Marvel's Midnight Suns Doctor Strange Gameplay Breakdown

Doctor Strange is known for his elaborate, mystical spell-casting, and that sensation is fulfilled satisfyingly in Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ portrayal of the character’s abilities. Each of his arm-waving incantations are animated beautifully with intricate coloring and detail in the special effects that ensue, and it turns out that these spells are much more substance over style in Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ most recent character gameplay showcase featured the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man and discussed how he is oriented mainly around environmental mastery.

Doctor Strange has recently received his own gameplay showcase, which proves once again that each character in the Marvel’s Midnight Suns roster is unique from one another. The showcase, offered once again by YouTuber Christoper Odd, demonstrates how Strange is primarily a support class character that depends upon a decent amount of heroism in order to fully capitalize on his heroic and skill cards. Doctor Strange’s gameplay in Marvel’s Midnight Suns is comprehensive, complex, and a must-have for players desiring a support character.

Doctor Strange is All About Supplying Support in Marvel’s Midnight Suns

In Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Doctor Strange is what Odd calls the “ultimate support hero,” capable of healing, shielding, and concealing himself or his allies on the battlefield. Doctor Strange’s Vapors of Valtorr skill card, for example, applies the Concealed effect to Strange or an ally, which makes them untargetable and invisible to enemies. However, Concealed is diminished if the Concealed party member is damaged by an AoE attack, Knockback or environmental impact, using a targeted ability, or at the end of the turn. Ephemeral as this effect may be, it may alleviate any unwanted damage to a particular party member who is being ambushed and targeted by several enemies at once.

Further, Vapors of Valtorr may restore health to that party member upon upgrade. Doctor Strange’s Shield of the Seraphim heroic card deals a substantial buff to himself and all players’ party members in Marvel’s Midnight Suns by casting Resist, an effect that prevents all damage from the next damaging attack.

Similarly, a later upgrade casts Cure to Strange and all allies at the same time, which removes all negative status effects they may have incurred. If players want a truly supportive Doctor Strange that can effectively buff, conceal, shield, and cure allies, it is strongly recommended that players spend time with him at Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Abbey in order to receive these instrumental card upgrades. Strange is still strong without upgrades, but additional status effects can be applied or removed as well as whichever buffs and debuffs are already included in his cards by default.

Doctor Strange Gameplay Introduces Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ Combat Items

Marvel’s Midnight Suns has many features in-and-out of combat; Doctor Strange is specifically oriented around the use of Combat Items. These are items that players select as they prepare their squad team for a subsequent combat mission, and all apply unique buffs, regardless of which characters the player brings with them into battle.

Examples of Combat Items shown include Gamma Reversion Pulse, which allows players to select an enemy or ally to remove all status effects from, and Habanero Dart, which applies the Vulnerable effect twice. It also appears as though each Combat Item is Free, meaning that they do not cost a card play to cast, but seemingly only two Combat Items can be equipped and brought into combat before future upgrades may allow more to be equipped.

This is insinuated as Odd explains that Combat Items are ordinarily “single-use consumables,” but Doctor Strange’s Astral Meditation skill card restores the use of Midnight Suns two Combat Items that have been previously used in that combat mission for replay. More Combat Items can then be restored following an upgrade to Astral Meditation, and the skill card also grants two redraws, with a later upgrade drawing the last attack card that was played.

Unfortunately, Astral Meditation has Exhaust and can only be used the one time in a Midnight Suns combat mission, and therefore its use is only advisable when Combat Items have already been used. Many of Strange’s cards and abilities are best used after some consideration such as this, where heroism certainly comes into play as a resource that players may want to reserve for the Sorcerer Supreme.

Strange adapts well to any party in need of a support class character. However, while Captain America revolves around Block and Iron Man revolves around redraws in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Doctor Strange revolves around the subtle nuances of the game’s heroism resource. Doctor Strange’s Greater Good passive ability, which can be upgraded by hanging out with him at the Abbey, grants a chance for additional heroism to be generated each turn.

This is generally fantastic as it could potentially keep heroism resources high each turn, but Doctor Strange is also heavily oriented around the Enhanced effect on many of his cards. The Enhanced effect affords a bonus depending on a minimum amount of heroism, creating a threshold from which heroic ability costs are adjusted.

For example, an upgrade to Strange’s Shield of the Seraphim heroic card gives it an Enhanced effect with six heroism and Resist for each ally. Likewise, a later upgrade to Strange’s Vapors of the Valtorr skill card applies two Fast, an effect that reduces the cost of heroic cards.

Doctor Strange’s Seven Suns of Cinnibus heroic card damages all enemies in an area and is Enhanced further with extra heroism to deal even more damage, especially if players have been harvesting heroism using Strange’s Greater Good passive ability. One later upgrade even restores health to Strange on redraw.

Overall, Doctor Strange appears incredibly powerful as a support unit that can also dish out damage if heroism has been generated and balanced accordingly in his favor. It also seems paramount to upgrade his cards and passive ability so that players can wholly utilize his kit in Firaxis’ latest tactical RPG.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns releases October 7 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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