack.

If you don’t have Mephisto, Doctor Doom works quite well, and I think Dragon Man’s power gain might be handy, but I didn’t have one to test.

A note on Burden of Might. You’ll lose your power when a buff ends. Most often this occurs when you gain a Dexterity buff from dodging a special, and then you run in to punish with a regular attack. This can be very frustrating on Power Shield, since you need your Specials to do big damage. You can work around this by blocking specials instead of evading them, or by Parrying the opponent immediately after you dodge their special, and then launching your special attack instead of a normal combo.


Recommended Videos:

KT1 – Chapter 2 Guide

Kingslayer – Claire Voyant vs Storm

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