Hello everyone! I’m Jake Solomon, Creative Director at Firaxis Games, and the good folks at PlayStation asked me to share some of my top tips for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, which releases tomorrow, December 2.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is the latest title released from Firaxis Games, who you might know as the creators of Civilization and XCOM. It’s a deep tactical RPG set in the darker side of the Marvel Universe, where you can rule and live among Marvel legends from The Avengers, Runaways, X-Men, and more. You will play as The Hunter, the first original customizable Marvel hero, and face off against Lilith, the mother of demons (and your real mother in the game). Now let’s jump in!
Build your perfect team
There are three things to think about when building a squad: What kind of missions will I be on? Who is mandatory on this mission? And who do I want to upgrade and level up?
In Marvel’s Midnight Suns we have several types of missions that each have different objectives. Some missions will have you tasked with protecting a VIP who is guarded by a tough enemy that you must first eliminate. Other missions may have you defending objectives against the forces of Hydra and Lilith. Mission type can help you determine whether you need powerful single-target damage dealers like Captain Marvel, or someone who can really spread the Blade love.
Second, each mission in Marvel’s Midnight Suns has a mandatory hero that you must take. Story missions all require The Hunter, while general missions can require anyone on the list. Depending on who is required, you can modify your strategy around that. For example, if a mission requires Doctor Strange, you’ll know you’ll have no trouble generating Heroism, but you might have a little trouble dealing damage. Having an understanding of each hero’s strengths and weaknesses can help you build that ideal team.
Finally, you will need to think about which heroes you want to strengthen. In Marvel’s Midnight Suns, all abilities are represented as cards, and the only way to earn more cards to further boost your abilities is to play missions. The more you play as heroes, the more abilities you unlock – so sticking with your favorite team has its perks!
The power of friendship
Marvel’s Midnight Suns features a friendship system where your off-battlefield chats and Hang Outs with your fellow heroes have big bonuses for the battlefield. You earn friendship through several activities – choosing the appropriate dialogue when talking to heroes, spending time with them, giving them their favorite gifts, and even complimenting them. The better you understand a hero, the more likely you are to earn those valuable Friendship Points.
What is not as well known is that in addition to the individual friendship levels with each hero, there is a team friendship level which you will increase as you gain friendship with everything the world. Improving friendship with your fellow heroes can lead to an increase in your team friendship, unlock combo abilities, improve the power of your compliments and more.
And these battlefield bonuses can be a real game-changer. One of my favorites includes Iron Man’s I’ll Handle This passive, which grants redraws when you play multiple Iron Man abilities in one turn. Iron Man can use these redesigns to increase the power of his abilities…and you’ll want to play these enhanced abilities, which means you’ll continually reactivate his passive throughout the fight. It can snowball very quickly if you play your cards right!
Take your time and have fun
With Marvel’s Midnight Suns, we set out to create a game that you really can play at your own pace, on your own difficulty. We want this to be something that everyone can pick up and play, whether you’re just looking for a great Marvel story or really want to test yourself at the Ultimate III difficulty. There is no time constraint on when you must complete missions, and there is no limit to the number of general missions you can complete.
Don’t forget to explore the Abbey Grounds as well – around your supernatural secret base lie even more mysteries to solve. Expect to gain abilities, find ingredients for crafting, and even be the one to unlock all the secrets of the mysterious Blood.
Hopefully, these tips prepare you for what you’ll be playing when the game releases and get you excited for all the combat and story potential to explore. Marvel’s Midnight Suns will be available on PlayStation 5 on December 2.
