#10) Gargantos (Multiverse of Madness)
955 
849 
743 
472
121 
112 
103 Health: 81,395
Recommended Build: 5/3/5
Gargantos checks pretty much every box in terms of being a character you want to roster. He is powerful, unique, fun, has a great passive, is good on his own or with a ready-made partner to amplify what he does. Overall, Shuma Gar-Gorath is a character worthy of going after; especially because so much of what he does can be exploited with the right partners.
Garg’s green (Tentacle Thrash) is a pretty awesome passive. He creates a 1-turn countdown that destroys 1 enemy AP in that color. The tile then recreates itself on an adjacent tile. If invisible at the start of the turn, he creates an extra Tentacle Thrash Tile (max of 3). If the enemy has no AP in said color when one of these tiles expire, Gargantos instead does a nice chunk of free damage (almost 5k at 5 covers). The beauty of this passive is that it makes him a great teammate for characters that benefit from countdowns resolving (more on that in the “pairings” section below).
Shuma’s black (Tentacle Teeth) is a situational power that can potentially deal big damage to special tile spammers, or do nothing at all. For 8 AP, he reduces the strength of 1 (2 at 5 covers) enemy special tile by 356 (plus 356 for each Tentacle Thrash tile on the board), he then destroys any tiles below strength 356 and deals around 5100-5900 permanent damage for EACH tile destroyed. So as I said above, the variance on this power is super high depending on the opponent.
Finally, blue (Ineffable Horror) moves Shuma here from support and situational counter-character and adds mega-nuke to an already impressive résumé. For 9 blue AP, Shuma drains all blue AP and deals 4375 damage for EACH AP drained… just wow. This means you are doing a minimum of 39k damage. For context, 4375 damage per AP is almost IHulk “Breaker of Bones” level destruction (4571 per AP) without the self-damage drawback. Instead, he also gets to go invisible for two turns when you fire this power (which of course buffs Tentacle Thrash).
Like I said, there’s lots to love about Gargantos. He’s defensively annoying to face because his passive can dictate the AP you chase in the beginning of a match (unless you boost all AP). If his tile is on red, you match red (whether useful or not) or take a big hit. Black can be situationally devastating. And blue could very well be the best single-target nuke in the game. Couple all this with a high fun factor, no shortage of quality partners and one borderline broken paring, and it’s easy to see why folks were high on Shuma out of the gate!
Pairings:
Hawkeye is easily Gargantos’ best partner. When countdowns expire, Hawkeye becomes a great blue/red battery. Shuma happens to spam countdowns for said battery and has a phenomenal blue outlet to use the AP. It’s a match made in heaven! Abigail Brand heals allies whenever countdowns (or repeaters) expire, so can provide some extended life for the squishy archer as a third. She also suppresses AP passively and actively with purple to help keep Tentacle Teeth dealing damage. Similarly, Odin also suppresses AP, passively creates countdowns and heals friendlies under certain conditions. Other countdown-spamming thirds include Loki, Electro, Goblin, and Gambit (I pass on Iceman because he’s a double-edged sword draining blue). Ronin and Knull can give extra countdowns passively, though they are 3-turn so will be slow. In pick-2 Scarlet Witch can be a great blue battery if you choose it for Chaos Magic. She also gives an extra 5% damage for each blue AP you hold (so an extra 45% damage if you fire Gargantos’ blue holding 9 AP). Or, you can play for Gargantos’ black ability and pair him with someone like Carnage to drop enemy specials to destroy. Finally, Gargantos is a good solo character so will pair well with other solo characters (like Elektra or support characters (like Sersi or Crystal) who compliment his colors, even if there’s no inherent synergy.
What to expect when boosted:
Boosted, Garg will be a must-play fully blown destructive meta. Anyone who chose to skip him will be cursing themselves whenever his number is called. The passive damage on his countdown will hit hard out of the gate before the enemy has a chance to gather AP. His boosted blue will take out any threat in front of him. If he’s boosted with any of the many characters he pairs well with (see above), expect to see a mix of those pairings and Garg/Hawkeye (even if Clint is unboosted) clogging up all of your queues.
#9) The Hulk (Immortal)**
**857
667
762 
424
109
101 **
**92 Health: 40,027
Recommended Build: 5/3/5
The Hulk once reigned atop the PVP meta as a defensive scarecrow who provided quick-hitting (boostable) passive offense that melted opponents. Fortunately for Hulk, he escaped being nerfed. Unfortunately for Zombie Banner, two characters were released to counter him and effectively shut down his reign of terror. So, why does Hulk still find a place in the top 10 given his disappearing act in PVP? Simply put, those counter characters are not found in PVE. So, paired with another character ranked above him on this list, Hulk still reigns supreme on one of the fastest teams in all of PVE.
Hulk has two scary good, lightning-fast offensive abilities, the first of which is his passive green ability (The Green Door), that sees Hulk converting a random basic tile to green each turn. Then, if there are 8 or more green on the board, he destroys 2 of them and deals about 5500 AOE damage… passively! Paired with a force-multiplier like Okoye, this can end teams in a hurry. The 8 green threshold needed to proc this ability is quite low and results in it firing off seemingly every turn! The slight board manipulation also results in more cascades than one might expect from changing a single tile’s color and destroying two random tiles.
Hulk’s black (What Does Kill Me) is yet another passive that essentially has four parts (so strap in). 1) He deals just over 2500 damage to himself each time he makes a match. With some of the highest match damage in the tier, that should be often! 2) He can’t be killed unless he’s the last person left on your team. If he has teammates standing, he’ll just keep reviving at ~45% health whenever you try downing him! 3) Each time Hulk resurrects, he gets a bump in match damage that caps at 252% to 378% depending on covers. 4) Each time Hulk resurrects, he also deals ~7300 damage to his allies… which is no small chunk of life!
Finally, Hulk’s red (Breaker of Bones) is his only active ability. And what an active it is! For only 7 AP, Hulk SMASHES his opponent to bits, dealing just over 32K damage to his target. He also deals ~17K to himself… which just so happens to be the health pool he revives with each time he resurrects. So, using that cheap red will cripple the opponent, kill Hulk, and have him coming back even stronger with increased match damage (thanks to the aforementioned black). Note: he doesn’t take damage if his punch downs an opponent to end the match (nice health pack saver).
Hulk was once a defensive nightmare to face. His green is simply unavoidable, and it can wreck you in a hurry without a hard counter to stop the bleeding. I don’t suggest bringing half-health Thor to a Hulk fight, as The Green Door is a good counter to his antics. Similarly, Hulk’s red is so cheap that the AI could easily stumble into the AP needed to make short work of you, as it is one of the best damage-to-AP ratio powers in the game. Since the release of Scarlet Witch and Electro, Hulk is no longer a force in PVP, since those two hard-counter all AOE powers. In PVE however, “Hulkoye” (Hulk and Okoye) are still one of the fastest duos in the game for speed-clearing (simply because those two hard counters are nowhere to be found). While you’d think Hulk’s “never say die” attitude would make him the ideal character to climb with, saving on healthpacks, his tendency to hurt his allies means while he may never need a pack himself, he can cost you big reviving others (especially a low health essential character). However, there are enough true healers to pair him with in the tier to slow the bleeding. Note that while Hulk no longer has the PVP shine he once did, he has the potential to return to greatness down the road (believe it or not) if another “must kill last” character is released. If you have the resources, Immortal Hulk is a character you do not want to miss out on both for now (PVE!) and the future of your roster (PVP?)!
Pairings:
Ideal partners for Banner 2.0 here are ones that either capitalize on his gifts and/or mitigate his weaknesses. Loki and Phoenix are examples of the former. Both have passive resurrection abilities that are usually easily ignored by saving them for last. Hulk makes it so those characters popping back up is a reality that can’t be as easily ignored. Phoenix is especially good due to her ability to function as a red battery, plus she has an awesome green AOE when she revives. True healers like Doom, Crystal, Daken, Daredevil, and Okoye are your best bet at mitigating Hulk’s biggest drawback of dealing tons of team damage. Crystal can not only heal herself passively, but Banner as well. Daken’s black passive can fuel Hulk’s red, while Hulk can spam the board with green tiles to fuel Daken’s Lethal Fury. Matt will put strikes on the board as Hulk hurts him. These strikes will simultaneously heal Daredevil while amping up Hulk’s already high damage output. Similarly, what’s better than The Green Door? An Okoye-fueled Green Door! Okoye/Hulk have surpassed all others (at least on my roster) as PVE’s premier power couple. Looking at non-healing partners, Hulk shrugging off Court Death makes him an excellent pair with Thanos against low health enemies. Beta Ray’s overall tankiness, sustainability, and no active overlap make them a nightmare team to face. Finally, despite red overlap, Apocalypse can also boost green door with his repeaters and tank more so Hulk can sit in back and hurt his team less.
What to expect when boosted:
Expect Hulk to tank everything, die often, and obliterate his teammates. Most people keep Hulk at low levels for good reason… the more he tanks the more he inflicts punishment on his own. So aside from one match at the end of your climb to deter hits, I’d steer clear of boosted Hulk. Even in PVE he’s worse, as you want Okoye tanking as much as possible to avoid team damage and to keep the teamup AP high to boost Green Door. He’s one of the few characters made worse overall when boosted.
#8) Kitty Pryde (Uncanny X-Men)
713
634
555
353
91
84
77 Health: 55,171
Recommended Build: 5/5/3
When you talk about characters who have warped the meta, Kitty Pryde is near the top of that list. Before Kitty, the meta mostly revolved around speed, speed, and more speed. This makes sense given how much speed equates to success in both PVE and PVP. When paired with the right people, Kitty offers lighting speed, but she also adds a defensive element that 5* meta teams before her lacked. One could argue Carndusa was the spiritual predecessor to Kitty teams, but Carndusa were very slow. Assuming you can keep tiles on the board, Kitty can wipe you out in an instant.
Kitty’s passive yellow (Phase and Conquer) is the power that puts her on the map. As long as you have at least 4 special tiles on the board, she buffs up to 5 of them by 633 passively each turn. This threshold goes down by one for each X-Man you manage to put on your team. What this means is if your opponent cannot clear those special tiles, she will get out of hand fast. The active component of Phase and Conquer allows you to get the ball rolling, or keep the number of tiles on the board up, as she drops 3 protects for 8 AP.
When the opponent has special tiles on the board, Kitty’s purple (Circuit Breaker) passively creates a repeater that hops around the board each turn, eating opponent special tiles. Once the board is cleaned up, the tile explodes for big damage (over 13k). This makes her particularly effective in PVPs where characters passively put down a special each turn (3* Heroes for Hire, Scarlet Witch, Medusa, etc.). On the other hand, the power is worthless against characters who do not rely on special tiles (rarer and rarer these days).
Finally, Kitty’s red (Practiced Offense) puts down a lengthy countdown for 6 AP. While this tile is on the board, if your team takes damage from a power, she puts 3 attack tiles on the board (to be buffed by her yellow). This power can range from mildly annoying to a game-changer. Especially when you get hit with an AOE (Hi Hulk!). A cascade from an opponent 4* Juggernaut while this tile is out can be particularly hilarious.
Without assistance from others, Kitty would be painfully slow, as she has no direct damage-dealing abilities herself. She’d need to get the AP to fire Circuit Breaker, hope the countdown lasts, wait for the opponent to hit her team with a power that does damage, and hope her attack tiles last long enough to stay above the buff threshold. Thus, she needs people who can spam the board with specials for her to buff right away. At that point the strategy is all about protecting your special tiles and adding more. The bottom line is that alone she is awful, but since MPQ is all about teams, with the right partners she becomes arguably the best character in the game.
Pairings:
Kitty pairs well almost exclusively with those who spam special tiles for her to buff. No one puts as many out as quickly as 4* Rocket & Groot (7 tiles on turn 0). Thus, the “Gritty” meta that once permeated the 5* tier. Later additions to the 5* tier Carnage, Knull, and Beta Ray Bill have added playmates for Pryde, given their predilection for special tiles. In fact, Bill (mentioned later) has seemingly supplanted Grocket as Katherine’s partner of choice, where slowing down the opponent to a crawl creates a “skip or suffer” scenario. Whether using Carbage, Knull, Bill, or Grocket, it should be noted that Polaris has supplanted herself as a must-play third for Kitty, due to the 4*’s ability to turn the entire board into friendly special tiles in no time at all. Going off-meta, half-health Daredevil and Old Man Logan are oldies that can passively put tiles on the board for her as well. Jean Grey, Hela and Jessica Jones can also flood the board, but do so actively rather than passively. Ultron can make sure tiles stay on the board and provides a second buff source, but you may need a third, like the above-mentioned Polaris or Electro (versus an AOE team) to get tiles on the board. And despite overlap, Magneto is another character who pairs well due to both characters benefiting from the other’s X-Men affiliation. Though this guide is mostly for 5* players, note that people in all tiers of play are seemingly chasing Kitty for that sweet yellow. 2-3* Daken, 3* Blade, and 4* Carnage are characters those lower tier characters often pair her with.
What to expect when boosted:
If you have a special tile creator boosted along with Kitty, then that pair is no-brainer during her boost week. However, she’s good enough that you can (and often might have to) bring unboosted partners to the dance to put tiles out for her to buff. But Kitty and an old 4* (Grocket) could very well be better than any other two boosted characters on her boost week. Reason being, if the raccoon dies turn one, he already made his contribution on turn 0 and Kitty is off to the races, solo-smashing the opposition. She really is that good.
#7) Beta Ray Bill (Korbinite Warrior)
837
744
651
414
106
98
90 Health: 66,964
Recommended Build: 5/3/5
Beta Ray Bill is quite simply a well-rounded character that provides a bit of everything (offense, defense, support). He is one of the best solo characters in the game today and just so happens to have mechanics that allow him to play well with the very best characters in the game. It is for these reasons that he finds himself in the top 10, and is one of the very top characters in the game today.
Bill’s green (Skuttlebutt!) is pretty straightforward. For 12 AP he dishes out 4 random hits of ~8300 damage. This power is more dangerous to face on defense (especially when you are trying to get specific people to tank) than it is to use on offense (where you may be trying to target a specific character). Its utility goes up as opponents fall and you can more selectively focus-fire.
Bill’s yellow passive (Defender of Two Peoples) has two components. First, he places 4 small yellow protects on the board at the beginning of the game. Second, when a friendly protect is destroyed (by either team!) he generates 1 blue and 1 green AP. This doesn’t seem like much, but when paired with this next ability… he can get out of hand in a hurry!
Bill’s blue (Clash of the Worthy) is easily his best ability. He does a heavy 12k damage for the low cost of 6 AP. This is cheap even before accounting for the fact that any destroyed friendly protects help fuel this ability. If that was all this ability did it would be worth it. However, he also drops a 4-turn fortified countdown tile whenever he fires his blue. While one of these countdowns is on the board, he creates a strong protect each time he or an ally takes damage. What this means is that a lengthy cascade can result in the board becoming flooded and two of your AP pools glowing shortly thereafter.
The way to play Bill is to chase blue so you can flood the board with protects that will help you shrug off damage on defense while fueling you on offense. Playing against him is a “pick your poison” situation where you are tasked with letting the protects sit there negating your damage, or matching them away and fueling your opponent on your turn. The big green nuke gets passively fueled as the board fills with protects, severely crippling your opponent when you cast it.
Pairings:
As mentioned earlier, Bill pairs with some of the best in the game. His multi-tap green and cheap blue can be boosted by Okoye (who has no active overlap). He can tank all but red for Thor, resulting in dual Asgardian batteries smiting their enemies. As mentioned earlier, Carnage also plays well with Bill due to the attack tiles you get in exchange for the protects you match away. Though squishy, Green Goblin is a fun partner due to his re-fortifying Bill’s countdowns and adding a black/purple AP outlet. Similarly squishy, Bill can play bodyguard for Natasha as she collects AP for her expensive powers. Ultron provides red/black AP outlets and can replenish the protect tiles that Bill matches away to gather AP. Elektra is another self-sustaining character that provides three additional colors (including more damage-negation and a stun). All these teams are great, But Bill is actually a cornerstone to two meta-adjacent teams that you will find yourself facing in PVP. BRBitty (Bill and Kitty Pryde) sees the latter starting the buff train on turn 1 giving Bill ample time to collect blue and create a situation where the entire board is filled with protects and he is firing green/blue seemingly every other turn. Billpocalypse is a bit slower, and a bit easier to dispatch of on defense. Thus, it’s seen less, but is still a monster pairing. Together Billpocalypse cover five colors and sees Bill spamming the board with protects, which Apocalypse destroys for monster damage while simultaneously fueling both of Bill’s active powers. The release of Polaris has also given Bill some newfound utility in CL10 death nodes. Bill + Polaris + a green (or blue) board-smasher like Kamala Khan can result in a winfinte situation. Bill gets AP for his protect tiles getting destroyed and Polaris puts 3x the amount of protect tiles on the board after destruction. This means you can repeatedly spam the board smash power over and over again with the enemy never getting a turn once the engine starts moving. Ultimately, Bill’s utility in both PVE and PVP has resulted in his meteoric rise in the rankings.
What to expect when boosted:
Bill is a character whose kit is self-synergizing. He also plays really well with others. He’s both great offensively and a huge pain to face on defense. He’ll dish out big damage, and save you healthpacks. What this all boils down to is Bill being a character who is must-use when boosted. You can build around a particular synergy with an unboosted 4 or 5 (i.e., protect tile spam with Polaris), or just pair him with the other best boosted 5*, and either way you will get great results because Bill is truly that great.
#6) Colossus (Phoenix Five)
945
840
735
467
120
111
102 Health: 81,955
Recommended Build: 5/5/3
Colossus just might be the best example in the game as to why “champ em all” is more than just a bumper sticker on my car (it’s really not, I swear). While it’s obvious that some characters like Heimdall and even Wasp are waiting for that perfect partner to elevate what they do (and subsequently their ranking), Colossus found his soulmate with the very next 5* release. Together the two of them ushered in a new meta and both landed in the top 10 as a result. Not only did Colossus find his perfect partner, but he also helped provide a solid counter to the game itself changing, when 5* character boosts were added (which at the time of his release, no one saw coming). So once again kids, listen to uncle Piotr here and champ them all!
Colossus’ yellow passive (Preservation ) is really his bread and butter and the reason for his high ranking. At the time of his release, no one was worried about match damage, because people had mostly moved on from Kitty Pryde boosted strikes to a passive mega-boosted AOE meta. However, once Scarlet Witch shut that down (discussed later), Colossus negating match damage became much more appealing. Colossus passively allowing your team to ignore 83% of enemy match damage just for existing has also proven huge against Kalecius, in CL10 challenge nodes, and has provided much needed defense against god-boosted 5*s (whose match damage alone often hits harder than many unboosted character’s active abilities). Colossus’ yellow also has an offensive component, boosting his own match damage 126%. Currently he has the highest match damage boost in the tier (outside of hulk committing Seppuku repeatedly or Shang-Chi collecting combo points), which obliterates opponents when boosted.
Black (Purification) is about as simple a power as it gets. It does about 11.5k damage plus another 7.7k if Colossus is in front when he fires the power. He then drops a couple strength 200 enemy strikes (this drawback mostly negated by the passive yellow as long as you keep Colossus alive).
Blue (Neutralization) feels like Colossus’ weakest power, mostly due to the cost. For 9 AP, Colossus deals about 2500 damage (3 covers) and removes a chosen enemy special tile (he can remove two tiles at 4 covers). The damage on this power is laughably bad, but the ability to remove any enemy special tile can really save you against certain opponents who place that one pesky tile whose removal can make all the difference (e.g., Scarlet Witch, Beta Ray Bill). In those situations you’ll happily fork over the AP speed up your match.
Overall, Colossus here is a must-champ character. He has value both boosted and unboosted, in PVP and PVE, on offense and on defense, and his kit is that of tank, support, and damage-dealer. While initially overlooked because he wasn’t fun or flashy, his numbers don’t lie. Colossus does what he does well, and because of that is a top character in MPQ.
Pairings:
Colossus’ best partner is Scarlet Witch (ranked a bit higher), as together they ushered in a new “defensive meta” built around limiting incoming damage, thus extending matches and making them a pain to face on defense. He also has synergy with his Phoenix 5 brother Cyclops. Together they cover 5 colors (missing purple) and Cyclops can boost Colossus’ already high match damage, give him some board shake, and remove the enemy strikes Colossus puts down. Professor X makes a great third or pick-2 partner. He gives that missing purple outlet and is extremely hard to take down himself when flanked by these two X-Men. He shrugs off up to 75% damage, 83% match damage, and can raise opponent red/green/yellow costs by +3. On fun teams, Colossus works well with those who can provide coverage on multiple colors (e.g., Havok, Heimdall, Magneto, Elektra) and can really help along those older characters that could use extra protection (e.g., Cable, IW Cap, Rescue). Perhaps his best fun partners are those who create critical tiles to amplify his already beefy match damage (e.g., Shang-Chi, Killmonger, Parker Spider-Man).
What to expect when boosted:
Colossus will be a sure-fire play during his boost week. As seen above, since most of what he does well is cheap or passive, he has no shortage of quality partners. His match damage alone will act as mini-nukes in his strong colors (unless fighting against the sea of everyone else who will also be running Colossus), and his black will obliterate enemies for a low cost. But all of this pales in comparison to how much of a defensive scarecrow Piotr is at 550+. If given the choice to fight boosted Colossus or anyone else for the same number of points, you will assuredly skip the former!
#5) Thor (Gladiator)
705
626
548
354
89
82
75 Health: 53,629
Recommended Build: 5/5/3
Starting off our top 5 is Thor who sits atop an unparalleled mountain as the best AP collector in the game. Not only does he serve in a best-in-class support role, but he also brings a couple heavy nukes to the fight as well. This means that while alive he is always a threat, even if you deal with the teammates he’s supporting.
Odinson’s green (God of Thunder) is arguably the best power in the game. When he dips below 50% health he passively smashes up the board every turn, destroying 5 tiles in his colors. Getting to keep the AP for the destroyed tiles (plus any from resulting cascades) will quickly tip the scales in your favor as he rapidly fuels himself and others. His active green is somewhat expensive at 12 AP but entirely worth it for the amount of damage you do (~13k AOE). Not that the cost matters too much, as his passive will definitely speed it along.
Thor’s red (Asgardian Tactics) is a 9 AP single target nuke that does big damage (~12.5k). It ignores enemy protects and tacks on additional damage for up to 10 friendly specials on the board (686 per tile). It’s a pretty straightforward hard-hitting power, that has seen a rise in utility as special tile spamming characters have also risen in popularity.
Thor’s yellow is often deemed his throwaway power due to its slowness. While the other two are straightforward, this one is a bit more complicated. For 9 yellow, Smoldering Fire places a repeater (you hope doesn’t get matched away) that spawns one protect (albeit a big one) every turn. While this repeater is on the board, this power becomes Raging Fire- a 12 AP nuke (yes that’s 21 total for those counting) that removes the repeater, and does big damage (over ~20 to 26k). When the repeater is gone, those beefy protects flip into strikes and the power reverts to Smoldering Fire again. This power is not bad at all- especially when looking at the self-fueling aspect. However, the major force-multipliers in the game that you would pair Thor with (Okoye/Apocalypse) use yellow to do said multiplying, so this power often sits unused.
Thor’s main use is as the best battery ever and primary (with Okoye) or secondary (with Apocalypse) attacker. Because he starts doing his tricks at half health, most will purposely bring him in crippled, making him the tanky Thunder god he was meant to be on defense, but actually one of the squishiest characters ever on offense. Because of this, tanking becomes integral to your team composition more than any other character (save maybe 4* Juggs?). You actually want Thor at lower levels, where he can hide and not risk getting taken out by a small nuke or cascade. Like other top 10 characters on this list, Thor has seen newfound use in CL10 where his AP collection is crucial to your team outpacing higher level opponents who could cripple you or make matches even more of a slog than if you didn’t have the thunder god on your side.
Pairings:
For the longest time, Thor and Okoye were handcuffed to one another and it’s easy to see why. Thor fuels his own red/green nukes and Okoye’s yellow. Okoye’s yellow heals her and spams team-up AP which force-multiplies the big nukes. Since this is a guide meant to help, I’ll put it here: try to keep him 13 levels under Okoye to have her consistently tank red. This pairing can easily dispatch of 5* essentials in clearance level 9-10 and hit teams 50 levels higher in PvP. Speaking of PVP, Thorpocalypse is an equally fast team that is a bit scarier on defense due to Apocalypse being a much bigger threat on his own and harder to play around than Okoye. As people put more levels on Apocalypse, he is becoming many people’s go-to over Okoye for PVP hops and certain PVE nodes. Other great pairs are Daredevil (due to both punishing you when they hit half health) and Professor X (Thor cascading and sapping the board of three colors means more match-4s for Xavier). Iceman, Kamala Khan, and Beta Ray Bill are also decent as they will tank (green/yellow) for Thor while providing a nice blue outlet. Bill provides a second (albeit smaller) battery and Bobby (via the passive yellow) provides some extra defense and a bunch of specials on the board to fuel red. Thor is also a great battery for Havok, Shang-Chi, Gamora, Elektra, Crystal, Big Wheel, or for many of the “old guard” of 5s, who tend to have more expensive powers, if you want to simply play him on fun teams. Examples include Star-Lord, Widow, Logan, Ock, etc. Thor will also often get played with any good god-boosted 5 that needs red, green or yellow AP to do their thing.
What to expect when boosted:
Like his fellow top ten compatriot iHulk, Thor gets much trickier to use boosted and in many ways is worse. Since you effectively only have half a health pool to work with, you really want people tanking over him; and when boosted, that gets much harder to pull off. Luckily, each new release has higher and high match damage, meaning a higher likelihood there will be someone who will take the hits for Thor any given boost week. So much of what Thor does is about supporting others, and thus, he plays better offensively unboosted, but is a liability on defense. To his credit, in PVP, the extra health and damage of a god boost removes many of his defensive drawbacks and you see him played much more. So, it is not that he’s bad boosted, just harder to manage.
#4) Scarlet Witch (WandaVision)
945
840
735
467
120
111
102 Health: 59,890
Recommended Build: 5/3/5
Unlike other mega-powered beings whose MPQ versions were a letdown power-wise (Surfer, Carol, Odin, God Doom, Phoenixes, etc.), Wanda’s release fittingly altered reality and immediately impacted the meta in a major way. To say that Scarlet Witch has lived up to the hype would be a massive understatement. Maximoff clocks in as the first of the “big three powerboosters” on the list, and is the one with the biggest stranglehold on the PVP meta by far.
Wanda’s purple is a 3 AP active ability (Welcome To My Reality) that allows you to choose a color. Once cast, the ability becomes a passive (Chaos Magic) for the remainder of the match. Chaos Magic converts 2 random team-up tiles to your chosen color, if there are less than ten of that color on the board at the beginning of your turn. Friendly powers also deal 3-5% more damage for each AP you have in your chosen color. So, this ability can be used two ways. First, as a small battery to fuel an active ability. Second, you can store AP with no outlet to boost your abilities. Since the boost is percentage-based, she functions best boosting bigger hits (unlike Apocalypse and Okoye who are at their best boosting small multi-taps).
Scarlet Witch’s blue (Debilitating Hex) is a 9 AP ability that creates a countdown targeting an enemy of your choosing. While on the board, that character’s powers are lowered 4 levels, and powers targeting the chosen character deal 45-55% more damage. The tile is 3-5 turns, but can be increased each time you match one of Switch’s strong colors. This is probably Wanda’s worst ability, just because it’s expensive and tied to a fragile countdown tile. But if you can cast and keep it on the board, it can take a target out on offense and defense.
Finally, Wanda’s passive green ability (Mystical Feedback) has a similar offensive/defensive component to it. Each turn she creates a 1-turn repeater (if one doesn’t exist) that stores a “charge” for each instance herself or an ally receives damage. Cascades, attack tiles, active powers (especially AOE), passive damage, etc. all add to this invisible “count”. Wanda’s team takes up to 40% less damage for each “charge” stored (max 80% reduction). When the repeater resolves, it deal about 2K damage for each “charge” stored (one big hit, rather than separate slugs of damage).
Mystical feedback is essentially a hard counter to any metas relying on AOE (Hulkoye), multi-tap (Apocalypse, BRB), or cascades (Profslaught), making her a defensive nightmare. She protects and fuels her team while she actively punishes opponents for relying on those strategies. Stunning Wanda dealing damage that “cannot be reduced”, or removing her repeater before dealing copious amounts of damage are the only reliable ways to take her out without dragging the match on and crippling yourself in the process. On most teams she’ll be the character you target first because she is just that good!
Pairings:
As mentioned earlier, Wanda’s best partner in crime has been Colossus, due to the “defensive meta” the two of them ushered in. She also works well as a third to pretty much any meta team. Since so much of what she does is passive and helpful on both sides of the board (offense and defense), she is the definition of “plug and play”. Her passive damage can be amplified by a power-booster (Apocalypse/Okoye) and she also works well with characters that are annoying on defense (Beta Ray, Odin, Colossus, Sinister). On non-meta teams, she is also helpful to old school characters with low health and high-power costs, as she can help fuel that AP and protect the low health. She’s not the best battery, nor is she the best power booster, but she does do both well enough to bring added value any team. I often will just use Switch with the “best boosted character” in a PVP event, even when she’s not boosted, since she can protect, fuel and amplify anyone by virtue of being on your team. In fact, she is the only character I would play unboosted with any regularity, which is why she sits in the top five.
What to expect when boosted:
Expect to play her… a lot. And expect to see her… a lot. 5* character boosts were essentially the “counter” to Scarlet Witch in PVP, since quality stuns and targeted tile removal are so rare in the tier. While she can still drag out a match and put a hurting on you unboosted, she is much easier to overpower when running characters 100+ levels greater than her. But what happens when she is ALSO boosted? That 100+ level advantage goes bye bye. While the only power that actually benefits from boosts is her passive green damage (everything else is percentage-based), her health increase alone is enough to up the annoyance factor and make opponents think about hitting that skip button in favor of hitting any non-Switch team (if you can find them that week).
#3) Apocalypse (Classic)
879
781
684
372
112
104
95 Health: 84,960
Recommended Build: 3/5/5
Apocalypse is the first of the “big three” power boosters to show up in the top 5. He has more offensive firepower himself than the other two, and has more viable teammates. Still, he’s outclassed by one in PVP and the other in PVE, so finds himself number 4 on the list. However, make no mistake that Apocalypse- the breaker of hoards- is a must-have character for any competitive player’s war chest, as he is perhaps the most well-rounded character in the game.
Apocalypse boasts three great active abilities that all clock in at a mere 7 AP; the first of which is Forged in Fire (black). This power states that when no friendly protect tiles exist, Apocalypse creates 3 or 4 strength 220 protects and burst heals the lowest health team member for 3839-4666. Not impressed? Yeah, me either. But wait… there’s more! If friendly protect tiles exist, Apocalypse instead destroys up to four of them and deals 4 random hits of 9522-11572 for each tile destroyed!
Continuing the multi-hit madness, Apocalypse’s red (Survival of the Fittest) deals 3 or 4 hits of 3956-4102 damage to the lowest-health enemy, ignoring protect tiles. So, while black makes him a good pair with the “protect tile meta”, his red makes him a great counter to it!
Finally, Shared Strength (yellow) sees Apocalypse placing 3 or 4 2-turn repeater tiles that spam the board with two strength 146 protect tiles each time they resolve. When one of these repeaters is on the board, damage done by friendly powers is increased by 5856-8784 damage. He also has a passive that states when paired with a mutant, he can’t be stunned. There is a lot packed into this power, and really, it’s the power that not only lends a hand to teammates, but fuels his own kit. Much like Okoye’s black, Apocalypse’s yellow pairs well with multi-hit teammates. But unlike Okoye, his best partner is himself due to the aforementioned dual multi-hit powers.
Ideally, there is an order of operations that allows you to get the most out of Apocalypse’s powerset. If you make sure to fire yellow first and get those protects on the board before firing his other two powers, he can do up to 81,424 damage with his black (wait… what?) and 51,544 unblockable damage with his red! Given this insane damage output, some of the highest health and match damage in the game, his versatility with regards to quality partners (see: below), his ignoring of stun and protect tiles, and his overall utility in PVE and PVP, it’ no wonder he is ranked so high. His sole drawback is that all the amazing things he does are tied to active abilities. He doesn’t have an over-the-top passive like many of those ranked near him. His conditional stun-immunity is a good passive, but no longer the difference-maker it once was in the Stun Bros era. If there’s one knock on this character, that’d be it.
Pairings:
One of Apocalypse’s biggest strengths lies in his versatility. Whether he’s fighting alongside top tier 5*s or doing the heavy lifting on weaker teams, Apocalypse is pure added value with no shortage of quality partners. Thor and Beta Ray Bill are easily his two best partners. Thor fuels Apocalypse’s stellar red/yellow, while Apocalypse’s repeaters add an extra 26K damage to Thor’s AOE. This is not only a quick-climb PVP team, but many have replaced Okoye with Apocalypse when clearing certain PVE nodes as well. Looking at Bill, he generates green and blue whenever friendly protect tiles are destroyed, Apocalypse destroys protect tiles to deal big damage with his black. Both cheaply spam protect tiles… see where this is going? If you are looking for mutants to give Apocalypse stun-immunity, there are no shortage of options with little active overlap (Cable, Havok, Old Man Daken, and especially Archangel if you’re going thematic). But his best mutant pairings are Professor X, Onslaught, and Iceman. Charles is quite versatile himself, somewhat scary on defense, and brings an active purple to the table. Onslaught creates rainbow strong match damage and is an AP factory for Apocalypse’s cheap powers. While Iceman gives a blue outlet as well as a green that while mediocre on its own, becomes insane when one of Apocalypse’s repeaters is present. Finally, a sleeper-mutant, Jean Grey works well as a red battery for Apocalypse. Deviating from mutants, much like Jean, Daredevil, Sersi, and Loki also provide green/purple outlets and can absorb a big hit and heal to allow Apocalypse to keep doling out pain. Kamala Khan is a crazy good partner, as she deals free damage when matching Apoc’s protects. Mister Sinister creates a ton of AP, but lacks many outlets to use it, which makes a character like Apocalypse with three strong actives ideal. Yelena Belova spams a ton of damage, but does not hit very hard. Apocalypse can help up her damage output while she plays the role of nuisance for the opposition. Apocalypse can put specials on the board for Knull and turn his small tics of permanent damage into big hits. He can also benefit greatly from a battery like Scarlet Witch, who also gives additional staying power to Apocalypse so he can get his powers off. Apocalypse can also shield iHulk to mitigate team damage. Finally, Apocalypse can give Kingpin one of his many protect tiles to sacrifice for huge damage, while Fisk provides near rainbow coverage.
What to expect when boosted:
Expect Apocalypse to annihilate your opposition in both PVP and PVE. Similar to Beta Ray Bill, Apocalypse’s powerset is pretty self-sustaining. So, whoever you put alongside him is just a bonus. You can pair him with a battery like Thor to speed him up, a defensive nuisance like Wanda to slow the opposition down, a protect spammer like Bill, or whoever the other best boosted character that week is. Whatever you ultimately choose, the point is, you will be building around Apocalypse’s mind-melting damage for that week in both PVP and PVE.
#2) Okoye (Warrior General)
750
658
556
372
93
86
79 Health: 59,274
Recommended Build: 5/5/3
Okoye fell out of the number one spot in the rankings due to her PVP reign of terror coming to a quick and decisive halt (thanks to the person ranked two spots below her). She is a big liability on defense in PVP no matter how many levels you stack on her, because she is just so easy to dispose of on defense. That said, notice that the top 4 characters in the game all speed up your grind by amplifying the damage you do. And Okoye is simply put the best amplifier in the game, which makes her a crucial cog to many people’s speed-clearing in PVE.
Okoye’s black passive (Wakanda Forever!) is what cements her atop the meta. She makes collecting mostly useless team-up tiles a viable strategy to build around. For each team-up AP you have, powers do ~1300 extra damage. Your team loses one team-up AP every turn Okoye doesn’t tank… so if you want the damage to stay up, you have to keep her in front.
Luckily, Okoye’s cheap yellow (Indomitable Spirit) makes you want to keep her up front! For 7 AP, she heals over 1700 health for each team-up AP on the board, before then adding 4 more to the board. So, she is not only a great support, but a sustainable tank for others.
Okoye’s red (Piercing Throw) is her least interesting power. But as her only damage-dealing ability, it allows her to act as more than just a support if need be. For 11 AP, she destroys a row of her choosing and deals 7k+ (3 covers) to 12K+ (5 covers) damage- plus additional damage for each tile in the opponent’s strongest color that gets speared. The damage per AP is less important than the slight board control and offensive outlet it provides in the event that her teammates are downed.
The best way to play Okoye is as a tank (the more levels on your Okoye the better!) who buffs her teammates’ powers passively by collecting team-up AP. In this way, she plays pretty straight-forward. While losing some of her PVP shine once counters to iHulk were released, Okoye still spear-heads (see what I did there?) many of THE go-to PVE meta teams (Hulkoye, Thorkoye). This is because her healing is crucial to shrugging off high damage abilities and her black is essential in doling out big damage yourself. Bottom line- while trash in PVP, she is absolutely essential to any roster that wants to be competitive, as she is still the queen of PVE, where the very best rewards lie.
Pairings:
Okoye is truly the ultimate team player. She is a great transition character due to her affinity for tanking and making 4s hit like 6s. You will often hear the phrase “pairs well with Okoye” in many characters’ release threads… and for good reason. Regardless of what stage of the game you are in, she partners well with those who have cheap powers, multi-tap powers, or passive powers. 4* examples include Medusa, Sabretooth, Wolfsbane, Spider-Man 2099, Chavez, Polaris, and Deadpool. 5*s include Rescue, Hela, Iceman, Professor X, Apocalypse, Crystal, Gargantos, BRB, Deadpool, Dr. Strange, and two that deserve special mention. One, is of course Thorkoye, arguably one of the quickest offense-only pairings in the game today. The second is Immortal Hulk (my go to pairing for speed-clearing PVE). Okoye boosting his green door simply melts opponent health pools to nothing. While any of the top 5 could make a claim for the throne, it is Okoye’s versatility and prominence in both PVP and PVE that makes her queen!
What to expect when boosted:
If Hulkoye or Thorkoye (plus a third like Polaris or Iceman) are your go-to’s in PVE unboosted, they will be no-brainers boosted; AND will take a significant chunk off of your grind time to boot. As I mentioned earlier, even with levels, playing Okoye in PVP paints a target on your back, since she’s so easy to kill and not a threat when left for last. However, her Wolverine-like healing factor (the comic character not the in-game version) means she will get lots of facetime boosted. You will often see her paired with her one-time PVP meta partner Hulk, tearing up PVP- even if jolly green isn’t boosted himself. Reason being, you must dispose of Okoye and her massive boosted health pool before you can put Banner down for good. And boosted, the Okoye-fueled damage is enough to overpower unboosted Wandas or Electros.
#1) Shang-Chi (Origin)
992
882
772
491
**
**126 **
**116
107 Health: 62,885
Recommended Build: 3/5/5
Shang-Chi is arguably the most unique and versatile character in the game, and was released to tremendous fanfare. Reason being, he is not only amzing, he has been heralded as the guy who “puts the puzzle in Puzzle Quest”. Coming on the heels of a slogging defensive meta, Shang-Chi’s all-offense style infused thought and fun into a game that quite frankly, can be a grind. Not only this, but with the right skill, luck, and/or partners, Shang-Chi can win ANY match on his own, do it quickly, and walk away at full health doing it. For this reason, Shang-Chi finds himself in the atop the MPQ rankings and is an absolute must-champ character.
I normally discuss powers in order, but will make an exception here and start with Shang-Chi’s last power, which is a passive blue ability (River of Blows). This power states that whenever you make a red or purple match, Shang-Chi gets a combo point (max 10). I started here, because Shang-Chi’s whole kit is built around these combo points. Each combo point increases
Shang-Chi’s match damage by 358-536 damage. If you go a turn without making a red/purple match, Shang-Chi loses all his combo points. So the idea here is to do whatever you can to build and maintain your combo points to deal big damage. Luckily his first two powers help immensely with this goal.
Shang-Chi’s red ability (Vital Balance) costs 7 AP and allows him to destroy 3-5 tiles (at 3-5 covers) and restores 3.3-4.3 health. This power is best used to create multiple red/purple matches for Shang-Chi (to build combo points) or to create matches for a partner that helps Shang-Chi. I find destroying 3 tiles is more than enough 99% of the time and any more just slows me down. But I’d encourage players to experiment with what feels right for them!
Finally, Shang-Chi’s purple (Deadly Hands) also costs 7 AP and has him convert a basic or team-up tile into a critical tile. For each combo point Shang-Chi has, he converts a random basic tile adjacent to his chosen tile into a charged tile. This power is the only that must be at 5. Shang-Chi can really charge up whole sections of the board. And once you get close 10 combo points, placing a critical tile between two charged tiles as part of a match 4 or 5 can easily do 6-figure damage, resulting in a nuke that bigger than any in the game!
Shang-Chi is way too weak on defense to be used for PVP if you want to detract hits (the AI plays him like trash). However, he can take down any team on offense quickly (just shield up immediately after or play for wins now that the threshhold has dropped to 50 wins). Shang-Chi is ultimately too slow to ramp up to be used on your fastest PVE teams where opponent health is low to mid. However, he can ultimately win any match including the toughest challenge nodes in PVE by using his powers to go winfinite- and against the highest health pools may be your fastest option. Also, for anyone who plays non-competitively, untimed, chases wins, enjoys finding different character combos, or is looking for a great solo 5* to transition with, Shang-Chi is your guy! Unlike most plug and play characters. Shang-Chi is one that you will actually get faster with the more you play him and the more you get better at studying board conditions and making quick effective moves. In PVE, supports will really help out any Shang-Team you cobble together. Some may feel that Shang-Chi’s weaknesses have him rated too highly, but his strengths, uniqueness, versatility, and fun factor more than make up for it! Remember, the tie-breaker for me in post one was when put to a decision, who would I rather have? Well if I could only have one 5* to start over with, Shang would probably be my pick. So he gets the top spot. If you have the opportunity to champ him or stack levels, do it and don’t look back!
Pairings:
This will probably be the most updated section as players are finding new Shang-Combos every day. Usually, the goal is to go winfinite, so he plays amazingly with: 1) red/purple batteries 2) board manipulators 3) board shakers 4) tile-swappers 5) characters who reduce AP costs 6) critical spammers and 7) charged-tile spammers. Scarlet Witch, Cyclops, Sersi, Onslaught, and Thor are examples of characters in his tier that play well as they do one or more of the above (I.e. Thor is boardshake plus battery, Cyclops is battery plus tile swap). Since you are playing for a specific strategy (keep the combo going!), Shang-Chi has a number of characters below his tier that also serve him well. 4s like Loki, Shuri, Hulkbuster Chavez, Valkyrie all the way down to 2 Magneto and 1* Juggernaut can serve as great assistants to the Shang-Chi pain train!
What to expect when boosted:
When boosted, Shang-Chi gets stronger faster and can end matches before he hits 10 combo points. He will likely get use in both PVP and PVE as he obliterates everything in his path. More health, more true healing, higher base and added match damage… everything he does is just plain better! If one of the many many people who amplify what he does are ALSO boosted… watch out! Bottom line, he’ll get played because on boost weeks he moves from fun and good, to fun and dominant. And who doesn’t want to play that combo!?
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