The Marvel Rivals’ roster features some of the most iconic and famous superheroes in the history of Marvel Comics, with possibly the most legendary being the wise-cracking webslinger Spider-Man. He’s available in-game as a hyper-mobile Duelist who sneaks into enemy backlines and assassinates their most high-value players before slipping away with his Web-Swings. In the right hands, he can feel almost unstoppable on practically any map and in any team comp. However, he’s also one of the most difficult heroes to learn in the entire game thanks to his frailty, his low moment-to-moment damage, and the plethora of other heroes who directly counter his playstyle. If you still want to wield great power, though, we’re here to teach you how.
Here’s how to play and master Spider-Man in Marvel Rivals. This guide will include a breakdown of his abilities and core combos, his available Team-Ups, his major strengths and weaknesses, tips and tricks for playing him well, and what Heroes directly counter him.
If you’d like to learn how to play some other Heroes in Marvel Rivals, you can find our guides on Thor and Iron Fist here on KeenGamer:
Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man
Spider-Man Unique Hero Settings
Spider-Man is the hero with the most unique settings in Marvel Rivals. Before you even hop into Quick Play with Spidey, we highly recommend going to the Practice Range and fiddling with the settings to see which ones work for you. The game-feel of settings like Hold to Wall Crawl or Hold to Wall Run vary on a person-to-person basis but there are a few settings that you’ll want to ensure are changed from their default no matter what. The two most important Spider-Man exclusive settings to toggle in Marvel Rivals are Hold to Swing and Automatic Swing. To be more specific, you’ll want to ensure that Hold to Swing is turned on and that Automatic Swing is turned off.
Hold to Swing is the easiest of the two settings to explain. If this setting is turned off, Spidey will start a Web-Swing when you hit the button and he won’t stop swinging until you press the button again. While nice in theory, this really limits Spider-Man’s movement potential as it doesn’t allow you to naturally carry his momentum from swing to swing like you can with Hold to Swing. It also means that you need to remember to hit the button again when you want to exit the swing, which just feels clunky and unintuitive.
Meanwhile, turning Automatic Swing off immediately boosts Spidey’s potential tenfold and it’s kind of absurd that the game doesn’t have it off by default. With Automatic Swing turned on, Spider-Man will automatically grapple onto nearby terrain when you activate Web-Swing, meaning that you don’t need to aim your shots manually. Once again, this sounds nice but severely limits your potential. Having to anchor your Web-Swings gives you much more control over where you want to go, whereas Automatic Swing can feel disorienting and random. Additionally, having Automatic Swing turned on stops you from Web-Zipping to the ground, a vital piece of Spider-Man tech which can be used to engage or escape quickly.
Spider-Man Settings
Marvel Rivals Spider-Man Abilities and Moveset
Spider Power and Web-Cluster
Spider-Man has two main normal attacks in Marvel Rivals. There’s Spider Power, his melee attack, and Web-Cluster, his ranged attack. Spider Power is the main attack you’ll be using in close-quarters combat and will see Spidey deliver a three-hit combo comprised of two punches and a kick. Each punch does 25 damage within a 3m range whereas the kick does 40 damage within a 4m range. Additionally, if you double jump and then use Spider Power, you’ll perform a large overhead swing instead of your usual combo, dealing the same damage as his kick.
Meanwhile, Web-Cluster is Spider-Man’s ranged attack where he will shoot out a glob of web fluid towards your crosshair, dealing 40 damage and attaching a Spider-Tracer to any enemies it hits. You can hold a maximum of 5 Web-Cluster charges which regenerate at a rate of one every 3s. This attack is a projectile and cannot critical hit so always aim for centre mass to ensure that you have the best chance of landing it. If Spider-Man uses his offensive abilities (namely Spider Power or Amazing Combo) on a target marked by a Spider-Tracer the attack will deal an extra 40 damage and remove the Tracer from the target.
Spider-Man is on the lower end when it comes to damage-per-second, with both of his normal attack options dealing significantly lower damage than most other Duelists. Pair that with the fact that he needs to get in close to deal the majority of that damage and you have a very risky character who needs to put in a lot of work to get results. The best way to think about his Normal Attacks is that they’re tools used to start or end combat rather than something you’re using all the time: most encounters will see you start off with a few Web-Cluster shots to weaken an opponent and apply a Spider-Tracer before going in with your other abilities, with you often needing to land a punch or kick to finish them off.
Web-Cluster Charges
Web-Swing
Web-Swing is Spider-Man’s next ability and it’s easily the most iconic and fun part of his part. When cast, Spidey will shoot a strand of webbing towards a nearby surface, allowing him to swing freely around the enviroment. At default, Spider-Man has three Web-Swing charges available at any one time which regenerate at a rate of 6s per charge. With Automatic Swing turned off, you’ll need to point your crosshair towards the terrain you want to Web-Swing towards, giving you far more accuracy.
If you shoot a web towards a surface higher up than Spider-Man’s current position (such as a wall), he will enter the iconic swinging animation. Meanwhile, if you aim at the floor and press Web-Swing (with Automatic Swing turned off), he will instead perform a Web-Zip, rocketing him forward. While the former is better for covering distance, the latter is very useful for rapidly engaging or escaping duels with opponents, especially once you start combining the two Web-Swing styles.
The most important thing to learn about Spider-Man’s Web-Swing is charge management. Get too trigger-happy and start swinging recklessly and you’ll often find yourself in situations where you push a target and then are unable to escape because your three Web-Swing charges are on cooldown, which often ends with your opponents farming your helpless body for Ult Charge. The best advice here is to only make hyper-aggressive pushes when you know you have at least one charge left over in case you need to make a quick escape: surviving is the most value Spider-Man will provide his team and you cannot do that if you keep losing your life to poor Web-Swing management.
Web-Swing Away
Get Over Here!
Get Over Here! is a really interesting ability because it has two very distinct effects depending on whether or not your target is under the effect of a Spider-Tracer. Ordinarily, this ability will have Spidey shoot webbing towards a target and, if it hits, he will pull the webbed target towards his current position. This will briefly stun the target and can even be used to knock certain Heroes out of their Ultimates, such as Scarlet Witch.
Meanwhile, if you target a Spider-Tracer-marked enemy with Get Over Here!, you’ll instead be pulled to their position without removing the Spider-Tracer. This is most often used alongside Amazing Combo to quickly engage opponents and then burst them down with an instant injection of damage, with Get Over Here! dealing 50 damage to opponents in both modes.
Knowing when to use each version of Get Over Here! is extremely important if you want to master Spider-Man. More often than not you’ll be using this ability with a Spider-Tracer as it allows you to quickly get into duels without wasting a Web-Swing charge and sets you up for your main bread-and-butter combos. However, while it lacks the soft-tracking from the Spider-Tracer, pulling enemies towards you with the base version of the ability can be extremely effective, either by isolating opponents from their team or using it like a Winter Solider hook to pull high-value targets (such as Strategist) into the rest of your team. You can also use it to pull opponents off the map, instantly killing most heroes who lack mobility such as Tanks.
Get Over Here!
Amazing Combo
The final main ability outside of Spider-Man’s Ultimate is Amazing Combo, more commonly known as Spidey’s uppercut. This attack will see Spider-Man launch an enemy upward with a web-empowered uppercut, dealing 55 damage within a 5m spherical radius, making this his best ability for large crowds. If the opponent has a Spider-Tracer on them, he’ll trigger it when performing the uppercut, meaning that this attack will deal 95 damage, instead. You have two charges of Amazing Combo available which recharge at a rate of one per 6s but the ability does go on cooldown for 2s after you use it.
Amazing Combo is easily Spider-Man’s most lethal ability in terms of damage and the one you’ll be using most often to weaken or even finish off opponents. As mentioned a moment ago, the uppercut will most often be paired with Get Over Here! to deliver an instant shot of over a hundred damage to marked targets. However, the hidden strength of this ability is its massive range when compared to his other moves: a 5m sphere can hit a lot of targets, even people you aren’t looking at and can be used really effectively to kill low-health targets who are trying to escape. Don’t be afraid to use this ability as often as possible.
Amazing Combo Uppercut
Spectacular Spin
Lastly, let’s take a look at Spectacular Spin, Spider-Man’s Ultimate and, honestly, the most simple part of his whole kit. When cast, Spidey will begin blasting anyone around him in an 8m spherical radius with webs. During this time, he gains 250 bonus health and each shot will deal 12 damage per hit and apply one stack of Slow. The attack interval is very fast and, once an opponent hits a certain level of Slow stacks, they will be momentarily webbed-up and Stunned.
Despite the potential of this ability being very strong – it can absolutely net you three, four, or even five easy kills if the opponents are stacked up on top of each other – it’s still an ability you need to use wisely. Unlike with similar Duelist Ultimates, Spider-Man is very much vulnerable during his entire Ultimate and it can be cut very short if someone outside of your range happens to start blasting you. Additionally, this Ultimate provides amazing utility with the stun so don’t always use it just for kills: if popping this Ultimate stuns the enemy tank or healer and stops them from touching point in overtime, it is worth using over saving it for a lot of kills.
Spectacular Spin
Spider-Sense and Wall Crawl (Passives)
In addition to his regular suite of abilities, Spider-Man also has two (technically three) passive abilities at his disposal. The first, Thwip and Flip, just lets him double jump, giving Spidey some extra mobility and a way to quickly get off 40 damage with his overhead melee swing. Then there’s Wall Crawl which, as the name suggests, lets Spider-Man crawl and even run on vertical surfaces. The controls for this are a bit finicky but it is a great tool for disorienting your opponents as you can either lie in wait above a doorway (which is great to combo with your Ultimate) or use it to confuse them as you’re running away.
Spider-Man’s other passive is Spider-Sense. If there are enemies nearby that are out of line of sight, Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense will start to tingle, indicated by a unique effect around his head and the darkening of the borders around the screen. This ability will become more useful the better you get with Spider-Man as it can be used to track invisible characters like Psylocke, Invisible Woman, and Loki, or warn you of imminent threats behind doors, such as a cheeky Peni Parker setting up mines before a round starts.
Spidey Sense is Tingling
Spider-Man Team-Ups
Symbiote Bond (Venom + Peni Parker and Spider-Man)
Spider-Man’s first Team-Up in Marvel Rivals is one of the most impactful additions to his kit and that’s the Suit Explusion ability, which triggers whenever he’s on the same team as Venom. This Team-Up lets Spider-Man borrow some of Venom’s symbiote, converting it into explosive spikes which damage nearby enemies and relentlessly push them back when they make contact. The spikes deal 50 damage per second in a 5m spherical radius.
The best use of this Team-Up ability is putting it at the end of your main bread-and-butter combo. If you land a Web-Cluster then use Get Over Here! into an Amazing Combo uppercut, you can animation cancel the end of the uppercut with Suit Expulsion, instantly dealing enough damage to one-shot squishy characters with 250 HP. While Spidey can one-shot squishes on his own, the Venom Team-Up just makes it far more reliable and consistent. In Season 1, Venom is a very good dive Vanguard thanks to his recent slate of buffs, making this Team-Up pretty effective if you’re confident on Spider-Man.
Symbiote Bond Team-Up
ESU Alumnus (Spider-Man + Squirrel Girl)
The other Team-Up Spider-Man is involved in is with Squirrel Girl and, in this combo, he serves as the Anchor. When both characters are on the same team, Squirrel Girl will get an additional ability which lets her shoot out a web bomb that briefly immobilizes and damages enemies caught within it, essentially acting as a mini-Spectacular Spin. On Spidey’s end, he gets an additional 10% damage bonus for being the Anchor and that’s active at all times, even when Squirrel Girl isn’t on the team.
While this Team-Up is actually fairly good and can create brief but meaningful openings for other characters, it is far from a must-pick Team-Up. In a meta dominated by support Ultimates and flying characters like Storm and Iron Man, it can be hard to get a ton of value out of this attack, especially because you need to run two of the lesser-picked Duelists to make it work.
ESU Alumnus Team-Up
How to Play Spider-Man in Marvel Rivals
Spider-Man’s main job in Marvel Rivals is to find and eliminate enemies in their own backline. The main combo you’ll be using on most targets strings together all of your offensive abilities in a tight chain which should take out most low-health opponents. You’ll begin by using a Web-Cluster to weaken the opponent and apply a Spider-Tracer. Before they can react, use Get Over Here! to slingshot towards them and then use your uppercut to deal a high amount of damage and remove the Tracer. At this point, they should be fairly weak, leaving them open for either another Web-Cluster or a double jump overhead swing. If your intended target is a bit beefier, you may want to land a few extra Web-Cluster shots at the beginning to soften them up.
One of the most important aspects of Spider-Man that you need to understand is that you must prioritise your survival at all costs. Spidey has low health and will spend most of the game time away from his team, limiting his healing opportunities. If you aren’t able to escape fights alive and just keep diving their backline, it doesn’t really matter if you’re even getting kills as you’re just feeding the enemy with free Ultimate Charge. You should be popping in and out, ready to escape on a Web-Swing if things start going awry. A lot of Spider-Man’s value comes from being self-sufficient meaning that your successes, and failures, will be on your shoulders.
In addition to being a backline assassin, the best bit of value Spider-Man provides to a team is being annoying. You want to pester the opponent from behind, forcing them to turn around and engage you as, by doing so, you can split the attention of the enemy and create valuable openings for your team. If you get behind the opponent and then start focusing on their support, you’ll force their attention. This means that they won’t be able to heal their team as reliably and it gives your fellow frontliners a window to push up safely. Even if you don’t kill them and you need to swing away, distracting stragglers and high-value targets on the enemy team is a vital job for any potent Spider-Man player in Marvel Rivals.
So, in short, Spider-Man has two main jobs on a team: assassinate squishy targets like Strategists and split attention. While your team is facing down the opponent in the frontline, you should be moving through back alleys and stray paths as they’ll give you an opportunity to reach the enemy backline without being spotted. Once you’re there, find a stray target (preferably a Strategist or lone Duelist) and begin peppering them with Web-Cluster shots. When they’re within kill range, pop your core combo, take them out of the fight, and then run away. You don’t want to hang around after taking out an opponent so retreat, get some healing, find a new angle, and then repeat the process, with a high priority on your own survival.
Spidey the Duelist
Tips and Tricks for Spider-Man
The most important thing to remember about Spider-Man is that he isn’t a damage-dealing monster. Even if you perform out of your mind, you likely won’t have very high damage numbers and that’s because he’s an assassin-type character rather than a brawler, he excels in picking off targets or finishing ones at low health. The stat you should focus on is Final Blows. If you’re playing a good Spider-Man, most of your kills should be final blows as you’re suppossed to be taking out squishy Strategists and Duelists without much help. If you want to be better at Spider-Man, you need to learn how to be self-sufficient and that doesn’t mean ignoring your team, it means learning how to reliably execute your combos on the right targets.
Secondly, take the time to learn where most of the health packs are located on each map. Spider-Man’s high mobility and dive playstyle means he’s going to be out of sight from your Strategists for most of the match. This makes him incredibly fragile and there will be very few fights where you walk away unscathed, but going back to your healers after every pick will slow your playstyle down and disorient your Strategists, so you should be relying mostly on health packs to top up your health. This way you can remain in the backline without needing to rely on your Strategists the same way other Duelists need to: Spider-Man’s self-sufficiency is one of his greatest strengths and being able to run, grab a health pack, and then dive back will help you take advantage of that.
Lastly, Spider-Man has several advanced movement options which will greatly increase his skill ceiling, but the most integral is his bunny hop. This one skill will make Spider-Man far less predictable and way more agile, especially when you need to quickly escape combat. To perform a bunny hop as Spider-Man in Marvel Rivals, you need to input the following actions:
- Look in the direction you want to bunny hop in and then Web-Zip to the ground.
- As you’re travelling forward, fire off a Web Cluster and then immediately Jump. Perform these actions almost simultaneously.
- If everything goes well, you should cancel the Web-Zip animation but keep all of the momentum, carrying you forward at a great speed.
- If you want some additional speed and momentum, you can use Amazing Combo right after your Jump to keep on moving.
Spider-Men Unite
Best Spider-Man Match-Ups and Counters
When facing off against Vanguards, Spider-Man works best against shielders like Magneto and Doctor Strange. Not only are these characters vulnerable to backstabs while holding up their shields, but all of Spidey’s melee abilities – mainly his Primary Fire and his uppercut – go through their shields, making him a superb counter to that kind of playstyle. Similarly, Groot is a fairly easy Tank for Spider-Man to combat because of his speed and bulk. Groot is large and slow, meaning that it is incredibly easy for Spider-Man to land a tracker on him, and his walls aren’t that dangerous when Spidey can just jump over them.
Then, on the side of Vanguards Spider-Man will find hard to deal with, there’s Peni and Thor. Spidey is predominately a melee unit, making Peni’s Spider-Mines are a big issue if her Nest taken out (which should be the job of your ranged DPS). She will make risky pushes exceedingly dangerous, especially if the Peni CCs you when you dive in. On the other hand, Thor is a brawler and one of the best 1v1 characters in the whole game. Thor has higher health and damage output than Spider-Man while also having ranged attacks and a high degree of mobility with his Storm Surge, allowing good Thor players to keep up with you even at your most agile.
Spider-Man Vanguard Match-Ups
Unfortunately, fellow Duelists are the toughest characters for Spider-Man to deal with in Marvel Rivals and that’s mainly because so many of them directly counter his aggressive, glass cannon playstyle. Hela and Hawkeye, the hit-scan demons of Season 0, are insanely effective at picking off Spidey due to their massive burst damage and ability to kill him in only a few shots, with Get Over Here! Unfortunately giving them a perfect opening for an easy headshot. Furthermore, Namor is a dedicated Spider-Man counter because of his turrets, which he can place down as a defensive measure to halt your aggressive pushes, whereas Winter Soldier can easily hook and juggle you when you dive him.
The few Duelists Spidey thrives against are flying characters like Iron Man and Storm. Fliers are typically a lot more open and stationary than grounded targets and they’re far less likely to be healed immediately, leaving them open to your full combo if you’re able to follow up after pushing in. Iron Man is far easier to deal with than Storm (who has become far more lethal after the S1 buffs) but they’re both more than manageable if you land a few Web Clusters to weaken them before going in. Similarly, more stationary heroes like Black Widow (who typically needs to aim down her scope to get the most impact) or Moon Knight can also be relatively easy targets for Spider-Man to take on.
Spider-Man Duelist Match-Ups
As for Strategists who pair well with Spidey, you’ll want to use him alongside healers like Cloak and Dagger or Mantis and Luna. Dagger’s Primary Fire auto-locks onto allies, making her the best healer when it comes to keeping track of Spidey’s high mobility. Plus, her heal bubbles can be great sources of easy access healing that Spider-Man can instantly web-zing to if a health pack is not around. Meanwhile, Mantis’ Life Orbs heal continuously for 8s while Luna’s Ice Ring will heal the target when she heals another ally. Having either of these effects on Spider-Man will let him freely swing to the backline without needing to be right next to your healers.
On the other hand, Spider-Man will really struggle against… well, Luna and Mantis. While he can reliably one-shot them with his core combo, Luna and Mantis both have crowd-control abilities (Freeze and Sleep, respectively) that will shut down Spider-Man when he approaches. This will either leave you open to their team or, if they’re a competent enough player, they can just deal with you on their own. Alongside them, Adam Warlock is another troublesome Strategist for Spidey thanks to his high individual damage output and Soulbond ability, with the latter essentially making him unkillable for Spider-Man if he’s anywhere near his allies. These three Strategists will be your biggest bane as a Spider-Man player.
Spider-Man Strategist Match-Ups
That was your guide on how to play and master Spider-Man in Marvel Rivals.
