Age of Ultron PvE Mode Guide: How to Beat Hard Mode (Marvel Rivals)

🎯 The core idea

Age of Ultron is Marvel Rivals' limited-time co-op PvE mode — a wave-survival horde format closer to Zombies or Blood Hunt than a normal match, built around a card system rather than gear, that culminates in an 11-phase mission against a 750,000 HP Ultron. Hard mode is very clearable with the right hero picks and card priorities, and clearing it unlocks a free skin.

This mode is time-limited and was live on all platforms except PlayStation 4 through August 27 at the time the source video was recorded — if you're reading this after that date, check in-game whether it has returned for a later event before planning around it.

• free costs nothing
• cheap small cost
• setup needs preparation
• grind pays off slowly
• skip the thing to stop doing

How the mode actually works

At the start of each round you pick from two offered cards. There's no gear progression like in the vampire-hunt game mode — enhancement cards are the entire build:

1. Red cards — damage freeAttack speed (Full Auto), critical hit rate, periodic damage boosts (Overloaded Strike: +250% on your next attack every 2 seconds), and situational damage against nearby or distant enemies (Danger Zone).
2. Blue cards — survivability freeMax health increases and, critically, health-on-kill effects (Nano Repair) — these stack, so grabbing several turns your kill feed into a passive heal.
3. Yellow cards — hero ability upgrades freeCharacter-specific upgrades to your two main abilities, shown with matching icons so it's obvious which ability each card affects.

The hard-mode mission itself ("Thwart Ultron's Plot") runs 11 phases, mostly "Scrap All Ultron Sentries" waves with two Ultron boss encounters mixed in. There's a central structure with its own health bar you need to keep alive alongside yourself, and if you go down, clearing the current wave within roughly 20 seconds brings you back without it counting as an elimination — otherwise you either spend a shared revive token (the same currency used in the vampire-hunt mode) or wait out a short respawn timer.

Best heroes and what to prioritize on each

1. Hawkeye — prioritize Full Auto and long-range damage cheapUpgrade primary fire into piercing, explosive arrows and rapid fire, then lean into red cards that boost damage at range. His Hypersonic Arrow (E) can apply stacking vulnerability on direct hits, which matters a lot during boss phases, and it can also block incoming projectiles once upgraded.
2. Black Widow — stay in your ultimate as much as possible cheapLanding headshot eliminations while her ultimate is active permanently increases the ultimate's base damage, so prioritize cooldown reduction to re-enter it constantly and target smaller enemies first early on for easier headshots. Her spin-kick (Edge Dancer) grants bonus health when upgraded, which is real survivability for a hero that otherwise plays at range.
3. Hulk, Thor, Captain America — go all-in on Nano Repair cheapThese three are in the enemy's face constantly, so health-on-kill cards matter more than for anyone else on the roster. Hulk upgrades his monster-form duration and leap; Thor cycles between his charged hammer throw and ultimate; Captain America just upgrades his shield throw and ricochet — all three are simple to pilot on Hard.
4. Scarlet Witch and Iron Man — use the multitasking/lock-on tools setupScarlet Witch's Multitasking card lets her hold primary and alternate fire at once for double output, and her upgraded bubbles hit multiple targets — useful for clearing crowds. Iron Man gets a new lock-on missile ability that plays close to how he handles in the main game.

The creator's recommended squad shape: at least one tanky melee hero (Hulk, Thor or Captain America) to soak and clear trash waves, plus at least one Hawkeye or Black Widow to burst down elites and carry the boss phases.

The two biggest threats

1. Eye of Ultron — kill it first, every time skipThese enemies perform a scanning attack that deals heavy damage, and they're specifically called out as the number one threat in the mode — especially dangerous to a flying Iron Man, who needs them cleared to operate freely.
2. Giant Sentries — use your ultimate, don't facetank them skipThe second-biggest threat. In testing, a Hulk in his tankiest monster form was one-shot by a group of these, so treat them as priority ultimate targets rather than something to walk into. Applying vulnerability to them (the purple status effect) noticeably speeds up the kill.

The Ultron boss fight

There are two separate encounters against Ultron himself across the 11 phases, and the boss health pool measured in this run was 750,000. A few mechanics worth knowing going in:

Ultron's drones deal damage back to Ultron if you attack them, so they're worth clearing rather than ignoring — some heroes, like Scarlet Witch, will hit them automatically anyway thanks to her area-of-effect damage. If you fall off the arena, a jump pad is available to get back up. Melee heroes have a harder time here since Ultron flies around constantly, so leaning on your Hawkeye or Black Widow for consistent boss damage matters even more in this phase.

Rewards for clearing

Clearing both Normal and Hard difficulty gets you a free Ultron skin, a free MVP intro, an emote, 200 units, and a gallery card. On top of that, clearing Hard mode with each individual hero unlocks that hero's own unique title — so fully completionist players will want to run Hard mode once per character rather than stopping after the first clear.

How this guide was fact-checked

The Marvel Rivals Wiki (marvelrivals.wiki.gg) has no page for the Age of Ultron mode — expected for a limited-time promotional event tied to in-universe Doomsday content rather than the core roster or systems a hero wiki tracks, so this guide relies entirely on the source video's own on-screen numbers and mission structure. The boss HP figure (750,000) and phase count (11) both come directly from the mode's own UI, captured on screen during Phase 7's Ultron encounter, rather than from narration alone.

What this guide doesn't answer

This guide doesn't confirm an exact season number for when Age of Ultron ran — the source video ties it to a Doomsday-themed promotional tie-in rather than naming it as, say, a Season 9-specific release, and doesn't state whether it's a recurring coop mode or a true one-time event, so treat its future availability as uncertain until you check in-game. It also doesn't cover Scarlet Witch or Iron Man's Hard-mode card priorities in as much depth as the other five heroes, since the source video spent comparatively less time on them. And beyond "focus the Eye of Ultron, use Nano Repair on melee heroes, save your ultimate for Sentries," it doesn't offer a single guaranteed script to beat every wave — the card offers are randomized, so the exact run that clears Hard for you will differ round to round.