Summoners!

Here’s my guide for Act 7.1.3 “Recycle” in Marvel Contest of Champions.

General Thoughts:
This is another enjoyable quest in Act 7.1. I didn’t have too many problems, as once again it comes down to reading the nodes and proper team construction.

Best Champs: Void, Venom, Kingpin, Mephisto, Human Torch

Restrictions: 5-Star & 6-Star Champions Only

Global Nodes: Star Power, Adrenaline Rush, Hold The Line, Special Attack 3, +200% Attack & Health, +700% Health

Boss: Hulkbuster

Boss Notes:
+150% Attack
+500% Health
Hit Me, I Dare You
Spiked Armor
Shockingly Brilliant
Dulled

So the big challenge here is not getting a Shock Debuff placed on your attacker. There is a 60% chance when striking Hulkbuster with a Critical Hit for him to consume an Armor-Up buff as part of his base kit. The problem is once you get the first Shock, the Shockingly Brilliant node kicks in and then all your hits are Critical, so the Shocks will start stacking up quickly and you’ll be triggering Spiked Armor with every hit. At this point the fight has spiraled out of control and you’ll be dead shortly.

The key to getting around all this is not Shock-Immunity but the Dulled node. Usually, you don’t want to see Dulled, but here it is your friend. Dulled reduces your Crit Chance by 50% for each active buff on your attacker and each Debuff on the defender.

My two workhorses for this boss were Void and Venom. Void was able to go most of the fight without getting shocked, but I wasn’t able to solo. Venom never got shocked, and by spamming his SP1 you can heal and keep Hulkbuster’s Armor-Up buffs under control.

I would also consider Hyperion, Angela, Medusa, Aarkus, Venom The Duck, Cosmic Ghost-Rider, duped Captain America Infinity War, Spider-Ham, and Crossbones for this fight.

Boss: Aarkus

Boss Notes:
+150% Attack
+500% Health
Special Burst Lock Down 2
Power Shield
Power Reversal
Fissure

Aarkus comes with his usual challenges. You’ll need to bring either an Armor-Break Immune or Coldsnap-Immune. My go-to for this fight was Mephisto with the Morningstar synergy. Other options include Thing, Colossus, Man-Thing, and Sasquatch.

If you can get Aarkus to throw his Sp1 and you bring the right champ you should be fine, but his power gain may end up costing you a few revives if you can’t keep it under control. I think most players will find Aarkus the most difficult boss in this quest.

Boss: Red Hulk

Boss Notes:
+150% Attack
+500% Health
Defective Defense
Buffet
Power Focus 1
Foresight

Red Hulk is the easiest of the 7.1.3 bosses. You just want to keep your blocked hits to a minimum and cycle his SP1 for openings. Since he has Power Focus 1, you can pretty much do that every combo. While you can use most champions here, I would stay away from buff-heavy champions that will trigger Buffet. I used Blade both times.

Lane 1 – Top Right – Hulkbuster Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Star-Lord, Spider-Man, Elsa Bloodstone, Symbiote Spider-Man, Ronin, Namor

Nodes: Mesmerize, Dizzy, Stun Vulnerability

Team: Void (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Killmonger (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 159), Iceman (5 Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Human Torch (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 1)

Tips: This your classic “Super Evade” path but if you have the right counters, you can take it down quite easily. Venom is an obvious choice for Spider-Man. You’ll want a Mutant for Elsa Bloodstone, and since Iceman can prevent evade with his Coldsnap, he makes for an excellent choice. Killmonger can take the other fights (although I did use Void for Namor) as long as you Parry and 3-hit combo until the defender gets to a SP1. Once Killmonger gets True Strike, it’s all over.

Human Torch was mostly on the team for synergies (he boosts damage for Iceman and Killmonger) but I did want to try his pre-fight on the Hulkbuster boss. Bad idea, he absolutely got annihilated by Shock. I should have swapped him out. Void ended up doing most of the work on Hulkbuster, and then Killmonger and Venom finished up. I didn’t use any items, but it wasn’t the cleanest boss takedown.

Lane 2 – Up To Black Widow – Hulkbuster Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Black Widow, Cyclops New Xavier School, Spider-Gwen, Rogue, Stark Spider-Man, Hit Monkey

Nodes: Crumbling Armor, The Gloves Are Off, Kinetic Transference 1, Heal Block

Team: Hulkbuster (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 20), Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Archangel (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 80), Void (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200)

Tips: I don’t think the nodes are a huge factor for this path, either for or against you. Just remember Heal Block will prevent any Willpower Healing from the Armor Break.

Archangel was my main path clearer, using the standard Heavy spam method against Black Widow, Cyclops, and Hit Monkey. Venom took the two Spider-verse champions, and I used Hulkbuster for Rogue, since she is a bad matchup for Archangel.

Void and the Venom carried the day against Hulkbuster.

Lane 3 – Center Up Paths – Red Hulk Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Black Bolt, Aegon, Rocket Raccoon, Nova, Squirrel Girl, Mojo

Nodes: Life Transfer, Gimme, Redouble Determination, Spectre

Team: Blade (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Ghost-Rider (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Kingpin (6-Star Rank 1 Sig 0), The Hood 6-Star Rank 1 Sig 0)

Tips: So the goal here is to regenerate to take advantage of the Gimme node, which Life Transfer allows any champion to do. The problem of course is the Spectre node, which is on a recurring timer and will reverse your Regeneration. However, if you can somehow shrug the Spectre Debuff, you don’t have to worry about the Heal Reversal and can get down to business at the start of the fight.

My team was picked with that in mind. This was my first chance to use Kingpin post-buff, and The Hood was brought along for the +100% Rage Purify Ability Accuracy. Kingpin was my main damage dealer, but I did solo Nova with The Hood. Then I had Blade (with the Danger Sense bonus from Ghost-Rider and Sparky) for Mojo and the Red Hulk Boss.

The fights will go a lot faster if you are constantly regenerating, so let Life Transfer Degenerate you a bit, or just take some hits if you can. Once you go on the attack you’ll heal back up and deal major damage.

These fights aren’t too tricky. Nova is a pain as usual, but I was surprised at how well The Hood did against him. Mojo turtled on me a bit which was a problem with the health bar ticking down, but Blade got it done. Red Hulk is just a simple SP1 cycle until he’s dead.

Lane 4 – Center & Lower Lanes – Red Hulk Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Sentry, Black Panther Civil War, She-Hulk, Thor Ragnarok, Jane Foster, Venompool

Nodes: Special Connoisseur, Mutant Mastery, Shifting Immunity – Bleed & Poison

Team: Blade (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Ghost-Rider (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Sunspot (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Namor (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200)

Tips: For this lane you want Mutants that deal debuffs, ideally not Bleed or Poison ones because of the Shifting Immunity Node. Sunspot is an absolute monster on this lane because he just spams Incinerate Debuffs all day long and does huge SP2 damage. Note that with Sunspot, the Mutant Mastery node was removing his natural Prowess buffs as well, so there is no point in throwing SP1s to build him up.

If you don’t have Sunspot, Havok should also be very good for this lane because his Plasma counts as Debuffs. Jubilee and Iceman could also be very good options for this lane.

None of these fights are that tricky. Just keep in mind Black Panther Civil War’s stun reflection and that Jane Foster has increased energy resistance.

Lane 5 – Down, the Upper Paths – Aarkus Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Gambit, Karnak, Captain America, Falcon, Sorcerer Supreme, Joe Fixit

Nodes: Blaze, Power Axis 2, Power Shield

Team: Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Mornignstar (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 0), The Champion (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 20), Thing (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Hyperion (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 100)

Tips: With this path you must work very quickly. Don’t go for ramp-up champions. Power Gain, stuns, and big specials are your friends here.

Hyperion is an obvious choice, but he only lasted the first fight and a half because of the Degen. Mephisto carried me, for a couple reasons. With his Persistent Charges, he can actually survive the Direct Damage from the Blaze node. He’ll gain 1 Persistent Charge when entering the fight (with the Morningstar synergy), and then another for winning the fight. You may have to use a few health potions but it will save you revives. The Champion also grants Mephisto an attack bonus.

Aarkus is the most difficult of the three bosses. If you want to survive for any length of time you need to be able to counter his Coldsnap or Armor Breaks. The Heal Block is another big factor in this fight.

I went in first with Thing. He is ok for this fight but doesn’t do a ton of damage. I tried Morningstar since she was on the team and got off one satisfying SP2 before the Coldsnap got me. Once again, Mephisto was up to the task.

Mephisto has a couple of key bits of utility that help in the first. He’s Coldsnap-Immune, so that worry is off the table. He also Soul Locks Aarkus at the top of the fight, so he can’t immediately start building Power Gain Buffs.

Because of the Heal Block node in this fight you likely won’t be able to use your Persistent Charges to heal Mephisto, so instead utilize your SP1 to keep Aarkus Soul Locked. Mephisto’s SP2 is your best bet for big damage. Do your best to bait Aarkus’ SP1 as the SP2 is tricky if you haven’t practiced it.

Lane 6 – Down and Lower Paths – Aarkus Boss – Easy Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Dr. Strange, Cable, Hyperion, OG Vision, Phoenix, Loki

Nodes: That’s Gonna Sting, Backfire, Power Alternator, Power Snack 1

Team: Void (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Thing (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Morningstar (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 0), Human Torch (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 21)

Tips: Load up on your best Science champions here to take advantage of the Power Sting debuff granted from Backfire. I used Void for every fight on the main path. His ability to mitigate the power gain of defenders such as Dr. Strange, Cable, and Hyperion effectively kept them power locked once the fights got going.

For Aarkus I just used the whole team, with Mephisto once again getting the KO.

The newly buffed Yellowjacket should be excellent for the main path, as should Human Torch, Spider-Ham, and Captain America Infinity War

Jump To:

Kingslayer – 7.1.3 Blaze Path

Karatemike – Sasquatch vs Aarkus

RichTheMan – Corvus vs Blaze Path

Jump To:
Act 7.1.1 – “Reboot” – So This Is Actually Fun
Act 7.1.2 – “Break Out” – Return of Archangel
Act 7.1.3 – “Recycle” – Blazing Along
Act 7.1.4 – “Usurp” – Weapon X
Act 7.1.5 – “Mashup” – They’re Back
Act 7.1.6 – “Remix” – Return of Ice Phoenix

-Dano357