Quick Links
Ever since its release,Marvel Rivalshas been shaping up to be one of my favorite multiplayer titles, with a range of extremely fun toeven annoying heroesthat make you want to pull your hair out in frustration.
However, be that as it may,once you’ve mastered the fundamentals,that’s where technical characters like the Winter Soldier, AKA Bucky Barnes may intrigue you in trying them out.
Marvel Rivals: How To Play The Hulk
Hulk is a fun but difficult hero. He is one of those characters that you understand how to play in order to extract value, and that is what this guide
Bucky is a Duelist character who uses a powerful 3-shot pistol and does mix-ups with his Bionic Arm abilities comprising his Hook to a melee dash to send opponents flying when they least expect it.
He’s a heavily skill-dependent character, only strong in capable hands,and I’ll explain just how and more with the strategies, counters, and team-ups in this guide for the Winter Soldier.
Winter Soldier Abilities Overview
I’ll briefly touch on the skill-dependent statement again. The Winter Soldier’s main weapon only holds 3 shots, and while you can use them endlessly as much as you want, the true potential is in the character’s abilities.
Spamming those abilities won’t do you any good eithersince as a whole, Bucky’s a character that relies on utilizing his abilities to get the most out of him, almost similar in scope tocharacters like Magik.
And if you’re not utilizing those abilities to the full extent, then you might as well be deadweight to your team. Regardless of which, we’ll talk strategies in a bit. Below is the full list of abilities for the Winter Soldier.
Description
Roterstern
Primary weapon. Fire explosive rounds with his blaster, Roterstern, damaging the target hit and enemies behind them. Holds only 3 shots, each dealing 70 base damage with a fire rate of 2.5 RPM.
Kraken Impact
Ultimate ability. Leap high, then dash forward and slam down with the bionic arm, dealing damage to enemies in range, marking them for Culling. Marked enemies will perish instantly if their health falls below a certain threshold, recharging the bionic arm for another Kraken Impact within a short period. Recharge lasts 8 seconds before refreshing with each kill.
Trooper’s Fist
Dash forward, seizing enemies along the path, and Launch Up enemies in front at the end of the dash. Deals 90 damage with a cooldown of 12 seconds.
Tainted Voltage
Charge up and launch a powerful electrical punch with the bionic arm in the target direction, dealing damage to enemies within range and Slowing them. This ability can knock down flying heroes. Deals 55 damage with a cooldown of 6 seconds.
Bionic Hook
Charge up and launch a hook with his bionic arm, reeling in the first target hit and enemies lurking behind. Reels in targets with 15 damage and a cooldown of 8 seconds.
Ceaseless Charge
Passive ability. Roterstern reloads automatically while the bionic arm is in action, granting the Winter Soldier Bonus Health.
Winter Soldier Offensive Abilities
Seeing as he’s a Duelist, there’s quite a few things you can do as Bucky, and while his abilities give a good impression that he’s a technical hero to learn, if you’re looking to push offense as much as possible, you’re going to have to master him.
Theuniversal strategyfor Bucky is to hook enemies, shoot them once, melee dash to launch them up, and finish them there.Try to practice your shots as much as possiblebecause the Roterstern’s critical hits do big chunks of damage to squishy heroes.
The Ceaseless Charge passive will reload your Roterstern when using any of Bucky’s Bionic arm abilities, incentivizing optimal usage of his abilities.
Below are the offensive strategies to consider when playing the Winter Soldier, which mainly comprises how you need to cycle his abilities and, of course, that broken ultimate of his that you can repeatedly chain with kills.
Winter Soldier Defensive Abilities
Unfortunately, as I’ve already said with Bucky being a skill-dependent character,his defensive reliability comes down to how well you perform against other heroes.
With how much playtime I’ve amassed with him if you’re able to understand a couple of strategies below, then you can somewhat stand your ground when the going gets tough with the Winter Soldier.
Marvel Rivals: 10 Characters With Great Mobility
If you’re looking to get speedy and tricky in Marvel Rivals, characters like Iron Fist and Spider-Man will be perfect.
Winter Soldier Counters & How To Deal With Them
FromVanguard heroeslike Venom making you regret taking him on due to his shield ability and escaping mechanism toBlack Panther’s erratic playstylegetting the best of you, the Winter Soldier has quite a fewhero countershere.
However,DPS characters like Hawkeye(If skilled enough) can take you out easily if you even peek slightly toward them, so attempt to stay out of their range and look for other targets to pulverize.
Lastly,Magneto can utilize barrierson characters tonegate your Hookand a goodStar-Lordplayer can use theirdodge ability to cancel any of your Bionic Arm abilities attempts.
Just to summarize, your matchups are tricky with Bucky.Try to get a feel of how to engage with the enemy’s lineup and decide if Bucky is suitable for the match itself because almost any hero (besides the ones I mentioned)can be mildly challenging to outplay here.
Winter Soldier’s Team-Up Abilities
Required Heroes
Infinite Grit
Rocket Raccoon
Rocket Raccoon throws an Ammo Overload in the target direction. Upon entering the device’s range, the Punisher and Winter Soldier receive the buffs of Infinite Ammo and Faster Firing.
Currently, there’s only a single team-up ability available for the Winter Soldierwhich allows him to gain temporary infinite ammo to his Roterstern from Rocket Raccoon, which can prove useful in cornered situations where you may’t easily push up against the enemy.
While I’ve already stated in-depth how Bucky’s viability shines from his ability usage, this team-up ability makes it so that he can be viable when put in a defensive situation during certain scenarios.
Where you can do nothing but fire from a distance until you eventually charge through the enemy’s defense with a push with your teammates.
Best Team Comps With The Winter Soldier
Now with a character like Winter Soldier, I’ve already stated in the Team-Up abilities Rocket Raccoon due to his extremely usefulinfinite ammo team-up abilityallowing you to use your Roterstern repeatedly at a distance.
But besides that team-up ability character,Mantis is a fantastic Strategist optionwith Bucky due to the damage buffs she provides which can help you pick off opponents even more easily.
And if you’re looking to have constant aggression up on the frontlines, it’s best to have a Vanguard like Thor or even Venom with you there so you can constantly put the pressure on the enemy team.
Besides that, there isn’t much else for an ideal team composition here.Your teammates can go with the aggressive DPS option here with characters likeIron Fist, but that’s about it since the Winter Soldier’s overall potential relies on you and your team’s aggression output.
