Antewise

How to Play Winter Soldier in Marvel Rivals

Updated 25 Oct 2026 Source Marvel Rivals Wiki (Fandom) — Winter Soldier hero page (overview, abilities, strategy sections) and Team-Ups page, 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.

Winter Soldier is the Duelist who wins the 1v1s other Duelists start. His Roterstern hits for 150 on a headshot with splash behind the target, Bionic Hook drags isolated enemies into his team, and every ability use reloads his pistol and grants bonus health — so the Soldier who keeps weaving abilities never stops shooting. Kraken Impact is one of the strongest snowball ultimates in the game: mark a low-health target, delete them, refresh on the next.

Role and difficulty

Duelist. Winter Soldier has 275 health. Difficulty Hard (3/5). He brawls at the frontline near his Vanguards, weaving abilities between shots and pulling unaware enemies into his team’s damage.

Abilities and what they actually do

  • Roterstern (Normal Attack): Fire explosive rounds with his blaster, Roterstern, damaging the target hit and enemies behind them. Key numbers: DAMAGE — Projectile: 80, Spell Field: 45; FIRE RATE — 2.5 rounds/s; AMMO — 3; PROJECTILE SPEED — 180m/s.
  • Kraken Impact (Abilities).
  • Bionic Hook (Abilities): Key numbers: DAMAGE — Hook: 15, Spell Field: 20; COOLDOWN — 15s; RANGE — 10m after 0.5s of charging, increasing to up to 20m after 1s of charging.; PROJECTILE SPEED — 80m/s; CHARGE TIME — 0.5s - 4s.
  • Trooper’s Fist (Abilities): Key numbers: DAMAGE — Collision: 25, Uppercut: 65; COOLDOWN — 10s.
  • Tainted Voltage (Abilities): Key numbers: DAMAGE — 55; PROJECTILE SPEED — 100m/s.
  • Ceaseless Charge (Abilities): Using any active ability will automatically reload Bucky’s pistol and grant him some bonus health.

The reload loop and the hook pull

Ceaseless Charge means every active ability use automatically reloads the Roterstern and grants bonus health — ability weaving is both his damage engine and his sustain. The Roterstern fires explosive rounds for 75 body and 150 headshot with 65 splash, but it holds only three rounds, the lowest ammo of any ability in the game, so the reload loop is mandatory. Bionic Hook is a chargeable ranged grab that catches multiple enemies, and it pulls them directly in front of you — pivot toward your team the moment it lands to drag them even further out of position. Trooper’s Fist dashes, seizes, and uppercuts a target into the air for a free follow-up shot. Tainted Voltage pierces multiple enemies, slows them, and grounds fliers like Iron Man and Storm. Kraken Impact marks enemies with Culling: anyone at 15% health or below shows a marker and is instantly KO’d by the slam, and the ultimate refreshes if a teammate defeats a marked enemy — but the Blind effect blocks the dash if you lose line of sight to the reticle.

How to play Winter Soldier

  1. Weave an ability between every shot — the reload and bonus health are the whole kit.
  2. Headshot with the Roterstern for 150 plus splash into clustered enemies.
  3. Charge Bionic Hook for range, then pivot toward your team on impact to drag the pull deeper.
  4. Ground flying heroes with Tainted Voltage before they disengage.
  5. Uppercut divers with Trooper’s Fist and delete them during the launch.
  6. Mark low-health targets with Kraken Impact and chain the refresh through their team.

Matchups

Winter Soldier out-brawls agile dive heroes — Spider-Man, Black Panther, Magik, Psylocke — because he survives their burst and deletes them with headshots. Long-range poke that out-ranges his three-round pistol and heavy shields that block the pull are his problem. His Culling marks force enemies to burn defensive ultimates, which is value even when the slam misses.

Strengths (per the wiki):

  • A combo-based assassin that can quickly shift from mid-range attacks to devastating close-range combos with conditional area-of-effect potential.
  • Above-average health compared to other Duelists, which can be brought even higher thanks to his passive.
  • His passive, Ceaseless Charge, automatically reloads his primary fire whenever he uses any of the bionic-arm-related abilities while also providing bonus health.
    • This makes his kit flow in synergy, as players can use bionic-arm abilities instead of manually reloading as the situation demands to connect his combos seamlessly.
    • In addition, Winter Soldier gains 30 bonus health when using Bionic Hook and Tainted Voltage, and 50 bonus health when using Trooper’s Fist and Kraken Impact.
  • ** This bonus health is granted even if the ability does not connect with an enemy. It also can stack, providing him exceptional longevity.
  • His primary fire, Roterstern, not only has fast projectiles and deals high damage, but also has a unique property of dealing splash damage that hits enemies in a small cone directly behind the primary target, granting Winter Soldier a powerful conditional area-of-effect damage.
  • His secondary fire, Bionic Hook, which is a charged attack that extends the length of his bionic arm in a straight line to hook and pull the first target caught in its path towards the Winter Soldier.
    • This ability is the core of the Winter Soldier’s combo-oriented gameplay, allowing him to pull key targets overextending, such as Strategists, to quickly follow-up with his other abilities in order to deal devastating damage.
    • Bionic Hook’s range increases based on charge time, extending twice as long at maximum charge.
    • In addition to dealing direct damage for the first target hit, it also deals damage to enemies in a small cone directly behind the victim.
  • Trooper’s Fist is a short-ranged forward dash that ends in an uppercut. Enemies caught by it are pushed and launched upwards.
    • The dash can hit multiple targets if they’re very close to each other, leading them perfectly into the uppercut.
    • This ability is an excellent follow-up to Bionic Hook.
  • Tainted Voltage is an energy projectile launched in a straight line after a small build-up.
    • The projectile has piercing properties, allowing Winter Soldier to hit multiple enemies if they are caught in the line of fire.
    • Enemies hit by the blast are slowed by 35% for 2 seconds.
    • If this ability hits flying enemies, such as Iron Man and Star-Lord (during Rocket Propulsion or Galactic Barrage), it will knock them down to the ground.
    • This ability is a great opener for the Winter Soldier, as the slowing effect leaves enemies vulnerable to pull them with Bionic Hook.
  • His Ultimate, Kraken Impact, has Winter Soldier leaping high into the air while charging his bionic arm, projecting a large circular reticle (that shows the area-of-effect) before performing a downward strike at the ground with unleashed tentacles, dealing high damage in a large radius.
    • Enemies hit by Kraken Impact are temporarily marked with a debuff called Culling for 5 seconds, displayed as a small dark red bar overlapping the left side of an afflicted target’s health bar. This dark red mark represents 20% of a character’s max health. If a marked character’s health drops below this 15% threshold, they will be killed instantly.
  • ** When Winter Soldier is using Kraken Impact, enemies already below 15% of their maximum health are given a unique icon above their health bars. This icon signals to the player using Winter Soldier that these enemies can be killed with Kraken Impact in one blow, which also regenerates the Ultimate instantly.
  • *** In addition, taking down marked targets will instantly refill Kraken Impact, allowing Winter Soldier to use it again. Winter Soldier can consecutively use Kraken Impact as long as he is able to dispose of marked opponents.
  • **** This reset works even against Loki’s Illusions, Hulk reverting to Bruce Banner, or when triggering Wolverine’s Regenerative Healing Factor.
  • Has limited mobility outside of his Ultimate and Trooper’s Fist.
    • To perform the dash during Kraken Impact Winter Soldier needs to have line of sight with the landing circular reticle. Abilities that give the ”Blind” status effect such as Cloak’s Terror Cape or Daredevil’s Sonic Pursuit / Let The Devil Out make him unable to use slam while airborne, rendering his ult’s targeting very difficult to control and leaving more room for reaction for the enemy team.
  • Very reliant on his bionic-arm abilities to keep damage going; if he mismanages them, he can be left incredibly vulnerable with his gun relying on them.
  • His primary fire has the lowest ammo out of any ability in the game, with only 3 bullets before the player has to reload.
    • The splash damage from his primary fire doesn’t cover a lot of range, and will often only trigger if targets are very close to each other.
  • The Culling debuff from Kraken Impact lasts for only 5 seconds, making strong defensive abilities like Magneto’s Metal / Iron Bulwark, Hulk’s Indestructible Guard and Adam Warlock’s Soul Bond to be effective counters, as well high healing Ultimates such as Luna Snow’s Fate of Both Worlds.

Weaknesses (per the wiki):

  • Has limited mobility outside of his Ultimate and Trooper’s Fist.
    • To perform the dash during Kraken Impact Winter Soldier needs to have line of sight with the landing circular reticle. Abilities that give the ”Blind” status effect such as Cloak’s Terror Cape or Daredevil’s Sonic Pursuit / Let The Devil Out make him unable to use slam while airborne, rendering his ult’s targeting very difficult to control and leaving more room for reaction for the enemy team.
  • Very reliant on his bionic-arm abilities to keep damage going; if he mismanages them, he can be left incredibly vulnerable with his gun relying on them.
  • His primary fire has the lowest ammo out of any ability in the game, with only 3 bullets before the player has to reload.
    • The splash damage from his primary fire doesn’t cover a lot of range, and will often only trigger if targets are very close to each other.
  • The Culling debuff from Kraken Impact lasts for only 5 seconds, making strong defensive abilities like Magneto’s Metal / Iron Bulwark, Hulk’s Indestructible Guard and Adam Warlock’s Soul Bond to be effective counters, as well high healing Ultimates such as Luna Snow’s Fate of Both Worlds.

Team-ups

  • Timeless Veterans (with The Punisher, Season 9.0: The Mystery of Thebes): Unlocks the Burst Spike ability. Using the bionic arm emits forward electricity, dealing damage and Knocking Back enemies. Enhanced: When teaming up with The Punisher, the electric burst applies a Grounded effect and Knocks Back enemies even further.
  • Expert Instinct (with Elsa Bloodstone, Season 9.0: The Mystery of Thebes): Securing or participating in a KO grants a stack of Culling Instinct. Each stack reduces the cooldowns of Winter Soldier’s other abilites. Stacks are lost upon defeat. Enhanced: When teaming up with Elsa Bloodstone, the Bonus Health generated by Ceaseless Charge is increased.

Common mistakes

  • Fighting without weaving abilities and sitting on an empty three-round pistol
  • Hooking without pivoting — the pull stops in front of you, not inside your team
  • Casting Kraken Impact with defensive ultimates still available on the enemy team
  • Losing line of sight to the reticle and getting Blinded out of the dash
  • Brawling away from your team, where the hook pull has nowhere to drag targets

Frequently asked questions

What role is Winter Soldier in Marvel Rivals?

Duelist, with 275 health and a 3/5 difficulty. His pistol headshots for 150, every ability reloads it, and Bionic Hook drags enemies into his team.

How do you play Winter Soldier?

Weave abilities between shots for the reload and bonus health, headshot for 150, pivot the hook pull toward your team, ground fliers with Tainted Voltage, and chain Kraken Impact refreshes through marked targets.

Who does Winter Soldier counter?

Agile dive heroes he out-brawls and flying heroes he grounds. Long-range poke and heavy shields counter him.

What team-ups does Winter Soldier have?

Timeless Veterans with Punisher unlocks Burst Spike, an electrical knockback slash, and Expert Instinct with Elsa Bloodstone grants cooldown-reducing Culling Instinct stacks on every KO participation.

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.