Marvel Rivals Hela guide: Abilities, ultimate, tips, more

Jeremy Gan
Marvel Rivals Hela splash art

Hela is a powerful character in Marvel Rivals but also one of the most difficult to use. She can’t just run into battle and expect to succeed, so you’ll need a guide to make the most of her strengths.

Duelists like Hawkeye and Iron Man are all about dealing damage by poking enemies or flanking Strategists to distract them from a team fight. Hela however, requires a more refined approach than others but if you can master her she excels at crowd control.

Hela stats in Marvel Rivals

An image of Hela's hero screen in Marvel Rivals.
  • Class: Duelist
  • Health: 250
  • Movement: 6 m/s

Hela doesn’t have the best health pool in Marvel Rivals but she excels at attacking from a distance and flanking the enemy.

She’s not the easiest to pick up and play but if you take the time to really master her, Hela can be one of the most devastating Duelists on the battlefield.

Season 1 meta changes

Hela didn’t recieve many big changes in the Season 1 patch but her health has been reduced slightly from 275 to 250.

This does mean her combat strength is a little lower now but she’s still one of the best Duelists on the roster in the right hands.

Weapons

Hela’s only weapon is the Nightsword Thorn. This is a slow-firing hitscanner that relies heavily upon having a precise aim. The weapon deals a lot of single-target damage but its drawbacks are a small mag size and a low fire rate.

Her full Nightsword Thron stats can be found below:

CastingSingle-cast direct hit
Damage70
Damage FalloffFalloff begins at 18m, decreasing to 70% at 30m
Fire Rate2 rounds per second
Ammo8
Critical HitYes
A screenshot of Hela using her weapon in the Marvel Rivals practice range.

Abilities

Hela’s abilities are focused on poking from a distance or flanking, both of which she can do very well. Although she has quite the skill curve, she’s one of the best duelists around once you get the hang of her skills.

AbilityDetailsDescription
Goddess of Death Casting: Straight-line projectile that generates a spell field upon impact
Duration: 10s
Nastrond Crow Health: 1000
Fire Rate: 1.79 rounds per second
Projectile Speed: 80 m/s
Explosion Range: 6m spherical radius
Explosion Damage: 125
Explosion Damage Falloff: 32% falloff at 4m
Energy Cost: 4000
Soar into the sky and unleash Nastrond Crows from each hand at will.
Astral FlockCasting: Dash
Dash Speed: 15 m/s
Dash Distance: 18m
Cooldown: 12s
Special Effect: Shapeshift into a Nastrond Crow and gain invincibility
Transform into a Nastrond Crow to glide forth, press again to undo the transformation.
Soul DrainerCasting: Arced projectile that generates a spell field upon impact
Projectile Speed: 40 m/s
Damage: 1
Range: 3m spherical radius
Spell Field Damage: 40
Stun Duration: 0.3s
Cooldown: 12s
Project an explosive Hel sphere to Stun nearby enemies.
Piercing NightCasting: Straight-line projectile that generates a spell field upon impact
Number of Projectiles: 4
Projectile Speed: 80 m/s
Projectile Damage: 10
Explosion Delay: 3s
Range: 3m spherical radius
Spell Field Damage: 30 damage per round
Cooldown: 8s
Special Effect: Projectiles stick to enemies on hit
Fire multiple Nightsword thorns that detonate after a delay.
Nastrond CrowstormDelay: 1.8s
Range: 5m spherical radius
Damage: 80
Defeating an enemy will generate a Nastrond Crow, exploding after a duration.
Hel’s DescentHorizontal Movement Speed: 6 m/s
Descending Speed: 3.5 m/s
Hold Space to fall slowly.
Queen of Hel (Team-Up Ability)Team-Up Bonus: 15% Bonus Damage. When Hela lands a final hit in defeating an enemy, she can instantly resurrect Loki and Thor in the respawn phase, or grant them Bonus Health if they are still alive.
An image of Hela using her Ultimate in Marvel Rivals.
Hela’s ultimate is a strong ability but leaves you a sitting duck in the air

How to play Hela in Marvel Rivals

As Hela, your game plan should be to make the absolute most of her range and crowd control.

You’ll want to sit back and take advantage of her strong hitscan weapon and look for opportunities to all-in by combining her abilities to quickly take down backliners.

Holding a flank is also an incredibly strong strategy as Hela, but only if you’ve got Astral Flock ready to go. If you teleport in and immediately start blasting, you’ll get caught out and killed. Try to save this ability for getting out rather than just blindly going in.

If you’re playing Hela and feel like you’re dying a lot more than you should, it’s probably a positioning issue. Try and take stock of where your enemy is, where you should be standing on that point in the map to gain a height advantage and look for opportunities as they arise.

Caution and awareness are key with Hela, and you’ll win a lot more when you consider positioning and game tempo over running headfirst into the fight.

Best team comp

If you’re looking for the best fighters to pair with Hela in Marvel Rivals, we’d recommend the following:

  • Mantis
  • Doctor Strange
  • Thor
  • Loki

Mantis

A screenshot of Mantis' hero screen in Marvel Rivals.

Mantis can easily keep Hela healed and she can put enemies to sleep before Hela moves in for the kill. 

As Hela can’t withstand much damage, Mantis is perfect for keeping her alive on the battlefield. This Duelist and Stratergist simply compliment one another extremely well and we’d always recommend running them together.

For the best ways to play her, make sure you check out our decided Mantis guide.

Doctor Strange

A screenshot of Doctor Strange's hero screen in Marvel Rivals.

Doctor Strange and Hela are quite similar as they’re most effective when attacking from a distance. Doctor Strange’s portal ability can also aid his teammates in getting across the map and out of danger swiftly. 

When paired together they can be a devastating force reigning chaos on the opposing team from far away. 

Check out our Doctor Strange guide for all the details you need to play him.

Thor & Loki

Finally, Hela shares a Team-Up ability with both Thor and Loki that allows her to resurrect either of them once she’s completed an elimination. As long as Hela lands the final blow on an opponent, she can use the “Queen of Hela” skill multiple times on the battlefield.

This Team-Up ability is extremely useful and it’s well worth having Thor or Loki on any team that’s running Hela.

Before you start using this team combo, we’ve got guides for how to play Thor and Loki.

Best counters

If you find yourself struggling against a Hela, try using one of the following fighters in Marvel Rivals:

  • Jeff the Land Shark
  • Magneto
  • Star-Lord

Jeff the Land Shark

A screenshot of Jeff the Land Shark's hero screen in Marvel Rivals.

Jeff’s movement abilities make him great for getting to Hela quickly on the battlefield, and as he can also stay beneath people’s lines of sight he can easily avoid her attacks.

This means once you’ve swam to Hela, you can quickly jump up and take her out while retaining a full pool of health. 

We’ve also got a Jeff the Land Shark guide you can check out.

Magneto

An image of Magneto's hero screen in Marvel Rivals.

Magneto’s biggest strength against Hela is his defensive skills. Hela’s attacks in particular will typically just bounce off his shields. 

If you can successfully avoid Hela’s attacks as Magneto and execute your Meteor M ultimate, you should be able to take her down easily. 

For a rundown of how to best use Magneto don’t forget to check out our decided guide on him.

Star-Lord

An image of Star-Lord's hero screen in Marvel Rivals.

Star-Lords quick movement is his biggest asset against Hela. He’s fast enough to make aiming from a distance a lot tougher so you should be able to avoid taking incoming damage as long as you keep moving around the map. 

He can also deal some solid damage so once you get the chance to go on the offensive, Hela won’t be able to last long against your attacks.

You can check out our decided Star-Lord guide for the best ways to use him.

That’s all you need to know about Hela in Marvel Rivals. For more on the game, check out our our full tier listTwitch Drops, the best controller settings, all free skins & how to get themall currencies, and the Iron Man code.