Traditionally, the new season of Cosmic Crucible in Marvel Strike Force brought new rules for the six stages of the game mode. Let’s see what the rules are and which teams would work best in defense for season 5.
Table of Contents:
Global rules
Since the latest team to come out is the Superior Six, it’s no wonder that global rules for Cosmic Crucible give special powers to those characters. Additionally, Sinister Six characters (and yes, there are more than six in the game) received a rework. As a consequence, they also get a bonus in Crucible.
Bonuses apply in offense and defense for Superior Six and Sinister Six. The Superior Six receive 15% of Barrier on successful attacks while removing Revive Once from the attacked enemies. These characters also get Defense Up when they spawn.
Characters with the Sinister Six tag (which includes the Superior Six) have their max Barrier increased by 15% and gain a Focus increase of 200%.
In terms of pure defense, characters gain 10% more Damage and 20% more Health. Similar to Alliance War global rules, defending characters also gain Exhaust after completed attacks unless the combat is canceled.
1. Teamwork!
Like in the previous season, the first stage of Cosmic Crucible features specific boosts for an ISO-8 class. This time it’s Striker, and those characters receive Assist Now on every turn their allies take. The buff applies to defenders and attackers alike.
Best team for this stage
Since the first stage favors Strikers, you’ll naturally want to set up a team consisting primarily of that ISO-8 class. Secret Defenders can be an ideal choice here since this team can pack quite a punch both individually and when combined. However, you might not have the team built up to sufficient strength.
Because many players likely need more time to build up Secret Defenders, we’d propose a more conventional option here: War Dogs. The Wakandan team already has the advantage of Okoye assisting on all attacks. If set primarily as Strikers, War Dogs will become even harder to overcome.
2. Temporal Shielding
For Temporal Shielding, Skill and Tech characters gain Speed Up when using their Basic attacks. Furthermore, if they end the turn with Speed Up, they gain 20% Barrier.
Best team for this stage
Similar to the previous stage, our first choice for Temporal Shielding would be a team that most players won’t have ready for this season—P.E.G.A.S.U.S. This is an all-tech team that can receive reliable Speed-Ups from Iron Man, helping them make the most of the stage’s advantages.
Of course, most of the player base won’t have P.E.G.A.S.U.S. built up at this point. That’s why we’ll fall back to another relatively new team: Invaders. This skill-exclusive team doesn’t have too many ways to get Speed-Ups, but it doesn’t need them—it’s got Nick Fury.
Fury starts with Speed Up, which is excellent since he’s also the most vulnerable character in this setup. On turn two, he’ll spread all positive effects on all allies. In other words, stay alive until turn two, and your Invaders will gain massive additional protection.
3. Corrupting Power
Corrupting Power has one of the more interesting stage rules. Both defensive and offensive teams get a two ability energy discount on Ultimate abilities. However, using an Ultimate causes all Negative Effects to spread to adjacent allies.
Best team for this stage
Some say Black Order could be a great team for the Corrupting Power stage, but it might be too unreliable. Thanos can spread Immunity with his Basic—however, you can’t guarantee this will happen. On the other hand, all players will have the team built up at least to a decent level.
You know what’s better than a team that has a chance of spreading immunity on this stage? One that spawns with Immunity. Yes, we’re talking about everybody’s yesteryear favorite meta, Infinity Watch. This team might not have the most powerful Ultimates, but it’ll be able to use them freely since no debuffs will stick for the first few turns.
4. Spec Ops
The Spec Ops stage provides Stealth to characters who perform a successful Dodge. Then, while a character has Stealth, they receive a 20% Damage increase. Naturally, you’ll want a team that dodges easily or can enter Stealth relatively frequently.
Best team for this stage
If the last sentence from above rang any bells, it’s because you thought of a particular team that’s notoriously hard to hit: Infestation. For this stage, we don’t have a preferred but possibly unavailable team. Everyone likely has Infestation at a decent level by now, and it’s time to use the team effectively outside of Alliance War.
Infestation characters are already notorious for their dodges, plus they have a respectable damage output. In addition, Spider-Man (Big Time) and Black Widow gain Stealth on their own, making them even more dangerous. All in all, this is a great team to put on defense here—at least until another one proves more effective.
5. Mutant Immune System
As the name implies, this stage favors Mutants, and the buffs provided to those characters are nothing to scoff at. They’ll clear negative effects every turn and heal 10% of their Health per cleared effect. Under the right circumstances, your Mutant defense in this room might stay at full health throughout most of the battle.
Best team for this stage
The choice of the ideal team for Mutant Immune System is another no-brainer: it’s Unlimited X-Men. Granted, once Rogue uses her Special and gains both Taunt and Immunity, there’ll be no way to use the stage mechanic to heal her, but that’s nothing to worry about.
The important thing here is that the healing can keep your glass cannons alive, so Sunfire and Gambit won’t be dispatched so easily. In this room, the already formidable Unlimited X-Men have the potential to become impossible to overcome.
6. Rules of Combat
The last stage in Cosmic Crucible will apply specific buffs to Hero and Villain characters. Heroes will inflict Offense Down with every successful attack, while Villains will apply Defense Down. Naturally, having a mix of both will be preferable here, and we have just the team for that.
Best team for this stage
For this stage, the team we recommend is a relatively recent classic that rarely gets used in its original version. You’ve seen them in combination with Apocalypse or as the famed (and feared) Dormhold. But this time, we’re recommending the OG Darkhold team.
The reasoning behind this recommendation is simple. You’ve got three villains and two heroes, so offense and defense debuffs will fly around almost equally. Additionally, four out of five team members have AoE attacks, which means they’ll spread the negative effects to all opponents. And the fifth member who doesn’t do AoE, Wong, constantly counterattacks, so he’ll do his part in the fight, too.
This concludes our list of the best defense teams for Cosmic Crucible Season 5 in Marvel Strike Force. It’s worth mentioning that the season started recently, so there may be other combinations popping up in the future. To learn of any changes in strategy, keep an eye on our Game Guides section, as we’ll put out all updates as they arrive.
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Marvel Strike Force: Crucible Defense (Season 5)