On paper, Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a fairly straightforward tactical RPG with social features baked into it. This is still true, but each of Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ gameplay showcases have also depicted how comprehensive each character is thus far, with loads of mechanics and strategies for players to consider that may also be uniquely advantageous to certain characters. For example, Spider-Man makes use of Bind properties and environmental interaction, while Doctor Strange is a support character that can heal, cure, and conceal other members of the player’s party.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ latest character gameplay deep-dive now features Carol Danvers’ Captain Marvel, who fans know to be a cosmic powerhouse and human-Kree hybrid. Captain Marvel has the pleasure of starring in Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ first female gameplay showcase, which is again offered by YouTuber Christopher Odd in collaboration with developer Firaxis and publisher 2K. Odd mentions that Captain Marvel is widely regarded as “the strongest Avenger ever,” and her gameplay certainly emphasizes that sentiment as she pummels enemies and relies on a “dedicated meter.”
Captain Marvel Has a Unique Meter for Her Character Only
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Interestingly, Marvel's Midnight Suns' Captain Marvel is “one of the few" characters to have a meter specific to them. Captain Marvel’s meter is called Binary, which increases as fans play her cards. The meter is composed of three bars seen below her health, and once filled players can then use Captain Marvel’s Go Binary heroic card.
Binary is an effect exclusive to Captain Marvel that increases her offense by 100 percent, though it is removed once her Block is completely depleted. The Go Binary heroic gives her Binary and 102 Block, and is Free, meaning it does not cost a card play.
Therefore, Captain Marvel is incredibly powerful so long as she maintains Block. Captain Marvel’s abilities are a balancing act in Marvel’s Midnight Suns as many of her cards that increase Block may also apply Taunt, such as her Knee Strike attack card. Knee Strike will gain Block equal to damage dealt, but Taunt also pulls enemy aggression to her at the same time, meaning that she could be receiving and administering damage often.
Thankfully, Captain Marvel’s Regroup skill card increases her Block and upon upgrade it can also recover an amount of her health and apply Cure to her on redraw. It seems as though Captain Marvel’s Binary effect is absolutely essential to her gameplay, and it also appears as if it is easy to build up since it only requires Captain Marvel card plays. It will be interesting to see which other characters have their own unique meters, and how those will orient the character’s gameplay in Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ tactical RPG.
Captain Marvel Introduces Counter Attacks in Marvel’s Midnight Suns
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But while Taunt will draw attention to Captain Marvel and potentially sacrifice her amassed Block, she has supplemental means of dealing damage that make Taunt worthwhile. Introduced in Captain Marvel’s gameplay showcase is a Counter mechanic that seems to play heavily on her strengths as a cosmic brawler in Marvel's Midnight Suns.
Counter is aptly described, where incoming attacks will be automatically reciprocated, and this effect is surprisingly active “for an entire turn.” Captain Marvel’s Cosmic Ray attack card is then fantastic if she is being targeted, for example, because it increases her damage.
Future upgrades for Cosmic Ray will gain one Counter if the card’s usage results in a KO, as well as a percentage chance to apply Stun. Further, Captain Marvel’s Didn’t Feel a Thing passive ability is oriented around Counters, as it offers percentage chances for Captain Marvel to receive one Counter on KO and is limited to one per turn. This means that Captain Marvel could potentially be dishing out Counter attacks each turn, especially if the passive ability is upgraded at Marvel's Midnight Suns' Abbey.
Because so much of her gameplay revolves around Taunt and Block, it may not be entirely practical to have both Captain Marvel and Captain America in a Marvel’s Midnight Suns party together as they both benefit from hoarding aggro. Counter seems like it may be overpowered once Captain Marvel has enough damage built up from Binary, but outside of Binary she may still need a boost from other resources to achieve high damage outputs.
Captain Marvel is a Single-Target Bruiser in Marvel’s Midnight Suns
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In addition to dealing Counter attacks, Captain Marvel is a heavy-hitter on her own when it comes to single targets. That said, the cost may be great to deal as much damage as she can muster. Captain Marvel’s Rain of Blows heroic card, for example, consumes all heroism to deal a great amount of damage, and also consumes all Block. Captain Marvel's output is therefore only as powerful as players can make it via Marvel's Midnight Suns' myriad status effects and resources that impact abilities.
If players have a ton of heroism then this is a powerful card to play, but it also depletes her power completely thereafter, particularly if she had her Binary effect activated beforehand. Upon upgrade, Rain of Blows can grant one Resist on KO, which would be satisfying as the card’s use may always result in a KO depending on how much heroism the player has accumulated.
Players obviously do not want to use Rain of Blows immediately after having activated Go Binary, then, and it will be up to them whether they hang onto Rain of Blows for a later turn where Binary is inactive, and they do not have much Block to waste on it. Heroism is a significant resource in Marvel’s Midnight Suns that many characters need to share, and putting it all on Captain Marvel under specific circumstances may be highly rewarding.
But while her bread-and-butter is single-target damage, Captain Marvel’s Supernova heroic damages each enemy in an area, and that AoE can be increased as the card is upgraded. Likewise, a late-game upgrade for Supernova grants Captain Marvel one Resist on redraw, with Resist preventing all damage from the next damaging attack. Captain Marvel relies on a strong offense where she is primarily trading blows in one-on-one exchanges, though the resources players must allocate toward her must be in great supply in order for her to truly excel on the battlefield.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns releases October 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.