Marvel Rivals: Marvel Rivals: How To Play Hawkeye (Abilities, Ultimate, Tips & Tricks)

The archetype of Duelist refers to characters with lower health but high DPS. Unlike supportive Strategists or tank-like Vanguards, Duelists like Hawkeye are designed to dish out damage to targets who threaten their team the most. Similar to other characters like Winter Soldier in Marvel Rivals, Hawkeye's abilities are at their strongest when your aim is true, and you hit your enemies consistently.

All Hawkeye Abilities

Stay Focused To Deal More Damage

Hawkeye is rated as a four-star difficulty character, meaning it will take some time to master all his abilities. The skill ceiling for Hawkeye comes from aiming at moving targets with his arrows, which have multiple properties depending on the abilities you use. Despite being a straightforward character to understand, Hawkeye is hard for beginners to use due to the accuracy needed to wield his skills properly.

The table below outlines all of Hawkeye's abilities, as well as how long it takes some of them to recover:

Hawkeye can freely switch between Piercing Arrows and Blast Arrows with an input, giving him multiple ammo types to use against enemies. Piercing Arrows cover a greater distance, doing higher single-target damage, especially if you score a headshot. On the other hand, Blast Arrows deal three AoE explosions at mid to close ranges, creating a shotgun-like effect that can be good at disrupting enemy teams grouped up.

Crescent Slash can knock enemies off maps in Marvel Rivals, eliminating them if they don't have a way to get back onto a battlefield. The other melee skill of Hawkeye, Ronin Slash, functions as both an attack and a skill to reflect projectiles. However, the timing on this reflection is incredibly strict, so you may not want to risk using it to bounce back powerful Ultimates like Iron Man's Maximum Pulse.

How To Use Hawkeye's Ultimate

Never Let Enemies Leave Your Sight

Hunter's Sight is an Ultimate that only works when you can see enemies within Hawkeye's line of sight. To make sure this Ultimate captures as many Afterimages as possible, you need to get to the high ground above an enemy team or in a place where you can see many opponents at once. Try using Hawkeye's Skyward Leap double jump to reach locations where you have a better view of the battlefield to accomplish this.

As soon as you activate Hawkeye's Ultimate, you have a limited time to start shooting. That being said, your total Focus charges almost instantly when you aim at a target or its Afterimage during this state. This allows you to deal the highest damage possible to a target, who can't escape you since their Afterimages remain stationary for you to shoot quickly.

Launch Piercing Arrows over and over at targets to eliminate as many targets as you can while Hunter's Sight is activated. A good strategy for this Ultimate is to aim for the Afterimages of targets with lower health, instead of bulkier Vanguards in Marvel Rivals. You can still land headshots on Afterimages, so continue to aim for a target's head to maximize the damage output of every Arrow you fire.

Best Team Composition For Hawkeye

Allow Others To See Afterimages

Some of the best characters to have alongside a team with Hawkeye are:

• Black Widow
• Mantis
• Doctor Strange
• Venom

Black Widow is the only character that has a Team-Up ability in Marvel Rivals with Hawkeye, called "Supersensory Vision." This ability allows Hawkeye to share his Hunter's Sight Ultimate with Black Widow when activated, giving the sniper to catch sight and damage enemy Afterimages. This is an enormous buff for Black Widow, allowing her to eliminate targets quickly with headshots to their Afterimages.

Other characters that work well with Hawkeye include Mantis, who can consume Life Orbs to give Hawkeye a damage boost on his attacks. This gives Hawkeye the ability to take out targets even faster, eliminating some foes with a single headshot. Doctor Strange can provide a shield for Hawkeye to shoot behind, while Venom can slow targets down with a symbiotic tether that can help Hawkeye hit more mobile enemies.

Best Tips, Tricks Strategies For Winning With Hawkeye

Stay Mobile And Watch Enemy Movements

As of this time of writing, Hawkeye is easily one of the strongest Duelists in the game, mostly due to how his high damage output leads to many eliminations. Hawkeye excels when you stay behind your team to shoot targets from afar. When using cover to steadily aim shots, Hawkeye can fire onto contested objectives or choke points to easily pick off a few enemies.

However, Hawkeye's strength can lead to him getting targeted by characters like Spider-Man or Iron Fist in Marvel Rivals. To avoid getting defeated by aggressive enemies, remember to use your Blast Arrows or Crescent Slash to knock enemies away from you. This should give you the space to double-jump back to the safety of your team or toward a health pack to recover from being attacked.

As long as your aim is true, you should have little trouble finding success as Hawkeye. Keep your Focus high and target characters with low health to score elimination after elimination, reducing your opponent's numbers fast. With Hawkeye's abilities helping you position yourself to snipe enemies down, you can become a lethal force that enemy teams will fear in Marvel Rivals.