Every team-up is one-directional
Start with the fact that decides how the whole system gets used: of the 108 team-up pairings in Marvel Rivals, none are mutual. Every pairing upgrades exactly one hero — the hero who selected the loadout. The partner is a slot you spend so that one teammate runs a better kit.
Hulk is the clean example. Hulk can select Gamma Fastball, whose partner is Wolverine. Wolverine’s own two loadouts point at Gambit and Cyclops. So if your team runs Hulk and Wolverine “for the team-up”, Wolverine gets nothing from Hulk being there. Hulk gets the Furious state and the Fastball Special. Wolverine is a body with a normal kit.
That asymmetry is why “marvel rivals team up abilities not working” is a real search. Players drop a partner into the draft, open the partner’s hero screen, and find no team-up waiting. There isn’t one. Loadouts belong to the hero who picked them.
How the Season 9.0 system works
The Team-Up system was rebuilt in Season 9.0, and the version running in Season 10.5 is that rebuild. If a guide describes shared pairings where both heroes buff each other, it is describing the pre-Season 9 system — the wiki explicitly warns that same-named team-ups are not identical to their old versions. Five rules cover everything:
- Every hero has two independent loadouts, each naming exactly one partner hero.
- Selecting a loadout activates its Base Effect immediately — no partner required.
- The Enhanced Effect only runs while the named partner is on your team.
- A loadout can replace one of the hero’s existing skills. Doctor Strange’s Gamma Maelstrom overwrites Maelstrom of Madness; Scarlet Witch’s Sorcerers Supreme overwrites Chthonian Burst.
- You choose loadouts on the Heroes tab outside a match. During hero select they appear as selectable tabs, and mid-match you can swap only in the spawn room.
The Base-versus-Enhanced split is the part worth internalising. A Base Effect you get for free the moment you pick the loadout — it does not need the partner at all. The Enhanced Effect is the only thing the partner slot buys.
The 247 problem
The wiki counts 247 team compositions (as of Season 9.5) in which all six heroes can hold an Enhanced Effect at the same time. Against the thousands of six-hero drafts the 54-hero roster allows, that is a rounding error.
The practical reading: an all-Enhanced comp is a puzzle you solve by accident, not a plan you draft. You pick roles first, and if a pairing happens to be sitting inside a correct draft, you take it. Read the team composition guide for role counts before you think about partners at all.
Team-up tier list: what is actually worth a slot
Ranked by what the upgrade does to a fight. Numbers are the in-game values as of October 2026.
S tier — changes the fight
| Loadout | Hero | Partner | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ragnarok Rebirth | Thor | Hela | Fatal damage gives 600 Bonus Health with 40% damage reduction instead of dying; a KO inside the window revives Thor at a minimum of 300 health. Enhanced: a KO by either Thor or Hela triggers the instant revive |
| Chilling Charisma | Namor | Luna Snow | New Frost Tide ability: 75 damage and a 25% slow on a 15s cooldown. Enhanced: a second charge plus a 50-damage crash with a 40% slow at max range |
| Gamma Maelstrom | Doctor Strange | Hulk | Replaces Maelstrom of Madness: 1.3 damage per point of Dark Magic in a 10m field on a 6s cooldown. Enhanced: banks 50 Dark Energy with no decay |
A tier — strong, situational
| Loadout | Hero | Partner | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmic Cyclone | Adam Warlock | Storm | Soul Bond gives linked teammates +20% movement; Enhanced adds +12% damage and raises the boost to +30% within a 20m link range |
| Atlas Bond | Luna Snow | White Fox | 70 healing and 35 damage along a 40m spirit-fox path with an instant self-cleanse; Enhanced makes the fox boomerang back |
| Stars Aligned | Captain America | Winter Soldier | Leap to a teammate for 150 Bonus Health each and redirect their damage for 2s; Enhanced adds a mutual rally that buffs nearby allies |
| Ammo Overload | The Punisher | Rocket Raccoon | +35% Adjudication and +40% Deliverance attack speed in a 5m radius; Enhanced adds infinite ammo inside it |
B tier — fine upgrades, they don’t decide fights
Hulk’s Gamma Fastball (Wolverine) is the famous one: Furious state gives +25% movement and +25% attack speed for 6s, and the Fastball Special needs both players to confirm. Storm’s Gods of Thunder (Thor) turns Bolt Rush into Chain Lightning for 80 impact damage and 50 per bounce. Jeff’s Deadpool Plushie (Deadpool) taunts enemies in a 6m radius while healing 30/s. Good value — none of it wins a draft on its own.
One pattern worth knowing: Hela is the most requested partner in the game. Five loadouts name her — Thor’s Ragnarok Rebirth, Phoenix’s Circle of Life, Gorr’s Ragnarök, Deadpool’s “Hel-Yeah, Honey” and Loki’s Villain’s Illusion. If your team already has a Hela, half the roster’s best upgrades are one pick away.
The loadouts that replace a skill
The rule for replacing loadouts: take one only when you would happily never press the skill it overwrites.
Gamma Maelstrom is the test case. The upgraded Maelstrom charges drastically faster, but it no longer applies its Anti-Heal curse to enemies caught inside — if you were picking Strange partly to shut down enemy healing, that is a real downgrade, and the Hulk on your team does not fix it.
Scarlet Witch’s Sorcerers Supreme replaces Chthonian Burst with a missile salvo on a 0.12s firing interval and an 8s cooldown, usable alongside Chaos Control. If your Witch game is built on Chthonian Burst’s single detonation, skip the loadout and keep your burst. The counter-picks guide covers what each hero actually needs to bring.
How to run a team-up in five steps
- Draft roles first. Two Duelists, two Vanguards, two Strategists is the baseline; adjust for the map, not the pairing.
- Check your heroes’ loadouts against the draft. If one of your picks already names a partner on the team, that Enhanced Effect is free.
- If nothing lines up, test one swap. Would replacing one hero with a named partner keep every role filled? If yes, consider it. If no, stop.
- Select the loadout in hero select — or in the spawn room between lives if you changed your mind mid-match.
- Tell the partner what they are. They get no team-up back, so they should play their normal kit and not wait for a buff that isn’t coming.
Common mistakes
- Assuming symmetry. Zero of 108 pairings are mutual. The partner is an enabler, not a co-recipient.
- Drafting for the 247. All-Enhanced comps exist but are not a target. Roles first, always.
- Forgetting the replacement. A loadout can delete a skill you actually use. Read the Base Effect before you lock it.
- Trying to swap mid-fight. Loadouts change in the spawn room only.
- Chasing a pairing with a hero you can’t play. The tier list assumes competence on both heroes. A Strange who can’t aim Maelstrom is worse with the team-up than without it.
For which heroes are worth the slot on their own merits, read the heroes tier list. For the Thor and Namor loadouts specifically, the Thor and Namor pages cover the full kits those loadouts plug into.