Welcome back to MSF Mondays, even though it’s Wednesday! Each week we break down one more aspect of the hottest mobile game, Marvel Strike Force! Today we’re talking about the upcoming Bionic Avenger team!
Earlier yesterday there was an image teased by the Marvel Strike Force Twitter. It hinted at the introduction of Hulkbuster to Marvel Strike Force. We’ve seen this armor before, technically known as Mark XLIV Armor, in the comics and most recently in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Its sole purpose is to be strong enough to contain and restrain the Hulk.
A surprise blog post yesterday then confirmed that Hulkbuster is on the way as a part of the new Bionic Avenger team! Touted as the long-awaited Tech Raid Team, this Bionic Avenger team will feature a few new characters alongside reworks of some existing characters.
Having a dedicated Tech Raid team has been on the Marvel Strike Force community wishlist for a while, because there currently isn’t a specific option when it comes to the Tech lanes of Doom Raids. People have been cobbling together their strongest Tech toons and squeezing by, but now we will finally have a tried-and-true team to carry us through that section of the Raid.
Previously, the Bio lanes were also problematic. That is, until Scopely released the Web Warriors to fulfill that need. Having used the Web Warriors on those lanes, all I can hope is that the Bionic Avenger team will be just as dominant in these Doom Raids.
Here are the toons confirmed for the Bionic Avengers team thus far:
- Hulkbuster
- Iron Man (Rework)
- Vision (Rework)
- Viv Vision
Now, Viv Vision wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the blog and there weren’t any additional details given about her. However, we can see her referenced in Vision’s Updates in addition to his synergies with Bionic Avenger allies.
Viv Vision (also known as Vivian Vision) was created by Vision in his pursuit of having a family. It’s something that we’ve seen Vision struggle with many times: trying to fit in. Most recently, we saw more of what Vision and Scarlet Witch’s relationship might have been like through the Wandavision series. Many times character releases in Marvel Strike Force coincide with MCU appearances, so it might be possible that Viv Vision will be seen in a future MCU property. Armor Wars, perhaps?
As far as the 5th and final member for the Bionic Avengers, the rumors are circulating that Deathlok would round out the team. Deathlok has already been datamined, and it seems like he would be a good fit for this team. You may remember Deathlok from the Agents of SHIELD TV Series.
Friday’s blog could give us some more information about the Bionic Avenger team. In the meantime, it’s important to note that this team will be required for the Death Scourge Event. Typically there are other tags that will also be viable for nodes 5 and 10, but at least they’ve planted the seed that this Bionic Avenger team is an endgame requirement.
So let this be your warning and your motivation; don’t skip Bionic Avengers if you want to have the full Horseman + Apocalypse team! At least they’ll be viable outside the Scourge Event in the sense that you can use them for Doom Raids as well. It always feels bad when you feel forced to level up a niche team that doesn’t have much utility. But we run Raids every single day, so you can bet that they’ll give a near-instant return on investment.
Summer of Thunder and Blunder
The Summer of Thunder Event started out in disastrous fashion, with some players being able to instantly complete all of the milestones. This happened over the July 4th weekend, giving players plenty of time to foam at the mouth and grab their pitchforks. After all, it wasn’t really fair for some players to essentially get the month off from the grind to unlock Mighty Thor.
Obviously it was a holiday weekend and many of the Scopely employees were out of the office. People saw the silence as an intentional misconduct against the players, and the anger continued to grow.
Now, I’m on the side that yes, compensation should have been comparable to the players that got the full milestone completion. However, I’m also a rational adult who knows that things like this aren’t something that can be instantly and easily added to the game. Even if the quality review process at Scopely doesn’t have a sterling reputation, there are channels and processes to get the compensation approved.
And lo and behold, we got the compensation that we wanted! Everyone gets to complete the milestones, while still keeping the milestones open to essentially earn up to double the rewards for the month. It’s a Mighty and Worthy compensation.
What I’m trying to say is that the Marvel Strike Force community can be so quick to scream at Scopely. Yes, this was a colossal mess-up. Yes, there have been many mess-ups lately. But it’s possible to be upset and also give the benefit of the doubt that on issues of this magnitude that they wont’ just be swept under the rug.
And now I’ll close this out with things to watch out for this week in Marvel Strike Force:
- Blitz: Psylocke & Sinister Six (Quick Rumble)
- Legendary Event: None
- Character Events: Summer of Thunder, Space Viking (July 15h)
- Other Events: Famine Scourge Event, Back to Bootcamp (July 15th)
Well I hope this helps you take your Squad from a D+ to a B- Commander!
Previous Installments
You can check out all of our other Marvel Strike Force articles right here! We try to put out a new article every Monday, so stay tuned for even more content.
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