Summoners!

Here’s my guide for Book 2 Act 7.1.1 “Reboot” in Marvel Contest of Champions

General Thoughts:

Welcome to Book 2, or Act 7 as the community commonly calls it. Originally slated to be released in the Summer of 2020, the first iteration of Book 2 was scrapped after the Beta was resoundingly panned by the player base for being a less entertaining version of Act 6. After a 6-month revamp, we received content that is a complete 180 from the original Beta and has been hailed as some of the most enjoyable content the Kabam team has released.

So what’s new for Act 7? Each quest is limited to 6 paths, each with a unique identity. While there are nodes that may restrict your play or options, there is usually a second node which presents an easier road to victory.

Book 2 is still restricted to 5-Star and 6-Star Champions. Significant bonuses are applied via Global Nodes to 6-Star champions, so keep that in mind when choosing your team.

Instead of 1 boss, there are now 3 Boss fights in each quest, with two paths leading to each respective boss. This breaks up the monotony of fighting the same boss half-a-dozen times and presents an easier path for initial completion, as you can target a path with the boss you believe will be the easiest for you to take down.

Finally, Act 7 borrows one of the best features Incursions: Champion Swapping. Just before the boss, you can choose to trade out one member of your team for another champion on your roster. The swapped in champion will have the same health level as the champion you are swapping out. This allows for much more flexibility when planning your attack team. There is no penalty for swapping a champ, so use it to bring an extra option for the boss or to add a key synergy to your team.

Best Champs: Corvus Glaive, Sunspot, Symbiote Supreme, Doctor Doom, Void, Human Torch, Thing

Restrictions: Only 5-Star & 6-Star Champions are eligible for Book 2 Quests.

Global Node:

Boss: Yondu

Boss Notes:
+150% Attack
+500% Health
Super-Masochism – Every 5 seconds the next Stun, Bleed, Poison, Shock, Incinerate, Coldsnap, or Rupture Debuff triggered on the defender is immediately Purified and applied to the Attacker. Each time this effect triggers, the Defender will Regenerate 5% of their Max Health. Knocking down the Defender refreshes the cooldown and increases future cooldown by 1 second.
Feats of Power
Rich Get Richer – 1
Foresight

Despite the unsettling sounding “Super-Masochism” node, Yondu is the easiest boss fight in 7.1.1. Just avoid bringing a champion that is going to deal Damage-Over-Time. The Foresight node will reward you for Intercepting Yondu. Corvus Glaive is a very popular choice for this fight, and I also soloed it with Star-Lord. In general, if you can play the fight parry-free by power cycling Yondu’s SP1 and bring a champion that won’t set off Super-Masochism, you’ll find this a simple fight.


Boss: Claire Voyant

Boss Notes:
+150% Attack
+500% Health
Footloose
Coolant Leak
Juke
Prey on the Weak – 4
Unblockable Specials

The key to this fight is managing the Footloose node. If you can do that, you shouldn’t have any problems here. Remember you can parry-stun Claire to burn the Unstoppable timer. I used Human Torch and Thing successfully in the fight. She-Hulk, Luke Cage, and Void are also potentially excellent options. Just don’t bring a robot!

Boss: Black Widow Deadly Origin

Boss Notes:
+150% Attack
+500% Health
Bullet Time – Any time the Defender is Stunned, they immediately remove the Stun and gain an Evade Charge which grants a 100% Chance to Evade. 1 Evade Charge is removed if a hit is evaded. If the Attacker avoids a Basic Attack using the Dexterity Master, all Evade Charges are removed, and the Defender is Passively Stunned for 1.5 seconds per Charge Removed.
Stun Vulnerability
Tenacity – 3
Enhanced Shock

This is the most difficult boss fight in 7.1.1, but it is also the most fun and rewarding fight once you figure it out. The key is to trigger the Passive Stun on Black Widow. Do this by Parrying, which of course will not stun her but gives her an Evade Charge. Then you need to Dex her next Basic Attack to actually Stun her and go in for the big damage. Because of Tenacity 3, using a champion dependent on Debuffs to deal big damage is not advisable. That is, unless you have Sunspot, who may be the best option for this fight.

Lane 1 – Left & Up – Yondu Boss – Easy Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Ronan, Storm, Iron Fist, Red Guardian, Gwenpool, Ultron

Nodes: Flare, Colorblind (Entire Path)

Team: Corvus Glaive (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Thor Ragnarok (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Star-Lord (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 132), Colossus (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), Hulk Ragnarok (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 0)

Tips: This is a path with no hard counters required. There are 2-3 Corvus charges available (depending on Ultron’s mood), and since Corvus is great for the Yondu boss, he’s a prime option. Other than that, just mix up the class variety because of Colorblind.

None of these fights require any special notes. You just need to work really fast because of Flare, so bring some heavy-hitters. What’s also nice is all of these defenders have quite easy SP2s to evade, so you don’t have to waste time and health dancing around baiting too many specials.

This path ends with the Yondu boss, so make sure you have a champion that won’t have an issue with the Super Masochism node available.

Lane 2 – Right & Up – Yondu Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Howard The Duck, Cull Obsidian, Doctor Octopus, Beast, Venom The Duck, Colossus

Nodes: Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, Muscle Wizard, Fight or Flight

Team: Doctor Doom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Star-Lord (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 132), Morningstar (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 0), Hyperion (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 100).

Tips: This path is all about being Unstoppable. This isn’t a very troublesome path, but you do need to watch the timers and use the nodes to your advantage because these aren’t quick fights.

Obviously, you want to play into the Fight or Flight node to gain Unstoppable and prevent your opponent from getting it. You can build on that by bringing Mystic Attackers to activate Muscle Wizard, which will give your attacker an Unstoppable Buff when the opponent is knocked down.

You can further ramp-up your damage by knocking down your opponent again while you are Unstoppable to gain up to 4 permanent furies. Since these are rather beefy health-pools and Mystics usually aren’t the heaviest of hitters, I recommend doing this as soon as you can at the top of the fight.

The defenders here are pretty simple. I used Symbiote Supreme for Howard, then Doom for everyone through Venom The Duck. I closed out with Morningstar against Colossus and she did quite well. I think the 6-Star boost really helped. Anyone with a 6-Star Doom will wreck this path.

Speaking of Doom, I had to get by with my max 5-Star. His heavy is great for preventing the opponent from gaining Unstoppable, so work that into your combos. Against Doctor Octopus and Venom The Duck I was alternating the SP1 and SP2 to prevent them from reaching their troublesome SP2s.

I used Star-Lord to solo the Yondu boss since he does big damage. Hyperion never got off the bench.

Lane 3 – Down & Left – Claire Voyant Boss – Hard Path

Gate: None

Defenders: Iron Man, Yellowjacket, X-23, Nova, Morningstar, Gwenpool

Nodes: Oscillate 1, Invade, Kinetic Instigator (Entire Path)

Team: Corvus Glaive (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Symbiote Supreme (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 60), Killmonger (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 180), Thing (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Void (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200)

Tips: Whenever you see Invade, the goal is usually to hit into the block as much as possible because your blocked hits do more damage than your landed hits. With 2 Corvus charges available on the first fight, this looks like a great setup.

Unfortunately, the AI was super-aggressive for me and even though I took down Iron Man, Yellowjacket killed my Corvus. The block damage is crazy on this path. So just a warning, be on your toes, because I usually find Invade goes pretty smoothly, but not this time.

I decided to play a little more of a regular style going forward, using Void for X-23 and then Symbiote Supreme for Nova. That’s a tough fight and it cost me a couple revives. Once you get through him, Morningstar and Gwenpool are easy (I used Thing & Killmonger respectively.)

Once I reached the Boss Node I switched Symbiote Supreme for Human Torch and Nova Flamed my way to an easy victory.

Lane 4 – Left & Up – Claire Voyant Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Nebula, Luke Cage, Vision AoA, Ghost-Rider, Ultron (Classic), King Groot

Nodes: Masochism, Double Down, Power Focus 2

Team: Ghost-Rider (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 20), Sunspot (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Human Torch (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 1), Blade (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Stark Spider-Man (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200)

Tips: I prefer to use Debuff-Heavy champions to overpower Masochism, and Sunspot was excellent. You probably don’t want to do this unless you have a high signature level Sunspot, as you will likely run out of Solar Charges overwise. I used Sunspot very effectively during the first three fights, utilizing a Sp1-Sp2-Sp3 rotation and his clutch Perfect Block.

My plan for the second half of the lane was to rely on Blade, since he gains Danger Sense is all three fights. This was fine for Ghost-Rider and would have worked against Ultron except I got a text message and then the inevitable lag that follows, causing me to eat a special and die. I closed out the fight with Stark Spidey and the big anit-robot Sp2 finish. Then I Nova Flamed King Groot.

I switched out Ghost-Rider for Thing to solo Claire Voyant to finish off an item-free run.

Lane 5 – Down & Right – Black Widow Deadly Origin Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Mysterio, Stealth Spider-Man, Sentinel, Emma Frost, Darkhawk, Archangel

Nodes: Turtling, Chitinous Thorns, Cosmic Fracture

Team: Corvus Glaive (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Hyperion (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 100), Venom (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 40), The Champion (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 20), Captain Marvel Movie (6-Star Rank 2 Sig 0)

Tips:

For this path you’ve got to remove the Armor Up buffs or be Bleed-Immune or you will die very quickly. You’ll have to fight a quick place to keep the Armor Breaks up. Once you adjust this isn’t too difficult of a path.

I used Corvus Glaive for Mysterio and Emma Frost, Captain Marvel Movie for Sentinel, Venom for Stealth Spider-Man and The Champion for Darkhawk and Archangel. The Champion was actually quite good, as I just tanked Darkhawk’s SP1 to keep him out of a mode, and then healed the damage back during the AA fight.

For the Black Widow Deadly Origin boss I switched in Sunspot for Venom. Sunspot is excellent for Tenacity fights because he regains Solar Charges from purified Incinerates. He also has Perfect Block which is handy. Just don’t get shocked because that shuts down his Flare State. If you have a way to bring Apocalypse and make him a Horseman he’ll be Unblockable much of the fight.

If Sunspot doesn’t work for you, I would use Corvus with Proxima or maybe Captain Marvel Movie.

For other options, consider Cosmics with Armor Break such as Medusa and Aarkus or potentially mystics that can stagger the Armor Up Buff. Morningstar has the potential to be very good here and could cheese the Armor-Up with her SP2. Cosmic Ghost-Rider is bleed-immune and could also be a fantastic option if you’ve acquired him.

Lane 6 – Up and Right – Black Widow Deadly Origin Boss

Gate: None

Defenders: Cyclops Blue Team, Hulk, Thor Ragnarok, Diablo, Gamora, Corvus Glaive

Nodes: Pleasure to Burn, Got a Light, Mighty Charge

Team: Human Torch (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 1), Sunspot (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Thing (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200), Iceman (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200) Mephisto (5-Star Rank 5 Sig 200)

Tips: I just used Sunspot and Human Torch for this path. Thing, Iceman and Mephisto were on the team for synergies to support those two. This is a fairly easy path once you solve for the nodes. While you don’t have to bring champions that naturally deal Incinerate Debuffs because of the Got a Light? node, it certainly helps to accelerate your damage if you can. The Got A Light? node also allows you to utilize Human Torch’s Nova Flames despite the Pleasure to Burn Node.

The fights themselves are not too bad. All these defenders have SP1s that can be punished so you can power rotate them to get your ins. Thor Ragnarok is the only one who might trip you up with his Power Gain (he did get me once), and with Corvus you can’t take too many blocked hits. You can check out my solo of Black Widow Deadly Origin with Sunspot above in the “Boss Notes” section.

Jump To (coming soon):
Act 6.4.6
Act 7.1.1
Act 7.1.2
Act 7.1.3
Act 7.1.4
Act 7.1.5
Act 7.1.6
Act 7.2.1

-Dano357