The much-anticipated Marvel Rivals is here and it’s completely free! As somebody who used to make competitive Overwatch guides for an eSports organization, I’m no stranger to doing stuff like these. I found myself gravitating towards Star-Lord and Psylocke right off the bat, and here are my tips and tricks that will (hopefully) up your game with the former!
Star-Lord’s Playstyle in a Nutshell
In case you’ve played Overwatch before, Star-Lord’s kit is very clearly somewhat inspired by Tracer due to how his guns work and his short-range movement ability. Basically, he’s a high risk high reward DPS character who excels at flanking and bursting down people before they can react.
Though he’s more effective up close, his guns are deceptively good at mid-range encounters. The main challenge you’ll be facing as a Star-Lord player is going to be learning how to track with your crosshair, which is a purely mechanical skill that you’ll need to work on if you plan on playing the legendary outlaw.
Because of how fast he burns through ammo, you have to ensure that most of your shots hit. As obvious as that sounds, it’s especially important for Star-Lord because you will go from 40 to 0 within like a couple of seconds. It’s that fast.
Practice your aim and always try to aim for the head, which should be easier considering how close you’re going to be getting to people. The rapid “ding“ sounds from hitting headshots is ideally what you’ll be hearing every time you dive in.
Utilizing Stellar Shift (Right Click)
Stellar Shift is his right click ability, and it’s a short-range flip that reloads his weapon. This will be your bread and butter in most cases. Ideally, you’ll want to have at least one charge available whenever you’re going in, so don’t just spam it randomly to get around the map. That’s what the jet boots are for (we’ll get to that later).
With enough practice, you should be able to burst down people in a single go with one or two charges. What I like to do is flank strategists and then unload on them with an entire mag, followed by a quick Stellar Shift to quickly reload and finish them off.
A single flip is usually enough to take down a healer, though it can take two if you miss some shots or they reacted fast enough. This alone can turn the tides in a fight, but consistently bursting people down with it will take some practice because tracking while flipping around is understandably difficult for less experienced players.
Abuse Your Mobility
On that note, Star-Lord also has Rocket Propulsion as his shift skill. While using this, your jet boots will activate, and you can fly in any direction as long as you have fuel. This can get you to vantage points very quickly, which should help you decide how to drop into the enemy team’s backline.
This is your “get out of jail free” card most of the time too, as it’s typically enough to get you away from other duelists. Remember, your main role is flanking, and depending on the other team’s duelists, you’re always at risk of being instantly deleted either from afar or up close.
Assessing the Opposition
At the start of a match, check what DPS heroes your enemies are using first and gauge which one of them is the bigger threat (as in, who seems to have better aim and/or awareness of your whereabouts). This will dictate how you navigate the map.
They have ranged DPS characters? Don’t just fly around in the open! Try to find alternative ways to get around them instead, if possible. Flying out of cover against a team that has a competent Hawkeye or Hela is just asking to get one-shot. That, or use Rocket Propulsion to slip away into a side corridor and quickly re-engage from behind them.
They have a bunch of melee characters? Take advantage of the fact that you’re effective mid-range and use Rocket Propulsion to gain verticality and widen the gap if a duelist is fixated on you. Trust me, a good Iron Fist or Spider-Man can give you a taste of your own medicine and ruin your day with a cheeky dive/flank of their own.
Don’t Run Out of Gas
Fuel management for your Rocket Propulsion is important as a Star-Lord player. You don’t want to be diving in with nothing in the tank, because that’s usually your only escape mechanism when things go south.
Speaking from personal experience as somebody who plays support half of the time, not every backline healer is going to be a free kill even if their team refuses to peel. For instance, if you give a Cloak & Dagger even just a bit of leeway, they can very quickly heal themselves and blind/kill you, or simply fly towards safety.
This is especially true if two healers are close to each other. If you can’t burst one down fast enough and the other isn’t blissfully unaware of your existence, they’ll be the ones beating you down instead. Depending on your surroundings, 50% fuel is usually enough to get you out of sticky situations, so try to maintain that much at all times.
Blaster Barrage is a Crutch
Star-Lord’s E ability is Blaster Barrage. It’s an area of effect attack that hits pretty much anything around you within a short range. It’s great for when you have a lot of mid to low HP enemies clumped up, though you should never use it unless they’re preoccupied with your team as its damage comes slow enough that they can counter you before you can get a single kill.
In its current state, Blaster Barrage deals much less DPS than simply unloading an entire magazine onto people. Because of this, it’s only good for very specific scenarios, such as when you’re out of ammo and your target is close to dying, or if you can combo with a teammate who’s also pumping out AoE damage.
Yes, it can compensate for poor aim, but the rate in which it deals damage is slow enough that people can typically burst you down or heal/get away before you can secure the kill. In most cases, Stellar Shift is what you should be relying on when diving into people.
Learning When/How to Ult
Star-Lord’s ultimate, Galactic Legend, gives you a few seconds of unlimited flight and what I like to call a “light aimbot”. Basically, upon activating it, you get forced into a slower version of Rocket Propulsion while also gaining the ability to automatically lock onto enemies as long as you aim close to them.
During this period, your reload speed also drastically speeds up, allowing you to almost endlessly barrage enemies. Although it’s very lethal as it’s just guaranteed hits with your regular weapon without recoil, you’re also incredibly vulnerable due to your slow flight speed, and people can simply take cover when they hear the verbal cue.
What I typically do is sneak behind the enemy team before using Rocket Propulsion to get into the air and then activate it from above them. Assuming they didn’t see you flanking, you can get away with killing one or two backline strategists, or at the very least forcing them to use a healing ultimate or divert a vanguard’s shield towards you solely to negate your damage.
Either way, both of those outcomes are usually a win for your team, even if you die afterwards. Although unnecessary, you can also refresh your magazine with Stellar Shift while your ultimate is active. This is less about reloading and more on making it slightly harder to hit you in the air.
Never ever use it when you’re in full view of the enemy team. I’ve played against some Star-Lords who will pop it in the middle of a team fight, and believe me, it’s hilariously easy to swat him out of the sky if he’s doing it in front of you. A single Hawkeye arrow to the face will take him out before he can even start firing.
NOTE: You still need to be somewhat close, as the lock-in mechanic does not work from afar. Your damage will also drop off if you’re too far.
Some General Tips
Back and Frontline Menace
Although Star-Lord is a flanker, that doesn’t mean you should just focus on the backline 24/7. If you can’t find an opportunity to safely get behind them, you’re still a valuable asset on the frontline due to your insane damage potential.
If you have a troublesome shield-using vanguard in the field, you can rip through their barrier with ease or even Stellar Shift to the side and force them to pull back or look away from your team. You can also abuse your mobility to kite bruisers like Venom or Thor if they try to dive in, and that’s typically enough to force a retreat or even outright kill them.
Even if you can’t get close to the healers during a clash, your damage can sufficiently chunk people that your teammates should be able to finish off whoever you’re targeting.
Adam Warlock Team-Up
If your Leader’s Soul team-up is activated, you can potentially revive yourself in the middle of a fight. At least in the early days of this game, people don’t seem to pay too much attention to the floating souls. Take advantage of this while you still can and bring yourself back to life behind the enemy team.
I love doing this after a failed flank, though I’d imagine people will start countering this once everybody becomes more acclimatized to the game. When this shift in player behavior happens, you can always float towards your team and revive there.
Either way, it’s a nice little lifeline that’ll get you right back into the fight if you mess up. Considering the heroes involved in the team-up, it shouldn’t be hard to get it activated unless the healer really doesn’t like playing Adam Warlock.
Closing Tip – Practice. Practice. Practice.
Like I said at the start, learning to track is the main thing you need to do if you plan on picking up this character. Because of his frantic movement and heavy reliance on landing full magazines worth of ammo, it’s hard to be effective as him if your tracking ability isn’t somewhat decent.
Warm up at the practice range or against some AI enemies first if you need to, and remember that building up this skill isn’t just an overnight effort. Keep sending some quick matches as Star-Lord and get used to tracking with your crosshair while staying almost within arm’s reach of your target and flipping around like a madman.
With enough practice, you too can be a menace with this legendary guardian of the galaxy!
Wanna learn more? I have a more general guide that has a rundown of every single duelist in the game, which should help you pick alternatives if you want to branch out!
