Hela is one of the strongest duelists in Marvel Rivals right now because she has all of the tools you need to be an absolutely terrifying goddess of death. I’ve been able to try her out recently after playing with and against a lot of good ones, and… I get it now. She really is just that good at the moment, especially with the seasonal bonus.
Here’s some tips from a flex player who’s been playing and writing guides for hero shooters since Overwatch first launched!
Hela’s Playstyle in a Nutshell
Hela is a very straightforward mid to long-range duelist who has an extremely simple kit but a deceptively high ceiling. With good aim and/or positioning, she can be a devastating force of nature who will keep racking up eliminations throughout the entire match.
Using her Astral Flock, she can get to high ground with ease, or make a quick (though risky) escape if absolutely necessary. From a vantage point, she can very easily destroy strategists and ranged duelists in the other team’s backline, and she can swat flying enemies out of the sky with just 2-3 good hits.
Under certain conditions, she can even have some insanely powerful AOE potential due to her passive ability and secondary fire, and that’s without taking her ultimate into consideration. In my opinion, she’s just the complete package as far as ranged damage dealers go.
EDIT: She’s gotten a bit of a nerf recently, but she’s still great!
Having said all of that, let’s take a look at her abilities…
Hela’s Abilities & Team-Up
Like with all of my other hero guides, I’ll be doing these in bullets so I can insert some lil’ tips with each skill:
- Nightsword Thorn (primary fire) – Hela throws daggers that are hitscan, which means that you don’t need to lead her shots.
- You read that right, she’s quite literally a point and click DPS.
- There is a significant damage falloff at long range, but even from afar, she can pump out a ton of damage especially if you land headshots.
- Don’t hold left click!!! Treat it like a semi-auto weapon and tap fire so you don’t waste your already limited ammo (8 shots per reload).
- Piercing Night (secondary fire) – Summons four daggers that will be sent flying forward after a brief moment, dealing damage on impact and exploding after a few seconds.
- Each projectile deals very little damage on impact, but each explosion afterwards will hurt a lot more.
- The explosions deal AOE damage, though additional enemies have to be extremely close to get hit.
- You don’t need to hit an enemy to trigger this effect. The daggers can stick on any surface.
- As far as I can tell, these projectiles cannot headshot. Aim for center mass rather than the head.
- I like using this on vanguards, as they’re the easiest targets for it due to their size. In some situations, shooting it at the ground can be an option if enemies are “deathballing” (grouping up close together) or are in a tight chokepoint/objective.
- Each projectile deals very little damage on impact, but each explosion afterwards will hurt a lot more.
- Astral Flock (Shift) – Transform into a crow and fly towards the target location. Can be cancelled early by pressing it again.
- Hela is seemingly untargetable while in crow form, but you cannot change directions while flying.
- There is a half-second delay before transforming. This may seem insignificant, but this brief animation lock can easily get you killed if you’re already taking heavy damage.
- Soul Drainer (E) – Fires an orb that pulls in enemies and briefly stuns them.
- The “stun” is more of a micro stun that lasts around a third of a second. Don’t use this thinking that it’s a hard crowd control ability.
- The orb will detonate on impact, or after reaching a certain distance without hitting anything.
- Enemies caught in the explosion will be pulled towards the center.
- The explosion deals a bit of damage to affected targets.
- This projectile falls to the ground rather quickly. Aim slightly higher if you’re trying to reach mid-range enemies with it.
- This is great for securing kills, especially against targets that try to dive you or your supports.
- Goddess of Death (Ultimate) – Upon activation, Hela takes to the skies and fires AOE projectiles. This form lasts for ten seconds.
- During its duration, she gains a separate health bar with 1,000 points. If this gets depleted before the ten-second timer, her ultimate will end early.
- Her AOE and damage are really potent, and you can hit enemies behind small bits of cover if you shoot near the edge.
- On that note, enemies have a red highlight throughout the ultimate’s duration. This lets you see them behind cover.
- If the other team has a Dr. Strange who hasn’t flown recently, you’re probably going to get a shield right up your face when you ult. Just something to keep in mind before you use it.
- This requires a lot of vertical space to cast. You will get an error message if you don’t have enough space to fly up.
- You can only aim up to eye level, so if there is anybody above you, you literally can’t point the crosshair at them.
- With that said, you can Astral Flock upwards to gain even more verticality before ulting.
- Hel’s Descent (Passive #1) – While you’re in the air, you can hold spacebar to fall down slowly.
- Nastrond Crowstorm (Passive #2) – Whenever you get an elimination, a crow will appear over the dead enemy and explode after a short period.
- This deals damage in a small area, and you don’t need to get the last hit to trigger it (as far as I know). You seemingly only need to get an elimination credit by dealing enough damage.
- This passive isn’t really a reliable way to kill anyone, but it can catch people off-guard on rare occasions. I’ve even died to this at least once or twice… Lol.
Her only team-up at the moment is with Thor & Loki, unsurprisingly. When Queen of Hel is active, any final hit by Hela will instantly revive Thor/Loki on the spot or grant them bonus health if still alive. I like to think this is especially useful for Thor, as he tends to dive a lot. You just need to be popping off to get it rolling.
Thor & Loki’s weapons will hover over the spot where they died, and this is where they’ll get revived if you manage to get a final hit before they respawn. Enemies can see these too! As for the bonus health, they will both gain 50 per final hit, and this caps out at 100.
Find Vantage Points!
As I pointed out earlier, get to high ground whenever possible. This will make it easier to hit key targets behind the vanguards, as shields will be your bane. Unless their tanks are being an issue, focus on the healers or out of position duelists.
Characters like Luna Snow and Mantis are easy pickings since they can’t just zip away once you have a lock on them. Just bear in mind that your aim has to be pretty precise, as their hitboxes are going to be relatively small if you’re shooting from afar.
If there’s no high ground or it’s not particularly safe to go high, you can always just play behind the vanguards. As long as the healers can reach you when needed, you should be fine for the most part.
Proper positioning is mostly situational. Knowing when it’s appropriate to stay up high or get behind your team is something that you’ll have to figure out on the go by assessing the current map’s layout and teams’ compositions. In general, try to find odd angles if they’ve got too many shields/walls up front.
Who To Watch Out For
If you find yourself in a mirror match against another Hela, I recommend focusing them as much as possible. One of the greatest threats to you and your team will be your counterpart. Force them away with some hits or straight up kill them if you can.
The same goes for somebody like Hawkeye, assuming that they’re really good at landing arrows. Take him out of the picture before anything else, as he’ll likely try to knock you off your high ground too.
Outside of those two, flankers like Spider-Man, Black Panther, or Star-Lord can be a bit annoying to deal with. If the other team has characters like them around, be mindful of their positioning and try to get the drop on them before they can dive.
If you have teammates who ping flankers like them, make sure to pay attention to their signals and get ready for an aim check! If it’s not on cooldown, save your Soul Drainer for when they engage.
Some General Tips
Hit the Practice Range!
If you’re inexperienced with shooters or have gotten too used to leading shots with other heroes (like Moon Knight), practice your aim at the range for a bit before hopping in. As one of the few hitscan characters in the game, Hela’s effectiveness hinges a lot more on one’s aim.
Get used to clicking on people’s heads and you’ll hopefully be hovering around at least 30-50% accuracy in your matches, if not higher. This applies to any other hitscan character, like Punisher.
No, Seriously. Practice Your Aim.
Like I said at the very start, Hela is incredibly straightforward. As long as you keep practicing how to tap fire her primary and actually hit things with it, even if you’re only going for body shots, you’re going to be a huge asset to the team.
Once you become more comfortable with her hitscan nature, start practicing those headshots. It’s going to be tough at first because certain characters have very small hitboxes unless you’re up close, but once it clicks, you’ll be a beast.
If you’re already good at the shooting part, well, then just keep at it king/queen/whatever. Enjoy Hela while she’s still hilariously strong, as she’s still pretty decent despite her nerfs in season 1. That’s really all I’ve got for this hero, so get out there and start clicking heads!
Wanna learn more? I have an entire blog post that summarizes all of the duelists in the game, which should help you find and pick other characters to try out!