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How to Play Black Cat in Marvel Rivals

Updated 25 Oct 2026 Source Marvel Rivals Wiki (Fandom) — Black Cat hero page, overview and strengths sections, retrieved 25 October 2026 By Antewise Editorial
Data status: The facts on this page were checked against the source named above. Game values can still shift with a patch, so re-check anything that looks off.

Black Cat is a economy Duelist: every hit pays, every enhanced attack costs, and her relic shop turns banked Fortune into utility no other Duelist can buy. The fantasy is a thief who fights on her own terms — engage when the wallet is full, disengage when it is not — and the reality is that a Black Cat at zero Fortune does almost nothing.

Role and difficulty

Duelist. 150 health plus a 125-point regenerative shield, difficulty 4/5. Small health pool, high skill ceiling: the hero is only as strong as her resource management.

Abilities and what they actually do

  • Fortune (resource): caps at 1,200. Any attack hit grants 50; Turn of Fortune hits grant 300; Phantom Pursuit hits grant 150; Claw Strike grants 300; the Tablet of Destinies relic grants a random 0/50/200/500. Death always costs 200 Fortune plus half of what remains.
  • Jinxed (on first hit): the first hit on an enemy applies Jinxed for 3 seconds — critical hits have a 25% chance to deal no bonus damage. Lead your duels with it.
  • Feline Fury (primary): quick attacks in front of her that build Fortune fast. This is your neutral tool between enhanced casts.
  • Fortune’s Favor (right click): spends Fortune on two enhanced attacks — Claw Whip (150 Fortune): a longer-range empowered primary granting up to 50 bonus health per enemy hit; Phantom Pursuit (300 Fortune): an anchored dash that attacks at range and returns her to the origin, during which she is untargetable.
  • Cat’s Cradle: a quick lunging slash that hits multiple enemies in its path, with two charges that refresh slowly.
  • Turn of Fortune: a ranged attack with minimal damage that grants 300 Fortune and 50 bonus health on hit. Low damage, high economy — it is a reload button disguised as an attack.
  • Gilded Deal (relic shop): spends Fortune on one of six relics — Tablet of Destinies (100 Fortune, random Fortune back up to 500), Faltine Flame Orb (100, highlights nearby enemies unless destroyed), Helm of Hades (200, 60% movement speed and invisibility for 2 seconds), Chernobog’s Crystal (200, cleanses her own debuffs), Ring of Zona (200, a wall portal only her team can use), Mento-Fish (200, a hypnosis field that grounds and slows all enemies and disables movement abilities).
  • Calling Card (ultimate): marks all enemies in sight and grants two new abilities — Pounce (dash to a targeted enemy within 60 meters with 50% damage reduction while dashing) and Claw Strike (a fury of strikes dealing percentage damage and granting 300 Fortune). Both are once-per-target until a final hit, and killing an enemy during the ultimate resets its duration and both cooldowns.

The Fortune economy

Her entire game is banking and spending:

  • Neutral phase: Feline Fury hits at 50 Fortune each, with Turn of Fortune as the big top-up when it connects.
  • Spend phase: Claw Whip for sustained duels, Phantom Pursuit for safe poke and escapes — untargetable on the way out is what makes the 300 Fortune worth it.
  • Shop phase: bank enough for the relic the fight needs. Mento-Fish wins team fights by grounding divers; Helm of Hades wins flanks; Ring of Zona opens angles no enemy expects.
  • Death is the tax: 200 flat plus half the rest. Do not carry a full bank into a fight you cannot win.

How to play Black Cat

  1. Open duels with Feline Fury to apply Jinxed immediately — their crits lose a quarter of their value for the whole exchange.
  2. Use Turn of Fortune from safety to rebuild economy between fights; its minimal damage does not matter, the 300 Fortune does.
  3. Spend on Phantom Pursuit when you need to poke or leave — the untargetable window covers both the approach and the retreat.
  4. Hold Cat’s Cradle charges for the multi-target window or the escape; the slow refresh punishes spending both on one duel.
  5. Buy relics proactively: Faltine Flame Orb before a flank route, Mento-Fish before a dive comp, Chernobog’s Crystal when the enemy has the debuff that kills you.
  6. Ult when you can chain kills — each elimination resets Pounce and Claw Strike and extends the mark, so the ultimate snowballs through a distracted backline.

Matchups

Black Cat duels crit-reliant heroes on her terms: Jinxed strips a quarter of their burst, and Phantom Pursuit’s untargetable window dodges the rest. Her problems are heroes who do not care about crits or duels — area damage that forces her out of the one-on-one, and sustain that outlasts her 275 effective health. She is also famously fragile without Fortune: at zero bank she has no ranged answer, no escape, and no shield uptime.

Team-ups

  • Feline Alliance (Black Panther): taking damage accumulates Vibranium Energy; at threshold she unleches a violent explosion that damages and knocks back surrounding enemies while granting a brief speed boost and bonus health. With Black Panther, the explosion is no longer threshold-restricted and can be triggered at any time.
  • Binding Ties (Spider-Man): Turn of Fortune is replaced by Spider-Web Grapple with two charges — landing it steals Fortune and applies a Spider-Tracer, and hitting a traced enemy with any other ability triggers bonus damage. With Spider-Man, grappling a traced enemy temporarily immobilizes them.

Common mistakes

  • Dying with a full Fortune bank — the death tax is the harshest resource penalty in the game
  • Wasting Phantom Pursuit for poke when the untargetable window was your escape
  • Buying relics reactively after the dive has already started
  • Chasing crit-heavy duelists without applying Jinxed first
  • Spending both Cat’s Cradle charges on a single target

Frequently asked questions

What role is Black Cat in Marvel Rivals?

Black Cat is a Duelist with 150 health plus a 125-point regenerative shield and a 4/5 difficulty rating. She is a resource-based duelist who spends Fortune on enhanced attacks and a shop of six relics, and whose first hit on an enemy applies Jinxed — downgrading about a quarter of their critical hits.

How does Black Cat's Fortune resource work?

Fortune caps at 1,200 and comes from hits: 50 from any attack, 300 from Turn of Fortune, 150 from Phantom Pursuit, 300 from Claw Strike, and 0/50/200/500 from the Tablet of Destinies relic. On death she always loses 200 Fortune plus half of the remainder, so dying mid-bank is the fastest way to fall behind.

What does Black Cat's Jinxed status do?

The first hit on an enemy applies Jinxed for 3 seconds, which gives critical hits a 25% chance to deal no bonus damage. It is her answer to crit-reliant heroes — apply it early in a duel and their burst windows lose a quarter of their value.

What team-ups does Black Cat have?

Feline Alliance with Black Panther charges Vibranium Energy as she takes damage and unleles a damaging, knocking-back explosion with bonus health — with Black Panther it can be triggered at any time. Binding Ties with Spider-Man replaces Turn of Fortune with a two-charge web grapple that steals Fortune and marks targets.

More Marvel Rivals guides

Sources

Figures and item data on this site are read from the game’s own reference wiki before publishing. Where a value could not be confirmed there, the page says so instead of filling the gap.