Marvel's Avengers: 10 Things To Know While Playing the Beta

Use Tactical Awareness Mode

This might be a simple one, but if you want to get your gear upgraded in a hurry and even some of those Hero Challenges, you need to use this as you make your way through the level. Hitting up on the D-Pad will show not only your core objective but also question marks around the level, and those are optional enemies ore areas that will net you more resources that you can use to boost your gear and artifacts, which then unlocks more perks and abilities on that gear.

This will also uncover more enemies to fight and gain you XP, which will then net you more abilities on the skill tree. Plus, you'll find optional sidequests like hostages to rescue or chests to open too, which can complete daily and weekly challenges and net you more rewards.

Also, if you ever lose track of your teammates, it will also show you an icon showing where they are on the map, which is pretty handy.

Interacting With The Environment

This one goes hand in hand with the last one, as the side quests you find often have some sort of mechanic attributed to them to complete, so you're going to want to know what to expect, as the game doesn't really tell you most of this.

So, if you are trying to find a SHIELD bunker, sonar with a changing number will pop up on the top left screen. You'll need to follow the direction of the numbers shrinking and staying in white, as if they go red you are heading in the wrong direction. Once you are close you'll need to look towards the ground for a prompt to pop up.

You'll also encounter A.I.M. buildings that have switches, but these come in various forms. Sometimes you'll see large activation pads on the ground that you'll just need to step on for a minute until they glow blue. Some locations will make you hunt for the other switches, and one, in particular, requires you to smash a fan to get inside and hit the switches before the door opens.

Other switches are face level consoles that are tinted yellow. If you punch them a few times they will change and eventually turn blue, activating the switch. Again, sometimes these are spread around a room so keep looking around if you can't open the door just yet.

Dismantle Your Gear

You can amass gear quickly in the beta, and you will eventually start having to store items in your vault. You can cut down on this though by dismantling armor you have either stopped using or ones that are too low for you to use, and all you have to do is hit Triangle on the gear screen when hovered above it.

Doing this also nets you more resources, so if you've gone through a few missions go ahead and get those resources out of unused gear so you can boost your most powerful gear to max!

Hulkbuster Suit

We've got a full write up on the Hulkbuster suit here, but the long and short of it is that Iron Man's Ultimate Heroic can call his Hulkbuster suit onto the field. The Hulkbuster suit has its own skill tree too, but the best part is that it doesn't have to be Iron Man getting in the suit.

That's right. All you need to do is guide Black Widow, Ms. Marvel, or yes even Hulk over to the suit and hop in, and then you're causing massive destruction on the map as Iron Man is still free to use his other heroics to boost you.

Secret Level

You can find out the full process of unlocking this hidden level right here, but to give you a brief rundown, the Snowy Tundra level from the single-player campaign is available to play in with friends in multiplayer, but you're going to have to do a little work first. You'll head to the Stark Realities level, where you will need to complete the optional objectives in the level (using that handy Tactical Awareness mode, see, it all comes back around!).

Each time you do so will net you a chance to get the coordinates for the Snowy Tundra level, and if you manage to get them it will open up on your War Table, full of sweet gear to pick up for your chosen hero.

Don't Forget Heroics

It can be very easy to just wail away on enemies with the bevy of weapons and combos you've got at your disposal but do not forget how handy your Heroics can be. Each character has some key abilities you'll want to master, and many of them have uses you might not realize right at the beginning.

Hulk, for instance, has his Rage mode, which charges up his attacks, but it also gives him extra defense, so if you go charging in make sure to tap R2 and get that boost if that green meter is full.

The same goes for Iron Man, who has his Overcharge Support Heroic. This unleashes an EMP blast that hits foes around him in a circular area, but it also can give you an energy boost, and you can kind of combo it to keep using your ranged attacks, particularly the laser. If you are able to time the Heroic to when you're almost out of juice, the ability will give you a boost to keep the attack going and even give it a damage boost to boot, so it's a win-win (thanks to RED0617 for that handy tip).

Kamala has her very handy healing Support Heroic, but it's her Embiggen ability that really steals the show, allowing her to hit even longer distances and heights. You can actually combine this with Black Widow's Cloak Support Heroic to make her invisible so you can truly maximize her time in this massive form, and if you need to distract a bit, just use Widow's Ultimate Heroic to keep everyone occupied.

Reload Checkpoint Gets Around Most Level Glitches

So, this is a beta, and as such there will be times where the level glitches on you. Whether that means an ability gunked things up (like the Hulkbuster armor did for me on the first day) or enemies that were supposed to spawn never do and you're stuck not being able to continue a level (also happened). Both of these scenarios are unfortunate, but the good news is that you don't typically have to start all over.

Someone in the group just needs to hit pause and hit the reload checkpoint option. If you had actually completed one of the main objectives in the level, you will respawn together before the glitch occurred, and you don't lose much in the way of progress. This worked both times for us and saved us from having to go out to the lobby, reload a level, and try again.

It doesn't make the bugs any less annoying, but it's far less frustrating than losing everything and having to reload the game.

Pym Particles

This one is an easy one to forget about with all the gear you'll end up grabbing, but if you want to have some real fun, outfit one of your heroes with several Pym Particle pieces of gear. The more you have the more likely it is that your hits will shrink your enemies, and the animation of seeing them shrink to these tiny people on the ground and still getting a power punch from Hulk is worth the price of admission.

You can also go cosmic or gamma of course, but there's a special place in our hearts for Pym Particles.

Jarvis Hacking Levels

Amongst the Warzone and Dropzone missions is one type that has Jarvis attempting to hack into A.I.M's framework, and if you're just heading into it the goal can be a bit confusing, especially since these levels typically feature a ton of enemies and are action-packed from the start.

There will be four floor pads around the room, and these can be anywhere. They will glow with blue energy and you might be tempted to stay on them and try to control them, but that's not how the level works. If an enemy is able to gain control of it, the pad turns red, and you'll see a little indicator with an exclamation point over it showing that it's being turned or has already been turned.

There is also a bar that shows Jarvis' hacking progress and A.I.M's hacking progress, and they will fill up faster depending on who has more pads under control. Don't hover here! It can be tempting, but the best method is to constantly ping pong across the level and take a pad, then jet to the next pad, take that, and keep moving. A.I.M. might very well take that pad back quickly, but you can move faster than they can, and you'll start seeing your progress jumping up way ahead of theirs as you keep the majority of the pads blue as opposed to making sure one never goes red.

Hero Challenges

The Challenges page will show you a series of milestones that you need to hit in order to unlock more items, which include costumes, resources, emotes, and nameplates. This works like a Battle Pass, as the more daily and weekly challenges you complete the further up the board you go, and a lot of the costumes can only be unlocked using this method.

You can also refresh challenges, so if there's one that you just can't get or complete give it a try and see what pops up next.